Education for Life: Preparing Children to Meet the Challenges (Continued)


Please note direct word-for-word quotes from Education for Life are indicated by single quotation marks.

Chapter 10: True Education Is Self-Education (The four different types of students according to their temperaments as well as developing the many characteristics of their nature)

'...It isn’t realistic to ask a child to determine what he shall learn. Mature decisions cannot be made in ignorance of the facts. But this much having been said, it remains equally true that unless the child also wants to learn, no amount of teaching will ensure that he absorbs anything. Effective teaching requires the student’s willing cooperation. This willingness must be enlisted; it cannot be commandeered.

'Thus, whatever system of education one follows, it must be flexible enough to provide for the shifting needs of a large variety of students. It must be child-oriented. A teacher may have specific information that he wants to impart, but if his students are not ready to receive it, his immediate job must be either to help them to receive it, or else to teach them what he thinks they can receive.'

'People, including children, fall generally into basic types according to their temperaments and inclinations. These types divide themselves into a primary focus on body-awareness, on the feelings and emotions, on the will, and on the intellect. Children who are focused on body-consciousness need a different emphasis from those who by nature are more thoughtful. Some children respond to appeals to their finer feelings, while others respond best when their will is challenged. Some children must have the logic of a request explained to them, while others respond only to firm orders. No single rule holds true for every child.'

'It would be helpful for the teacher or the school staff to prepare a file on every child, listing his salient traits, his reactions to discipline and instruction, and suggesting directions that might be taken in future for his personalized “Education for Life.”

'It is probable that the child will fall naturally into one or another of the four types suggested above: physical, emotional, will-oriented, or thoughtful, though no one is ever purely one or the other. Indeed, the complete human being is balanced in all four of these aspects, which comprise, as we shall see later, the basic “tools” we all have to work with as human beings: body, feelings, will power, and intellect.

'Certain contrasts might be considered also. Is the child’s nature expansive or contractive? Outgoing or withdrawn? Positive or negative? Constructive or destructive? Imaginative or literal-minded? Creative or imitative? Aggressive or passive? Assertive or submissive?' 'In many of the paired qualities mentioned above, the second is not a defect, nor should it necessarily be transformed at all costs into its opposite quality. It may even prove a virtue, once it has been refined and its potentials fully explored.

'Submissiveness, for example, more easily than aggressiveness, may be developed into willing cooperation.' A literal mind may never create works of imagination, but it may easily be interested in the practical sciences. 'Thus, a tendency toward literal-mindedness, which in some contexts is a defect, might in others be a virtue.' Likewise '...it is often to the introverts rather than extroverts that people turn for meaningful communication. Creative geniuses, too, are often introverted.'

'In all cases, it is important to work with the child’s strengths, rather than concentrating on his weaknesses. Usually, he will respond far better to this positive approach.'

'In certain cases, the choice is obvious enough. Negativity and destructiveness, for example, are universally undesirable traits; no effort should be spared to redirect them more positively. In many other cases, however, the choice is less obvious, and sensitive insight is needed to deal with them wisely.'

People are never equally competent, talented, and capable of achieving success. It can be a waste when well-meaning teachers end up devoting a large amount of their attention to the dullest pupils, giving much less attention, in the process, to children even of average intelligence, and virtually none to the brilliant students. 'The brilliant ones, consequently, are deprived of challenges, and become bored. Often it is these last who become the “problem” children in the schools.' This obviously needs to be avoided.

'Intelligence is only one standard of a student’s all-round qualifications, of course. But it is obvious that all students are not equally intelligent. Neither are they all equally sensitive, creative, receptive, energetic, willing, or, in fact, equally anything. In a world where no two thumbprints are alike, the variety of human capabilities may be described as infinite.'

What is needed is a general criterion that will be helpful in developing all aspects of a child’s nature, not just their intelligence.


Chapter 10 in full can be found through this link for those who want to go into greater depth.