Human interest.—And wherever she is, there is humanity. There are no dry bones in her work, for she invests every subject with human interest and causes it to pulsate in the consciousness of her pupils. If there are dry bones when she arrives, she has but to touch them with the magic of her humanity, and they become things of life. Whether long division or calculus, it is to her a part of the living, palpitating truth of the world, and she causes it to live before the minds of the pupils. The so-called dead languages spring to life in her presence, and, like Aaron’s rod, blossom and bring forth at her touch. Wherever she walks there are resurrections because life begets life. No science, no mathematics, no history, no language, can be dull or dry when touched by her art, but all become vital because she is vital. By the subtle alchemy of her artistic teaching all the subjects of her school are transmuted into the pure gold of truth and beauty.
Questions and Exercises
- What kinds of arts are there other than the fine arts?
- How do the motives of the artisan differ from those of the artist?
- What are some of the characteristics that gain one the distinction of being an “artist” teacher?
- Show that to enjoy respect is more worth while than to attract admiration.
- Under what conditions can one have joy in his work? Can one do his best without it?
- What is the result on one’s work of brooding over troubles?
- Henry Ford employs trained sociologists who see that the home relations of his employees are satisfactory. Why?
- Is one who reads good literature to acquire culture as yet an “artist” teacher?
- What constitutes character?
- What is the inference concerning one’s culture if his clothes and body are not clean? If his property at the school is not in order?
- How can one add to his culture? Is what one knows or what one does the more important part of it? Has a high degree of culture been attained by a person who must ever be on his guard?
- Is feeling an important element of culture? Illustrate.
- What is the teacher’s chief reward?
- Can a teacher lead pupils to regard work as a privilege rather than as a task, unless she has that attitude herself?
- In what respects do you regard teaching as a privilege? In what respects is it drudgery to you?
- Can enthusiasm result if there is a lack of joy in one’s work? If there is a deficiency of physical strength? If there is a poor knowledge of the subject?
- What causes historical facts to seem commonplace?
- What elements should be emphasized in history to make it seem alive with meaning?
- What principle of the drama comes into play in teaching, when a teacher desires to invest the subject with life?
- What advantages are there in having variety in one’s plans?
- Why should one avoid the sensational in school work? What are the characteristics of sensationalism? Is the fact that a class is unusually aroused a reason for decrying a method as sensational?
- With what spirit should a teacher prepare to teach about the thirteen colonies?
- Why should a teacher have great joy in the teaching of science?
- Is interest in a subject as an abstract science likely to be an adequate interest? If so, is it the best sort of interest? Why?
- From what should interest start, and in what should it function?
- Summarize the ways in which the artist teacher will show herself the artist.
CHAPTER XIV
THE TEACHER AS AN IDEAL
Responsibility of the exemplar.—If the teacher could be convinced that each of her pupils is to become a replica of herself, she would more fully appreciate the responsibilities of her position. At first flush, she might feel flattered; but when she came into a full realization of the magnitude of the responsibility, she would probably seek release. If she could know that each pupil is striving to copy her in every detail of her life, her habits of speech, her bodily movements, her tone of voice, her dress, her walk, and even her manner of thinking, this knowledge would appall her, and she would shrink from the responsibility of becoming the exemplar of the child. She cannot know, however, to what extent and in what respects the pupils imitate her. Nor, perhaps, could they themselves give definite information on these points, if they were put to the test. Children imitate their elders both consciously and unconsciously; so, whether the teacher wills it so or not, she must assume the functions of an exemplar as well as a teacher.
Absorbing standards.—If we give full credence to Tennyson’s statement, “I am a part of all that I have met,” then it follows that we have become what we are, in some appreciable measure, through the process of absorption. In other words, we are a composite of all our ideals. The vase of flowers, daintily arranged, on the breakfast table becomes the standard of good taste thenceforth, and all through life a vase of flowers arranged less than artistically gives one a sensation of discomfort. A traveler relates that in a hotel in Brussels he saw window curtains of a delicate pattern; and, since that time, he has sought in many cities for curtains that will fill the measure of the ideal he absorbed in that hotel. Beauty is not in the thing itself, but in the eye of the beholder, and the eye is but the interpreter of the ideal. One person rhapsodizes over a picture that another turns away from, because the latter has absorbed an ideal that is unknown to the former.
Education by absorption.—This subject of absorption has not received the careful attention that its importance warrants. In the social consciousness education has been so long associated with books, and formal processes, that we find it difficult to conceive of education outside of or beyond books. If, as we so confidently assert, education is a spiritual process, then whatever stimulates the spirit must be education, whether a landscape, a flower, a picture, or a person. The traveler who sits enrapt before the Jungfrau for an hour or a day is becoming more highly educated, even in the absence of books and formalities. The beauty of the mountain touches his spirit, and there is a consequent reaction that fulfills all the claims of the educational processes. In short, he is lifted to a higher plane of appreciation, and that is what the books and the schools are striving to achieve.