Fundamental facts for the teacher

Preface

Since the publication of " The Basis of Practical Teaching/' there has been a wide-spread demand for a second book which should follow the lines of character building or moral training. "Fundamental Facts for the Teacher" has been written with the view of meeting this demand. Very briefly I have tried to develop the thought that the end of all human activities is life, and that this end can be attained through no hook or crook or by-process, but only in the processes of real living. We are made or unmade in the activities of life. I have the hope that this book will appeal not only to teachers and students, but to the general public as well.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGB

I. The Distinctive Work of the School .... 7

II. The Motives of the School 13

Chapter I The Distinctive Work Of The School

There is no other institution in which the American people are so universally and keenly interested as they are in the school, and there is no subject so widely and intelligently discussed by the masses as is the subject of education. This is not surprising for in addition to the benefits which are derived directly from the schools by all classes of people who attend or patronize them, and indirectly even by those who do neither, there are many things which contribute to this general interest.

From the homes of the rich and the poor, the native born and the foreign born, the professional classes and the tradesmen, go the children into the schools, and there they have their victories and their defeats, their glad hours and their sad hours. They mingle with the bright and the dull. They come under the discipline and instruction of strangers whom they often come to revere, sometimes to dislike. It is a new world to the young child, and remains a distinctive world throughout his student years. The school is the topic of conversation in the home; and parents, older brothers and sisters, and even brothers and sisters too young to be in school, have an interest in it. Furthermore, all our people support the school regardless of personal benefits directly derived therefrom. There is perhaps no interest so vital as a vested interest. Even if people are not directly participating in an enterprise or an institution, if their money is used in its support they are apt to have an interest in it. The special days in our schools — flag day, arbor day, anniversary days, commencement — all offer the public opportunities for recreation, entertainment and instruction which the mass of the people are not slow to accept. As a result of all this there is very wide and deep interest in the schools notwithstanding the apparent apathy and unconcern.

So much is the school a part of our lives and our daily living that we take it for granted; we accept the school, as we do the mountains and the valleys about us. Before we were, it was; and as with all social inheritances we look upon it almost as a law of nature. But in this unquestioning acceptance of the school, which is at once the great force for higher levels in life and the great leveler, too many of our people forget that it is but one of five great organized social agencies whose function is to help the people, each of course in its own distinctive way. In practically every community, while perhaps not too much is demanded of the school, wrong things are demanded, and the school is not free to do its own work well. It is always a mistake to ask the school to assume the responsibilities and bear the burdens of other institutions, and not infrequently is this done. The home, the church, business and even the state

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are offenders here. Delinquent parents demand of the school work which constitutes the legitimate reason for the home. The church, whose function is the increase of righteousness in the world, makes illegitimate demands upon the school. Business demands a degree of skill and a power of adjustment which it is never the function of the school to confer or develop. The state demands of the school that it shall turn out law-abiding, public-spirited citizens. No one questions that the school has an obligation here, but it is too much to demand such results of the school in the face of dishonest practices in the home, questionable business methods in the markets, and graft and misrule in the state. These institutions must mutually reenforce one another. The work of the school will tell in all the others, but it will tell most fully when it is no longer burdened with their work and is free to do its own work in the most effective way. We must realize that the benefits derived from the school will be large in proportion as it does its own work; and because the school holds so important a place in our lives we must not therefore demand of it service which it is not its province to render, and so handicap it in rendering the much higher service which is its function.

The one distinctive function of the school is development of the entire child. The child enters the school undeveloped in mind and body. He is young, inexperienced, weak and comparatively helpless mentally and physically. The function of the school is to train so that the child will develop a degree of mental and physical mastery; to teach so that the child will gradually come out of the bondage of ignorance into the freedom of knowledge; to give ample and varied opportunities for mental and physical exercise so that the child will come out of weakness into strength; and to cultivate the habit of application and independence of movement so that the child will become able to exercise his own initiative and to plan his own programs of life. Such is the legitimate work of the school. There will of course be many by-products, as there are in all life's processes, but the one thing for which the school should aim is development. For this all things else exist. Whatever does not contribute directly or remotely to development as the final fruitage can be no legitimate factor or process of the school. This is the final test. Does the superintendent of schools make his contribution to the development of the children? Is this contribution a large and generous one ? Then the superintendent has justified his existence as such. The same test applies to teachers, janitors, the money expended in laboratories, libraries, gymnasia, playgrounds, etc. Whatever makes for the enlarged life of the child — pictures, music, Greek, Delsarte, physical appliances — has a place and should be admitted as an important factor. Tradition and custom notwithstanding, whatever does not make for the enlarged life of the child should be eliminated as having no place in the school.

