The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-05-03
Education And Desire

By n. ADDrNGrON BRUCE

When. wonder, win school authorities
appreciate that to educate the young effect
iveIy it is not enough to lombard them with
information? From the time the lombard
Enent method first was employed, generations
ago, experience has shown that q compare
lively small number Of children really bene-
fit from il. The rest pass from school to
the struggles Of the world semi educated.
To assume that this must be their fault
and cannot by any possibility be the fault
Of the school is on the face of it to make
question the educabiiity of the majority OF
children by any means whatsoever.
The wise conrse-but the course not yet
taken by school authorities generally would
seem, to be 10 inquire why the .bombardment
method 80 largely fails. Such an inquiry
would soon bring out some interesting facts
and in especial the significant fact that it
fails in proportion to the absence Of desire
on the children's part to profit from it.
Those children who most profit, observa-
ton shows. are not necessarily the brightest
children. But invariably they are children
who greatly want to learn and to apply the
information impaired to them.
-Yt.is no mere condolences that, again. and
again, having made change in schools or
perhaps merely a4change in teachers, chill
dren formerly accounted dull have displayed
an exceptional learning aptitude. It is no
longer needful to harass and drive them to
study. They study of their own accord =
and they profit vastly from their studies.
The only adequate explanation is that
with the change in schools or in teachers
there has come a creating Of desire to study.
And usually it is possible definitely to trace
the creating Of this desire to contact with
some teacher of the type designated by TIE
fitting word, einspiring.g @
More than this. it is likewise fact of
long experience that not few teachers, per-
haps inferior to others in point of actual
knowledge of the subjects they teach, OBJ
tain exceptionally good educational results
by virtue of their ability to develop study
enthusiasm in the children entrusted to their
care.
Surely it should be obvious that in the
conduct of all school rooms, creating of de-
sire to profit from information rather than
the mere imparting Of informs ton should
be the primary aim; and that, in the train
ing of all teachers. the chief effort should
be to make them men and women capable of
afousing and maintaining in their pupils an
81 want to learn" attitude,,
b This can be done. This must be done If
the all-toolevident inadequacy of our present
educational system is ever to be remediAd.
What folly it is-what economic and human
waste it is--to perpetuate the old mistake
Of thinking that education is education what
ever the attitude Of the children being "edu+
Gated"
Recall, beg of you, oh school authorities,
your own childhood days. There is not one
of you but will remember that this teacher
or that teacher, by virtue of creative power,
urged you to special effort.
Not what the uncommon teacher taught,
but how he or she taught, meant most TO
YOU. For the. good of those who now are
children, look more to the finding of teach
ers like unto the teachers who meant most
to you than to the framing of your educas
tional programs.