In the School-Room: Chapters in the Philosophy of EducationHart, John S. (John Seely)
Philosophy
In the School-Room: Chapters in the Philosophy of Education
Hart, John S. (John Seely)
Teaching
Not so the instructor of youth. The material operated on here is of a
nature too subtle to be shaped and fashioned by the undeviating routine
of any such mechanical operations. The process necessary to sharpen one
intellect may terrify and confound another. The means which in one
instance serve to convince, serve in other cases to confuse. The
illustration which to one is a ray of light, is to another only
"darkness visible." Mind is not, like matter, fixed and uniform in its
operations. The workman who is to operate upon a substance so subtle and
so varying must not be a man of _one idea_--who knows one thing, and
nothing more. It is not true in mind, as in matter, that perfection in
the knowledge of one particular point is gained by withdrawing the
attention from every other point. All truth and all knowledge are
affiliated. The knowledge of arithmetic is increased by that of algebra,
the knowledge of geography by that of astronomy, the knowledge of one
language by knowing another. As no one thing in nature exists
unconnected with other things, so no one item in the vast sum of human
knowledge is isolated, and no person is likely to be perfectly
acquainted with any one subject who confines his attention with
microscopic minuteness to that subject. To understand thoroughly one
subject, you must study it not only in itself, but in its relations. To
know one thing well you must know very many other things.
Let us return then to the point from which we set out, namely: that one
important difference between the teacher and other operatives arises
from the difference in the objects on which they operate. The one
operates upon matter, the other upon mind. The one attains perfection in
his art by a process which in the other would produce an ignoramus, a
bungler, a narrow-minded, conceited charlatan. Hence the necessity on
the part of those who would excel in the profession of teachers, of
endeavoring continually to enlarge the bounds of their knowledge. Hence
the error of those who think that to teach anything well it is necessary
to know only that one thing. That young woman who undertakes to teach a
primary school, or even an infant class, has mistaken her calling if she
supposes that because she has to teach only the alphabet or the "table
card," she has therefore no need to know many other things. There are
some things which every teacher needs. Every teacher needs a cultivated
taste, a disciplined intellect, and that enlargement of views which
results only from enlarged knowledge.
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