The function of the teacher, however, is not merely to mitigate the heat of current controversies. He has more positive tasks to perform, and he cannot be a great teacher unless he is inspired by a wish to perform these tasks. Teachers are more than any other class the guardians of civilization. They should be intimately aware of what civilization is, and desirous of imparting a civilized attitude…
Education has at all times had a twofold aim, namely instruction and training in good conduct. The conception of good conduct varies with the political institutions and social traditions of the community. […] The influence of political conceptions on early education is not always obvious, and is often unconscious on the part of the educator. For the present, therefore, I wish to consider education…
We cannot therefore frame our education with a view to giving everyone the temperament of a poet. But some characteristics are universally desirable, and it is these alone that I shall consider at this stage. […] I will take four characteristics which seem to me jointly to form the basis of an ideal character: vitality, courage, sensitiveness, and intelligence. I do not suggest that this list is…
I shall assume that universities exist for two purposes: on the one hand, to train men and women for certain professions; on the other hand, to pursue learning and research without regard to immediate utility. We shall therefore wish to see at the universities those who are going to practise these professions, and those who have that special kind of ability which will enable them to be valuable in…
Passive acceptance of the teacher’s wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes men to seek a leader, and to accept as…
The subject of this address is the organisation of thought, a topic evidently capable of many diverse modes of treatment. I intend more particularly to give some account of that department of logical science with which some of my own studies have been connected. But I am anxious, if I can succeed in so doing, to handle this account so as to exhibit the relation with certain considerations which…
What are the qualities of mind which a mathematical training is designed to produce when it is employed as an element in a liberal education? My answer, which applies equally to both sections of students, is that there are two allied forms of mental discipline which should be acquired by a well-designed mathematical course. These two forms though closely allied are perfectly distinct. The first…
The conclusion at which we arrive is, that mathematics, if it is to be used in general education, must be subjected to a rigorous process of selection and adaptation. I do not mean, what is of course obvious, that however much time we devote to the subject the average pupil will not get very far. But that, however limited the progress, certain characteristics of the subject, natural at any stage,…
What I mean is this: you must make up your mind to find the best part of your happiness in kindly helpful relations with others. It should be our ambition to leave our own small corner of the world a little tidier and a little happier than when we entered it. I am well aware that this is an old story; but old stories are sometimes true, and this is the biggest truth in the whole world. The…
The justification for a university is that it preserves the connexion between knowledge and the zest of life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. The university imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively. At least, this is the function which it should perform for society. A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This…
In classics we endeavour by a thorough study of language to develop the mind in the regions of logic, philosophy, history and of æsthetic apprehension of literary beauty. The learning of the languages — Latin or Greek — is a subsidiary means for the furtherance of this ulterior object. When the object has been obtained, the languages can be dropped unless opportunity and choice lead to their…
The curse that has been laid on humanity, in fable and in fact, is, that by the sweat of its brow shall it live. But reason and moral intuition have seen in this curse the foundation for advance. The early Benedictine monks rejoiced in their labours because they conceived themselves as thereby made fellow-workers with Christ. Stripped of its theological trappings, the essential idea remains, that…
This is the Stoic Fellowship (TSF) chapter for Grand Junction and the Colorado western slope. Its purpose is to provide a local group for talking about Stoic philosophy and discussing how to apply its tenets to our lives.
In training a child to activity of thought, above all things we must beware of what I will call “inert ideas”—that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilised, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations.
The pupil’s progress is often conceived as a uniform steady advance undifferentiated by change of type or alteration in pace … I hold that this conception of education is based upon a false psychology of the process of mental development which has gravely hindered the effectiveness of our methods.
The only avenue towards wisdom is by freedom in the presence of knowledge. But the only avenue towards knowledge is by discipline in the acquirement of ordered fact. Freedom and discipline are the two essentials of education …
Listed here are the tasks that address the ordinary duties of my life, arranged to be attended to periodically as needed: daily, weekly, monthly, or seasonally. With this rhythm made explicit all that remains is to summon the self-discipline to complete these tasks, to successfully sequester the fulfillment of my mundane duties from the more extraordinary subjects of my attention, that I may now…
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