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diff --git a/14567-h/14567-h.htm b/14567-h/14567-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf91873 --- /dev/null +++ b/14567-h/14567-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3752 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Reconstructed School, by Francis B. Pearson</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body {font-family:Georgia,serif;margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;} + p {text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;} + h1.pg {text-align: center;font-variant:normal;font-family: serif; } + h3.pg {text-align: center;font-variant:normal;font-family: serif; } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;font-variant:small-caps;} + sup {font-size:0.7em;} + hr {width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + hr.short {width:25%;} + + ul {list-style-type:none;margin-left:1em;text-indent:-1em;} + .returnTOC {text-align:right;font-size:.7em;} + li.sc {font-variant:small-caps;margin-left:15%;} + li.firstLetter {padding-top:1em;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .cen {text-align:center;} + .rgt {text-align:right;} + span.sidenote {position: absolute; right: 1%; left: 87%; font-size: .7em;text-align:left;text-indent:0em;} + sup{font-size:.7em;} + span.sc {font-variant:small-caps;} + span.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + + .quote {text-align:justify;text-indent:0em;margin-left:10%;margin-right:10%;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14567 ***</div> +<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Reconstructed School, by Francis B. +Pearson</h1> +<hr class="full" /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h3>School Efficiency Monographs</h3> +<br /> +<h1>The Reconstructed School</h1> +<h4>by</h4> +<h2>Francis B. Pearson</h2> +<h4>Superintendent of Public Instruction for Ohio</h4> +<h5>Author of</h5> +<ul> +<li class="sc"><i>The Evolution of the Teacher</i></li> +<li class="sc"><i>The High School Problem</i></li> +<li class="sc"><i>Reveries of a Schoolmaster</i></li> +<li class="sc">and <i>The Vitalized School</i></li> +</ul> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h6>World Book Company</h6> +<h4>1921</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<h2>Preface</h2> +<p>In our school processes there are many constants which have +general recognition as such by thoughtful people. On the other +hand, there are many variables which should be subjected to close +scrutiny to the end that they may be made to yield forth the +largest possible returns upon the investment of time and effort. +These phases of school procedure constitute the real problem in the +work of reconstruction, and the following pages represent an effort +to point the way toward larger and better results in the realm of +these variables. In general, the aims and purposes of the worker +determine the quality of the work done. If, therefore, this volume +succeeds in stimulating teachers to elevate the goals of their +endeavors, it will have accomplished its purpose.—F.B.P.</p> +<hr /> +<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents">Contents</a></h2> +<h3 style="text-align:left;margin-left:15%;">Chapter</h3> +<ol type="I"> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_1">A Preliminary Survey of the Task +Before the School</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_2">The Past as Related to the +Present</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_3">The Future as Related to the +Present</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_4">Integrity</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_5">Appreciation</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_6">Aspiration</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_7">Initiative</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_8">Imagination</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_9">Reverence</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_10">Sense of Responsibility</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_11">Loyalty</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_12">Democracy</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_13">Serenity</a></li> +<li class="sc"><a href="#Ch_14">Life</a></li> +<li class="sc" style="list-style-type:none;"><a href= +"#Index">Index</a></li> +</ol> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name= +"page1"></a>[1]</span></p> +<h2>The Reconstructed School</h2> +<hr /> +<h3><a name="Ch_1" id="Ch_1">Chapter One</a></h3> +<h2>A Preliminary Survey of the Task Before the School</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>When people come to think alike, they tend to act alike; unison +in thinking begets unison in action. It is often said that the man +and wife who have spent years together have grown to resemble each +other; but the resemblance is probably in actions rather than in +looks; the fact is that they have had common goals of thinking +throughout the many years they have lived together and so have come +to act in unison. The wise teacher often adjusts difficult +situations in her school by inducing the pupils to think toward a +common goal. In their zeal for a common enterprise the children +forget their differences and attain unison in action as the result +of their unison in thinking. The school superintendent knows full +well that if he can bring teachers, pupils, and parents to think +toward a common goal, he will soon have unity of action. When +people catch step mentally, they do the same physically, and as +they move forward along the paths of their common thinking, their +ways converge until, in time, they find themselves walking side by +side in amiable and agreeable converse.</p> +<p>In the larger world outside the school, community enterprises +help to generate unity of thinking and consequent unity of action. +The pastor finds it one of his larger tasks to establish a focus +for the thinking of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name= +"page2"></a>[2]</span>his people in order to induce concerted +action. If the enterprise is one of charity, the neighbors soon +find themselves vying with one another in zeal and good will. In +the zest of a common purpose they see one another with new eyes and +find delight in working with people whose society they once +avoided. They can now do teamwork, because they are all thinking +toward the same high and worthy goal; lines of demarcation are +obliterated and spirits blend in a common purpose. Unity of action +becomes inevitable as soon as thinking becomes unified.</p> +<p>Coöperation follows close upon the heels of community +thinking. In the presence of a great calamity, rivalries, +differences of creed and party, and long-established animosities +disappear in the zeal for beneficent action. In the case of fire or +flood people are at one in their actions because they are thinking +toward the common goal of rescue. They act together only when they +think together. Indeed, coöperation is an impossibility apart +from unified thinking. Herein lies the efficacy of leadership. It +is the province of the leader to induce unity of thinking, to +animate with a common purpose, knowing that united action will +certainly ensue. If he can cause the thinking of people to center +upon a focal point, he establishes his claim to leadership.</p> +<p>What is true of individuals is true, also, of nations. Before +they can act in concert, they must think in concert, and, to do +this, they must acquire the ability to think toward common goals. +If, to illustrate, all nations should come to think toward the goal +of democracy, there would ensue a closer sympathy among them, and, +in time, modifications of their forms of government would come +about as a natural <span class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name= +"page3"></a>[3]</span>result of their unity of thinking. Again, if +all nations of the world should set up the quality of courage as +one of the objectives of their thinking they would be drawn closer +together in their feelings and in their conduct. If the parents and +teachers of all these nations should strive to exorcise fear in the +training of children, this purpose would constitute a bond of +sympathy among them and they would be encouraged by the reflection +that this high purpose was animating parents and teachers the world +around. Courage, of course, is of the spirit and typifies many +spiritual qualities that characterize civilization of high grade. +It is quite conceivable that these qualities of the spirit may +become the goals of thinking in all lands. Thus the nations would +be brought into a relation of closer harmony. Had a score of boys +shared the experience of the lad who grew into the likeness of the +Great Stone Face, their differences and disparities would have +disappeared in the zeal of a common purpose and they would have +become a unified organization in thinking toward the same goal.</p> +<p>We cannot hope to achieve the brotherhood of man until the +nations of the world have directed their thinking toward the same +goals. What these goals shall be must be determined by competent +leadership through the process of education. When we think in +unison we are taken out of ourselves and become merged in the +spirit of the goal toward which we are thinking. If we were to +agree upon courage as one of the spiritual qualities that should +characterize all nations and organize all educational forces for +the development of this quality, we should find the nations coming +closer to one another with this quality as a common possession. +Courage gives freedom, and in this freedom the <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page4" name="page4"></a>[4]</span>nations would +touch spiritual elbows and would thus become spiritual confederates +and comrades. By generating and developing this and other spiritual +qualities the nations would become merged and unity of feeling and +actions would surely ensue. Since love is the greatest thing in the +world, this quality may well be made the major goal toward which +the thinking of all nations shall be directed. When all peoples +come to think and yearn toward this goal, hatred and strife will be +banished and peace and righteousness will be enthroned in the +hearts of men. When there has been developed in all the nations of +the earth an ardent love for the true, the beautiful, and the good, +civilization will step up to a higher level and we shall see the +dawn of unity.</p> +<p>We who are indulging in dreams of the brotherhood of man must +enlarge our concept of society before we can hope to have our +dreams come true. It is a far cry from society as a strictly +American affair to society as a world affair. The teaching of our +schools has had a distinct tendency to restrict our notion of +society to that within our own national boundaries. In this we +convict ourselves of provincialism. Society is far larger than +America, or China, or Russia, or all the islands of the sea in +combination. It may entail some straining at the mental leash to +win this concept of society, but it must be won as a condition +precedent to a fair and just estimate of what the function of +education really is and what it is of which the schoolhouse must be +an exponent. Society must be thought of as including all nations, +tribes, and tongues. In our thinking, the word +“society” must suggest the hut that nestles on the +mountain-side as well as the palace that fronts the stately +boulevard. It must suggest <span class="pagenum"><a id="page5" +name="page5"></a>[5]</span>the cape that indents the sea as well as +the vast plain that stretches out from river to river. And it must +suggest the toiler at his task, the employer at his desk, the man +of leisure in his home, the voyager on the ocean, the soldier in +the ranks, the child at his lessons, and the mother crooning her +baby to sleep.</p> +<p>We descant volubly upon the subjects of citizenship and +civilization but, as yet, have achieved no adequate definition of +either of the terms upon which we expatiate so fluently. Our books +teem with admonitions to train for citizenship in order that we may +attain civilization of better quality. But, in all this, we imply +American citizenship and American civilization, and here, again, we +show forth our provincialism. But even in this restricted field we +arrive at our hazy concept of a good citizen by the process of +elimination. We aver that a good citizen does not do this and does +not do that; yet the teachers in our schools would find it +difficult to describe a good citizen adequately, in positive terms. +Our notions of good citizenship are more or less vague and misty +and, therefore, our concept of civilization is equally so.</p> +<p>Granting, however, that we may finally achieve satisfactory +definitions of citizenship and civilization as applying to our own +country, it does not follow that the same definitions will obtain +in other lands. A good citizen according to the Chinese conception +may differ widely from a good citizen in the United States. +Topography, climate, associations, occupations, traditions, and +racial tendencies must all be taken into account in formulating a +definition. Before we can gain a right concept of good citizenship +as a world affair we must make a thoughtful study of world +conditions. In so doing, we may have occasion to modify and correct +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name="page6"></a>[6]</span>some +of our own preconceived notions and thus extend the horizon of our +education.</p> +<p>What society is and should be in the world at large; what good +citizenship is and ought to be in the whole world; and what +civilization is, should be, and may be as a world +enterprise—these considerations are the foundation stones +upon which we must build the temple of education now in the process +of reconstruction. Otherwise the work will be narrow, illiberal, +spasmodic, and sporadic. It must be possible to arrive at a common +denominator of the concepts of society, citizenship, and +civilization as pertaining to all nations; it must be possible to +contrive a composite of all these concepts to which all nations +will subscribe; and it must be possible to discover some +fundamental principles that will constitute a focal point toward +which the thinking of all nations can be directed. Once this focal +point is determined and the thinking of the world focused upon it, +the work of reconstruction has been inaugurated.</p> +<p>But the task is not a simple one by any means; quite the +contrary, for it is world-embracing in its scope. However difficult +the task, it is, none the less, altogether alluring and worthy. It +is quite within the range of possibilities for a book to be +written, even a textbook, that would serve a useful purpose and +meet a distinct need in the schools of all lands. At this point the +question of languages obtrudes itself. When people think in unison +a common language is reduced to the plane of a mere convenience, +not a necessity. The buyer and the seller may not speak the same +language but, somehow, they contrive to effect a satisfactory +adjustment because their thinking is centered upon the same +objective. When thinking becomes cosmopolitan, <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>[7]</span>conduct becomes +equally so. If this be conceded, then it is quite within the range +of possibilities to formulate a course of study for all the schools +of the world, if only we set up as goals the qualities that will +make for the well-being of people in all lands. True, the means may +differ in different lands, but, even so, the ends will remain +constant. A thousand people may set out from their homes with Rome +as their destination. They will use all means of travel and speak +many languages as they journey forward, but their destination +continues constant and they will use the best means at their +command to attain the common goal. Similarly, if we set up the +quality of loyalty as one of our educational goals, the means may +differ but the goal does not change and, therefore, the nations +will be actuated by a common purpose in their educational +endeavors.</p> +<p>The one thing needful for the execution of this ambitious +program of securing concerted thinking is to have in our schools +teachers who are world-minded, who think in world units. Such +teachers, and only such, can plan for world education and world +affairs, and bring their plans to a successful issue. Some teachers +seem able to think only of a schoolroom; others of a building; +others of a town or township; still others of a state; some of a +country; and fewer yet of the world as a single thing. A person can +be no larger than his unit of thinking. One who thinks in small +units convicts himself of provincialism and soon becomes +intolerant. Such a person arrogates to himself superiority and +inclines to feel somewhat contemptuous of people outside the narrow +limits of his thinking. If he thinks his restricted horizon bounds +all that is worth knowing, he will not exert himself to +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page8" name= +"page8"></a>[8]</span>climb to a higher level in order that he may +gain a wider view. He is disdainful and intolerant of whatever lies +beyond his horizon, and his attitude, if not his words, repeats the +question of the culpable Cain, “Am I my brother’s +keeper?” He is encased in an armor that is impervious to +ordinary appeal. He is satisfied with himself and asks merely to be +let alone. He is quite content to be held fast bound in his +traditional moorings without any feeling of sympathy for the world +as a whole.</p> +<p>The reverse side of the picture reveals the teacher who is +world-minded. Such a teacher is never less than magnanimous; +intolerance has no place in his scheme of life; he is in sympathy +with all nations in their progress toward light and right; and he +is interested in all world progress whether in science, in art, in +literature, in economics, in industry, or in education. To this end +he is careful to inform himself as to world movements and notes +with keen interest the trend and development of civilization. Being +a world-citizen himself, he strives, in his school work, to develop +in his pupils the capacity and the desire for world-citizenship. +With no abatement of thoroughness in the work of his school, he +still finds time to look up from his tasks to catch the view beyond +his own national boundaries. If the superintendent who is +world-minded has the hearty coöperation of teachers who are +also world-minded, together they will be able to develop a plan of +education that is world-wide. To produce teachers of this type may +require a readjustment and reconstruction of the work of colleges +and training schools to the end that the teachers they send forth +may measure up to the requirements of this world-wide concept of +education. But these institutions can hardly hope to be immune to +the process <span class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name= +"page9"></a>[9]</span>of reconstruction. They can hardly hope to +cite the past as a guide for the future, for traditional lines are +being obliterated and new lines are being marked out for +civilization, including education in its larger and newer +import.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name= +"page10"></a>[10]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_2" id="Ch_2">Chapter Two</a></h3> +<h2>The Past as Related to the Present</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>In a significant degree the present is the heritage of the past, +and any critical appraisement of the present must take cognizance +of the influence of the past. That there are weak places in our +present civilization, no one will deny; nor will it be denied that +the sources of some of these may be found in the past. We have it +on good authority that “the fathers have eaten sour grapes +and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” Had the +eating of sour grapes in the past been more restricted, the present +generation would stand less in need of dentistry. When we take an +inventory of the people of the present who are defective in body, +in mind, or in spirit, it seems obvious that the consumption of +sour grapes, in the past, must have been quite extensive. If the +blood of the grandfather was tainted, it is probable that the blood +of the grandchild is impure.</p> +<p>The defects of the present would seem to constitute a valid +indictment against the educational agencies of the past. These +agencies are not confined to the school but include law, medicine, +civics, sociology, government, hygiene, eugenics, home life, and +physical training. Had all these phases of education done their +perfect work in the past, the present would be in better case. It +seems a great pity that it required a world war to render us +conscious of many of the defects of society. The draft board made +discoveries of facts that seem to have eluded the home, the school, +the family physician, and the boards of health. Many of these +discoveries are most disquieting and reflect unfavorably upon some +of the educational practices of <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page11" name="page11"></a>[11]</span>the past. The many cases of +physical unfitness and the fewer cases of athletic hearts seem to +have escaped the attention of physical directors and athletic +coaches, not to mention parents and physicians. Seeing that one +fourth of our young men have been pronounced physically unsound, it +behooves us to turn our gaze toward the past to determine, if +possible, wherein our educational processes have been at fault.</p> +<p>The thoughtful person who stands on the street-corner watching +the promiscuous throng pass by and making a careful appraisement of +their physical, mental, and spiritual qualities, will not find the +experience particularly edifying. He will note many facts that will +depress rather than encourage and inspire. In the throng he will +see many men and women, young and old, who, as specimens of +physical manhood and womanhood, are far from perfect. He will see +many who are young in years but who are old in looks and physical +bearing. They creep or shuffle along as if bowed down with the +weight of years, lacking the graces of buoyancy and abounding +youth. They are bent, gnarled, shriveled, faded, weak, and wizened. +Their faces reveal the absence of the looks that betoken hope, +courage, aspiration, and high purpose. Their lineaments and their +gait show forth a ghastly forlornness that excites pity and +despair. They seem the veriest derelicts, tossed to and fro by the +currents of life without hope of redemption.</p> +<p>Their whole bearing indicates that they are languid, morbid, +misanthropic, and nerveless. They seem ill-nourished as well as +mentally and spiritually starved. They seem the victims of +inherited or acquired weaknesses that stamp them as belonging among +the physically unfit. If the farmer should discover among his +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name= +"page12"></a>[12]</span>animals as large a percentage of unfitness +and imperfection, he would reach the conclusion at once that +something was radically wrong and would immediately set on foot +well-thought-out plans to rectify the situation. But, seeing that +these derelicts are human beings and not farm stock, we bestow upon +them a sneer, or possibly a pittance by way of alms, and pass on +our complacent ways. Looking upon the imperfect passersby, the +observer is reminded of the tens of thousands of children who are +defective in mind and body and are hidden away from public gaze, a +charge upon the resources of the state.</p> +<p>Such a setting forth of the less agreeable side of present +conditions would seem out of place, if not actually impertinent, +were we inclined to ignore the fact that diagnosis must precede +treatment. The surgeon knows full well that there will be pain, but +he is comforted by the reflection that restoration to health will +succeed the pain. We need to look squarely at the facts as they are +in order to determine what must be done to avert a repetition in +the future. We have seen the sins of the fathers visited upon the +children to the third and fourth generation and still retained our +complacency. We preach temperance to the young men of our day, but +fail to set forth the fact that right living on their part will +make for the well-being of their grandchildren. We exhibit our +thoroughbred live stock at our fairs and plume ourselves upon our +ability to produce stock of such quality. In the case of live stock +we know that the present is the product of the past, but seem less +ready to acknowledge the same fact as touching human animals. We +may know that our ancestors planted thorns and yet we seem +surprised that we cannot gather a harvest of grapes, and we +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page13" name= +"page13"></a>[13]</span>would fain gather figs from a planting of +thistles. But this may not be. We harvest according to the planting +of our ancestors, and, with equal certainty, if we eat sour grapes +the teeth of our descendants will surely be put on edge.</p> +<p>If we are to reconstruct our educational processes we must make +a critical survey of the entire situation that we may be fully +advised of the magnitude of the problem to which we are to address +ourselves. We may not blink the facts but must face them squarely; +otherwise we shall not get on. We may take unction to ourselves for +our philanthropic zeal in caring for our unfortunates in penal and +eleemosynary institutions, but that will not suffice. We must +frankly consider by what means the number of these unfortunates may +be reduced. If we fail to do this we convict ourselves of cowardice +or impotence. We pile up our millions in buildings for the insane, +the feeble-minded, the vicious, the epileptic, and plume ourselves +upon our munificence. But if all these unfortunates could be +redeemed from their thralldom, and these countless millions turned +back into the channels of trade, civilization would take on a new +meaning. Here is one of the problems that calls aloud to education +for a solution and will not be denied.</p> +<p>One of the avowed purposes of education is to lift society to a +higher plane of thinking and acting, and it is always and +altogether pertinent to make an inventory to discover if this +laudable purpose is being accomplished. Such an inventory can be +made only by an analyst; the work cannot be delegated either to a +pessimist or to an optimist. In his efforts to determine whether +society is advancing or receding, the analyst often makes +disquieting discoveries.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name= +"page14"></a>[14]</span> It must be admitted by the most devoted +and patriotic American that our civilization includes many elements +that can truly be denominated frivolous, superficial, artificial, +and inconsequential. As a people, we seek to be entertained, but +fail to make a nice distinction between entertainment and +amusement. War, it is true, has caused us to think more soberly and +feel more deeply; but the bizarre, the gaudy, and the superficial +still make a strong appeal to us. We are quite happy to wear paste +diamonds, provided only that they sparkle. So long have we been +substituting the fictitious for the genuine that we have contracted +the habit of loose, fictitious thinking. So much does the show +element appeal to us that we incline to parade even our troubles. +Simplicity and sincerity, whether in dress, in speech, or in +conduct, have so long been foreign to our daily living and thinking +that we incline to style these qualities as old-fogyish.