The following is Chapter Two of The Seven Laws of Teaching (unabridged) by JOHN M. GREGORY, LL.D. The Seven Laws of Teaching (Unabridged) is available at Logos School Materials for $10.00 along with our popular study guide Practical Applications for the 7 Laws of Teaching

CHAPTER II.

THE LAW OF THE TEACHER.

1. The universal reign of law is the central truth of modern science. No force in man or nature but works under the control of law; no effect in mind or matter but is produced in conformity with law. The simplest notion of natural law is that nature remains forever uniform in its forces and operations. Causes compel their effects, and effects obey their causes, by irresistible laws. Things are what they are by reason of the laws of their being, and to learn the law of any fact is to learn the deepest truth we can know about it. This uniformity of nature is the basis of all science and of all practical art. In mind and in matter the reign of unvarying laws is the primal condition of any true science. The mind, indeed, has its freedoms, but among these there is found no liberty to produce effects contrary to laws. The teacher is therefore as much the subject of law as the star that shines or the ship that sails. Many qualifications are easily recognized as important to the teacher’s position and work; and if all the requirements popularly sought for could be obtained, the teacher would be a model man or woman; perfect in manners, pure in morals, unerring in wisdom, just in judgment, loving in temper, firm in will, tireless in work, conscientious in word and deed, a genius in learning, an angel in charity, an incarnate assemblage of impossible excellencies. Certainly, good character and rare moral qualities are desirable in an instructor of the young, if not for his actual work, at least to prevent harm from his example; but if, one by one, we dismiss from our catalogue of needful qualifications for the work of teaching those not absolutely indispensable, we shall find ourselves obliged to retain at last, as necessary to the very notion of teaching, a knowledge of the branches to be taught. The Law of the Teacher, then, — the law which limits and describes him, — is this : — The teacher must know that which he would teach.

Philosophy of the Law.

2. It seems too simple for proof that one can not teach without knowledge. How can something come out of nothing, or how can darkness give light ? To affirm this law seems like declaring a truism; but deeper study shows it to be a fundamental truth — the very law of the teacher’s action and being as a teacher. No other characteristic or qualification is so fundamental and essential. The law will reveal a deeper truth if we reverse its terms and read: What the teacher knows he must teach. There is an inborn need and desire in man for expression. It is the instinctive impulse to tell in some way, by word or action, our thoughts and emotions so soon as they become vivid and intense enough. It is the teaching passion. “While I was musing the fires burned : then spake I with my tongue.” Other motives and impulses may mingle and aid, but this is primary and fundamental. The hot heart — hot with visions and discovered truth — forces speech, or teaching which is better than speech.

3. The word KNOW stands central in the law of the teacher. Knowledge is the material with which the teacher works, and the first reason of the law must be sought in the nature of knowledge. What men call knowledge is of all degrees, from the first dim glimpse of a fact or truth to the full and familiar understanding of that fact or truth in all its parts and aspects — its philosophy, its beauty, and its power. (i) We may know a fact so faintly as merely to recognize it when another tells it; (2) we may know it in such degree as to be able to recall it for ourselves, or to describe it in a general way to another; (3) better still, we may so know it that we can readily explain, prove, and illustrate it; or (4), mounting to the highest grade of knowledge, we may so know and vividly see a truth in its deeper significance and wider relations that its importance, grandeur, or beauty impresses and inspires us. History is history only to him who thus reads and knows it; and Scripture IS Holy Writ only when seen by this inner light. It is this last form of knowledge which must be read into the law of the true teacher.

4. It is not affirmed that no one can teach without this fullness of knowledge; nor is it true that every one who knows his lessons thus thoroughly will teach successfully. But imperfect knowing must make imperfect teaching. What a man does not know he can not teach, or, if he teaches, can not know what he teaches. But the law of the teacher is only one of the laws of teaching. Failure may come from the violation of other conditions as well as from neglect of this. So, too, success may come from obedience to other laws. A poor, illiterate mother may so inspire the ambition of her boy that he will work out his lessons from a book without a teacher. Many a teacher can do little more than to study up the lesson of the day, and may use that skillfully to set his pupils to work; but teaching must be uncertain and limping with such limitations of knowledge.

5. A truth can be fully seen only in the light of other truths. It is known by its resemblances. A fact which is only partly known never reveals its thousand beautiful analogies to other facts. It stands alone, beclouded and barren – half fact and half phantom. The eye catches no fine resemblances, and the understanding finds no fruitful relations, linking it to the great body of truth. The imagination looks in vain for the light of some rich and beautiful simile to transfigure the truth seen only in dim outline, or known only in shapeless and imperfect fragments. Only amid facts vividly seen, and among truths clearly and splendidly conceived, are to be discovered the images of grander facts and the shadowy forms of wider truths. The power of illustration — that chief and central power in the teacher’s art — comes only out of clear and familiar knowledge. The unknowing teacher is the blind trying to lead the blind with only an empty lamp to light the way.

