The Student in the Teacher

Abstract

C OLLEGES devise and revise curriculums, and it is a good thing. It is important to respond to the continued need for the revitalization of education; to consider its relative usefulness under changing world conditions; to probe the timeless significance underlying its particular form. But such investigations rarely tackle one of the fundamental factors determining educational success or failure: the teacher and his relationship to study and students. Books on education have always stressed the need for good teaching as a matter of course. They have defined it more or less in the following terms: Good teaching, particularly on the secondary-school or undergraduate college level, consists not merely in the effective transfer of a satisfactory amount of knowledge from teacher to student (a book can accomplish the same); it does not merely follow a sound method practicing and demonstrating an intelligent search for and appraisal of relevant causes and results; it also awakens enthusiasm and develops a desire for learning, while tempering them (and this is indeed important) with an understanding of the limits of knowledge and its influence on human life and personal happiness. It is generally assumed that, to grasp this blend of enthusiasm and self-restraint, to benefit by its soundness in his own pursuit of maturity, the student needs the living example of the good teacher. I subscribe to such a definition of good teaching-as it is generally subscribed to-and to the resulting justification of the teacher and not the lecturer only, in person or by radio and television, as the embodiment and instrument of good teaching sine qua non. However, this only complicates the problem. For how is he to be discovered except by a lengthy process of trial and error? And how can we be sure that he will remain a good teacher over a long period of years, assuming that he was one once in the ardor and vigor of youthful idealism? I am asking this question of myself rather than in the abstract. It is a crucial question for us teachers, not only because the success of our work depends on whether we realize what we are like and what we are doing, but most of all because our own selfrespect and stability stand or fall with it. It is difficult to appraise oneself and his effect on his students. Popularity is deceptive. It may well be based on a teacher's gift of entertainment rather than on his personal distinction. It may be the result of easy marking or of his popular field.