False teacher

“ Assume no false appearances in your school either as to knowledge or character. Perhaps it may justly be said to be the common practice of teachers in this country to affect a dignity of deportment in the presence of their pupils which in other cases is laid aside, and to pretend to superiority in knowledge and an infallibility of judgment which no sensible man would claim before other sensible men, but which an absurd fashion seems to require of the teacher. ”

“ On rainy days, if ever, scholars should be sure of finding their own teacher; yet, as human nature is, on rainy days there is always necessary some fusion of classes. The teachers of joined classes may do much good or infinite harm. Criticism, expressed or implied, of the plans or precepts of the other teacher, is a poison which has few antidotes. If he has been teaching false doctrine, he, not his scholars, is to be told that fact. ”

“ This habit is usually the result of very poor home training, but in many instances the child resorts to falsehoods to obtain his ends in school, and the habit is begun after the child enters school. While all types of lying are pernicious, none is worse than the one which tempts a child to lie to gain some material end.
In many instances a pupil secures something from the teacher by means of a misrepresentation and the teacher is not aware of it, but later learns that the pupil has secured the coveted object by false methods. ”

“ False teachers—wolves pretending to be sheep—always try to lead people astray from this path. Beware of them! False teachers can always be detected by the fact that they teach evil in the name of good. If they teach violence and executions they are false teachers. By what they teach they may be known.
Not he fulfills the Father's will who calls on the name of God, but he who does what is good. ”

“ That he should lose confidence in his own results is, to the teacher, one of the most marked indications of such false methods of study, but the student usually refers his want of success to any cause but the real one—his own untruthfulness. He will complain of the teacher, or of the methods of instruction, and may even persuade himself that all scientific results are as uncertain as his own. As I have said, mere ordinary truthfulness, which spurns any conscious deception, will not save us from falling into such faults. ”

“ A false antithesis was therefore set up just now when we suggested that a teacher’s business was to impart knowledge rather than to fashion character. He cannot do the one without the other. Let him be altogether true to his scientific aims and refuse to accommodate them to anything else; he will be all the better teacher of morality. ”

“ But false teachers are pleased with their own words, because they are according to their own ideas. They appear to demand the greatest piety, but are themselves governed by their own opinion, and their self-will. ”

“ And such false teachers have the good fortune that all their folly is tolerated, even though the people realize how these act the fool, and rather rudely at that. They have success with it all, and people bear with them. But no patience is to be exercised toward true teachers! Their words and their works are watched with the intent of entrapping them, as complained of in Psalm 17, 9 and elsewhere. When only apparently a mote is found, it is exaggerated to a very great beam. No toleration is granted. ”

“ Note the master hand wherewith Paul portrays the character of false teachers, showing how they betray their avarice and ambition. First, they permit true teachers to lay the foundation and perform the labor; then they come and desire to do the work over, to reap the honors and the benefits. They bring about that the name and the work of the true teachers receive no regard and credit; what they themselves have brought—that is the thing. ”

“ The false teachers prove by their devilish speech how greatly the devil, “clever and dangerous trickster that he is,” “can deceive the hearts and consciences of men and hold them captive in his craze.” ”

“ From this we learn not only that false teachers should arise among the people, but that they should succeed in deceiving the people, causing them to follow pernicious ways. In connection with this part of the subject, Paul says to Timothy: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (II Timothy iv:3, 4.) ”

“ By them the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. There is scarcely a sectarian in the universe but will speak evil of some portion of the truth. These false teachers shall with feigned words make merchandise of their followers, because of their covetousness. This [pg 414] is really more true of present day sectarian preachers than it was of the false teachers in the first centuries. Does not the ministry of the present day resort to the telling of amusing stories, and touching incidents, and fabulous tales to amuse and allure the people, and are they not making merchandise of them? ”

“ It is true, however, that avarice also is an evil characteristic of false teachers, being found hand in hand with vainglory. For the sake of profit, for the purpose of gain, the false teachers aspire to prominence, to honor and position. With them, nothing but current coin will pass, and what does not pay dividend is unprofitable. Any other vice is more endurable in a preacher than these two, though none is compatible with goodness, blamelessness and perfection being required in the ministry according to Paul, Titus 1, 7. ”

“ Besides, they are prompt, severe, and even extreme,—oftentimes—in their judgments concerning the ability and moral character of their teachers. It is a by no means unusual occurrence for the students in private or even in the Government institutions, to demand the removal of some teacher, about whom they have made up their minds that he is either incompetent as a scholar or unsafe and misleading as a guide. ”

“ Instead of developing the child's own faculties of discernment, and teaching it to judge and think for itself, the teacher uses all his energies to stuff its head full of the ready-made thoughts of other people. The mistaken views of life, which spring from a false application of general ideas, have afterwards to be corrected by long years of experience; and it is seldom that they are wholly corrected. ”

“ A Teacher’s Blunder The teacher who bluntly asks a pupil, “Did you do that?” is paving the way for a falsehood. Again, what teacher can not recall entering the schoolroom and finding a vase broken, a window pane broken, or a choice sentence erased from the board and at once 293commenting in a strained tone of voice, “That is too bad! I wonder who did it.” Again the opportunity for a falsehood is provided. The thoughtful teacher, from the above suggestions, will be able to recall many instances where she in effect forced pupils to tell falsehoods. ”

