And the education which will make the training aim at this end will be
diametrically opposed to that given by the teacher of the present day.
The teacher will be required to make his own observations, he will guide
the scholar in the choice of books, and show him how to work. But he
will not give first his own observation, judgment, and knowledge in the
form of lectures, preparations, and experiments. Occasionally he will
without giving notice ask for an oral or written account of work, and so
ascertain how thoroughly the scholar has gone into the subject. At
another time, when he knows that the scholar is prepared for it, he
will give a general treatment, a comprehensive review of the subject, a
stimulating and stirring impression, as a reward for independent work.
Finally, when the scholar wishes it, he will examine him formally, but
his real work will be to teach the scholar to make his own observations,
to solve his own problems, to find his own aids to study in books,
dictionaries, maps, etc., to fight his way through his own difficulties
to victory and so reach the only moral reward for his trouble with
broadened insight and increased strength.
The scholar who sits down and listens to, or looks at, the demonstration
or experiment of the teacher does not learn to observe, nor does he
whose exercise book is corrected with painful accuracy learn to write;
nor does the one who pedantically carries out the system of models in
the sloyd system learn to make articles fit for every-day use. The
student must make his investigations himself, he must find the mistakes
himself when their presence is indicated to him, he must himself think
out the objects brought before him. Above all, the separate errors must
not be corrected except when they are so constant and serious that they
waste time. But the scholar himself must try to find out the correct and
complete method of work and of expression. This is what training, what
education is.
Text-books will be attractive and virile, the "Reader" will disappear,
the complete books in the original (the text may be revised if it is
filled with confusing details) will be placed in the hands of children.
The school library will be the largest, most beautiful, and important
room; lending books in the schools will be an essential part of the
curriculum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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