George D. Strayer

“ The best teachers never reach the point where preparation for the day’s work is unnecessary. The teacher who stimulates her pupils to their best effort must herself be interested in the work in hand. If nothing new in material or method is found to vary the work, interest soon lags. The lesson often repeated is as dry and lacking in power to interest or inspire as the proverbial sermon taken from the barrel. Even when a teacher has taught a most successful lesson, it is dangerous to try to repeat that exercise in precisely the same way. ”

“ The man who wonders at the manifestation of the power of the forces of nature may get more real joy out of life than he who feels that he has solved all of her mysteries. We are not as a people remarkable for our reverence. It may be well urged that our schools have often been responsible for the opposite attitude. This instinct of wonder will thrive only in a sympathetic atmosphere. No teacher can directly inculcate or develop it. Only that teacher who has preserved and nurtured the instinct in her own life can hope to be effective in keeping alive the same spirit in children. ”

“ In our democratic society, which makes possible free education for all of its members, there can be no question of the right of society to demand that education aim to develop men and women who work for the common good. ”

“ Judgments of fact are called for constantly in acquiring knowledge and in our everyday activity; but no less important in the life of individuals are judgments of worth. Education must concern itself with the ideals, purposes, and standards which should be acquired by children. There is no field in which greater skill is demanded in teaching than in bringing children to appreciate those things which are good, true, and beautiful. Ideals, or, for those who do not agree with them, prejudices, will always be of tremendous importance. They determine the course of action a man will take. ”

“ There is no method of teaching which can take the place of a thoroughgoing knowledge of the material which bears upon the topic to be treated. The teacher who finds in the life of the children outside of school, in school activities, in books, pictures, magazines, in study and travel, material for her daily class work, will make any course of study vital and interesting to children. In such an atmosphere pupils will grow not only in knowledge, but also in the desire to inquire and investigate and in power to satisfy their intellectual craving. ”

“ What sort of results do teachers secure who compel children to learn their lessons through fear of being ridiculed or otherwise punished? If these children know as much as other children whose teacher has them at work satisfying their idea of pleasure,—which will result in being able to read well to the class, prepare their part of the class drama, or investigate in fields in which they are much interested,—would you, then, consider the first sort of teaching as satisfactory as the second? ”

“ In all teaching much depends upon the skill with which the teacher stimulates and guides the class by means of the questions which she asks. Occasionally one finds a teacher who seems to think that the sole purpose of questioning is to test the knowledge of her pupils. She asks hundreds of questions which can be answered merely by an appeal to the memory. This sort of testing is valuable for review, but it does not necessitate thought. When a teacher habitually asks these fact questions, the children respond by trying to remember the words or the facts given in their books. ”

“ What could be more natural than that children should ask each other questions; that they should exchange experiences; that they should work in coöperation for the satisfaction of a common end? This presupposes that they have a problem or purpose which is genuine. But that is only to assume that there is some real reason for intellectual activity. Or let us suppose that the children are at work in order that the product of their effort may be used in some social situation. ”

“ As we teach children we should encourage the intelligent guess. We would not, of course, encourage mere random guessing, which may be engaged in by children to have something to say or to blind the teacher. A child who offers a guess or hypothesis should be asked to give his ground for the inference, should show that his guess has grown out of his consideration of the data in hand. It is fallacious to suppose that this kind of thinking is beyond the power of children. ”

“ Occasions will arise constantly in the study of any subject where, instead of asking the teacher or being satisfied with information which is of questionable validity, the child should, as a matter of habit, turn to the authority for verification. It is not at all unusual for children to have misgivings, but they too frequently end by going ahead and ignoring their doubt. To respect one’s doubts, to be somewhat critical, is significant for education only when one is led thereby to endeavor to discover the truth. ”

“ It is useless to attempt to make all alike; it is wrong to limit the accomplishment of the gifted by the capacity of the majority; these are the lessons which the consideration of the capacities of any group of children should teach. We cannot furnish ability, but we may create an attitude of listlessness and mental laziness, if we do not give the bright child enough to do. Education demands a recognition of peculiar abilities and their nurture. We can never create genius from mediocre ability, and we may not assume that genius is irrepressible. ”

“ As these units of measure are perfected and applied in examining the results of school work, we will, of course, hear the cry of those who will tell us that the best things that a teacher does cannot be measured. The obvious reply will be that efficiency in accomplishing results which can be measured need not in any way prevent a teacher from exercising that influence or doing that sort of work which is not recorded on examination sheets. ”

“ Those who have thought of management as a means only have been apt to overemphasize routine; while those who have thought only of the opportunity afforded for growth in self-control have neglected to realize the importance of habit in situations which are invariable. The adherents of the one type of control want everything done at the tap of the bell, in accordance with the rules which have been made by the teacher. Their opponents would do away with “mechanized routine,” and would expect children to exercise their judgment as each question arises. ”

“ If we think most of all of the welfare of the whole organism, must we sacrifice the interests of the constituent parts?
No one can do the most for the group of which he is a member who has not realized in his education the development of those abilities with which he is peculiarly endowed. The nurture of those abilities upon which society places a premium, and the inhibition of non-social tendencies, means greater opportunity for the exercise of whatever strength the individual possesses, greater individual growth and development, than would otherwise be possible. ”

“ No one will dispute the fact that the children assembled in any schoolroom differ in native capacity, as well as in experience. Whether genius or its lack are apt to be reproduced in the children of gifted or dull parents is not the question the teacher has to solve. For her the demand is too often that she turn out a uniform product from a group of individuals who range from the genius to the dullard or mental defective. ”

