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diff --git a/old/14567-8.txt b/old/14567-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04c6a9f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14567-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3770 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Reconstructed School, by Francis B. +Pearson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Reconstructed School + +Author: Francis B. Pearson + +Release Date: January 3, 2005 [eBook #14567] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RECONSTRUCTED SCHOOL*** + + +E-text prepared by Bill Tozier, Barbara Tozier, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +School Efficiency Monographs + +THE RECONSTRUCTED SCHOOL + +by + +FRANCIS B. PEARSON + +Superintendent of Public Instruction for Ohio + +Author of _The Evolution of the Teacher_, _The High School Problem_, +_Reveries Of A Schoolmaster_, and _The Vitalized School_ + +World Book Company + +1921 + + + + + + + +PREFACE + + +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. + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER + + I. A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE TASK BEFORE THE SCHOOL + II. THE PAST AS RELATED TO THE PRESENT + III. THE FUTURE AS RELATED TO THE PRESENT + IV. INTEGRITY + V. APPRECIATION + VI. ASPIRATION + VII. INITIATIVE + VIII. IMAGINATION + IX. REVERENCE + X. SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY + XI. LOYALTY + XII. DEMOCRACY + XIII. SERENITY + XIV. LIFE + INDEX + + + + +THE RECONSTRUCTED SCHOOL + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF THE TASK BEFORE THE SCHOOL + + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +some of our own preconceived notions and thus extend the horizon of our +education. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +THE PAST AS RELATED TO THE PRESENT + + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 decorum will be emphasized and magnified; +for decorum is evermore the fruitage of intellectuality and genuine +culture. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +THE FUTURE AS RELATED TO THE PRESENT + + +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. + +If children are asked why they go to school, nine 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 for results and when this solution is evolved, the work of +reconstruction will move on apace. + +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. + +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 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 _Invictus_, +and that nothing short of death may avail to absolve him from his +obligations to his high standards? + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +INTEGRITY + + +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, +_integer_, 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. + +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 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. + +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 best assist the child to +attain integrity by means of the school activities. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +If Sam Brown is a nature boy, no amount of coercion 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 consequences may ensue. The railway crew +must read the order without a mistake if they would save life and property +from disaster. + +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. + +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 +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. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +APPRECIATION + + +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. + +It is common knowledge that business affairs do not require more than ten +pages of arithmetic and it would 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." + +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. + +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. + +The subjects that avail in generating and stimulating 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. + +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 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? + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +It is related of Keats that in reading Spenser he 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +ASPIRATION + + +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. + +The student who scans the records of historical achievements and of the +triumphs of art, music, science, literature, and philanthropy must realize +that ardent 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. + +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 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. + +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." + +There is nothing more pathetic in the whole realm 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. + +Ruth McEnery Stuart has set out this whole matter most lucidly and +cogently in her volume entitled _Sonny_. 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _Excelsior_ 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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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: + + What I aspired to be + And was not, comforts me. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +INITIATIVE + + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +In world affairs we deem initiative a real asset, but one of the saddest +of our mistakes in ordering school 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. + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 _t_ or dot an _i_. 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +IMAGINATION + + +In his very stimulating book, _Learning and Doing_, 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." + +This business man, unconsciously perhaps, puts his 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. + +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 +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. + +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 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." + +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 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 _inventions_." In short, to say that one is an inventor is but +another way of saying that he has imagination. + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +REVERENCE + + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +In the way of illustrating this quality of respect, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY + + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +LOYALTY + + +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. + +Seeing, then, that the body is but a helper whose 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 render them vital, dynamic, and eager to essay any new task +that gives promise of a larger and better outlook for their pupils. + +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 _Invictus_ Henley +says, + + In the fell clutch of circumstance + I have not winced nor cried aloud; + Under the bludgeonings of chance, + My head is bloody but unbowed. