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 Contents

Preface xii

CHAPTER 1 The Nature of Teaching 1

Teaching Looks Easy . . . from the Outside 2
Every Teacher Is Part of a System 3
Teachers and the Law 3
Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century 6
Local Influences on Teaching Today 8
Circles of Influence: Opportunities and Challenges 8
Teaching Is Goal Driven 10
Teaching Is More than Telling 11
There Is Agreement on What Teachers Need to Know and Be Able to Do 13
Teachers Can Be Effective and Yet Not Just Alike 16
Parting Words 17

CHAPTER 2 Developing Your Stance Toward Education 20

Three Curricula 22
Considering the Questions of Education 24
Conceptions of Education Found in Practice 25
Developing Your Stance 27
What Is the Good? Who Is the Good Person Living in the Good Society? 28
What Is the Purpose of Education? 28
What Should Everyone Learn? Why? 29
What Is the Nature of Learning? 30
What Is (Excellent) Teaching? 30
What Does School Do? 31
Using Your Stance 31
Parting Words 32

CHAPTER 3 Students and Families: Teambuilding 38

The (Nonexistent) Generic U.S. Classroom 39
Rough Terrain Ahead: Gaps and Inequities 40
Cultural Competence 42
Getting to Know Your Students and Families 42
Questioning Assumptions 43
Gathering Information about Students and Families 44
Working with Families 50
What We Know about Families and Schools 50
Start Now to Involve Families 52
Parting Words 55

vii
viii Contents

CHAPTER 4 Providing Inclusive and Responsive Instruction 58

Use Positive, Strength-Based Approaches 59
Treat Students as Individuals 60
Plan for All Students with Universal Design 60
Differentiate Instruction 61
Content 62
Process 62
Product 62
Use Varied Student Groupings 63
Grouping Decisions 64
Mixing It Up with Student Groups 66
Address Students’ Special Educational Needs 66
Some Statistics and Laws Related to Students with Identified Needs 66
Serving Students with Special Needs 68
Accommodate and Modify 68
Use Assistive Technology to Accommodate and Modify 69
Use Response to Intervention 70
Shelter English Instruction for English Language Learners 71
Language Acquisition 72
Teaching English Learners 72
Sheltered English Instruction 73
Challenge Gifted and Advanced Learners 75
Giftedness and Programs for Serving Gifted Learners 75
Meeting the Needs of Advanced and Gifted Learners 75
Foster Gender Equity 76
Create Safe Spaces 78
Parting Words 79

CHAPTER 5 Planning for Instruction 82

Standards-Based Planning 83
The Basics of Standards-Based Instruction 83
Standards-Based Instruction: Lessons Learned during the First Decades 83
The Development of Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards 84
Current Status of the Common Core: Compliments, Criticisms, and Concerns 84
Planning Starts with the Students 86
Goals Drive Planning 87
Kinds of Goals 88
Goals versus Objectives 90
Determining Goals 91
Planning to Use Instructional Resources 91
Textbooks 91
Rich Instructional Resources 93
Long-Range Planning 94
Yearlong Planning 96
Unit Planning 97
Weekly and Daily Schedules 100
Lesson Planning 100
Writing Objectives 103
Lesson Structure 104
Elements of a Lesson Plan 107
Parting Words 109

CHAPTER 6 Advice on Instruction: Come In 111

Connect 112
Connecting People 112
Connecting Ideas 114
 Contents ix

Connecting with Text 114

Connecting to the Outside World and Its Important Ideas 115
Connecting to Action 116
Organize Your Instruction 117
Organizing Content 118
Organizing Times and Tasks 119
Model 120
Enrich 122
Interact 123
Active Participation: Engagement and Progress Monitoring 125
Structured Interaction for Language Development 129
Physical Movement during Classroom Instruction 130
Consider Human Nature and Student Needs 130
Parting Words 131

CHAPTER 7 Instructional Models and Strategies 135

Classroom Questioning 136
Direct Instruction 139
Description of the Direct Instruction Model 139
Stages of the Direct Instruction Model 139
Strengths and Criticisms of Direct Instruction 140
Learning Cycle 142
Description of the Learning Cycle Model 143
Stages of the Learning Cycle Model 143
A Sample Learning Cycle Lesson 143
Concept Formation 146
Description of the Concept Formation Model 146
Stages of the Concept Formation Model 146
A Sample Concept Formation Lesson 146
Strengths and Criticisms of Inductive Strategies 148
Content Conversations 149
Description of the Content Conversation Model 149
Stages of the Content Conversation Model 150
Strengths and Criticisms of Content Conversations 153
Cooperative Learning 153
Description of the Cooperative Learning Model 153
Stages of the Cooperative Learning Model 154
A Sample Cooperative Learning Lesson 155
Strengths and Criticisms of the Cooperative Learning Model 155
Project-Based Learning 158
Description of the Project-Based Learning Model 158
Stages of the Project-Based Learning Model 159
A Sample Project-Based Learning Experience 160
Strengths and Criticisms of Project-Based Learning 161
Parting Words 163

CHAPTER 8 Student Assessment 170

Principles of Assessment 171
Using the Principles of Assessment in Your Grading 172
Assessment Basics 173
Different Assessments for Different Purposes 173
Norm- and Criterion-Referenced Assessments 174
Standardized and Local Assessments 174
Formative and Summative Assessments 174
x Contents

The Assessment Landscape 175

International Assessment Landscape 175
National- and State-Level Assessment Landscape 176
The School-Level Assessment Landscape 177
Classroom Assessment Step by Step 177
1. Choose Your Assessment Targets 178
2. Choose Your Assessment Strategies 180
3. Include Your Students 183
4. Employ Your Assessments and Analyze the Data 187
5. Use What You Learn 190
A Sampler of Assessments 190
Traditional Tests 190
Attitude Surveys 191
Products 191
Portfolios 191
Journals 191
Performance-Based Assessments 192
Teacher Observations 192
Interviews 192
Drawings and Diagrams 192
Graphic Organizers 192
Parting Words 193

CHAPTER 9 Managing the Learning Environment 196

Creating Community: Managing Classroom Ambience 197
Know Thyself 198
E Pluribus . . . 198
. . . Unum 199
Creating Community Using a Range of Strategies 199
Managing the Physical Space 201
Is It Productive? 202
Is It Efficient? 202
Managing Resources: The Stuff of Teaching 205
Information Flow 205
Digital Equipment 205
Communications 207
Managing Time 207
Maximizing Academic Learning Time 207
Noninstructional Routines 209
Instructional Management and Routines 211
Your Own Management Plan 214
Parting Words 220

CHAPTER 10 Classroom Discipline: Encouraging Appropriate Behavior 223

Classroom Discipline as One Piece of the Puzzle 224
Physician, Heal Thyself: Discipline Starts with You 224
How Understanding Yourself Helps You as a Disciplinarian 225
Finding Emotional Control in an Emotional Endeavor 225
Choosing Your Authority Base 226
The Goal Is Self-Discipline 227
Establishing a Climate That Promotes Independence 228
Addressing Behavior in Ways That Encourage Self-Control 228
The Key: A Structured, Consistent, Supportive Environment 232
1. Structure 232
2. High Expectations 232
3. Support 233
 Contents xi

4. Caring Communication 233

5. Clear Limits 233
6. Consistency 234
Relationships as Central 234
Establishing a Climate of Dignity and Respect 235
Responding to Behavior 236
Prevention, Not Reaction 237
1. Meaningful Curriculum and High Engagement 238
2. Motivation and Development 238
3. Anticipation 239
4. Positive Approach 240
5. Strong Presence and Nonverbal Communication 241
A Systems Approach 242
Group Size 243
Overlapping 243
Intensity of Response 244
Motivation for Misbehavior 246
Short-Term and Long-Term Redirection 247
Your Own Classroom Discipline Plan 248
Parting Words 251

CHAPTER 11 Growing in Your Profession 254

Engaging in the Professional Community 255
Becoming an Effective Staff Member 255
Growing from Feedback on Your Teaching 257
Pursuing Professional Development 258
Using Professional Ethics as Your Guide 260
Some Advice from the Heart 262

Glossary 266
References 272
Index 294
 Preface

By learning you will teach; by teaching you will learn.

—Latin Proverb

K–12 Classroom Teaching: A Primer for New Professionals is a core text for elementary and
secondary preservice teachers who are taking introduction to teaching courses, field experience
courses, or general methods courses. It is also a quick but thorough core text for inservice teach-
ers who are gaining certification at the same time they are beginning to teach. Instructors of
specialized methods courses or foundations of education courses will find this primer a useful
supplemental text.
K–12 Classroom Teaching presents research-based yet practical points of view that can
provide meaning and direction behind new teachers’ actions related to a number of central
educational issues. It uses clear, reader-friendly language to concisely explore key aspects of
classroom teaching, including 21st-century teaching and learning, strategies for learning about
students and their families, educational stances, planning and assessment, inclusive and respon-
sive instruction, instructional models and strategies, classroom management and discipline, and
professional growth. Chapters include a balance of up-to-date discussions of educational issues,
research findings, and practical advice. The selection and presentation of topics is guided by a
conceptual approach that emphasizes the active nature of learning to teach.

