Basic HTML Version
Methods of Teaching
147
Personal Element Essential
In all true teaching the personal element is essential. Christ in
His teaching dealt with people individually. By personal contact
and association He trained the Twelve. In private, often to but one
listener, He gave His most precious instruction. He opened His
richest treasures to the honored rabbi at the night conference on the
Mount of Olives, and to the despised woman at the well of Sychar,
for in these hearers He discerned the impressible heart, the open
mind, the receptive spirit. Even the crowd that so often thronged
His steps was not to Christ an indiscriminate mass of human beings.
He spoke directly to every mind and appealed to every heart. He
watched the faces of His hearers, marked the lighting up of the
countenance, the quick, responsive glance, which told that truth had
reached the soul; and there vibrated in His heart the answering chord
of sympathetic joy.
Christ discerned possibilities in every human being. He was
not turned aside by an unpromising exterior or by unfavorable sur-
roundings. He called Matthew from the tollbooth, and Peter and his
associates from the fishing boat, to learn of Him.
The same personal interest, the same attention to individual
development, are needed in educational work today. Many appar-
ently unpromising young people are richly endowed with talents
that are not being used. Their faculties lie hidden because of a lack
of discernment on the part of their teachers. In many a boy or girl
outwardly as unattractive as a roughhewn stone may be found pre-
cious material that will stand the test of heat, storm, and pressure.
True educators, keeping in view what their students may become,
[142]
will recognize the value of the material with which they are working.
They will take a personal interest in each pupil and will seek to de-
velop all their powers. However imperfect, every effort to conform
to right principles will be encouraged.
Every young person should be taught the necessity and the power
of application. On this, far more than on genius or talent, success de-
pends. Without application the most brilliant talents avail little, while
with rightly directed effort persons of very ordinary natural abilities
have accomplished wonders. And genius, at whose achievements