nish for the regulation of his own thought-life and act-life. The process of instruction may be so conducted as to leave the mind of the pupil passive and receptive, or it may be so conducted as to make the mind of the pupil active and acquisitive. The latter is the better form of teaching. The teacher is at fault when the thinking is all done for the pupil. The class exercise is not an activity in which the pupil has little, the teacher much, to do. The reverse is really the condition that should prevail. Hence, avoid as far as may be the habit of doing for the pupils what they can do for themselves. To talk much, to recite or explain at length, to monopolize the time, is a weakness against which you must con Two Ways stantly struggle. The really important matter is to force activity upon the pupil. Thus any form of teaching that compels the pupil to do original thinking, to weigh the facts, and to announce a conclusion, is of value. For that reason the question becomes a fruitful agency in the teaching process. I cannot here present at length the importance of the question in the teaching process. May I ask you to do a piece of research work on your own account? Take the words of Jesus, as found in the Gospel of John or of Matthew. Make a list of Study the questions he propounded. Classify them upon some basis, as those that demanded immediate reply and those that demanded only assent or dissent in thought, or as those that were addressed to his disciples, those that were addressed to the multitude, those that were addressed to some one person, and those that were addressed to any other persons, as the Scribes, etc. Then ask yourself what each question was intended to accomplish, and decide whether it did accomplish its purpose. You will find in some such study much that will help you to teach well. Notice the clear, concise, comprehensive character of Jesus' questions. Formulate a dozen questions upon the next lesson in the Sunday-school series. Test your questions. Are they clear? Are they concise? Are they comprehensive? Do they lead logically from the simple aspects of the lesson to the more complex aspects? Do the questions as a series cover the vital points in the lesson? Does each question help all the others? You will not master the teaching process until you have learned how to put your own processes to the test. To build a teacher, one must first have as material the fine stuff from which is molded a Christian man, a Christian woman. It is no use to veneer poor character with polished pedagogy. Back of the way we do things is the doer of the things. The discerning spirit of childhood looks beneath the surface, sees under A Prerequisite the acquired knowledge, power, and skill, and demands a personality with God's stamp upon it, the stamp of Christian character. The life that carries itself clean and pure and strong always predisposes other life to become like it. I say this because I wish to have you understand most clearly that no amount of professional skill can compensate for the absence of the virtues that God wants in every soul, and that God's children must find there or be grievously disappointed. We can make teachers by building professionally upon good native qualities of soul. But we cannot veneer a corrupt spirit into respectability and efficiency. Teacher, be sincere, be honest, be true, be clean, be humble, and you will then be able to add all the qualities that give efficiency to your work. There is much to learn yet concerning the qualities of spirit that a teacher should cultivate. Let us ask what we need as equipments to teach. What would you write as the necessary qualities? Suppose you make this your problem. It will not be important that you answer the question as others would. But it is important that you set forth in order the qualities that you think How to Study should be possessed by you as a teacher. Let us begin the series. What shall go down first? Shall we put down scholarship first? If so, why? If not, why not? Put the test to everything you set down. Then, when the list is at last completed, ask this question: Do I possess these qualities? Read the life of any great teacher; make a list of the qualities that made him a great teacher. I name a few. Choose any one,Comenius, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Arnold, Fenelon, Mann. Then turn to the life of Jesus and see how all that was greatest in these men was but an echo of that great voice, and all that was found in them of good, conjoined with weakness and limitation, was in him combined with strength and freedom. You will not at first appreciate the commanding worth of Jesus' teaching. You must approach him gradually, attribute by attribute. As the eye of one in the valley of Lauterbrunnen climbs from valley to cascade, from cascade to table-land, from table-land to mountainside, and finally to the Jungfrau, lifting her virgin brow clear and sparkling to the regal sun, so the human spirit climbs from man to man, from excellence to excellence, from achievement to achievement, until at last it comes to grasp something of the overmastering glory and grandeur and greatness of that Teacher whose heart beats lovingly for childhood, and whose spirit is suffused with the transcendent glory of the Eternal Father. Jesus is the ideal for all teachers. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. For testing one's grasp of the subject, and Which is more important, what the teacher does or how the teacher does it? What is the basis upon which the laws of teaching ultimately rise? Under what limitations must the teacher work? Write a list of additional limitations under which you do, but should not, teach. In what way does the phrase, "Train up a child," stand related to the broad ends in education? Why does Solomon indicate that training is of permanent value? What are the great institutions of our civilization? What makes them great institutions? Write a list of current questions growing out of the proper relation of the individual to the home, to the state, to the school, to social life, to industry, and to the church. Are the questions of one of these institutions always independent of the questions of the other? For example, is the temperance question solely a home problem? Notice how almost every great question is six-sided and must be studied in its relation to each of these great institutions. Thus you have an outline for the study of a great question. |