An Educational Model

You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him to find it within himself. A teacher may be a mine of information, but if he is also liberating, he refrains from laying down the rules, but rather speaks in terms of goals. Bronson Alcott said that the fine teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. Despite continuing importuning, the teacher is under the moral obligation to try not to siphon knowledge into the student. Since he is learning how to grow it is unnatural to do anything to stunt it. Many students have been conditioned to having their lessons laid on the line. They want the facts from A to Izzard, preferably sawn into planks for the examination platform, an attitude perhaps fostered by the tests that have become the rule in academe. Rarely are they learning experiences.