In the photographic studio it is not enough to have a favorable light, expensive lenses, and the latest arrangement of shutters and slides. It is not enough to have fair women and brave men before the camera. It is not enough to have a perfect plate, ready to respond to the faintest ray of light; there must also be a skilled operator, who shall moderate the glare, arrange the shadows, measure the distance, adjust the instrument, calculate the exposure, pose the sitters, engage the attention, and at the psychologico-photographic moment spring the shutter.
In like fashion the artist-teacher deals with his carefully sensitized pupil as he prepares to take a picture worth developing. Deftly he arranges each detail and improves every condition; then he unveils before him some image of truth and beauty wrought by skilful hands and eagerly awaits the results. If he succeeds, he knows it without troublesome delay. He glances swiftly about his class, detecting here and there a pupil who responds, “his rapt soul sitting in his eyes”; and the instructor glows with the consciousness that his labors have not been in vain.—D. O. S. Lowell, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1905.
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TEACHERS, ALERTNESS OF
It is an interesting commentary on the earnestness and professional zeal of the teachers as a class, that they are in such large numbers willing to spend no inconsiderable portion of their summer vacation, and no small part of their scant earnings, in paying board, tuition, and incidentals at some summer watering-place to pursue their studies, brushing up neglected places in their education, and fitting themselves for higher and better work in their profession. Especially is this noticeable when we find them spending several weeks in close attendance upon the teaching and lectures of the most famous experts the country has produced, getting hints, and more than hints—principles—of the best methods of teaching the common-school studies.—Journal of Education.
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TEACHER’S FUNCTION, THE
You look into the face of a mirror, and an image is before you—more truthful, if less flattering, than that which the photographer produces. You pass on, and another comes and looks into the same mirror; but it tells no tales of you, revives no recollection. A thousand persons pass before the glass, and when the day is done, it is just as brilliant and just as vacant as when it made its first reflection. Do we desire a likeness that shall endure? Science must come to our aid with its camera and its chemicals; the image must be caught upon a sensitized plate or film and then fixt so it shall not fade.
In like manner the teacher may hold up a truth before an untrained pupil. It may be beautiful and inspiring, as reflected in the mirror of the pupil’s mind. He may understand it, assent to it, even enjoy it; but he may also forget it as he looks upon the next picture. To prevent such loss, it becomes the teacher’s function to see that his pupil’s mind is not a mere mirror from whose polished surface glide these bright images in swift succession, but a sensitized plate on which truths may be photographed and fixt. (Text.)—D. O. S. Lowell, “Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1905.
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