New to This Edition

The fifth edition of K–12 Classroom Teaching: A Primer for New Professionals responds to the
dynamic conditions teachers face today. A number of updates enhance the text:
New features support readers in making meaning. New features include outcomes for each
chapter—all aligned with major headings—and quick check items (with correct responses and
explanations of those responses) for each chapter outcome. Also new is the Watch and Think
feature, which includes links to videos and guiding questions, to explore and expand content in
every chapter.
The research and literature base has been thoroughly updated, and hundreds of new
­citations have been added. Included are recent trends such as national demographic shifts,
international and national assessment practices and results, Positive Behavior Interventions
and Support, ­bullying, and issues surrounding GLBTQ students and students with GLBTQ
­families. Research on effective instruction (instruction that is associated with achievement;
found throughout as in Chapters 1 and 6), instructional strategies and models (Chapter 7),
discipline (Chapter 9), and classroom management (in Chapter 10) are additional examples of
the updated research base. The focus on inclusive and responsive instruction—already clear
in the fourth edition—has been sharpened and deepened for today’s educational context.
Prevalent examples include treatment of student diversity including an exploration of del-
eterious practices such as segregation of schools and the differential experiences of students
based on positionalities such as race, ethnicity, special education status, and socioeconomic
status (Chapter 3). Also in Chapter 3 is more extensive treatment of cultural competence
and of teambuilding with students and families. Similarly, Chapter 4 includes treatment of
strength-based approaches in contrast to deficit-based thinking. Other examples are found in

xii
 Preface xiii

Chapter 9, which invites readers to link aspects of their own cultures to classroom manage-
ment, and in Chapter 10, which explores the role that student factors play in some teachers’
expectations and disciplinary approaches. Chapter 7 includes instructional models that are
responsive to today’s contexts. These include content conversations—or d­ iscussion—and
Project Based Learning.
The nature and implications of a rapidly changing digital world are captured throughout
this edition. For example Chapter 1 gives global trends about internet penetration and national
trends about how we use our technologies. It also addresses some of the legal implications con-
nected with teaching and learning with technology. Research on the effectiveness of varied digi-
tal teaching aids such as e-books and ubiquitous computing is found throughout the text, such
as in Chapter 5. The text and tip boxes both include updated technologies such as emergent
Web 2.0 tools and social media. Examples are found throughout the text, such as in Chapter 3’s
Teaching for Tomorrow Tip: “Using the Web to Stay in Touch” and Chapter 4’s tip, “Increasing
Accessibility Using Your Own Machine.” Promising directions in digital learning are addressed
across the text, including Chapter 6’s treatment of computer gaming.
Finally, recent and pressing changes to standards-based instruction and assessment have
been captured in this edition. Chapter 1 addresses the current status of No Child Left Behind and
its effects. Chapter 5 shares information on the development of the common core state standards
and the current status of implementation. Practical advice for incorporating the common core
into planning and practice is found throughout. For example, given the common core ­emphasis
on argumentation from text, Chapter 6 includes a section on “Connecting to Text,” along with an
illustrative figure. Dispositions, or ways of thinking, which are central to 21st century d­ emands
such as the 4cs and the common core, are also addressed in this edition. One example is the tip
in Chapter 5 that guides learners in developing their own list of dispositions: Define Your Habits
of Mind.

Conceptual Approach
K–12 Classroom Teaching: A Primer for New Professionals is based on the premise that teach-
ing is goal directed, interactional, and mindful of the local setting in its efforts to encourage
learners’ growth. Two core convictions are that classroom teaching is complex and that today’s
teachers face special difficulties given current demands and events at home and abroad. It takes
the conceptual approach that in the face of these challenging conditions, teachers at their best are
guided by:
• A commitment to understanding their particular students and placing students at the center
of every decision.
• A clear sense of what they hope to accomplish.
• An understanding of the context and of what research shows to be effective.
• A set of professional knowledge and skills.
• A sense of ethics concerning what is right.
• A sense of responsibility to value and enhance the learning of every student.
Building these dispositions, commitments, and understandings is hard work, so this text
approaches the process of learning to teach (and of learning in general) as an active, social
one. Through its content and through its approach, the text encourages readers to reflect on past
­experience, to question assumptions, to consider multiple sources of information, and to commit
to enacting well-defined notions of good practice that address learners’ diverse needs and honor
the dignity of the human experience.

Organization of the Text

Chapters are arranged topically, and content of later chapters draws from the work the reader
accomplishes in earlier chapters.
• In Chapter 1, the text begins with an exploration of the distinct character of classroom
teaching. Chapter 1 explores this character through six propositions of teaching that lay a
xiv Preface

foundation for the entire text through their content and their implications for each chapter’s
presentation of information. These propositions include:
1. Teaching looks easy . . . from the outside.
2. Every teacher is part of a system.
3. Teaching is goal driven.
4. Teaching is more than telling.
5. There is agreement on what teachers need to know and be able to do.
6. Teachers can be effective and yet not just alike.
• Chapter 2 stresses the importance of understanding the philosophical bases found in
educational practice and of developing one’s own stance toward education. Subsequent
chapters ask readers to use their stance to guide their decisions related to the chapters’
content.
• Chapter 3 explores the growing range of strengths and needs exhibited by students in U.S.
schools and urges new teachers to use knowledge of specific students and families as the
starting point for their instructional decisions. It encourages readers to begin teambuilding
with students and families immediately and to sustain their family-school partnerships as an
effort central to student success.
• Chapter 4 argues that, because students are the basis of our decisions, instruction must be
inclusive and responsive to the very wide range of student needs and interests we find in ev-
ery classroom. The chapter explores approaches that can respond to issues such as gender,
special educational needs, and English acquisition.
• Chapter 5 addresses instructional planning both in the long range and in the short term. It
guides teachers in making decisions about resources and student groupings and presents a
variety of unit planning approaches and standards-based lesson planning.
• Chapter 6 introduces six pieces of general advice for instruction using the mnemonic device
COME IN: Connect, Organize, Model, Enrich, Interact, and consider Nature and Needs. The
chapter argues that this advice can encourage rigorous learning through rich and ­purposeful
instruction.
• Chapter 7 shares instructional models and strategies and discusses the strengths and poten-
tial drawbacks of models such as questioning, direct instruction, and inquiry.
• Chapter 8 explores principles of assessment and offers a variety of assessment strategies in
keeping with those principles. It includes international and national perspectives and results
of student assessments.
• Chapter 9 addresses classroom management. It focuses on the importance of productive
relationships, structure, and proactive decision making.
• Chapter 10 focuses on classroom discipline and encouraging appropriate student behavior
in ways that respect students, prevent misbehavior, and encourage self-control.
• Finally, Chapter 11 addresses issues of professional involvement and growth for new
teachers.

Features of the Text

Readers and reviewers of earlier editions of K–12 Classroom Teaching commented positively
on a variety of the text’s characteristics, and those have been retained in the fifth edition.
They i­nclude the text’s condensed format, its readable style, its useful ideas, and its personal
approach.
In keeping with the text’s active approach to learning, a number of special features can also
be found throughout the text.
Warm-Up Exercises. Because past experience influences present learning, chapters b­ egin
with warm-up activities that help readers access their thinking related to major points
about to be explored.
Chapter Outcomes. To support readers’ mastery of the content, each chapter begins with a
list of outcomes that should guide work with the chapter.
 Preface xv

Quick Assessment Checks*. Each chapter contains objective questions that allow readers
to self-assess their mastery of chapter outcomes as they read.
Presentation of Information. Key concepts are presented in clear language. Figures are
often used to present information in a succinct format.
Watch and Think*. Chapters all include a set of video links along with guiding questions.
Interspersed throughout each chapter, the brief videos illustrate chapter content and ex-
tend thinking about current topics.
Teaching Tips. Plentiful practical classroom suggestions are placed in boxes throughout
each of the chapters. Readers find three types of tips: generic teaching tips, inclusive and
responsive teaching tips, and 21st-century teaching and learning tips.
Words from Teachers. The voices of previous readers, now teachers, offer advice and
writing samples that are presented in many chapters. Examples include advice for build-
ing community, encouraging student participation, structuring a productive learning en-
vironment, and pursuing financial literacy.
Parting Words. Rather than concluding with a traditional summary, chapters conclude
with some final words of advice related to the issues at hand.
Opportunities to Practice. Application exercises follow the content of each chapter. The
exercises are meant to extend readers’ connections with the content in a variety of ways
that directly relate to the world of the classroom.
Blank Forms. Opportunities to Practice exercises, along with many figures throughout the
text, provide for structured practice and application of the chapters’ key ideas. Examples in-
clude blank observation guides, lesson plan forms, and assessment and management plans.
Extending the Learning: Sites and Search Terms. Chapters close with web sites related
to the chapter’s content. Sites and search terms provide connections to professional or-
ganizations and instructionally related resources and materials. They provide ways for
­readers—new professionals—to join the grand conversation of education.

Supplements
An electronic instructor’s resource manual is available at www.pearsonhighered.com on the
Instructor’s Resource Center without cost to instructors using K–12 Classroom Teaching: A
Primer for New Professionals as part of their courses. The comprehensive instructor’s resource
manual includes the ­following components:
Chapter overview and key outcomes. An at-a-glance preview of the chapter and a listing of
some outcomes students should be able to demonstrate after reading the chapter.
Chapter outline and graphic organizer. Two different presentations of the chapter’s key
points.
Sample class activities. Activities that can be used to access readers’ prior knowledge,
­connect the text’s main points to their lives and practice, and extend their practice.
Test bank items. Assessment tasks and traditional test items.

Acknowledgments
I am grateful to my colleagues at California State University, Fullerton, and the surrounding
schools for their expertise and assistance in the development of this edition.
• Thanks to Kelly Donovan for developing graphic data displays, and thanks to Barbara
Finnell for her assistance with reviewing the research and developing quick check assess-
ment items.

