WORDS TO LIVE BY
Why I’m Glad I’m A Teacher |
“For gold to triad in the lira, and acoept
(Ma man in tha fumaoa of adversity."
Ecclesiasticus, 11, 5. (c. 180 a.c.)
Over 2,000 yean ago, Jesus, son of Sirach,
a wise teacher and observer of human life,
thus reminded us that learning is difficult
and that teaching is an exciting, intriguing
and sometimes frustrating business. For
schools, I believe, were devised to help pro
duce “acceptable men'*; and the schools
must provide “the furnace of adversity"
the hard work, the facing of new ideas and
the encouragement of self-discipline that
tries such men.
I am glad 1 am a teacher because no other
profession seems quite so important. 1 have
been a teacher for nearly 30 years, and the
more I see of schoolboys, the more I respect
and enjoy them. Among other things, they
make it certain that there is never a dull
moment in the life of one who works with
them!
Like his students, the teacher has his
failures, but he has unequaled and creative
opportunities to up new sources of power
for good. Tie must develop each individual's
talents and resist the temptation to remake
his students in his own image. (One of any
of us is quite enough!)
In the long run, the chance to create
a hunger for knowledge and understanding,
to discover new ways of connecting learn
ing with living and to share the real excite
ment of youth, is worth all the disappoint
ments and economic hardship that he may
encounter.
He believes, as did John Phillips, who
founded The Phillips Exeter Academy I7S
years ago, that “ Though goodness without
knowledge is weak and feeble; yet knowledge
without goodness is dangerous, both united
form the noblest character and lay the surest
foundation of usefulness to mankind .”
The teacher is glad to serve as fireman in
the furnace of adversity, for he knows that
his raw material is more valuable than the
finest gold.
Octofcar 28, X9S« ThlS Week TNI NATIONAL SUNWAY magazine WILUAM *' N,CHOLS ’ Editor-In-Chief and Publisher
* 1956 . United Newspapers Magazine Corporation STEWART BeACH ' EuMh ' Edi, ° r
485 Lexington Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. Euclid M. Covington, President • John C. Sterling, Chairman of the Board
2
It’s the most important job in the world, says this veteran educator
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John lewis Stage
AUTHOR: Member of a famous Boston family and head of an old New England
school, ho says: "The more I see of schoolboys, the more I respect them”
By WILLIAM O. S AUTO NS TALL
Principal, The Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N. H.
TW—lO-28-56