ildren returns a
hundredfold to us in a richer experience and a larger capacity for
service.

1. Recall several teachers whom you remember best from your own
pupil days, and see whether you can estimate the qualities in their
character or teaching which are responsible for the lasting
impression.

2. Are you able to determine from the character chart which are
your strongest qualities? Which are your weakest qualities? Just
what methods are you planning to use to improve your personality?

3. In thinking of your class, are you able to judge in connection
with different ones on what qualities of character they most need
help? Are you definitely seeking to help on these points in your
teaching?

4. Do you think that church-school teachers could pass as good an
examination on what they undertake to teach as day-school teachers?
Are the standards too high for day-school teachers? Are they high
enough for church-school teachers?

5. Have you seen Sunday-school teachers at work who evidently did
not know their Bibles? Have you seen others who seemed to know
their Bibles but who were ignorant of childhood? Have you seen
others whose technique of teaching might have been improved by a
little careful study and preparation? Are you willing to apply
these three tests to yourself?

FOR FURTHER READING

Palmer, The Ideal Teacher.

Hyde, The Teacher's Philosophy.

Slattery, Living Teachers.

Horne, The Teacher as Artist.

CHAPTER II

THE GREAT OBJECTIVE

All teaching has two objectives--the _subject_ taught and the _person_
taught. When we teach John grammar (or the Bible) we teach grammar (or
the Bible), of course; but we also teach _John_. And the greater of
these two objectives is John. It is easy enough to attain the lesser of
the objectives. Anyone of fair intelligence can master a given amount of
subject matter and present it to a class; but it is a far more difficult
thing to understand the child--to master the inner secrets of the mind,
the heart, and the springs of action of the learner.

Who can measure the potentialities that lie hidden in the soul of a
child! Just as the acorn contains the whole of the great oak tree
enfolded in its heart, so the child-life has hidden in it all the powers
of heart and mind which later reach full fruition. Nothing is _created_
through the process of growth