Chapter 3

On this point my friend, Mr. G.S. Arundale, the well-known Principal of the Central Hindu College, writes: "At frequent intervals, of course, boys come with complaints, with petitions, and here I have to be very careful to concentrate my attention on each boy and on his particular need, for the request, or complaint, or trouble, is sometimes quite trivial and foolish, and yet it may be a great source of worry to the boy unless it is attended to; and even if the boy cannot be satisfied he can generally be sent away contented. One of the most difficult tasks for a teacher is to have sufficient control over his attention to be able continually to turn it from one subject to another without losing intensity, and to bear cheerfully the strain this effort involves. We often speak of something taxing a person's patience, but we really mean that it taxes a person's attention, for impatience is only the desire of the mind to attend to something more interesting than that which for the moment occupies it."

Boys must be helped to concentrate their attention on what they are doing, for their minds are always wandering away from the subject in hand. The world outside them is so full of attractive objects new and interesting to them, that their attention runs away after each fresh thing that comes under their eyes. A child is constantly told to observe, and he takes pleasure in doing so; when he begins to reason he must for the time stop observing and concentrate his mind on the subject he is studying. This change is at first very difficult for him, and the teacher must help him to take up the new attitude. Sometimes attention wanders because the boy is tired, and then the teacher should try to put the subject in a new way. The boy does not generally cease to pay attention wilfully and deliberately, and the teacher must be patient with the restlessness so natural to youth. Let him at least always be sure that the want of attention is not the result of his own fault, of his own way of teaching.

If the attention of the teachers and the boys is trained in this way, the whole school life will become fuller and brighter, and there will be no room for the many harmful thoughts which crowd into the uncontrolled mind. Even when rest is wanted by the mind, it need not be quite empty; in the words of the Master: "Keep good thoughts always in the background of it, ready to come forward the moment it is free."

The Master goes on to explain how the mind may be used to help others, when it has been brought under control. "Think each day of some one whom you know to be in sorrow, or suffering, or in need of help, and pour out loving thoughts upon him." Teachers hardly understand the immense force they may use along this line. They can influence their boys by their thoughts even more than by their words and actions, and by sending out a stream of kind and loving thoughts over the class, the minds of all the boys will be made quieter and happier. Even without speaking a word they will improve the whole atmosphere.

This good influence of thought should spread out from the school over the neighbourhood. As those who live among young people keep young themselves, and keep the ideals and pure aspirations of youth longer than those who live mainly among older people, so the presence of a school should be a source of joy and inspiration to the surrounding neighbourhood or district. Happy and harmonious thought-forms should radiate from it, lighting up the duller atmosphere outside, pouring streams of hope and strength into all within its sphere of influence. The poor should be happier, the sick more comfortable, the aged more respected, because of the school in their midst.

If the teacher often speaks on these subjects to his boys, and from time to time places some clear thought before them, which they all think about together, much good may be done. For thought is a very real and powerful force, especially when many join together with some common thought in their minds. If any great disaster has happened, causing misery to numbers of people, the teacher might take advantage of the religious service to draw attention to the need, and ask the boys to join with him in sending thoughts of love and courage to the sufferers.

The last point mentioned by the Master is pride: "Hold back your mind from pride," He says, "for pride comes only from ignorance." We must not confuse pride with the happiness felt when a piece of work is well done; pride grows out of the feeling of separateness: "_I_ have done better than others." Happiness in good work should grow out of the feeling of unity: "I am glad to have done this to help us all." Pride separates a person from others, and makes him think himself superior to those around him; but the pleasure in some piece of work well done is helpful and stimulating, and encourages the doer to take up some more difficult work. When we share with others any knowledge we have gained, we lose all feeling of pride, and the wish to help more, instead of the wish to excel others, becomes the motive for study.

2. _Self-control in action_. The Master points out that while "there must be no laziness, but constant activity in good work ... it must be your _own_ duty that you do--not another man's, unless with his permission and by way of helping him." The teacher has, however, a special duty in this connection; for while he must offer to his boys every opportunity for development along their own lines, and must be careful not to check their growth or to force it in an unsuitable direction, he is bound to guide them very carefully, to watch them very closely, and, as Master has said, to tell them gently of their faults. The teacher is in charge of his boys while they are in school, and must, while they are there, take the place of their parents.