It is not the function of the school to prepare the children for particular work in the world. Even in

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our largest cities, where life is differentiated and the division of labor carried to the extreme, neither parent, teacher nor child can predict what the child may be doing in a comparatively short time after leaving the school. The rapid invention of machinery, the change of work due to accident and unforeseen developments, make any such prediction hazardous. If the child is developed, and this is the work we have a right to expect the school to undertake, he will find it comparatively easy to make the adjustments necessary to meet the varying vicissitudes of life; but if he is fitted for one thing, even well fitted, he is hopelessly lost in the event of displacement. The work of adjustment, of special preparation for special things, should never be expected of the school; such work is beyond its province, and comes later in life, when the child is no longer in the school and is out making his adjustments to life as he finds it, as it exists for no other being in the world, and as it can not be idealized in any school. This is even true in the professional schools. How much truer then in the common schools? A young man learns medicine and the allied fines of science in the Medical College. He learns to be a physician in the actual practice of his profession. The same thing is just as true of the lawyer, the minister and the engineer. Power of adjustment to the actual things comes only through exercise in adjusting to actual things. The greatest service the school can render the professions and specialized labor of all kinds is to turn over to them well-developed men and women.

Now the school must know that this is its work and it must be faithful to its task. The superintendent or teacher who does not have a clear conception of the real work of the school has not learned the most important lesson of his profession. The school should not allow itself to be stampeded into false positions and impossible undertakings by the clamors of even a sincere though a more or less thoughtless public. In these days, when every conceivable subject is knocking at the door of the school and asking or demanding admittance, it is more important than ever to have a restatement of the function of the school and a very clear conception of the work which it should do. We shall lose ground and do weak work if we have but a vague conception of what we are about. We shall gain ground and render an unprecedented service if we have a clearly defined conception of our work, and the courage to follow it.

Chapter II The Motives Of The School

In the preceding chapter the purpose was to set forth in brief but clear and concise form the work which the school may legitimately undertake. The plans, devices and methods employed will be numerous, and as varied as the conditions under which the work is done. Such things must be left to the ingenuity and good judgment of the teacher. Nevertheless all teachers, if they understand well the organizing idea or the function of the school, will have the same ultimate aim. This aim is capable of definition, and its importance is primary and fundamental. There is, however, another factor so subtle as almost to evade discussion, yet so important in determining the character of all work that we must not fail to give it thought in connection with our consideration of the function of the school. It is the question of the motives of the school. There are four legitimate motives: (1) the individual motive of the student; (2) the individual motive of the teacher; (3) the social motive of the student; (4) the social motive of the teacher.

The individual motive of the student is the accomplishment of the tasks set. Occasionally it is well to hold before young children, as far as it is possible to do so, the ultimate results of the work they are about. But this should seldom be done, and whenever we do so we take the risk of developing a habit of life somewhat similar to the habit of turning to the close of a book to see how it is going to come out, thus robbing ourselves of the thrill and the joy of following the development step by step. It is not desirable that children should be dwelling upon the great things that are ahead. The normal mental attitude of the child is that of application to the task before him, a desire to accomplish it, and a joy in its accomplishment. The student thinks that his work is the solution of the problem, the demonstration of the proposition, the translation of a chapter, the analysis of a compound or a plant, or the recital of a campaign. It would be indicative of abnormal self-centering for the child, or even for the more mature student in the public schools, to say, "Now I shall spend an hour in developing my mind by working in mathematics or science or language." The individual motive of the student is the accomplishment of the task. The great benefits to be derived from such accomplishment in the form of strength of character and preparation for larger things ahead are only in a small and vague way motives in his work.

