Conclusion.—If the foregoing conclusions are valid, and to every thoughtful person they must seem well-nigh axiomatic, then the school has a wide field of usefulness in the way of inculcating a loftier and broader conception of patriotism. The teacher who worthily fills her place in the vitalized school will give the boys and girls in her care such a conception of patriotism as will give direction, potency, and significance to every school activity and lift these activities out of the realm of drudgery into the realm of privilege. Her pupils will be made to feel that what they are doing for themselves, their school, and their homes, they are doing for the honor and glory of their country.
Questions and Exercises
- In what ways and to what extent should patriotism affect conduct?
- Indicate methods in which patriotism may be used as an incentive to excel in the different branches of study.
- What branches of study should have for their sole function to stimulate the growth of patriotism? Discuss methods and give instances.
- Distinguish from patriotism each of the following counterfeits: sectionalism; partisanship; nationalism; and jingoism. Should teachers try to eradicate or sublimate these sentiments? How?
- What should be the attitude of the teacher of history toward Commodore Decatur’s toast: “My country, may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, my country”?
- Cite recent history to prove that temperance and sanitation are necessary for the realization of national victories and the perpetuation of the common welfare.
- Is the “Golden Rule” a vital principle of patriotism? Why?
- How are culture and refinement related to patriotism? thrift?
- Make a list of songs, poems, novels, paintings, and orations that are characterized by lofty patriotic sentiments. Name some that are usually regarded as patriotic but which are tainted with inferior sentiments.
- Discuss the adaptability of these to the different periods of youthful development and the methods whereby their appeal may be made most effective.
CHAPTER IX
WORK AND LIFE
Tom Sawyer.—Tom Sawyer was one of the most effective teachers that has figured in the pages of the books; and yet we still regard Mark Twain as merely the prince of humorists. He was that, of course, but much more; and some day we shall read his books in quest of pedagogical wisdom and shall not be disappointed. It will be recalled that Tom Sawyer sat on the top of a barrel and munched apples while his boy companions whitewashed the fence in his stead. Tom achieved this triumph because he knew how to emancipate work from the plane of drudgery and exalt it to the plane of a privilege. Indeed, it loomed so large as a privilege that the other boys were eager to barter the treasures of their pockets in exchange for this privilege. And never did a fence receive such a whitewashing! There wasn’t fence enough and, therefore, the process must needs be repeated again and again. The best part of the entire episode was that everybody was happy, Tom included. Tom was happy in seeing his plan work, and the other boys were happy because they were doing work that Tom had caused them to become eager to do.
Work as a privilege.—To make work seem a privilege is a worthy task for the school to set before itself, and if it but achieves this it will prove itself worth all it costs. At first thought, it seems a stupendous task, and so it is. But Tom Sawyer accomplished it in an easy, natural way, with no parade or bombast. He had habit and tradition to contend against, just as the school has, but he overbore these obstacles and won the contest. Some of those boys, before that morning, may have thought it ignoble to perform menial tasks; but Tom soon overcame that feeling and led them to feel that only an artist can whitewash a fence properly. Some of them may have been interpreting life as having a good time, but, under the tutorage of Tom, they soon came to feel that having a good time means whitewashing a fence.
The persistency of habit.—In striving to exalt and ennoble work, the school runs counter to habits of thought that have been formed in the home, and these habits prove stubborn. The home has so long imposed work as a task that the school finds it difficult to make it seem a privilege. The father and mother have so often complained of their work, in the presence of their children, that all work comes to assume the aspect of a hardship, if not a penalty. It often happens, too, that the parents encourage their children to think that education affords immunity from work, and the children attend school with that notion firmly implanted in their minds. They seem to think that when they have achieved an education they will receive their reward in the choicest gifts that Fortune has to bestow, and that their only responsibility will be to indicate their choices.