6. Take the common facts taught in the geographies of the schools,—the roundness of the earth, the extent of oceans and continents, mountains, rivers, and peopled states and cities, — how tame and slight in interest as known to the half- taught teacher and his pupils ; but how grand and imposing as seen by the great astronomers, geologists, and geographers — the Herschels, Danas, and Guyots! To these appear in vision the long processions of age-filling causes and revolutions which have not only given shape to this enormous globe, but have peopled the boundless universe with countless millions of similar and still grander spheres — causes which yet move and work in the ceaseless march of suns and systems, in the perpetual roll of the earth’s revolutions, in the swing of tides, the sweep of winds and storms, the flow of rivers, the slow heave of the continents, the incessant climatic changes and seasons, and in all the various births, growths, and decays of nature and mankind. To such teachers geography is but a chapter in the science and history of the universe, borrowing light and meaning from all that goes before or follows. So, too, the great texts and truths of Holy Writ: how meager in meaning to the careless reader and the unstudious teacher! but how brilliant and burning with divine fact and truths to him who brings to its study the converging lights of history, science, and experience!

7. But the law of the teacher goes deeper still. Truth must be clearly understood before it can be vividly felt. Only the true scholars in any science grow enthusiastic over its glories and grandeurs. It is the clearness of their mental vision which inspires the wonderful eloquence of the poet and orator, and makes them the born teachers of their race. It was Hugh Miller, the deep-read geologist, whose trained eye deciphered, and whose eloquent pen recorded, “The Testimony of the Rocks.” Kepler, the great astronomer, grew wild as the mysteries of the stars unrolled before him, and Agassiz could not afford time to lecture for money while absorbed in the deep study of the old dead fishes of an ancient world. He must ever be a cold and lifeless teacher who only half knows the lessons he would teach ; but he whose soul has caught fire from the truths which he carries, glows with a contagious enthusiasm and unconsciously inspires his pupils with his own deep interest.Much learning doth make thee mad,” said the half-startled Festus, as Paul, the great apostle, told with irrepressible warmth the story so vivid in his remembrance, so fresh in his feeling.

8. This earnest feeling of truths clearly and grandly conceived is the very secret of the earnestness and enthusiasm so much praised and admired in teacher and preacher. Even common truths become transformed and grand in the mind and heart of such a teacher. History turns to a living panorama; geography swells out into great continental stretches of peopled kingdoms ; astronomy becomes the marshaled march of shining worlds and world-systems, and Bible truths grow sublime as with the felt presence of Deity. How can the teacher’s manner fail to be earnest and inspiring when his matter is so rich with radiant reality ?

9. While knowledge thus thoroughly and familiarly known rouses into higher action all the powers of the teacher, it also gives him the unfettered command and use of those powers. Instead of the hurry and worry of one who has to glean from the text-book each moment the answers to the questions he has asked, he who knows his lesson as he ought is at home, on familiar ground, and can watch at ease the efforts of his class and direct with certainty the current of their thoughts. He is ready to recognize and interpret their first faint glimpses of the truth, to remove the obstacles from their path, and to aid and encourage their struggling search by the skillful hint which flashes a half-revealing light into the too thick darkness.

10. A teacher’s ready and evident knowledge helps to give the pupil needed confidence. We follow with eager expectation and delight the guide who shows thorough knowledge of the field we wish to explore, but we drag reluctantly and without interest after an ignorant and incompetent leader. Children instinctively object to being taught by one whom they have found to be ignorant or unready in their lessons, just as soldiers refuse to follow an incompetent commander. Nor is this all. As the great scholars, the Newtons, the Humboldts, and the Huxleys kindle public interest in the sciences which lend them their renown, so the ripe knowledge of the well-prepared teacher awakens in his class the active desire to know more of the studies in which he is proficient. Science and religion are never so attractive as when seen through a living scholar or Christian. And yet it must be confessed that the ability to inspire pupils with a love of study is sometimes lacking even where great knowledge is possessed; and this lack is fatal to all successful teaching, especially among young pupils. Better a teacher with limited knowledge but with this power to stimulate his pupils than a very Agassiz without it. The cooped hen may by her encouraging cluck send forth her chickens to the fields she can not herself explore ; but sad the fate of the brood if they remain in the coop while she goes abroad to feed. n. Such is the profound philosophy, the wide and generous meaning, of this first great law of teaching. Thus understood, it clearly portrays the splendid ideal which no one except the Great Teacher ever fully realized, but which every true teacher must more or less nearly approach. It defines with scientific certainty the forces with which the successful teacher must go to his work. From the mother teaching her child to talk, to the highest teacher of science, the orator instructing listening senates, and the preacher teaching great congregations, this law knows no exceptions and allows no successful violations. It affirms everywhere, the teacher must know that which he would teach. Out of this one fundamental law must arise every practical rule to guide the teacher in preparing for his work.

