But if right is higher than
might, then mental skill and power are only secondary aims. So long as
we are dealing with fundamental aims in such a serious business as
education, why stop short of that ideal which is manifestly the best?
We have no controversy with the highest mental discipline and strength
that are consistent with all-round mental soundness. Our better
teachers are not lacking in appreciation for the value of what is
called _formal mental discipline_, but they do generally lack faith in
the innate power of the best studies to arouse interest and mental
life. They emphasize the _drill_ more than the _content_ and the
inspiration of the author. Both in theory and in practice they are
greatly lacking in the intellectual sympathy and moral power which
result from bringing the minds of students into direct contact with the
noblest products of God's work in history and in the object world.
Here we can put our finger on the radical weakness of our school work.
The really soul-inspiring teachers have not been formalists nor
drill-masters alone. Friedrich August Wolf, for example, the great
German philologist, was probably the most inspiring teacher of
classical languages that Germany has had.
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