*eText enhancements such as the Quick Assessment Checks and video clips are only available in the enhanced Pearson
eText, and not other third-party eTexts (such as CourseSmart and Kindle). To learn more about the enhanced Pearson
eText, go to www.pearsonhighered.com/etextbooks.
xvi Preface

• Thanks to colleagues who are current and former students—Anonymous, Philip Campos,
Veronica Chiarini, Brittany Even, David Garcia, Robin Mackie, Rhonda Morgenstern,
Dionne Sincire, and Dan Otter—for their willing contributions and insights into teaching
and learning.
• Thanks to Gail Luera at the University of Michigan, Dearborn for your review and feedback
of the fourth edition.
Thanks, too, to family members:
• My mom, LuAnn Berthel, who whose patience and friendship I value beyond measure.
• My boys—husband and sons—for friendship, support, and all they teach me. Thanks, too,
go to my sons for their contributions of art and for allowing me to tell stories.
Finally, thanks to my colleagues in the wider profession of education for their perspectives
and for the wisdom that continues to shape the evolution of this text.
• I appreciate the leadership of Meredith Fossel in understanding the culture of US education
today. Thanks go to Maria Feliberty, Susan Hannahs, and Cynthia DeRocco at Pearson for
their humanity and personal touch and production expertise.
• Thanks are in order, too, to the production team at Lumina Datamatics Ltd. I appreciate
Doug Bell and Murugesh Rajkumar Namasivayam, who were positive and supportive from
start to finish.
Note: The pronouns she, he, her, and his are used variously throughout the text to represent
­either teacher or student.
 1
The Nature of Teaching
Learning Outcomes
By the time you finish studying this chapter you should be able to do six things using the propositions on
teaching:

1. Explain why teaching is harder than popular perceptions might suggest.

2. Give a current legislative or societal example of how it is that teachers are part of a system.

3. Explain the major goal of teaching.

4. Argue that teaching is more than telling.

5. Give at least one source that defines good practice in teaching and one thing we know about
good teaching, according to that source.

6. Compare and contrast two effective teachers.

Before You Begin Reading

Learning is an active process. Your current beliefs, motivations, and goals will shape what you learn
as you interact with this text. Before you read, complete the following chart. What are your core con-
victions about teaching right now? For example, do you believe teachers make all the difference in
­learning? Next, record your goals as an educator. Why have you selected teaching? What do you hope to
accomplish? Learning is a process not only of adding to our knowledge stores but of also modifying or
discarding notions when necessary. Revise your work as you continue learning about your profession.

Warm-Up Exercise for the Nature of Teaching

My Core Convictions about Teaching
and Learning My Goals as a Teacher
2 Chapter 1

Children play school, spend many years as students in classrooms, and encounter countless
media images of teachers. As a result, by the time we reach adulthood, it is tempting to believe
that we know all there is to know about teaching. However, our earlier experiences with teach-
ing may not provide accurate information that helps us to teach well. What is teaching? How is
it different from other things people do? How does one teach well? The following six proposi-
tions help to distinguish teaching from other activities, combat common misconceptions about
­teaching, and guide us on the journey of learning to teach well.
1. Teaching looks easy . . . from the outside.
2. Every teacher is part of a system.
3. Teaching is goal driven.
4. Teaching is more than telling.
5. There is agreement on what teachers need to know and be able to do.
6. Teachers can be effective and yet not just alike.

Click here to assess your mastery

of Chapter Learning Outcome 1.1
Teaching Looks Easy . . . from the Outside
The prevailing perception is that teaching is simple (Good, 2014). The movies suggest that
nearly anyone can teach, and earning a teaching credential somehow doesn’t sound as daunt-
ing as the sleepless nights of a medical school residency. Also, current accountability demands
wrongly imply that improving schools and raising student achievement should be a straightfor-
ward matter (Berliner, 2013; Cochran-Smith, 2003; Good, 2014). In reality, the relationships
among factors like teaching, learning, and testing are often very complicated (Labaree, 2000).
Further, “Success at learning requires a combination of circumstances well beyond the actions
of a teacher” (Fenstermacher & Richardson, 2005, p. 191). Not until we examine the myriad of
factors that influence student learning, and not until we step in front of a classroom ourselves,
might we realize how difficult teaching can be. Perhaps it is for this reason that some student
teachers and interns become temporarily disillusioned when they begin their field experiences
(Goldstein, 2005).
Teaching is difficult partly because classrooms are complex (Douglas, 2009; Doyle, 1986).
First, teachers are required to serve in several roles. They need to serve as advocate (Kaplan,
2003), instructor, observer, evaluator, coach, activities director, supply master, tech support,

Teaching looks easy from

the outside

Source: Brenda Carson/Fotolia

 The Nature of Teaching 3

Teaching Tip Exit Cards

Use exit cards to quickly discover some things about what your students learn during your lessons. At the
close of a lesson, period, or day, distribute index cards or slips of paper and ask students to r­ espond to one
or two brief prompts such as, “List one thing you learned today,” “Solve for x,” or “What question do you
still have after today’s lesson?” Students leave the cards in a container by the door as their ticket out. Study
the cards quickly and start the next lesson by addressing the exit card results. If your students have mobile
devices, they can leave their virtual cards on a board like one created through Padlet, a free Web 2.0 tool.

and confidante, for instance. In their varied roles, teachers make many decisions about different
kinds of issues. Teachers make hundreds of decisions per day (Danielson, 1996). They need to
think about students’ safety, their learning, and their other needs simultaneously, all while they
also consider their own personal and professional issues.
Second, the number and rapidity of events make classrooms complex. Many things happen
at once, they happen quickly, and they tend to overlap (Good, 2014). Classroom teachers must
make quick judgments without time to reflect or weigh the consequences of their actions. Third,
although classrooms have common elements, every learning situation is different. Individual
learners’ experiences and needs affect the nature of the class. Students start the year in different
places academically and socially, have different interests and preferences, and go home to differ-
ent circumstances. The physical, sociocultural, and historical setting of the class varies as well.
Consequently, as teachers and their students spend time together, they build a shared and unique
history. Perhaps you have noticed this yourself if you and your classmates have laughed at an
inside joke, one that only the people in your particular class could appreciate.
A fourth way in which classrooms are complex is that, because people affect each other, the act
of teaching is inherently uncertain (Helsing, 2007; Labaree, 2000). It is difficult for even an expe-
rienced teacher to predict with certainty how a class will respond to a lesson. Classrooms are also
unpredictable because as teachers we may pursue goals that are unclear, our base of a­ uthority may
be in question, and we are usually unsure of the outcomes of our efforts, especially long-range out-
comes (Jackson, 1986). Although the desire to touch the future is a strong draw for many t­eachers
(Eisner, 2006), we are often left uncertain about the effects of our efforts (Good, 2014). What hap-
pens to students after they leave us? What did they learn? Did they learn because of us or in spite of
us? The Teaching Tip gives a quick strategy to discover what students learn from day to day.
Finally, teaching is complex because it reaches into time both before and after face-to-
face interaction with students. It requires preparation, and it requires reflection and revision.
As a result, many teachers feel like their work is never finished (Lindqvist & Nordänger, 2006).
Because classrooms are complex, it takes years to master the craft of teaching (Berliner, 2004;
Cuban, 2010). Both careful study and reflective experience are necessary.
Though public attention on teaching and on student performance is high, few people wit-
ness the day-to-day conditions under which teachers are expected to encourage learning and to
manage the complexity of the classroom. Further, classroom complexity is compounded because
classrooms exist as part of a larger system.

Click here to assess your mastery

of Chapter Learning Outcome 1.2
Every Teacher Is Part of a System
No teacher is an island. Closing the classroom door does not seal away outside influences.
­Instead, a teacher serves at the center of a set of nested circles of influence, as shown in
­Figure 1.1. Imagine an archery target. You, the teacher, are in the bull’s-eye, and the outermost
ring contains society in the broadest sense. What happens in your society and in the world ­affects
your classroom daily. Let’s explore a couple of societal expectations and influences that affect
teachers and students—the demands of the where and the when of teaching and learning today.

Teachers and the Law

As a teacher, you are expected to act in ways that are consistent with the rules and goals of the
place you live: your society. In addition to the rules that guide our actions as citizens, laws gov-
ern many aspects of your behavior and professional practice as a teacher. Many laws affecting
4 Chapter 1

Figure 1.1 Circles of influence that affect classroom teachers.

Broadest Setting:
• Laws?
• Cultural expectations?
• Prized attributes?
• Professional
recommendations?
• Current events?

You State and District:

• Expectations for teachers?
Your Classroom of • State standards?
Learners • Prized knowledge, skills, and
abilities?
Teaching and
Learning
Interactions
Local Setting:
• Learner characteristics?
• Family experiences and
goals?
• Community issues?

teachers are summarized in Figure 1.2. In our increasingly digital world, it is important to note
that legal principles that hold true in face-to-face settings also hold true for many online issues.
Examples include freedom of speech and restrictions upon it, adequate supervision, and due
process (Conn, 2002).
A sweeping example of legislative action on classroom practice is the federal No Child
Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. A reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Educa-
tion Act, NCLB was motivated by persistent disparities in student achievement—achievement
gaps—between the performance of U.S. students overall and subgroups of the population such
as minority students, students with disabilities, and students whose families face poverty. The act
sought to improve student achievement and increase school accountability for that achieve-
ment. Its major requirements include:
• Development by all states of student content standards
• Annual assessment of students in grades 3 through 8 (and once in high school) to determine
proficiency in mathematics and reading in line with content standards
• Measurement of all school districts for adequate yearly progress (AYP) and continuous
improvement based on this AYP benchmark
• Meeting of AYP for each of nine student subgroups (based on factors such as ethnicity,
physical disability, and poverty)
• Requirement for all schools to have highly qualified teachers
NCLB has changed our classrooms dramatically, and its effects are hotly debated. Some
benefits include (Center on Education Policy, 2006):
• Concerted efforts to align content standards (goals), instruction, and assessment
• Better use of student assessment data to plan instruction and meet student needs
• Increased student achievement on state tests, including the achievement for students with
disabilities (Aarons, 2009) and increased transparency for the progress of students placed at
risk (Duncan, 2013).
 The Nature of Teaching 5

Figure 1.2 Teachers and the law.

