The Philosophy of Teaching: The Teacher, The Pupil, The SchoolSands, Nathaniel
Philosophy
The Philosophy of Teaching: The Teacher, The Pupil, The School
Sands, Nathaniel
Teaching
The question which is ever present to the mind of the true teacher is:
What can I do to insure the happiness of these beings confided to my
charge, whose minds it is given to me to fashion, not according to my
will, but according as my skill and judgment shall, more or less, enable
me to adapt my teachings to their natures? What shall I seek to engrave
upon the clear tablets of their young and tender minds, in order that
their future lot may be a joyous one? Let me illustrate (he will say) my
profession. I will raise it high as the most honored among men, and for my
monument I will say: "Look around; see the good works of those whom I have
taught and trained; they are my memorials!"
Such may, such will become the hope and aspiration common to teachers in
that good day to come, when their labors shall be honored as they deserve;
when parents, in all the different ranks into which society falls, shall
vie with each other in the respect and honor tendered to the teacher,
whose true place in society is at least not beneath that of the Judge.
The teachers to be developed by such a state of society will, as their
first step, seek to obtain a clear and comprehensive view of the work they
propose to accomplish, and will then seek to adopt the most judicious
means to reach the end proposed. They will adapt their methods of teaching
to the nature of the object to be taught and to the order in which the
faculties of the human mind naturally unfold themselves, for true
education is the natural unfolding of the intellectual germ. In order to
obtain the knowledge necessary of the object to be taught, the true
teacher turns to nature as his guide, for the voice of nature is the voice
of God, and in reading her statutes we read that grand volume in which He
has left an impress of Himself. The science of nature is nothing more
than the ability to read and interpret correctly the lessons taught. There
was a period when mankind knew very little of the planet upon which they
lived and moved and had their being; _there was_ a time when they knew
almost nothing; and there _will_ come a time when they will know almost
every thing that can be known by finite man. The earth is our _mother_,
and _nature_ is our teacher, and if we listen to her voice, she will lead
us higher and higher until we will stand the master and the king in the
glorified temple of wisdom. To reach results so grand and a position so
exalted, our natures must unfold in exact harmony with all the laws and
forces which surround and control us from the time our existence commences
until its close.
From the period of conception until birth the child draws to itself all
the essential elements required for the organization of a human being; the
capabilities and powers of the parent are taxed and called upon to
contribute their material to enable nature to reproduce itself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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