PERSONALITY
OUTLINE--CHAPTER V
The six major qualities:--a. Sympathy.--b. Sincerity.--c.
Optimism.--d. Scholarly attitude.--e. Vitality.--f. Spirituality.
To set about to cultivate separate qualities would be rather a
discouraging undertaking. As a matter of fact, many of the
characteristics named really overlap, while others are secondary in
importance. For practical purposes let us enlarge upon five or six
qualities which everyone will agree are fundamental to teaching success.
The class in Teacher Training, at the Brigham Young University, in the
summer of 1920, named these six as the most fundamental:
1. Sympathy.
2. Sincerity.
3. Optimism.
4. Scholarly attitude.
5. Vitality.
6. Spirituality.
No attempt was made to set them down in the order of relative
importance.
1. SYMPATHY
This is a very broad and far-reaching term. It rests upon experience and
imagination and involves the ability to live, at least temporarily,
someone else's life. Sympathy is fundamentally vicarious. Properly to
sympathize with children a man must re-live in memory his own childhood
or he must have the power of imagination to see things through their
eyes. Many a teacher has condemned pupils for doing what to them was
perfectly normal. We too frequently persist in viewing a situation from
our own point of view rather than in going around to the other side to
look at it as our pupils see it. It is no easy matter thus "to get out
of ourselves" and become a boy or girl again, but it is worth the
effort.
Along with this ability at vicarious living, sympathy involves an
interest in others. Sympathy is a matter of concern in the affairs of
others. The rush and stir of modern life fairly seem to force us to
focus our attention upon self, but if we would succeed as teachers, we
must make ourselves enter into the lives of our pupils out of an
interest to see how they conduct their lives, and the reasons for such
conduct.
Coupled with this interest in others and the imagination to see through
their eyes, sympathy involves a desire to help them. A man may have an
interest in people born out of mere curiosity or for selfish purposes,
but if he has sympathy for them, he must be moved with a desire to help
and to bless them.
And, finally, sympathy involves the actual doing of something by way of
service. President Grant liked to refer to a situation wherein a
particular person was in distress. Friends of all sorts came along
expressing regret and professing sympathy. Finally a fellow stepped
forward and said, "I feel to sympathize with this person to the extent
of fifty dollars." "That man," said President Grant, "has sympathy in
his heart as well as in his purse."
2. SINCERITY
Surely this is a foundation principle in teaching:
"Thou must to thyself be true,
If thou the truth would teach;
Thy soul must overflow,
If thou another soul would reach."
A teacher must really be converted to what he teaches or there is a
hollowness to all that he utters. "Children and dogs," it is said, are
the great judges of sincerity--they instinctively know a friend. No
teacher can continue to stand on false ground before his pupils. The
superintendent of one of our Sunday Schools, having selected one of the
most talented persons in his ward to teach a Second Intermediate Class
was astonished some months later to receive a request from the class for
a change of teachers. The class could assign no specific reasons for
their objections, except that they didn't get anything out of the class.
A year later the superintendent learned that the teacher was living in
violation of the regulations of the Church, on a particular principle,
and it was perfectly clear why his message didn't ring home.
The sincere teacher not only believes what he teaches--he consecrates
his best efforts to the task in hand. He urges no excuse for absence or
lack of preparation--"he is there." He lets his class feel that for the
time being it is his greatest concern. He meets with boys and girls
because he loves to and reaches out to them with an enthusiasm that
cannot be questioned.
3. OPTIMISM
is the sunshine of the classroom. It is as natural to expect a plant to
develop when covered with a blanket as it is to expect a class to be
full of activity and responsiveness under an influence of unnatural
solemnity. Lincoln is quoted as having declared, "You can catch more
flies with a drop of honey than with a gallon of vinegar"--a homely
expression, but full of suggestion. A grouch is no magnet.
A little girl when questioned why she liked her Sunday School teacher
said, "Oh, she always smiles at me and says, hello." There is contagion
in the cheeriness of a smile that cannot be resisted. Children live so
naturally in an atmosphere of happiness and fun that teachers of
religious instruction may well guard against making their work too
formally sober. Frequently teachers feel the seriousness of their
undertaking so keenly that they worry or discipline themselves into a
state of pedagogical unnaturalness. There is very great force behind the
comment of the student who appreciated the teacher who could be human.
