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Page 12
As a _student_, searching for the hidden meanings and thrilling at the
unfolding beauties of some field of truth which we are investigating, we
may love the thing we study for its own sake; and who of us does not
feel in that way toward sections of our Bible, a poem, the record of
noble lives, or the perfection of some bit of scientific truth? But when
we face about and become the _teacher_, when our purpose is not our own
learning but the teaching of another, then our attitude must change. We
will then love our cherished body of material not less, but differently.
We will now care for the thing we teach as an artisan cares for his
familiar instruments or the artist cares for his brush--we will prize it
as the _means through which_ we shall attain a desired end.
Subject matter always subordinate to life.--It will help us to
understand the significance of this fundamental principle if we pause to
realize that all the matter we teach our children had its origin in
human experience; it was first a part of human life. Our scientific
discoveries have come out of the pressure of necessities that nature has
put upon us, and what we now put into our textbooks first was _lived_ by
men and women in the midst of the day's activities. The deep thoughts,
the beautiful sentiments, and the high aspirations expressed in our
literature first existed and found expression in the lives of people.
The cherished truths of our Bible and its laws for our spiritual
development appeal to our hearts just because they have arisen from the
lives of countless thousands, and so have the reality of living
experience.
There is, therefore, no abstract truth for truth's sake. Just as all our
culture material--our science, our literature, our body of religious
truth--had its rise out of the experience of men engaged in the great
business of living, so all this material must go back to life for its
meaning and significance. The science we teach in our schools attains
its end, not when it is learned as a group of facts, but when it has
been _set at work_ by those who learn it to the end that they live
better, happier, and more fruitful lives. The literature we offer our
children has fulfilled its purpose, not when they have studied the
mechanism of its structure, read its pages, or committed to memory its
lines, but when its glowing ideals and high aspirations have been
_realized in the lives_ of those who learn it.
And so this also holds for the Bible and its religious truth. Its rich
lessons full of beautiful meaning may be recited and its choicest verses
stored in the memory and still be barren of results, except as they are
put to the test and find expression in living experience. The only true
test of learning a thing is _whether the learner lives it_. The only
true test of the value of what one learns is the extent to which it
affects his daily life. The value of our teaching is therefore always to
be measured by the degree to which it finds expression in the lives of
our pupils. _John_, not grammar (nor even the Bible), is the true
objective of our teaching.
EFFECT OF THE OBJECTIVE ON OUR TEACHING
Not only will this point of view vitalize our teaching for the pupils,
but it will also save it from becoming commonplace and routine for
ourselves. This truth is brought out in a conversation that occurred
between an old schoolmaster and his friend, a business man.
The true objective saves from the rut of routine.--Said the business
man, "Do you teach the same subjects year after year?"
The schoolmaster replied that he did.
"Do you not finally come to know this material all by heart, so that it
is old to you?" asked the friend.
The schoolmaster answered that such was the case.
"And yet you must keep going over the same ground, class after class and
year after year!" exclaimed the business man.
The schoolmaster admitted that it was so.
"Then," said his friend, "I should think that you would tire beyond
endurance of the old facts, and grow weary beyond expression of
repeating them after the charm of novelty and newness has gone. How do
you live through the sameness and grind?"
"You forget one thing!" exclaimed the old schoolmaster, who had learned
the secret of the _great objective_. "You forget that I am not really
teaching that old subject matter at all; I am teaching _living boys and
girls!_ The matter I teach may become familiar. It may have lost the
first thrill of novelty. But the _boys and girls are always new_; their
hearts and minds are always fresh and inviting; their lives are always
open to new impressions, and their feet ready to be turned in new
directions. The old subject matter is but the means by which I work upon
this living material that comes to my classroom from day to day. I
should no more think of growing tired of it than the musician would
think of growing tired of his violin."
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