1. Public schools must not promote worship. Schools may teach about religion if the intent is not to worship.
If a public school allows some groups to meet there, it must provide equal access and allow religious-
based groups (such as religious clubs) to meet there as well. The groups cannot be school sponsored
(Alexander & Alexander, 2005).
Students cannot be required to salute the flag if their religious convictions or matters of conscience (in
some states) prohibit it (Fischer, Schimmel, & Kelly, 1999).
2. Academic freedom has limits. Education is a marketplace of ideas (Alexander & Alexander, 2005).
Teachers are permitted to address contro versial topics and use controversial methods if they are
educationally defensible, appropriate for the students, and are not disruptive. School boards have
authority to set curriculum and methods.
3. Teachers’ private activities must not impair their teaching effectiveness. Although teachers hold the same
rights as other citizens, their conduct is held to a higher standard. When teachers’ private lives weaken
their classroom effectiveness, it is possible that they may be dismissed. Sexual relationships with
students are cause for dismissal (Fischer et al., 1999).
4. Students have rights to due process. Teachers’ and schools’ rules and procedures must be fair and
reasonable, and justice must be administered even handedly. Due process is important for such issues
as search and seizure, suspension, and expulsion (McCarthy, Cambron-McCabe, & Thomas, 1998).
Families of students with disabilities have additional due process procedures related to special education
services (Fischer et al., 1999).
5. Teachers must not use academic penalties to punish behavior. Students’ academic grades cannot be
lowered as a result of disciplinary infractions. Students must be allowed to make up work that
accumulates during suspensions or other disciplinary periods (McCarthy et al., 1998).
6. Corporal punishment must not be misused. Fewer than half the states allow corporal—or physical—
punishment (Underwood & Webb, 2006). In states where it is allowed, corporal punishment must be
delivered while the teacher is not in a state of anger, it must fit the crime and the student’s age and
condition, and it must not lead to permanent injury or run the risk of such (McCarthy et al., 1998).
Disciplinary actions that serve to humiliate a child may be illegal too.
7. Teachers must protect children’s safety. Teachers must act in place of the parents (Alexander &
Alexander, 2005), providing prudent, reasonable supervision to protect children from har m. They can be
held negligent if they do not do so.
Teachers and schools can protect children’s safety by establishing and enforcing rules pertaining to
safety and by providing prudent, reasonable care in their supervision (Fischer et al., 1999).
8. Teachers must not slander or libel their students. Teachers must say and write only things about students that
they know objectively to be true. Even confidential files must not contain statements that demean a student’s
character, background, or home life. Statements should be based on relevant observable behavior (Fischer
et al., 1999). Teachers must share information only with personnel who have a right to such information.
9. Teachers must copy instructional materials in accordance with copyright laws. The reproduction without the
author’s permission of copyrighted instructional materials, including print sources, visual images, videos,
and computer software, is restricted to conditions of fair use. Conn (2002) states that “fair use” is
determined based on the totality of four factors: brevity, spontaneity, limited in cumulative effect, and
inclusion of copyright notice. Teachers may not make copies to replace collected works, nor may they
make copies of consumable materials. Teachers should consider materials found on the World Wide Web to
be copyright protected, unless the materials state that they are public domain.
10. Teachers must report suspected child abuse. All states require teachers to report suspected physical or
sexual abuse, and no state requires cer tainty, only reasonable cause to believe that abuse is present
(Fischer et al., 1999). If the state requires teachers to report suspected abuse to an agency, then a
teacher’s report to a principal or district does not satisfy the agency requirement; the teacher must also
report to the agency (Underwood & Webb, 2006).
11. Teachers need to know the law. Ignorance is no excuse.
12. Teachers should be aware of emerging legal issues. One is educational malpractice, which can be either
instructional (wherein students fail to learn) or professional (wherein school personnel misdiagnose,
provide improper placements, or misadvise students) (Underwood & Webb, 2006). Placement negligence,
where students receive inappropriate placement in instructional programs such as those pertaining to
special education (McCarthy, et al., 2014).
Sources: Alexander & Alexander (2005); Conn (2002); Fischer, Schimmel, & Kelly (1999); McCarthy, Cambron-McCabe, & Thomas (2014);
­McDaniel (1979); Schimmel, Stellman, & Fischer (2010); and Underwood & Webb (2006).
6 Chapter 1

A growing number of analyses (e.g., Berliner, 2013; National Research Council, 2011),
however, do not support a lessening of achievement differences. The National Assessment of
Education Progress, or NAEP, assesses student progress across the fifty states. Study scores by
searching “NAEP ” at the Nation’s Report Card site and viewing the long-term trend data. There
you will see, for instance, that mathematics scores for 17-year-olds have varied by only three
points between 1992 and 2012 (National Assessment Education Progress, 2012). And nearly
one half of the nation’s schools failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in 2010–2011
(­Center on Educational Policy, 2012). Critics of NCLB condemn its assumptions (Rose, 2004),
and many point to deleterious practices and effects associated with NCLB such as the following:
• The narrowing of the school curriculum—namely, to reading/language arts and mathemat-
ics (Berliner, 2009; Beveridge, 2010).
• A restriction of recess time, despite its cognitive, social, and health benefits (Pellegrini &
Bohn, 2005).
• A lack of attention to students whose performance is perceived as less crucial for attain-
ing targeted percentages of students deemed proficient. Such groups may include high-­
achieving students (Fordham Institute, 2008) and students whose performance is so low
that they are unlikely to meet proficiency requirements even with academic interventions
(Booher-Jennings, 2006).
• “Gaming” practices wherein personnel focus on meeting achievement targets rather than on
fostering student learning (Booher-Jennings, 2006; Rose, 2004).
• Lower teacher morale (Roller, n.d.), particularly in schools deemed high poverty
(­Byrd-Blake, Afolayan, Hunt, Fabunmi, Pryor, & Leander, 2010).
In fact, some researchers now conclude that incentive programs based on high-stakes test-
ing, like NCLB, are failed policy (Berliner, 2013; National Research Council, 2011). In 2011,
the Obama administration provided relief to certain accountability provisions of the NCLB Act
in order to reenergize districts aiming to improve schools at the local level, through adoption of
innovations such as college- and career-ready standards (U.S. Department of Education, 2011).
Forty-five states and entities requested waivers (U.S. Department of Education, 2013). Through
NCLB and other laws and expectations, society influences classrooms deeply.

Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century

The when of teaching—the historical context—also shapes classrooms. Events change us. Imag-
ine for a moment how different life is for Americans since the horrific events of September 11,
2001, or of the school-based acts of violence such as the appalling 2012 shootings at Sandy
Hook Elementary School. Though rare, these events have shaped policies and procedures in
schools, and they have affected the outlooks of many students and their families. We are a differ-
ent people now.
Trends, too, matter. Our century—the 21st century—is one of globalization, regional econo-
mies, and connectivity. We have shifted from an industry-based society to an information-based
one. Some telling examples of technology usage include such bits as:
• Thirty-four percent of the world’s population has access to the Internet. That’s a 566 per-
cent increase from 2010 to 2012 (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2014).
• Africa has the most dramatic recent increase in Internet penetration: a 3,607 percent growth
between 2010 and 2012. That means that nearly 16 percent of Africans are online. Second
in growth in Internet penetration is the Middle East; 40 percent of people in the Middle East
had the Internet as of 2012 (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2014).
• Americans’ use of social networking services, such as Twitter, has doubled in recent years
(to 69 percent of the Internet crowd), and there is a sharp increase of social networking for
political or social purposes (Smith, 2013).
Indeed, we live technology-soaked lives. More than three-quarters of people in the United
States have access to the Internet at home (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2014; U.S. Census
Bureau, 2010). According to a Pew survey, three-quarters of our teens have cell phones, and one-
quarter of them own smartphones (Lenhart, 2012). Teens use those phones to send an average of
sixty text messages per day. Not to be outdone, the average preschooler spends approximately
 The Nature of Teaching 7

fifty minutes on a home computer each day (Vandewater, Rideout, Wartella, Huang, Lee, &
Shim, 2007). Today’s students are thus often considered digital natives (Prensky 2001,
2005–2006) who have grown up wired.
The influence of technology in our society is indeed fierce and pervasive, and some foresee
that the rate of change fueled by technology will continue to increase and result in an unpredict-
able future. Such a future requires that our students possess a broad range of flexible skills. For
example, a national organization, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2009, p. 5) states,
“People in the 21st century live in a technology and media-suffused environment, marked by
various characteristics, including: 1) access to an abundance of information, 2) rapid changes
in technology tools, and 3) the ability to collaborate and make individual contributions on an
unprecedented scale. To be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to
exhibit a range of functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media and tech-
nology.” See the Teaching for Tomorrow Tip for more on 21st-century outcomes.
Do schools have the technology tools to meet 21st-century challenges? Basic compo-
nents seem to be in place. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2010a),
in 2009 virtually all public schools had computers with Internet access in their classrooms,
and the ratio of students to computers was 3.1 to 1. Current concerns now focus on the avail-
ability of high-speed broadband and wireless Internet connections and on the mobile devices
that can make use of these connections (Cohen & Livingston, 2013). Further, students who
attend the lowest-income schools continue to be less likely to have appropriate access to
digital tools and the Internet, according to a survey of their teachers (Purcell, Heaps,
Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013).
One-to-one computing programs, where every student uses a laptop computer or tab-
let regularly, show potential for many positive outcomes (Holcomb, 2009). Some critics
do, though, remain skeptical about expenses and effects of 1:1 computing (Cuban, 2006).
­Students are increasingly drawn to online instruction, which offers flexible scheduling and
connects them with learners from all over the world. In 2013, twenty-seven states had virtual
schools for K–12 students, and one state (Florida) offered online learning opportunities to all
of its students (Watson, Murin, Vashaw, Gemin, & Rapp, 2013). Clearly, the 21st century and
its ubiquitous technology affect who we teach, what we teach, and how we teach today, with
more change in sight.

