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
III. A third aspect of the school I have called its character as a
Dependent Fellowship, and I have said that this is merely incidental. A
highly important incident it is, however, and one that never fails to
recur. What I would indicate by the dark phrase is this: in every school
an imperfect life is associated with one similar but more advanced, one
from which it perpetually receives influences that are not official nor
measurable in money payment. A teacher is hired primarily to teach, and
with a view also to his ability to keep order throughout his little
society and to make his authority respected there. But side by side with
these public duties runs the expression of his personality. This is his
own, something which he hides or discloses at his pleasure. To his
pupils, however, he must always appear in the threefold character of
teacher, master, and developed human being; while they correspondingly
present themselves to him as pupils, members of the school, and
elementary human beings. Of these pairs of relationships two are
contrasted and supplemental,--teacher and pupil, master and scholar,
having nothing in common, each being precisely what the other is not. As
human beings, however, pupil and teacher are akin and removed from one
another merely by the degree of progress made by the elder along a
common path. Here then the relation is one of fellowship, but a
fellowship where the younger is largely dependent on the older for an
understanding of what he should be. By example, friendship, and personal
influence a teacher is certain to affect for good or ill every member of
his school. In any account of the school as an ethical instrument this
subtlest of its moral agencies deserves careful analysis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account