EDUCATION REFORM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 140, 8 March 1919, Page 8

EDUCATION REFORM

LINES OF RECONSTRUCTION THE TEACHER'S THE THING, (By F. L. Combs, M.A.) [For The Dominion-] - IWhen John Doe, preliminary to embarking on a career beset with legal pitfalls, enters the primary school his eye is absorbed in the consideration of many externals. , . , ; ■ King John, with an infuriated frown, tigiiing Magna Charta—a scorbutic "relief' map of his native land—a man in a scientifically non-committal, attitude Tolling a''cask of beer up an inclined plane in tho noble causa of mechanics— the brightly-coloured viscera of a disembowelled but benignly calm adolcscent— a desk oil a dais, the awful embodiment of autocratic authority—a bright brass balance in a case-a cupboard depress-ing})-full of .impossibly-wise and instructive literature. ' . These objectivo realities employ his impartially discursive interest during the first day or two, during which his "callow mind is permitted to browse at will. Then more recondite elements of tbo school atmosphere begin to press tliemrelves upon his attention. Problems— social problems—problems of immature etiquette encroach upon his thought, as-. Rcciatidiis-of an ; mtimate or hostile character begin to weave, their, entangling threads between him and his fello"'scholars. •• . School-ceases to bo a'building- curiously aiiHl inexplicably decorated'with cryptic charts and enigmatical jnstru : ments. - Its human (ispects begin to dominate'the "threshold Of consciousness." That Man the Master. One," particular aspect of this human continuum, its keynote incarnate, soon rises to premier position in JooDooa preoccupations. It is tho teacher. The position the teacher so early usurped in John's groping intellect he pertinaciously retains.. Hardly an'act, lawful or illicit, surreptitiously or publicly, shniuelessly .virtuous, .but-what prior to performance Jiaa reference made to tho censorship of the pedagogue. The mariner's chart is not more vigilantly anil unremittingly scanned off tho Grand Banks than is tho teacher's countenance prior to the insertion of a pin in tho' leg of the l>oy in the seat behind, or his Jlippin? of 11 note • to ti flaXch-haired 'damsel threo desks to the right and two. in front. John, indeed, proceeds to subtlo physiognomical inductions far beyond tho crude rule of thumb observations just [mentioned. At the cud of a twelvemonth, T)a it religion, private morals, manners, isense of humour, obdurate prejudices, •'fixed ideas on cricket, commercial geography, th® fair sex, there, is very little 4l teacher has still left to disclose.

How could it be otherwise? Frail 'ihuman being, subject fivo hours, a day, 220 days in the year, to tho unceasing j.batfcery of 50 .pairs of clear, and eager :'eyes—subject to''the commentary of 50 garrulous tongues exaggerating to the .Emits of dramatic license—every unguarded revelation of the man behind tho ''mask—how can ho liopo to cloakt or dis'semble his inner nature front such an .•unresting scrutiny? He does not.. He feels, too, if gifted with Jinmonr and sympathy (and God help the i teacher, who is not. and. God help even more, his pupils), that he is fair game. In detail and in principle he is deliberately or unconsciously imposing standards of conduct and.of achievement. An autocrat'in a sense that even . Prussia hardly endorses in her tyrannical politics, I 'he makes himself responsible for h> much that the never-ceasing censure of his'subjects is a salutary compensation. '

The Teacher the Pattern. School for them becomes a place where accordingly as their teacher is minded they must do or not do. He is the incarnation of all «,ho ermmaiulments of , civilisation they are likely to permanently learn. -He icceives his charges -plastic and impressionable. He moulds and patterns them to the image of his own .conformities .land . unco'nventionalities. Alike regarding tho abuso of the aspirate or the; most up-to-date of the . Ten Commandments ho is sovereign lawgiver. " To sum up, the children go to school to stildy many things from arithmetic to formal grammar. They may more or less neglect all these subjects. One subject of study, however, they apply themselves to with' unsleeping vigilance, and that is their teacher—the man thrust between them arid the external t .world for half tho waking .day as the \epitome of all that society, political, inulu«trial. and social, is to.mean to them. If his be a rich and generous nature, (Variously and vigorously endowed with parte—if his. sympathies 'bo wide and . nlert—if his, personality abound in clariflty, colour and versatility, lie is a by no means cqntemptiblo ' substitute for that world of abundant and various human contacts that is exqluded by the class--1 loom's frosted windows: ■

i If, 011 the other lilind. 'his outlook he formal, his standards ri'c-j'oly respectable, i his intelligence .mediocre, his -nature arid ! . and irresponsive, he amounts simply to ; n. Bet of limitations imposed upon the impulses insurgently active, imrnoderate- ; /ly discursive, of his charges. His stiff | i and narrow intellect is . a 6trait wafsttcoafc into which they are. cramped without right of protest. i Hence the tremendous importance of rthe pedagogue., As .111 educational origanon he is not merely primus inter ; flares. It is a case cf teacher first and • | the', To. his pupils he is ! [little, short of one half/of the hook'of j atheir daily life. v ' Can Hs'Awaken and Lead? ; Is-he—this is tlio vital question—a book euch-asi'will - appeal =to their poignant curiosities," their rapacious instinctive in- ■ .terests? Does ho as l.e discloses day byt*lay the panorama of his mind and heart, ; fabound in colour, movement, and variety i 'of commentary? Or .'a he a neutral comjpendium of the deadly virtues—an on- : cyclopaedia of the 1000 safe and sapless platitude?? Accordingly as he is tho former or the latter ho will give bread or 6tone. He is the meat of their human 'nature's- daily food. They diet themselves, [on;.the stimuli 'afforded by his .voice, his gestures,- his very, neckties. ; ' (What, the kernel is to tho nut, the engine : to the ship, the fuel to tho fire grate, : that is the teacher to the school—the actuating principle of its mechanism—a i mechanism which but encloses from interfererice and in an inferior way fur- ; thers his professional efforts. : Where carbon meets, carbon thence proi ceeds the illumination for which our i power houses thunderously hum. SimiI farly that light destined to' irradiate the j mind and heart of the generation our own should cherish—that light is generated at , tile point of pupil-pedagogue contact—is i their daily human intercourse in school. ; If the foregoing be true—how true testifies the whole history of pedagogics— r a preliminary article setting it forth was essential; A second, dealing with the I l;iml\ of teacher needed and the manner j of procuring and preparing him will be no ; less so.