Teaching for Tomorrow Tip

21st-Century Learning Outcomes

Some organizations have specified standards for 21st-century learners. For one set, search for the Partnership for 21st Century
Learning and read their ideas about essential skills for the 21st century. Familiarize yourself with the framework, exploring the four
major student outcomes (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009):
1. Core subjects (such as mathematics) and 21st-century themes (such as global awareness and health literacy)
2. Learning and innovation skills
3. Information, media, and technology skills
4. Life and career skills
After the release of the Partnership for 21st Century Learning’s framework, core ideas were distilled to outcomes that best
embody 21st-century learning. The result is the four c’s: critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration (National
Education Association, n.d.) Visit NEA’s site to download their guide for implementing the four c’s. Which “c’s” would you add to
the list? Some suggest “curiosity” or “compassion.”
According to the American Association of School Librarians’ (2007, p. 3) Standards for the 21st Century Learner, “Learners use
skills, resources, and tools to:
1. Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.
2. Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.
3. Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.
4. Pursue personal and aesthetic growth.”
Visit these standards at the Association’s Web site.
8 Chapter 1

Local Influences on Teaching Today

By moving toward the center of the target in Figure 1.1, you travel through rings that represent
increasingly local and specific settings. The settings found in these rings often have narrower and
more explicitly defined purposes and expectations. For example, states—or state collaboratives in
the case of the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards—
develop content standards across the curriculum, and these standards influence state and local
textbook adoptions, professional development activities for teachers, and learning opportunities
for students. Community conditions, traditions, and events provide more local influences.
People, too, offer a variety of local influences. One integral group of people is the family.
Effective teachers respond to the values and dreams of the families they serve and make use of
the resources offered by families and their communities (Farmer-Hinton, Lewis, Patton, & Riv-
ers, 2013; Gonzalez, Andrade, Civil, & Moll, 2001; Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005). In fact,
research consistently links effective family involvement programs with increased student achieve-
ment and other positive outcomes (e.g., Jeynes, 2005; Sheldon & Epstein, 2005). Others who
affect new teachers include their colleagues, administrators, and the experienced educators—
mentors—who supervise their growth and represent the interests and values of the profession.

Circles of Influence: Opportunities and Challenges

The relationships among circles of influence (Figure 1.1) are dynamic and often riddled with
tension and dilemma. Throughout history, the interactions among rings have frequently been
emotionally, culturally, and politically charged. Which influences should receive priority? How
do we as teachers manage demands and priorities from different sources and levels, especially
when they compete? What are the opportunities and constraints offered by the many sources of
influence? Questions such as these require us to consider—and reconsider—carefully the role of
schooling in our society.
Sources of influence in the various rings offer many opportunities: The United States is a
wealthy nation and has an estimated literacy rate of 99 percent (Central Intelligence Agency,
2013). We are leaders in fields such as technology and medical innovations. These are potentially
positive sources of influence. However, sources of influence also offer constraints. Although the
United States is a wealthy nation, we find huge disparities in wealth—some say the largest dis-
parities in the Western world (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010)—and opportunities to learn (Reardon,
2011). Berliner (2006) indicates that students who face poverty face more severe health issues,
lower academic achievement, and diminished life chances. Kozol’s work (1991, 2000, 2005)
documents the experiences of students who experience institutionalized racism in unsafe and
understocked urban schools. Students in many urban and less affluent suburban schools, Kozol
reports, can expect funding rates half those of nearby affluent schools. Less than fully quali-
fied teachers still disproportionately inhabit high-poverty, high-minority schools (Akiba, LeTen-
dre, & Scribner, 2010; National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, 2009). Students
from low-income families continue to have diminished opportunities to learn (Camburn & Han,
2011), and reports (e.g., Fordham Foundation, 2006) suggest that current reform efforts have
done little to raise achievement for the students who need us most. Paige and Witty (2010), in
that vein, argue that the black-white achievement gap is the greatest civil rights issue of our time.
As another example of disparity, despite the prevalence of technology in our society at large,
some of our students view each other across a digital divide. In the first decade of the 21st cen-
tury, white students were more likely to use the Internet at home than were African-­Americans
or Latinos, and families with higher incomes and educational attainments were also more likely
to use technology (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). Latino immigrants were the least likely to have
computer access (Fairlie, London, Rosner, & Pastor, 2006). Recent research indicates that digi-
tal disparities are shrinking, but these gaps still exist (e.g., File, 2013). Digital disparities are
found in public schools as well. For example, a Florida study shows that students who attend
low-socioeconomic schools have significantly less access to digital resources in every regard
(Hohlfeld, Ritzhaupt, Barron, & Kemker, 2008). A recent survey of teachers indicates that U.S.
students of low-income families continue to have less access to fast Internet and digital tools at
school (Purcell, Heaps, Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013). In sum, even though the United States is
a rich country, patterns of inequity exist, and those patterns affect what happens in classrooms
and in the lives of our students—in and out of school.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Modo reges atque tetrarchas,
Omnia magna, loquens; modo “sit mihi mensa tripes, et
Concha salis puri, et toga, quæ defendere frigus,
Quamvis crassa, queat ——.”

In short—in manner, in language, in business, and in pleasure, he sets an

admirable example of mutability, which we shall always make it our study
to imitate—especially when we take up our pens.
Of Sir Wilfrid’s nephew and heir we shall here say nothing, as his
character has been elsewhere noticed by another hand, under the name of
Arthur Clavering. We pass on, therefore, to the Baronet’s maiden sister,
Lady Rachel Weathercock, who is nowise deficient in the peculiarities for
which her family is remarkable. Lady Rachel has now attained her fiftieth
year; the caprices and follies of her youth have gradually subsided; and, in
many points, she has become more stationary than a Weathercock ought to
be. Her character, however, is just saved by one little ingredient, by which a
person who is unacquainted with her habits may be not a little puzzled.
Lady Rachel is an inveterate reader, an inveterate talker, and an inveterate
arguer. You might therefore suppose that few subjects could be started upon
which the lady would not ground a dispute; but it is no such thing. Her
ladyship possesses such a delightful pliability of opinion, that it is hardly
possible to differ from her upon any topic. We have heard her advocate and
abuse every school of painting or poetry in almost immediate succession.
She combats to-day the very opinions she maintained yesterday; yet, upon
the first semblance of a contradiction, she veers round forthwith, and proves
herself a more accommodating antagonist, if possible, than the Neapolitans.
Mr. Oakley was three hours in conversation with her; and though the burden
of his song was No, No, No, he was unable to pick a quarrel. Like Sir
Robert Bramble and Job, “they couldn’t disagree—and so they parted.”
The only remaining member of the family is Sir Wilfrid’s niece. How
delightful is your mutability, charming Leonora! You are like a chess-board
which is checquered with black and white squares alternately; or a
melodrama, in which the tears of Tragedy are relieved by the follies of
Farce; or a day in April which blends rain with sunshine, summer with
winter; or the Etonian, in which the serious is united with the absurd, and
pathos is intermingled with puns. What a wardrobe must be yours! To-day
you assume the costume of the victim Mary—to-morrow that of the
executioner Elizabeth; you put off the diamonds of the queen for the
garland of the peasant, the curls of the coquette for the veil of the nun. Your
voice has a thousand tones; your lips have a thousand smiles—all of them
distinct, yet all of them engaging! You are always the same, yet always
varying; consistent only in your inconsistency! Be always so! We will build
a fane in the most beautiful region of Fancy, where no two flowers shall
wear the same hue, no two days be of the same length or temperature: light
gales shall breathe from all points of the compass by turns, and clear
streams shall vary their course every hour; stability shall be sacrilege—and
Leonora shall be the Goddess of the Temple.
 GOLIGHTLY’S ESSAY ON BLUES.

A FRAGMENT.
Lady Dabble is a True Blue. She is a meddler in literature of every sort and
description. Poetry and prose, pamphlets and plays, sermons and satires,
overtures and odes—all are her hobbies, all are the objects of her patronage,
all are subjects of her harangues. At her house is the synod held: where
criticism and tea are poured out together, where sweet sugar and sweeter
sonnets melt in delicious unison. It is delightful to spend a few hours at
Lady Babble’s conversazione. All inferior wits and witlings flit around her
like twinkling stars; while her ladyship, with her full-moon face—but it
strikes us that this is a very old simile.
Of all Blues we think the Light Blue is our favourite. Mark the
surprising difference which exists between Emilia, the Light Blue, and her
sister Sophia, the Dark Blue. Sophia is a fine vessel, properly supplied with
everything requisite for a long voyage; but a villanous slow sailer. Emilia is
the same vessel, but certainly it has thrown out a vast quantity of ballast. To
speak in plainer language, Sophia talks learnedly, and puzzles you; Emilia
talks learnedly, and amuses you; the latter sets you a laughing, and the
former sends you to sleep. A good painter will select for his picture only the
most agreeable parts of the landscape which lies before him; a good talker
will notice the more pleasing points of his subject, while he will throw aside
the tedious. But, alas! Emilia will describe a statue, while Sophia is treating
of a finger; and the Light Blue will analyse the “Iliad,” while the Dark Blue
is discussing the Digamma.
Fannia is a fair one, who endeavours to unite the extreme of fashionable
dress with the extreme of unfashionable Blue-ism. Mr. Hodgson made a vile
pun (as usual) when he denominated her a Blue Belle.
The only remaining Blue of whom we shall here make mention is Eva,
the Sky-Blue. The habit of talking sentiment, in which the Sky-Blue
commonly indulges, is in general sufficiently annoying; but in the person of
Eva, far be it from us to apply to it such an epithet. Eva is always in heroics:
she never speaks a sentence which is not fit to go into a German romance.
All this sits very well upon youth and beauty, but in age and ugliness it is
insufferable. Eva has a pretty pair of blue eyes, a finely polished neck, an
enchanting white arm, and a voice withal, which is never heard but in a
whisper, an aria, or a sigh. She has, in short, such a talent at turning our
brains, that our Secretary has not inappositely styled her “Blue Ruin.”
 OLD BOOTS.

