Education as Service | Page 8

a school life
will send out into the world men who will think more of filling places
of usefulness to the nation than of merely gaining money and power for
themselves.
An important part of moral teaching lies in the training of the boy in
patriotism--love of country. The above plan of teaching the boy to be of
service in the little family of the school, will naturally widen out into
service in the large family of the nation. This will also influence the
boy in his choice of a profession, for he will think of the nation as his

family, and will try to fill a useful place in the national life. But great
care must be taken in teaching patriotism not to let the boys slip into
hatred of other nations, as so often happens. This is especially
important in India, where both Indian and English teachers should try
to make good feeling between the two races living side by side, so that
they may join in common work for the one Empire.
Discrimination may also be shown in the arrangement of lessons, the
most difficult subjects being taken early in the day, as far as possible.
For even with the best and most carefully arranged teaching a boy will
be more tired at the end of the school day than at the beginning.
Discrimination is also wanted in the method of teaching, and in the
amount of time given to mental and physical education. The care of the
body and its development are of the first importance, for without a
healthy body all teaching is wasted. It should be remembered that the
boy can go on, learning all his life, if he is wise enough to wish to do so;
but it is only during the years of growth that he can build up a healthy
physical body in which to spend that life. Therefore during those early
years the healthy development of that physical body must be absolutely
the first consideration, and anything that cannot be learned compatibly
with that must for the time remain unlearned. The strain on the boy's
mind--and particularly on those of very young boys--is far too great and
lasts far too long; the lesson period should be broken up, and the
teacher should be very careful to watch the boys and to see that they do
not become tired. His wish to prevent this strain will make him think
out new ways of teaching, which will make the lessons very interesting;
for a boy who is interested does not easily become tired. I myself
remember how tired we used to be when we reached home, far too tired
to do anything but lie about. But the Indian boy is not allowed to rest
even when he comes home, for he has then to begin home lessons,
often with a tutor, when he ought to be at rest or play. These home
lessons begin again in the morning, before he goes to school, and the
result is that he looks on his lessons as a hardship instead of a pleasure.
Much of this homework is done by a very bad light and the boy's eyes
suffer much. All home lessons should be abolished; home work burns
the candle at both ends, and makes the boy's life a slavery. School

hours are quite long enough, and an intelligent teacher can impart in
them quite as much as any boy ought to learn in one day. What cannot
be taught within those hours should be postponed until the next day.
We see the result of all this overstrain in the prevalence of eye-diseases
in India. Western countries set us a good example in the physical
training of their boys, who leave school strong and healthy. I have
heard in England that in the poorer schools the children are often
inspected by a doctor so that any eye-disease or other defect is found
out at once before it becomes serious. I wonder how many boys in
India are called stupid merely because they are suffering from some eye
or ear trouble.
Discrimination should also be shown in deciding the length of the
waking and sleeping times. These vary, of course, with age and to some
extent perhaps with temperament. No boy should have less than nine or
ten hours of sleep; when growth ceases, eight hours would generally be
enough. A boy grows most during his sleep, so that the time is not in
the least wasted.
Few people realise how much a boy is affected by his surroundings, by
the things on which his eyes are continually resting. The emotions and
the mind are largely trained through the eye, and bare walls, or, still
worse, ugly pictures are distinctly harmful. It is true that beautiful
surroundings