The individual motive of the teacher is different. He insists upon complete and accurate work, upon correct results. In the solution of the problem in whatever subject it may arise, the correct method must be pursued, fallacies avoided and correct re-

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suits obtained. He is even more profoundly interested in the student's accomplishment of the task than is the student himself, yet this is not the ultimate motive of the teacher. The student looks upon the assignment as the thing to be accomplished. The teacher looks upon the student's development as the thing to be accomplished. The student is interested in mathematics, geography or chemical results. The teacher is interested in human results. The student is set on mastering this book on arithmetic. The teacher knows that by the use of another arithmetic he could accomplish his purpose equally well. The study in which the student is interested is the means whereby the teacher realizes his professional end, which is the development of the student. The individual motive of the student is the accomplishment of the work. The individual motive of the teacher is the accomplishment of the student through his work.

Later in his student life the student comes to have more far-reaching and comprehensive motives; he becomes less centered on the thing in hand as the one ultimately worth while; he becomes socialized, his school activities come to have less final value in themselves, and seek a larger meaning outside themselves ; and finally they come to be regarded not as ends in themselves but merely as means to higher ends. The accomplishments of the schoolroom come to have a social significance, and the student discovers that he is actuated by a social motive. He becomes desirous of having his schoolroom tasks and performances of such a character as to relate themselves to the busy world outside.

At this point in the development of the student he finds himself trying to decide what he is going to be and what he is going to do. He is sometimes pathetically ill at ease because he has not chosen his profession or business. He desires now to work toward some definite end. He is not yet the friend of " general culture." He feels that the great discovery ahead of him is his life's work. He does not yet realize that the great discovery ahead of him is himself. He does not yet fully realize that many of the misfits in life may be due to the fact that men and women have not discovered themselves, that they have stopped just short of the physical laboratory, the art studio, or the classics, and that their kingdom remains undiscovered.

In high school and college the longing to be somebody and to do something, to get out into the world and help along, is very pronounced. Such a longing is legitimate and beautiful; in it there are hope and encouragement. The danger here is that before discovering himself and finding his own work the student may go out to accomplish before his character has acquired proper development. Working thus, the results must always be partial and unsatisfactory. To the realization of this social motive of the student nothing contributes so largely as do the individual motives of the student and the teacher. When the student has accomplished his tasks faithfully and fully and the teacher has accomplished the student's development through this full and faithful performance of his tasks, the student is ready to follow the social motive.

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The social motive of the teacher is closely akin to the social motive of the student, although more comprehensive and general. The student is actuated by the motive to do his own work; his motive is specialized service. The teacher's individual motive — the development of the child — has its fruitage in the teacher's social motive of service. It is of small concern to him in what particular channel the student's life shall run and what particular service he shall render. The teacher simply desires that the student shall be of large account in the world. For his student as an individual the teacher covets the larger life, human wealth; for his student as a social factor he covets service.

The four legitimate motives then of the school are: (1) the individual motive of the student — doing the work assigned; (2) the social motive of the student — doing his own work in the world; (3) the individual motive of the teacher — the enlargement of the student's life; (4) the social motive of the teacher — through the enlarged life of the student, a large service to society.

Chapter III Attention And Conduct

If the function of the school is the development of the entire child, then the teacher must not attempt to educate any one set of faculties at the expense of anyother. He must not try to train the mind without at the same time training the body. For physical well-being is not only an end in itself, but it is the basis for the development of all other ends.

Few persons realize how close the relationship is between good health and consistent, effective attention. While the relationship is not one of cause and effect, it is certainly one as close as that of condition and resultant, because attention being a most fatiguing process, it follows that without an abundance of vitality upon which to draw, long-continued attention is impossible.

