A STATE TEACHERS AND OF THE ASSOCIATION DECEMBER, 1902. GOOD superintendent must have He the work of all departments on his mind. He must observe the work of the grades at the times of the day when they are freshest and when his mind is most vigorous. He must visit as a close discriminating student, not a critic. He must study the pupils for his own information, that he may fully understand what instruction they require. Instead of preparing lessons and marking exercises for his own classes, the superintendent needs the best part of his outside time to read and to think and apply his mind to the questions of education as to an original problem in geometry. must study out the fundamental principles which underlie each branch of study, give each subject a definite aim, and organize the work of the entire school by correlating the different subjects and securing proper sequence of effort. I have urged that this cannot be done unless the superintendent may be freed from certain cares and have time for observation in school and time for study outside. Familiarity with the work in hand begets the confidence of teachers, wins pupils, pleases parents, gives the superintendent standing in the community, gives him prestige at board of education meetings, enables him to secure supplies and gives him influence in securing and retaining the services of able teachers. Where communities have not been accustomed to this kind of work there is all the more reason why the present incumbent should begin. The work of superintending and of high-school teach No. 6, ing is differentiating. The men now at the head of small schools, who will be sought by boards of education, are the men who under adverse circumstances make a reputation for good all-around management-Geo. B. Aiton, Inspector of State High Schools, Minnesota. LIFE is largely a matter of picking up bricks on one side of the street and carrying them to the other side. We are all carrying bricks. I say to the young man, Carry your bricks with enthusiasm. Try to make your work the best job of carrying brick ever done, so that people will say, "Why, he carries those bricks as if he enjoys it?" That is the secret of success when we get down to the bottom principle. Make the work you are doing the greatest thing in the world while you are doing it. Give it your whole thought and your whole strength. Leave it only when you feel that nobody could improve on it. These may be old maxims dressed over, but they are as true to-day as they ever were, and no one who departs from them can make a complete success of anything. If a young man makes a success of small things he will of great things when they come his way; and they'll come his way, for great things are only combinations of little things well done. If he does not make a success of small things, the great things will never come his way. Be sincere. Don't try to fool the world. It can tell the difference every time between an honest man and a fakir. No proposition will stand examination that does not have a kernel of truth in it. |