Boys, as well as teachers, must learn self-control in action. They must
not so engage in other activities as to neglect their ordinary school
duties. My Master says to those who wish to serve Him: "You must do
ordinary work better than others, not worse." A boy's first duty in
school is to learn well, and nothing should lead him to neglect his
regular school work. Outside this--as it is best that his activities
should be kept within the school--the wise teacher will provide within
the school organisation all the activities in which his boys can
usefully take part. If there should be any national organisation to
which he thinks it useful that they should belong, he will himself
organise a branch of it within the school and he himself and the other
teachers will take part in it. For example the Boy-Scout movement and
the Sons of India are both national organisations, but branches of them
should be formed in the separate schools. Teachers should train their
boys to realise that just as the home is the centre of activity for the
child, so is the school the centre of activity for the youth. As the
child draws his life and energy from the home, so the youth should draw
his from the school. The most useful work should be done in connection
with the school so that it may form part of the general education of the
boy, and be in harmony with the rest of his growth. There should be in
the school debating societies, in which the rules of debate are
carefully observed, so that the boys may learn self-control in argument;
dramatic clubs in which they may learn control of expression; athletic
clubs in which control of mind and action are both acquired; literary
societies for boys specially interested in certain studies; societies
for helping the poorer students.
It is also very important to give the boys an opportunity of
understanding the conditions under which their country is growing, so
that in the school they may practice patriotism apart from politics. It
is very unfortunate that in India students are often taught by
unscrupulous agitators that love of their country should be shown by
hatred of other countries; the boys would never believe this, if their
own school provided patriotic services for its boys, so as to give a
proper outlet for the enthusiasm they rightly feel. They only seek an
outlet away from the school because none is provided for them within it.
Groups of students should be formed for various kinds of social service
according to the capacities of the boys, and the needs of their
surroundings: for the protection of animals, for rendering first aid to
the injured, for the education of the depressed classes, for service in
connection with national and religious festivals, and so on. Boys, for
whom such forms of service are provided in their schools, will not want
to carry them on separately.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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