Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 15.djvu/382

 368 FOSTER WATSON : artisans that the foreman is himself an experienced crafts- man. It is little wonder that teachers cannot be trusted with religious teaching whilst there is the tradition against them of being suspect craftsmen. Of course, things are altering for the better, and we gratefully acknowledge this, but the teacher has the suspicion about him that he is not to be trusted. I contend that the educationist-teacher is to be trusted in the same way as the medical attendant. The educationist- teacher is to the school what the Professor is to the Univer- sity. If he is an efficient man, he is entitled to the same freedom. If he is not efficient, he ought not to be in the school. It is thought by some that religion is too sacred to be committed to the treatment of any teachers. Of course it is if they are suspect craftsmen only. We should not entrust our bodies to the care of medical men if we- regarded them as mechanics. It is quite right also not to wish to entrust children to religious teaching from the mere teacher- mechanic. But why should we not require our teachers to be educators? Is religion too sacred to be inculcated by the artist-teacher? If the musician finds sacred music fit province for his art ; if the architect finds ecclesiastical art as a legitimate province ; if the painter paints sacred subjects, and brings his help to the religious spirit why should not the artist-teacher, the real educator, effectively and helpfully include religion as one of the factors in the development of the character of his pupils ? For the province of the educator-teacher, I take it, is the development of character, by intellectual, emotional and volitional process wherein all subjects of instruction are but the material, out of which process is to mature. The only possible way that I can see to exclude religion from the teacher's province is to say boldly that religion has no place in the formation of character. If directions are given by Education Authorities, the artisan-teacher will do all to order, hut the artist-teacher can no more exclude the religious spirit from his teaching even if ordered, than artist-painters like Raphael or Watts could submit to give up painting their ideals so as to accept commissions for designing shop fronts or publicans' signboards. Those who follow education as an art in Plato's sense hold that character-development is the real end of education the development of a " good " will, as Kant and the Herbartians say, or " self-realisation," as the Hegelians put it. This implies that the school is not merely a place for knowledge-grinding. It should in its degree represent the search for truth as the basis of knowledge.