The genesis of education is not the God of the Old Testament; it is the
unconscious wish of the primitive men who invented that God. The
religion of the Old Testament is a father complex religion; God is the
hated and feared father, the authority who punishes, the provider of food
and clothing, the maker of laws. Authority always makes the governed
inferior and dependent; the man with a father complex cannot stand alone;
he must always flee to his father or father substitute when he meets a
difficulty. Thus does the Christian act; he seeks the Father; he places
his burden on the Lord; he avoids responsibility. The Hebraic religion
and our modern education both demand that the individual shall avoid
responsibility; the good Christian and the good schoolboy must obey the
Law. I think that if the world is to be free the church and the school
must aim at breaking the power of the Father.
* * * * *
"Look here, Mac," I said last night, "I am going to pay you for my board."
Mac protested vigorously.
"You'll do nothing of the kind," he said firmly.
I went to the kitchen and made the offer to his wife, and she also
protested.
This morning I cycled to Dundee and bought a knife-cleaner and a vacuum
cleaner. They arrived to-night, and Mrs. Mac gave a gasp of delight.
Mac tried to frown, but he could not manage it. Both protested against
what they called my idiotic kindness, but their protests were
half-hearted.
It is a strange thing that money itself is considered a sordid thing.
Why should Mac refuse five pounds with anger, and accept a ten pound gift
with pleasure? If anyone wants to study the psychological meaning of
money I recommend Chapter XL. in Dr. Ernest Jones' _Psycho-analysis_. In
the unconscious, at any rate, money is assuredly "filthy lucre."
* * * * *
A teacher should know very little about the subject he professes to
teach. In my London school I succeeded a line of excellent teachers of
drawing. I had not been long in the school when Di, aged 15, looked over
my shoulder one day and said: "Rotten! You can't draw for nuts!"
A week later Malcolm looked at a water colour of mine.
"You've got a horrible sense of colour," he said brightly.
Then I began to wonder why everyone in school was much more keen on
drawing and painting than they had ever been in the days of the skilled
teachers. The conclusion I came to was that my bad drawing encouraged
the children. I remembered the beautiful copy-book headlines of my
boyhood, and I recalled the hopelessness of ever reaching the standard
set by the lithographers. No child should have perfection put before
him. The teacher should never try to teach; he should work alongside the
children; he should be a co-worker, not a model.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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