In fact, all the many activities of school life should be made into
channels through which affection can run between teacher and pupil, and
the more channels there are the better it will be for both. As the boy
grows older these channels will naturally become more numerous, and the
love of the school will become the friendship of manhood. Thus love
will have her perfect work.
Love on the physical plane has many forms. We have the love of husband
and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, the affection
between relatives and friends. But all these are blended and enriched in
the love of the Master to His disciple. The Master gives to His pupil
the gentleness and protection of a mother, the strength of a father, the
understanding of a brother or a sister, the encouragement of a relative
or a friend, and He is one with His pupil and His pupil is a part of
Him. Besides this, the Master knows His pupil's past, and His pupil's
future, and guides him through the present from the past into the
future. The pupil knows but little beyond the present, and he does not
understand that great love which draws its inspiration from the memory
of the past and shapes itself to mould the powers of the future. He may
even sometimes doubt the wisdom of the love which guides itself
according to a pattern which his eyes cannot see.
That which I have said above may seem a very high ideal for the
relation between a teacher and pupil down here. Yet the difference
between them is less than the difference between a Master and His
disciple. The lower relation should be a faint reflection of the higher,
and at least the teacher may set the higher before himself as an ideal.
Such an ideal will lift all his work into a higher world, and all school
life will be made happier and better because the teacher has set it
before him.
II. DISCRIMINATION
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account