doing, for their minds are always wandering away from the subject in
hand. The world outside them is so full of attractive objects new and
interesting to them, that their attention runs away after each fresh
thing that comes under their eyes. A child is constantly told to
observe, and he takes pleasure in doing so; when he begins to reason he
must for the time stop observing and concentrate his mind on the subject
he is studying. This change is at first very difficult for him, and the
teacher must help him to take up the new attitude. Sometimes attention
wanders because the boy is tired, and then the teacher should try to put
the subject in a new way. The boy does not generally cease to pay
attention wilfully and deliberately, and the teacher must be patient
with the restlessness so natural to youth. Let him at least always be
sure that the want of attention is not the result of his own fault, of
his own way of teaching.
If the attention of the teachers and the boys is trained in this way,
the whole school life will become fuller and brighter, and there will be
no room for the many harmful thoughts which crowd into the uncontrolled
mind. Even when rest is wanted by the mind, it need not be quite empty;
in the words of the Master: "Keep good thoughts always in the background
of it, ready to come forward the moment it is free."
The Master goes on to explain how the mind may be used to help others,
when it has been brought under control. "Think each day of some one whom
you know to be in sorrow, or suffering, or in need of help, and pour out
loving thoughts upon him." Teachers hardly understand the immense force
they may use along this line. They can influence their boys by their
thoughts even more than by their words and actions, and by sending out a
stream of kind and loving thoughts over the class, the minds of all the
boys will be made quieter and happier. Even without speaking a word
they will improve the whole atmosphere.
This good influence of thought should spread out from the school over
the neighbourhood. As those who live among young people keep young
themselves, and keep the ideals and pure aspirations of youth longer
than those who live mainly among older people, so the presence of a
school should be a source of joy and inspiration to the surrounding
neighbourhood or district. Happy and harmonious thought-forms should
radiate from it, lighting up the duller atmosphere outside, pouring
streams of hope and strength into all within its sphere of influence.
The poor should be happier, the sick more comfortable, the aged more
respected, because of the school in their midst.
If the teacher often speaks on these subjects to his boys, and from time
to time places some clear thought before them, which they all think
about together, much good may be done. For thought is a very real and
powerful force, especially when many join together with some common
thought in their minds. If any great disaster has happened, causing
misery to numbers of people, the teacher might take advantage of the
religious service to draw attention to the need, and ask the boys to
join with him in sending thoughts of love and courage to the sufferers.
The last point mentioned by the Master is pride: "Hold back your mind
from pride," He says, "for pride comes only from ignorance." We must not
confuse pride with the happiness felt when a piece of work is well done;
pride grows out of the feeling of separateness: "_I_ have done better
than others." Happiness in good work should grow out of the feeling of
unity: "I am glad to have done this to help us all." Pride separates a
person from others, and makes him think himself superior to those around
him; but the pleasure in some piece of work well done is helpful and
stimulating, and encourages the doer to take up some more difficult
work. When we share with others any knowledge we have gained, we lose
all feeling of pride, and the wish to help more, instead of the wish to
excel others, becomes the motive for study.
2. _Self-control in action_. The Master points out that while "there
must be no laziness, but constant activity in good work ... it must be
your _own_ duty that you do--not another man's, unless with his
permission and by way of helping him." The teacher has, however, a
special duty in this connection; for while he must offer to his boys
every opportunity for development along their own lines, and must be
careful not to check their growth or to force it in an unsuitable
direction, he is bound to guide them very carefully, to watch them very
closely, and, as Master has said, to tell them gently of their faults.
The teacher is in charge of his boys while they are in school, and must,
while they are there, take the place of their parents.
His special lesson of self-control is to learn to adapt his own methods
to the stage through which his boys are passing. While contenting
himself with watching and encouraging them when their activity is
running along right lines, he must be ready to step in--with as little
disturbance as possible--to modify the activity if it becomes excessive,
to stimulate it if it becomes dull, and to turn it into new channels if
it has taken a wrong course. In any necessary interposition he should
try to make the boys feel that he is helping them to find the way they
have missed but really wished to go, rather than forcing them to go his
way. Many boys have failed to develop the necessary strength of
character, because the teacher, by constant interference, has imposed on
them his own knowledge as to right action, instead of trying to awaken
their judgment and intuition. The boys become accustomed to depend
entirely on him, instead of learning gradually to walk alone.
The teacher must be very careful not to allow outside interests to take
him away from his duties in the school. Many teachers do not seem to
realise that the school should occupy as much time as they can possibly
give to it outside their home duties. They sometimes do the bare amount
of work necessary, and then rush away to some other occupation which
they find more interesting. No teacher can be really successful in his
profession unless it is the thing he cares for most, unless he is eager
to devote all the time he can to his boys, and feels that he is
happiest when he is working with them or for them.
