=The role of ideal.=--But the role of ideal is not an easy one. It is a
comparatively simple matter to give instruction in geography,
arithmetic, and history, but to know one's self to be the ideal of a
child, or to conceive of the possibility of such a situation and
relation, is sufficient to render the teacher deeply thoughtful. Once it
is borne in upon her that the child will grow into her likeness, she
cannot dismiss the matter from her thinking as she can the lesson in
grammar. The child may be unconscious of the matter, but the teacher is
acutely conscious. When she stands before her class she sees the child
growing into her image, and this reflection gives cause and occasion for
a careful and critical introspection. She feels constrained to take an
inventory of herself to determine whether she can stand a test that is
so searching and so far-reaching.
=The teacher's other self.=--As she stands thus in contemplation she sees
the child grown to maturity with all her own predilections--physical,
mental, spiritual--woven into the pattern of its life. In this child
grown up she sees her other self and can thus estimate the qualities of
body, mind, and spirit that now constitute herself, as they reveal
themselves in another. She thus gains the child's point of view and so is
able to see herself through the child's eyes. When she is reading a book,
she is aware that the child is looking over her shoulder to note the
quality of literature that engages her interest.
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