hose
less fortunate people who do not possess the innate gift, but who are
willing to learn.

To begin with, the teacher of songs must have real personality; and if
she does not possess this by nature, she must do her best to develop
what she has. She must be full of vitality, she must understand
children, and, above all, she must be genuinely fond of music, in such a
way that she cannot do without it. The last qualification often implies
a certain sensitiveness, which finds a difficulty in accommodating
itself to a workaday world, where people have little time, or
inclination, to study the 'moods' of others. Very artistic people are a
well-known difficulty to the authorities of schools. In order to excel
in their art, they must not only have a 'capacity for taking pains', but
a reserve store of emotional force, on which they draw for
self-expression through their art. Now the possession of such a reserve
store does not always imply a power of keeping it in reserve! During the
course of training the attention of such people should be directed to
the high ideals underlying all true educational work; they should
realize the real function of music in education--that it is not to be
taken as a mere accomplishment, or technical art, but as a means of
self-expression.

We will now consider a special case. Let us suppose that a new mistress
is taking a song lesson with a large class of children, who have the
reputation of being troublesome to manage. On entering the classroom it
is a good plan to go straight to the platform, without speaking a word
to the children on the way, whatever they may be doing. From this
vantage ground the teacher should look the class over for a few seconds,
still without speaking. There is nothing more impressive to a restless
class than the sight of a mistress not in the least disturbed by their
doings, yet taking everything in. If the mistress has cultivated a sense
of repose and self-confidence this action on her part will produce the
feeling of a centre of force in the room--and the force will radiate
from her. The children, without knowing exactly what has happened, will
feel different, and will be pliant and easy to manage. Directly the
mistress is conscious of this change of atmosphere she can start the
lesson. But she must now gradually merge her personality into that of
the class--she must work _with_ them, not outside them. It is difficult
to put this idea into words, but all real teache