The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciples.
Interpretation
A true teacher empowers students to trust themselves rather than relying on the teacher's influence.
In this quote, Alcott emphasizes that a genuine teacher should not foster dependency but rather inspire self-confidence in their students. The teacher's role is to guide learners towards their own understanding and inner spirit, ultimately fostering independence and self-trust rather than a following or discipleship.
In practice
During a teacher training seminar to emphasize the importance of guiding students rather than dominating them.
Nature is the armory of genius. Cities serve it poorly, books and colleges at second hand; the eye craves the spectacle of the horizon; of mountain, ocean, river and plain, the clouds and stars; actual contact with the elements, sympathy with the seasons as they rise and roll.
Yet the deepest truths are best read between the lines, and, for the most part, refuse to be written.
Observation more than books and experience more than persons, are the prime educators.
We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.
I think any self-respecting educational institution ought to judge its policies by its best estimate of what their long-term consequences for their students and for the society will be.
Nu shu means women's writing. And it was a secret writing system that was invented by women, used by women and kept a secret by women in one very remote county in China for a thousand years. It's the only language that was invented and used by women to have been found anywhere in the world.
If you wish to be a lawyer, attach no consequence to the place you are in, or the person you are with; but get books, sit down anywhere, and go to reading for yourself. That will make a lawyer of you quicker than any other way.
Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity?
When you revolutionize education, you're taking the very mechanism of how people be smarter and do new things, and you're priming the pump for so many incredible things.
There is little doubt that our society is changing rapidly, but one thing will never change as long as we remain a democracy: the need for voters to know the essentials of our history and government.
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