</p> +<p>A hundred or more young men came to a certain city to enlist for +the war. As they marched out through the railway station they rent +the air with whooping and yells and other manifestations of +boisterous conduct. These young fellows may have hearts of gold, +but their real manhood was overlaid with a veneer of rudeness that +could not commend them to the admiration of cultivated persons. +Inside the station was another group of young men in khaki who were +quiet, dignified, and decorous. The contrast between the two groups +was most striking, and the bystanders were led to wonder whether it +requires a world-war to teach our young men manners and whether the +schools and homes have abdicated in favor of the cantonment in the +teaching of deportment. In the schools and the homes that are to be +in our good land we may well hope that <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page15" name="page15"></a>[15]</span>decorum will be emphasized +and magnified; for decorum is evermore the fruitage of +intellectuality and genuine culture.</p> +<p>As a nation, we have been prodigal of our resources and, +especially, of our time. We have failed to regard our leisure hours +as a liability but, like the lotus eaters, have dallied in the +realm of pleasure. Like children at play, we have gone on our +pleasure-seeking ways all heedless of the clock, and, when +misfortune came and necessity arose, many of us were unwilling and +more of us unable to engage in the work of production. In some +localities legislation was invoked to urge us toward the fields and +gardens. We have shown ourselves a wasteful people, and in the wake +of our wastefulness have followed a dismal train of disasters, +cold, hunger, and many another form of distress. Deplore and repent +of our prodigality as we may, the effects abide to remind us of our +decline from the high plane of industry, frugality, and +conservation of leisure. Nor can we hope to avert a repetition of +this crisis unless education comes in to guide our minds and hands +aright.</p> +<p>Again, we have been wont to estimate men by what they have +rather than by what they are, and to regard as of value only such +things as are quoted in the markets. Wall Street takes precedence +over the university and to the millionaire we accord the front seat +even in some of our churches. We accept the widow’s mite but +do not inscribe her name upon the roll of honor. We give money +prizes for work in our schools and thus strive to commercialize the +things of the mind and of the spirit. We have laid waste our +forests, impoverished our fields, and defiled our landscapes to +stimulate <span class="pagenum"><a id="page16" name= +"page16"></a>[16]</span>increased activity in our clearing-houses. +Like Jason of old, we have wandered far in quest of the golden +fleece. We welcome the rainbow, not for its beauty but for the bag +of gold at its end. We seek to scale the heights of Olympus by +stairways of gold, fondly nursing the conceit that, once we have +scaled these heights, we shall be equal to the gods.</p> +<p>To indulge in even such a brief review of some of the weak +places and defections of society is not an agreeable task, but +diagnosis must necessarily precede the application of remedies. If +we are to reconstruct education in order to effect a reconstruction +of society we must know our problem in advance, that we may proceed +in a rational way. Reconstruction cannot be made permanently +effective by haphazard methods. We must visualize clearly the +objectives of our endeavors in order to obviate wrong methods and +futility. We must have the whole matter laid bare before our eyes +or we shall not get on in the work of reconstruction. It were more +agreeable to dwell upon our achievements, and they are many, but +the process of reconstruction has to do with the affected parts. +These must be our special care, these the realm for our kindly +surgery and the arts of healing. We need to become acutely +conscious that the present will become the past and that there will +be a new present which will take on the same qualities that now +characterize our present. We need to feel that the future will look +back to our present and commend or condemn according to the +practices of this generation. And the only way to make a sane and +right future is to create a sane and right present.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name= +"page17"></a>[17]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_3" id="Ch_3">Chapter Three</a></h3> +<h2>The Future as Related to the Present</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>In planning a journey the one constant is the destination. All +the other elements are variable, and, therefore, subordinate. So, +also, in planning a course of study. The qualities to be developed +through the educational processes are the constants, while the +agencies by which these qualities are to be attained are subject to +change. The course of study provides for the school activities for +the child for a period of twelve years, and it is altogether +pertinent to inquire what qualities we hope to develop by means of +these school activities. To do this effectively we must visualize +the pupil when he emerges from the school period and ask ourselves +what qualities we hope to have him possess at the close of this +period. If we decide upon such qualities as imagination, +initiative, aspiration, appreciation, courage, loyalty, reverence, +a sense of responsibility, integrity, and serenity, we have +discovered some of the constants toward which all the work of the +twelve years must be directed. In planning a course of study toward +these constants we do not restrict the scope of the pupil’s +activities; quite the reverse. We thus enlarge the concept of +education both for himself and his teachers and emphasize the fact +that education is a continuous process and may not be marked by +grades or subjects. For the teachers we establish goals of school +endeavor and thus unify and articulate all their efforts. We focus +their attention upon the pupil as they would all wish to see him +when he completes the work of the school.</p> +<p>If children are asked why they go to school, nine <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>[18]</span>out of ten, +perhaps, will reply that they go to school to learn arithmetic, +grammar, geography, and history. Asked what their big purpose is in +teaching, probably three out of five teachers will answer that they +are actuated by a desire to cause their pupils to know arithmetic, +grammar, geography, and history. One of the other five teachers may +echo something out of her past accumulations to the effect that her +work is the training for citizenship, and the fifth will say quite +frankly that she is groping about, all the while, searching for the +answer to that very question. It would be futile to ask the +children why they desire knowledge of these subjects and there +might be hazard in propounding the same question to the three +teachers. They teach arithmetic because it is in the course of +study; it is in the course of study because the superintendent put +it there; and the superintendent put it there because some other +superintendent has it in his course of study.</p> +<p>Now arithmetic may, in reality, be one of the best things a +child can study; but the child takes it because the teacher +prescribes it, and the teacher takes it on faith because the +superintendent takes it on faith and she cannot go counter to the +dictum of the superintendent. Besides, it is far easier to teach +arithmetic than it would be to challenge the right of this subject +to a place in the course of study. To most people, including many +teachers, arithmetic is but a habit of thinking. They have been +contracting this habit through all the years since the beginning of +their school experience, until now it seems as inevitable as any +other habitual affair. It is quite as much a habit of their +thinking as eating, sleeping, or walking. If there were no +arithmetic, they argue subconsciously, <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page19" name="page19"></a>[19]</span>there could be no school; for +arithmetic and school are synonymous. Again, let it be said that +there is no thought here of inveighing against arithmetic or any +other subject of the curriculum. Not arithmetic in itself, but the +arithmetic habit constitutes the incubus, the evil spirit that +needs to be exorcised.</p> +<p>This arithmetic habit had its origin, doubtless, in the +traditional concept of knowledge as power. An adage is not easily +controverted or eradicated. The copy-books of the fathers +proclaimed boldly that knowledge is power, and the children +accepted the dictum as inviolable. If it were true that knowledge +is power, the procedure of the schools and the course of conduct of +the teachers during all these years would have ample justification. +The entire process would seem simplicity itself. So soon as we +acquire knowledge we should have power—and power is +altogether desirable. The trouble is that we have been confusing +knowledge and wisdom in the face of the poet’s declaration +that “Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, have ofttimes +no connection.” Our experience should have taught us that +many people who have much knowledge are relatively impotent for the +reason that they have not learned how to use their knowledge in the +way of generating power. Gasoline is an inert substance, but, under +well-understood conditions, it affords power. Water is not power, +but man has learned how to use it in generating power. Knowledge is +convenient and serviceable, but its greatest utility lies in the +fact that it can be employed in producing power.</p> +<p>We are prone to take our judgments ready-made and have been +relying upon the copy-books of the fathers rather than our own +reasoning powers. If we had only learned in childhood the +distinction between knowledge <span class="pagenum"><a id="page20" +name="page20"></a>[20]</span>and wisdom; if we had learned that +knowledge is not power but merely potential; and if we had learned +that knowledge is but the means to an end and not the end itself, +we should have been spared many a delusion and our educational sky +would not now be so overcast with clouds. We have been proceeding +upon the agreeable assumption that arithmetic, geography, and +history are the goals of every school endeavor, the Ultima Thule of +every educational quest. The child studies arithmetic, is subjected +to an examination that may represent the bent or caprice of the +teacher, manages to struggle through seventy per cent of the +answers, is promoted to the next higher grade, and, thereupon, +starts on his journey around another circle. And we call this +education. These processes constitute the mechanics of education, +but, in and of themselves, they are not education. One of the big +problems of the school today is to emancipate both teachers and +pupils from the erroneous notion that they are.</p> +<p>The child does not go to school to learn arithmetic and spelling +and grammar. The goal to be attained is far higher and better than +either of these or all combined. The study of arithmetic may prove +a highly profitable means, never the end to be gained. This +statement will be boldly challenged by the traditional teacher, but +it is so strongly intrenched in logic and sound pedagogy that it is +impregnable. The goal might, possibly, be reached without the aid +of arithmetic, but, if a knowledge of this subject will facilitate +the process, then, of course, it becomes of value and should be +used. Let us assume, for the moment, that the teacher decides to +set up thoroughness as one of the large objectives of her teaching. +While she may be able to reach this goal sooner by means of +arithmetic, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page21" name= +"page21"></a>[21]</span>no one will contend that arithmetic is +indispensable. Nor, indeed, will any one contend that arithmetic is +comparable to thoroughness as a goal to be attained. If the +teacher’s constant aim is thoroughness, she will achieve even +better results in the arithmetic and will inculcate habits in her +pupils that serve them in good stead throughout life. For the +quality of thoroughness is desirable in every activity of life, and +we do well to emphasize every study and every activity of the +school that helps in the development of this quality.</p> +<p>If the superintendent were challenged to adduce a satisfactory +reason why he has not written thoroughness into his course of study +he might be hard put to it to justify the omission. He hopes, of +course, that the quality of thoroughness will issue somehow from +the study of arithmetic and science, but he lacks the courage, +apparently, to proclaim this hope in print. He says that education +is a spiritual process, while his course of study proves that he is +striving to produce mental acrobats, relegating the spiritual +qualities to the rank of by-products. His course of study shows +conclusively that he thinks that knowledge is power. Once +disillusion him on this point and his course of study will cease to +be to him the sacrosanct affair it has always appeared and he will +no longer look upon it as a sort of sacrilege to inject into this +course of study some elements that seem to violate the sanctities +of tradition.</p> +<p>Advancing another brief step, we may try to imagine the +superintendent’s suggesting to the teachers at the opening of +the school year that they devote the year to inculcating in their +pupils the qualities of thoroughness, self-control, courage, and +reverence. The faces of the teachers, at such a proposal, would +undoubtedly afford <span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name= +"page22"></a>[22]</span>opportunity for an interesting study and +the linguistic reactions of some of them would be forcible to the +point of picturesqueness. The traditional teachers would demand to +know by what right he presumed to impose upon them such an +unheard-of program. Others might welcome the suggestion as a means +of relief from irritating and devastating drudgery. In their quaint +innocence and guilelessness their souls would revel in rainbow +dreams of preachments, homilies, and wise counsel that would cause +the qualities of self-control and reverence to spring into being +full-grown even as Minerva from the head of Jove.</p> +<p>But their beatific visions would dissolve upon hearing the +superintendent name certain teachers to act as a committee to +determine and report upon the studies that would best serve the +purpose of generating reverence, and another committee to select +the studies that would most effectively stimulate and develop +self-control, and so on through the list. It is here that we find +the crux of the whole matter. Here the program collides with +tradition and with stereotyped habits of thinking. Many +superintendents and teachers will contend that such a problem is +impossible of solution because no one has ever essayed such a task. +No one, they argue, has ever determined what subjects will +effectually generate the specific qualities self-control or +reverence, no one has ever discovered what school studies will +function in given spiritual qualities. According to their course of +reasoning nothing is possible that has not already been done. +However, there are some progressive, dynamic superintendents and +teachers who will welcome the opportunity to test their +resourcefulness in seeking the solution of a problem that is both +new and big. To these dynamic ones we must look <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page23" name="page23"></a>[23]</span>for results +and when this solution is evolved, the work of reconstruction will +move on apace.</p> +<p>Reverting, for the moment, to the subject of thoroughness: it +must be clear that this quality is worthy a place in the course of +study because it is worthy the best efforts of the pupil. +Furthermore, it is worthy the best efforts of the pupil because it +is an important element of civilization. These statements all need +reiteration and emphasis to the end that they may become thoroughly +enmeshed in the social consciousness. If we can cause people to +think toward thoroughness rather than toward arithmetic or other +school studies, we shall win the feeling that we are making +progress. Thoroughness must be distinguished, of course, from a +smattering knowledge of details that have no value. In the right +sense thoroughness must be interpreted as the habit of mastery. We +may well indulge the hope that the time will come when parents will +invoke the aid of the schools to assist their children in acquiring +this habit of mastery. When that time comes the schools will be +working toward larger and higher objectives and education will have +become a spiritual process in reality.</p> +<p>It will be readily conceded that the habit of mastery is a +desirable quality in every vocation and in every avocation. It is a +very real asset on the farm, in the factory, in legislative halls, +in the offices of lawyer and physician, in the study, in the shop, +and in the home. When mastery becomes habitual with people in all +these activities society will thrill with the pulsations of new +life and civilization will rise to a higher level. But how may the +child acquire this habit of mastery? On what meat shall this our +pupil feed that he may become master of himself, master of all his +powers, and master <span class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name= +"page24"></a>[24]</span>of every situation in which he finds +himself? How shall he win that mastery that will enable him to +interpret every obstacle as a new challenge to his powers, and to +translate temporary defeat into ultimate victory? How may he enter +into such complete sense of mastery that he will not quail in the +presence of difficulties, that he will never display the white flag +or the white feather, that he will ever show forth the spirit of +Henley’s <em>Invictus</em>, and that nothing short of death +may avail to absolve him from his obligations to his high +standards?</p> +<p>These questions are referred, with all proper respect, to the +superintendent, the principal, and the teachers, whose province it +is to vouchsafe satisfactory answers. If they tell us that +arithmetic will be of assistance in the way of inculcating this +habit of mastery, then we shall hail arithmetic with joyous acclaim +and accord it a place of honor in the school regime,—but only +as an auxiliary, only as a means to the great end of mastery. If +they assure us that science will be equally serviceable in our +enterprise of developing mastery, then we shall give to science an +equally hearty welcome. However, we shall emphasize the right to +stipulate that, in the course of study, the capitals shall be +reserved for the big objective thoroughness, of the habit of +mastery, and that the means be given in small letters and as +sub-heads.</p> +<p>We may indulge in the conceit that a flag floats at the summit +of a lofty and more or less rugged elevation. The youth who essays +the task of reaching that flag will need to reinforce his strength +at supply stations along the way. If we style one of these stations +arithmetic, it will be evident, at once, that this station is a +subsidiary element in the enterprise and not the <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>[25]</span>goal, for +that is the flag at the top. These supply stations are useful in +helping the youth to reach his goal. We may conceive of many of +these stations, such as algebra, or history, or Greek, or Chinese. +Whatever their names, they are all but means to an end and when +that end has been attained the youth can afford to forget them, in +large part, save only in gratitude for their help in enabling him +to win the goal of thoroughness.</p> +<p>The child eats beefsteak because it is palatable; the mother +prescribes beefsteak and prepares it carefully with the +child’s health as the goal of her interests. Moreover, she +has a more vital interest in beefsteak because she is thinking of +health as the goal. For another child, she may prescribe eggs and, +for still another, milk or oatmeal, according to each one’s +needs. Health is the big goal and these foods are the supply +stations along the way. The physician must assist in determining +what articles of food will best serve the purpose and to this end +he must cooperate with the mother in knowing his patients. He must +have knowledge of foods and must know how to adapt means to ends, +never losing sight of the real goal. The inference is altogether +obvious. A superintendent must write the prescription in the form +of a course of study and he may not with impunity mistake a supply +station for the goal. He must have knowledge of the pupils and know +their individual needs and native interests. Having gained this +knowledge, he will supply abundant electives in order to assist +each child in the best possible way toward the goal.</p> +<p>If, then, the relation between major ends and minor means has +been made clear, we are ready for the statement that these major +ends may be made the common <span class="pagenum"><a id="page26" +name="page26"></a>[26]</span>goals of endeavor in the schools of +all lands. Thoroughness is quite as necessary in the rice fields of +China as in the wheat fields of America, as necessary in the banks +of Rome as in the banks of New York, quite as essential to +mercantile transactions in Cape Town as in Chicago, and quite as +essential to home life in Tokyo as in San Francisco. If these big +objectives are set up in the schools of all countries pupils, +teachers, and people will come to think in unison and thus their +ways will converge and they will come to act in unison. The same +high purposes will actuate and animate society as a whole and this, +in turn, will make for a higher type of civilization and accelerate +progress toward unity in school procedure.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page27" name= +"page27"></a>[27]</span></p> +<h2><a name="Ch_4" id="Ch_4">Chapter Four</a></h2> +<h3>Integrity</h3> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Integrity connotes many qualities that are necessary to success +in the high art of right and rational living and that are +conspicuous, therefore, in society of high grade. It is an +inclusive quality, and is, in reality, a federation of qualities +that are esteemed essential to a highly developed civilization. The +term, like the word from which it is derived, <em>integer</em>, +signifies completeness, wholeness, entirety, soundness, rectitude, +unimpaired state. It implies no scarification, no blemish, no +unsoundness, no abrasion, no disfigurement, no distortion, no +defect. In ordinary parlance integrity and honesty are regarded as +synonyms, but a close analysis discovers honesty to be but one of +the many manifestations of integrity. Lincoln displayed honesty in +returning the pennies by way of rectifying a mistake, but that act, +honest as it was, did not engage all his integrity. This big +quality manifested itself at Gettysburg, in the letter to Mrs. +Bixby, in visiting the hospitals to comfort and cheer the wounded +soldiers, and in his magnanimity to those who maligned him.</p> +<p>In every individual the inward quality determines the outward +conduct in all its ramifications, whether in his speech, in his +actions, or in his attitude toward other individuals. It is quite +as true in a pedagogical sense as in the scriptural sense that +“Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of +thistles,” and, also, that “By their fruits ye shall +know them.” The stream does not rise higher than the source. +What a man is doing and how he is doing it tells us what +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name= +"page28"></a>[28]</span>he is. When we would appraise a man’s +character we take note of his habits, his daily walk and +conversation in all his relations to his fellows. If we find a +blemish in his conduct, we arrive at the judgment that his +character is not without blemish. In short, his habitual acts and +speech, in the marts of trade, in the office, in the field, in the +home, and in the forum betoken the presence or absence of +integrity. It follows, then, as a corollary that, if we hope to +have in the stream of life that we call society the elements that +make for a high type of civilization we must have integrity at the +source; and with this quality at the source these elements will +inevitably issue forth into the life currents. This being true, we +have clear warrant for the affirmation that integrity is a worthy +goal toward which we do well to direct the activities of the +school.</p> +<p>Integrity in its large import implies physical soundness, mental +soundness, and moral soundness. In time we may come to realize that +physical soundness and mental soundness are but sequences of moral +soundness, or, in other words, that a sound body and a sound mind +are manifestations of a right spirit. But, for the present, we may +waive this consideration and think of the three phases of +integrity—physical, mental and moral. If, at the age of +eighteen years, the boy or girl emerges from school experience +sound in body, in mind, and in spirit, society will affirm that +education has been effective. To develop young persons of this type +is a work that is worthy the best efforts of the home, the school, +the church and society, nor can any one of these agencies shift or +shirk responsibility. The school has a large share of this +responsibility, and those whose duty it is to formulate a course of +study may well ask themselves what procedure of the school will +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page29" name= +"page29"></a>[29]</span>best assist the child to attain integrity +by means of the school activities.</p> +<p>In our efforts to generate this quality of integrity, or, +indeed, any quality, it must be kept clearly in mind every day and +every hour of the day that the children with whom we have to do are +not all alike. On the contrary, they differ, and often differ +widely, in respect of mental ability, environment, inheritances, +and native disposition. If they were all alike, it would be most +unfortunate, but we could treat them all alike in our teaching and +so fix and perpetuate their likeness to one another. Some teachers +have heard and read a hundred times that our teaching should attach +itself to the native tendencies of the child; yet, in spite of +this, the teacher proceeds as if all children were alike and all +possessed the same native tendencies. Herein lies a part of the +tragedy of our traditional, stereotyped, race-track teaching. We +assume that children are all alike, that they are standardized +children, and so we prescribe for them a standardized diet and +serve it by standardized methods. If we were producing bricks +instead of embryo men and women our procedure would be laudable, +for, in the making of bricks, uniformity is a prime necessity. Each +brick must be exactly like every other brick, and, in consequence, +we use for each one ingredients of the same quality and in like +amount, and then subject them all to precisely the same +treatment.</p> +<p>This procedure is well enough in the case of inanimate bricks, +but it is far from well enough in the case of animate, sentient +human beings. It would be a calamity to have duplicate human +beings, and yet the traditional school seems to be doing its utmost +to produce duplicates. The native tendencies of one boy impel him +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page30" name= +"page30"></a>[30]</span>toward the realms of nature, but, all +heedless of this big fact, we bind him hard and fast to some +academic post with traditional bonds of rules and regulations and +then strive to coerce him into partaking of our traditional +pabulum. His inevitable rebellion against this regime we style +incorrigibility, or stupidity, and then by main strength and +authority strive to reduce him to submission and, failing in this, +we banish him from the school branded for life. Our treatment of +this boy is due to the fact that another boy in the school is +endowed with other native tendencies and the teacher is striving to +fashion both boys in the same mold.