We are always told that enthusiasm and devotion to their work mark the
successful business man, the successful official, the successful
statesman; they are equally necessary for the successful teacher. Anyone
who desires to rise high in the profession of teaching must bring to his
work, not only ability, but similar enthusiasm and devotion. Surely even
more enthusiasm and devotion should be brought to the moulding of many
hundreds of young lives than to the gaining of money or power. Every
moment that the teacher is with his boys he can help them, for, as has
always been taught in India, being near a good man helps one's
evolution. Away from the school he should be thinking of them and
planning for them, and this he cannot do if his whole mind, out of
school, is taken up with other interests. On this, again, I may quote
Mr. Arundale: "When I get up in the morning my first thought is what has
to be done during the day generally and as regards my own work in
particular. A rapid mental survey of the School and College enables me
to see whether any student seems to stand out as needing particular
help. I make a note of any such student in my note book, so that I may
call him during the day. Then before College hours, before I take up any
extraneous work, I look through my own lectures to see that I am ready
for them. By this time students are continually dropping in with
questions, with their hopes and aspirations, with difficulties and with
troubles, some with slight ailments they want cured. I have a special
little place in which to see those young men, so that the atmosphere
may be pure and harmonious, and upon each one I endeavour to concentrate
my whole attention, shutting everything else completely off, and I am
not satisfied unless each boy leaves me with a smile upon his face."
Unless a teacher works in this spirit, he does not understand how sacred
and solemn a trust is placed in his hands. No teacher is worthy of the
name who does not realise that he serves God most truly and his country
most faithfully when he lives and works with his boys. His
self-sacrificing life, lived amongst them, inspires them to perform
their duties well, as they see him performing his, and thus they grow in
reverence and patriotism. These boys are God's children entrusted to his
care; they are the hope of the nation placed in his hands. How shall he
answer to God and the nation, when the trust passes out of his hands, if
he has not consecrated his whole time and thought to discharge it
faithfully, but has allowed the boys to go out into the world with out
love to God, and without the wish and power to serve their country?
Boys, as well as teachers, must learn self-control in action. They must
not so engage in other activities as to neglect their ordinary school
duties. My Master says to those who wish to serve Him: "You must do
ordinary work better than others, not worse." A boy's first duty in
school is to learn well, and nothing should lead him to neglect his
regular school work. Outside this--as it is best that his activities
should be kept within the school--the wise teacher will provide within
the school organisation all the activities in which his boys can
usefully take part. If there should be any national organisation to
which he thinks it useful that they should belong, he will himself
organise a branch of it within the school and he himself and the other
teachers will take part in it. For example the Boy-Scout movement and
the Sons of India are both national organisations, but branches of them
should be formed in the separate schools. Teachers should train their
boys to realise that just as the home is the centre of activity for the
child, so is the school the centre of activity for the youth. As the
child draws his life and energy from the home, so the youth should draw
his from the school. The most useful work should be done in connection
with the school so that it may form part of the general education of the
boy, and be in harmony with the rest of his growth. There should be in
the school debating societies, in which the rules of debate are
carefully observed, so that the boys may learn self-control in argument;
dramatic clubs in which they may learn control of expression; athletic
clubs in which control of mind and action are both acquired; literary
societies for boys specially interested in certain studies; societies
for helping the poorer students.
It is also very important to give the boys an opportunity of
understanding the conditions under which their country is growing, so
that in the school they may practice patriotism apart from politics. It
is very unfortunate that in India students are often taught by
unscrupulous agitators that love of their country should be shown by
hatred of other countries; the boys would never believe this, if their
own school provided patriotic services for its boys, so as to give a
proper outlet for the enthusiasm they rightly feel. They only seek an
outlet away from the school because none is provided for them within it.
Groups of students should be formed for various kinds of social service
according to the capacities of the boys, and the needs of their
surroundings: for the protection of animals, for rendering first aid to
the injured, for the education of the depressed classes, for service in
connection with national and religious festivals, and so on. Boys, for
whom such forms of service are provided in their schools, will not want
to carry them on separately.
Boys have a special opportunity of practising self-control in action
when they play games. The boys come from the more formal discipline of
the class-room into conditions in which there is a sudden cessation of
external authority; unless they have learned to replace this with
self-control, we shall see in the play-ground brutality in the stronger
followed by fear in the weaker. The playing fields have a special value
in arousing the power of self-discipline, and if teachers are there who
set the example of submitting to the authority of the captain, of
showing gentleness and honour, and playing for the side rather than for
themselves, they will much help the boys in gaining self-control.
