68
Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
display a reckless indifference to the consequences of transgression.
All this will call for patience and forbearance and wisdom on the part
of those entrusted with the education of these youth.—
Counsels to
Parents, Teachers, and Students, 264
(1913).
A Course Which May Leave Irreparable Scars and Bruises—
A teacher may have sufficient education and knowledge in the sciences
to instruct, but has it been ascertained that he has tact and wisdom
to deal with human minds? If instructors have not the love of Christ
abiding in their hearts, they are not fit to bear the grave responsibil-
[82]
ities placed upon those who educate the youth. Lacking the higher
education themselves, they know not how to deal with human minds.
Their own insubordinate hearts are striving for control; and to subject
the plastic minds and characters of the children to such discipline is to
leave upon the mind scars and bruises that will never be removed.—
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 193
(1913).
The Finest Discrimination Required—The Lord has presented
to me, in many ways and at various times, how carefully we should
deal with the young—that it requires the finest discrimination to deal
with minds. Everyone who has to do with the education and training
of youth needs to live very close to the Great Teacher, to catch His
spirit and manner of work. Lessons are to be given which will affect
their character and lifework.—
Gospel Workers, 333
(1915).
Personal Element Essential—In all true teaching the personal
element is essential. Christ in His teaching dealt with men individually.
It was by personal contact and association that He trained the Twelve. It
was in private, often to but one listener, that He gave His most precious
instruction. To the honored rabbi at the night conference on the Mount
of Olives, to the despised woman at the well of Sychar, He opened
His richest treasures; for in these hearers He discerned the impressible
heart, the open mind, the receptive spirit. Even the crowd that so often
thronged His steps was not to Christ an indiscriminate mass of human
beings. He spoke directly to every mind and appealed to every heart.
He watched the faces of His hearers, marked the lighting up of the
countenance, the quick, responsive glance, which told that truth had
reached the soul; and there vibrated in His heart the answering chord
of sympathetic joy.—
Education, 231
(1903).
Overwork Unfits to Deal With Others—The teachers them-
selves should give proper attention to the laws of health, that they
[83]