Part 8 (1/2)
=Dynamic qualities=--Her character is the su, and action and, therefore, is herself Since she is an artist, her habits are all pitched in a high key and she is culture personified Her immaculateness of body and spirit is not a superficial acquisition but a fundamental expression of her real self Just as the electric bulb diffuses light, so she diffuses an atives the artistic touch to every detail of her work because she is an artist, a genuine, sincere artist in all that makes up life She has the heart of an artist, the eyes of an artist, the touch of an artist
Whether these qualities are inherent or acquired is beside the point, at present, but it , that unless they were capable of cultivation, the world would be at a standstill There is no place in her exuberant vitality for a jaundiced view, and hence her world does not become ”stale, flat, and unprofitable”
=Aspiration and worshi+p=--Every sincere, noble aspiration is a prayer; hence, she prays without ceasing in obedience to the admonition of the Apostle And, let it be said in reverence, she helps to answer her own prayers Her spirit yearns out toward higher and wider attainments every hour of the day, not morbidly but exultantly And while she aspires she worshi+ps The starry sky holds her in rapt attention and admiration, and the modest flower does no less She is thankful for the rain, and revels in the beauty and abundance of the snow The heat rateful, none the less, because of its beneficent influence upon the farmer's work Like food and sleep, her attitude of worshi+p conserves her powers and preserves her balance When physical weariness comes, she sends her spirit out to the star, or the sea, or the ets her burden in the contemplation of majesty and beauty In short, her spirit is attuned to all beauty and sublimity and truth, and so she is inherently an artist
=Professor Phelps quoted=--In his very delightful book, ”Teaching in School and College,” the author, Professor William Lyon Phelps, says: ”I do not know that I could make entirely clear to an outsider the pleasure I have in teaching I had rather earnthan in any other way Inis not le; it is a passion I love to teach I love to teach as a painter loves to paint, as areat and so difficult tolife at it, without realizing much more than his limitations and mistakes, and his distance from the ideal But the ood teacher, just as every architect wishes to be a good architect, and every professional poet strives toward perfection For the chief difference between the ambition of the artist and the ambition of a money-maker--both natural and honorable ambitions--is that the money-maker is after the practical reward of his toil, while the artist wants the inner satisfaction that accompanies mastery”
=Attitude toork=--To these sentiments the artist teacher subscribes whole-heartedly, if not in words, certainly by her attitude and practices She regards her work not as a task but as a privilege, and thinking it a privilege she appreciates it as she would any other privilege She would esteeh-class artists, or to visit an art gallery, or to witness a presentation of a great drafrau; and she feels the same exaltation as she anticipates her work as a teacher She sings on her way to school because of the privileges that await her She experiences a fine flow of senti, to her, is a serious business, but not, in the least, so is a serious business, but the artist's zeal and joy in his work give wings to the hours Laying the Atlantic cable was a serious business, but the vision of success was both inspiring and inspiriting, and tereater effort
=The element of enthusiasm=--To this teacher, each class exercise is an enterprise that is big with possibilities; and, in preparation for the event, she feels so of the thrill that must have animated Columbus as he faced the sea She estimates results rade book, for the field of her endeavors is the spirit of the child, and the face of the child telegraphs to her the awakening of the spirit Like the sculptor, she is striving to bring the angel of her dream into the face of the child; and when this hope is realized, the privilege of being a teacher seems the very acme of hu eye betoken the sort of life that her teaching aims to stimulate; and when she sees these un enterprise is a success and rejoices accordingly If, for any reason, her enthusiasenerates the enthusiasm that she knows is indispensable to the success of her enterprise
=Redeift of being able to redeem the common from the plane of the commonplace