The boys also will see the teacher in a new light; he is no longer
imposing his authority upon them as a teacher, but he is ruling himself
from within and subordinating his own action to the rules of the game,
and to the interests of those who are playing with him. The boy who
enters the field with no other idea than that of enjoying himself as
much as he can, even at the expense of his fellow-students, will learn
from his teacher's example that he is happiest when playing for others,
not for himself alone, and that he plays best when the object of the
game is the honour of the school and not his own advantage. He also
learns that the best player is the boy who practises his strokes
carefully, and uses science to direct strength. Desiring to be a good
player himself, he begins to train his body to do as he wishes, thus
gaining self-control in action; through this self-control he learns the
great lesson, that self-control increases happiness and leads to
success.
Another thing learned in the play-ground is control of temper, for a boy
who loses his temper always plays badly. He learns not to be hasty and
impatient, and to control his speech even when he is losing, and not to
show vanity when he wins. Thus he is making a character, strong and
well-balanced, which will be very useful to him when he comes to be a
man. All this is really learned better in the play-ground than in the
class-room.
3. _Tolerance_. Most of my Master's directions under this head are
intended mainly for disciples, but still their spirit may be applied to
those who are living the ordinary life. Tolerance is a virtue which is
very necessary in schools, especially when the scholars are of different
faiths. "You must feel," says my Master, "perfect tolerance for all, and
a hearty interest in the beliefs of those of another religion, just as
much as in your own. For their religion is a path to the highest just
as yours is. And to help all you must understand all." It is the duty of
the teacher to be the first in setting an example along these lines.
Many teachers, however, make the mistake of thinking that the views and
rules to which they are themselves accustomed are universal principles
which everybody ought to accept. They are therefore anxious to destroy
the students' own convictions and customs, in order to replace them by
others which they think better. This is especially the case in countries
like India, where the boys are of many religions. Unless the teacher
studies sympathetically the religions of his pupils, and understands
that the faith of another is as dear to him as his own is to himself, he
is likely to make his boys unbelievers in all religion. He should take
special care to speak with reverence of the religions to which his boys
belong, strengthening each in the great principles of his own creed, and
showing the unity of all religions by apt illustrations taken from the
various sacred books. Much can be done in this direction during the
religious service which precedes the ordinary work of the day, if this
be carried out on lines common to all; while each boy should be taught
the doctrines of his own religion, it would be well if he were reminded
once in the day of the unity of all religions, for, as the Master said,
every "religion is a path to the highest."
An example would thus be set in the school of members of different
religions living happily side by side, and showing respect to each
other's opinions. I feel that this is one of the special functions of
the school in the life of the nation. At home the boy is always with
those who hold the same opinions as himself, and he has no opportunity
of coming into touch with other beliefs and other customs. At school he
should have the opportunity of meeting other ways of believing, and the
teacher should lead him to understand these, and to see the unity
underneath them. The teacher must never make a boy discontented with his
own faith by speaking contemptuously of it, or by distorting it through
his own ignorance. Such conduct on his part leads a boy to despise all
religion.
Then again there are many different customs which belong to the
different parts of the country. People often exaggerate these and look
on them as essential parts of religion instead of only as marks of the
part of the country in which they were born. Hence they look with
contempt or disapproval on those whose customs differ from their own,
and they keep themselves proudly separate. I do not know how far this is
a difficulty in western countries, but in India I think that customs
separate us much more than physical distance or religious differences.
Each part of the country has its own peculiarities as to dress, as to
the manner of taking food, as to the way of wearing the hair, school
boys are apt at first to look down upon those of their schoolfellows
whose appearance or habits differ from their own. Teachers should help
boys to get over these trivial differences and to think instead of the
one Motherland to which they all belong.
We have already said that patriotism should be taught without race
hatred, and we may add that understanding and loving other nations is
part of the great virtue of tolerance. Boys are obliged to learn the
history of their own and of other nations; and history, as it is taught,
is full of wars and conquests. The teacher should point out how much
terrible suffering has been caused by these, and that though, in spite
of them, evolution has made its way and has even utilised them, far more
can be gained by peace and good will than by hatred. If care is taken to
train children to look on different ways of living with interest and
sympathy instead of with distrust and dislike, they will grow up into
men who will show to all nations respect and tolerance.
4. _Cheerfulness_. No teacher who really loves his students can be
anything but cheerful during school hours. No brave man will allow
himself to be depressed, but depression is particularly harmful in a
teacher, for he is daily in contact with many boys, and he spreads among
them the condition of his own mind. If the teacher is depressed the boys
cannot long be cheerful and happy; and unless they are cheerful and
happy they cannot learn well. If teachers and boys associate
cheerfulness with their school life, they will not only find the work
easier than it would otherwise be, but they will turn to the school as
to a place in which they can for the time live free from all cares and
troubles.