His special lesson of self-control is to learn to adapt his own methods to the stage through which his boys are passing. While contenting himself with watching and encouraging them when their activity is running along right lines, he must be ready to step in--with as little disturbance as possible--to modify the activity if it becomes excessive, to stimulate it if it becomes dull, and to turn it into new channels if it has taken a wrong course. In any necessary interposition he should try to make the boys feel that he is helping them to find the way they have missed but really wished to go, rather than forcing them to go his way. Many boys have failed to develop the necessary strength of character, because the teacher, by constant interference, has imposed on them his own knowledge as to right action, instead of trying to awaken their judgment and intuition. The boys become accustomed to depend entirely on him, instead of learning gradually to walk alone.

The teacher must be very careful not to allow outside interests to take him away from his duties in the school. Many teachers do not seem to realise that the school should occupy as much time as they can possibly give to it outside their home duties. They sometimes do the bare amount of work necessary, and then rush away to some other occupation which they find more interesting. No teacher can be really successful in his profession unless it is the thing he cares for most, unless he is eager to devote all the time he can to his boys, and feels that he is happiest when he is working with them or for them.

We are always told that enthusiasm and devotion to their work mark the successful business man, the successful official, the successful statesman; they are equally necessary for the successful teacher. Anyone who desires to rise high in the profession of teaching must bring to his work, not only ability, but similar enthusiasm and devotion. Surely even more enthusiasm and devotion should be brought to the moulding of many hundreds of young lives than to the gaining of money or power. Every moment that the teacher is with his boys he can help them, for, as has always been taught in India, being near a good man helps one's evolution. Away from the school he should be thinking of them and planning for them, and this he cannot do if his whole mind, out of school, is taken up with other interests. On this, again, I may quote Mr. Arundale: "When I get up in the morning my first thought is what has to be done during the day generally and as regards my own work in particular. A rapid mental survey of the School and College enables me to see whether any student seems to stand out as needing particular help. I make a note of any such student in my note book, so that I may call him during the day. Then before College hours, before I take up any extraneous work, I look through my own lectures to see that I am ready for them. By this time students are continually dropping in with questions, with their hopes and aspirations, with difficulties and with troubles, some with slight ailments they want cured. I have a special little place in which to see those young men, so that the atmosphere may be pure and harmonious, and upon each one I endeavour to concentrate my whole attention, shutting everything else completely off, and I am not satisfied unless each boy leaves me with a smile upon his face."

Unless a teacher works in this spirit, he does not understand how sacred and solemn a trust is placed in his hands. No teacher is worthy of the name who does not realise that he serves God most truly and his country most faithfully when he lives and works with his boys. His self-sacrificing life, lived amongst them, inspires them to perform their duties well, as they see him performing his, and thus they grow in reverence and patriotism. These boys are God's children entrusted to his care; they are the hope of the nation placed in his hands. How shall he answer to God and the nation, when the trust passes out of his hands, if he has not consecrated his whole time and thought to discharge it faithfully, but has allowed the boys to go out into the world with out love to God, and without the wish and power to serve their country?

Boys, as well as teachers, must learn self-control in action. They must not so engage in other activities as to neglect their ordinary school duties. My Master says to those who wish to serve Him: "You must do ordinary work better than others, not worse." A boy's first duty in school is to learn well, and nothing should lead him to neglect his regular school work. Outside this--as it is best that his activities should be kept within the school--the wise teacher will provide within the school organisation all the activities in which his boys can usefully take part. If there should be any national organisation to which he thinks it useful that they should belong, he will himself organise a branch of it within the school and he himself and the other teachers will take part in it. For example the Boy-Scout movement and the Sons of India are both national organisations, but branches of them should be formed in the separate schools. Teachers should train their boys to realise that just as the home is the centre of activity for the child, so is the school the centre of activity for the youth. As the child draws his life and energy from the home, so the youth should draw his from the school. The most useful work should be done in connection with the school so that it may form part of the general education of the boy, and be in harmony with the rest of his growth. There should be in the school debating societies, in which the rules of debate are carefully observed, so that the boys may learn self-control in argument; dramatic clubs in which they may learn control of expression; athletic clubs in which control of mind and action are both acquired; literary societies for boys specially interested in certain studies; societies for helping the poorer students.

It is also very important to give the boys an opportunity of understanding the conditions under which their country is growing, so that in the school they may practice patriotism apart from politics. It is very unfortunate that in India students are often taught by unscrupulous agitators that love of their country should be shown by hatred of other countries; the boys would never believe this, if their own school provided patriotic services for its boys, so as to give a proper outlet for the enthusiasm they rightly feel. They only seek an outlet away from the school because none is provided for them within it.

