Part 2 (2/2)
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 exa gentleness and honour, and playing for the side rather than for the self-control
The boys also will see the teacher in a new light; he is no longer i hi his own action to the rules of the ga 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 fro for others, not for hiae 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 hiaining 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 i, and not to show vanity when he wins Thus he isand well-balanced, which will be very useful to him when he comes to be a round than in the class-room
3 _Tolerance_ Most of my Master's directions under this head are intended mainly for disciples, but still their spiritthe 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 hest 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 exa these lines
Many teachers, however,that the views and rules to which they are themselves accustoht 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 ions Unless the teacher studies syions of his pupils, and understands that the faith of another is as dear to him as his own is to hiion 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 coht the doctrines of his own religion, it would be well if he were reions, for, as the Master said, every ”religion is a path to the highest”
An example would thus be set in the school ofhappily 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 alith those who hold the sa into touch with other beliefs and other custo other ways of believing, and the teacher should lead him to understand these, and to see the unity underneath them The teacher must nevercontenorance Such conduct on his part leads a boy to despise all religion
Then again there areto the different parts of the country People often exaggerate these and look on theion 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 kno far this is a difficulty in western countries, but in India I think that custoious differences
Each part of the country has its own peculiarities as to dress, as to thethe hair, school boys are apt at first to look down upon those of their schoolfellohose appearance or habits differ froet over these trivial differences and to think instead of the one Motherland to which they all belong
We have already said that patriotisht without race hatred, and weother 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 howhas been caused by these, and that though, in spite of them, evolution has ained 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 syrow up into men ill 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 withthem the condition of his ownbe 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 hihts the ate, for his contribution to the school atrow, et rid of depression is to occupy the , and this should not be difficult when he is going to his boys Thoughts die when no attention is paid to thehts than to fight them Cheerfulness literally increases life, while depression di 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 fro it into the school
Mr Arundale tellscheerful the ates, 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 ates are entered, I have finally succeeded in becorounds to loo up to hilooious service, and when I take ious 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 eachto 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 , 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 aood 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 , 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 ely 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 hisfor 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 er 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 histhe real school nearer to it To be one-pointed, therefore, the teacher s as they are, but e 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 ave hiuide him, but they will be more practical, and so his one-pointedness will be er results
The Master quotes two sayings which see which one-pointedness should work: ”Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy ht”; 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 workthat it is a sacred offering to be laid on the altar of the Lord 'This do I, O Lord, in Thy na 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 Hi 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 untoto the teacher's knowledge of the principles of evolution, and notinterests The teacher radually learn his own place in evolution, so that he may become one-pointed as to hiard to his own ideal for hi 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 otherould escape his notice, or which he lect 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 ser, and all reat 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
6 _Confidence_ First a the qualifications for the teacher has been placed Love, and it is fitting that this little book should end with another qualification of almost equal importance--Confidence Unless the teacher has confidence in his power to attain his goal, he will not be able to inspire a similar confidence in his boys, and self-confidence is an indispensable attribute for success in all departments of human activity The Master has beautifully explained e have the right to be confident
”You must trust yourself You say you know yourself too well? If you feel so, you do _not_ know yourself; you know only the weak outer husk, which has fallen often into the mire But _you_--the real you--you are a spark of God's own fire, and God, Who is al that you cannot do if you will”
The teacher must feel that he has the power to teach his boys and to train them for their future work in the world This power is born of his love for them and his desire to help them, and is drawn from the one spiritual life of which all partake It is because the teacher and his boys are one in essence, make one little flaht to be confident that every effort to help, growing out of his own share in the one life, will reach and stimulate that same life in the boys
He will not always be able to see at once the effect he is producing
Indeed, the rowing characters of the boys No success in examinations, in reports, in inspections can satisfy the real teacher as to the effect of his work But when he feels that his own higher nature is strengthened and purified by his eagerness to serve his boys, when he has the joy of watching the divine life in the out in answer to that in hireat Then he has the peace of knowing that he has awakened in his boys the knowledge of their own divinity, which, sooner or later, will bring the confident because the divine life is in him and his boys, and they turn to hith Let hihest in himself, and he may be quite sure that there will not be one boy ill not to soher Self, however little the response may be seen by the teacher