The writer recalls a splendid, little, effective teacher who after a hard and successful day in the school-room would go with her pupils to hunt flowers, to row or ride, would often work in the garden, sometimes play baseball, and could indulge in a snowballing that sent everyone home with a feeling of good fellowship. She had some silver threads in her hair and her years numbered more than a half century, still her cheeks were ruddy and her eyes keen. She was young in spirit and the children loved her. Her efficiency as a teacher was never questioned. Many are the men and women who are making the world better because she trained them when they were boys and girls. Work interspersed with the proper exercise and recreation will not injure any teacher’s health. Worry as a rule is the undermining force at work. The teacher who attempts to get along without exercise will sometime in his career, though not always at first, become a miserable failure. Exercise is necessary. It should be taken daily in the open air. Exercise and open air are two elixirs of youth. The teacher needs them.
The Teacher’s Health
There can be no question about a teacher’s health being of the greatest importance to effective and cheerful work. No fear as to health need be experienced by the teacher who takes plenty of exercise and gets out into God’s great out-of-doors for fresh air. There is no excuse for the teacher who is cross and mistreats the pupils and scowls at their every mistake or mischievous prank, and then justifies her attitude by saying, “I do not feel well.” It should be an infallible rule with every teacher to make no attempt to teach while ill. It is far better for a child to miss a day or two of school than to be subjected to the rule of a cross, peevish, fretful teacher. Only the teacher buoyant with good health should be allowed in the school-room. Little needs to be said about the many chronic diseases which are contagious, such as tuberculosis, and are easily transmitted to the pupils by infected teachers. It is a teacher’s plain duty to keep himself in good health.
System
The ability to have order and system in school work will go a great way toward making the work easier and more effective. Method and order are great time savers. A teacher is an architect. For every task there must be a plan. Each lesson must have its place. Each step its reason. A teacher who formulates and plans his work will accomplish much more than the teacher who relies upon circumstances to point out to him his method of procedure. To be careless, haphazard and aimless means to fail.
A teacher can learn a valuable lesson from studying any great factory where labor and time saving devices are employed. In addition to these, every means of system and order are used to secure the greatest effectiveness of energy put forth. Many an individual has acquired an education in spare moments, by putting system into his work, and thus saved time and energy which could be expended in securing an education. Unsystematic school work is a waste of energy. The teacher should have a time for everything, as well as a place for everything. Begin school on time, close on time. Regularity will bring good results. The slogan of many advertisers is, “Do it now.” Time lost can rarely ever be regained.
The prudent teacher will use studied methods—methods that apply to the lesson and class at hand. He who uses correct methods in the school-room will doubtless use right methods in his study, and further will practice regular habits in his life outside of the school-room. The regular habits of a teacher in all of his activities will always be reproduced in the work of his pupils.
It is true, that there are scores of “method books” claiming to give needed “directions” for every detail of school work. It is foolish for a teacher to rely upon such advice. Every so-called method is needful and helpful, but a teacher must study his class and his lessons and apply just such methods as his experience teaches him will secure the best and most lasting results. How often can one visit certain schools and note the effect of the weekly or monthly advent of the teacher’s paper. Such teachers have no tried methods of their own but each week or month they try out methods only to find many of them unsuited to their needs. Such procedures prevent continuous progress. They are like a ship without a rudder; they will finally run upon the rocks of failure.
It is easy for a teacher to develop a narrowness in his tastes that forbids him to seek proper variation in his work. The more devoted a teacher is the more he needs diversions quite disconnected from his professional duties. The freshness of mind gained by digressions from school routine is as necessary as the preparation of lesson material itself.