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Reveries of a Schoolmaster By: Francis B. (Francis Bail) Pearson (1853-) |
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BY FRANCIS B. PEARSON STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR OHIO AUTHOR OF "THE EVOLUTION OF THE TEACHER," "THE HIGH SCHOOL
PROBLEM," "THE VITALIZED SCHOOL." CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
CONTENTS CHAPTER I. IN MEDIAS RES
II. RETROSPECT
III. BROWN
IV. PSYCHOLOGICAL
V. BALKING
VI. LANTERNS
VII. COMPLETE LIVING
VIII. MY SPEECH
IX. SCHOOL TEACHING
X. BEEFSTEAK
XI. FREEDOM
XII. THINGS
XIII. TARGETS
XIV. SINNERS
XV. HOEING POTATOES
XVI. CHANGING THE MIND
XVII. THE POINT OF VIEW
XVIII. PICNICS
XIX. MAKE BELIEVE
XX. BEHAVIOR
XXI. FOREFINGERS
XXII. STORY TELLING
XXIII. GRANDMOTHER
XXIV. MY WORLD
XXV. THIS OR THAT
XXVI. RABBIT PEDAGOGY
XXVII. PERSPECTIVE
XXVIII. PURELY PEDAGOGICAL
XXIX. LONGEVITY
XXX. FOUR LEAF CLOVER
XXXI. MOUNTAIN CLIMBING
REVERIES OF A SCHOOLMASTER
CHAPTER I IN MEDIAS RES I am rather glad now that I took a little dip (one could scarce call
it a baptism) into the Latin, and especially into Horace, for that
good soul gave me the expression in medias res . That is a forceful
expression, right to the heart of things, and applies equally well to
the writing of a composition or the eating of a watermelon. Those
who have crossed the Channel, from Folkstone to Boulogne, know that
the stanch little ship Invicta had scarcely left dock when they
were in medias res . They were conscious of it, too, if indeed they
were conscious of anything not strictly personal to themselves. This
expression admits us at once to the light and warmth (if such there
be) of the inner temple nor keeps us shivering out in the vestibule. Writers of biography are wont to keep us waiting too long for
happenings that are really worth our while. They tell us that some
one was born at such a time, as if that were really important. Why,
anybody can be born, but it requires some years to determine whether
his being born was a matter of importance either to himself or to
others. When I write my biographical sketch of William Shakespeare I
shall say that in a certain year he wrote "Hamlet," which fact
clearly justified his being born so many years earlier. The good old lady said of her pastor: "He enters the pulpit, takes
his text, and then the dear man just goes everywhere preaching the
Gospel." That man had a special aptitude for the in medias res
method of procedure. Many children in school who are not versed in
Latin would be glad to have their teachers endowed with this
aptitude. They are impatient of preliminaries, both in the school
and at the dinner table. And it is pretty difficult to discover just
where childhood leaves off in this respect. So I am grateful to Horace for the expression. Having started right
in the midst of things, one can never get off the subject, and that
is a great comfort. Sometimes college graduates confess (or perhaps
boast) that they have forgotten their Latin. I fear to follow their
example lest my neighbor, who often drops in for a friendly chat,
might get to wondering whether I have not also forgotten much of the
English I am supposed to have acquired in college. He might regard
my English as quite as feeble when compared with Shakespeare or
Milton as my Latin when compared with Cicero or Virgil. So I take
counsel with prudence and keep silent on the subject of Latin. When I am taking a stroll in the woods, as I delight to do in the
autumn time, laundering my soul with the gorgeous colors, the music
of the rustling leaves, the majestic silences, and the sounds that
are less and more than sounds, I often wonder, when I take one
bypath, what experiences I might have had if I had taken the other.
I'll never know, of course, but I keep on wondering. So it is with
this Latin. I wonder how much worse matters could or would have been
if I had never studied it at all... Continue reading book >>
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