94 On the Campus 



in the schools; vainly, I think. Seek ye first the basic 

 things, and all other things shall be added unto you. 



But after all the success of our American public 

 schools, as discussed in the present paper, lies not in the 

 curriculum, free or prescribed, not in the enrollment, not 

 in our wealth and lavish expense ; but in the personality 

 and power of the American teacher. The American 

 teacher is unlike any other in the world; for one thing, 

 because in thousands and thousands of cases that officer 

 is a woman. In our schools all the tact, all the wit, the 

 enthusiasm and unquestioned patriotism of the Amer- 

 ican woman have been at the service of this nation, from 

 the days of Horace Mann until now, and the result is 

 what we are. A good teacher makes a good school; an 

 efficient teacher makes a useful school ; a patriotic teacher 

 conserves the Republic. Her pupils learn to write, to 

 read, to read that which is good; they learn order and 

 method and procedure ; they learn obedience, they learn 

 to respect the rights each of the other ; to love their coun- 

 try. The faithful Christian woman makes to-day the 

 success of the American school. Without a text she 

 teaches patriotism, without dogma she teaches faith; by 

 her own high personal character she builds character 

 and shapes the destinies of men. Her name may never 

 be entered upon the world's broad scroll of fame; her 

 fortune may be forgotten, and an ungrateful common- 

 wealth may even refuse the pension which shall save her 

 age from penury and toil ; but the history of our common 

 country will one day tell her triumph, and the glory of 

 the future, the success of the common schools, shall be 

 her own. 



