The dualism then is non-existent when we are educating. We do notice it
before, and we are thus brought to examine the antinomy; but the
difficulty is removed by the very act of education itself, by the first
word that comes to the pupils' ears from the lips of the teacher. The
dualism however cannot be resolved if the master's word fails to reach
the pupils' soul, but then under those circumstances there is no
education. But even in such cases, if the teacher is not sluggish, if he
displays a real spiritual power, the abiding existence of the barrier
between the two minds proves helpful to the spiritual growth of the
learner, who, because of his incoercible freedom, is impelled by the
insufficiency of the master to affirm his personality with increased
vigour. So that the school is a hearth of liberty, even in spite of the
intentions of the teacher. A school without freedom is a lifeless
institution.
CHAPTER IV
REALISM AND IDEALISM IN THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE
We found it necessary in the previous chapter to pass from the abstract
to the concrete in order to arrive at the truth. The universality of the
individual was made clear when for the empirical concept of the
individual, abstractly considered, we substituted the deeper and more
speculative one of the individual himself in the concreteness of his
relationships. In like manner, the fundamental antinomy of education was
resolved as soon as we replaced the abstract idea of the dualism of
teacher and pupil, by the idea of their intrinsic, profound, unseverable
unity as it gradually works out and is actualised in the process of
education. We were enabled therefore to conclude that the real teacher
is within the soul of the pupil, or, better still, the teacher is the
pupil himself in the dynamism of his development. So that, far from
limiting the autonomy of the disciple, the master, as the propulsive
element of the pupil's spontaneity, penetrates his personality, not to
suppress it, but to help its impulses and facilitate its infinite
development.
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