“Whose conceit
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound
’Twixt his stretched footing and the scaffoldage.”
Shakespeare.

Ι have got a pair of old boots.

I bought them at Exeter last summer, and they withstood all the malice
of Devonshire paviours in a most inconceivable style. The leather was of a
most editorial consistency, and the sole resembled a quarto. It was in them
that I revisited the desolate habitation of my infancy; it was their heavy
clanging sound which echoed through those deserted apartments. It was in
them, too, that I tottered upon the perilous summit of the Ness; and it was in
them that I got wet to the knees in the disagreeable tempest which waited
upon the Dawlish regatta. How many pleasant moments, how many dear
friends, do they recall to my recollection! It was with their ponderous
solidity that I astonished the weak nerves of one, and trod upon the weak
toes of another. Every inch of them, old and emeriti as they are, is pregnant
with some delightful, some amiable sensation. It was in them that I
excogitated the first number of the Etonian—they shall live to look upon
the last! I cannot say they were ever very elegant in shape or texture. Like
the genius of my friend Swinburne, they possessed more intrinsic strength
than outward polish. They served me well, however, and travelled with me
to town.
I happened to put them on one wet morning in April. Whatever form or
fashion they formerly boasted was altogether extinct; they were as
shapeless as an unlicked cub, and as dusky as a cloud on a November
morning. I beheld their fallen appearance with some dismay. “I shall be
stared at,” I said; “I had better take them off!” But I thought of their former
services, and resolved to keep them on.
They had brought their plated heels from the country, and they made a
confounded noise upon the pavement as I walked along. Ding, dong, they
went at every step, as if I carried a belfry swung at my toes. “This is a
disagreeable sort of accompaniment,” I said. “I had better dismiss the
musicians.” Just at that moment a young baronet passed me, attended by a
fine dog. The dog was in high spirits, and made rather too much noise for
the contemplative mood of his master. “Silence, Cæsar! Be quiet, Cæsar!”
No, it was all in vain, and Cæsar was kicked into the gutter. “That was
cruel!” I said, “to dismiss an old servant, because he was a note too loud! I
think I will keep my boots!”
I walked in the Park with Golightly. By the side of my stable footcase his
neat and dapper instep cut a peculiarly smart figure; it was a Molossus tête-
à-tête with a Pyrrhic; an Etonian’s skiff moored alongside of a coal-barge.
Golightly’s meditations seemed to be of the same cast; he once or twice
turned his eyes to the ground, as I thought with no very complacent aspect.
“My friends grow ashamed of me,” I said to myself; “I must part with my
boots!” As I made up my mind to the sacrifice, Lady Eglantine met us, with
her husband. She was constantly looking another way, nodding familiarly to
the young men she met, and endeavouring to convince the world how
thoroughly she despised the lump of earth which she was obliged to drag
after her. “There is a woman,” said Frederick, “who married Sir John for his
money, and has not the sense to appear contented with the bargain she has
made. What can be more silly than to look down thus upon a man of
sterling worth, because he happened to be born a hundred miles from the
metropolis?” “What can be more silly?” I repeated inwardly; “I will never
look down on my boots again!”
We continued our walk, and Golightly began his usual course of
strictures upon the place and the company. Hurried away by the constant
flow of jest and wildness with which he embellishes his sketches, I soon
forgot both the boots, which had been the theme of my reflections, and the
moral lessons which the subject had produced. There was an awkward stone
in the way! Oh my unfortunate heels! I broke down terribly, and was very
near bringing my companion after me. I rose, and went on in great dudgeon.
“This will never do,” I muttered; “this will never do! I must positively
cashier my boots!” I looked up: an interesting girl was passing, leaning on
the arm of a young man, whose face I thought I recognized. She looked pale
and feeble; and, when my friend bowed to her with unusual attention, she
seemed embarrassed by the civility. “That is Anna Leith,” said Golightly;
“she made an imprudent match with that young man about a year ago, and
her father has refused to see her ever since. Poor girl! She is in a rapid
decline, and the remedies of her physicians have no effect upon a broken
spirit. I would never cast off a beloved object for a single false step!”
“I will keep my boots,” I exclaimed: “though they make a thousand!”
 ON THE DIVINITIES OF THE ANCIENTS.
To a person inquiring into the manners and customs of ancient nations, the
religion which they professed and the gods which they worshipped will
always appear objects of the greatest curiosity. And this will not be
wondered at when we remember how intimately the religion of a State must
necessarily be connected with its civil policy. In former times, when
ignorance and superstition flourished side by side, the aid of a divinity was
required for the carrying into effect of the most frivolous designs. No poem
could succeed until the Muses were called upon in a well-rounded
hexameter, no war could prosper until Mars was propitiated by a sufficiency
of roast beef. The ancients appear to have had some faint idea of the
ubiquity of the Deity; but, not comprehending how such a faculty had been
vested in a single divinity, they formed to themselves a set of superior
powers, calculated to attend upon every emergency, from Jupiter, the god of
thunder, to Tussis, the god of coughing. It is therefore evident that the
consideration of the religious ideas of the ancients must be inseparably
united with the study of the other parts of their history.
In the remarks which I am about to make upon this subject, I must
request that one or two preliminaries may be kept in mind. First, that the
characters of the constant supporters of the Etonian may not be implicated
in the blunders of an occasional correspondent; and, secondly, that I may
not be understood as endeavouring to compose a regular essay or treatise
upon the topic which is before me. I have no more the inclination than I
have the ability to attempt such a task. The observations which I shall have
occasion to make will be merely the unripe fruit of an hour of leisure;
merely a few unconnected hints, thrown out at random for your amusement,
Mr. Editor, and that of my fellow-citizens. If they are pleased with them,
they will thank me, and I am sufficiently repaid: if not—n’importe—they
will at least give me credit for good intentions.
The first point which I shall notice is the opinion which the ancients
entertained of the power and authority of their heavenly rulers. And as the
study of fallen religions is principally useful as it shows to us the
superiority of that religion which can never fall, let us first see upon what
footing Christianity stands in this respect. In my eyes, and in the eyes of
every one upon whom the light of revelation has dawned, the mention of a
God presupposes an idea of infinite, irresistible, indisputable power. One
cannot form the most remote conception of a deity whose powers or
existence should be in any way limited. One of the distinguishing attributes
of Christianity is that with its God nothing is impossible. He is omniscient,
omnipresent, omnipotent. Can we say the same of the gods of the heathen
—“the gods of wood and stone, the work of men’s hands?”
Alas! alas! They raised ghosts, and they raised tempests; they scolded,
and they thundered; they drank nectar, and drove doves: but when anything
serious was to be done—when a battle was to be decided, or an empire
overthrown, they were frequently as powerless to slay or to save as the
sceptre which they wielded or the cloud which they bestrode. Let us call
before us some of the most formidable, and examine into their pretensions
to Olympus.
Come down, then, Jupiter, from the little pedestal on which I have placed
your plaster effigy! Come down, father of men and gods, counsel-giving,
wide-thundering, cloud-compelling! Come down, thou who overthrowest
the Titans and abusest thy wife; thou who art so fond of the voice of prayer
and the smoke of hecatombs; thou who hast so many epithets and so many
sons; thou who governest Olympus and meritest Bridewell! Where are thy
frowns and thy nods? thy muscles and thy sinews? thy darts and thy
decrees? Where are the looks which appal—the blows which destroy?
Where is the unbroken chain—the insatiable vulture? Where are the
Cyclopes who forge the lightning, and the poets who forge the Cyclopes?
Alas! Jupiter, amidst all thy terrors, in heaven or on Ida, in feasting or in
wrath, in poetry or in prose, thou wert a quack, Jupiter, a most contemptible
quack; so utterly destitute of everything that could ensure respect; so
miserably deficient in everything that could inspire fear; such a pitiful
compound of ignorance and knowledge, of strength and imbecility, of
vanity and vice—that if the days of thy sovereignty could return again—if
thou couldst again be fed upon sacrifice and flattery, I swear by thine own
beard I would as soon be an Irus as a Jupiter.
The truth is that the religion of the ancients, as far as it can be collected
from their writings, partook in no small degree of predestination. Yet it is
enveloped in so much obscurity, that it is very difficult for us—nay, it might
have been very difficult for them—to define where the supremacy of fate
should stop and the authority of the gods commence. We find some
unfortunate divinity perpetually endeavouring to overthrow some State
which is destined to stand, or to destroy some hero who is destined to live;
although the said divinity has an innate perception that his struggles in
either instance must eventually be fruitless. I know that these ideas may be
said to be founded solely on the marvellous fictions of the poets; but, let me
ask, would Diomedes have ever inflicted a wound upon Mars, if Homer had
seen in Mars a formidable being? or would Juno have ever strutted and
stormed through the Æneid, if Virgil had cared a sixpence for her
displeasure? When I see these liberties taken with the gods in writing, I feel
convinced that equal liberties will be taken with them in life; when I find an
immortal and an invincible being knocked on the head or run through the
belly at the mercy of a terrestrial wit, I naturally conclude that in the
country where such a phenomenon takes place few persons will boggle at a
perjury from the apprehension of a thunder-bolt. But this is not all. There
seems to have existed an idea that a time was approaching when the great
offspring of Saturn would be hurled down from the seat he occupied, and
subjected to an ignominious destiny, if not to utter annihilation. This is one
of the most singular and unaccountable points in their system of faith.
Without going into discussions, to which I am unequal, upon the origin and
import of this notion, I must express my surprise at the blindness of those
who dressed up a figure loaded with all these debilities as their supreme
power, and installed him in the seat of universal dominion.
As I have been making allusions to the introduction of the gods in the
battles of the Epics, I shall proceed to say a few words upon the subject.
The worthy gentry of Olympus, resembling men in their vices, their
passions, their liability to pain, and their delight in carnage, made a very
tolerable figure in a fair stand-up fight. Their characters could suffer very
little from their making use of brazen arms, riding in wooden chariots, and
wrestling with antagonists of mere flesh and blood. Mars, to be sure, would
have done better if he had refrained from howling; and Juno would not have
lost in dignity if she had been a little more cautious in boxing the ears of
Diana. But, upon the whole, these people are very good matter for the poet;
and I would as lief meet them in an hexameter as in a temple.
But it is a very different thing when the person of the only true God is to
be introduced in a poem. A pigmy in poetry may trifle with the thunders of
Jupiter; but a Hercules should beware how he handles the terrors of
Jehovah. A rhymer may talk what nonsense he pleases of a mythology
which consists of fiction and tinsel; but he should be afraid to touch upon a
theme in which there is truth, and eternity, and power. It is for this reason
that I can never read without disgust those passages of Tasso in which the
divine agency is degraded to the level of the machinery of the poem.
When, however, the description falls into the hands of one who is able to
do justice to it, see how the glories of the heathen mythology sink before
the effulgence of the living God. Search the most celebrated descriptions of
heathen writers; and where, in the brightest moments of inspiration, will
you find a passage that can for a moment be compared with that of the
Psalmist?
“The earth trembled and quaked; the very foundations of the hills shook,
and were removed, because He was wrath. There went a smoke out in His
presence, and a consuming fire out of His mouth, so that coals were kindled
at it. He bowed the heavens also and came down, and it was dark under His
feet. He rode upon the cherubims and did fly: He came flying upon the
wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; His pavilion round
about Him with dark water, and thick clouds to cover Him. At the
brightness of his presence His clouds removed; hailstones and coals of fire.
The Lord also thundered out of heaven, and the Highest gave His thunder;
hailstones and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows and scattered them; He
cast forth lightnings and destroyed them. The springs of waters were seen,
and the foundations of the round world were discovered, at Thy chiding, Ο
Lord, at the blasting of the breath of Thy displeasure.”
When I look at the famous nod of Jupiter—

