142 



&i)£ jfarmcr's ittontljhj bisttor. 



Common School Department. 



CONDUCTED BY PROF. RUST. 



From the iN. Hampshire School Commissioner's Report 

 The Employment of Female Teachers. 



The practice of excluding females from many 

 lucrative and honorable situations, to which by 

 nature and attainment they are so admirably 

 adapted, is unjust and impolitic, and should be 

 abandoned. Public opinion is gradually chang- 

 ing, and more liberal views are beginning to be 

 entertained. Although other professions still 

 frown, they are welcomed to the teacher's mis- 

 sion, and so successfully have they ministered at 

 the altar of mind, that they have disarmed pre- 

 judice and hostility of their weapons, and estab- 

 lished their claims to pre-eminence it) the great 

 design of aiding the young mind in its mysteri- 

 ous struggle, during its earliest unfoldings and 

 developments. In the estimation of eminent 

 educators, the employment of competent female 

 teachers is one of the most cheering indications 

 of improvement. Others entertain different 

 views, and question the propriety and policy of 

 the change. It is a subject worthy of careful 

 attention, and every friend of popular education 

 is interested ill its investigation* 



In offering a lew suggestions on ibis important 

 topic, I shall confine myself to the following 

 items: 



1st. What are the essential characteristics of 

 a good teacher ? 



2d. Do females possess those characteristics 

 as fully as males? 



The early culture of youth demands peculiar 

 qualifications. Erroneous views have been en- 

 tertained in regard to this critical period of life, 

 or we should never be shocked by seems it in- 

 trusied to persons of such limited attainments. 

 Eminent acquirements, good natural abilities, 

 and fondness for the peculiar and delicate de- 

 tails of their occupation, are essential requisites 

 for those purposing to engage in the work of 

 educating children. Farts warrant the assertion 

 that the destiny of manhood is reposed in the 

 hands of the educator of childhood ; and if any 

 period of life should be periled by the errors of 

 persons of limited qualifications, most certainly 

 it should not. be that which gives character to all 

 the rest. 



In selecting teachers for children, only those 

 should be employed who understand the capa- 

 bilities and tendencies of youth, and have, ac- 

 quired the key to the peculiar and earnest work- 

 ings of the mind at this tender age. To the pa- 

 rent, and especially to the mother, the exercise 

 of these qualifications are at first confided ; 

 though with feeble essays and untutored hands, 

 even these fond and anxious guardians of their 

 offspring approach the task of developing these 

 expanding buds, and organizing the affections ol 

 innocent and confiding spirits. The parent is 

 the heaven-appointed instrumentality for the ed- 

 ucation of children, and if in any exigency it 

 becomes necessary to transfer this responsibility 

 to another, it should be committed to one re- 

 sembling the original in as many respects as 

 possible. 



1. Kindness and affection are important 

 qualifications. It is impossible for any one des- 

 titute of these trails, to gain the pupil's confi- 

 dence and affection. The love ol" the child must 

 be secured, before much valuable instruction can 

 be imparted. This effected, nothing remains 

 but to take him by the baud and direct his fal- 

 tering steps to the fountains of knowledge; and 

 to this end, love must beam from the eye, glow 

 from the countenance, anil characterise all the 

 teacher's intercourse with his scholars. And 

 here the winning manners of females possess 

 many advantages over the stern and repulsive 

 demeanor of llie other sex. As the untimely 

 frosts in spring nip ihe swelling bud and blast 

 the opening blossom, so the reserved character 

 and repelling aspect of the sterner sex may chill 

 the tender spirit of the child, and repress the 

 unfoldings of its struggling sympathies. The 

 elements of education must he rendered inter- 

 esting to the learner. In its earliest stages, the 

 letters and words should be invested with their 

 tnosl fascinating charm-', and associated with 

 every thing that is attractive to the expanding 



mind. Let ihe child, in the beginning, be taught 

 to love the alphabet, and understand its intimate 

 connection with ali knowledge, and it will be 

 strange and unnatural if he does not entertain 

 enlarged views of the value and pleasures of 

 education. 



