To be cheerful without being easy is a real art.  Liberty is so often converted into license, and a spirit of fun so easily transformed into mischief and disorder.  And yet cheerfulness is the great key to the human heart.

An attitude of looking for the good in pupils will lead to a response of friendliness on their part which is the basis of all teaching.

4.  SCHOLARLY ATTITUDE

If a teacher would cultivate an appetite for learning among his pupils he must himself hunger for knowledge.  Most young people will “take intellectually if sufficiently exposed.”  A scholarly attitude implies first of all a growing mastery of subject matter.  To quote an eminent writer on religious education, “A common bane of Sunday school teaching has been the haziness of the teacher’s own ideas concerning the truths of religion.”

Fancy the hostess who would invite her guests to a dinner, and upon their arrival indicate to them that she had made only vague plans to receive them.  No special place for their wraps, no entertainment for their amusement, and then fancy her asking them to sit down to a warmed-up conglomeration of left-overs.

Of course, it is only in fancy that we can imagine such a service.  Yet reports frequently indicate that there are class recitations, intellectual banquets, for which the preparation has been about as meagre as that indicated.  Surely he who would feast others upon His word should prepare unceasingly.  Let us keep in mind the comment—­“We like the fellow who tells us something new.”

Along with this mastery of subject matter, a scholarly attitude implies both broadmindedness and openmindedness.  Seekers after truth should welcome it from all available sources, and ought not to be handicapped by bias or prejudice.  Tolerance and a willingness to entertain questions—­a constant effort to view a subject from every possible angle—­a poise that attends self-control even under stress of annoyance—­these things are all involved in a truly scholarly attack upon any given problem.

5.  VITALITY

One of the qualities most favorably and frequently commented on by students is what they call “pep.”  A certain vigor of attack that seems to go directly to the point at stake, putting at rest all other business and making discipline unnecessary, is what twentieth century young people seem to like.  The element of hero worship prompts them to demand that the leader shall “do things.”  They like the “push” that takes a man over the top, the drive that wins a ball game, the energy that stamps the business man with success.  Vitality is an inherent factor in leadership.

6.  SPIRITUALITY

The crowning glory of the successful religious teacher is that spiritual glow which links up heaven and earth.

   “And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the power of faith, and if
   ye receive not the Spirit, ye shall not teach.” (Doc. & Cov., Sec.
   42:14.)