The Teacher as a Concrete Ideal
A clear vision of the end to be attained in discipline presupposes that the teacher embody every ideal of self-control that is needed to build up the perfectly rounded-out character. The teacher is the soul of his measures. The child is a pilgrim, needing to be led; a growing entity, needing to be nourished. Then it follows that the teacher becomes the ideal—a living, growing, real ideal for the pupil. This is not true in a general and abstract way only, for in every phase of his work, the teacher must by the very nature of the process adapt himself—his thought, his action, his feeling, his life—to what the pupil is and should next become. Here it becomes apparent that the teacher is not a remote or unattainable ideal, but a very near and present help for every succeeding activity of the pupil—a help-meet for good. The remote end of discipline, self-control, is realized by a constant presentation of the ideal embodied in the teacher, by a vitalizing association with the child. In this way the ideals of the teacher dominate the life of the child.
There is a story extant that an eagle was hatched with a brood of goslings. Unconscious of its eagle nature, it kept to the earth with its unnatural mates, until one day an eagle soaring along, swooped down near it and touched it with the spirit of the freedom of the upper air. It took wing into the realms of its natural abode. The child, beautiful in his simple life, needs but the touch of that ideal embodied in a spirit that will bring him into his rightful sphere. Many years ago a venerable pastor, whose life was a fountain of constant inspiration for good, returned to the scenes of his boyhood and called upon the aged pedagogue who had taught him in his youth. He reported the good work he believed he had accomplished. He told the teacher that he was regarded as a bad boy in his school days, but that the pedagogue had turned him into paths of right, where-upon the old man asked, “What was it I said?” The worthy pastor replied, “Ah, it was not what you said; it was your life.”
The teacher’s life, his ideals, his habits will be lived over again in those whom he teaches. Thus it can be seen that it is not sufficient for the teacher to set up imaginary ends and theories for realizing them in pupils; he himself must be the realized end. It is scarcely worth while for a teacher to set up as an end in the pupils the formation of correct habits and forms of thought without realizing them in himself. It need not be said that a teacher who can not think with scientific patience and precision can not train others to such patience and precision. Honesty can be cultivated only by him who is honest. Truth can be cultivated only by him who is truth-loving. The love of work can be taught only by him who works. Noble thinking can be stimulated only by him who is imbued with nobleness of thought. The idealized spirit of faith and hope can shine forth only from the soul that hopes and has the faith that radiated from the spirit of the Teacher of Galilee. “In another aspect discipline is a relation between the child and the teacher, and here the contribution of the teacher is his personality and the force of his will, to which the child responds with trust, obedience and the will to please.”[[11]]
[11]. Welton and Blandford, op. cit., p. 169.