</p> +<p>In striving to inculcate the quality of integrity, wholeness, +soundness, rectitude in Sam Brown our aim is to develop this +specific boy into the best Sam Brown possible and not to try to +make of him another Harry Smith. We need one best Sam Brown and one +best Harry Smith but not two Harry Smiths. If we try to make our +Sam Brown into a second Harry Smith, society is certain to be the +loser to the value of Sam Brown. We want to see Sam Brown realize +all his possibilities to the utmost, for only so will he win +integrity. Better a complete Sam Brown, though only half the size +of Harry Smith, than an incomplete Sam Brown of any size. If the +native tendencies of Sam Brown lead toward nature, certain it is +that by denying him the stimulus of nature study, we shall restrict +his growth and render him less than complete. If we would produce a +complete Sam Brown, if we would have him attain integrity, we must +see to it that the process of teaching engages all his powers and +does not permit some of these powers to lie fallow.</p> +<p>If Sam Brown is a nature boy, no amount of coercion <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page31" name="page31"></a>[31]</span>can transform +him into a mathematics boy. True he may, in time, gain proficiency +in mathematics, but only if he is led into the field of mathematics +through the gateway of nature. He may ultimately achieve +distinction as a writer, but not unless his pen becomes facile in +depicting nature. Unless his native interests are taken fully into +account and all his powers are enlisted in the enterprise of +education toward integrity, he will never become the Sam Brown he +might have been and the teacher cannot win special comfort in the +reflection that she has helped to produce a cripple. We can better +afford to depart from the beaten path, and even do violence to the +sanctity of the course of study, than to lose or deform Sam Brown. +If his soul yearns for green fields and budding trees, it is cruel +if not criminal to fail to cater to this yearning. And only by +cultivating and ministering to this native disposition can we hope +to be of service in aiding him to achieve integrity.</p> +<p>It needs to be emphasized that integrity signifies one hundred +per cent, nothing less, and that such a goal is quite worth working +toward. On the physical side, the problem looms large before us. +Since we can produce thoroughbred live stock that scores one +hundred per cent, we ought to produce one hundred per cent men and +women. In a great university, physical examinations covering a +period of seventeen years discovered one physically perfect young +woman and not one physically perfect young man. Our live stock +records make a better showing than this. For years we have been +quoting “a sound mind in a sound body” in various +languages but have failed in a large degree to achieve sound +bodies. Nor, indeed, may we hope to win this goal until we become +aroused to the importance <span class="pagenum"><a id="page32" +name="page32"></a>[32]</span>of physical training in its widest +import for all young people and not merely for the already +physically fit, who constitute the ball teams. If the child is +physically sound at the age of six, he ought to be no less so at +the age of eighteen. If he is not so, there must have been some +blundering in the course of his school life, either on the part of +the school itself or of the home. When we set up physical soundness +as the goal of our endeavors and this ideal becomes enmeshed in the +consciousness of all citizens, then activities toward this end will +inevitably ensue. Physical training will be made an integral part +of the course of study, medical and dental inspection will obtain +both in the school and in the home, insanitary conditions will no +longer be tolerated, intemperance in every form will disappear, and +every child will receive the same careful nurture that we now +bestow upon the prize winners at our live-stock exhibition. The +thinking of people will be intent toward the one hundred per cent +standard and, in consequence, they will strive in unison to achieve +this goal.</p> +<p>The large amount of incompleteness that is to be found among the +products of our schools may be traced, in a large measure, to our +irrational and fictitious procedure in the matter of grading. We +must keep records, of course, but it will be recalled that in the +parable of the talents men were commended or condemned according to +the use they made of the talents they had and were not graded +according to a fixed standard. Seeing that seventy-five per cent +will win him promotion, the boy devotes only so much of himself to +the enterprise as will enable him to attain the goal and directs +the remainder of himself to adventures along the line of his native +tendencies. The only way <span class="pagenum"><a id="page33" name= +"page33"></a>[33]</span>by which we can develop a complete Sam +Brown is so to arrange matters that the whole of Sam Brown is +enlisted in the work. Otherwise we shall have one part of the boy +working in one direction and another part in another direction, and +that plan does not make for completeness. We must enlist the whole +boy or we shall fail to develop a complete boy. If we can find some +study to which he will devote himself unreservedly, then we may +well rejoice and can afford to let the traditional subjects of the +course of study wait. We are interested in Sam Brown just now and +he is far more important than some man-made course of study. We are +interested, too, in one hundred per cent of Sam Brown, and not in +three fourths of him. If arithmetic will not enlist all of this boy +and nature will enlist all of him, then arithmetic must be held in +abeyance in the interest of the whole boy.</p> +<p>The seventy-five per cent standard is repudiated by the world of +affairs even though it is emphasized by the school. Seventy-five +per cent of accuracy will not do in the transactions of the bank. +The accounts must balance to the penny. The figures are right or +else they are wrong. There is no middle ground. In the school the +boy solves three problems but fails with the fourth. None the less +he wins the goal of promotion. Not so at the bank. He is denied +admission because of his failure with the fourth problem. +Seventy-five will not do in joining the spans of the great bridge +across the river. We must have absolute accuracy if we would avoid +a wreck with its attendant horrors. The druggist must not fall +below one hundred per cent in compounding the prescription unless +he would face a charge of criminal negligence. The wireless +operator must transcribe the message with absolute accuracy or dire +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page34" name= +"page34"></a>[34]</span>consequences may ensue. The railway crew +must read the order without a mistake if they would save life and +property from disaster.</p> +<p>But, in the school, the teachers rejoice and congratulate one +another when their pupils achieve a grade of seventy-five. It +matters nothing, apparently, that this grade of seventy-five is a +fictitious thing with no basis in logic or reason, in short a mere +habit that has no justification save in tradition, and that, in +very truth, it is a concession to inaccuracy and ignorance. When we +promote the boy for solving three out of four problems we virtually +say to him that the fourth problem is negligible and he may as well +forget all about it. Sometimes a teacher grieves over a grade of +seventy-three, never realizing that another teacher might have +given to that same paper a grade of eighty-three. We proclaim +education to be a spiritual process, and then, in some instances, +employ mechanics to administer this process. By what process of +reasoning the superintendent or the teacher arrives at the judgment +that seventy-five is good enough is yet to be explained. Our zeal +for grades and credits indicates a greater interest in the label +than in the contents of the package.</p> +<p>Teaching is a noble work if only it is directed toward worthy +goals. Nothing in the way of human endeavor can be more inspiring +than the work of striving to integrate boys and girls. The mere +droning over geography, and history, and grammar is petty by +comparison. And yet all these studies and many others may be found +essential factors in the work and they will be learned with greater +thoroughness as means to a great end than as ends in themselves. +The supply stations take on a new meaning to the boy who is +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page35" name= +"page35"></a>[35]</span>yearning to reach the flag at the top. But +it needs to be said here that the traditional superintendent and +teacher will greet this entire plan with a supercilious smile. They +will call it visionary, unpractical, and idealistic—then +return to their seventy-five per cent regime with the utmost +complacency and self-satisfaction. It is ever so with the +traditional teacher. He seeks to be let alone, that he may go on +his complacent way without hindrance. To him every innovation is an +interference, if not a positive impertinence. But, in spite of the +traditional teacher, the school is destined to rise to a higher +level and enter upon a more rational procedure. And we must look to +the dynamic teacher to usher in the renaissance—the teacher +who has the vitality and the courage to break away from tradition +and write integrity into the course of study as one of the big +goals and think all the while toward integrity, physical, mental, +and moral.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page36" name= +"page36"></a>[36]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_5" id="Ch_5">Chapter Five</a></h3> +<h2>Appreciation</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Education may be defined as the process of raising the level of +appreciation. This definition will stand the ultimate test. Here is +bed-rock; here is the foundation upon which we may predicate +appreciation as a goal in every rational system of education. +Appreciation has been defined as a judgment of values, a feeling +for the essential worth of things, and, as such, it lies at the +very heart of real education. It must be so or civilization cannot +be. Without appreciation there can be no distinction between the +coarse and the fine, none between the high and the low, none +between the beautiful and the ugly, none between the sublime and +the commonplace, none between zenith and nadir. Hence, appreciation +is inevitable in every course of study, whether the authorities +have the courage to proclaim it or not. Just why it has not been +written into the course of study is inexplicable, seeing that it is +fundamental in the educational process. It is far from clear why +the superintendent permits teachers and pupils to go on their way +year after year thinking that arithmetic is their final +destination, or why he fails to take the tax-payers into his +confidence and explain to them that appreciation is one of the +lode-stars toward which the schools are advancing. In his heart he +hopes that the schools may achieve appreciation, and it would be +the part of frankness and fairness for him to reveal this hope to +his teachers and to all others concerned.</p> +<p>It is common knowledge that business affairs do not require more +than ten pages of arithmetic and it would <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page37" name="page37"></a>[37]</span>seem only +fair that the study of the other pages should be justified. These +other pages must serve some useful purpose in the thinking of those +who retain them, and, certainly, no harm would ensue from a +revelation of this purpose. If they are studied as a means to some +high end, they will prove no less important after this fact has +been explained. We may need more arithmetic than we have, but it is +our due to be informed why we need it; to what use it is to be put. +These things we have a right to know, and no superintendent, who is +charged with the responsibility of making the course of study, has +a right to withhold the information. If he does not know the +explanation of the course of study he has devised, he ought to make +known that fact and throw himself “on the mercy of the +court.”</p> +<p>In these days of conservation and elimination of waste every +subject that seeks admission to the course of study should be +challenged at the door and be made to show what useful purpose it +is to serve. Nor should any subject be admitted on any specious +pretext. If there are subjects that are better adapted to the high +purposes of education than the ones we are now using, then, by all +means, let us give them a hearty welcome.</p> +<p>Above all, we should be careful not to retain a subject unless +it has a more valid passport than old age to justify its retention. +If Chinese will help us win the goal of appreciation more +effectively than Latin, then, by all means, we should make the +substitution. But, in doing so, we must exercise care not to be +carried away by a yearning for novelty. Least of all should any +subject be admitted to the course of study that does not have +behind it something more substantial and enduring than whim or +caprice.</p> +<p>The subjects that avail in generating and stimulating +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page38" name= +"page38"></a>[38]</span>the growth of appreciation are many and of +great variety. Nor are they all found in the proverbial course of +study of the schools. When the boy first really sees an ear of corn +from another viewpoint than the economic, he finds it eloquent of +the marvelous adaptations of nature. From being a mere ear of corn +it becomes a revelation of design and beauty. No change has taken +place in the ear of corn, but a most important change has been +wrought in the boy. Such a change is so subtle, so delicate, and so +intangible that it cannot be measured in terms of per cents; but it +is no less real for all that. It is a spiritual process and, +therefore, aptly illustrates the accepted definition of education. +Though it defies analysis and the rule of thumb, the boy is +conscious of it and can say with the man who was born blind, +“One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I +see,” and no cabalistic marks in a grade-book can express the +value of the change indicated by that statement.</p> +<p>The sluggard deems the sunrise an impertinence because it +disturbs his morning slumber; but such a change may be wrought in +him as to cause him to stand in reverence before the very thing he +once condemned. The sunrise, once an affront, is now nothing less +than a miracle, and he stands in the sublime presence with +uncovered and lowered head. He is a reverent witness of the +re-birth of the world. An hour ago there was darkness; now there is +light. An hour ago the world was dead; now it is gloriously alive. +An hour ago there was silence; now there is sound of such exquisite +quality as to ravish the soul with delight. As the first beams of +sunlight come streaming over the hills, ten thousand birds join in +a mighty chorus of welcome to the newborn day and the world is +flooded with song; and the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page39" +name="page39"></a>[39]</span>whilom sluggard thrills under the +spell of the scene and feels himself a part of the world that is +vibrant with music. Can it be denied that this man is all the +better citizen for his ability to appreciate the wonderfulness of a +sunrise?</p> +<p>But while we extol and magnify the quality of appreciation, it +is well to note that it cannot be superinduced by any imperial +mandate nor does it spring into being at the behest of didacticism. +It can be caught but not taught. Indeed, it is worthy of general +observation that the choice things which young people receive from +the schools, colleges, and normal schools are caught and not +taught, however much the teachers may plume themselves upon their +ability to impart instruction. Education, at its best, is a process +of inoculation. The teacher is an important factor in this process +of generating situations that render inoculation far more easy; and +we omit one of the most vital things in education when we refer +only to the teacher’s ability to “impart +instruction.” The pupil gets certain things in that room, but +the teacher does not give them. The teacher’s function is to +create situations in which the spirit of the pupil will become +inoculated with the germs of truth in all its aspects. If he could +give the things that the pupils get, then all would share alike in +the distribution. If the teacher could impart instruction, he +certainly would not fail to lift all his pupils over the +seventy-five per cent hurdle.</p> +<p>If instruction or knowledge could be imparted, education would +no longer be a spiritual process but rather one of driving the boy +into a corner, imparting such instruction as the teacher might +decree and keeping on until the point of saturation was reached or +the supply of instruction became exhausted, when the trick would +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page40" name= +"page40"></a>[40]</span>be done. The process would be as simple as +pouring water from one vessel into another. Sometimes the teacher +of literature strives to engender appreciation in a pupil by +rhapsodizing over some passage. She reads the passage in a frenzy +of simulated enthusiasm, with a quaver in her voice and moisture in +her eyes, only to find, at the end, that her patient has fallen +asleep. Appreciation cannot be generated in such fashion. The boy +cannot light his torch of appreciation at a mere phosphorescent +glow. There must be heat behind the light or there can be no +ignition. The boy senses the fictitious at once and cannot react to +what he knows to be spurious. Only the genuine can win his +interest.</p> +<p>Napoleon Bonaparte once said that no one can gaze into the +starry sky at night for five minutes and not believe in the +existence of God. But to people who lack such appreciation the +night sky is devoid of significance. There are teachers who never +go forth to revel in the glories of this star-lit masterpiece of +creation, because, forsooth, they are too busy grading papers in +literature. Such a teacher is not likely to be the cause of a +spiritual ignition in her pupils, for she herself lacks the divine +fire of appreciation. If she only possessed this quality no words +would be needed to reveal its presence to the boy; he would know it +even as the homing-pigeon knows its course. When the spirits of +teacher and pupils become merged as they must become in all true +teaching, the boy will find himself in possession of this spiritual +quality. He knows that he has it, the teacher knows that he has it, +and his associates know that he has it, and one and all know that +it is well worth having.</p> +<p>It is related of Keats that in reading Spenser he <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page41" name="page41"></a>[41]</span>was thrown +into a paroxysm of delight over the expression +“sea-shouldering whales.” The churl would not give a +second thought to the phrase, or, indeed, a first one; but the man +of appreciation finds in it a source of pleasure. Arlo Bates speaks +with enthusiasm of the word “highly” as used in the +Gettysburg Speech, and the teacher’s work reaches a high +point of excellence when it has given to the pupil such a feeling +of appreciation as enables him to discover and rejoice in such +niceties of literary expression. It widens the horizon of life to +him and gives him a deeper and closer sympathy with every form and +manifestation of life. Every phase of life makes an appeal to him, +from bird on the wing to rushing avalanche; from the blade of grass +to the boundless plains; from the prattle of the child to the word +miracles of Shakespeare; from the stable of Bethany to the Mount of +Transfiguration.</p> +<p>Geography lends itself admirably to the development of +appreciation if it is well taught. Indeed, to develop appreciation +seems to be the prime function of geography, and the marvel is that +it has not been so proclaimed. In this field geography finds a +clear justification, and the superintendent who sets forth +appreciation as the end and geography as the means is certain to +win the plaudits of many people who have long been wondering why +there is so much geography in the present course of study. +Certainly no appreciation can develop from the question and answer +method, for no spiritual quality can thrive under such deadening +conditions. If the questions emanated from the pupils, the +situation would be improved, but such is rarely the case. Teaching +is, in reality, a transfusion of spirit, and when this flow of +spirit from teacher to pupil is unimpeded teaching is at high tide. +When the subject is <span class="pagenum"><a id="page42" name= +"page42"></a>[42]</span>artfully and artistically developed the +effect upon the child is much the same as that of unrolling a great +and beautiful picture. The Mississippi River can be taught as a +great drama, from its rise in Lake Itasca to its triumphal entry +into the Gulf. As it takes its way southward pine forests wave +their salutes, then wheat fields, then corn fields, and, later, +cotton fields. Then its tributaries may be seen coming upon the +stage to help swell the mighty sweep of progress toward the sea. +When geography is taught as a drama, appreciation is +inevitable.</p> +<p>The resourceful teacher can find a thousand dramas in the books +on geography if she knows how to interpret the pages of the books, +and with these inspiring dramas she can lift her pupils to the very +pinnacle of appreciation. Such tales are as fascinating as fairy +stories and have the added charm of being true to the teachings of +science. A raindrop seems a common thing, but cast in dramatic form +it becomes of rare charm. It slides from the roof of the house and +finds its way into the tiny rivulet, then into the brook, then into +the river and thus finally reaches the sea. By the process of +evaporation, it is transformed into vapor and is carried over the +land by currents of air. As it comes into contact with colder +currents, condensation ensues and then precipitation, and our +raindrop descends to earth once more. Sinking into the soil at the +foot of the tree it is taken up into the tree by capillary +attraction, out through the branches and then into the fruit. Then +comes the sunshine to ripen the fruit, and finally this fruit is +harvested and borne to the market, whence it reaches the home. Here +it is served at the breakfast table and the curtain of our drama +goes down with our raindrop as orange-juice on the lip of the +little girl.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page43" name= +"page43"></a>[43]</span>When we come to realize, in our enlarged +vision, the possibilities of geography in fostering the quality of +appreciation, our teaching of the subject will be changed and +vitalized, our textbooks will be written from a different angle, +and our pupils will receive a much larger return upon their +investment of time and effort. The study of geography will be far +less like the conning of a gazetteer or a city directory and more +like a fascinating story. In our astronomical geography we shall +make many a pleasing excursion into the far spaces and win +stimulating glimpses into the infinities. In our physical geography +we shall read marvelous stories that outrival the romances of Dumas +and Hugo. And geography as a whole will reveal herself as the +cherishing mother of us all, providing us with food, and drink, and +shelter, and raiment, giving us poetry, and song, and story, and +weaving golden fancies for the fabric of our daily dreams.</p> +<p>And when, at length, through the agency of geography and the +other means at hand, our young people have achieved the endowment +of appreciation, life will be for them a fuller and richer +experience and they will be better fitted to play their parts as +intelligent, cultivated men and women. The gateways will stand wide +open through which they can enter into the palace of life to revel +in all its beauteous splendor. They will receive a welcome into the +friendship of the worthy good and great of all ages. When they have +gained an appreciation of the real meaning of literature, children +who have become immortal will cluster about them and nestle close +in their thoughts and affections,—Tiny Tim, Little Jo, Little +Nell, Little Boy Blue, and Eppie. A visitor in Turner’s +studio once said to the artist, “Really, Mr. Turner, I +can’t see in nature the colors <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page44" name="page44"></a>[44]</span>you portray on canvas.” +Whereupon the artist replied, “Don’t you wish you +could?” When our pupils gain the ability to read and enjoy +the message of the artist they will be able to hold communion with +Raphael, Michael Angelo, Murillo, Rembrandt, Rosa Bonheur, Titian, +Corot, Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Fra Angelico, and Ghiberti. In +the realms of poetry they will be able to hold agreeable converse +with Shelley, Keats, Southey, Mrs. Browning, Milton, Victor Hugo, +Hawthorne, Poe, and Shakespeare. And when the great procession of +artists, poets, scientists, historians, dramatists, statesmen, and +philanthropists file by to greet their gaze, entranced they will be +able to applaud.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page45" name= +"page45"></a>[45]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_6" id="Ch_6">Chapter Six</a></h3> +<h2>Aspiration</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Browning says, “’Tis not what man Does which exalts +him, but what man Would do.” The boy who has acquired the +habit of wishing ardently in right directions is well on the way +toward becoming educated. For earnest wishing precedes and +conditions every achievement that is worthy the name. The man who +does not wish does not achieve, and the man who does wish with +persistency and consistency does not fail of achievement. Had +Columbus not wished with consuming ardor to circumnavigate the +globe, he would never have encountered America. The Atlantic cable +figured in the dreams and wishes of Cyrus W. Field long before even +the preliminaries became realities. The wish evermore precedes the +blueprint. It required forty-two years for Ghiberti to translate +his dream into the reality that we know as the bronze doors of the +Baptistry. But had there been no dreams there had been no bronze +doors, and the world of art would have been the poorer. Every +tunnel that pierces a mountain; every bridge that spans a river; +every building whose turrets pierce the sky; every invention that +lifts a burden from the shoulders of humanity; every reform that +gilds the world with the glow of hope, was preceded by a wish whose +gossamer strands were woven in a human brain. The Red Cross of +today is but a dream of Henri Dunant realized and grown large.</p> +<p>The student who scans the records of historical achievements and +of the triumphs of art, music, science, literature, and +philanthropy must realize that ardent <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page46" name="page46"></a>[46]</span>wishing is the condition +precedent to further extension in any of these lines, and he must +be aware, too, that the ranks of wishers must be recruited from +among the children of our schools. The yearning to achieve is the +urge of the divine part of each one of us, and it naturally follows +that whoever does not have this yearning has been reduced to the +plane of abnormality in that the divine part of him has been +subordinated, submerged, stifled. Every fervent wish is a prayer +that emanates from this divine part of us, and, in all reverence, +it may be said that we help to answer our own prayers. When we wish +ardently we work earnestly to cause our dreams to come true. We are +told that every wish comes true if we only wish hard enough, and +this statement finds abundant confirmation in the experiences of +those who have achieved.