Rules for Teachers.

12. Among the rules which arise out of the Law of the Teacher, the following are the most important : —

(1) Prepare each lesson by fresh study. Last year’s knowledge has necessarily faded somewhat. Only fresh conceptions warm and inspire us.

(2) Seek in the lesson its analogies and likenesses to more familiar truths. In these lie the illustrations by which it may be taught to others.

(3) Study the lesson till its thoughts take shape in familiar language. The final proof and product of clear thought is clear speech.

(4) Find the natural order and connection of the several facts and truths in the lesson. In every science there is a natural path of ascent, from its simplest notions to its sublimest outlooks. So, too, in every lesson. The temple of truth is not a jumbled mass of disjointed facts.

(5) Seek the relation of the lesson to the lives and duties of the learners. The practical
value of truth lies in these relations.

(6) Use freely all aids, but never rest till the truth rises clear before you as a vision seen by your own eyes.

(7) Ask for all the facts and views of a subject, but be sure to master some. Better to know one truth well than to know a hundred imperfectly.

(8) Have a time for the study of each lesson, and, if possible, some days in advance of the teaching. All things help the duty done on time, but all things hinder or hurry the duty out of time. The mind keeps on studying the lesson learned in advance, and gathers fresh interest and illustrations.

(9) Have a plan of study, but study beyond the plan. I once suggested as an artificial but helpful plan for the study of a Bible lesson the letters of the word BIBLE. B — Book in which the lesson is found, with its date, author, object, and contents or scope. I — Intention of the lesson ; the included facts, and the interpretation of those facts. B — Blessings and Benefits to be gained from the lesson. L — Losses likely to follow from a failure to learn and obey. E — Examples, Experiences, and Exhortation. Let the teacher address each point as a question to his own mind, and think till he gets an answer — and an answer that is true. The three questions What ? How ? and Why ? afford a more perfect mnemonic, calling for more scientific research and applying to all branches of knowledge.

(10) Do not deny yourself the help of good books on the subject of the lessons. Buy, borrow, or beg, if necessary, but get the help of the best scholars and thinkers, enough at least to set your own thoughts going; but do not read without deep and original thinking. If possible, talk your lesson over with an intelligent friend. Collision often brings light. In the absence of these aids, write your views. The nib of the pen digs deep into the mines of truth. Expressing thought often clears it of its dross and obscurities.

Violations and Mistakes.

13. The discussion would be incomplete without some notice of the frequent violations of the law. Some one has said : ” The secret of success is to make no mistakes.” Certain it is that the best teacher may spoil his most careful and earnest work by some small and careless blunder.

(1) The very ignorance of his pupils often tempts the teacher to neglect all preparation and study. He thinks that at any rate he will know much more of the lesson than the children can, and counts that he will find something to say about it, or that at worst his ignorance will pass unnoticed. A sad mistake, and often costing dear ! Some bright or studious pupil is almost sure to discover the cheat, and henceforth that teacher’s credit
with his class is gone.

(2) Some teachers assume that it is the pupils’ work, not theirs, to study the lesson ; and that with the aid of the book in hand, they will easily enough be able to ascertain if the children have done their duty. Better let one of the pupils who knows his lesson examine the others, and sit by as a learner, rather than discourage study by your too evident ignorance and indifference.

(3) Others look hastily through the lesson, and conclude that though they have not mastered it, nor perhaps one thought in it, they have gathered enough to fill the brief hour, and they can, if needful, eke out the little they know with random talk or story. Or, lacking time or heart for any preparation, they carelessly dismiss all thought of teaching, fill the hour with such exercises as may occur to them, and hope that, as the Sunday-school is a good thing, the Children will get some good from mere attendance.

(4) A more serious fault is that of those who, failing to find anything in the lesson, try to graft something upon it, and make it a mere cart to carry their own fancies on.

(5) There is a meaner, if not also a more mischievous, wrong done by the teacher who seeks to conceal his lazy ignorance by some pompous pretence of learning, hiding his lack of knowledge by an array of high-sounding words beyond the comprehension of his pupils, uttering solemn platitudes in a wise tone, or claiming extensive study and profound information which he has not the time to lay properly before them. Who has not seen or heard all these shams practiced upon children? Thus a majority, perhaps, of teachers go to their work either wholly without the requisite knowledge, or only partly prepared for their task. They go like messengers without a message, and all wanting in that power and enthusiasm which fresh truth alone can give ; and so the grand fruits we look for from this great army of workers seem long in coming, if not beyond hope. Let this first great fundamental law of teaching be thoroughly obeyed, or even as fully as the circumstances of our teachers will permit, and there will come to our schools an attractive charm which would at once increase their numbers and double their usefulness. The school-rooms, now so often dark and dull, would glow as with a living light, and teachers and pupils, instead of dragging to their weary task, would hasten to their meeting as to a joyous feast.