Can it
be denied that this man is all the better citizen for his ability to
appreciate the wonderfulness of a sunrise?
But while we extol and magnify the quality of appreciation, it is well to
note that it cannot be superinduced by any imperial mandate nor does it
spring into being at the behest of didacticism. It can be caught but not
taught. Indeed, it is worthy of general observation that the choice things
which young people receive from the schools, colleges, and normal schools
are caught and not taught, however much the teachers may plume themselves
upon their ability to impart instruction. Education, at its best, is a
process of inoculation. The teacher is an important factor in this process
of generating situations that render inoculation far more easy; and we
omit one of the most vital things in education when we refer only to the
teacher's ability to "impart instruction." The pupil gets certain things
in that room, but the teacher does not give them. The teacher's function
is to create situations in which the spirit of the pupil will become
inoculated with the germs of truth in all its aspects. If he could give
the things that the pupils get, then all would share alike in the
distribution. If the teacher could impart instruction, he certainly would
not fail to lift all his pupils over the seventy-five per cent hurdle.
If instruction or knowledge could be imparted, education would no longer
be a spiritual process but rather one of driving the boy into a corner,
imparting such instruction as the teacher might decree and keeping on
until the point of saturation was reached or the supply of instruction
became exhausted, when the trick would be done.
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