Indeed, she never permits any fact of the books to become commonplace to her pupils They all know that Columbus discovered America in 1492, but when the recitation touches this fact she invests it with life and low as a factor in the class exercise The humdrum traditional teacher asks the question; and when the pupil drones forth the answer, ”Columbus discovered America in 1492,” she disraphic response, ”Very good” What a farce! What a travesty upon the work of the teacher! Instead of being very good, it is bad, yea, inexpressibly bad The artist teacher does it far better By the ination of her pupils to be fired and their interest to thrill with the reat event They feel, vicariously, the poverty of Coluht have been there to assist They find thery waves striving to beat hi into space, day after day, and feel a thousand pities for him in his suspense And when he steps out upon the new land, they want to shout out their salvos and proclaie of Columbus=--They have yearned, and striven, and prayed with Colureat achieve The teacher lifted it far away froe in their consciousness A dramatic critic avers that the action of the play occurs, not upon the stage, but in the iination of the auditors; that the players ination to produce the action; and that if nothing were occurring in the i on the stage, the audience would leave the theater by way of protest The artist teacher acts upon this very principle in every class exercise Neither the teacher nor the book can possibly depict even a ination of the pupils She is ever striving to find the one word or sentence that will evoke a whole train of events in their minds
Just here is where her superb art is shown A whole voluination of the pupils saw in connection with the voyage of Colus to happen by the use of coh art; this proclaims the artist teacher
=Resourcefulness=--In her work there is a fineness and a delicacy of touch that baffles a satisfactory analysis She has the power to call forth Coluination of her pupils--all without noise, or boesticulation She does what she does because she is what she is; and she needs neither copyright nor patent for protection Her work is suffused with a rare sort of enthusiasenuineness This enthusiasives to her work a tone and a flavor that can neither be disguised nor counterfeited Her work is distinctive, but not sensational or pyrotechnic Least of all is it ever hackneyed So resourceful is she in devising new plans and neays of saying and doing things that her pupils are always animated by a wholesoht and heat that she generates manifest themselves in the minds of her pupils, while she remains serene and quiet
=The thirteen colonies=--With the poet Keats she can sing:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know
Animated by this sentie or small, for in every form of truth she finds beauty; and her spirit reacts to it on the instant, and joy is the resultant This is the basis for her superb enthusiasm in every detail of her work as well as the source of her joyous living Her pupils inal colonies without a slip, but that is not enough for her The establishi+ng of these colonies forhty epoch in history, and she h the life currents of her pupils Names in books must mean people with all their hopes, their aspirations, their trials and hardshi+ps, their sorrows and their joys
The conditions of life, the food, the clothing, the houses, the ers must all come into the mental picture Hence it is that she prepares for the lesson on the colonies as she would make ready for a trip with the pupils around the world, and theenterprise
=Every subject invested with life=--She finds in the circulation of the blood a subject of great import and makes ready for the lesson with enthusiastic anticipation Her step is elastic as she takes her way to school on this particular day, and her face is bea, for to-day comes to the children this stupendous revelation She feels as did the college professor when he was just ready to begin an experiment in his laboratory and said to his students, ”Gentlemen, please remove your hats; I am about to ask God a question” She approaches every truth reverently, albeit joyously, for she feels that she is the leader of the children over into the Promised Land In the book already quoted, Professor Phelps says, ”I read in a Gerlass room at the top of a mountain covered with eternal snow--he sees eternity and infinity all about hi of mathematics; for every subject and every problem transports her to the Isle of Patmos, and the hour is croith revelations
=Human interest=--And wherever she is, there is humanity There are no dry bones in her work, for she invests every subject with human interest and causes it to pulsate in the consciousness of her pupils If there are dry bones when she arrives, she has but to touch thes of life Whether long division or calculus, it is to her a part of the living, palpitating truth of the world, and she causes it to live before theto life in her presence, and, like Aaron's rod, blosso forth at her touch Wherever she walks there are resurrections because life begets life No science, no e, can be dull or dry when touched by her art, but all become vital because she is vital By the subtle alche all the subjects of her school are transold of truth and beauty
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1 What kinds of arts are there other than the fine arts?
2 How do the motives of the artisan differ from those of the artist?
3 What are soain one the distinction of being an ”artist” teacher?
4 Show that to enjoy respect is more worth while than to attract admiration
5 Under what conditions can one have joy in his work? Can one do his best without it?