Groups of students should be formed for various kinds of social service according to the capacities of the boys, and the needs of their surroundings: for the protection of animals, for rendering first aid to the injured, for the education of the depressed classes, for service in connection with national and religious festivals, and so on. Boys, for whom such forms of service are provided in their schools, will not want to carry them on separately.

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 example of submitting to the authority of the captain, of showing gentleness and honour, and playing for the side rather than for themselves, they will much help the boys in gaining self-control.

The boys also will see the teacher in a new light; he is no longer imposing his authority upon them as a teacher, but he is ruling himself from within and subordinating his own action to the rules of the game, and to the interests of those who are playing 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 from his teacher's example that he is happiest when playing for others, not for himself alone, and that he plays best when the object of the game is the honour of the school and not his own advantage. 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 himself, he begins to train his body to do as he wishes, thus gaining 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 impatient, and to control his speech even when he is losing, and not to show vanity when he wins. Thus he is making a character, strong and well-balanced, which will be very useful to him when he comes to be a man. All this is really learned better in the play-ground than in the class-room.

3. _Tolerance_. Most of my Master's directions under this head are intended mainly for disciples, but still their spirit may be applied to those who are living the 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 much as in your own. For their religion is a path to the highest 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 example along these lines.

Many teachers, however, make the mistake of thinking that the views and rules to which they are themselves accustomed are universal principles which everybody ought 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 many religions. Unless the teacher studies sympathetically the religions of his pupils, and understands that the faith of another is as dear to him as his own is to himself, he is likely to make his boys unbelievers in all religion. 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 common to all; while each boy should be taught the doctrines of his own religion, it would be well if he were reminded once in the day of the unity of all religions, for, as the Master said, every "religion is a path to the highest."

An example would thus be set in the school of members of different religions living happily 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 always with those who hold the same opinions as himself, and he has no opportunity of coming into touch with other beliefs and other customs. At school he should have the opportunity of meeting other ways of believing, and the teacher should lead him to understand these, and to see the unity underneath them. The teacher must never make a boy discontented with his own faith by speaking contemptuously of it, or by distorting it through his own ignorance. Such conduct on his part leads a boy to despise all religion.

Then again there are many different customs which belong to the different parts of the country. People often exaggerate these and look on them as essential parts of religion 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 know how far this is a difficulty in western countries, but in India I think that customs separate us much more than physical distance or religious differences. Each part of the country has its own peculiarities as to dress, as to the manner of taking food, as to the way of wearing the hair, school boys are apt at first to look down upon those of their schoolfellows whose appearance or habits differ from their own. Teachers should help boys to get over these trivial differences and to think instead of the one Motherland to which they all belong.

We have already said that patriotism should be taught without race hatred, and we may add that understanding and loving other 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 how much terrible suffering has been caused by these, and that though, in spite of them, evolution has made its way and has even utilised them, far more can be gained 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 sympathy instead of with distrust and dislike, they will grow up into men who will 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 with many boys, and he spreads among them the condition of his own mind. If the teacher is depressed the boys cannot long be 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 himself to turn away from all worrying and depressing thoughts the moment he enters the school gate, for his contribution to the school atmosphere, in which the boys must live and grow, must be cheerfulness and energy. The best way to get rid of depression is to occupy the mind with something bright and interesting, and this should not be difficult when he is going to his boys. Thoughts die when no attention is paid to them so it is better to turn away from depressing thoughts than to fight them. Cheerfulness literally increases life, while depression diminishes it, and by getting 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 from anxiety, but still he must try not to bring it into the school.

Mr. Arundale tells me that he has made a habit of becoming cheerful the moment he enters the College gates, 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 making myself pretend to be cheerful when the College gates are entered, I have finally succeeded in becoming so. If, as I pass through the grounds to my office, I see any student looking dull and gloomy, I make a point of going up to him in order to exert my cheerfulness against his gloom, and the gloom soon passes away. Then comes the religious service, and when I take my seat upon the platform with the religious 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 each member of the audience, trying to 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 mood. If the teacher is always cheerful and loving, 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 among his boys streams of energy and good 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 makes the character strong, 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 may be done as well as possible, largely 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 his mind is continually occupied in planning for 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 must be full of ideals to which he is eager 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 his mind, and will always be trying to bring the real school nearer to it. To be one-pointed, therefore, the teacher must not be contented with things as they are, but must be continually on the alert to take advantage of every opportunity of improvement.