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| Sunday, 6 October 2002 |
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Yesterday was world teacher's Day : Early history of education by Aryadasa Ratnasinghe According to an old cliche 'Teachers are born, not made." If this is exactly true then it would mean that the traits of a teacher are built into an individual's nervous system. But, today, it seems to be just the opposite, because they are not born, but made, who work for salaries as employed personnel in schools on a monthly income basis, depending on their qualifications and other aptitudes, such as dancing, music, sports, home science, weaving, pottery, religion etc. At one time or another some of the Old World's best minds had given teaching some serious pondering, and such pedagogic thinkers date back to antiquity. Among them were Plato (428-347 BC), the Greek philosopher who founded his own Academy in 368 BC, and Aristotle (384-322 BC), the Greek philosopher, scientists and physician who taught young Alexander the Great at his Lyceum. Quintilian (1st century AD) was the mentor of Rome's imperial princes, and the first westerner to hold a state property where he functioned as professor. At that time schooling was ill-regarded and students had to undergo torture under the hands of wicked teachers, who held the opinion 'Spare the rod and spoil the child'. But Quintilian had a tender heart for children. Parents were against such freedom and expected the teachers to reform their children who were backward in learning. It was Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) who took a step forward in education after centuries of neglect. This school master reformed the educational system by making memory an indispensable part of the school curriculum. He tried to nail it fast, in reluctant cases, with frequent and prodigious cloutings. When he entered the classroom, there was complete silence, brought about through fear, as he always carried openly the rod in his hand. Rousseau, although a strict disciplinarian taught his students with a willing heart. It was Rousseau's contention that nothing, not even religion, should be taught to a child until he is able to fathom it.Counter to the asseverations of the clergy, whether Catholic or Protestant, he insisted that at birth every child is good, that he is entitled to deference and respect, and that his natural propensities should be merged with education. But, to some his recommendations were radical and too strong to be borne by a student of the normal class. Then came Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). He was the first to catch the fire of Rousseau's ardour and the first to leave his mark on education. Although he had some doubts over Rousseau's ideas, he will in full accord with his proposals that education should be focused on nature, without any religious ideas or tidings, and develop all the native powers, whether cerebral or otherwise. He upheld the view that children have the right and dignity which command respect, but, unlike Rousseau, Pestalozzi sought to give balance to his purpose by declaring that education's ultimate end must be bent on social progress, apart from education itself. Flouting the theory of memory (rote learning), he based his method on his conviction that the senses are the reservoir of all learning. To tap it for its full worth, he resorted to the spoken rather than the written word, which he called 'object lesson'. The headwinds of Pestolazzianism reached Europe at the beginning of the movement for the ordinary school, and to safeguard it from abuse and ignorance, teachers were given special training. Visionary though he was, Pestalozzi soon realised that a method, however excellent, was no better than a teacher's ability to employ it in the most successful way. His contribution to education became so popular, that many western countries adopted it. The man who was to put pedagogy on a surer footing was the German educationist Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841). Devoid of sentimentality, Herbart was a surpassing intellect and a man of superb and disciplined mind, who passed most of his active years in the academic cloister. Like almost all other teachers before and after him, he put great weight on the moral purpose of education. The term 'virtue', he remarked in a rare laconic moment and expresses the whole purpose of education. The notion that education should be grounded on an understanding of the child's nature, Herbart heartily embraced. The man who grappled with these elusive and powerful phenomenon of education, was another German, Friedrich August Wilhelm Froebel (1782-1852). To him the school was a haven of little children, the place where they might unfold, naturally, without fears or tears, amidst love and understanding, in the gaity of song and play. Such was the beginning of Froebel's dream of the 'kindergarten' (garden of children). Kindergarten movement was the first among teachers to capture the enormous pedagogic significance of the child's own world. True to its name, the kindergarten became the soil where, carefully cultivated, the child's personality grew and fructified. Such education, Froebel let it be known, must be self-development, not willy nilly, but carefully directed. Taking the child as he is, which is to say an active animal, the kindergarten broke the usual pedantic fetters with sumptuous provision for play and self-activity. Froebel went to eternity as a dashed and disenchanted man. The kindergarten, into which he had put so much of his heart, became suspect to a reactionary Prussian officialdom, and in 1851, the state put it under ban on the ground that it was socialistic and, even worse, atheistic. As the kindergarten made its way into permanence, some of the ideas which it represented were transformed into the elementary school. The kindergarten system of preliminary education existed in Sri Lanka too, until the replacement of the Montessori education for pre-school going children. These schools have cropped up like mushrooms just for the purpose of earning money, but sans any guarantee from the government. Then came Col. Francis Parker (1837-1902) with his scintillating ideas on educational reforms. Parker was a soldier before he took to teaching practice. He went to Germany, studied philosophy and teaching methods advocated by Pestalozzi, Froebel and Herbart. He did not really believe in the use of the rod on children and create fear in them with aversion to education. He said 'Rod is an uncivilised anachronism.' John Dewey (1859-1952) was one of the greatest philosophers on modern education. He said that all that is learned is distinctly human. Under the impact of Dewey and his aids, education broke the shackles of the outmoded past. When he made his educational advent, the primary ends of schooling was the same. The solid door which once shut the classroom from life in the world outside was opened wider and wider for the benefit of the students. Today, the school going child is no longer incarcerated with books but taught everything with a democratic spirit. Extra-curricular activities have proved to be an asset in the field of education. Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was the last to revive the educational system for the pre-school child. Born in Rome, she opened her first children's house in 1907, developing a system of education for children from 3 to 6 years, based on freedom of movement with considerable choice for them and specially designed activities and equipment to attract their minds. The role of the Montessori teacher is a hard task which requires great patience and ability to control them. The reason why good teaching (teaching that is to get authentic results,) must centre its emphasis upon meaning that learning itself is a quest for discovery of meaning. This is its very essential nature. According to the modern view of educationists, 'the teacher who plays up incomprehensible drill of the memorisation of unrelated facts, or dictates notes, is going against the very nature of the learning process." Today, too much of place is not given to memorisation, since it is believed to be similar to brute memory. Teaching is not a profession though some think so. Nevertheless, the question must be asked and answered candidly. Otherwise, the progressive teacher may not have full knowledge of just what he is doing as a teacher. Let us be completely frank. Education is not a fully pledged profession in the same sense of law and medicine. There are many things about it (such as the fact that teachers are not self-employed, but employees of organisations_ that make education only quasi-professional. In Sri Lanka, there are four types of schools, viz: (i) IAB schools having Advanced Level science classes, (ii) IC schools having Advanced Level arts/commerce classes, other than science classes, (iii) Type 2 Schools having classes up to year 11, (iv) Type 3 Schools having classes from year 1 to 5 or year 1 to 8. There are nearly 180,000 schools with a pupil-teacher ratio of 1:24. Of all the government schools, over 20% provide classes up to GCE (A/L). Of the total cadre of teachers, about 25% are graduates, 45% trained teachers and 27% GCE (O/L) or GCE (AL) qualified teachers. |
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