them which will almost inevitably lead to a collision. Now this is
wrong. There is, indeed, a point where firm resistance to unreasonable
demands becomes a duty; but, as a general principle, it is most
unquestionably true that it is the teacher's duty _to accommodate
himself to the character and expectations of his employers_, not to face
and brave them. Those italicized words _may be_ understood to mean
something which would be entirely wrong; but in the sense in which I
mean to use them there can be no question that they indicate the proper
path for one employed by others to do work _for them_ in all cases to
pursue. If, therefore, the teacher finds by his inquiries into the state
of his district that there are some peculiar difficulties and dangers
there, let him not cherish a disposition to face and resist them, but to
avoid them. Let him go with an intention to soothe rather than to
irritate feelings which have been wounded before, to comply with the
wishes of all so far as he can, even if they are not entirely
reasonable, and, while he endeavors to elevate the standard and correct
the opinions prevailing among his employers by any means in his power,
to aim at doing it gently, and in a tone and manner suitable to the
relation he sustains--in a word, let him skillfully _avoid_ the dangers
of his navigation, not obstinately run his ship against a rock on
purpose on the ground that the rock has no business to be there.

This is the spirit, then, with which these preliminary inquiries in
regard to the patrons of the school ought to be made. We come now to a
second point.

2. It will assist the young teacher very much in his first day's labors
if he takes measures for seeing and conversing with some of the older or
more intelligent scholars on the day or evening before he begins his
school, with a view of obtaining from them some acquaintance with the
internal arrangements and customs of the school. The object of this is
to obtain the same kind of information with respect to the interior of
the school that was recommended in respect to the district under the
former head. He may call upon a few families, especially those which
furnish a large number of scholars for the school, and make as many
minute inquiries of them as he can respecting all the interior
arrangements to which they have been accustomed, what reading-books and
other text-books have been used, what are the principal classes in all
the several departmen