Looking Back: Lest We Forget

by Marcia Napier, Grain Valley Historical Society    
 

​     I realize I’ve been writing about the Grain Valley Schools for quite some time, however, before I return all of my research to the Historical Society file, I want to share one more bit of school history from the 1948-1949 Teacher’s Manual of Instruction and Suggestions. On the final page of the manual, Superintendent Carl Heuman shared these statements titled “Lest we Forget.” 
 
LEST WE FORGET
 
Teach children, not subjects.
Make allowances for individual differences.
Have a planned guidance program for each child. Find their interest and build on these strengths.
Teach pupils how to study and to organize clearly the materials they study.
Acquaint the pupils with the authors, preface, table of contents and index of each textbook used, as well as reference books.
Teach children how to use the library.
Try to meet as many parents as possible and as often as possible.
Make every effort to arrive at a just and accurate appraisal of the work of each pupil.
Hold a conference with each failing student in ample time to avoid failure.
Provide a school situation that makes for clean and wholesome living; private and public.
Support the teaching profession, it supports you.
Keep the public informed as to what you and your school are doing.
Be as attractive looking as possible.  You position requires it.
Give the public something good to talk about.
Believe that this job you have is an important one.
Appreciate the fact that the Board of Education gave you a job and thank them by being so kind as to do the job well.
“The man who is fired by ambition for his job is seldom fired by his boss.” Hubbard
Educational work is the spice of life. Look to your future.
Make up your mind to do a superior piece of work, and then do it.
Make your classroom so interesting and attractive that boys and girls will want to come to it.
Do your best with the equipment we furnish you.  After all a good teacher without supplies is better than a poor teacher with a room full of the best supplies obtainable.
Be one hundred percent for the school in which you are working. There is where you obtain your salary.
Learning is a reaction. Be sure that it is a desirable one.
Teaching and administering a school system is by necessity a democratic enterprise which can be accomplished through the combined efforts of the entire staff working in a cooperative manner.  Let us all put our shoulder to the wheel the first day of school, and give our best throughout the entire year.
 
     I’ve often heard that if something is fifty years-old it is historical.  So, at sixty-one this old teachers’ manual is a relic. As a former teacher, I believe many of these ideas are just as relevant in 2019.  What do you think?