Education
‹ 5 · Outline · 7 ›
6.The teacher and the tutor
6a.Qualities of a good teacher or tutor
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 21Confucius describes himself as an ever-hungry learner and unflagging teacher who withheld teaching from no one.read · scan
- p. 24He calls himself of endless craving to learn and an unflagging teacher.read · scan
- p. 27–28Yen Yuan describes how the Master draws men on bit by bit, widening with culture and binding with courtesy.read · scan
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 12–13Socrates cross-examines Meletus on who improves the youth; Meletus answers that all Athenians improve them, Socrates alone corrupts.read · scan
- p. 13–14As with horses, improving the young is the work of a few experts, not everyone; youth would be lucky with one corrupter.read · scan
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 717–718Buddha masters a teacher's doctrine, is honored as equal, yet finds it insufficient and moves on to another.read · scan
- p. 718–719Buddha again masters a teacher's doctrine, is made teacher, but finds it stops short of Nirvana.read · scan
- p. 740Candidates are strictly examined on Buddha's discourses and priestly duties before ordination.read · scan
- p. 749–750The Buddha distinguishes worthy from unworthy teachers of the Doctrine: teach from compassion and the Doctrine's goodness, not to win admiration.read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44
- p. 370The blind cannot guide the blind; the disciple when perfected will be like his teacher.read · scan
Plutarch, PericlesVol. 12
- p. 38–39Pericles is taught by Damon in music, by Zeno in argument and by Anaxagoras, who gave him elevation of purpose.read · scan
- p. 39–40Anaxagoras's teaching gave Pericles lofty purpose, dignity of speech, composure and freedom from superstition.read · scan
Plutarch, DemosthenesVol. 12
- p. 194He turned from other studies to oratory, choosing Isaeus over Isocrates as teacher, with reports of Plato's influence.read · scan
Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12
- p. 265–266Caesar goes to Rhodes to study with a famous rhetorician and improves his natural gifts.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 118Rufus's teaching so exposed each hearer's faults that each felt personally accused.read · scan
- p. 122The teacher's struggle is to prevent abject notions of self in youths.read · scan
- p. 139–140Asks who taught him the right method of caring for the soul.read · scan
- p. 153Socrates' power of winning men over compared to the lute-player who tunes.read · scan
- p. 156–157Teaching youth requires wisdom, aptitude and divine counsel; learners should shun the uninstructed lest lessons fade like wax.read · scan
- p. 161–162Teaching should heal rather than win applause.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 219Pliny recalls his tutor Quintilian's testimony about Domitius Afer.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 194Apollonius as teacher who was patient and unpeevish in instruction.read · scan
- p. 284The wise man is resented as a schoolmaster who tacitly condemns.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20
- p. 6Virgil as master and guide leading the pupil for his profit.read · scan
- p. 9–12Dante takes Virgil as guide, master and lord.read · scan
- p. 61Dante meets Brunetto Latini, his former master, and speaks respectfully with him.read · scan
- p. 61Dante recalls Brunetto's paternal teaching, how man wins eternity, and vows to speak of it as long as he lives.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 146Virgil guides Dante as master to son.read · scan
Traditional BalladsVol. 40
- p. 123–125Bewick teaches scholars to fence and reminds Grahame he was his master and Grahame his scholar.read · scan
William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas MoreVol. 36
- p. 91He would rather seem conquered than discourage students; more desirous to learn than to teach.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 276–277Cellini dismisses his apprentices, saying they have learned all he could teach and should shed their leading-strings.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of ChildrenVol. 32
- p. 29–34Children should be raised in the best studies; the choice of tutor is the whole substance of a noble child's education.read · scan
- p. 34A tutor should have wisdom and judgment rather than mere book learning and should let the pupil speak and find his own way.read · scan
Edmund Spenser, Prefatory Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh on the Faerie QueeneVol. 39
- p. 61Arthur is raised and instructed by Timon, delivered by Merlin.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 41–42Even the highest wit needs a guide; exercise should proceed from knowledge, not from pretended knowledge.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Proœmium, Epistle Dedicatory, Preface, and Plan of the Instauratio MagnaVol. 39
- p. 126He teaches with humility, without authority or obscurity, leading men to things themselves so they can judge.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 313Instructing others aims to propagate knowledge in them, not to display one's own.read · scan