Ἧ, καὶ κυανέησιν ἐπ’ ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίων,

Ἀμβρόσιαι δ’ ἄρα χαῖται ἐπεῥῤώσαντο ἄνακτος
Κρατὸς ἀπ’ ἀθανάτοιο· μέγαν δ’ ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον—

I have before me a distinct image of a handsome terrible-looking man,

sitting on a throne, and shaking his head; but when I read the passage which
I have quoted above, I find no clear image represented; I feel only a dark
and undefinable sensation of awe—a consciousness of the presence of the
Deity, visible, yet clothed with darkness as with a veil.
Look now at the terrible magnificence with which Ezekiel has
overshadowed the Almighty. After a gorgeous description of the attendant
ministers, he says—
 “And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads,
when they stood and had let down their wings. And above the firmament
that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of
a sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the
appearance of a man upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the
appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins
even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as
it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the
appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the
appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the
likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face,
and I heard a voice of one that spake.”
My quotations are running to a great length; nevertheless I cannot refrain
from transcribing the splendid description of the Messiah, in which our own
Milton has united the above two passages:—
 Forth rushed with whirlwind sound
The chariot of Paternal Deity,
Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel withdrawn
Itself instinct with spirit, but convoyed
By four cherubick shapes; four faces each
Had wondrous; as with stars their bodies all
And wings were set with eyes, with eyes the wheels
Of beryl, and careering fires between;
Over their heads a crystal firmament,
Whereon a sapphire throne inlaid with pure
Amber, and colours of the showery arch.
He in celestial panoply all armed
Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought,
Ascended; at his right hand Victory
Sate eagle-winged; beside him hung his bow
And quiver, with three-bolted thunder stored;
And from about him fierce effusion rolled
Of smoke and bickering flame, and sparkles dire.
Attended with ten thousand thousand saints
He onward came; far off his coming shone;
And twenty thousand (I their number heard)
Chariots of God, half on each hand were seen.
He on the wings of cherub rode sublime,
On the crystalline sky in sapphire throned.

After having transcribed three such passages as these, I am in no mind to

return at present to the dirt and filth of Pagan superstition, and I shall hasten
to a conclusion.
I have been digressing from my original proposition, until at last I have
left the Divinities of the Ancients, and set to work at proving that Homer
and Virgil are far inferior to David, Ezekiel, and Milton, which after all is a
very easy task, and not very new. I intended to have made this a very
learned paper, to have talked much of Egypt, a little of M. Belzoni, and
several other matters which I have not time to enumerate. Here, however, is
the fruit of my labours; I am too lazy, or too busy, to alter, or add, or erase;
in thus rambling through five or six pages, instead of labouring through
fifty, my time has been expended, I am sure, more pleasantly to myself, and
I hope as agreeably to my readers.
 REMINISCENCES OF MY YOUTH.

“Admonitu locorum.”—Cicero.

It is the seventh day of my revisiting! The burst of almost painful affection

which came over me as I first trod upon the scene of brighter hours, and the
glow of heart and brow, which seemed like a resuscitation of feelings and
passions that have long lain dormant in forgetfulness—these have gradually
died away; but there has succeeded, dearest spot, a mellowed fondness for
you, which, were I to live an eternity with you, would remain through that
eternity imperishable. I now am delighted to muse upon the sweetness of
those recollections, whose overpowering throb I at first could hardly
endure; and love to call up before me those imaginings, which at first
rushed upon me with the overwhelming force of a cataract. I look around
me! A spirit seems to be sitting on every house-top, lingering in every
grove; incidents in themselves the most humble, objects in themselves the
most mean—like insects preserved in amber—derive nobility and beauty
from the colours which memory has thrown around them!
There are associations in the names and the aspects of places which it is
impossible for us to restrain or subdue. Who shall gaze upon the Capitol,
and not think upon the Cæsars? Who shall roam round Stonehenge, and not
shudder at the knife of the Druids? Who shall be a sojourner in Eastcheap,
and not enjoy sweet visions of Shakespeare? My native village! Less
celebrated are the worthies whose images you recall to my imagination, but
they are recalled in colours as constant and as vivid. How can I look upon
your sports, without thinking of those who were my companions when I
joined in them? How can I listen to the voice of your merriment, without
thinking of those from whom in other days it sprung?
Before me is the tavern! The lapse of years has hardly bored an
additional excavation in its dusky window-curtain, or borrowed a single
shade from the boards of its faded sign. But its inmates have vanished; their
laughter is no longer heard in their place; and the red-brick wall of the Ship
stands before me like the cemetery of their mirth, their wit, and their good-
humour. In my youth I was wild—blame me you that have never been so—
and I loved to mingle in this scene of rustic joviality, to listen to the remarks
of untutored simplicity, to envy those who had grown grey untainted by the
corruptions of “this great Babel,” and to feel how truly it was said,

Where ignorance is bliss,

’Tis folly to be wise.

