Assert Individuality
Personal freedom of action must for a time be surrendered by pupil to
teacher but it should be for limited time only. The impress of the
teacher's mind can be made upon the pupil in two seasons of study if it
can be at all. Perhaps most pupils receive all that the teacher can give
them in six months. As soon as they have that should they leave that
teacher? Not at all. They should then begin the use of their own
indivi
uality--letting it, little by little, assert itself. The
practical application of individuality should be as carefully attended
to as is any part of the pupil's education. Perhaps it should have more
attention. More than one, more than a thousand, every year wrecks her
good and great future by what we term wilfulness or waywardness. The
name is misapplied. The individuality is then asserting itself and it is
then that the pupil needs the skillful and firm hand of the master. The
keen clear judgment which comes from experience is worth to the pupil
more than the cost of many lessons. The life is planned then. It is a
time of bending the twig; the tree grows that way. The wrecking which is
so often seen arises because the pupil changes to a teacher who does
not understand the case. The new teacher must study it all over. Before
that can be done the pupil is spoiled and disappears, disappointed and
disgusted. Receive the personality of the teacher, pupils, but then
allow him to lead you onward as you bring out your own individuality.