School : "The Pleasure of Achievement"

Calhoun County, Texas: Teacher with students

In the September 14, 1901 "The School Journal", J.R. Swenson, a school teacher from Olivia, Texas writes:

"Among all the methods which experience in the schoolroom has invented and developed for inducing the child to progress rapidly on 'the flowery path of knowledge,' the place of priority, if not of honor must surely be given to the rod." (pg. 250)

Luckily for Swenson's students, he goes on to say that instilling the desire for the "pleasure of achievement" is also an excellent way to motivate.

J.R. Swenson is, of course, Our John Robert Swenson, the son of Anders and Bengta Swenson and the brother of Elina Paulson. You can see a later picture of him as part of the family group in an earlier post.   And there will be a good many pictures of him in the later posts. Much of the information I have about the family's arrival and early movement is taken from documents about and from J.R. Swenson's life: passport and teacher application, a report of an interview given to a family member. "Uncle John" went on to be a college professor in Denton Texas and enthusiastically encouraged the younger generations of the family to go to college.

I have not yet tracked down whether this is a picture from the circa 1900 period when John Robert Swenson was the school teacher at Olivia, or a later picture circa 1910 with a different teacher.

Identifiers:
Negative: Paulson380
Pace: Calhoun County, Texas
Date: circa 1900 - 1910
Swenson, John Robert. Born: Sep. 7 1870 (Riseberga Parish, Sweden); Immigrated 1882; Died:  Dec 26 1950. (Denton Texas)

Sources:
Swenson Family History
Swenson, J.R. "The Pleasure of Achievement: A study in Educational Dynamics" The School Journal. Sept 14, 1901, pg 250.