51 



All this means that that the teacher will need helps. He will 

 need to inform himself before he attempts to inform the pupil. 

 It is not necessary that he become a scientist in order to do 

 this. He simply goes as far as he knows and then says to the 

 pupils that he cannot answer the questions which he cannot. 

 This at once raises the pupil's estimation of him, for the pupil 

 is convinced of his truthfulness, and is made to feel — but how 

 seldom is the sensation ! — that knowledge is not the peculiar 

 property of the teacher but is the right of any one who seeks 

 it. It sets the pupil investigating for himself. The teacher 

 never needs to apologize for nature. He is teaching only be- 

 cause he is an older and more experienced pupil than his pupil 

 is. This is just the spirit of the teacher in the universities 

 to-day. The best teacher is the one whose pupils farthest out- 

 run him. 



In order to help the teacher in the rural schools of New York, 

 we have conceived of a series of leaflets explaining how the 

 common objects can be made interesting to children. Whilst 

 these are intended for the teacher, there is no harm in giving 

 them to the pupil ; but the leaflets should never be used as 

 texts to make recitations from. Now and then, take the children 

 for a ramble in the woods or field, or go to the brook or lake. 

 Call their attention to the interesting things you meet — whether 

 you yourself understand them or not — in order to teach them 

 to see and to find some point of sympathy ; for everyone of 

 them will some day need the solace and the rest which this 

 nature-love can give them. It is not the mere information 

 which is valuable ; that may be had by asking someone wiser 

 than they, but the inquiring and sympathetic spirit is one's own. 



The pupils will find their lessons easier to acquire for this 

 respite of ten minutes with a leaf or an insect, and the school- 

 going will come to be less perfunctory. If you must teach 

 drawing, set the picture in a leaflet before the pupils for study, 

 and then substitute the object. If you must teach composition, 

 let the pupils write upon what they have seen. After a time, 

 give ten minutes now and then to asking the children what 

 they saw on their way to school. 



