The Vitalized School | Page 5

Hades with Dante, and ascends Sinai with Moses,
and is refreshed and strengthened by her journeys. She sits enrapt as
Shakespeare turns the kaleidoscope of life for her, or stands enthralled
by Victor Hugo's picture of the human soul. Her sentient spirit is
ignited by the fires of genius that glow between the covers of the book,
and her fine enthusiasm carries the divine conflagration over into the
spirits of her pupils. There is, therefore, no drag or listlessness in her
class in reading, because, during this exercise, life is as buoyant and
spontaneous as it is upon the playground.
=The meaning of history.=--In her teaching of history she invests all
the characters with life, because to her they are alive. And because they
are alive to her they are alive to her pupils. They are instinct with
power, action, life. She rehabilitates the scenes in which they moved,
and, therefore, they must be alive in order to perform their parts. They
are all flesh and blood people with all the attributes of people. They are
all actuated by motives and move along their appointed ways obedient
to the laws of cause and effect. They are not named in the book to be
learned and recited, but to be known. She causes her pupils to know
them as they would come to know people in her home. Nor do they
ever mistake one for the other or confuse their actions. They know
them too well for that. These characters are made to stand wide apart,
so that, being thus seen, they will ever after be known. History is not a
directory of names, but groups of people going about their tasks. They
hunger, and thirst, and love, and hate, and struggle with their
environment as their descendants are doing to-day.
=Language and vitality.=--When she is teaching a language, it is never
less than a living language. In Latin the syntax is learned as a means,
never an end. The big things in the study loom too large for that. The
pupils become so eager to see what Cæsar will do next that they cannot
afford the time to stare long at a mere ablative absolute. They are
following the parade, and are not to be turned aside from their large

purpose by minor matters. They are made to see and hear Cicero; and
Rome becomes a reality, with its Forum, its Senate, and its Mamertine.
When Dido sears the soul of the faithless Æneas with her words of
scorn, the girls applaud and the boys tremble. When Troy burns, there
is a real fire, and Achates is as real as the man Friday. When the
shipwrecked Trojans regale themselves with venison, it is no
make-believe dinner, but a real one. Where such a teacher is, there can
be no dead language, no dry bones of history, and no stagnation in the
stream of life.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. What suggestions are offered for the vitalization of mathematics?
history? reading? language?
2. In what ways is vitalization of subject matter related to its
socialization?
3. How may motivation in teaching the multiplication table be assisted
by vitalization?
4. What is to be included in the term "read" in the sentence "She can
teach reading because she can read"?
5. Add to the author's list of children in literature whom the vitalized
teacher may introduce as companions to her pupils.
6. Why is extended reading essential to success in teaching?
7. What works of Dante have you read? of Victor Hugo? of
Shakespeare? How will the reading of such authors improve the
teaching ability of elementary teachers?
8. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the vitalized teacher?
CHAPTER III
THE CHILD

=The child as the center in school procedure.=--The child is the center
of school procedure in all its many ramifications. For the child the
building is erected, the equipment is provided, the course of study is
arranged and administered, and the teacher employed. The child is
major, and all else is subsidiary. In the general scheme even the teacher
takes secondary place. Teachers may come and go, but the child
remains as the focus of all plans and purposes. The teacher is secured
for the child, and not the child for the teacher. Taxpayers, boards of
education, parents, and teachers are all active in the interests of the
child; and all school legislation, to be important, must have the child as
its prime objective. Colleges of education and normal schools, in large
numbers, are working at the educational problem in an effort to develop
more effective methods of training the teachers of the child. A host of
authors and publishers are giving to the interest of the child the
products of their skill. In every commonwealth may be found a large
number of