John Milton, AreopagiticaVol. 3
- p. 210–211A teacher cannot teach with authority if all he delivers is corrected by a licenser; readers reject a pupil-teacher.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48
- p. 326–327Teachers such as fathers, bishops and confessors are masters, but the writers are merely fellow disciples of the sister.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 69A tutor in the father's place must keep authority, be respected by the family, and model the conduct he teaches.read · scan
- p. 70A wise, sober companion to fashion children from infancy is the best-spent expense, worth more than land or fine clothes.read · scan
- p. 71A proper tutor is hard to find; spare no care or cost, seeking widely, as Castalio's example shows.read · scan
- p. 71–72Learning alone does not make a gentleman; the governor must be well-bred and skilled in the world, for breeding comes from company and observation.read · scan
- p. 73The tutor must be well-bred and make polite carriage his principal care, since only those with authority can correct breeding faults.read · scan
- p. 74A tutor should know the world and show his pupil men's ways, guiding him gradually from boy to man rather than releasing him suddenly.read · scan
- p. 76A tutor is needed more for teaching judgment of men than for Greek, Latin, logic or metaphysics.read · scan
- p. 77Prudence and good breeding matter more than fashionable school learning; a tutor need not be a thorough scholar.read · scan
- p. 78–79The governor's work is to form the mind and carriage; studies are mere exercises, and useful things are prioritised.read · scan
- p. 79–80A tutor's politeness and knowledge of the world matter most, because he can lead in sciences from books but not in breeding.read · scan
- p. 167A tutor should raise love of knowledge and teach self-improvement; languages are best learned in early years.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, On the Death of Esther Johnson [Stella]Vol. 27
- p. 122He directed her childhood reading and instructed her in honour and virtue.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 232The Savoyard was a tutor to a young man of quality but preferred poverty to dependence.read · scan
- p. 236–237The mentor cultivates seeds of reason and goodness and eradicates pupil's misanthropy.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 509The stern yet kind village schoolmaster taught writing, ciphering and surveying, loved learning and argued with the parson.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 23–24The learned teacher has led pupils by the nose for ten years and cannot improve or convert mankind.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 264–267Epitaph jokes that Satan should give Michie the schooling of his weans, for he'd make them clever devils.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 339–340Superior minds should help others think and judge for themselves, not do their thinking for them.read · scan
- p. 358Channing argues education rests on able, gifted teachers, not apparatus; the teacher's vocation is the community's first duty, and children are the most hopeful subjects.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 391The tailor admires the Cardinal's learning, having read all books, and his clear teaching.read · scan
- p. 412She aims to direct a young mind and bring it into the right way.read · scan
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17
- p. 57King asks John to teach his son everything he ought to knowread · scan
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a CandleVol. 30
- p. 156Lecturer makes demonstration steps simple so the audience never loses the train of reasoning.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 32–33Only one who possesses the spirit can teach; he who speaks as books, synods or fashion dictate merely babbles.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 10Darwin thanks Professor Henslow, who gave him a taste for natural history as an undergraduate and directed his work by correspondence.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 140–141Beatrice teaches Dante, interpreting difficult truths, human and divine.read · scan
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The Wave Theory of LightVol. 30
- p. 251–252Lecturer addresses audience prepared by earlier lectures and experiments, aiming to make details intelligible to all.read · scan
6b.Teaching by example and imitation
See also: Habit 3b
Aesop, FablesVol. 17
- p. 30A mother crab criticizes her child's walk; the child replies that example must come first.read · scan
- p. 40The father teaches his sons by demonstration.read · scan
Paul, The First Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 496Many tutors but few fathers; Paul urges imitation of himself and sends Timothy to recall his ways.read · scan
Plutarch, PericlesVol. 12
