The Valve - A Literary Organ | National Teacher’s Day

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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

National Teacher’s Day

Posted by Jonathan Goodwin on 05/04/05 at 12:22 AM

Readers of Gravity’s Rainbow might recall The Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Here’s a passage dear to all of our teaching hearts:

But when Joseph saw the understanding of the child, and his age, that it was coming to the full, he thought with himself again that he should not be ignorant of letters; and he took him and delivered him to another teacher. And the teacher said unto Joseph: First will I teach him the Greek letters, and after that the Hebrew. For the teacher knew the skill of the child and was afraid of him: notwithstanding he wrote the alphabet and Jesus pondered thereon a long time and answered him not. 2 And Jesus said to him: If thou be indeed a teacher and if thou knowest letters well, tell me the power of the Alpha and then will I tell thee the power of the Beta. And the teacher was provoked and smote him on the head. And the young child was hurt and cursed him, and straightway he fainted and fell to the ground on his face. 3 And the child returned unto the house of Joseph: and Joseph was grieved and commanded his mother, saying: Let him not forth without the door, for all they die that provoke him to wrath.

Comments

I’m a little late to this celebration, but maybe next year we can also bear in mind Heinrich von Kleist’s inspiring “Very Last Word in Modern Educational Theory”:

The teachers will seek to effect their ends not simply through exhortation but by living example; by direct, practical social intercourse.

For Egoism, Boorishness, Inconsiderateness-of-All-That-is Great-and-Exalted, as well as for a few other Unvirtues that can be picked up in the street, it will not be necessary to hire teachers.

For Swinishness and Messiness, Quarrelsomeness and Bickering and Slander, my wife will serve as instructress.

Profligacy, Gambling, Drunkenness, Sloth and Gluttony I shall account for myself.

Tuition will be a very reasonable 300 Reichsthaler.

NOTE: Parents who are reluctant to entrust their children to us, for fear of their somehow being corrupted in such an institution, would thereby prove themselves susceptible to exaggerated notions about the power of education in the first place. The world, the whole conglomeration of objects that stimulate the senses, holds and controls on myriad strings each new youngster starting out on life’s journey. Of these strings, attached to his soul, his education is, of course, one—perhaps even the most important and strongest—but when compared with the sum total, the entire aggregate, “education” is as a thread compared to an anchor cable.

By Ray Davis on 05/05/05 at 09:35 AM | Permanent link to this comment

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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

National Teacher’s Day

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