The Teacher: Essays and Addresses on Education — John Shaqi
The Teacher: Essays and Addresses on EducationPalmer, Alice Freeman
Philosophy
The Teacher: Essays and Addresses on Education
Palmer, Alice Freeman
Education; Education, Higher; Women -- Education
One more contribution to character which comes from the school as a
place of learning I will mention: it should create a sense of freedom.
Without this both learning and the learner are distorted. It is not
enough that the child become submissive to an already constituted world,
obedient to its authoritative organization; not enough that he find
pleasure in it, or even discover himself emerging, as one day's
diligence is bound up with that of another. All these influences may
easily make him think of himself as a passive creature, and consequently
leave him half formed. There is something more. Rightly does the
Psalmist call the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom rather than
its end; for that education is defective which fashions a docile and
slavish learner. As the child introduces order into his previously
capricious acts, thoughts, and feelings, he should feel in himself a
power of control unknown before, and be encouraged to find an honorable
use for his very peculiarities. He should be brought to see that the
world is unfinished and needs his joyful coöperation, that it has room
for individual activity and admits rationally constructed purposes. From
his earliest years a child should be encouraged to criticise, to have
preferences, and to busy himself with imaginative constructions; for all
this development of orderly freedom and of rejoicing in its exercise is
building up at once both knowledge and character.
II. Yet a school becomes an ethical instrument not merely through being
a place of learning but because it is also a social unit. It is a
coöperative group, or company of persons pledged every instant to
consider one another, their common purpose being jarred by the obtrusion
of any one's dissenting will. Accordingly much that is proper elsewhere
becomes improper here. As soon as a child enters a schoolroom he is
impressed by the unaccustomed silence. A happy idea springs in his mind
and clamors for the same outgo it would have at home, but it is
restrained in deference to the assembled company. In crossing the room
he is taught to tread lightly, though for himself a joyous dash might be
agreeable; but might it not distract the attention of those who are
studying? The school begins at nine o'clock and each recitation at its
fixed hour, these times being no better than others except as
facilitating common corporate action. To this each one's private ways
become adjusted. The subordination of each to all is written large on
every arrangement of school life; and it needs must be so if there is to
be moral advance. For morality itself is nothing but the acceptance of
such habits as express the helpful relations of society and the
individual. Punctuality, order, quiet, are signs that the child's life
is beginning to be socialized. A teacher who fails to impress their
elementary righteousness on his pupils brutalizes every child in his
charge.
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