At the present time objectivity in instruction is exalted, but every
great educator has achieved success by being entirely subjective. The
teacher should be a lover of truth. Therefore he should never force a
resisting object to serve his own views. As a result of this attitude,
the more subjective he is, the better. The fuller and richer he
communicates to the children the essence and power of his own view of
life and his own character, so much the more will he forward their real
development, provided, however, that he does not force upon them his
opinions with the claim of infallibility. In this as in all other
matters, the young should be allowed to exercise free choice.
The teachers of both sexes in my school will have short hours of work, a
long time to rest, and a large salary; that is, they will have the
possibility of a continuous development. The limit of their service will
be twenty years. After this period, they will become members of a school
jury composed of parents and teachers, or they will assist in final
examinations, as censors. These will be conducted as indicated above, in
such a way that each censor shall pass a summer either at home or
abroad, in company with young people, not more than five in number. By
living with them the censor will be able to measure their capacity for
absorbing an education; he can direct them in the choice of a
profession. By a "Socratic" communication of practical wisdom, he will
supply a substitute for the Confirmation Instruction which will no
longer be given. The psychological value of this instruction is not to
be actually found in what one learns from it, but in the direction of
the mind to the serious questions and pursuits of life, in the awakening
of ethical self-development, which is the factor of supreme importance
in passing from childhood to youth. In this way the young will be
initiated into the art of life. I mean by this the art of making one's
own personality, one's own existence, an object of artistic interest and
pursuit. The initiation will be conducted by a wise man, or by a woman
who has kept her youthfulness, so that she understands the joys and
pains of the young, their play and their seriousness, their dreams and
aspirations, their faults and their dangers--leaders who can give
indirect suggestions how young people should play their own melodies in
the orchestra of life.
My school will not come into existence while governments make their
greatest sacrifices for militarism. Only when this tendency is overcome,
a point in development will be reached, where one can see that the
dearest school programme is also the cheapest. People will realise that
strong manly brains and heart have the greatest social value. I have
already said that this is no reform plan for the present that I am
outlining here, only a dream for the future. But in our wonderful
existence dreams are becoming at last actual realities.[1]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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