The close relationship between good health, or the abundant life, and conduct is proverbial. Every one knows how nearly impossible it is for a nervous child in the home or in the school to behave itself, to order its conduct consistently, and every wise parent or teacher takes into account the health conditions of the child under his direction and makes due allowance for delinquencies in conduct which have their

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origin in deficient nervous supply and control. We all recognize the close relationship and parallelism between mental states and physical states, and from this close relationship has arisen the pedagogical maxim or ideal of "a sound mind in a sound body/' thus recognizing the impossibility of the one without the other. It is a well established and accepted fact that there is no psychosis without neurosis, but it is not generally known that there is a psychosis peculiar to physical conditions and to physical and neural states. The consumptive is proverbially hopeful and cheerful, and although cognizant of the fact that the last days are not far distant, he lives in the mental frame of one who has an eternity in which to accomplish his temporal plans. Suspicion, irritability, stubbornness are generally observed on the part of people who have been overtaken by deafness. A high degree of sensitiveness, physical and mental, characterizes the individual who has early in life been deprived of the sense of sight. The otherwise healthy young person who has been crippled so that he cannot enter into the sports, games and contests of his associates, is apt to become morose, envious and uncharitable. So that in this most general and by no means scientifically demonstrated way we see for our purpose here the very close relationship between physical states and mental attitudes, and the very close relationship between complete physical life and wholesome, symmetrical conduct. This close relationship has in it largely the intermediary factor of attention, the abundant physical life determining the direction and the power of the attention, which in its turn gives birth to the style of conduct.

It is true that as a man " thinketh in his heart," so is he, but this means supreme attention, the focusing of one's life upon a thing. The thinking in his heart means that he has become absorbed in the thing and lost to himself and to the world. The necessary result of such thinking and such attention is conduct in direct harmony with the object of attention. No one ever puts forth effort to secure a thing or to avoid it unless he has some knowledge of that thing, and no one has knowledge of a thing who has not attended to it. Attention is a prerequisite to knowledge, and knowledge is a prerequisite to behavior or conduct. So that the world of attention determines more largely than anything else, through knowledge, the manner of conduct or behavior of the individual thus attending. The modern psychologists are recognizing this close relationship between knowledge, the result of attention, and action. In his " Outlines of Psychology," Royce says there is no perception without action. In fact perception, seeing the thing face to face through the attentive act, and action, that is, conduct, behavior, appropriate response to adjustment, are one and the same thing. So that we know the thing only in terms of what we can do with it. The piano is an instrument on which certain musical effects can be produced, certain musical programs can be carried out. A desk is not a piece of furniture with certain standard measurements, but it is a piece of furniture that can be used in the attainment of

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certain ends, in the accomplishment of desirable work. And so we know an object of knowledge, the thing as it is called, not as a thing in itself, but through the use to which it can be put. Its effective behavior, the value of the thing as it now exists, is accounted for because it fulfills certain requirements of use.

Furthermore, this close relationship of attention and conduct is shown in every activity of life, in the accomplishment of every task, in the attainment of every end, in the schoolroom, in the workaday affairs of life. We must know through attention, in general terms at least, the road before we can travel it. This is true of the student, the teacher, the carpenter, the farmer, the lawyer, — any one who gets anything worth while done. The getting it done can be accomplished only by attentive knowledge, however partial, fragmentary, temporal and unsatisfactory for the long run, this knowledge may be at the outset. One's conduct is shaped and determined by his objects of attention; one's conduct is an absolute slave to his attention; it is affected, bound down by, and stands absolutely helpless before its tyrant, attention. However anxious the bicyclist may be that he reach his journey's end without a mishap, observation shows that he always inclines toward the destructive object when it first claims his attention, and only by sheer physical and mental strength, turns aside. Every one knows the force of an insistent idea which will not down. My roommate insisted that he was strong enough to break his watch chain. This idea to which he gave attention seemed to prey upon him, and the result of attention to this entirely unnecessary feat of strength was that in a comparatively short time the work had been done. The unworthy or the worthy deed is the legitimate result of the unworthy or the worthy object of attention. Whoever thinks on higher things will advance toward them; whoever thinks on lower things, will go toward them. Here we see the significance of worthy ideals, high standards, character models, in the schoolroom and elsewhere, and we get a hint, but only a partial hint, of the disaster and ruin that follow in the wake of low ideals, bad conduct, and small accomplishments as they are kept before the student.

