Education as Service | Page 9

sometimes cost a little more than ugly ones, but the
money is well spent. In some things only trouble is needed in choosing,
for an ugly picture costs as much as a pretty one. Perfect cleanliness is
also absolutely necessary, and teachers should be constantly on the
watch to see that it is maintained. The Master said about the body:
"Keep it strictly clean always; even from the minutest speck of dirt."
Both teachers and students should be very clean and neat in their dress,
thus helping to preserve the general beauty of the school surroundings.
In all these things careful discrimination is wanted.
If a boy is weak in a particular subject, or is not attracted by some
subject which he is obliged to learn, a discriminating teacher will
sometimes help him by suggesting to him to teach it to one who knows
less than he does. The wish to help the younger boy will make the elder

eager to learn more, and that which was a toil becomes a pleasure. A
clever teacher will think of many such ways of helping his boys.
If discrimination has been shown, as suggested in a preceding
paragraph, in choosing the best and most helpful boys for positions of
trust, it will be easy to teach the younger boys to look up to and wish to
please them. The wish to please a loved and admired elder is one of the
strongest motives in a boy, and this should be used to encourage good
conduct, instead of using punishment to drive boys away from what is
bad. If the teacher can succeed in attracting this love and admiration to
himself, he will remain a helper to his students long after they have
become men. I have been told that the boys who were under Dr. Arnold
at Rugby continued in after life to turn to him for advice in their
troubles and perplexities.
We may perhaps add that discrimination is a most important
qualification for those whose duty it is to choose the teachers. High
character and the love-nature of which we have already spoken are
absolutely necessary if the above suggestions are to be carried out.

III. DESIRELESSNESS
The next qualification to be considered is Desirelessness.
There are many difficulties in the way of the teacher when he tries to
acquire desirelessness, and it also requires special consideration from
the standpoint of the student.
As has been said in At the Feet of the Master: "In the light of His holy
Presence all desire dies, but the desire to be like Him." It is also said in
the Bhagavad Gita that all desire dies "when once the Supreme is seen."
This is the ideal at which to aim, that the One Will shall take the place
of changing desires. This Will is seen in our dharma, and in a true
teacher, one whose dharma is teaching, his one desire will be to teach,
and to teach well. In fact, unless this desire is felt, teaching is not his
dharma, for the presence of this desire is inseparable from real capacity

to teach.
We have already said that little honour, unfortunately, is attached to the
post of a teacher, and that a man often takes the position because he can
get nothing else, instead of because he really wants to teach, and knows
that he can teach. The result is that he thinks more about salary than
anything else, and is always looking about for the chance of a higher
salary. This becomes his chief desire. While the teacher is no doubt
partly to blame for this, it is the system which is mostly in fault, for the
teacher needs enough to support himself and his family, and this is a
right and natural wish on his part. It is the duty of the nation to see that
he is not placed in a position in which he is obliged to be always
desiring increase of salary, or must take private tuition in order to earn
enough to live. Only when this has been done will the teacher feel
contented and happy in the position he occupies, and feel the dignity of
his office as a teacher, whatever may be his position among other
teachers--which is, I fear, now marked chiefly by the amount of his
salary. Only the man who is really contented and happy can have his
mind free to teach well.
The teacher should not desire to gain credit for himself by forcing a boy
along his own line, but should consider the special talent of each boy,
and the way in which he can gain most success. Too often the teacher,
thinking only of his own subject, forgets that the boy has to learn many
subjects. The one on