Stooping to Conquer. 167 III. HOW TO SECURE YOUR SCHOLARS' Finding the Scholar's Level; Knowing Too Much to Teach; Putting THE scholars being attentive, and the teacher having found a way to make clear that which he would teach, the teaching-process now hinges on the co-work of scholar and teacher in the transfer of the needed knowledge from the teacher's mind to the scholar's mind; or, more properly, in the enabling of the scholar to obtain that knowledge for himself, under the teacher's guidance. And for this co-work, also, the teacher is responsible, as it is the teacher's method of securing the completion of the teacher's process, that we are considering; and no teacher can do a teacher's work, without the co-work of his scholars. PART I. Teaching CHAPTER 4. The first requisite to securing the co-work of your scholars, is to bring yourself down to their level. You Finding a probably are above their level to begin with. You level. PART I. CHAPTER 4. "Daddle, daddle." ought to be so. But, if you and they are to co-work to advantage, you and they must get together in some way. They are as yet unable to rise to your level. You ought to be able to stoop to theirs. This you can do without losing your own vantage-ground. A baby boy was backward in saying his first words. One after another of the family tried in vain to teach him to say "Mamma," or " Papa." He could just roll his little tongue and make a few simple sounds, like "Daddle, daddle." His repeated failures to do more than this discouraged his parents and several of his older sisters, and had the effect of disheartening him in his efforts. He saw that he disappointed his would-be teachers, and it grieved him; but how to do better he did not see. A little sister, next older than himself, herself not yet four years old, saw the trouble, and in sympathy with her little brother, put herself down alongside of him on the floor, to see what she could do as a teacher. "Charley," she began, "say 'Daddle, daddle.'" Charley at once responded with "Daddle, daddle." "That's right, Charley," she said. "That's a good boy." Then, in triumph, she called to her mamma: "Mamma, see here, I can make Charley talk." And she put him through his lesson successA good start. fully. Her hearty approval gave her little scholar cheer. He was no longer disheartened. He was ready to try a new lesson now. And that was the beginning of his success in learning. As soon as a teacher came down to his level, he was ready to be Touching the Scholar's Level. helped to a higher plane. Co-work on his part was impossible until then. 169 PART I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. CHAPTER 4. Methods of the Process. It has often been said—it has, indeed, already been stated in this volume-that the more a teacher knows, the harder it seems for him to teach; and it certainly Teaching has been found, as a practical matter, that young persons are commonly more successful as teachers, than are older persons. The underlying reason for this seeming advantage of the younger and the poorer informed, over the maturer and the well-instructed, is in the greater readiness with which the younger teacher apprehends and conforms himself to his scholars' level of intelligence; and in the liability of the man of learning to fail of recognizing and bridg- but teaching ing the gap between his scholar and himself, as preliminary to the proper co-work of teacher and scholar. The best informed man could teach much better than one having less knowledge, if only he would ascertain and bring himself down to his scholars' level of thought and attainment to begin with. Unless he does this, the more he knows the less he can teach. Knowing less more. It is not always easy for a teacher to ascertain a scholar's level. That may itself require careful study. But there is no safe and sure progress in teaching until that knowledge has been gained. In a city mission school which I superintended some years ago, a teacher asked question after question last. of a new little scholar, without ever getting a satisfactory answer. The boy did not know who made him, Touching bottom at PART I. CHAPTER 4. Bring me a penny. or who was the first man, or who built the ark, or who was cast into the lion's den, or any other item of the elementary information which was then made the main subject of Sunday-school pursuit. At last the teacher asked in despair, "Why, my boy, what do you know?" And the discouraged face brightened up, as the little fellow answered cheerily, "I know the head from the tail of a cent." Then for the first time the teacher knew what that boy's level was. Brought up in the crowded streets along the river's bank, he had watched the older boys pitching pennies, and he was not a little proud to have already learned the difference between the "head" and the "tail" of a cent. And that was a good starting point for a wise teacher who could come down to a scholar's level. It were easy then to take a penny, and show its two sides, and ask and talk about the difference. Then could come the story of Jesus finding a lesson on the "head" of a penny; and other Bible stories about a penny could follow, as a basis of farther co-work in the teaching process. Finding a scholar's level in order to get down to it, is quite as important a matter to a teacher as any other result of his study. And when that level is found, it is the teacher's duty to make his starting point there. That is the only hopeful spot on earth for him as a teacher. When you and your scholars are fairly on the same plane, you must see to it that they are famil The Little Circus-Girl. 171 PART I. The Teacher's Teaching Work. CHAPTER 4. Methods of the Teaching Process. iarly at ease with you. It is not enough for a stranger to get down on the floor alongside of a little child. There will be shyness on the child's part until acquaintance is made with the new-comer, and until sympathy and confidence bring ease and familiarity on both sides. When these are secured, the child will be ready enough to do his share of the talking. Children love to talk. They love to tell what they know. They love to ask questions, also. A child has been characterized, not inaptly, as "an Being at ease. animated interrogation point." Once get a child to feel free with you, and he will talk with you as he would with his parents or his playmates. If you can get no word from a child in a Sunday-school class, the trouble is not with the child alone. It is in your relations with that child. There is still some obstacle between that child and yourself; some hindrance to his perfect freedom with you. That hindrance you must set yourself to discover and remove, if you would secure his co-work with you in the teaching process. the circus. A good teacher had in her Sunday-school class one shy little child, who for a long time could never Back from be drawn out to take any part in the lesson exercises. But, one Sunday, as the teacher was speaking familiarly with her scholars, this little child broke out most unexpectedly with the announcement: "I went to the circus yesterday." The teacher wisely saw and improved her opportunity. Had she checked that child for that interruption, as she might |