</p> +<p>The child’s wishes have their origin and abode in his +native interests and when we have determined what his wishes are, +we have in hand the clue that will lead us to the inmost shrine of +his native tendencies. This, as has been so frequently said, is the +point of attack for all our teaching, this the particular point +that is most sensitive to educational inoculation. If we find that +the boy is eager to have a wireless outfit and is working with +supreme intensity to crystallize his wish into tangible and +workable form, quite heedless of clock hours, it were unkind to the +point of cruelty and altogether unpedagogical to force him away +from this congenial task into some other work that he will do only +in a heartless and perfunctory way. If we yearn to have him study +Latin, we shall do well to carry the wireless outfit over into the +Latin field, for the boy will surely follow wherever this outfit +leads. But if we destroy the wireless apparatus, in the hope that +we <span class="pagenum"><a id="page47" name= +"page47"></a>[47]</span>shall thus stimulate his interest in Latin, +the scar that we shall leave upon his spirit will rise in judgment +against us to the end of life. The Latin may be desirable and +necessary for the boy, but the wireless comes first in his wishes +and we must go to the Latin by way of the wireless.</p> +<p>It is the high privilege of the teacher to make and keep her +pupils hungry, to stimulate in them an incessant ardent longing and +yearning. This is her chief function. If she does this she will +have great occasion to congratulate herself upon her own progress +as well as theirs. If they are kept hungry, the sources of supply +will not be able to elude them, for children have great facility +and resourcefulness in the art of foraging. They readily discover +the lurking places of the substantials as well as of the tid-bits +and the sweets. They easily scent the trail of the food for which +their spiritual or bodily hunger calls. The boy who yearns for the +wireless need not be told where he may find screws, bolts, and +hammer. The girl who yearns to paint will somehow achieve pigments, +brushes, palette, and teachers. Appetite is the principal thing; +the rest comes easy. The hungry child lays the whole world under +tribute and cheerfully appropriates whatever fits into his wishes. +If his neighbor a mile distant has a book for which he feels a +craving, the two-mile walk in quest of that book is invested with +supreme charm, no matter what the weather. The apple may be hanging +on the topmost bough, but the boy who is apple-hungry recks not of +height nor of the labyrinth of hostile branches. He gets the apple. +As some one has said, “The soul reaches out for the cloak +that fits it.”</p> +<p>There is nothing more pathetic in the whole realm <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page48" name="page48"></a>[48]</span>of school +procedure than the frantic efforts of some teachers to feed their +pupils instead of striving to create spiritual hunger. They require +pupils to “take” so many problems, con so many words of +spelling, turn so many pages of a book on history, and then have +them try to repeat in an agony of effort words from a book that +they neither understand nor feel an interest in. The teacher would +feed them whether they have any craving for food or not. Such +teachers seem to be immune to the teachings of psychology and +pedagogy; they continue to travel the way their grandparents trod, +spurning the practices of Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Francis Parker. +They seem not to know that their pupils are predatory beings who +are quite capable of ransacking creation to get the food for which +they feel a craving. Not appreciating the nature of their pupils, +they continue the process of feeding and stuffing them and thus +fall into the fatal blunder of mistaking distention for +education.</p> +<p>Ruth McEnery Stuart has set out this whole matter most lucidly +and cogently in her volume entitled <em>Sonny</em>. In this story +the boy had four teachers who took no account of his aspirations +and natural tendencies, but insisted upon feeding him traditional +food by traditional methods. To them it mattered not that he was +unlike other boys. What was suitable for them must be equally +suitable for him. The story goes that a certain school-master was +expounding the passage “Be ye pure in heart.” Turning +to the boys he exclaimed, “Are you pure in heart? If +you’re not, I’ll flog you till you are.” So with +Sonny’s four teachers. If he had no appetite for their kind +of food, they’d feed it to him till he had. But when the +appetite failed to come as the result of their much feeding, they +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page49" name= +"page49"></a>[49]</span>banished him to outer darkness with +epithets expressive of their disappointment and disgust. They +washed their hands of him and were glad to be rid of him.</p> +<p>His next teacher, however, was different. She sensed his +unlikeness to other boys and knew, instinctively, that his case +demanded and deserved special treatment. She consulted his +aspirations and appraised his native tendencies. In doing so, she +discovered an embryo naturalist and thus became aware of the task +to which she must address herself. So she spread her nets for all +living and creeping things, for the beasts of the forest, the birds +of the air, for plants, and flowers, and stones,—in short, +for all the works of nature. In name she was his teacher, but in +reality she was his pupil, and his other four teachers might have +become members of the class with rich profit to themselves. In his +examination for graduation the boy utterly confounded and routed +the members of the examining committee by the profundity and +breadth of his knowledge and they were glad to check his onslaught +upon the ramparts of their ignorance by awarding him a diploma.</p> +<p>It devolves upon the superintendent and teachers, therefore, to +determine what studies already in the schools or what others that +may be introduced will best serve the purpose of fostering +aspiration. They cannot deny that this quality is an essential +element in the spiritual composition of every well-conditioned +child as well as of every rightly constituted man and woman. For +aspiration means life, and the lack of aspiration means death. The +man who lacks aspiration is static, dormant, lifeless, inert; the +man who has aspiration is dynamic, forceful, potent, regnant. +Aspiration is the animating power that gives wings to the forces of +life. It is the motive power that induces the <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page50" name="page50"></a>[50]</span>currents of +life. The man who has aspiration yearns to climb to higher levels, +to make excursions into the realms that lie beyond his present +horizon, and to traverse the region that lies between what he now +is and what he may become. It is the dove that goes forth from the +ark to make discovery of the new lands that beckon.</p> +<p>In a former book the author tried to set forth the influence of +the poet in generating aspiration, and in this attempt used the +following words: “When he would teach men to aspire he writes +<em>Excelsior</em> and so causes them to know that only he who +aspires really lives. They see the groundling, the boor, the +drudge, and the clown content to dwell in the valley amid the +loaves and fishes of animal desires, while the man who aspires is +struggling toward the heights whence he may gain an outlook upon +the glories that are, know the throb and thrill of new life, and +experience the swing and sweep of spiritual impulses. He makes them +to know that the man who aspires recks not of cold, of storm, or of +snow, if only he may reach the summit and lave his soul in the +glory that crowns the marriage of earth and sky. They feel that the +aspirant is but yielding obedience to the behests of his better +self to scale the heights where sublimity dwells.”</p> +<p>It were useless for teachers to pooh-pooh this matter as +visionary and inconsequential or to disregard aspiration as a vital +factor in the scheme of education. This quality is fundamental and +may not, therefore, be either disregarded or slurred. Fundamental +qualities must engage the thoughtful attention of all true +educators, for these fundamentals must constitute the ground-work +of every reform in our school procedure. There can be life without +arithmetic, but there can be no <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page51" name="page51"></a>[51]</span>real life without aspiration. +It points to higher and fairer levels of life and impels its +possessor onward and upward. This needs to be fully recognized by +the schools that would perform their high functions worthily, and +no teacher can with impunity evade this responsibility. Somehow, we +must contrive to instill the quality of aspiration into the lives +of our pupils if we would acquit ourselves of this obligation. To +do less than this is to convict ourselves of stolidity or +impotence.</p> +<p>Chief among the agencies that may be made to contribute +generously in this high enterprise is history, or more +specifically, biography, which is quintessential history. A boy +proceeds upon the assumption that what has been done may be done +again and, possibly, done even better. When he reads of the +beneficent achievements of Edison he becomes fired with zeal to +equal if not surpass these achievements. Obstacles do not daunt the +boy who aspires. Everything becomes possible in the light and heat +of his zeal. Since Edison did it, he can do it, and no amount of +discouragement can dissuade him from his lofty purpose. He sets his +goal high and marches toward it with dauntless courage. If a +wireless outfit is his goal, bells may ring and clocks may strike, +but he hears or heeds them not.</p> +<p>To be effective the teaching of history must be far more than +the mere droning over the pages of a book. It must be so vital that +it will set the currents of life in motion. In his illuminating +report upon the schools of Denmark, Mr. Edwin G. Cooley quotes +Bogtrup on the teaching of history as follows: “History does +not mean books and maps; it is not to be divided into lessons and +gone through with a pointer like any other paltry school subject. +History lies before our eyes like a <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page52" name="page52"></a>[52]</span>mighty and turbulent ocean, +into which the ages run like rivers. Its rushing waves bring to our +listening ears the sound of a thousand voices from the olden time. +With our pupils we stand on the edge of a cliff and gaze over this +great sea; we strive to open their eyes to its power and beauty; we +point out the laws of the rise and fall of the waves, and of the +strong under-currents. We strive by poetic speech to open their +ears to the voices of the sea which in our very blood run through +the veins from generation to generation, and, humming and singing, +echo in our innermost being.”</p> +<p>Such teaching of history as is here portrayed will never fall +upon dull ears or unresponsive spirits. It will thrill the youth +with a consuming desire to be up and doing. He will ignite at touch +of the living fire. His soul will become incandescent and the glow +will warm him into noble action. He yearns to emulate the triumphs +of those who have preceded him on the stage of endeavor. If he +reads “The Message to Garcia” he feels himself +pulsating with the zeal to do deeds of valor and heroism. Whether +the records deal with Clara Barton, Nathan Hale, Frances Willard, +Mrs. Stowe, Columbus, Lincoln, William the Silent, Erasmus, or +Raphael, if these people are present as vital entities the young +people will thrill under the spell of the entrancing stories. Then +will history and biography come into their own as means to a great +end, and then will aspiration take its rightful place as one of the +large goals in the scheme of education. As Browning says, “A +man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven +for?” and again:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>What I aspired to be</p> +<p>And was not, comforts me.</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page53" name= +"page53"></a>[53]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_7" id="Ch_7">Chapter Seven</a></h3> +<h2>Initiative</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>No one who gives the matter thoughtful consideration will ever +deprecate or disparage the possession of the virtue of obedience; +but, on the other hand, no such thoughtful person will attempt to +deny that this virtue, desirable as it is, may be fostered and +emphasized to such a degree that its possessor will become a mere +automaton. And this is bad; indeed, very bad. We extol obedience, +to be sure, but not the sort of blind, unthinking obedience that +will reduce its possessor to the status of the mechanical toy which +needs only to be wound up and set going. The factory superintendent +is glad to have men about him who are able to work efficiently from +blueprints; but he is glad, also, to have men about him who can +dispense with blueprints altogether or can make their own. The +difference between these two types of operatives spells the +difference between leadership and mere blind, automatic following. +Were all the workers in the factory mere followers, the work would +be stereotyped and the factory would be unable to compete with the +other factory, where initiative and leadership obtain.</p> +<p>One psychologist avers that ninety per cent of our education +comes through imitation; but, even so, it is quite pertinent to +inquire into the remaining ten per cent. Conceding that we adopt +our styles of wearing apparel at the behest of society; that we +fashion and furnish our homes in conformity to prevailing customs; +that we permit press and pulpit to formulate for us our opinions +and beliefs; in short, that we are imitators up to the full ninety +per cent limit, it still must seem <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page54" name="page54"></a>[54]</span>obvious to the close observer +that the remaining ten per cent has afforded us a vast number and +variety of improvements that tend to make life more agreeable. This +ten per cent has substituted the modern harvester for the sickle +and cradle with which our ancestors harvested their grain; it has +brought us the tractor for the turning of the soil in place of the +primitive plow; it has enabled us to use the auto-truck in +marketing our products instead of the ox-teams of the olden times; +it has brought us the telegraph and telephone with which to send +the message of our desires across far spaces; and it has supplied +us with conveniences and luxuries that our grandparents could not +imagine even in their wildest fancies.</p> +<p>A close scrutiny will convince even the most incredulous that +many teachers and schools arc doing their utmost, in actual +practice if not in theory, to eliminate the ten per cent margin and +render their pupils imitators to the full one hundred per cent +limit. We force the children to travel our standard pedagogical +tracks and strive to fashion and fix them in our standard +pedagogical molds. And woe betide the pupil who jumps the track or +shows an inclination to travel a route not of the teacher’s +choosing! He is haled into court forthwith and enjoined to render a +strict accounting for his misdoing; for anything that is either +less or more than a strict conformity to type is accounted a +defection. We demand absolute obedience to the oracular edicts of +the school as a passport to favor. Conformity spells salvation for +the child and, in the interests of peace, he yields, albeit +grudgingly, to the inevitable.</p> +<p>In world affairs we deem initiative a real asset, but one of the +saddest of our mistakes in ordering school <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page55" name="page55"></a>[55]</span>activities +consists in our fervid attempts to prove that the school is +detached from life and something quite apart from the world. We +would have our pupils believe that, when they are in school, they +are neither in nor of the world. At our commencement exercises we +tell the graduates that they are now passing across a threshold out +into the world; that they are now entering into the realms of real +life; and that on the morrow they will experience the initial +impact of practical life. These time-worn expressions pass current, +at face value, among enthusiastic relatives and friends, but there +are those in the audience who know them to be the veriest cant, +with no basis either in logic or in common sense. It is nothing +short of foolishness to assert that a young person must attain the +age of eighteen years before he enters real life. The child knows +that his home is a part of the world and an element in life, that +the grocery is another part, the post-office still another part, +and so on through an almost endless list. Equally well does he know +that the school is a part of life, because it enters into his daily +experiences the same as the grocery and the post-office. Full well +does he know that he is not outside of life when he is in school, +and no amount of sophistry can convince him otherwise. If the +school is not an integral part of the world and of life, so much +the worse for the school and, by the same token, so much the worse +for the teacher. Either the school is a part of the world or else +it is neither a real nor a worthy school.</p> +<p>The hours which the child spends in school are quite as much a +part of his life as any other portion of the day, no matter what +activities the school provides, and we do violence to the facts +when we assume or argue <span class="pagenum"><a id="page56" name= +"page56"></a>[56]</span>otherwise. Here is a place for emphasis. +Here is the rock on which many a pedagogical bark has suffered +shipwreck. We become so engrossed in the mechanics of our +task—grades, tests, examinations, and promotions—that +we lose sight of the fact that we are dealing with real life in a +situation that is a part of the real world. The best preparation +for life is to practice life aright, and this is the real function +of the school. If teachers only could or would give full +recognition to this simple, open truth, there would soon ensue a +wide departure from some of our present mechanized methods. But so +long as we cling to the traditional notion that school is detached +from real life, so long shall we continue to pursue our +merry-go-round methods. If we could fully realize that we are +teaching life by the laboratory method, many a vague and misty +phase of our work would soon become clarified.</p> +<p>Seeing, then, that the school is a cross-section of life, it +follows, naturally, that it embodies the identical elements that +constitute life as a whole. We all know, by experience, that life +abounds in vicissitudes, discouragements, trials, and obstacles, +and the school, being a part of real life, must furnish forth the +same elements even if of less magnitude. There are obstacles, to be +sure, and there should be. Abraham Lincoln once said, “When +you can’t remove an obstacle, plow around it.” But +teachers are prone to remove the obstacles from the pathway of +their pupils when they should be training them to surmount these +obstacles or, failing that for the time being, to plow around them. +It is far easier, however, for the teacher to solve the problem for +the boy than to stimulate him to solve it independently. If we +would train the boy to leap over hurdles, we must supply the +hurdles and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page57" name= +"page57"></a>[57]</span>not remove them from his path. Still +further, we must elevate the hurdles, by easy gradations, if we +would increase the boy’s powers and prowess.</p> +<p>Professor Edgar James Swift says, “Man expends just energy +enough to satisfy the demands of the situation in which he is +placed.” This statement is big with meaning for all who have +a true conception of pedagogy and of life. In this sentence we see +the finger-board that points toward high achievements in teaching. +If the hurdles are too low, the boy becomes flaccid, flabby, +sluggish, and lethargic. The hurdles should be just high enough to +engage his full strength, physical, mental, and moral. They should +ever be a challenge to his best efforts. But they should never be +so high that they will invite discouragement, disaster, and +failure. The teacher should guard against elevating hurdles as an +exhibition of her own reach. The gymnasium is not a stage for +exhibitions. On the contrary, it is a place for graduated, +cumulative training.</p> +<p>Our inclination is to make life easy and agreeable to our pupils +rather than real. To this end we help them over the difficulties, +answer questions which they do not ask, and supply them with +crutches when we should be training them to walk without artificial +aids. The passing mark rather than real training seems to be made +the goal of our endeavors even if we enfeeble the child by so +doing. We seem to measure our success by the number of promotions +and not by the quality of the training we give. We seem to be +content to produce weaklings if only we can push them through the +gateway of promotion. It matters not that they are unable to find +their way alone through the mazes of life; let them acquire that +ability later, after they <span class="pagenum"><a id="page58" +name="page58"></a>[58]</span>have passed beyond our control. Again +quoting from Professor Swift, “Following a leader, even +though that leader be the teacher, tends to take from children +whatever latent ability for initiative they may have.”</p> +<p>There is a story of an indulgent mother who was quite eager that +her boy should have a pleasant birthday and so asked him what he +would most like to do. The answer came in a flash: “Thank +you, Mother, I should most like just to be let alone.” This +answer leads us at once to the inner sanctuary of childhood. +Children yearn to be let alone and must grow restive under the +incessant attentions of their elders. In school there is ever such +a continuous fusillade of questions and answers, assigning of +lessons, recitations, corrections, explanations, and promulgations, +rules and restrictions that the children have no time for growing +inside. They are not left to their own devices but are pulled and +pushed about, and managed, and coddled or coerced all day long, so +that there is neither time nor scope for the exercise and +development of initiative. The teacher, at times, seems to think of +the school as a mammoth syringe with which she is called upon to +pump information into her bored but passive pupils.</p> +<p>Silence is the element in which initiative thrives, but our +school programs rarely provide any periods of silence. They assume +that to be effective a school must be a place of bustle, and hurry, +and excitement, not to mention entertainment. Sometimes the child +is intent upon explorations among the infinities when the teacher +summons him back to earth to cross a <em>t</em> or dot an +<em>i</em>. The teacher who would implant a thought-germ in the +minds of her pupils and then allow fifteen minutes of silence for +the process of germination, should be ranked as an excellent +teacher. When the child <span class="pagenum"><a id="page59" name= +"page59"></a>[59]</span>is thinking out things for himself the +process is favorable to initiative; but when the teacher directs +his every movement, thought, and impulse, she is repressing the +very quality that makes for initiative and ultimate leadership. +When the boy would do some things on his own, the teacher is +striving to force him to travel in her groove.</p> +<p>Henderson well says: “We do not invariably cultivate +initiative by letting children alone, but in nine cases out of ten +it is a highly effective method. In our honest desire for their +betterment, the temptation is always to jump in and to do for them, +when we would much better keep hands off, and allow them, under +favorable conditions, to do for themselves. They may do something +which, from an objective point of view, is much less excellent than +our own well-considered plan. But education is not an objective +process. It is subjective and was wrapped up in the funny +blundering little enterprise of the child, rather than in our own +intrusive one.” The crude product of the boy’s work in +manual training is far better for him and for the whole process of +education than the finished product of the teacher’s skill +which sometimes passes for the boy’s own work. Some manual +training teachers have many a sin charged to their account in this +line that stands in dire need of forgiveness.</p> +<p>There are many worthy enterprises through which initiative may +be fostered. Prominent among these are some of the home and school +projects that are in vogue. These projects, when wisely selected +with reference to the child’s powers and inclination, give +scope for the exercise of ingenuity, resourcefulness, perseverance, +and unhampered thinking and acting. Besides, some of the +by-products are of value, notably self-reliance <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page60" name="page60"></a>[60]</span>and +self-respect. A child yearns to play a thinking part in the drama +of life and not the part of a marionette or jumping-jack that moves +only when someone pulls the string. He yearns to be an entity and +not a mere echo. Paternalism, in our school work, does not make for +self-reliance, and, therefore, is to be deplored. There is small +hope for the child without initiative, who is helped over every +slightest obstacle, and who acquires the habit of calling for help +whenever he encounters a difficulty.</p> +<p>Here we have ample scope for the problem element in teaching and +we are recreant to our opportunities and do violence to +child-nature if we fail to utilize this method. We are much given +to the analytic in our teaching, whereas the pupil enjoys the +synthetic. He yearns to make things. Constructing problems in +arithmetic, or history, or physics makes a special appeal to him +and we do violence to his natural bent if we fail to accord him the +opportunity. We can send him in quest of dramatic situations in the +poem, or derivatives in his reading lesson, set him thinking of the +construction of farm buildings or machinery, or lead him to seek +the causes that led up to events in history. In brief, we can +appeal to his curiosity and intelligence and so engage the +intensest interest of the whole boy.</p> +<p>A school girl assumed the task of looking after all the repairs +in the way of plumbing in the home and, certainly, was none the +worse for the experience. She is now a dentist and has achieved +distinction both at home and abroad in her chosen profession. She +gained the habit of meeting difficult situations without abatement +of dignity or refinement. The school, at its best, is a favorable +situation for self-education and the wise teacher will see to it +that it does not decline from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page61" +name="page61"></a>[61]</span>this high plane. Only so will its +products be young men and women who need no leading strings, who +can find their way about through the labyrinth of life and not be +abashed. They are the ones to whom we must look for leadership in +all the enterprises of life, for they have learned how to initiate +work and carry it through to success. That school will win +distinction which makes initiative one of its big goals and is +diligent in causing the activities of the pupils to reach upward +toward the achievement of this end.