As the child thinketh in his heart, the man in after years thinketh in his heart and acts out in his life. Nothing short of the power that made him can save him from such a fate. It is not too much here to say that we attain salvation through attention and that we debase and debauch ourselves into damnation through attention. So the only hope of a cleaner and better life, of a more appropriate response, of efficient conduct, comes not primarily nor mainly through lamentations, but it comes through the power of attention. Fortunate is the man who, in the presence of objects or situations which are calculated to blast his life, can turn his mind and heart away, and fix them upon things that are calculated to order his conduct on the higher planes. But the multitude is not strong enough to win in this way; and so I have said to my students again and again that under such conditions the thing to do is simply

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to remember that there are better things and better ways; to remember that feet have been given us in order that we may run away, and that we must run until we have before our eyes and before our ears objects of attention that will turn our feet into wholesome and life-giving paths. The only hope for many a man and many a woman is that he or she stay away or go away.

The most fortunate thing that any person can do who wishes to live an effective life, who wishes to deliver a blow for God and humanity that will be felt for all time, is to determine, in the formative, plastic years of his life, upon systems of attentive objects, — philosophy, literature, science, the companionship of the best men and women, — that these may be the stars to which he will hitch the slowrolling wagon of his life. Only by following this or a similar program can one be sure that he will reach high levels in his conduct and that he will not travel the muddy roads on the low levels which lead to the swamps of immorality, disease and death. If we long for fine conduct, for well-ordered behavior, if we wish to live toward higher things and be strong, rather than to live toward lower things and be weak, this wish can be realized only as we meditate upon, think over, attend to the best that has been realized and the best that can be idealized.

Chapter IV Suggestion And Conduct

We all recognize, to a degree at least, what an important factor imitation is in the development of the child. I wish in this chapter to invite the attention of the reader to the importance of suggestion as the obverse of imitation. The child imitates what is suggested to it consciously or unconsciously by those with whom it lives. This is shown in all social fields. The child of English-speaking parents does not inherit the English language nor even the specific skill to use the English language. It merely inherits the language tendency and in the course of time will express itself by the use of some language. The probability is that, being the child of English-speaking parents, it will speak the English language. This specific skill that it will in the course of time have attained is due to the English language suggestions received from its parents and other associates from infancy up. Had the child at the time of its birth or a few months afterward, though born of English-speaking parents, been placed in a German family in a German community, it would just as easily and effectively have used the German language instead of the English language, because it was subjected to the

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German language suggestions. Had it been placed in a French family it would for the same reason have developed the general language tendency into the particular French language skill. If a child is born and reared in a family in which only good language forms are used, it will, through the force of suggestion, imitate and use such language forms only. Vice versa, if the child is born and reared in a family that uses bad language forms, it will just as naturally come into the use, through suggestion, of these bad language forms. Its language conduct, so to speak, is therefore determined almost entirely by the suggestions that come to it through its language environment.

The effect of suggestion on conduct is as plainly shown in the field of religion and politics as anywhere. Every child is born with the tendency to identify himself with social forms of one kind or another, — political, religious and so on. But he is not born with the tendency to be a Democrat, a Republican, a Prohibitionist or a Socialist. From his earliest childhood, however, he has been subjected to political suggestion, especially from his father. If these suggestions come from a Democrat, the strong probability is that the son will become a Democrat. If the suggestions come from a Republican, he will likewise be a Republican, and so on. This by no means implies that he will not later in life think for himself, invite new systems of suggestions through his reading and associations, and so probably change his political affiliation. But it does mean that, as a rule, the young son of a Democrat will be a Democrat and the young son of a Republican will be a Republican, due in no way to inheritance but entirely to the system of political suggestions to which each has been subjected.

In religious life, during the earlier and less thoughtful years, the sons and daughters of Methodists are Methodists; of Catholics are Catholics, and so on with all the church organizations. This again does not mean that the individual may not later invite new systems of religious suggestions and that he may not then change his church affiliations.