The experience is told of a teacher who continued to have difficulty
with one of her pupils. He so persisted in violating regulations that he
was kept in after school regularly, and yet after school hours he was
one of the most helpful lads in the school; in fact, he and the teacher
seemed almost chummy. Struck by the difference in his attitude, the
teacher remarked to him one afternoon, as he went about cleaning the
blackboard, "Jimmie, I have just been wondering about you. You're one of
my best workers after school--I can't understand how you can be so
different during school hours and after."
"Gee, that's funny," put in Jimmie, "I was just thinking the same thing
about you."
To be cheerful without being easy is a real art. Liberty is so often
converted into license, and a spirit of fun so easily transformed into
mischief and disorder. And yet cheerfulness is the great key to the
human heart.
An attitude of looking for the good in pupils will lead to a response of
friendliness on their part which is the basis of all teaching.
4. SCHOLARLY ATTITUDE
If a teacher would cultivate an appetite for learning among his pupils
he must himself hunger for knowledge. Most young people will "take
intellectually if sufficiently exposed." A scholarly attitude implies
first of all a growing mastery of subject matter. To quote an eminent
writer on religious education, "A common bane of Sunday school teaching
has been the haziness of the teacher's own ideas concerning the truths
of religion."
Fancy the hostess who would invite her guests to a dinner, and upon
their arrival indicate to them that she had made only vague plans to
receive them. No special place for their wraps, no entertainment for
their amusement, and then fancy her asking them to sit down to a
warmed-up conglomeration of left-overs.
Of course, it is only in fancy that we can imagine such a service. Yet
reports frequently indicate that there are class recitations,
intellectual banquets, for which the preparation has been about as
meagre as that indicated. Surely he who would feast others upon His word
should prepare unceasingly. Let us keep in mind the comment--"We like
the fellow who tells us something new."
Along with this mastery of subject matter, a scholarly attitude implies
both broadmindedness and openmindedness. Seekers after truth should
welcome it from all available sources, and ought not to be handicapped
by bias or prejudice. Tolerance and a willingness to entertain
questions--a constant effort to view a subject from every possible
angle--a poise that attends self-control even under stress of
annoyance--these things are all involved in a truly scholarly attack
upon any given problem.
5. VITALITY
One of the qualities most favorably and frequently commented on by
students is what they call "pep." A certain vigor of attack that seems
to go directly to the point at stake, putting at rest all other
business and making discipline unnecessary, is what twentieth century
young people seem to like. The element of hero worship prompts them to
demand that the leader shall "do things." They like the "push" that
takes a man over the top, the drive that wins a ball game, the energy
that stamps the business man with success. Vitality is an inherent
factor in leadership.
6. SPIRITUALITY
The crowning glory of the successful religious teacher is that spiritual
glow which links up heaven and earth.
"And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the power of faith, and if
ye receive not the Spirit, ye shall not teach." (Doc. & Cov., Sec.
42:14.)
This divine injunction is given us because we have undertaken to teach
His Gospel. We would lead others to Him. And this is possible only as we
lead by the light of His Holy Spirit. Above our knowledge of facts and
our understanding of child nature must be placed our communion with that
Spirit which touches the hearts of men.
If a teacher would prepare a young man for a place in a modern business
house he must teach him the ways of business,--buying, selling,
collecting, managing, etc.,--matters of fact, governed by the laws of
barter and trade. If that same teacher would teach the same young man
the way of eternal life, he must substitute for the laws of man the word
of the Lord, and for the spirit of exchange, the Spirit of Heaven. A
pupil can be prepared for the kingdom of God only as he is led to
respond to and appreciate His Spirit, and to do His will. While it is
true that the best way to prepare for heaven is to live the best
possible life here on earth, yet we need the Spirit of the Lord to
interpret what constitutes that best possible life.
There is power in the intellect of man; there is glory in that power
when it is heightened by the Spirit of the Almighty.
* * * * *
QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS--CHAPTER V
1. What is sympathy?
2. Why is it so essential in teaching?
3. Why is sincerity a foundation principle in all teaching?
4. Discuss the obligation on the part of the teacher to leave his
troubles outside the classroom.
5. Discuss the statement--"Cheerfulness is spiritual sunshine."
6. Illustrate the value of cheerfulness.
7. What is the significance of the term, scholarly attitude?
8. Just what constitutes vitality?
9. Show how it is essential to teaching.
10. Why name spirituality as the crowning characteristic of the good
teacher?
HELPFUL REFERENCES
Those listed in Chapter IV.