</p> +<p>We may well conclude with a quotation from Dr. Henry van Dyke: +“The mere pursuit of knowledge is not necessarily an +emancipating thing. There is a kind of reading which is as passive +as massage. There is a kind of study which fattens the mind for +examination like a prize pig for a county fair. No doubt the +beginning of instruction must lie chiefly in exercises of +perception and memory. But at a certain point the reason and the +judgment must be awakened and brought into voluntary play. As a +teacher I would far rather have a pupil give an incorrect answer in +a way which showed that he had really been thinking about the +subject, than a literally correct answer in a way which showed that +he had merely swallowed what I had told him, and regurgitated it on +the examination paper.”</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page62" name= +"page62"></a>[62]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_8" id="Ch_8">Chapter Eight</a></h3> +<h2>Imagination</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>In his very stimulating book, <em>Learning and Doing</em>, +Professor Swift quotes from a business man as follows: +“Modern business no longer waits for men to qualify after +promotion. Through anticipation and prior preparation every growing +man must be largely ready for his new job when it comes to him. I +find very few individuals make any effort to think out better ways +of doing things. They do not anticipate needs, do not keep +themselves fresh at the growing point. If ever they had any +imagination they seem to have lost it, and imagination is needed in +a growing business, for it is through the imagination that one +anticipates future changes and so prepares for them before they +come. Accordingly, as a general proposition, the selection of a man +for a vacancy within the organization is more or less a matter of +guesswork. Now and then an ambitious, wide-awake young man works +into the organization and in a very short time is spotted by +various department managers for future promotion, but the number of +such individuals is discouragingly small. The difficulty with which +we are always confronted is that our business grows faster than do +those within it. The men do not keep up with our changes. The +business grows away from them, and quite reluctantly the management +is frequently compelled to go outside for necessary material. We +need, at the present time, four or five subordinate chiefs in +various parts of the factory and I can fill none of the positions +satisfactorily from material in hand.”</p> +<p>This business man, unconsciously perhaps, puts his <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page63" name="page63"></a>[63]</span>finger upon +one of the weak places in our school procedure. He convicts us of +stifling and repressing the imagination of our pupils. For it is a +matter of common knowledge that every normal child is endowed with +a vivid imagination when he enters school. No one will challenge +this statement who has entered into the heart of childhood through +the gateway of play. He has seen a rag doll invested with all the +graces of a princess; he has seen empty spools take on all the +attributes of the railway train; and he has seen the child’s +world peopled with entities of which the unimaginative person +cannot know. Children revel in the lore of fairyland, and in this +realm nothing seems impossible to them. Their toys are the material +which their imagination uses in building new and delightful worlds +for them. If this imagination is unimpaired when they become +grown-ups, these toys are called ideals, and these ideals are the +material that enter into the lives of poets, artists, inventors, +scientists, orators, statesmen, and reformers. If the child lacks +this quality at the end of his school life, the school must be held +responsible, at least in part, and so must face the charge of doing +him an irreparable injury. It were better by far for the child to +lose a leg or an arm somewhere along the school way than to lose +his imagination. Better abandon the school altogether if it tends +to quench the divine fire of imagination. Better still, devise some +plan of so reconstructing the work of the school that we shall +forever forestall the possibility of producing a generation of +spiritual cripples.</p> +<p>The business man already quoted gives to the schools their cue. +He shows the need of imagination in practical affairs and, by +implication, shows that the school has been recreant to its +opportunities in the way of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page64" +name="page64"></a>[64]</span>stimulating this requisite quality. We +must be quite aware that the men and women who have done things as +well as those who are doing things have had or have imagination. +Otherwise no achievements would be set down to their credit. It is +the very acme of unwisdom to expect our pupils to accomplish things +and then take from them the tools of their craft. Imagination is an +indispensable tool, and the teacher assumes a grave responsibility +who either destroys or blunts it. Unless the school promotes +imagination it is not really a school, seeing that it omits from +its plans and practices this basic quality. Too much emphasis +cannot be laid upon this patent truth, nor can we deplore too +earnestly the tendency of many teachers to strangle +imagination.</p> +<p>We all recognize C. Hanford Henderson as one of our most fertile +and sane writers on educational themes and we cannot do better just +here than to quote, even at some length, from his facile pen: +“To say of man or woman that they have no imagination is to +convict them of many actual and potential sins. Such a defect means +obtuseness in manners and morals, sterility in arts and science, +blundering in the general conduct of life. Children are often +accused of having too much imagination, but in reality that is +hardly possible. The imagination may run riot, and, growing by what +it feeds upon, come dangerously near to untruthfulness,—the +store of facts may have been too small. But the remedy is not to +cripple or kill the imagination; it is rather to provide the needed +equipment of facts and to train the imagination to work within the +limits of truth and probability. The unimaginative man is +exceedingly dull company. From the moment he opens his eyes in the +morning until he closes <span class="pagenum"><a id="page65" name= +"page65"></a>[65]</span>them at night, he is prone to the sins of +both omission and commission. No matter how good his intentions, he +constantly offends. No matter how great his industry, he fails to +attain. One can trace many immoralities, from slight breaches of +manners to grave criminal offenses, to a simple lack of +imagination. The offender failed to see,—he was, to all +intents and purposes, blind. At its best, imagination is insight. +It is the direct source of most of our social amenities, of +toleration, charity, consideration,—in a word, of all those +social virtues which distinguish the child of light.” Another +fertile writer says: “Many a child has been driven with a +soul-wound into corroding silence by parents who thought they were +punishing falsehood when they were in reality repressing the +imagination—the faculty which master-artists denote as the +first and loveliest possession of the creative mind.”</p> +<p>Some of our boys will be farmers but, if they lack imagination, +they will be dull fellows, at the very best, and, relatively +speaking, not far above the horse that draws the plow. The girls +will be able to talk, but if they lack imagination they can never +become conversationalists. The person who has imagination can cause +the facts of the multiplication table to scintillate and glow. The +person who lacks imagination is unable to invest with interest and +charm even the mountain, the river, the landscape, or the poem. The +gossip, the scandal-monger, or the coarse jester proves his lack of +imagination and his consequent inability to hold his own in real +conversation. We hope, of course, that some of our pupils may +become inventors, but this will be impossible unless they possess +imagination. A sociologist states the case in this fashion: +“Wealth, the transient, is material; achievement, the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name= +"page66"></a>[66]</span>enduring, is immaterial. The products of +achievement are not material things at all. They are not ends, but +means. They are methods, ways, devices, arts, systems, +institutions. In a word, they are <em>inventions</em>.” In +short, to say that one is an inventor is but another way of saying +that he has imagination.</p> +<p>It is one thing to know facts but quite another thing to know +the significance of facts. And imagination is the alembic that +discovers the significance of the facts. A thousand men of England +knew the facts touching the life and education of the children of +that country, but the facts remained mere facts until the +imagination of Dickens interpreted them and thus emancipated +childhood from the thralldom of ignorance and cruelty. A thousand +men knew the fact touching the steam that issues from the +tea-kettle, but not until Watts discovered the significance of the +fact did the tea-kettle become the precursor of the steam-engine +that has transformed civilization. It required the imagination of +Newton to interpret the falling of the apple and to cause this +simple, common fact to lead on to the discovery of the great truth +of gravitation. Had Galileo lacked imagination, the chandelier +might have kept on swinging but the discovery of the rotation of +the earth would certainly have been postponed.</p> +<p>In this view of the matter we can see one of the weaknesses of +some of the work in our colleges as well as in other schools. The +teachers are fertile in arriving at facts, but seem to think their +tasks completed with these discoveries and so proclaim the +discovery of facts to be education. It matters not that the facts +are devoid of significance to their students, they simply proceed +to the discovery of more facts. They combine two or more substances +in a test-tube and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page67" name= +"page67"></a>[67]</span>thus produce a new substance. This fact is +solemnly inscribed in a notebook and the incident is closed. But +the student who has imagination and industry inquires “What +then?” and proceeds with investigations on his own initiative +that result in a positive boon to humanity. Imagination takes the +facts and makes something of them, while the college teacher has +disclosed his inability to cope with his own students in fields +that only imagination can render productive.</p> +<p>To quote Henderson once again: “In most of our current +education, instead of cultivating so valuable a quality, we have +stupidly done all that we can to suppress it. We have not +sufficiently studied the actual boy before us to find out what he +is up to, and what end he has in mind. On the contrary, we +proclaim, with curious indifference, some end of our own devising, +and with what really amounts to spiritual brutality, we try to +drive him towards it. We do this, we irresponsible parents and +teachers, because we ourselves lack imagination, and do not see +that we are blunting, instead of sharpening, our human tool. Yet we +define education in terms of imagination when we say that education +is the unfolding and perfecting of the human spirit; or, that +education is a setting-up in the heart of the child of a moral and +æsthetic revelation of the universe; for the human spirit +which we are trying to establish is not a fact, but a gracious +possibility of the future.”</p> +<p>Happy is the child whose teacher possesses imagination; who can +touch the common things of life with the magic wand of her fancy +and invest them with supreme charm; who can peer into the future +with her pupils and help them translate the bright dreams of today +into triumphs in the realms of art, music, science, <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page68" name="page68"></a>[68]</span>philosophy, +language, and philanthropy; and who builds air-castles of her own +and thus has the skill to help the children build theirs. It is not +easy, if, indeed, it is possible, for the teacher to quicken +imagination in her pupils unless she herself is endowed with this +animating quality. Dr. Henry van Dyke puts the case thus: “I +care not whether a man is called a tutor, an instructor, or a full +professor; nor whether any academic degrees adorn his name; nor how +many facts or symbols of facts he has stored away in his brain. If +he has these four powers—clear sight, quick imagination, +sound reason, strong will—I call him an educated man and fit +to be a teacher.” And, of a surety, imagination is not the +least of these.</p> +<p>To this end every teacher should use every means possible to +keep her imagination alive and luxuriant, and never, on any +account, permit the exigencies of her task to repress it. The +success of her pupils depends upon her, and she should strive +against stagnation as she would against death. The passing out, the +evaporation of imagination is an insidious process, and when it is +gone she is but a barren fig-tree. If her imagination is strong and +healthy she cannot have a poor school and her pupils will bless her +memory throughout the years. As applying to every grade of school +we may well note the words of Van Dyke: “Every true +university should make room in its scheme for life out-of-doors. +There is much to be said for John Milton’s plan of a school +whose pupils should go together each year on long horseback +journeys and sailing cruises to see the world. Walter Bagehot said +of Shakespeare that he could not walk down a street without knowing +what was in it. John Burroughs has a college on a little farm +beside the Hudson; and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page69" name= +"page69"></a>[69]</span>John Muir has a university called Yosemite. +If such men cross a field or a thicket they see more than the seven +wonders of the world. That is culture. And without it, all +scholastic learning is arid, and all the academic degrees known to +man are but china oranges hang on a dry tree.” And without +imagination this type of culture is impossible.</p> +<p>All reforms and, indeed, all progress depend upon imagination. +We must be able to picture the world as it ought to be before we +can set on foot plans for betterment. It is the high province of +the imagination to enter into the feelings and aspirations of +others and so be able to lend a hand; to build a better future out +of the materials of the present; to soar above the solemnities and +conventions of tradition and to smile while soaring; to see the +invisible and touch the intangible; and to see the things that are +not and call them forth as realities. Seeing that the business man, +the fertile-brained essayist, and the gifted poet agree in +extolling the potential value of imagination, we have full warrant +for according to it an honored place in the curriculum of the +school. Too long has it been an incidental minor; it is now high +time to advance it to the rank of a major.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page70" name= +"page70"></a>[70]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_9" id="Ch_9">Chapter Nine</a></h3> +<h2>Reverence</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>At the basis of reverence is respect; and reverence is respect +amplified and sublimated. A boy must be either dull or heedless who +can look at a bird sailing in the air for five minutes and not +become surcharged with curiosity to know how it can do it. His +curiosity must lead him to an examination of the wing of a bird, +and his scrutiny will reveal it as a marvelous bit of mechanism. +The adjustment and overlapping of the feathers will convince him +that it presents a wonderful design and a no less wonderful +adaptation of means to ends. He sees that when the bird is poised +in the air the wing is essentially air-tight and that when the bird +elects to ascend or descend the feathers open a free passage for +the air. Even a cursory examination of the bird’s wing must +persuade the boy that, with any skill he might attain, he could +never fabricate anything so wonderful. This knowledge must, in the +nature of things, beget a feeling of respect, and thereafter, +whenever the boy sees a bird, he will experience a resurgence of +this feeling.</p> +<p>Some one has said, “Everything is infinitely high that we +can’t see over,” and because the boy comes to know that +he cannot duplicate the bird’s wing it becomes infinitely +high or great to him and so wins his respect. To the boy who has +been taught to think seriously, the mode of locomotion of a worm or +a snake is likewise a marvel, and he observes it with awe. The boy +who treads a worm underfoot gives indisputable evidence that he has +never given serious thought to its mode of travel. Had he done so, +he would never commit <span class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name= +"page71"></a>[71]</span>so ruthless an act. The worm would have won +his respect by its ability to do a thing at which he himself would +certainly fail. He sees the worm scaling the trunk of a tree with +the greatest ease, but when he essays the same task he finds it a +very difficult matter. So he tips his cap figuratively to the worm +and, in boyish fashion, admits that it is the better man of the +two. And never again, unless inadvertently, will he crush a worm. +Even a snake he will kill only in what he conceives to be +self-defense.</p> +<p>An American was making his first trip to Europe. On the way +between the Azores and Gibraltar the ship encountered a storm of +great violence. For an hour or more the traveler stood on the +forward deck, watching the titanic struggle, feeling the ship +tremble at each impact of the waves, and hearing the roar that only +a storm at sea can produce. Upon returning to his friends he said, +“Never again can I speak flippantly of the ocean; never again +can I use the expression, ‘crossing the pond.’ The sea +is too vast and too sublime for that.” He had achieved +reverence. Many a child in school can spell the name of the ocean +and give a book definition rather glibly, who, nevertheless, has +not the faintest conception of what an ocean really is. The tragedy +of the matter is that the teacher gives him a perfect mark for his +parrot-like definition and spelling and leaves him in crass +ignorance of the reality. The boy deals only with the husk and +misses the kernel. When he can spell and define, the work has only +just begun, and not until the teacher has contrived to have him +emotionalize the ocean will he enter into the heart of its +greatness, and power, and utility in promoting life, and so come to +experience a feeling of respect for it. When it <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page72" name="page72"></a>[72]</span>has won his +respect he can read Victor Hugo’s matchless description of +the sea with understanding, measurable appreciation, and, +certainly, a thrill of delight.</p> +<p>It is rare fun for children, and even for grown-ups, to locate +the constellations, planets, and stars. Of course, the North Star +is everybody’s favorite because it is so steady, so reliable, +so dependable. We know just where to find it, and it never +disappoints us. Two boys who once were crossing from New York to +Naples found great delight in a star in the Southern sky that +retained its relative position throughout the journey. At the +conclusion of dinner in the evening the boys were wont to repair to +the deck to find their star and receive its greetings. In their +passage through the Mediterranean they became curious, wondering +how it came about that the star failed to change its relative +position in their journey of three thousand miles. When they +realized that their star is the apex of a triangle whose base is +three thousand miles but whose other legs are so long that the base +is infinitesimally short by comparison, their amazement knew no +bounds and for the first time in their lives they gained a profound +respect for space.</p> +<p>This new concept of space was worth the trip across the ocean to +those boys, and the wonder is that space had never before meant +anything more or other than a word to be spelled. The school and +the home had had boundless opportunities to inculcate in them a +sense of space, yet this delightful task was left to a passenger on +board the ship. But for his kindly offices those boys might have +gone on for years conceiving of space as merely a word of five +letters. It would have been easy for parent or teacher to engender +in them some appreciation of space by explaining <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page73" name="page73"></a>[73]</span>to them that +if they were to travel thirty miles a day it would require +twenty-two years to reach the moon,—which is, in reality, our +next-door neighbor,—and that to reach the sun, at the same +rate of travel, would require more than eight thousand years, or +the added lifetimes of almost three hundred generations. But they +were sent abroad to see the wonders of the Old World with no real +conception of space and, therefore, no feeling of respect for it. +Before their trip abroad they never could have read the last two +verses of the eighth chapter of Romans with any real +appreciation.</p> +<p>Still our schools go on their complacent way, teaching words, +words, words that are utterly devoid of meaning to the pupils, and, +sad to relate, seem to think their mission accomplished. The pupils +are required to spell words, define words, write words, and parse +words day after day as if these words were lifeless and meaningless +blocks of wood to be merely tossed up and down and moved hither and +thither. So soon as a word becomes instinct with life and meaning, +it kindles the child’s interest at its every recurrence and +it becomes as truly an entity as a person. It is then endowed with +attributes that distinguish it clearly from its fellows and +becomes, to the child, a vivid reality in the scheme of life. To +our two boys every star that meets their gaze conjures up a host of +memories and helps to renew their spiritual experience and widen +their horizon. Space is a reality, to them, a mighty reality, and +they cannot think of it without a deep sense of respect.</p> +<p>There are people of mature years who have never given to their +hands a close examination. Such an examination will disclose the +fact that the hand is an instrument of marvelous design. It will be +seen that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page74" name= +"page74"></a>[74]</span>the fingers all differ in length but, when +they grasp an orange or a ball, it will be noted that they are +conterminous—that the ends form a straight line. This gives +them added purchase and far greater power of resistance. Were they +of equal length the pressure upon the ball would be distributed and +it could be wrested from the grasp far more readily. No mechanical +contrivance has ever been designed that is comparable to the hand +in flexibility, deftness, adaptability, or power of prehension. It +can pick up a needle or a cannon-ball at will. Its touch is as +light as a feather or as stark as a catapult. It can be as gentle +as mercy or as harsh as battle. It can soothe to repose or rouse to +fury. It can express itself in the gentle zephyr or in the +devastating whirlwind. Its versatility is altogether worthy of +notice, and we may well hold the lesson in history in abeyance, for +the nonce, while we inculcate due respect for the hand. For no one +can contemplate his hand for five minutes and not gain for it a +feeling of profound respect.</p> +<p>What is true of the hand is true of the whole human body. This +is the very acme of created things; this is God’s +masterpiece. How any one can fail to respect such a wonderful piece +of work is beyond explanation. The process of walking or of +breathing must hold the thoughtful person enthralled and enchanted. +But, strange as it may seem, there are those who seem not to +realize in what a marvelous abode their spirits have their home. +Such scant respect do they have for their bodies that they defile +them and treat them with shameless ignominy. They saturate them +with poisons and vulgarize them with unseemly practices. They seem +to regard them as mere property to be used or abused at pleasure +and not temples to be honored. The man <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page75" name="page75"></a>[75]</span>who does not respect his own +body can feel no respect or reverence for its Creator nor for the +soul that dwells within it. Such a man lacks self-respect and +self-respect is the fertile soil in which many virtues flourish. +The teaching of physiology that fails to generate a feeling of deep +respect for the human body is not the sort of teaching that should +obtain in our schools.</p> +<p>Again, a person who is possessed of fine sensibilities sees in +the apple tree in full bloom a creation of transcendant beauty and +charm. The poet cannot describe it, nor can the artist reproduce +it. It is both a mystery and a miracle. Into this miracle nature +has poured her lavish treasures of fertility, of rain, of sunshine, +and of zephyrs, and from it at the zenith of its beauty the +full-throated robin pours forth his heart in melodious greeting. It +may be well to dismiss the school to see the circus parade, but +even more fitting is it to dismiss the school to see this burst of +splendor. In its glorious presence silence is the only language +that is befitting. In such a presence sound is discord, for such +enchantment as it begets cannot be made articulate. Its influence +steals into the senses and lifts the spirit up. To defile or +despoil such beauty would be to desecrate a shrine. But the sordid +man sees in this symphony of color nothing else than a promise of +fruit. His response is wholly physical, not spiritual at all. His +spiritual sense seems atrophied and he can do nothing but estimate +the bushels of fruit. He feels no respect for the beauty before him +and it is evident that somewhere along the line his spiritual +education was neglected. He excites our sympathy and our hope that +his children may not share his fate.</p> +<p>In the way of illustrating this quality of respect, <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page76" name="page76"></a>[76]</span>we reach the +climax in the thirty-eighth chapter of the Book of Job and +following. The dramatic element of literature here reaches its +zenith. God is the speaker, the stricken, outcast Job is the sole +auditor, and the stage is a whirlwind. It is related of the late +Professor Hodge that, on one occasion when he was about to perform +an experiment in his laboratory, he said to some students who stood +near, “Gentlemen, please remove your hats; I am about to ask +God a question.” But here in this chapter we have a still +more sublime situation, for God is here asking questions of the +man. And these questions dig deep into the life of the man and show +him how puny and impotent is the finite in the presence of the +Infinite. In this presence there is neither pomp, nor parade, nor +vaunting, nor self-aggrandizement, nor arrogance. Even the printed +page cannot but induce respect, devoutness, and profound reverence, +for it tells of nature’s wonders—the snow-crystals, the +rain, the dewdrop, the light, the cloud, the lightning—and +reveals to the bewildered sight some apprehension of the Author of +them all.</p> +<p>The reader must, by now, have divined the conclusion of the +whole matter. Without respect there can be no reverence; and, +without reverence, there can be neither education nor civilization +that is worth while. Some one has defined reverence as “that +exquisite constraint which leads a man to hate all that is +unsuitable and sordid and exaggerated and to love all that is +excellent and temperate and beautiful.” This definition is +both comprehensive and inclusive, and the superintendent may well +promulgate it in his directions to his teachers. All teaching has +to do with Truth and, in the presence of Truth, whether in +mathematics, or science, or history, or language, the teacher +should feel that he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page77" name= +"page77"></a>[77]</span>stands in the presence of the Burning Bush +and hears the command, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, +for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” It seems +a thousand pities that even college students rush into the presence +of the Burning Bush in hobnailed shoes, shouting forth the college +yell as they go.