Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 15.djvu/379

 THE FREEDOM OF THE TEACHEE TO TEACH RELIGION. 365 What place in school education, then, will the religious needs of the child hold? Well, let us clear away one mis- conception. They will not be the same as those of the man. Science instruction for the child, history instruction for the child, literature instruction, physical instruction, are all dif- ferent from those for the adult student. Who can tell us what is likely to be of service to him in science, in history, in literature and in religion? Those, I answer, who have most studied the child's nature, those who have lived with him, those who have tested the reactions of the different kinds of instruction in the mental growth. This is the life- study of the educationist. The man in the street, the man on the County Council, sitting in Committee, or the Board of Education may frame syllabuses of topics ; but these "Authorities," as they are ambiguously called, know not what they do. They impose their manhood's view upon the child and the teacher. But a more important question is : What does the educationist say ? Is it not time an appeal was made to him ? The educator, indeed, distrusts syllabuses laid down by codes for all schools alike in any subject of in- struction. In all subjects of school instruction he believes (contrary to the man on the County Council) that it is of comparatively slight importance what is taught. The essen- tial point is how the teacher teaches what he attempts to teach. The educationist would tell us that the teacher who wishes to teach science will desire to get the basis of a scientific method of observation and way of thinking rather than be concerned with the amount of examinable material forthcoming in the child's memory. So the teacher of history should wish to bring about something of the touch of sympathy with great men and great deeds and the basis of a humanistic training. The teacher of literature should desire to implant the love of exact expression and of noble thought rather than so many poems learnt by heart, so many obsolete words known, or so many emendations of the text got up from a learned editor of a poet's works. So with the teaching of religion. The teacher of religion is concerned with the desire to implant the idea of truth, sincerity, of human helpfulness. He is dealing with human- ism, and this surely includes in the opinion of most the upward glance towards the universal, the infinite, towards Goodness and Perfection. He must be aware of his respon- sibility in dealing with the highest things, not only because of the reaction upon himself of the spirit in which he deals with them, but also because of the momentous influence which, if he is not exercising it for good, is being converted