- p. 35–36Examples of virtue in biography shape the character and moral purpose of readers through emulation.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 150Socrates made men imitators of himself.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 319Ancestors had the young learn from elders by example, watching the senate and serving in the army.read · scan
- p. 319Youth learned senatorial procedure by example: rights of proposing, speaking, yielding; Pliny's own youth was denied this training.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 193Lessons from Diognetus and Rusticus: avoid trifles, embrace philosophy, accept discipline and improvement of character.read · scan
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; The Nun's Priest's TaleVol. 40
- p. 24–25He teaches by example, first doing and afterward teaching.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 236Learn from good examples and avoid blameworthy ones; Jesus crucified teaches all we need to know.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 183–187Mixed seating of old and young and readings on manners and virtue at meals train youth, and elders test their wit and disposition to virtue.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 47Manners are learned by example rather than rules; children should not be tormented over niceties, but taught dancing and good governors.read · scan
- p. 48Children learn manners through example, company and repeated practice, not occasional lectures and reproofs, which merely vex them.read · scan
- p. 55Children learn by imitation, so parents' and authorities' own conduct teaches more than correction.read · scan
- p. 65Setting examples of others' conduct before children is the most efficacious way to form manners, better than discourses or rules.read · scan
- p. 120Children learn manners by keeping company above them and observing the well-bred.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 359–360The humble true teacher begets people into his own likeness.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 68–69Writings like Franklin's journals lead youth to imitate the good and eminent; his life would spread industry, frugality and temperance.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 296–297Parents and tutors should example the young in the truth, not the wisdom of this world.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 43We learn everything more by imitation than precept, more effectively and pleasantly; it forms manners, opinions and lives.read · scan
George Long, M. Aurelius AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 303Marcus recorded his teachers' lessons; no prince had a comparable education.read · scan
George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 345Epictetus and Antoninus labored by precept and example to improve themselves and others.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 34Indirect teaching by the man's character does more than direct moral teaching.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1282–1283Youth listens to the old master to catch his meaning, inheriting his dexterity.read · scan
Frank Aretas Haskell, The Battle of GettysburgVol. 43
- p. 412He credits his wounded General's example and tuition for guiding his conduct.read · scan
6c.Teachers' pay, status and endowment
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 53–54All educated men are peers.read · scan
Hippocrates, The Oath of HippocratesVol. 38
- p. 3Pledges to honor the teacher as a parent and to teach the art to his sons and bound disciples without fee.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 158Cicero, deprived of the forum, keeps a kind of school like Dionysius at Corinth, teaching pupils rhetoric.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 75He teaches rhetoric in Rome and finds students who conspire to evade paying their master's fee.read · scan
Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36
- p. 288Benefices go to ignorant asses while learned men go unrewarded, leaving Germany without good prelates.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 103Wages of skilled work must replace the expense of education and apprenticeship with ordinary profit.read · scan
- p. 104–105Long, expensive education in the liberal arts and professions justifies more liberal pay for painters, lawyers and physicians.read · scan
- p. 135Public education for professions and men of letters floods the market and depresses rewards; teachers earn little compared with lawyers.read · scan
- p. 136Ancient teachers like Isocrates and Gorgias earned large fees; Athenian teachers lived splendidly, before charity-educated competitors lowered pay.read · scan
- p. 136–138Teachers once enjoyed high esteem; cheap literary education outweighs lowered teacher status, and school constitutions should be reformed.read · scan
- p. 463Schools can be self-supporting through fees paid by scholars to the master.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 358–360Community must honor teachers above money-getters and recognize education as its highest interest; respect for the teacher's office determines the means of education.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Inaugural Address at EdinburghVol. 25
