Smyrna times., 1939-11-02

too, merely because we have no re-
| ligious vocation?
The stuff of which literature is
made is the very stuff upon which
our likes as individuals and as a
freedom-loving nation rests. The
study of literature is the last thing
that shoul dgo from the curric-
ulum, if any of the liberal arts
must go to make room for the
teaching of how to earn money
and how to play games. Bread
and Circuses" for an increasingly
powerful and restless proletariat is
an old story; but a nation organ
lied to teach all citizens the arts
of freedom, regardless of special
gifts and aptitudes, and regardless
of race, color, or creed, is some
thing new, something too vital and
true to give way before the clam
oring flittle men SNUG with easy
conquests.
Because our schools must admit
all pupils regardless of mental
qualifications, the plea is often
made that we have large numbers
of ineducable children for whom
we must arrange some sort of ac-
tivity within the range of. their ex-
perience. The deggree to which a
child is held to be ineducable is
very often the measure of the in
effectuality of the teacher. What
we need is not more sops for the
ignorant, but more teachers Of
breadth and vision, of infinite kind
illness, of inexhaustible patience,
and of unwavering devotion to sci
ence, to art, and to religion. I
make no plea for the dry bones of
scholarship, whether in literature
or in tn efield of education. There
is nothing original and dynamic
about pedantry; the pedantic ap-
proach to the teaching of literature
is admittedly sitting. In every
classic, however, there is available
for the teacher who can use it, an
original and dynamic tool for edu-
cation. Even the seeming dullard
shakes off his lethargy if the teach
er can transmit the classics to him.
If the teacher can't, is it the fault
of the classics, of the pupil, or Of
the teacher?
Those who say that the failure
of liberal education is the fault Of
the classics seek to approach the
student on his own level through
the use of books SO germane to his
interests tat he will read them of
his own accord and interpret them
in the light of his own experience.
Such books are better than no
books at all 1t remains to be
demonstrated whether habits of in
telligent reading can result from
such tactics. 1t is highly improb-
able that worthy and lasting inter
ests can result from pandering to
existing interests, habits, and pre-
JUDGES. Surely the experience cur
riculum should be placed for execu-
tion in the hands Of only our most
able teachers, those, in fact, who
can already teach worthwhile liter
ature in an ineligible way without
the dangerous surrender of prerog-
atives.
Those educators who say that
the failure Of liberal education is
the fault of the pupil seek also to
reach him on his own level with
this difference; they admittedly
leave him there. Reserving the
arts Of free men as material for
teaching the so-called college
group, they select for the slow stu
dent subjects which he can pass
without too great an effort on the
part Of pupil or teachers. The
larger the school, the greater the
variety Of substitutes offered, most
of them of some value. A course
in makeup, for example, is a rea-
sonable course to offer a girl who
has no interest in the liberal arts. !
Self-expression through an atrac-
tive appearance is important, but |
not more important than having a |
self to express. A pretty face is
good to look upon; but pretty |
face with nought behind it is
scarcely the basis for an American
home.
1t would seem, then, that the |
failure of liberal education to reach !
every American child outside of the |
homes for the feeble-minded is not |
the fault of either the subject-mat-
ter or of the pupil; inescapably, it !
must be the fault of the teacher |
The syllogism is simple: Literature
can be taught to anyone entitled to
attend our classes. There is no |
for literature in the edu-
cation of American children. We
must, therefore, teach literature to
all students There have been fail |
ures, but the remedy lies with us,
in our undivided loyalty to the res
olution that literature snall remain
the bulwark of the liberal discip-
line.