Higher education is given in the universities of Bogota, Popayan, Medellin, and Cartagena. The venerable college, "El Rosario," still continues under the patronage of the government, while secondary education may be obtained in a number of colleges throughout the land. Primary education, while gratuitous, is not obligatory. There are about two thousand public schools in the republic which, however, do not meet the demands. Leaving a number of private schools out of consideration, I find that, in 1906, the highest number of children receiving public education was fifteen per cent, notably in the department of Caldas, while the average throughout the country was less than five per cent. PANAMA I can say but little of education in this small republic which is of the greatest interest for the outside world, owing to the canal that our government is constructing. Education here appears to be somewhat in an incipient stage, although the Panama government is erecting a university which, to judge from the building, is to be quite important. There is a ministry of public instruction, but the prevailing sentiment seems to be hostile to religion. Until recently the Christian Brothers conducted the normal school, but it has been taken away from them. The only religious orders I know in this republic devoted to the work of education are the Christian Brothers, and the Sisters of Charity. While Americans have been pouring into Panama, little has been done by Catholics here to promote the cause of religion or education in that country. CHARLES WARREN CURRIER. THE CONDUCT OF THE TEACHER IN THE CLASS ROOM When King Lear asked old Kent why he wished to be in his service he answered: "Because you have that in your face which I would fain call Master." In the light of this incident we get a glimpse of human nature that has a strong bearing on our subject. What was it Kent saw? It was the expression in appearance and conduct of a soul within. In other words it was the character of the man visible in his countenance that captivated Kent and drew from him a willing service. We are very much the same and children are not different. Most men are willing to follow a leader when they see that he is properly qualified. Most children are willing to be governed when they see that the teacher is able to govern and to teach. These qualifications express themselves in external conduct. Life is at least three-fourths conduct. The source of conduct is character. The two elements that form the foundation of the teacher's conduct are character and knowledge. The former is an essential without which nothing can be done toward the end for which Christian education was instituted; the latter gives the strength, ease, assurance and ability that are necessary and gratifying to teacher and pupil. Like begets like. It is the character of the teacher that begets character in the pupil, and the light of knowledge glowing in the soul of the teacher cannot but enlighten the darkened mind of the untaught child. "Thou must be true thyself If thou the truth wouldst teach; If thou another soul wouldst reach." Without these the teacher may be able to transfer some dry timber to the attic of the children's minds but that is not the end of Christian education. One cannot give what she does not possess: The plan must be in the mind of the architect; the image, in the mind of the sculptor; the song, in the heart of the poet; the ideal, in the mind of the teacher, or there will be failure in the execution. The teacher must be even more than she desires her pupils to become. The water in the fountain must exceed its capacity or there will not be an overflow. One of the best and most experienced teachers in the State of New York was noted for his careful preparation of every lesson before entering the class room. Being asked why he did so, for his ability was well known, he replied: "I would rather see my pupils drink from a running stream than from a stagnant pool." Spalding says, "Not what a teacher says, but what he is, and does, draws the young brood after him." We cannot enter into a discussion of the fundamental laws of mental development here; it is no longer necessary to prove their existence and value, but it is well to note how the character of the teacher as expressed in her conduct affects the life of the pupils through the latter's instinctive tendency to imitate the words, actions, manners and other characteristics of those with whom they associate. In the earlier years of the child's life he relies on his parents for the models of his imitative activities, but on entering school, the teacher supplements the parents and becomes a new center on which the child orientates his inclinations to reproduce in himself and his actions what he perceives in others. "From the standpoint of society a good deal, if not all, of what the child does, is easily traced to some copy set by environmental conditions. He is constantly copying the activities, customs, motions, etc. that surround him With the child the emphasis is not on the copying of a certain act, but on the attainment of a certain experience that comes through the copying or imitating. In other words, to the child's consciousness the significance of the act is not in it as an imitation, but in that it helps define a new experience that is felt as desirable." (King, Psychology of Child Development, pp. 119-20.) The same truth is confirmed by Professor Baldwin who says, "Was there ever a group of school children who did not leave the real school and make a play school? The point is this: The child's personality grows, growth is always by action; he clothes upon himself the scenes of his life and acts them out; so he grows by what he is, what he understands, and what he is able to perform. (Mental Development in the Child and Race, p. 361.) Quoting Dr. Shields (The Psychology of Education, p. 296-297), we read: "Impelled by the instinct to imitate, the child appropriates the actions and the attitudes of the people of his environment. The hidden springs of these actions and attitudes at first in no way concern him. Through the performance of the action, however, or through the assumption of the attitude, he is gradually led into a dim understanding of the inner meaning, and as the understanding grows upon him, so does his keenness in the observation of the details in his model that at first escaped his notice. From the realization of these details in his own actions he gains a still deeper insight into the cognitive processes that underlie the actions of the chosen model." If the quotations from these authorities are true—and who will doubt them? the application to our subject is too evident to need further emphasis. Almost constantly the eye of the pupil is receiving impressions and instantly communicating them to the soul where they contribute to the growth of his mind and character. What about the impressions made in unguarded moments? Are they always desirable? These will the more surely be a revelation of the teacher's character as in such moments one wears no disguises. Hence the necessity of being what one seems, in dealing with children; for they are gifted in discerning the real from the assumed. I may be pardoned for quoting at length from W. G Jordan's paper, "The Power of Personal Influence" as it has a close bearing on this phase of our subjectCharacter as a source of conduct. He writes "The only responsibility that a man cannot evade in this life is the one he thinks of least, his personal influence. Man's conscious influence, when he is on dress-parade, when he is posing to impress those around him,-is wonderfully small. But his unconscious influence, the silent, subtle radiation of his personality, the effect of his words and acts, the trifles he never considers,-is tremendous. Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or for evil,-the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what a man really is, not what he pretends to be. Every man is radiating sympathy or sorrow or morbidness or cynicism or happiness or hope or any of a hundred qualities. There are men and women whose presence seems to radiate sunshine, cheer and optimism. You feel calmed and restored in a moment to new and stronger faith in humanity. There are those who focus in an instant all your latent distrust, morbidness and rebellion against life. Without knowing why, you chafe and fret in their presence. You lose your bearings on life and its problems. Your moral compass is disturbed and unsatisfactory. It is made untrue in an instant, as the magnetic needle of a ship is deflected when it passes near great mountains of iron ore. There are men who float down the stream of life like |