- p. 374Urges endowing universities and supporting gifted poor students, as old Norman kings did.read · scan
6d.The living teacher versus books
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 65–66The lore of Wen and Wu lives in all men, so Confucius needed no set teacher.read · scan
Hippocrates, The Law of HippocratesVol. 38
- p. 5Sacred medical knowledge is imparted only to the initiated, not the profane.read · scan
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 68–69Socrates urges seeking a charmer of fears among all peoples and themselves.read · scan
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 643–644The Buddha's exposition is likened to lighting a lamp in darkness or guiding a lost traveller; discipleship under the Teacher is prized.read · scan
- p. 677–678A verse learned from a teacher does not pass over to the pupil, illustrating transmission without transfer.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Old AgeVol. 9
- p. 49Cato prized Fabius's conversation, maxims and learning, and lamented that no one would teach him after Fabius died.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 123A true teacher and ingenuous youths should converse; but now teacher and pupils are lifeless bodies.read · scan
- p. 151–152Examination of principles cannot be had by a passing visitor.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 213–215Urges the friend to hear Isaeus and not rely on books alone; Livy's fame drew a visitor from Cadiz.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 208Learned masters are forgotten soon after they die.read · scan
- p. 307Ten years of schooling is surpassed by instant divine teaching.read · scan
George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 321–322Antoninus learned Epictetus's discourses through his teacher Junius Rusticus.read · scan
John Henry Newman, The Idea of a UniversityVol. 28
- p. 32Oral instruction by a living teacher remains superior to books for exact knowledge; students go to great centres and masters.read · scan
- p. 33–34Newman illustrates that personal qualities are learned by living intercourse in centres of society rather than from books, as a university principle.read · scan
- p. 37The personal presence of a teacher, questioning and repeating, is nature's instrument in all education, more than books.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 77Pupils owe the teacher a real debt but idolize his system until his mind is exhausted.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 66James Mill's conversation and writings formed and diffused opinions among young men, shaping a circle of disciples.read · scan
6e.Sophists, philosophers and paid teachers of virtue
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 7Sophists take fees to teach the young; Socrates asks who can teach human and political virtue, and disclaims being a paid teacher.read · scan
- p. 11Socrates is called misleader of youth.read · scan
- p. 21Socrates denies having disciples or teaching privately; anyone rich or poor may listen, and he takes no pay.read · scan
6f.Teaching as correcting the erring
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 23He admits a man's present cleansing without vouching for his past.read · scan
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 463–464Priscilla and Aquila instruct Apollos more accurately in the way of God.read · scan
Plutarch, AlcibiadesVol. 12
- p. 108–109Socrates tries to preserve the promising boy from flatterers and corruption, rebuking his arrogance with free, searching words.read · scan
- p. 109Socrates's efforts are seen as the gods' means of caring for and preserving youth.read · scan
- p. 110–111Socrates repeatedly corrects Alcibiades, like iron hardened by cold, showing him how far he is from perfection in virtue.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 138Teach the ignorant patiently rather than jeer.read · scan
- p. 150Lycurgus instructed the violent youth and made him a good man.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 229Rather than being angry, use your reason to stir the other's reason, show him his error, admonish him.read · scan
- p. 237Teach wrongdoers and show them their error.read · scan
- p. 263–264Teach others or bear with them.read · scan
- p. 268Correct wrongdoers by teaching if able; otherwise be indulgent, as the gods are.read · scan
- p. 273Correct the erring man by teaching; the uninstructed act as uninstructed men do, so one should not be angry.read · scan
- p. 275If a man is mistaken, instruct him kindly and show him his error.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 87A teacher's chance illustration, a mocking simile from the Circus races, rebukes Alypius and leads him to reform and become Augustine's pupil.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4
- p. 359Persuasion and teaching preferred to force in correcting the erring.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 347Correction should aim at instruction.read · scan
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