</p> +<p>The man who is reverent disclaims everything that is cheap, or +vulgar, or coarse, or unseemly. He is so essentially fine that the +gaudy, the bizarre, and the intemperate, in whatever form, grate +upon his sensibilities. He respects himself too much to be lacking +in respect to others. He instinctively shrinks away from ugly +vulgarization as from a pestilence. He is kindly, charitable, +sympathetic, and sincere. Exaggeration, insinuation, and caricature +are altogether foreign to his spirit. In his society we feel +inspired and ennobled. His very presence is a tonic, and his tongue +distills only purity. His example is the lodestar of our +aspirations, and we fain would be his disciples. We feel him to be +something worshipful in that his life constantly beckons to our +better selves. To be reverent is to be liberally educated, while to +be irreverent is to dwell in darkness and ignorance. To be reverent +is to live on the heights, where the air is pure and tonic and +where the sunlight is free from taint. To be reverent is to +acknowledge our indebtedness to all those who, in art, in science, +in literature, in music, or in philanthropy, have caused the waters +of life to gush forth in clear abundance. To be reverent is to +stand uncovered in the presence of Life and to experience the +thrill of the spiritual impulses that only an appreciation of life +can generate. If this is reverence, then the school honors itself +by giving this quality a place of honor.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page78" name= +"page78"></a>[78]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_10" id="Ch_10">Chapter Ten</a></h3> +<h2>Sense of Responsibility</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Every one who has had to do with Harvey’s Grammar will +readily recall the sentence, “Milo began to lift the ox when +he was a calf.” Aside from the interest which this sentence +aroused as to the antecedent of the pronoun, it also enunciated a +bit of philosophy which caused the pupils to wonder about the +possibility of such a feat. They were led to consider such examples +of physical strength as Samson, Hercules, and the more modern +Sandow and to wonder, perhaps, just what course of training brought +these men to their attainment of physical power. It is +comparatively easy for adults to realize that such feats as these +men accomplished could only come through a long process of +training. If a man can lift a given weight on one day, he may be +able to lift a slightly heavier weight the next day, and so on +until he has achieved distinction by reason of his ability to lift +great weights. So it is in this matter of responsibility. It need +hardly be said that responsibility is the heaviest burden that men +and women are called upon to lift or carry. We need only think of +the responsibilities pertaining to the office of the chief ruler of +a country in time of war, or of the commanding general of armies, +or of the president of large industrial concerns, and so on through +the list. Such men bear burdens of responsibility that cannot be +estimated in terms of weights or measures. We can easily think of +the time when the manager of a great industrial concern was a child +in school, but it is not so easy to think of the six-year-old boy +performing the functions of this same manager. <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page79" name="page79"></a>[79]</span>However, we +do know that the future rulers, generals, managers, and +superintendents are now sitting at desks in the schools and it +behooves all teachers to inquire by what process these pupils may +be so trained that in time they will be able to execute these +functions.</p> +<p>In some such way we gain a right concept of responsibility. We +cannot think of the six-year-old boy as a bank president but, in +our thinking, we can watch his progress, in one-day intervals, from +his initial experience in school to his assumption of the duties +pertaining to the presidency of the bank. In thus tracing his +progress there is no strain or stress in our thinking nor does the +element of improbability obtrude itself. We think along a straight +and level road where no hills arise to obstruct the view. Each +succeeding day marks an inch or so of progress toward the goal. But +should we set the responsibilities of the bank president over +against the powers of the child, the disparity would overwhelm our +thinking and our minds would be thrown into confusion. Our thinking +is level and easy only when we conceive of strength and +responsibility advancing side by side and at the same rate.</p> +<p>It would be an interesting experience to overhear the teacher +inquiring of the superintendent how she should proceed in order to +inculcate in her pupils a sense of responsibility. We should be +acutely alert to catch every word of the superintendent’s +reply. If he were dealing with such a concrete problem as Milo and +the calf, his response would probably be satisfactory; but when +such an abstract quality as responsibility is presented to him his +reply might be vague and unsatisfactory. His thinking may have had +to do with concrete problems so long that an abstract quality +presents a real difficulty to his mental operations. Yet the +question<span class="pagenum"><a id="page80" name= +"page80"></a>[80]</span> which the teacher propounds is altogether +pertinent and reasonable and, if he fails to give a satisfactory +reply, he will certainly decline in her esteem.</p> +<p>The normal child welcomes such a measure of responsibility as +falls within the compass of his powers and acquits himself of it in +a manner that is worthy of commendation. This open truth encourages +the conviction that the superintendent who can give to the teacher +a definite plan by which she will be able to develop a sense of +responsibility, will commend himself to her favor, if not +admiration. They both know full well that if the pupil emerges from +the school period lacking this quality he will be a helpless weight +upon society and a burden to himself and his family, no matter what +his mental attainments. He will be but a child in his ability to +cope with situations that confront him and cannot perform the +functions of manhood. Though a man in physical stature he will +shrink from the ordinary duties that fall to the lot of a man and, +like a child, will cling to the hand of his mother for guidance. In +all situations he will show himself a spiritual coward.</p> +<p>The problem is easy of statement but by no means so easy of +solution. At the age of six the boy takes his place at a desk in +the school. Twenty years hence, let us say, he will be a railway +engineer. As such he must drive his engine at forty miles an hour +through blinding storm, or in inky darkness, or through menacing +and stifling tunnels, or over dizzy bridges, or around the curve on +the edge of the precipice—and do this with no shadow of fear +or hint of trepidation, but always with a keen eye, a cool head, +and a steady hand. In his keeping are the lives of many persons, +and any wavering or unsteadiness, on his part, may lead to +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page81" name= +"page81"></a>[81]</span>speedy disaster. Somewhere along the way +between the ages of six and twenty-six he must gain the ability to +assume a heavy responsibility, and it would seem a travesty upon +rational education to force him to acquire this ability wholly +during the eight years succeeding his school experience. If, at the +age of eighteen, he does not exhibit some ability in this respect, +the school may justly be charged with dereliction.</p> +<p>Or, twenty years hence, this boy may be a physician. If so, he +will find a weeping mother clinging to him and imploring him to +save her baby. He will see a strong man broken with sobs and +offering him a fortune to save his wife from being engulfed in the +dark shadows. His ears will be assailed with delirious ravings that +call to him for relief and life. He will be importuned by the +grief-crushed child not to let her mother go. He will be called +upon to grapple with plague, with pestilence, with death itself. +Unless he can give succor, hope departs and darkness enshrouds and +blights. He alone can hold disease and death at bay and bid +darkness give place to light and cause sorrow to vanish before the +smile of joy. He stands alone at the portal to do battle against +the demons of devastation and desolation. And, if he fails, the +plaints of grief will penetrate the innermost chambers of his soul. +He must not fail. So he toils on through the long night watches, +disdaining food and rest, that the breaking day may bring in +gladness and crown the arts of healing. And the school that does +not share in the glory of such achievement misses a noble +opportunity.</p> +<p>Again, twenty years hence, the little girl who now sits at her +desk, crowned with golden ringlets, will be a wife and mother, and +the mistress of a well-conditioned home. She is a composite of Mary +and Martha<span class="pagenum"><a id="page82" name= +"page82"></a>[82]</span> and in her kingdom reigns supreme and +benign. In her home there is no hint of “raw haste, +half-sister to delay,” for long since she acquired the habit +of serene mastery. She meets her manifold responsibilities with a +smile and sings her way through them all. If clouds arise, she +banishes them with the magic of her poise and amiability. She can +say with Napoleon, “I do not permit myself to become a victim +of circumstances; I make circumstances.” Back in the school +she learned order, system, method, and acquired the sense of +responsibility. At first the teacher’s desk was her special +care, and by easy gradations the scope of her activities was +widened until she came to feel responsible for the appearance of +the entire schoolroom. Now in her womanhood she is a delight to her +husband, her children, her guests, and her neighbors. Emergencies +neither daunt her nor render her timorous, but, serene and +masterful, she meets the new situation as a welcome novelty, and, +with supreme amiability, accepts it as a friendly challenge to her +resourcefulness. She needs not to apologize or explain, for +difficulties disappear at her approach because, in the school, +responsibility was one of the major goals of her training.</p> +<p>Or, again, two decades hence this child may have attained to a +position in the world of affairs where good taste, judgment, +perseverance, self-control, graciousness, and tact are accounted +assets of value. But these qualities, gained through experience, +are as much a part of herself as her hands. A thousand times in the +past has the responsibility been laid upon her of making selections +touching shapes, colors, materials, or types, till now her judgment +is regarded as final. Her self-control has become proverbial, but +it is not the miracle that it seems, for it has become grooved +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page83" name= +"page83"></a>[83]</span>into a habit by much experience. She met +all these lions in her path at school and vanquished them all, with +the aid of the teacher’s counsel and encouragement. She can +perform heroisms now because she long since contracted the habit of +heroisms. And responsibility is most becoming to her now because in +the years past she learned how to wear it. She has multiplied her +powers and usefulness a hundred-fold by reason of having learned to +assume responsibility.</p> +<p>She has learned to lift her eyes and scan the far horizon and +not be afraid. With gentle, kindly eyes she can look into the faces +of men and women in all lands and not be abashed in their presence. +She can soothe the child to rest and prove herself a scourge to +evil-doers, all within the hour. She knows herself equal to the +best, but not above the least. She does not need to pose, for she +knows her own power without ever vaunting it. Her simplicity and +sincerity are the fragrant bloom of her sense of responsibility +both to herself and her kind. She gives of herself and her means as +a gracious discharge of obligation to the less fortunate, but never +as charity. She feels herself bound up in the interests of humanity +and would do her full part in helping to make life more worth +while. Her touch has the gift of healing and her tongue distills +kindness. Her obligations to the human family are privileges to be +esteemed and enjoyed and not bur-dens to be endured and reviled. +And she thinks of her superintendent and teachers with gratitude +for their part in the process of developing her into what she is, +and what she may yet become.</p> +<p>Only such as the defiant, wicked, and rebellious Cain can ask +the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The man +who feels no responsibility for the character <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page84" name="page84"></a>[84]</span>and good name +of the community of which he is a member is a spiritual outcast and +will become a social pariah if he persists in maintaining his +attitude of indifference. For, after all, responsibility amounts to +a spiritual attitude. If the man feels no responsibility to his +community he will begrudge it the taxes he pays, the improvements +he is required to make, and will be irked by every advance that +makes for civic betterment. To him the church and school will seem +excrescences and superfluities, nor would he grieve to see them +obliterated. His exodus would prove a distinct boon to the +community. He may have a noble physique, good mentality, much +knowledge, and large wealth, and yet, with all these things in his +favor, he is nevertheless a liability for the single reason that he +lacks a sense of responsibility. Could his teachers have foreseen +his present attitude no efforts, on their part, would have seemed +too great if only they could have forestalled his misfortune. And +it is for the teachers to determine whether the boy of today shall +become a duplicate of the man here portrayed.</p> +<p>Every man who lives under a democratic form of government has +the opportunity before him each day to raise or lower the level of +democracy. When the night comes on, if he reflects upon the matter, +he must become conscious that he has done either the one or the +other. Either democracy is a better thing for humanity because of +his day’s work and influence, or it is a worse thing. This is +a responsibility that he can neither shift nor shirk. It is +fastened upon him with or against his will. It rests with him to +determine whether he would have every other man and every boy in +the land select him as their model and follow his example to the +last detail. He alone can decide whether <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page85" name="page85"></a>[85]</span>he would have +all men indulge in the practices that constitute his daily life, +consort with his companions, hold his views on all subjects, read +only the books that engage his interest, duplicate his thoughts, +aspirations, impulses, and language, and become, each one, his +other self. Every boy who now sits in the school must answer these +questions for himself sooner or later, nor can he hope to evade +them. Happy is that boy, therefore, whose teacher has the foresight +and the wisdom to train him into such a sense of responsibility as +will enable him to answer them in such a way that the future will +bring to him no pang of remorse.</p> +<p>Thomas A. Edison is one of the benefactors of his time. He +reached out into space and grasped a substance that is both +invisible and intangible, harnessed it with trappings, pushed a +button, and the world was illumined. There were years of +unremitting toil behind this achievement, years of discouragement +bordering on despair, but years in which the light of hope was kept +burning. We accept his gift with the very acme of nonchalance and +with little or no feeling of gratitude. Perhaps he would not have +it otherwise. We do not know. But certain it is that his marvelous +achievement has made life more agreeable to millions of people and +he must be conscious of this fact. At some time in his life he must +have achieved a sense of responsibility to his fellows and this +worthy sentiment must have become the guiding principle in all his +labors. If some teacher fostered in him this sense of +responsibility, she did a piece of work for the world that can +never be measured in terms of salary. She did not teach arithmetic, +or grammar, or geography. She taught Edison. And one of the big +results of her teaching was his attainment of this sense of +responsibility which far <span class="pagenum"><a id="page86" name= +"page86"></a>[86]</span>overtops all the arithmetic and history +that he ever learned. The man who carried the message to Garcia is +another fitting illustration of this same principle. In executing +his commission he overcame difficulties that would have seemed +insurmountable to a less intrepid man. He kept his eye on the goal +and endured almost unspeakable hardships in pressing forward toward +this goal. Somehow and somewhere in his life he had learned the +meaning of responsibility and so felt that he must not fail. The +world came to know him as a hero because he was a hero at heart and +his heroic achievement had its origin in the training that led him +to feel a sense of responsibility.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page87" name= +"page87"></a>[87]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_11" id="Ch_11">Chapter Eleven</a></h3> +<h2>Loyalty</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>When the boy overhears a companion put a slight upon the good +name of his mother, he does not deliberate but, like a flash, +smites the mouth that defames. He may deliberate afterward, for the +mind then has a fact upon which to work, but if he is a worthy son +it is not till afterwards. Spiritual impulses are as quick as +powder and as direct as a shaft of light. So quick are they that we +are prone to disregard them in our contemplation of their results. +We see the boy strike and conclude, in a superficial way, that his +hand initiated the action, nor take pains to trace this action back +to the primal cause in the spiritual impulse. True, both mind and +body are called into action, but only as auxiliaries to carry out +the behests of the spirit. When the man utters an exclamation of +delight at sight of his country’s flag in a foreign port, the +sound that we hear is but the conclusion or completion of the +series of happenings. It is not the initial happening at all. On +the instant when his eyes caught sight of the flag something took +place inside the man’s nature. This spiritual explosion was +telegraphed to the mind, the mind, in turn, issued a command to the +body, and the sound that was noted was the final result. In a +general way, education is the process of training mind and body to +obey and execute right commands of the spirit. This definition will +justify our characterization of education as a spiritual +process.</p> +<p>Seeing, then, that the body is but a helper whose <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page88" name="page88"></a>[88]</span>function is +to execute the mandates of the spirit, and seeing, too, that +education is a process of the spirit, it follows that our concern +must be primarily and always with the spirit as major. It is the +spirit that reacts, not the mind or the body, and education is, +therefore, the process of inducing right reactions of the spirit. +The nature of these reactions depends upon the quality of the +external stimuli. If we provide the right sort of stimuli the +reactions will be right. If, today, the spirit reacts to a +beautiful picture, tomorrow, to the tree in bloom, the next day to +an alluring landscape, and the next to the glory of a sunrise, in +time its reactions to beauty in every form will become habitual. If +we can induce reactions, day by day, to beautiful or sublime +passages in literature, in due time the spirit will refuse to react +to what is shoddy and commonplace. By inducing reactions to +increasingly better musical compositions, day after day, we finally +inculcate the habit of reacting only to high-grade music, and the +lower type makes no appeal. By such a process we shall finally +produce an educated, cultivated man or woman, the crowning glory of +education.</p> +<p>The measure of our success in this process of education will be +the number of reactions we can induce to the right sort of stimuli. +In this, we shall have occasion to make many substitutions. The boy +who has been reacting to ugliness must be lured away by the +substitution of beauty. The beautiful picture will take the place +of the bizarre until nothing but such a picture will give pleasure +and satisfaction. Indeed, the substitution of beauty for ugliness +will, in time, induce a revolt against what is ugly and stimulate +the boy to desire to transform the ugly thing into a thing of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page89" name= +"page89"></a>[89]</span>beauty. Many a home shows the effects of +reaction in the school to artistic surroundings. The child reacts +to beauty in the school and so yearns for the same sort of stimuli +in the home. When the little girl entreats her mother to provide +for her such a ribbon as the teacher wears, we see an +exemplification of this principle. When only the best in +literature, in art, in nature, in music, and in conduct avail to +produce reactions, we may well proclaim the one who reacts to these +stimuli an educated person. It is well to repeat that these +reactions are all spiritual manifestations and that the conduct of +mind and body is a resultant.</p> +<p>To casual thinking it may seem a far cry from reactions and +external stimuli to loyalty, but not so by any means. The man or +woman who has been led to react to the Madonna of the Chair, the +Plow Oxen, or the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel will experience a +revival and recurrence of the reaction at every sight of the +masterpiece, whether the original or a reproduction. That +masterpiece has become this person’s standard of art and +neither argument, nor persuasion, nor sophistry can divorce him +from his ideal. The boy’s mother is one of his ideals. He +believes her to be the best woman alive, and it were a sorry fact +if he did not. Hence, when her good qualities are assailed his +spirit explodes and commands his right arm to become a +battering-ram. The kindness of the mother has caused the +boy’s spirit to react a thousand times, and his reaction in +defending her name from calumny was but another evidence of an +acquired spiritual habit.</p> +<p>Hence it is that we find loyalty enmeshed in these elements that +pertain to the province of psychology. It must be so, seeing that +these elements and loyalty <span class="pagenum"><a id="page90" +name="page90"></a>[90]</span>have to do with the spirit, for +loyalty is nothing other than a reaction to the same external +stimuli that have induced reactions many times before. In setting +up loyalty, therefore, as one of the big goals of school endeavor +the superintendent has only to make a list of the external stimuli +that will induce proper reactions and so groove these reactions +into habit. His problem, thus stated, seems altogether simple but, +in working out the details, he will find himself facing the entire +scheme of education. If he would induce reactions that spell +loyalty he must make no mistake in respect of external stimuli, for +it must be reiterated that the character of the stimuli conditions +the reactions. We may not hope to achieve loyalty unless through +the years of training we have provided stimuli of the right +sort.</p> +<p>If the sentiment of loyalty concerns itself with the teachings +of the Bible and the tenets of the church, we call it religion; if +it has to do with one’s country and what its flag represents, +we call it patriotism; and in many another relation we call it +fidelity. Hence it is obvious that loyalty is an inclusive quality +and in its ramifications reaches out into every phase of life. This +gives us clear warrant for making it one of the prime objectives in +a rational, as distinguished from a traditional, scheme of +education. The progressive superintendent who is endowed with +perspicacity, resourcefulness, altruism, and faith in himself will +consult the highest interests of the boys and girls of his school +before he relegates the matter to oblivion. To such as he we must +look for advance and for the redemption of our schools from their +traditional moorings. To such as he we must look for the +inoculation of the teachers with such virus as will <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page91" name="page91"></a>[91]</span>render them +vital, dynamic, and eager to essay any new task that gives promise +of a larger and better outlook for their pupils.</p> +<p>In the second chapter of Revelation, tenth verse, we read, +“Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown +of life.” Now this is quite as true in a psychological sense +as it is in a scriptural sense. It is a great pity that we do not +read the Bible far more for lessons in pedagogy. However, too many +people misread the quoted passage. They interpret the expression +“unto death” as if it were “until death.” +This interpretation would weaken the expression. The martyrs would +not recant even when the fires were blazing all about them or when +their bodies were lacerated. They were faithful unto death. In his +poem <em>Invictus</em> Henley says,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>In the fell clutch of circumstance</p> +<p>I have not winced nor cried aloud;</p> +<p>Under the bludgeonings of chance,</p> +<p>My head is bloody but unbowed.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>And only so can the spirit hope to achieve emancipation and win +out into the clear. This is the crown of life. Michael Angelo +represents Joseph of Arimathea standing at the tomb of the Master +with head erect and with the mien of faith. He did not understand +at all, and yet his faithful heart encouraged him to hope and to +hold his head from drooping. He was faithful even in the darkness +and on the morning of the Resurrection he received his crown.</p> +<p>When we set up loyalty as one of our major goals we shall become +alert to every illustration of it that falls under our gaze. The +story of Nathan Hale will become newly alive and will thrill as +never before. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page92" name= +"page92"></a>[92]</span>Over against Nathan Hale we shall set +Philip Nolan for the sake of comparison and contrast. Even though +our pupils may regard Joan of Arc as a fanatic, her heroism and her +fidelity to her convictions will shine forth as a star in the night +and her example as illustrating loyalty will be as seed planted in +fertile soil. In our quest for exemplars we shall find the pages of +history palpitating with life. We may sow dead dragon’s +teeth, but armed men will spring into being. Thermopylæ will +become a new story, while William Tell and Arnold Winkelried will +take rank among the demigods. Sidney Carton will become far more +than a mere character of fiction, for on his head we shall find a +halo, and Horace Mann will become far more than a mere +schoolmaster. Historians, poets, novelists, statesmen, and +philanthropists will rally about us to reinforce our efforts and to +cite to us men and women of all times who shone resplendent by +reason of their loyalty.