"--_Chicago Tribune_, September, 1919.
We may stress the sacred obligation of the teacher; we may discuss in
detail mechanical processes involved in lesson preparation; we may
analyze child nature in all of its complexity; but after all we come
back to the _Personality of the Teacher_ as the great outstanding factor
in pedagogical success. _That something in the man_ that grips people!
Very generally this _Personal Equation_ has been looked upon as a
certain indefinable possession enjoyed by the favored few. In a certain
sense this is true. Personality is largely inherent in the individual
and therefore differs as fully as do individuals. But of recent years
educators have carried on extensive investigations in this field of
personality and have succeeded in reducing to comprehensible terms those
qualities which seem to be most responsible for achievements of
successful teachers. Observation leads us all to similar deductions and
constitutes one of the most interesting experiments open to those
concerned with the teaching process.
Why, with the same amount of preparation, does one teacher succeed with
a class over which another has no control at all?
Why is it that one class is crowded each week, while another adjourns
for lack of membership?
The writer a short time ago, after addressing the members of a ward
M.
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