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 +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. + +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." + +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. 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. + +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 and joy. To be +disloyal to her would be to lose his manhood. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +DEMOCRACY + + +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. + +Primarily, democracy is a spiritual impulse, the quintessence of the +Golden Rule. "As a man thinketh 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. + +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 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. + +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 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 _Sons of Martha_: + + Lift ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat, + Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha spilled for that, + Not as a ladder from Earth to Heaven, not as an altar to any creed, + But simple Service, simply given, to their own kind, in their common need. + +As Dr. Henry van Dyke well says, "It is the silent ideal in the hearts of +the people which molds character and guides action." + +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 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. + +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 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. + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +SERENITY + + +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. + +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 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 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. + +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. + +The test of a real teacher is not whether she will be good _to_ the +children but, rather, whether she will be good _for_ 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 _for_ 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. + +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 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." + +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 +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Socrates drinking the hemlock is a fitting and inspiring illustration of +serenity. In the presence of 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. + +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. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +LIFE + + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Again, he has the qualities of thoroughness, concentration, a sense of +responsibility, loyalty, and serenity. 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 win the goals toward which she ever looked and +worked. + +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." + + + + +INDEX + + [Transcriber's Note: Page numbers converted to Chapter numbers.] + + Altruism, 12 + American civilization, 2 + Apple tree, 9 + Arithmetic, 3 + as means, never as end, 3 + Aspiration, 5, 7 + + Bible, 11 + Body, mind, spirit, 11 + Bogtrup, 6 + Browning, 6 + + Cant, 7 + Children, let alone when, 7 + Citizenship, concept of, 1 + Civilization, 1 + Clean living, 2 + Columbus, 6 + Concept of life, 14 + Cooley, 6 + Course of study, 3 + Culture, 8 + + David, 11 + Democracy, 1, 12 + spiritual attitude, 12 + Democratic ideal, 12 + Destination, 3 + Dickens, 8 + Draft board, 2 + Dynamic teacher, 4 + + Edison, 6 + Education, newer import of, 1 + definition of, 5 + a spiritual process, 13 + Esther, 11 + Excelsior, 6 + + Farmers, 8 + Field, 6 + Froebel, 6 + Future as related to present, 3 + + Galileo, 8 + Geography, 5 + Grandchildren, 2 + Great Stone Face, 1 + + Hand, 9 + Harvey's Grammar, 10 + Henderson, C. Hanford, 8 + Hercules, 10 + History, 6 + Hodge, 9 + Hugo, Victor, 9 + Hungry pupils, 6 + + Ideals, 8 + Imagination, 8 + "Impart instruction," 39 5 + Incompleteness, 4 + Incorrigibility, 4 + Initiative, 7 + Integrity, 4 + meaning of, 4 + Inventions, 8 + + Job, 9 + Jove, 3 + + Keats, 5 + Kipling, 12 + Knowledge and wisdom, 3 + + Life, 14 + Lincoln, 4 + Loyalty, 11 + + Madonna of the Chair, 11 + Major ends, 3 + Man-made course of study, 4 + Manual training, 7 + Minerva, 3 + Minor ends, 3 + Model man, 10 + Model woman, 10 + Mother, 11 + + Napoleon, 5 + North Star, 9 + + Objects of teaching, 3 + Old age, 5 + Old Glory, 11 + Olympus, 2 + + Parker, 6 + Past as related to the present, 2 + Paternalism, 7 + Pestalozzi, 6 + Physical training, 4 + Physician, 10 + Preliminary survey of task before reconstructed school, 1 + Present, as related to the past, 2 + as related to the future, 3 + Process of reconstruction, 2 + + Question and answer method, 5 + + Reactions, 11 + Reconstructed school, survey of, 1 + Relation of past to present, 2 + Reserve-power, 13 + Respect, 9 + Responsibility, 10 + Revelation, 11 + Reverence, 9 + Ruth, 11 + + Samson, 10 + Sandow, 10 + School is cross-section of life, 7 + Serenity, 13 + defined, 13 + Shakespeare, 5 + Sin, 14 + Sluggard, 5 + Socrates, 13 + Spiritual attitude, 10 + Spiritual coward, 10 + Spiritual hysteria, 13 + Standardized children, 4 + Statistics, 13 + Stimuli, 11 + Stuart, Ruth McEnery, 6 + Survey of task before reconstructed school, 1 + Swift, Edgar James, 7, 8 + + Teachers, kinds of, 1 + test of, 13 + Teaching, objects of, 3 + Thoroughness, 3 + Tractor, 7 + Tradition, 3 + Traditional teacher, 4 + Truth, 9 + + Unity, dawn of, 1 + + Van Dyke, Henry, 7, 12 + + Wall Street, 2 + War gardens, 12 + Wells, H.G., 12 + Words, 9 + World-minded superintendents and teachers, 1 + World war, 2 + + + * * * * * + + +World Book Company +The House of Applied Knowledge +Established, 1905, by Caspar W. Hodgson +Yonkers-on-Hudson, New York +2126 Prairie Avenue, Chicago + +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. + + + * * * * * + + +SCHOOL EFFICIENCY MONOGRAPHS + + Anderson +Education of Defectives in the Public Schools + + Arp +Rural Education and the Consolidated School + + Butterworth +Problems in State High School Finance + + Cody +Commercial Tests and How to Use Them + + Baton +Record Forms for Vocational Schools + + McAndrew +The Public and Its School + + Mahoney +Standards in English + + Mead +An Experiment in the Fundamentals + + Pearson +The Reconstructed School + + Reed +Newsboy Service + + Richardson +Making a High School Program + + Tidyman +The Teaching of Spelling + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RECONSTRUCTED SCHOOL*** + + +******* This file should be named 14567-8.txt or 14567-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/5/6/14567 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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