</p> +<p>Our objective being loyalty, we shall omit the lesson in grammar +for today in order to induce the spirits of our pupils to react to +the story of Jephthah’s daughter. For once they have +emotionalized it, have really felt its power, this story will +become to them a rare possession and will entwine itself in the +warp and woof of their lives and form a pattern of exceeding beauty +whose colors will not fade. They shall hear the solemn vow of the +father to sacrifice unto the Lord the first living creature that +meets his gaze after the victory over his enemies. They shall see +him returning invested with the glory of the victor. Then the child +will be seen running forth to meet him, the first living creature +his gaze has fallen upon since the battle. They will note her +gladness to see him and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page93" name= +"page93"></a>[93]</span>to know that he is safe. They will see the +dancing of her eyes and hear her rippling, joyous laughter. They +will become tense as the father is telling her of his vow. But the +climax is reached when they hear her saying, “My father, if +thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to +that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth.” And, with bated +breath, they see her meeting death with a smile that her father may +keep his covenant with the Lord. Ever after this story will mark to +them the very zenith of loyalty, and the lesson in grammar can +await another day.</p> +<p>Again, instead of the regular reading lesson the school may well +substitute the story of David, as given in the eleventh chapter of +Chronicles. “Now three of the thirty captains went down to +the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the +Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then +in the hold, and the Philistines’ garrison was then at +Bethlehem. And David longed, and said, ‘O that one would give +me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem that is at the +gate.’ And the three brake through the host of the +Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was +by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David; but David would +not drink of it, but poured it out to the Lord, and said, ‘My +God forbid it me, that I should do this thing. Shall I drink the +blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with +the jeopardy of their lives they brought.’ Therefore he would +not drink it.”</p> +<p>Without any semblance of irreverence we may paraphrase this +story slightly and have our own General Pershing stand in the place +of David asking for water. Then we can see three of his soldiers +going across No Man’s Land in quest of the water which he +craves. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page94" name= +"page94"></a>[94]</span>When they return, bearing the water to him +from the spring in the enemy’s territory, we can see him +pouring the water upon the ground and refusing to drink it because +of the hazard of the enterprise. No fulsome explanation will need +to be given to impress upon the pupils the loyalty of the soldiers +to their general, nor yet the loyalty of the general to his +soldiers. Or again, in the oral English two of the pupils may be +asked to tell the stories of Ruth and Esther, and certain it is, if +these stories are told effectively, the pupils will thrill with +admiration for the loyalty of these two noble characters.</p> +<p>On his way home for vacation a college student was telling his +companion on the train of the trip ahead, relating that at such a +time he would reach the junction and at a certain hour he would +walk into his home just in time for supper; he concluded by paying +a tribute to the noble qualities of his mother. This man is now an +attorney in a large city and it is inconceivable that he can ever +be guilty of apostasy from the ideals and principles to which he +reacted in his boyhood in that village home. Whatever temptations +may come to him, the mother’s face and voice and the memory +of her high principles will forbid his yielding and hold him steady +and loyal to that mother and her teaching. He must feel that if he +should debase himself he would dishonor her, and that he cannot do. +He can still hear her voice echoing from the years long gone, and +feel the kindly touch of her hand upon his brow. When troubles +came, mother knew just what to do and soon the sun was shining +again. It was her magic that made the rough places smooth, her +voice that exorcised all evil spirits. She it was who drove the +lions from his path and made it a place of peace <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page95" name="page95"></a>[95]</span>and joy. To +be disloyal to her would be to lose his manhood.</p> +<p>Whatever vicissitudes befall, we yearn to return to the old +homestead, for there, and there alone, can we experience, in full +measure, the reactions that came from our early associations with +the old well, the bridge that spans the brook, the trees bending +low with their luscious fruit, the grape arbor, the spring that +bubbles and laughs as it gives forth its limpid treasure, the +fields that are redolent of the harvest season, and the royal meal +on the back porch. The man who does not smile in recalling such +scenes of his boyhood days is abnormal, disloyal, and an apostate. +These are the scenes that anchor the soul and give meaning to +civilization. The man who will not fight for the old home, and for +the memory of father and mother, will not fight for the flag of his +country and is, at heart, an alien. But the man who is loyal to the +home of his early years, loyal to the memory of his parents, and +loyal to the principles which they implanted in his life, such a +man can never be less than loyal to the flag that floats over him, +loyal to the land in which he finds his home, and ever loyal to the +best and highest interests of that land. Never, because of him, +will the colors of the flag lose their luster or the stars grow +dim. He will be faithful even unto death, because loyalty throbs in +his every pulsation, is proclaimed by his every word, is enmeshed +in every drop of his blood and has become a vital part of +himself.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page96" name= +"page96"></a>[96]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_12" id="Ch_12">Chapter Twelve</a></h3> +<h2>Democracy</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>In a recent book H.G. Wells says that education has lost its +way. Whether we give assent to this statement or not, it must be +admitted that it is a direct challenge to the school, the home, the +pulpit, the press, to government, and to society. If education has +indeed lost its way, the responsibility rests with these +educational agencies. If education has lost its way, these agencies +must unite in a benevolent conspiracy to help it find it again. The +war has brought these agencies into much closer fellowship and they +are now working in greater harmony than ever before. This is due to +the fact that they are working to a common end, that they are +animated by a common purpose. The war is producing many +readjustments and a new scale of values. Many things that were once +considered majors are now thought of as minors, and the work of +reconstruction has only just begun. Civilization is now in the +throes of a re-birth and people are awakening from their +complacency and thinking out toward the big things of life. They +are lifting their gaze above and beyond party, and creed, and +racial ties, and territorial boundaries, and fixing it upon their +big common interests. More and more has their thinking been focused +upon democracy, until this has become a watchword throughout the +world. About this focal point people’s thoughts are rallying +day by day, and their community of feeling and thinking is leading +to community of action.</p> +<p>Primarily, democracy is a spiritual impulse, the quintessence of +the Golden Rule. “As a man thinketh <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page97" name="page97"></a>[97]</span>in his heart +so is he,” and this spiritual quality inevitably precedes and +conditions democracy in its outward manifestations. Feeling, +thinking, willing, doing—these are the stages in the law of +life. The Golden Rule in action has its inception in the love of +man for his fellow-man. The action is but the visible fruitage of +the invisible spiritual impulse. The soldier in the trench, the +sailor on the ship, the nurse in the hospital, the worker in the +factory, and the official at his desk, all exemplify this +principle. The outward manifestations of the inward impulse, +democracy, are many and varied, and the demands of the war greatly +increased both the number and variety. People essayed tasks that, a +few years ago, would have seemed impossible; nor did they demean +themselves in so doing. The production and conservation of food has +become a national enterprise that has enlisted the active +coöperation of men, women, and children of all classes, +creeds, and conditions. Rich and poor joined in the work of war +gardens, thinking all the while not only of their own larders but +quite as much of their friends across the sea. And while they +helped win the war, they were winning their own souls, for they +were yielding obedience to a spiritual impulse and not a mere +animal desire. Thus Americans and the people of other lands, like +children at school, are learning the lesson of democracy. Moreover, +they are now appalled at the wastage of former years and at the +cheapness of many of the things that once held their interest.</p> +<p>In this process of achieving an access of democracy it holds +true that “There is no impression without expression.” +Each reaction of the spirit tends to groove the impression into a +habit, and this process has had a thousand exemplifications before +our eyes since the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page98" name= +"page98"></a>[98]</span>opening of the war. People who were only +mildly inoculated with the democratic spirit at first became +surcharged with this spirit because of their many reactions. They +have been obeying the behests of spiritual impulse, working in war +gardens, eliminating luxuries, purchasing bonds, contributing to +benevolent enterprises, until democracy is their ruling passion. +Every effort a man puts forth in the interest of humanity has a +reflex influence upon his inner self and he experiences a spiritual +expansion. So it has come to pass that men and women are doing two, +three, or ten times the amount of work they did in the past and +doing it better. Their aroused and enlarged spiritual impulses are +the enginery that is driving their minds and bodies forward into +virgin territory, into new and larger enterprises, and thus into a +wider, deeper realization of their own capabilities. So the leaven +of democracy is working through difficulties of surpassing obduracy +and resolving situations that seemed, in the past, to be beyond +human achievement. And of democracy it may be said, as of Dame +Rumor of old, “She grows strong by motion and gains power by +going. Small at first through fear, she presently raises herself +into the air, she walks upon the ground and lifts her head among +the clouds.” On the side of democracy, at any rate, it would +seem that education is beginning to find its way again.</p> +<p>In the thinking of most people democracy is a form of +government; but primarily it is not this at all. Rather it is a +spiritual attitude. The form of government is an outward +manifestation of the inward feeling. Our ancestors held democracy +hidden in their hearts as they crossed the ocean long before it +became visible as a form of government. The form of government was +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page99" name= +"page99"></a>[99]</span>inevitable, seeing that they possessed the +feeling of democracy, and that they were journeying to land in +obedience to the dictates of this feeling. In education for +democracy the form of government is an after-consideration; that +will come as a natural sequence. The chief thing is to inoculate +the spirits of people with a feeling for democracy. This germ will +grow out into a form of government because of the unity of feeling +and consequent thinking. When this spiritual attitude is generated, +not only does the form of government follow, but people meet upon +the plane of a common purpose and give expression to their inner +selves in like movements. They come to realize that, in a large +way, each one is his brother’s keeper. They are drawn +together in closer sympathy and good-will; artificial barriers +disappear; and they all become interested in the common good. Their +interests, purposes, and activities become unified, and life +becomes better and richer. Actuated by a common impulse, they +exemplify what Kipling says in his <em>Sons of Martha</em>:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Lift ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or +flat,</p> +<p>Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha spilled +for that,</p> +<p>Not as a ladder from Earth to Heaven, not as an altar to any +creed,</p> +<p>But simple Service, simply given, to their own kind, in their +common need.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>As Dr. Henry van Dyke well says, “It is the silent ideal +in the hearts of the people which molds character and guides +action.”</p> +<p>It will be admitted without qualification that the school, when +well administered, constitutes a force that a altogether favorable +to the development of the spirit <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page100" name="page100"></a>[100]</span>of democracy, and no one +will deny that democracy is a worthy goal toward which the +activities of the school should be directed. It is easy to see just +how geography, for instance, may be made a means to this end. The +members of the class represent many conditions of society, but in +the study of geography they unite in a common enterprise and have +interests in common. Thus their spirits merge and, for the time, +they become unified in a common quest. They become coordinates and +confederates in this quest of geography, and the spirit of +democracy expands in an atmosphere so favorable to growth. These +pupils may differ in race, in creed, or in color, but these +differences are submerged in the zeal of a common purpose. Lines of +demarcation are obliterated and they are drawn together because of +their thinking and feeling in unison. The caste system does not +thrive in the geography class and snobbery languishes. The pupils +have the same books, the same assignments, the same teacher, and +share alike in all the privileges and pleasures which the class +provides. Their grades are given on merit, with no semblance of +discrimination. In short, they achieve the democratic attitude of +spirit by means of the study of geography.</p> +<p>If the teacher holds democracy in mind, all the while, as the +goal of endeavor, she will find abundant opportunities to inculcate +and develop the democratic ideal. By tactful suggestion she directs +the activities of the children into channels that lead to unity of +purpose. Where help is needed, she arranges that help may be +forthcoming. Where sympathy will prove a solace, sympathy will be +given, for sympathy grows spontaneously in a democratic atmosphere. +Books, pictures, and flowers come forth as if by magic to bear +their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name= +"page101"></a>[101]</span>kindly messages and to render their +appointed service. By the subtle alchemy of her very presence, the +teacher who is deeply imbued with the spirit of democracy fuses the +spirits of her pupils and causes them to blend in the pursuit of +truth. Thus she brings it to pass that the spirit of democracy +dominates the school and each pupil comes to feel a sense of +responsibility for the well-being of all the others. So the school +achieves the goal of democracy by means of the studies pursued, and +the pupils come to experience the altruism, the impulse to serve, +and the centrifugal urge of the democratic spirit.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name= +"page102"></a>[102]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_13" id="Ch_13">Chapter Thirteen</a></h3> +<h2>Serenity</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Serenity does not mean either stolidity or lethargy; far +otherwise. Nor does it mean sluggishness, apathy or phlegmatism; +quite the contrary. It does mean depth as opposed to shallowness, +bigness as opposed to littleness, and vision as opposed to +spiritual myopia. It means dignity, poise, aplomb, balance. It +means that there is sufficient ballast to hold the ship steady on +its way, no matter how much sail it spreads. When we see serenity, +we are quite aware of other spiritual qualities that foster it and +lift it into view. We know that courage is one of the hidden +pillars on which it rests and that sincerity contributes to its +grace and charm. It is a vital crescent quality as staunch as the +oak and as graceful as the rainbow. It evermore stands upon a +pedestal, and a host of devotees do it homage. It is as majestic +and beautiful as the iceberg but as warm-hearted as love. It has +reserve, and yet it attracts rather than repels. A thousand +influences are poured into the alembic of the spirit, and serenity +issues forth in modest splendor.</p> +<p>This quality of the spirit both betokens and embodies power, and +power governs the universe. Its power is not that of the storm that +harries and devastates, but rather that of the sunshine that +fructifies, purifies, chastens, and ripens. It does not rush or +crash into a situation but steals in as quietly as the dawn, +without noise or bombast, and, by its gentle influence, softens +asperities and wins a smile from the face of sorrow, or +discouragement, or anger. Its presence transforms discord into +harmony, irradiates gloom, and evokes rare <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>[103]</span>flowers +from the murky soil of discontent. Whatever storms may rage +elsewhere and whatever darkness may enshroud, it ever keeps its +place as the center of a circle of calm and light. It is Venus of +Milo come to life, silently distilling the beauty and splendor of +living. In its presence harshness becomes gentleness, hysteria +becomes equanimity, and sound becomes silence. From its presence +vaunting and vainglory and arrogance hasten away to be with their +own kind. By its power, as of a miracle, it changes the dross into +fine gold, the grotesque into the seemly, the vulgar into the pure, +the water into wine. Into the midst of commotion and confusion it +quietly moves, saying, “Peace, be still!” and there is +quiet and repose. Like the sun-crowned summit of the mountain, it +stands erect and sublime nor heeds the cloudy tumult at its feet. +In the school, the teacher who exemplifies and typifies this +quality of serenity is never less than dignified but, withal, is +never either cold or rigid. Children nestle about her in their +affections and expand in her presence as flowers open in the +sunshine. She cannot be a martinet nor, in her presence, can the +children become sycophants. Her very presence generates an +atmosphere that is conducive to healthy growth. There is that +impelling force about her that draws people to her as iron filings +are drawn to the magnet. Her smile stills the tumult of youthful +exuberance and when the children look at her they gain a +comprehensive definition of a lady. Her poise steadies the children +in all the ramifications of their work, her complete mastery of +herself wins their admiration, and her complete mastery of the +situation wins their respect. They become inoculated with her +spirit and make daily advances toward the goal of serenity. +Knowledge is her <span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name= +"page104"></a>[104]</span>meat and drink and, through the subtle +alchemy of sublimation, her knowledge issues forth into wisdom. She +does not pose, for her simplicity and sincerity have no need of +artificial garnishings. Her outward mien is but the expression of +her spiritual power, and when we contemplate her we know of a truth +that education is a spiritual process.</p> +<p>To the teacher without serenity, the days abound in troubles. +She is nervous, peevish, querulous, and irritable, and her pupils +become equally so. She thinks of them as incorrigibles and tells +them so. To her they seem bad and she tells them so. Her +animadversions reflect upon their parents and their home life as +well as themselves and she takes unction to herself by reason of +her strictures. Her spiritual ballast is unequal to the sail she +carries and her craft in consequence careens and every day ships +water of icy coldness that chills her pupils to the heart. She has +knowledge, indeed much knowledge, but she lacks wisdom, hence her +knowledge becomes weakness and not power. She has spiritual +hysteria which manifests itself in her manner, in her looks, and in +her voice. Her spiritual strength is insufficient for the load she +tries to carry and her path shows uneven and tortuous. She nags and +scolds in strident tones that ruffle and rasp the spirits of her +pupils and beget in them a longing to become whatever she is not. +She is noisy where quiet is needful; she causes disturbance where +there should be peace; and she disquiets where she should soothe. +She may have had training, but she lacks education, for her +spiritual qualities show only chaos. The waters of her soul are +shallow and so are lashed into tumult by the slightest storm. She +lacks serenity.</p> +<p>The test of a real teacher is not whether she will be +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name= +"page105"></a>[105]</span>good <em>to</em> the children but, +rather, whether she will be good <em>for</em> the children, and +these concepts are wide apart. If our colleges and normal schools +could but gain the notion that their function is to prepare +teachers who will be good <em>for</em> children they might find +occasion to modify their courses radically. Unless she has serenity +the teacher is not good for children, for serenity is one of the +qualities which they themselves should possess as the result of +their school experience and it is not easy for them to achieve this +quality if the teacher’s example and influence are adverse. +We test prospective teachers for their knowledge of this subject +and that, when, in reality, we should be trying to determine +whether they will be good for the pupils. But we have contracted +the habit of thinking that knowledge is power and so test for +knowledge, thinking, futilely, that we are testing for power. We +judge of a teacher’s efficacy by some marks that examiners +inscribe upon a bit of paper, “a thing laughable to gods and +men.” She may be proficient in languages, sciences, and arts +and still not be good for the children by reason of the absence of +spiritual qualities. None the less, we admit her to the school as +teacher when we would decline to admit her to the hospital as +nurse. We say she would not be good for the patients in the +hospital but nevertheless accept her as the teacher of our +children.</p> +<p>In Ephesians we read, “But the fruit of the Spirit is +love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, +meekness, temperance,” and such an array of excellent +spiritual qualities should attract the attention of all the +agencies that have to do with the preparation of teachers. We need +only to make a list of the opposites of these qualities to be +convinced that the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name= +"page106"></a>[106]</span>teacher who possesses these opposites +would not be good for the children. Now serenity embodies all the +foregoing excellent qualities and, therefore, the teacher who has +serenity has a host of qualities that will make for the success and +well-being of her pupils. Again, quoting from Henderson: “My +whole point is that these spiritual qualities in a boy are +infinitely more important to his present charm and future +achievement than any amount of academic training, than the most +complete knowledge of reading, writing, arithmetic, history, +geography, grammar, spelling, classics, and natural science. For +charm and achievement are of the Spirit. It is very clear, then, +that we ought to make these spiritual qualities the major end of +all our endeavor during those wonderful years of grace; and that we +ought to allow the intellectual development, up to fourteen years +at least, to be a by-product, valuable and welcome certainly, but +not primarily sought after. In the end we should get much the +larger harvest of intellectual power, and much the larger +man.”</p> +<p>We cannot hope to achieve the reconstructed school until our +notion of teaching and teachers has been reconstructed. When we +secure teachers who have education and not mere knowledge, we may +begin to hope. We must look to the colleges and normal schools to +furnish such teachers. If they cannot do so, our schools must plod +along on the path of tradition without hope of finding the better +way. There are faint indications, however, here and there, that the +colleges and normal schools are beginning to stir in their sleep +and are becoming somewhat aware of their opportunities and +responsibilities. We shall hail with acclaim the glad day when they +come to realize that the preparation of teachers for their work is +a task of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name= +"page107"></a>[107]</span>large import and goes deeper than facts, +and statistics, and theories, and knowledge. If they furnish a +teacher who has the quality of serenity, we shall all be fully +alive to the fact that that quality is the luscious and nutritious +fruitage of scholarship, of wide knowledge, of much reading, of +deep meditation, and keen observation. But these elements, either +singly or in combination, are but veneer unless they strike their +roots into the spiritual nature and are thus nourished into +spiritual qualities. Excavating into serenity, we shall discover +the pure gold of scholarship; we shall find knowledge in great +abundance; we shall find the spirit of the greatest and best books; +and we shall come upon the cloister in which meditation has done +its perfect work.</p> +<p>The machine that is run to the extreme limit of its capacity +splutters, sizzles, hisses, and quivers, and finally shakes itself +into a condition of ineffectiveness. But the machine that is run +well within the limits of its capacity is steady, noiseless, +serene, effective, and durable. So with people. The person who +essays a task that is beyond his capacity is certain to come to +grief and to create no end of disturbance to himself and others +before the final catastrophe. If the steam-chest or boiler is not +equal to the task, wisdom and safety would counsel the installation +of a larger one. Here is one of the tragedies of our scheme of +education. The spirit is the power-plant of all life’s +operations and in this plant are many boilers. Instead of calling +more and more of these into action, we seem intent upon repressing +them and thus we reduce the capacity of the plant as a whole. When +we should be lighting or replenishing the fires under the boilers +of imagination, initiative, aspiration, and reverence, we +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name= +"page108"></a>[108]</span>spend our time striving to bank or quench +these fires and in playing and dawdling with the torches of +arithmetic, grammar, and history with which we should be kindling +the fires. Thus we diminish the power of the plant while +life’s activities are calling for extension and enlargement. +We seem to be trying to train our pupils to work with one or but +few boilers when there are scores of them available if only we knew +how to utilize them.