2. Patience is another requisite for success. 

 Endurance of labor, wiihout fretfulness, is de- 

 sirable in every department of duty, but especial- 

 ly is it essential in the business of teaching. 

 Almost every moment of a teacher's life is envi- 

 roned with difficulties and embarrassments, 

 which an impatient spirit greatly magnifies. It 

 invariably casts a dreary influence over the 

 school, and unless a teacher can so control him- 

 self as to divest himself of its influence, he is 

 unfit to be intrusted with the government of 

 youth. The child may be allured to learning by 

 the kind and protracted efforts of a faithful 

 teacher, but frowns and threats frighten him 

 away, or utterly stupefy bis mind. It is the 

 teacher's peculiar task to toil on in truthful hope, 

 devising new expedients, and presenting new il- 

 lustrations, until the dull eye glows and the fires 

 of inlellect irradiate ihe countenance with their 

 startling coruscations. This element of char- 

 acter becomes then an invaluable, and in every 

 well-conducted school, an indispensable aux- 

 iliary. 



3. Purity of character is another essential ele- 

 ment. The teacher's influence is almost unlimi- 

 ted. The object of bis frowns assumes unwonted 

 hideotisness, and his approving smile transforms 

 even repulsiveness into loveliness and beauty. 

 His character and life should, therefore, be irre- 

 proachable, that no improper impressions may be 

 stamped upon the plastic intellects moulded un- 

 der his charge. His soul should overflow with 

 goodness, and reflect in baains of Heaven's un- 

 changing light the spirit of the Great Teacher. 

 In the beautiful language of President Olin — 

 "The mind at this early period is exquisitely 

 susceptible to moral impressions. The delicate 

 surfaces on which the daguerreotype so exactly 

 portrays the human countenance, with no pen- 

 cil or colors but reflected sunbeams, arc not half 

 so impressible as ihe unsophisticated spirit of 

 childhood. The mind at that tender age is not 

 only open to all influences, good and bad, but it 

 spontaneously invites ihem to write upon its ex- 

 panded capacities their own image and super- 

 scription. It longs for impressions, as the parch- 

 ed cornfield for genial showers. It spreads out 

 its tender leaves to receive them, as the green 

 plant the dews of heaven. As some flowers fol- 

 low the sun through all his circuit, and open 

 their gay bosom full upon his glowing, rolling 

 orb, all day long, from morn to noon, from noon 

 to night, so are infancy and childhood irresistibly 

 drawn within the sphere of incessantly active 

 influences, which must go far lo fashion their 

 manhood, and impress upon ihem forms of moral 

 dignity or degradation, which will endure inef- 

 faceably through eternity." 



No one can inspire youth with noble purposes, 

 and train ihem to a spotless life, without largely 

 possessing ihe spirit of purity and generous sac- 

 rifice. Mere formal lectures on morality will not 

 avail ; it is the soul of purity that is requisite, 

 giving utterance to noble thoughts and lofty aspi- 

 rations. 



All these natural qualifications, it will undoubt- 

 edly be admitted, that females possess ill an emi- 

 nent degree. They may, therefore, with the 

 strictest propriety, advance their claims for em- 

 ployment, whenever their acquired attainments 

 are equal to their natural abilities. 



The additional essential elements of a good 

 teacher, are — 



1st. Literary acquirements. Waving all dis- 

 cussion of the question, whether females may 

 become distinguished for profound research in 

 philosophy, law and theology, anil the various 

 departments of ancient and modern erudition, 

 no one questions their ability lo acquire that ac- 

 curaie scholarship requisite for an instructor in 

 our District Schools. During the past year, 

 hundreds of females, possessing every desirable 

 qualification, have been. employed; and there are 

 others equally gibed, willing lo make all neces- 

 sary preparation lor the teacher's profession, so 

 soon as their services are required, and lair com- 

 pensation is offered. 



2d. .intness to leach is an essential qualifica- 

 tion for an instiuclor of voutli. Without con- 



troversy, there is evidently a vast difference in 

 the clearness with which individuals of similar 

 attainments are able to communicate their ideas. 