The teacher should train himself to turn away from all worrying and
depressing thoughts the moment he enters the school gate, for his
contribution to the school atmosphere, in which the boys must live and
grow, must be cheerfulness and energy. The best way to get rid of
depression is to occupy the mind with something bright and interesting,
and this should not be difficult when he is going to his boys. Thoughts
die when no attention is paid to them so it is better to turn away from
depressing thoughts than to fight them. Cheerfulness literally increases
life, while depression diminishes it, and by getting rid of depression
the teacher increases his energy. It is often indeed very difficult for
the teacher, who has the cares of family life upon him, to keep free
from anxiety, but still he must try not to bring it into the school.
Mr. Arundale tells me that he has made a habit of becoming cheerful the
moment he enters the College gates, however worried he may have been
beforehand, because, he writes: "I want my contribution to the school
day to be happiness and interest, and by a daily process of making
myself pretend to be cheerful when the College gates are entered, I have
finally succeeded in becoming so. If, as I pass through the grounds to
my office, I see any student looking dull and gloomy, I make a point of
going up to him in order to exert my cheerfulness against his gloom, and
the gloom soon passes away. Then comes the religious service, and when I
take my seat upon the platform with the religious instructor, I try to
ask the Master's blessing on all the dear young faces I see before me,
and I look slowly around upon each member of the audience, trying to
send out a continual stream of affection and sympathy."
I have already said that boys watch their teachers' faces to see if they
are in a good or a bad mood. If the teacher is always cheerful and
loving, the boys will no longer watch him, for they will have learned to
trust him, and all anxiety and strain will disappear. If the teacher
displays constant cheerfulness, he sends out among his boys streams of
energy and good will, new life pours into them, their attention is
stimulated, and the sympathy of the teacher conquers the carelessness of
the boy.
Just as a boy learns control of action on the play-ground, so he may
learn there this virtue of cheerfulness. To be cheerful in defeat makes
the character strong, and the boy who can be cheerful and good-tempered
in the face of the team which has just defeated him is well on the way
to true manliness.
5. _One-pointedness_. One-pointedness, the concentration of attention
on each piece of work as it is being done, so that it may be done as
well as possible, largely depends upon interest. Unless the teacher is
interested in his work, and loves it beyond all other work, he will not
be able to be really one-pointed. He must be so absorbed in his school
duties that his mind is continually occupied in planning for his boys,
and looks upon everything in the light of its possible application to
his own particular work.
One-pointedness means enthusiasm, but enthusiasm is impossible without
ideals. So the teacher who desires to be one-pointed must be full of
ideals to which he is eager to lead his school. These ideals will
sharpen his attention, and make him able to concentrate it even upon
quite trivial details. He will have the ideal school in his mind, and
will always be trying to bring the real school nearer to it. To be
one-pointed, therefore, the teacher must not be contented with things as
they are, but must be continually on the alert to take advantage of
every opportunity of improvement.
The teacher's ideal will of course be modified as he learns more of his
students' capacities and of the needs of the nation. In this way, as the
years pass, the teacher may find himself far from the early ideals that
at first gave him one-pointedness. Ideals will still guide him, but they
will be more practical, and so his one-pointedness will be much keener
and will produce larger results.
The Master quotes two sayings which seem to me to show very clearly the
lines along which one-pointedness should work: "Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do it with thy might"; and: "Whatsoever ye do, do it
_heartily_, as to the Lord and not unto men." It must be done "as to the
Lord." The Master says: "Every piece of work must be done
religiously--done with the feeling that it is a sacred offering to be
laid on the altar of the Lord. 'This do I, O Lord, in Thy name and for
Thee.' Thinking this, can I offer to Him anything but my very best? Can
I let _any_ piece of my work be done carelessly or inattentively, when I
know that it is being done expressly for Him? Think how you would do
your work if you knew that the Lord Himself were coming directly to see
it; and then realise that He _does_ see it, for all is taking place
within His consciousness. So will you do your duty 'as unto the Lord and
not as unto men'."
The work must be done, too, according to the teacher's knowledge of the
principles of evolution, and not merely out of regard to small and
fleeting interests. The teacher must therefore gradually learn his own
place in evolution, so that he may become one-pointed as to himself;
unless he practises one-pointedness with regard to his own ideal for
himself, he will not be able to bring it to bear on his surroundings.
He must try to be in miniature the ideal towards which he hopes to lead
his boys, and the application of the ideal to himself will enable him to
see in it details which otherwise would escape his notice, or which he
might neglect as unimportant.
The practical application, then, of one-pointedness lies in the
endeavour to keep before the mind some dominant central ideal towards
which the whole of the teachers' and boys' daily routine shall be
directed, so that the small life may be vitalised by the larger, and
all may become conscious parts of one great whole. The ideal of service,
for instance, may be made so vivid that the whole of daily life shall be
lived in the effort to serve.