</p> +<p>Hence, it must appear that reserve-power and serenity are +virtually synonymous. The teacher who has achieved serenity never +uses all the power at her command and, in consequence, all her +actions are easy, quiet, and even. She is always stable and never +mercurial or spasmodic. She encounters steep grades, to be sure, +but with ease and grace she applies a bit more power from her +abundant supply and so compasses the difficulty without disturbing +the calm. She is fully conscious of her reservoir of power and can +concentrate all her attention upon the work in hand. The ballast in +the hold keeps the mast perpendicular and the sails in position to +catch the favoring breeze. We admire and applaud the graceful ship +as it speeds along its course, giving little heed to the ballast in +the hold that gives it poise and balance. But the ballast is there, +else the ship would not be moving with such majestic mien. Nor was +this ballast provided in a day. Rather it has been accumulating +through the years, and bears the mark of college halls, of +libraries, of laboratories, of the auditorium, of the mountain, the +ocean, the starry night, of the deep forest, of the landscape, and +of communion with all that is big and fine.</p> +<p>Socrates drinking the hemlock is a fitting and inspiring +illustration of serenity. In the presence of <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>[109]</span>certain +and imminent death he was far less perturbed than many another man +in the presence of a pin-prick. And his imperturbability betokened +bigness and not stolidity. While his disciples wept about him, he +could counsel them to calmness and discourse to them upon +immortality. He wept not, nor did he shudder back from the ordeal, +but calm and masterful he raised the cup to his lips and smiled as +he drank. His serenity won immortality for his name; for wherever +language may be spoken or written, the story of Socrates will be +told. History will not permit his name to be swallowed up in +oblivion, not alone because he was the victim of ignorance and +prejudice but also because his serenity, which was the offspring +and proof of his wisdom, did not fail him and his friends in the +supreme test. It is not a slight matter, then, to set up serenity +as one of the goals in our school work. Nor is it a slight matter +for the teacher to show forth this quality in all her work and so +inspire her pupils to follow in her footsteps.</p> +<p>We hope, of course, that the boys and girls of our schools may +attain serenity so that, even in their days of youth, urged on as +they are by youthful exuberance, they may be orderly, decorous, and +kindly-disposed. We would have them polite, as a matter of course, +but we would hope that their politeness may be a part of themselves +and not a mere accretion. They will have joy of life, but so does +their teacher who is possessed of serenity. Joy is not necessarily +boisterous. The strains of music are no less music because they are +mellow. We would have our young people think soberly but not +solemnly. And when all our people, young and old, reach the goal of +serenity they will extol the teachers and the schools that showed +them the way.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name= +"page110"></a>[110]</span></p> +<h3><a name="Ch_14" id="Ch_14">Chapter Fourteen</a></h3> +<h2>Life</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Finally, we come to the chief among the goals, which is life +itself. In fact, life is the super-goal. We study manual arts, +science, and language that we may achieve the goals of integrity, +imagination, aspiration, and serenity, and these qualities we weave +into the fabric of life. Upon the spiritual qualities we weave into +it, depend the texture and pattern of this fabric and the +generating and developing of these qualities and the weaving of +them into this fabric—this we call life. When we look upon a +person who is well-conditioned and whose life is well-ordered, in +body, in mind, and in spirit, we know, at once, that he possesses +integrity, initiative, a sense of responsibility, reverence, and +other high qualities that compose the person as we see him. We do +not reflect upon what he knows of history, of geography, or of +music, for we are taking note of an exemplification of life. +Indeed, the presence or absence of these qualities determines the +character of the person’s life. Hence it is that life is the +supreme goal of endeavor. Life is a composite and the crown-piece +of all the qualities toward which we strive by means of arithmetic +and grammar—in short, of all our activities both in school +and out.</p> +<p>One of our mistakes is that we confuse life and lifetime, and +construe life to mean the span of life. In this conception the unit +of measurement is so large that our concept of life evaporates into +a vague generalization. Life is too specific, too definite for +that. The quality of life may better be measured and tested in +one-hour periods of duration. When the clock strikes <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>[111]</span>nine, we +know that in just sixty minutes it will strike ten. In the space of +those sixty minutes we may find a cross-section of life. In a +single hour we may experience a thousand sensations, arrive at a +thousand judgments, and make a thousand responses to things about +us. In that hour we may experience joy, sorrow, love, hate, envy, +malice, sympathy, kindliness, courage, cowardice, pettiness, +magnanimity, egoism, altruism, cruelty, mercy—a list, in +fact, that reaches on almost interminably. If we only had a +spiritual cyclometer attached to us, when the clock strikes ten we +should have an interesting moment in noting the record. Only in +some such way may each one of us gain a true notion of what his own +life is. The one-hour period is quite long enough for a +determination of the spiritual attitude and disposition of the +individual.</p> +<p>It is no small matter to achieve life, big, full, round, +abounding, pulsating life; but it is certainly well worth striving +for. Some one has defined sin as the distance between what one is +and what he might have been; and this distance measures his decline +from the sphere of life to which he had right and title. For life +is a sphere, seeing that it extends in all directions. Its limits +are conterminous with the boundaries of time and space. The +feeble-minded person has life, but only in a very restricted +sphere. He eats; he drinks; he sleeps; he wanders in narrow areas; +and that is all. His thinking is weak, meager, and fitful. To him +darkness means a time for sleeping, and light a time for eating and +waiting. He produces nothing either of thought or substance, but is +a pensioner upon the thinking and substance of others. His eyesight +is strong and his hearing unimpaired; but he neither sees nor hears +as normal persons do, because his spirit is incapable of +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name= +"page112"></a>[112]</span>positive reactions, and his mind too weak +to give commands to his bodily organs at the behest of the spirit. +In the language of psychology, he lacks a sensory foundation by +which to react to external stimuli.</p> +<p>In striking contrast is the man whose sphere of life is large, +whose spirit is capable of reacting to the orient and the occident, +to height and depth, and whose mind flashes across the space from +the dawn to the sunset, and from nadir to zenith. Space is his +playground, and his companions are the stars. Such a man feels and +knows more life in an hour than his antithesis could feel and know +in a century. To his spirit there are no metes and bounds; it has +freedom and strength to make excursions to the far limits of space +and time. Life comes to him from a thousand sources and in a +thousand ways because he is able to go out to meet it. There has +been developed in him a sensory foundation by which he can react to +every influence the universe affords, to light and shadow, to joy +and sorrow, to the near and the far, to the then and the now, to +the lowly and the sublime, and to the finite and the Infinite. He +has a big spirit, which is first in command; he has a strong, +active mind, which is second in command; and he has a loyal company +of bodily organs that are able and willing to obey and execute +commands.</p> +<p>To such a man we apply all the epithets of compliment and +commendation which the language yields and cite him as an +exemplification of life at high tide, of life in its supreme +fullness and splendor. The knowledge of the world comes to his +doors to do his bidding; before him the arts and sciences make +their obeisance; and wisdom is his pillar of cloud by day and his +pillar of fire by night. Therefore we call him educated; we +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name= +"page113"></a>[113]</span>call him a man of culture; we call him a +gentleman; and all because he has achieved life in abundant +measure. Having imagination, he is able to peer into the future, +anticipate world movements, and visualize the paths on which +progress will travel. Having initiative as his badge of leadership, +he is able to rally hosts of men to his standard to execute his +behests for civic, national, and world betterment. Having +aspiration, he obeys the divine urge within him and moves onward +and upward, eager to plant the flag of progress upon the summit +that others may see and be stimulated to renewed hope and +courage.</p> +<p>And he has integrity, for he is a real man. He has wholeness, +completeness, soundness, and roundness. He is an integer and never +counts for less than one in any relation of life. He cannot be a +mere cipher, for he is dynamic. He rings true at every impact of +life, is free from dross and veneer, and is genuine through and +through. There was arithmetic, back along the line somewhere, but +it has been absorbed in the big quality which it helped to generate +and develop. And it is better so. For if he were now solving +decimals and square root he would be but a cog and not the great +wheel itself. He has grown beyond his arithmetic as he has grown +beyond his boyhood warts and freckles, for the larger life has +absorbed them. Yet he feels no disdain either for freckles or +arithmetic, but regards them as gracious incidents of youth and +growth. He cannot read his Latin as he once could, but he does not +grieve; for he knows it has not been lost but, in changed form, is +enshrined in the heart of integrity.</p> +<p>Again, he has the qualities of thoroughness, concentration, a +sense of responsibility, loyalty, and serenity. <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>[114]</span>He is big +enough, and true enough both to himself and others, to pursue a +straight and steady course. To him, life is a boon, a privilege, an +investment, an opportunity, a responsibility, and, therefore, a +gift too precious to be squandered or frivoled away. To him, hours +are of fine gold and should be seized that they may be fused and +fashioned into a statue of beauty. Being loyal to this conception, +he moves on from achievement to achievement nor stops to note that +fragrant flowers of blessing and benediction are springing forth +luxuriantly in his path. His spirit is big with rightness, his +brain is clear, his conscience is clean, his eyes look upward, his +words are sincere, his thoughts are lofty, his purposes are true, +and his acts distill blessings. He is no mere figment of fancy, but +rather a noble reality whose prototype may be found on the bench, +in the forum, in the study, in the sanctum, in the school and the +college, in the factory, on the farm, and in the busy mart.</p> +<p>And, withal, he is a success as a human being. His sincerity is +proverbial in all things, both great and small. In him there is +nothing of the mystic, the hermit, or the sybarite. He has great +joy of life, and this joy is true, honest, and real, and never +simulated. He drinks in life at every pore, and gives forth life +that invigorates and inspires whomsoever it touches. His laugh is +the expression of his wholesome nature; his words are jewels of +discrimination; his every sentence bears a helpful message; his +fine sense of humor mellows and illumines every situation; and his +face always shows forth the light within. Children find delight in +his society, and the exuberant vitality of his nature wins for him +the friendship of all living creatures. Birds seem to sing for him, +and flowers to exhale their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" +name="page115"></a>[115]</span>odors for his delight. For the +influences of birds, flowers, streams, trees, meadows, and +mountains are enmeshed in his life. Nature reveals her secrets to +him and gives to him of her treasures because he goes out to meet +her. Because he smiles at nature she smiles back at him, and the +union of their smiles gives joy to those who see.</p> +<p>Moreover, he is a product of the reconstructed school, for this +school does already exist, though in conspicuous isolation. But the +oasis is accentuated by its isolation in the desert which spreads +about it and is the more inviting by contrast. When, as a child, he +entered school, the teacher, who was in advance of her time in her +conception of the true function of the school, made a close and +sympathetic appraisement of his aptitudes, his native dispositions, +his daily environment, and the bent of his inherent spiritual +qualities. First of all, she won his confidence. Thus he found +freedom, ease, and pleasure in her presence. Thus, too, there +ensued unconscious self-revelation and nothing in his life evaded +her kindly scrutiny. He opened his mind to her frankly and fully, +and never after did she permit the closing of the door. Only so +could she become his teacher.</p> +<p>She regarded him as an opportunity for the testing of all her +knowledge, all her skill, and the full measure of her altruism. Nor +was he the proverbial mass of plastic clay to be molded into some +preconceived form. Her wisdom and modernity interdicted such a +conception of childhood as that. Rather, he was a growing plant, +waiting for her skill to nurture him into blossom and fruitage. +Some of his qualities she found good; others not. The good ones she +made the objects of her special care; the others she allowed to +perish from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name= +"page116"></a>[116]</span>neglect. Her experience in gardening had +taught her that, if we cultivate the potatoes assiduously, the +weeds will disappear and need not concern us. She discerned in him +a tender shoot of imagination and this she nurtured as a priceless +thing. She fertilized it with legend, story, song, and myth, and +enveloped it in an atmosphere of warmth and joyousness. She led him +into nature’s realm, that his imagination might plume its +wings for greater flights by its efforts to interpret the heart of +things that live. Thus his imagination learned to traverse space, +to explore sights and sounds his senses could not reach, and to +construct for him another world of beauty and delight.</p> +<p>So, too, with the other spiritual qualities. Upon these goals +her gaze was fixed and she gently led him toward them. She taught +the arithmetic with zest, with large understanding, and in a +masterly way, for she was causing it to serve a high purpose. +Whatever study she found helpful, this she used as a means with +gratitude and gladness. If she found the book ill adapted to her +purpose, she sought or wrote another. If pictures proved more +potent than books, the galleries obeyed the magic of her skill and +yielded forth their treasures. She yearned to have her pupil win +the goals before him; everything was grist that came to her mill if +only it would serve her purpose. She disdained nothing that could +afford nourishment to the spirit of the child and give him zeal, +courage, and strength for the upward journey. If more arithmetic +was needful, she found it; if more history, she gave it; and if the +book on geography was inadequate, she supplemented from libraries +or from her own abundant storehouse of knowledge. She dared to +deviate from the course of study, if thereby the child might more +certainly<span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name= +"page117"></a>[117]</span> win the goals toward which she ever +looked and worked.</p> +<p>In the boy, she saw a poet, a philosopher, a prophet, an artist, +a musician, a statesman, or a philanthropist, and she worked and +prayed that the artist in the child might not die but that he might +grow to stalwart manhood to glorify the work of her school. In each +girl she saw another Ruth, or Esther, or Cordelia, or Clara Barton, +or Frances Willard, or Florence Nightingale, or Rosa Bonheur, or +Mrs. Stowe, or Mrs. Browning. And her heart yearned over each one +of these and strove with power to nourish them into vigorous life +that they might become jewels in her crown of rejoicing. She must +not allow one to perish through her ignorance or malpractice, for +she would keep her soul free from the charge of murder. And in the +fullness of manhood and womanhood her pupils achieved the full +symphony of life. They had won the goals toward which their teacher +had been leading. Their spiritual qualities had converged and +become life, and they had attained the super-goal. In the joy of +their achievement their teacher repeated the words of her own +Teacher, “I am come that they might have life, and that they +might have it more abundantly.”</p> +<hr /> +<h2><a name="Index" id="Index">Index</a></h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<ul> +<li class="firstLetter">Altruism, <a href="#page101">101</a></li> +<li>American civilization, <a href="#page14">14</a></li> +<li>Apple tree, <a href="#page75">75</a></li> +<li>Arithmetic, <a href="#page19">19</a>; +<ul> +<li>as means, never as end, <a href="#page20">20</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Aspiration, <a href="#page44">44</a>-<a href= +"#page59">59</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Bible, <a href="#page90">90</a></li> +<li>Body, mind, spirit, <a href="#page87">87</a></li> +<li>Bogtrup, <a href="#page51">51</a></li> +<li>Browning, <a href="#page45">45</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Cant, <a href="#page55">55</a></li> +<li>Children, let alone when, <a href="#page58">58</a></li> +<li>Citizenship, concept of, <a href="#page5">5</a></li> +<li>Civilization, <a href="#page6">6</a></li> +<li>Clean living, <a href="#page10">10</a>-<a href= +"#page11">11</a></li> +<li>Columbus, <a href="#page45">45</a></li> +<li>Concept of life, <a href="#page110">110</a></li> +<li>Cooley, <a href="#page51">51</a></li> +<li>Course of study, <a href="#page25">25</a></li> +<li>Culture, <a href="#page69">69</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">David, <a href="#page93">93</a></li> +<li>Democracy, <a href="#page2">2</a>, <a href= +"#page96">96</a>-<a href="#page101">101</a>; +<ul> +<li>spiritual attitude, <a href="#page98">98</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Democratic ideal, <a href="#page100">100</a></li> +<li>Destination, <a href="#page17">17</a></li> +<li>Dickens, <a href="#page66">66</a></li> +<li>Draft board, <a href="#page10">10</a></li> +<li>Dynamic teacher, <a href="#page35">35</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Edison, <a href="#page51">51</a></li> +<li>Education, newer import of, <a href="#page9">9</a>; +<ul> +<li>definition of, <a href="#page36">36</a>;</li> +<li>a spiritual process, <a href="#page104">104</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Esther, <a href="#page94">94</a></li> +<li>Excelsior, <a href="#page50">50</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Farmers, <a href="#page65">65</a></li> +<li>Field, <a href="#page45">45</a></li> +<li>Froebel, <a href="#page48">48</a></li> +<li>Future as related to present, <a href="#page17">17</a>-<a href= +"#page26">26</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Galileo, <a href="#page66">66</a></li> +<li>Geography, <a href="#page42">42</a></li> +<li>Grandchildren, <a href="#page12">12</a></li> +<li>Great Stone Face, <a href="#page3">3</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Hand, <a href="#page74">74</a></li> +<li>Harvey’s Grammar, <a href="#page78">78</a></li> +<li>Henderson, C. Hanford, <a href="#page64">64</a>, <a href= +"#page67">67</a></li> +<li>Hercules, <a href="#page78">78</a></li> +<li>History, <a href="#page51">51</a></li> +<li>Hodge, <a href="#page76">76</a></li> +<li>Hugo, Victor, <a href="#page72">72</a></li> +<li>Hungry pupils, <a href="#page47">47</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Ideals, <a href="#page63">63</a></li> +<li>Imagination, <a href="#page62">62</a>-<a href= +"#page69">69</a></li> +<li>“Impart instruction,” <a href="#page39">39</a></li> +<li>Incompleteness, <a href="#page32">32</a></li> +<li>Incorrigibility, <a href="#page30">30</a></li> +<li>Initiative, <a href="#page53">53</a>-<a href= +"#page61">61</a></li> +<li>Integrity, <a href="#page27">27</a>-<a href="#page35">35</a>; +<ul> +<li>meaning of, <a href="#page28">28</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Inventions, <a href="#page66">66</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Job, <a href="#page76">76</a></li> +<li>Jove, <a href="#page22">22</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Keats, <a href="#page40">40</a></li> +<li>Kipling, <a href="#page99">99</a></li> +<li>Knowledge and wisdom, <a href="#page20">20</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Life, <a href="#page110">110</a>-<a href= +"#page115">115</a></li> +<li>Lincoln, <a href="#page27">27</a></li> +<li>Loyalty, <a href="#page87">87</a>-<a href="#page95">95</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Madonna of the Chair, <a href= +"#page89">89</a></li> +<li>Major ends, <a href="#page25">25</a></li> +<li>Man-made course of study, <a href="#page33">33</a></li> +<li>Manual training, <a href="#page59">59</a></li> +<li>Minerva, <a href="#page22">22</a></li> +<li>Minor ends, <a href="#page25">25</a></li> +<li>Model man, <a href="#page83">83</a>-<a href= +"#page86">86</a></li> +<li>Model woman, <a href="#page82">82</a>-<a href= +"#page83">83</a></li> +<li>Mother, <a href="#page94">94</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Napoleon, <a href="#page40">40</a></li> +<li>North Star, <a href="#page72">72</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Objects of teaching, <a href= +"#page18">18</a></li> +<li>Old age, <a href="#page37">37</a></li> +<li>Old Glory, <a href="#page95">95</a></li> +<li>Olympus, <a href="#page16">16</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Parker, <a href="#page48">48</a></li> +<li>Past as related to the present, <a href= +"#page10">10</a>-<a href="#page16">16</a></li> +<li>Paternalism, <a href="#page60">60</a></li> +<li>Pestalozzi, <a href="#page48">48</a></li> +<li>Physical training, <a href="#page32">32</a></li> +<li>Physician, <a href="#page81">81</a></li> +<li>Preliminary survey of task before reconstructed school, +<a href="#page1">1</a>-<a href="#page8">8</a></li> +<li>Present, as related to the past, <a href= +"#page10">10</a>-<a href="#page16">16</a>; +<ul> +<li>as related to the future, <a href="#page17">17</a>-<a href= +"#page26">26</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Process of reconstruction, <a href="#page16">16</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Question and answer method, <a href= +"#page41">41</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Reactions, <a href="#page88">88</a></li> +<li>Reconstructed school, survey of, <a href="#page1">1</a></li> +<li>Relation of past to present, <a href="#page10">10</a>-<a href= +"#page16">16</a></li> +<li>Reserve-power, <a href="#page108">108</a></li> +<li>Respect, <a href="#page70">70</a></li> +<li>Responsibility, <a href="#page78">78</a>-<a href= +"#page86">86</a></li> +<li>Revelation, <a href="#page91">91</a></li> +<li>Reverence, <a href="#page70">70</a>-<a href= +"#page77">77</a></li> +<li>Ruth, <a href="#page94">94</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Samson, <a href="#page78">78</a></li> +<li>Sandow, <a href="#page78">78</a></li> +<li>School is cross-section of life, <a href="#page56">56</a></li> +<li>Serenity, <a href="#page102">102</a>-<a href= +"#page109">109</a>; +<ul> +<li>defined, <a href="#page102">102</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Shakespeare, <a href="#page41">41</a></li> +<li>Sin, <a href="#page111">111</a></li> +<li>Sluggard, <a href="#page38">38</a></li> +<li>Socrates, <a href="#page108">108</a>-<a href= +"#page109">109</a></li> +<li>Spiritual attitude, <a href="#page84">84</a></li> +<li>Spiritual coward, <a href="#page80">80</a></li> +<li>Spiritual hysteria, <a href="#page104">104</a></li> +<li>Standardized children, <a href="#page29">29</a></li> +<li>Statistics, <a href="#page107">107</a></li> +<li>Stimuli, <a href="#page88">88</a></li> +<li>Stuart, Ruth McEnery, <a href="#page48">48</a>-<a href= +"#page49">49</a></li> +<li>Survey of task before reconstructed school, <a href= +"#page1">1</a>-<a href="#page8">8</a></li> +<li>Swift, Edgar James, <a href="#page57">57</a>, <a href= +"#page62">62</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Teachers, kinds of, <a href="#page7">7</a>; +<ul> +<li>test of, <a href="#page104">104</a>-<a href= +"#page105">105</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li>Teaching, objects of, <a href="#page18">18</a></li> +<li>Thoroughness, <a href="#page23">23</a></li> +<li>Tractor, <a href="#page54">54</a></li> +<li>Tradition, <a href="#page21">21</a></li> +<li>Traditional teacher, <a href="#page35">35</a></li> +<li>Truth, <a href="#page76">76</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Unity, dawn of, <a href="#page4">4</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Van Dyke, Henry, <a href="#page61">61</a>, +<a href="#page99">99</a></li> +<li class="firstLetter">Wall Street, <a href="#page15">15</a></li> +<li>War gardens, <a href="#page97">97</a></li> +<li>Wells, H.G., <a href="#page96">96</a></li> +<li>Words, <a href="#page73">73</a></li> +<li>World-minded superintendents and teachers, <a href= +"#page8">8</a></li> +<li>World war, <a href="#page10">10</a></li> +</ul> +<hr class="full" /> +<h3>WORLD BOOK COMPANY</h3> +<h3>THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE</h3> +<p class="cen">Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson</p> +<p class="cen">YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK<br /> +2126 PRAIRIE AVENUE, CHICAGO</p> +<p>Publishers of the following professional works: School +Efficiency Series, edited by Paul H. Hanus, complete in thirteen +volumes; Educational Survey Series, seven volumes already issued +and others projected; School Efficiency Monographs, eleven numbers +now ready, others in active preparation.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h3>SCHOOL EFFICIENCY MONOGRAPHS</h3> +<ul> +<li><strong>Anderson</strong> +<ul> +<li>Education of Defectives in the Public Schools</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Arp</strong> +<ul> +<li>Rural Education and the Consolidated School</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Butterworth</strong> +<ul> +<li>Problems in State High School Finance</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Cody</strong> +<ul> +<li>Commercial Tests and How to Use Them</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Baton</strong> +<ul> +<li>Record Forms for Vocational Schools</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>McAndrew</strong> +<ul> +<li>The Public and Its School</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Mahoney</strong> +<ul> +<li>Standards in English</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Mead</strong> +<ul> +<li>An Experiment in the Fundamentals</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Pearson</strong> +<ul> +<li>The Reconstructed School</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Reed</strong> +<ul> +<li>Newsboy Service</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Richardson</strong> +<ul> +<li>Making a High School Program</li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><strong>Tidyman</strong> +<ul> +<li>The Teaching of Spelling</li> +</ul> +</li> +</ul> +<br /> +<br /> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14567 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |