A book of ten volumes might well be written on the subject of parents and teachers. If a teacher were the author no publisher would look at it, for the language would be unprintable.
To the teacher the parent is an enemy. When Mrs. Brown comes to school she and the dominie chat pleasantly about the weather, while the children look on and marvel. Little Willie is amazed to see his mother smile as she talks, for it was only last night that he heard her say: "That Mr. Smith is by no means a gentleman. Did you see his nails?"
Poor little Willie does not know that his mother and the dominie are using fair smiles to cover a real hostility. Mrs. Brown will talk agreeably all through her visit, but as she is shaking hands on the doorstep she will say, "Oh, by the way, Mr. Smith, Willie came home last night saying that he wasn"t allowed to play hockey yesterday. I want him to play every Wednesday."
"But," says Mr. Smith deferentially, "I--er--well, Wednesday is the day when the Seniors play, and--er--since Willie is a Junior I--er--I--"
"Oh, thank you so much," she gushes, "I knew that you would arrange that he will play on Wednesdays," and she sails away.
Or perhaps Mrs. Brown will put it on to her husband.
"The way things are done at that school are disgraceful, Tom. You must go and see Smith and insist that the boy has his hockey."
Well, the poor father comes up to school, and he and the dominie discuss the weather and Lloyd George. All the time Brown is trying to muster up enough courage to tackle the hockey question.
"Er," he begins after clearing his throat, "my wife was saying something about--er--what a splendid view you have from here!"
"First rate," nods the dominie. "Your wife was saying?"
"Er--something about hockey." He coughs. "Splendid game! I--er--I must go . . . er--good-bye."
No mere man can badger a dominie.
From the parent"s point of view a teacher is a rival when he isn"t a sort of under-gardener. The parent would never think of arguing with the doctor when he says that Willie has measles; the doctor is a specialist in disease, and the parent is not. But it is different with the dominie. He is a specialist in education, but then so is the parent. That is possibly one of the reasons that the teaching profession is such a low-cla.s.s one, for a teacher is merely a specialist in a world of specialists. Everybody knows how a child ought to be brought up. In justice to parents I must confess that there are only two teachers in Britain to whom I should trust the education of any child of mine. Most teachers are instructionists only, and the parent has some ground for suspicion.
X.
Duncan was talking about awkward moments to-night, and he told of the shock he got when he joined the army and found that the sergeant of his squad was an old pupil of his.
"I think I can beat that, Duncan," I said, and told him the story of an army lecture. I had a commission in the R.G.A. for a short time, and one morning I had to give a lecture to the men of the battery on lines of fire. They were mostly miners, and I tried to make the lecture as simple as possible. I began with the definition of an angle and went on to circular measurement. I noticed that one man stared at the blackboard in bewilderment, a very stupid looking fellow he was. When the lecture was over I approached him.
"I don"t think you understood what I was trying to tell you," I said.
"I did have some difficulty in following it, sir," he said.
"H"m! What were you in civil life?"
"Mathematical master in a secondary school, sir."
I could not rise to the occasion. I fled to the mess and ordered a brandy and soda.
Speaking about rising to the occasion brings to my mind another army incident in which I did not shine. I was a recruit in the infantry, and a gym sergeant was putting us through physical jerks. He told us the familiar tale that although we had broken our mothers" hearts we wouldn"t break his; in short he put the wind up us. I got very nervous.
"Right turn!" he roared, and I thought he said "Right about turn."
He told the squad to stand easy, and then he eyed me curiously.
"You! Big fellow! Take that smile off your face!"
I don"t know why he said that for I couldn"t have smiled at that moment for anything less than my ticket. He studied me carefully for a bit, then enlightenment seemed to dawn on him.
"I got it!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
"I know wot"s wrong with you! You"ve got a stupid face; you can"t think; you never thought in yer life."
I looked on the ground.
"_Did_ yer ever think in yer life?"
"No, sergeant," I said humbly.
"I blinkin" well thought so!" he said and moved away.
Then the worm turned. Who was he that he should bully a scholar and a gentleman? I would lower him to the dust.
"Sergeant!"
He turned quickly.
"Wot d"ye want?" and he tried to freeze me with his look.
"It isn"t my fault I can"t think, sergeant; I was unfortunate enough to spend five years at a university."
His mouth gaped, and his eyes stared, but only for a moment. Then he rose to the occasion.
"I blinkin" well thought so!" he cried. "Squad! . . . . Tshun!"
It is Sunday night, and I have just been to town. At the Cross I stood and listened to a revivalist bellowing from a soap-box. His message was Salvation but I was more interested in the man than his message.
Consciously he is out to save sinners, but I suspect that unconsciously he is out to draw attention to himself. I do not blame him. I do the same thing when I publish a book; Lloyd George and George Robey and the revivalist and I are all striving each in his little corner to draw attention to ourselves.
The exhibition impulse is in every child. A child loves to run about naked, but then society in the form of the mother steps in and says: "You must not do that!" But we know that every wish lives on in the depths of the mind, and the childish wish to exhibit the body appears in later years as a desire to preach or sing or act or lecture.
This is the psychology of the testimonials for liver pills which appear in every local paper. It is the psychology of much crime. Many a slum youth glories in having been birched, simply because his gang looks on him as a hero.
I hasten to state that exhibitionism alone does not make a Cabinet Minister or a comedian. There are other motives from infancy, an important one being the desire for power. I recall that as a boy I delighted in following a drove of cattle and smiting the poor creatures hard with a cudgel. Freud would say that in this way I was releasing s.e.x energy, but I think that the infantile sense of power was at the root of my cruelty; here was I, a wee boy, controlling a big heavy stot. It is love of power that makes little boys want to be engine-drivers.
To the teacher this love of power is the most vital thing in a child"s make-up. Discipline thwarts the boy at every turn, and our adult authority is fatally injuring the boy"s character. Our task is to provide the child with opportunity to wield his power. We suppress it and the lad shows his power in destructive instead of constructive activities. I find that I keep returning to this subject of suppression, but it is the most important evil in education. It does not matter how perfect a teacher makes his instruction in arithmetic; if he has not come to see that suppression of a child is a tragedy, his instruction is of no value. From an examination point of view, yes; from a spiritual point of view, no.
Parents and teachers fail because they cannot see the world as the child sees it. The child of three is a frank egoist. He cares for no one but himself, and the world is his. Anger him and he would have you drawn and quartered if he had the power. His instincts prompt him to master his environment, and to begin with, when he is a few weeks old, his environment and his own person are indistinguishable.
Homer Lane gives a delightful description of the child"s first efforts and how they are frustrated by ignorant adults.