 One presents science in a confused and mystical 

 manner, while another unfolds and illustrates 

 every difficulty, until all its parts become as 

 clearly and fully understood as a piece of the 

 most familiar mechanism. Many fine scholars 

 fail of success, from inability to communicate, in 

 a style intelligible to others, principles with * 

 which they are quite familiar. Tact in leaching 

 is an acquisition of great value, and no one can 

 become distinguished in this profession without 

 it ; for it is of no particular importance lo a ' 

 school that a teacher possesses great acquisitions, 

 unless be is able to impart a knowledge of ele- 

 mentary science in a manner adapted to the ca- 

 pacities of his pupils. Females have never been 

 considered peculiarly defective in the ability to 

 communicate their thoughts, and we venture IQ- 

 predict that after a fair trial, they will not be 

 found inferior to the other sex. 



3d. Ability lo govern a school. This is one of 

 the most essential items in the enumeration of a 

 teacher's qualifications; for a school is compare.-' 

 tively woithless unless it is well governed. If 

 females, as a class, are unable to enforce strict 

 discipline, then they are disqualified for teaching. 

 Such an opinion is, I am aware, honestly enter-' 

 mined by some; and I am free to confess my 

 former concurrence in it, until compelled by ex- 

 tensive observation and unquestionable facts to 

 abandon it. Females govern by kindness and 

 the appeal to reason, rather than by threats and 

 the harsher measures of coercion. They direct 

 their appeals to the. intellect, the conscience, and 

 the affections — the three most active and irresist- 

 ible sources of influence with ihe young; and 

 they are seldom unsuccessful. They possess a 

 power to control that few have ability to resist, 

 and it can hardly be considered invidious to re- 

 mark, that woman even surpasses man, in man- 

 agement of youth. She accomplishes much by 

 her magical influence, while the strongest philo- 

 sophical reasoning, and the thousand modes of 

 punishment employed by man, accomplish little/ 

 She possesses not the strength, which some mas- 

 culine minds have exhibited, nor perhaps the 

 brilliancy of others. The one is as t lie sun, 

 which sheds its strong beams upon the water, 

 and the waves proudly reflect his dazzling bril- 

 liancy ; the oilier, as the moon, wlose milder 

 light melts into the ocean, glows through all its 

 depths, heaves its mighty bosom, and elevates it 

 above its common level. 



Females rely more on moral means in the 

 government of ihe school, and the world has be- 

 gin) to learn that these are far preferable to the 

 exertion of physical force. Their appeal is to 

 the higher and better feelings of our nature, and 

 they persuade their pupils voluntarily to abandon 

 the wrong, and adhere firmly to the right, rather 

 ban compel them to the performance of acts, in 

 which at the best there is no voluntary excel- 

 lence exhibited. They do not banish the rod 

 from the school, but use it only as the dernier 

 resort. Usually disturbances ill schools may be 

 traced lo large, unruly, and abandoned hoys; but 

 it requires a degree of depravity not often to be 

 found, even by the most reckless, lo quarrel with 

 a defenceless female. Even they ordinarily 

 cherish too much self-respect lo be engaged in 

 such contemptible business. 



If any cases of insubordination should occu'". 

 the committee have a remedy, and should not 

 hesitate to use it. There is one appropriate 

 method of punishment, at least for the juvenile 

 rebels wdio commence their career of crime in a 

 woman's school — expel them, and that without 

 delay, h is thought that competent females suc- 

 ceed much better than males in schools most 

 notorious for their disorder. Several cases of 

 ibis description have come to my knowledge 

 during the winter, in which females were em- 

 ployed to complete the terms of schools com- 

 menced by males, who, unable to govern, were 

 either dismissed for incompetency, or were dis- 

 heartened and voluntarily retired. In many 

 schools it is absolutely necessary to employ male 

 teachers, but still it is my deliberate opinion that 

 a greater number of well qualified females might 

 be employed with the highest advantage. 



Small districts would be essentially benefitted 

 by the course above recommended, for a thor- 

 oughly accomplished lady can be obtained for 



