Principles of Teaching Part 6

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 Cla.s.s was astonished some months later to receive a request from the cla.s.s for a change of teachers. The cla.s.s could a.s.sign no specific reasons for their objections, except that they didn't get anything out of the cla.s.s.

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 cla.s.s 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 suns.h.i.+ne of the cla.s.sroom. It is as natural to expect a plant to develop when covered with a blanket as it is to expect a cla.s.s 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, h.e.l.lo." 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 att.i.tude, 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 att.i.tude 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 ATt.i.tUDE

If a teacher would cultivate an appet.i.te for learning among his pupils he must himself hunger for knowledge. Most young people will "take intellectually if sufficiently exposed." A scholarly att.i.tude 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 amus.e.m.e.nt, 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 cla.s.s 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 att.i.tude 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 leaders.h.i.+p.

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 subst.i.tute 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 G.o.d 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 const.i.tutes 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 cla.s.sroom.

5. Discuss the statement--"Cheerfulness is spiritual suns.h.i.+ne."

6. Ill.u.s.trate the value of cheerfulness.

7. What is the significance of the term, scholarly att.i.tude?

8. Just what const.i.tutes 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.

CHAPTER VI

ATTAINMENT