“ Because of their ideals men have been willing to labor incessantly for a cause which they considered just, to give up personal good in the pursuance of public duty, to lose all, if they might but retain their honor, yes, even to lose their lives because they felt that this extreme service was demanded of them. The awakening and nurturing of ideals of work (or industry) , of honor, of duty, of purity, of service is the greatest contribution of the best teacher. ”

“ Adequate study demands not simply that an abundance of data which bear on the problem be secured, but that the validity of the data be brought into question. Children ought not to accept blindly the statements of books or even of the teacher. The one thing which characterizes the student is his search for truth, his attitude of inquiry as opposed to an appeal to authority. It is well for children at times to question the statements found in their books when experience suggests the doubt. ”

“ Indeed, the only way in which we can secure the larger ends is by successfully achieving the lesser tasks. The teacher who knows that she has fixed this desirable habit of thought, feeling, or action, that this bit of knowledge has taken its place in a usable system, that this ideal or purpose has been awakened, that certain methods of work are available for the group of children whom she is teaching,—that teacher can be sure that she is fulfilling her mission. ”

“ We ought to do more than we do to develop the independence and the self-reliance which were so characteristic of the boy and girl who lived in an environment which constantly made heavy demands upon their strength, skill, and ingenuity. The responsibility for taking the initiative, and of measuring the success of one’s efforts by the results produced, is all too uncommon in the lives of our children. The school must, if it is to adequately meet its enlarged responsibility, develop those habits of thought and action which enable one to get along with his fellows. ”

“ This instinctive equipment furnishes the basis for actions which in turn become habits. The problem of the teacher is to use these instincts in securing desirable responses. Of course, undesirable responses have their basis in instinct. Here it is the business of the teacher to make the undesirable response result in discomfort, or, better, to substitute a desirable response. To be too proud of one’s attainment as contrasted with others may be unlovely, but to be proud of work better done to-day than yesterday is a positive virtue resting upon the same instinctive foundation. ”

“ On the other hand, we may hope that the boy we teach will continue to be interested in history throughout his life. In this latter case the interest which we hope to secure in history becomes an end for which we work. As a result of any system of education, we are justified in expecting, not only an increase in the command of facts and in a knowledge of the best method of procedure in working in subjects taught, but also in hoping for the development of lasting interests which will make for a continuance of the period of education and for greater joy in life. ”

“ The only real test of a child’s ability to give adequate oral expression to the story or poem is to see whether or not he can make clear the thought and furnish enjoyment to others, preferably to those who have not before heard the selection which he reads. We can assure ourselves that we have awakened an interest in literature and history, when we know that children read good books other than those which we compel them to read. ”

“ Our education must, therefore, attempt to equip men with interests and ideals which make for the nobler enjoyments.
Keeping in mind the sympathetic, wise, active social individual, made so by the process of acquiring experience or making of adjustments, both physical and mental, we have yet to reduce our aim to the terms of schoolroom practice. What can a teacher hope to do in this hour, with this group of children to work with? ”

“ Too frequently the organization of knowledge which we impose is influenced exclusively by our adult logical conceptions. Not that children should be illogical, but rather that child logic and the child’s ability to reason depend upon his ability to appreciate problems, upon his experience, and upon his ability to interpret that experience. When we impose our adult point of view upon him, when we ask him to take our problem and with the data that we supply ask him to work out our solution, whatever else may be said of the exercise, it may not be called an exercise in reasoning by children. ”

“ There is one element in the consideration of the step of comparison which cannot be too much emphasized, and that is that it is not the comparison of things or situations which present striking likenesses which gives rise to the highest type of thinking. To look at a dozen horses and then to conclude that all [61] horses have four legs is merely a matter of classification; to observe that the sun, chemical action, electricity, and friction produce heat, and to arrive at the generalization from these cases, apparently so unlike, that heat is a mode of motion is the work of a genius. ”

“ First of all the teacher can work for the formation of habits which are socially desirable and for the inhibition of those which are undesirable. “Education is for behavior, and habits are the stuff of which behavior consists.” ”

“ For all, the substitution of games which involve physical prowess for fighting, and the substitution of victories of intellect for the victories of physical combat, point to the utilization of this instinct in education. It is sometimes possible to appeal to this instinct when discouragement and defeat in school tasks seem inevitable. No boy likes to be told that he has been downed by the task in long division, or that he has failed to make good in spelling or geography. The whole world hates a quitter, and normal, healthy children are no exception to the rule. ”

“ If the problem is not beyond the child’s comprehension, if it deals with situations which are significant to him, if the solution derived has some bearing on his future action, if he has carefully scrutinized his experience in the light of the problem stated and has brought to bear those elements which are significant for its solution, we may be confident that the activity resulting is closely akin to that which is found in the controlled thinking of men the world over. ”

“ The foolish answers which children give may be logical enough. From his very limited experience a boy may have generalized that grass is something to look at and not to be walked on, and that people always live in houses from four to ten stories high, with many families in a house. Now, if such erroneous generalizations have been developed, the way to handle the boy is not to laugh at his deductions from these premises, but rather to require him to state the generalizations upon which he has based his thinking, and to lead him to discover their inadequacy. ”

“ We can be more sure of the accuracy of our results in comparing two groups of children of a thousand each, than we could in the attempt to measure accurately a single individual with regard to ability in school subjects. ”