Many years ago I looked upon these boyish pursuits with an eye very
different from that which is now cast back towards them. Many years ago, I
thought nothing disgraceful which was not incompatible with innocence in
myself and charity towards my fellow-creatures. What would you have? I
have grown more prudent, and I am not so happy.
The great room of this humble building was the curia of the village. In it
the patriarchs of the place held their nightly sittings, and discussed ale and
politics with unremitting assiduity. There was no inebriety, no tumult, no ill-
mannered brutality in their sessions; everything was conducted with the
greatest order and tranquillity; the old men assembled with all the gravity,
with all the earnestness, perhaps with much of the wisdom, of great
statesmen. Alas! ye profane ones, ye smile. Ye look with contempt upon my
rustic curia and my weather-beaten statesmen. And what are the great ones
of this earth? Shall not the beings of a more exalted sphere contemplate
with equal scorn the wranglings of more honoured senates? You turn with
disgust from the eloquence of a Huggins or a Muggins! Look ye then to the
oratory of a Cicero, to the patriotism of a Brutus, or, if you will, to the
commanding energies of a Pitt and a Fox! Years roll on, and—what are
they?
However, call it a curia, or a club, or what ye will, custom had
established in this mansion a meeting of all the wise heads and all the
choice spirits of the hamlet. At first the members of it were very
independent of all party considerations, and each was too conscious of his
own individual merits to become a hanger-on of any more important
potentate. Whatever subject was tabled, whether it were the Holy Alliance
or the Holy Church—the taste of the new tap or the conduct of the new
member—every one said what he thought, and had no idea of bowing to the
opinion of his neighbour. In process of time, however, this laudable spirit of
liberty and equality began, as in other places, to decline. Some of the
members became idle and complaisant, others waxed mighty and
overbearing; until at last the Parliament of—— became subservient to the
will and wishes of a single ruler, and Jeremiah Snaggs took his place in my
memorandum-book as the first Dictator.
He had lived many years in the place, so that he was well known to most
of its inhabitants—to some too well. He had long enjoyed the office of
collector of the taxes in—— and its neighbourhood, and had contrived to
grow rich, as some whispered not by the most creditable methods. However
that might be, he was rich, and, as the patriarchal simplicity of the spot
declined, many began to look with ill-concealed covetings upon the
possessions of Jeremiah Snaggs. He had built to himself a mansion by the
roadside, with a small garden in front; and there was a very extraordinary
appendage to it, which excited much speculation among his unsophisticated
contemporaries, and which he denominated a veranda. For some time he
remained shut up in his citadel, and seemed to contemn the courtesies and
repel the approaches of the inferior beings who moved around him.
Afterwards, however, he found the solitude of his home (for he was a
bachelor) insupportable; and he emerged gradually from his retirement, and
condescended to join in the social assemblies of his neighbours. He joined
them not as a fellow-citizen, but as a sovereign; he came among them, not
to brighten their festivity, but to chill their good-humour; his presence was
not an assistance, but a restraint. Nevertheless, he was the great man of the
place, and in a short time his word was law among its inhabitants. Whether
the ascendency was owing rather to the talents which he occasionally
displayed, or to the dinners which he occasionally gave, I cannot say.
Thomas the boatbuilder, who till now had the credit of being a staunch
Whig, and the boldness to avow it, drew in his horns; his patriotism, his
oratory, his zeal shrank into nothing before the fiat of the Tory bashaw. He
made indeed a violent opposition when Jeremiah proposed the introduction
of port wine in lieu of the malt which had hitherto been the inspiration of
their counsels, and he was somewhat refractory when the dictator insisted
upon turning out the seats of the last generation and introducing modern
chairs. But upon both points the boatbuilder was outvoted; and in obedience
to Mr. Snaggs the senators dozed upon nauseous port, and fidgeted upon
cane bottoms, for the space of six years. Look now! You smile at the
disputes of a Thomas and a Snaggs! Yet why? What is there of greater
moment in those of a Londonderry and a Brougham?
 A period, however, was soon put to this terrible system of misrule: an
old favourite of the hundred returned from fighting his country’s battles, in
which occupation he had been perseveringly engaged for the last fourteen
years. Sergeant Kerrick was disgusted with the innovations of the day, and
set vigorously to work to drive them before him, as he expressed himself, at
the point of the bayonet. The sergeant was always a fine man, but he was
now a cripple into the bargain; he had always majestic black eyes, but he
had now the additional advantage of having a cut over both; he had always
the two legs of Hercules, but now—glorious destiny!—he had only one to
stand upon. He was irresistible! The veranda, the roast mutton, the will—
all, all was forgotten. In a short time Snaggs was beat by unheard-of
majorities; a week—and the tide of Whitbread’s best was turned into its
proper channel; another—and the cane-bottoms were kicked ignominiously
from the Parliament. Thomas the boatbuilder, who had seceded in
disappointment, was brought back in triumph; the dictator in vain attempted
to check the progress of the revolution! baffled, defeated, insulted on all
sides, he retired from the field in dismay, and died within a week afterwards
from the falling of his veranda. His death produced no sensation; for it was
evident that the man of war had been already installed in his place.
The Sergeant bore his faculties right meekly, and promoted the
restoration of l’ancien régime to the utmost of his abilities. During his
administration people began to talk with some little degree of freedom,
although at first they were much awed by the laurels and the scars of their
president. They had a wondrous idea of the wisdom he had attained upon
his travels. How could they talk of politics in his presence? Why, gracious!
he had held the Emperor o’ Russia’s stirrup at Petersburg, and taken off his
hat to the Pope o’ Rome—ay! and caught a glimpse o’ Boney to boot. Then,
as to religious matters! why the Vicar was nothing to him: he had seen some
nations that pray cross-legged, and some that pray in the open air, and some
that don’t pray at all; and he had been to St. Peter’s, and a place they call
the Pantheon, and all among the convents and nunneries, where they shut
up young folk to make clergymen of them. It is not surprising that all this
condensation of knowledge produced much veneration in the
neighbourhood; it wore off, however, rapidly, and his companions began to
enjoy the tales of his hardships, his privations, his battles, and his triumphs,
without any feeling of distance or dissatisfaction. Enchanted by the stories
he told, enchanted still more by the enthusiasm with which he told them, the
Patres Conscripti began to despise their hitherto pacific habits; they carried
their sticks on their shoulders, instead of trailing them on the ground; they
longed

To follow to the field some warlike lord;

all of them began to look big, and one or two made some proficiency in
swearing. By the edict of the dictator, the Biblical prints which were ranged
round the chamber made room for coloured representations of Cressy and
Agincourt; and the table was moved into such a situation as to give
sufficient room for the manual exercise. The women of the village began to
be frightened; Matthew Lock, a fine young man of eighteen, ran away to be
listed; Mark Fender, a fine old man of eighty, lost an eye in learning parry
tierce; two able-bodied artisans caught an ague by counter-marching in a
shower; apprehensions of a military government began to be pretty general
—when suddenly the dictator was taken off by an apoplexy. Ibi omnis
effusus labor! He died when the organization of the corps was just
completed; he was carried to his final quarters in great state, and three
pistols and a blunderbuss were fired over his grave. Why should we
contemn his lowly sepulchre? He died—and so did Alexander.
The warlike Tullus was succeeded by the pacific Numa. Kerrick, the
sergeant, was succeeded by Nicholas, the clerk. The six months during
which the progeny of Mars had held the reins of government, had unsettled
everything; the six weeks which saw Nicholas in his stead set everything in
its place again. In the course of a few days it was discovered that drab was a
better colour than red, and that an oyster-knife was a prettier weapon than a
bayonet. In this short reign the magnates of the place imbibed a strong taste
for literature and the arts. The blunderbuss was exchanged for the
“Pilgrim’s Progress,” and one of the pistols for the “Whole Duty of Man.”
Nicholas himself was a man of considerable acquirements; he was the best
reader in the place next to the Vicar, and by dint of much scraping and
perseverance he had managed to fill two shelves with a heterogeneous
confusion of ancient and modern lore. There was an odd volume of the
“History of England,” sundry ditto of sermons, an account of “Anson’s
Voyage Round the World,” and “The righte Pathe toe Welle-Doinge,” by
Geoffry Mixon. There was also a sage treatise on Ghosts, Spectres,
Apparitions, &c., which instigated me to various acts of atrocity, to which I
shall presently allude.
Nicholas had presided over the conclave for four months in
uninterrupted tranquillity, when an incident occurred which put the firmness
of his character to the test. The Parliament had just finished their second jug
one evening, and were beginning to think of an adjournment, when a low
rumbling noise, like the echo of distant thunder, was heard, and in a
moment afterwards the door, as it were spontaneously, flew open, and a
spectre flew in. It is needless for me to describe the spectre: it was, selon
règle, above the common height, with pale cheeks, hollow voice, and
staring eyes. It advanced to the dictator’s chair, and moaned, in an audible
murmur, “I am thine evil genius, Nicholas! Thou shalt see me at church on
Sunday.” And then it immediately vanished, nobody knew how or where.
Well indeed it might, for few of the company were qualified to play the spy
on its motions. The clerk, however, is said to have kept his seat with great
firmness; and all avowed that they had followed his example. Howbeit,
unless my memory fails me, there was a whisper that the saddler contrived
to be looking under the table for a sixpence, and the exciseman’s sooty
appearance told dirty tales of the chimney. The clerk was much importuned
not to hazard himself in the church upon the fated Sabbath; but upon this
point he was obstinate: it was finally agreed to conceal the matter, and in
the event of the apparition’s reappearance to set the minister at him.
On the Sunday (for I suppose the reader is aware that I was intimately
acquainted with the causes of the alarm) it was very amusing to watch the
different faces of terror or expectation which appeared at public worship, to
mark the quivering hue on the sallow cheek of the exciseman, and listen to
the querulous intonation of the clerk’s Amen. When at last the sermon was
concluded, Nicholas gave his final twang in such a manner that to my ears it
resembled an Io pæan. He rose from his knees with a countenance of such
unmingled, unrepressed triumph, that I could no longer restrain myself! I
laughed. Alas! dearly did I rue, unhappy wight, that freak of sacrilegious
jocularity.
“And is this all!” See now; you laugh at this deception because a foolish
boy was its instrument, and an honest clerk its victim. Have you not often
pored, with romantic interest, upon tales of impostures equally gross? Have
you not read with horror the celebrated warning of Dion? Have you not
shuddered at, “I am thine evil spirit, Brutus; thou shalt see me again at
Philippi?” and yet

What’s in a name?
“Nicholas” will raise a spirit as well as “Brutus.”

The dictator’s seat was soon after vacated. Ellen, the Vicar’s daughter,
had died some years before; and her father, finding himself unable to
reconcile himself to the residence which she had so long endeared to him,
prepared to quit the village. It was supposed that poor Nicholas was
overpowered by the misfortune of his patron: certain it is that he died very
quietly one fine summer’s evening, quite prepared for his end, and in the
fullest possession of his faculties. He was followed to his grave by as
sincere a crowd of mourners as ever wept at a poor man’s obsequies. There
is no urn, no column, no monumental splendour where he sleeps! But what
of this? Nicholas is dust—and so is Cheops.
One more name lives in my recollection. The old clerk bequeathed his
library and his authority to his favourite, Arthur. Arthur!—he had no other
name. That of his father was unknown to him, and he was taken from life
before his merits had earned one. He was a foundling. He had been left at
the old clerk’s door some years before I was born; and Nicholas had
relieved the parish of the expense, and had educated him with all the
attention of a father. I will not relate the whisper which went about at the
time, nor the whispers which succeeded afterwards. Arthur grew in health
and beauty, and was quite the pet of the neighbourhood; he had talents too,
which seemed designed for brighter days; and patience, which made even
his bitter lot endurable. He used to write verses which were the admiration
of the synod; and sang his hearers to sleep occasionally with all the good-
nature imaginable. At last a critic of distinguished note, who was spending
a few months near the hamlet, happened to get a sight of the boy’s poetry,
and took a fancy to him. He taught him to read and recite with feeling;
pointed out to him the beauties and the errors of the models which he put
into his hands; and, on his departure, gave him the works of several of our
modern worthies, and promised that he would not forget him. However he
did forget him, or gave no symptoms of his remembrance.
The old clerk died, and Arthur felt alone in the world. Still he had many
friends; and when the first burst of his regret was over, comfortable