nstruction 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. When she is making a
purchase at the shop, she finds the child standing at her elbow and
duplicating her order. When she is buying a picture, she is careful to
see to it that there are two copies, knowing that a second copy must be
provided for the child. When she is arranging her personal adornment, she
is conscious of the child peeping through the door and absorbing her with
languishing eyes.

=The status irrevocable.=--Wherever she goes or whatever she does, she
knows that the child is walking in her footsteps and reenacting her
conduct. Her status is irrevocably fixed in the life of the child, nor
can any philosophy or sophistry absolve her from the situation. She
cannot abdicate her place in favor of another, nor can she win immunity
from responsibility. She is the child's ideal for weal or woe, nor can
men or angels change this big fact. Through all the hours of the day she
hears the child saying, "Whither thou goest I will go," and there is no
escape.

=The child's viewpoint.=--This is no flight of fancy. Rather it is a
reality in countless schoolrooms of