FRANCIS LEROY COPPER, NORTHERN STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE, MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN

T is estimated that 85% of the value of a school is contributed by the teacher. If this is true it is obvious that the part played by the teacher in the educational process is tremendous. I think that Garfield was trying to show the importance of the teacher when he said that if Mark Hopkins was on one end of a log and a student on the other that that would constitute a university. Who is a good teacher? is a question which educators have been trying for centuries to answer. Perhaps it can never be answered fully, once and for all time. It will always be in the process of being answered. Yet there is consensus of opinion upon certain qualities that characterize a good teacher. The writer has in this study tried to ascertain by different approaches what qualities are most appreciated in teachers.

We cannot get very far in determining who is a good teacher until we have clearly in mind the purposes of education. The seven cardinal aims of education as expressed by the commission appointed by the National Education Association for the reorganization of secondary education are these1: (1) Health; (2) command of fundamental processes; (3) worthy home membership; (4) vocation; (5) citizenship; (6) worthy use of leisure; and (7) ethical character. This group of aims is perhaps as essential and comprehensive as any we have. For if the child learns how to keep physically fit, how to use the fundamental processes, how to make a good home and rear children, how to work efficiently and happily, how to be a useful citizen, how to spend his leisure time profitably, and how to regulate his life according to high standards of right living, he will be truly educated.

1 Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 35, 1918.

Three approaches are used in trying to answer the question, Who is a good teacher? Approach I has to do with the analysis of the qualities of three outstanding, successful teachers of the world. Approach II includes what educators have said constitutes a good teacher. Approach III reflects what a group of 49 college students thinks are the essentials of a good teacher. The writer makes no claim that he has selected the three best teachers of all times, but he believes he has selected three good teachers whose methods are fairly familiar to all who read this discussion.

APPROACH I

Analysis of the Qualities of Three Outstanding Teachers

of the World

Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, challenges our attention as a good teacher. He instructed so well that he is remembered over two thousand years after his time for the quality of his teachings. He taught without buildings, without equipment, and without pay. His was the informal method. Perhaps no one since his time has used the question more effectively than he. His method was to engage someone in conversation and presently to ask him a question, which would lead to another and another question. In a short time the person would be so confused and would have contradicted himself so much that he would admit he did not know and could go no further. That was the destructive part of the plan. Socrates would then ask him constructive questions which would lead him out into the truth. Therefore, we might list the skillful use of questions as a characteristic of a good teacher.

The next teacher selected is the Great Teacher, the Christ himself, the teacher of the ages, We may think of the Master as primarily a great preacher, but his name is used more often with the verb "teach" than it is with the verb "preach." In referring to the Sermon on the Mount the gospel writer says, "And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying. .

So it was a lesson as well as a sermon. He, like Socrates, taught mostly without buildings, without equipment, and always without pay. Sometimes he taught one person, sometimes a few, and sometimes many. His method was informal and always suited to the occasion. He made great use of the question, the story and the parable. He kept a wayside school and used as illustrations the common things along the roadthe sower, lilies, vines, sheep, trees, houses-as object lessons. The people heard him gladly "for he taught them as having authority." So then we can say that the good teacher is so thoroughly master of his subject that he speaks with authority.

The third teacher to command our attention is one of worldwide fame, Pestalozzi, the great Swiss educator, sometimes spoken of as the "Messiah" of modern education. Sympathy and love of children were outstanding characteristics of his teaching. Another great factor was his use of objects to develop sense perception. He also taught nature through direct contact with nature. He maintained the attitude of investigation and experimentation. He believed that observation was the basis of all knowledge. His was a loving discipline. He had the happy faculty of imbuing other educators who came to sit at his feet with his ideas of education. So through the instrumentality of other great teachers his influence has touched and quickened education in our own country. So we might add to our list of qualities of the good teacher, love of children, sympathy, and the faculty of inspiring confidence in others.

APPROACH II

What Educators Have Said Constitutes a Good Teacher Otis W. Caldwell says, "One test of a true teacher is to teach so that he who learns, learns gladly with keen interest, a sense of increasing accomplishment, and, above all, with a volitionalized judgment which leads the learner to do something about it." Others have said in substance that a good

teacher finds the hidden laws of the growing mind and then shapes that mind to a splendid plan. He so inspires the child that he finds pleasure in art, literature, and music, and becomes self-reliant, accepting cheerfully his share of the world's responsibility. He is patient, impartial, sociable and progressive. He leads the child to cherish high ideals and habits of clear, effective, independent thinking. A good teacher believes in love, laughter and truth, and is a master craftsman, dealing with the finest and most potent thing on earth-the child's mind. He is apt in illustration and clear in explanation.

A good teacher helps the child to develop a balanced personality and to make his body an obedient servant to his will. He trains the pupil to use his mind and shows him how to work, causing him to prospect, observe and search for truth. He fills the heart of the child with the desire to translate his love of humanity into life. He fosters a spirit of open-minded inquiry and discovers talents in the pupil which he awakens into action. He clarifies and amplifies the material studied and stimulates the exchange of ideas. A good teacher encourages the pupil to try to do something excellent and leads the way by fine example. He has poise and a keen sense of humor, and is never too busy to give a word of advice where needed and to congratulate a pupil upon a splendid piece of work. He has as much soul as head and bears in mind at all times that children are human beings with great aspirations and potentialities. He explains the goals of life and makes them alluring through the educational process. His personality is strong and pleasing.

Edwin Osgood Grover sums up very nicely some of the outstanding characteristics of a good teacher in his recipe for good teaching, which is as follows: "To infinite patience add a little wisdom, carefully strained through profitable experience, pour in a brimming measure of the milk of human kindness and season well with the salt of common sense. Boil gently over a friendly fire made of fine enthusiasm, stirring

constantly with just discipline. When it has boiled long enough to be thoroughly blended, transfuse it by wise teaching to the eager mind of a restless boy.

APPROACH III

What College Students Say Constitutes a Good Teacher Approach III has to do with the opinion of 49 students in the writer's classes in principles of elementary education in The Northern State Teachers College, Marquette, Michigan, spring term, 1928. After a brief study of the aims of education and the essentials of good teaching the classes were asked to write on the two following points: (1) Think of the teacher who was most helpful to you and tell what qualities appealed to you most in that teacher. (2) List the traits which you think are most important in a good teacher.

It will be observed that (1) had to do with actual classroom teachers whom the students had somewhere along the line of their educational journey met, and that (2) was without restrictions, describing the ideal teacher. The teachers in (1) who had been most helpful to the students were about equally divided between grade and high school teachers. Most of the teachers mentioned were women. In describing the most helpful teachers 134 separate traits were mentioned, some of which, of course, overlapped somewhat. Whereas, in dealing with the ideal teacher, 159 separate traits were mentioned, some of which overlapped somewhat also. In this discussion only the ten qualities mentioned most frequently in (1) and (2) are considered; and they are tabulated in Tables I and II respectively.

TABLE I

Qualities Most Helpful in Their Teachers According to Frequency of Mentioning by 49 College Students