Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 16 (1901)

Ms 6, 1901

Words to Teachers

January 16, 1901 [date typed]

Previously unpublished.

The teachers in our schools should give careful attention to the subject of how to make the studies most profitable for students who can only attend for one year. There are many whose circumstances will not allow them to remain in school longer than this. And though they may not, in this time, be able to gain a complete preparation for work in literary or business lines, yet they have received a start. If they will to do it, they can continually increase their knowledge by training the mental powers. 16LtMs, Ms 6, 1901, par. 1

Our schools need practical men as teachers. Much depends on the teacher as he outlines the course of study which the student shall follow. The student should be advised to take those studies which will best prepare him for the work for which he is adapted. The education which he receives at the school should prepare him to make advancement without a teacher. If he can take away with him the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, he will make steady progress. In the Word of God he has a lesson book which will be to him as the leaves of the tree of life. If he taxes his perceptive faculties in an effort to understand the Scriptures, if he trains the mind to take up difficult problems and wrestle with them until they are mastered, the reasoning powers will be strengthened. The mental development made is always proportionate to the purity of the food given to the mind. 16LtMs, Ms 6, 1901, par. 2

Teachers should never allow the student to take too many studies, even though the student himself and his unwise parents shall urge this. The studies students shall take and the hours they shall study each day are matters to be decided by the teachers after careful consideration with reference to the physical and mental health of the students. 16LtMs, Ms 6, 1901, par. 3

During his stay at the school, the student should obtain knowledge which he can carry away with him to impart to others. Under the supervision of wise teachers, he should learn to impart to others. While in the school he should be given opportunity to instruct others less advanced than himself, while at the same time he himself is receiving instruction. Thus the student will learn far more than if he had nothing of this kind to do. This is an excellent mental discipline, and has important results. By it the faculties are awakened to action. 16LtMs, Ms 6, 1901, par. 4