“ The teacher's attempt to outwit the examiner is deceitful; and the immorality of his action is aggravated by the fact that he makes his pupils partners with him in his fraud. The child who is being crammed for an examination, and who is being practised at the various tricks and dodges that will, it is hoped, enable him to throw dust in the examiner's eyes, may not consciously realise that he and his teacher are trying to perpetrate a fraud, but will probably have an instinctive feeling that he is being led into crooked ways. ”

“ It is the morose look, the harsh expression, the tone of irritation and fretfulness which is so unpopular in school. The sins of childhood are by nine tenths of mankind enormously overrated, and perhaps none overrate them, more extravagantly, than teachers. We confound the trouble they give us, with their real moral turpitude, and measure the one by the other. Now if a fault prevails in school, one teacher will scold and fret himself about it, day after day, until his scholars are tired both of school and of him: and yet he will do nothing effectual to remove it. ”

“ The efforts described under the last head, for gaining a personal influence over those, who from their disposition and character are most in danger of doing wrong, will not be sufficient entirely to prevent transgression. Cases of deliberate, intentional wrong will occur, and the question will rise, what is the duty of the teacher in such an emergency? When such cases occur, the course to be taken is, first of all, to come to a distinct understanding on the subject with the guilty individual. ”

“ It is worth consideration, that to this tendency to misrepresent in order to secure an end or desire, teachers apply such crude and unskilled methods of prevention, they really force children to tell more falsehoods. It is urgent that a teacher should always study all cases of falsehood coming up and then with common sense approach them in such a way as to prevent, instead of intensify, the habit of lying. ”

“ By making the pupil ashamed of cowardice, we can often cure him of the tendency to falsehood. A redundant imagination is another cause of lying, envy is another cause, selfishness in all its forms is a principal cause, etc. I should say to the moral teacher: Direct the pupil's attention to the various dangerous tendencies in his nature, which tempt him into the ways of falsehood. Furthermore, explain to your pupils the consequences of falsehood: the loss of the confidence of our fellow-men, which is the immediate and palpable result of being detected in a lie ”

“ In the higher grades a ringleader who arrays himself against the teacher’s authority is much more exasperating than is a similar pupil in the lower grades, not only because of his greater influence upon other pupils, but also because it is much more difficult for the teacher to make excuses for him. “They know better!” is the thought that will intrude itself into the teacher’s consciousness to make difficult any feeling of leniency toward offending pupils. What, then, shall be done? Must the teacher watch the pupil closely and whenever he discovers evil beginnings, punish the offender? ”

“ The teacher, therefore, who wishes that his instructions may have the force of principles, must endeavour to bring the truths he inculcates, into such constant notice, that they may become habitual motives to the will. In a school where there is no order, no subordination, a boy may read lessons of obedience, and self government, day after day, without having any impression made upon his mind. Has he learned to steal and to tell lies; occasional punishment will not be sufficient to enforce the principles of truth and honesty. ”

“ A great many cases occur, where teachers are pleased with the confession of faults, and scholars perceive it, and the latter get into the habit of coming to the teacher, when they have done something which they think may get them into difficulty, and make a sort of half confession, which, by bringing forward every palliating circumstance, and [Pg 255] suppressing every thing of different character, keeps entirely out of view all the real guilt of the transgression. The criminal is praised by the teacher for the frankness and honesty of the confession, and his fault is freely forgiven. ”

“ Do not judge too severely in respect to the ordinary cases of misconduct in school. The young teacher almost invariably does judge too severely. While engaged himself in hearing a recitation, or looking over a "sum," he hears a stifled laugh, and, looking up, sees the little offender struggling with the muscles of his countenance to restore their gravity. The teacher is vexed at the interruption, and severely rebukes or punishes the boy, when, after all, the offense, in a moral point of view, was an exceedingly light one—at least it might very probably have been so. ”

“ The student is also too prone to distinguish between academic morals and human morals. As a student, [Pg 62] he may crib in examination without compunction. As a student, he too often feels it is right to deceive his teacher. Students who are gentlemen and who would as soon cut their own throats as steal your purse, will yet steal your office sign or the pole of your barber. In such college outlawry he loses no sense of self-respect, and in no degree the respect of his fellow students. Let us confess at once that in what may be called academic immorals there is usually no sense of malice. ”

“ Presidents and professors are mostly ministers of the gospel and the result is that all facts inconsistent with the creeds are either suppressed or denied. Only those professors who are naturally stupid or mentally dishonest can retain their places. Those who tell the truth, who teach the facts, are discharged.
In every college truth should be a welcome guest. Every professor should be a finder, and every student a learner, of facts. Theology and intellectual dishonesty go together. The teacher of children should be intelligent and perfectly sincere. ”

“ Impudence due to teacher not understanding the pupil. Adults are never able quite fully to appreciate the wide difference between their knowledge and the small amount of general information which is found in young children. A college instructor, accustomed to deal with college students, has been known to severely reprimand a well-meaning high school student 214for guilty, willful and malicious ignorance, when, as a matter of fact, she was not yet equipped with the information which she was supposed to possess. ”

“ For the sake of both teacher and pupil it is necessary to mark a clear distinction between the legitimate report of a misdeed that is a menace to good order and the petty, selfish carrying of stories of other pupils’ misdemeanors. ”