THE SKILFUL TEACHER 481 



the line of least resistance, finds himself joining in their play, 

 asking and answering questions, suggesting analogies and other 

 relations ; in brief, giving lessons in careful thinking. Anything 

 so good as the object lesson or the kindergarten system is rarely 

 found in the tuition of older boys and girls. Moreover, in England, 

 the majority of children attend the public elementary schools, the 

 teachers in which have been trained for their functions, are under 

 strict and competent supervision, and know how to make lessons 

 interesting. It is quite common for poor children to prefer the 

 school-term to the holidays. 



791. A principal qualification of a good teacher lies in his power 

 of interesting his pupils, a thing that can be done only by arousing 

 their emotions, their instincts, or the imitation instincts which the 

 teacher helps to create. Rewards and punishments may be made 

 the means, but a much better way is to appeal to curiosity, 

 imitativeness, and, above all, to that strongest of instincts which 

 impels us to play with the contents of our memory, and so, 

 by ascertaining the relations, particularly the causal relations, 

 between the objects of thought, to unify the world our minds con- 

 struct. If the teacher is dexterous, curiosity will cause his pupils 

 to ascertain and store facts, imitativeness will cause them to copy 

 his own processes of thought, and the instinct to play with the 

 contents of memory will impel them to become skilful in thinking. 

 The best of all teachers is one who does not merely state, nor 

 even explain, the relations between facts, thereby doing little more 

 than add new facts to the rest, but who so guides his pupils that 

 they are led to do their own thinking and make their own dis- 

 coveries. Both facts and thinking then acquire enhanced value. 

 Not every subject affords full scope to his talents. But usually he 

 has some power of choice, if only between the parts of a subject, 

 and something may be done even with facts the relations of which 

 are so simple and obvious that they are perceived without effort 

 even by children. Unhappily, skill in teaching is rarely one of the 

 qualifications by means of which the tutors who train the children 

 of the governing classes secure their appointments. Doubtless 

 many tutors, through private study or because they are of a 

 thoughtful cast of mind, learn to teach well ; but this ability 

 is not, as in the case of teachers in public elementary schools 

 systematically fostered by compulsory training. 



792. Probably, as a body, the least skilful teachers are those 

 who complete the training of young men of the professional classes. 

 As a rule they are people who have achieved success in the 



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