A traveler asserts that no man can stand for an
hour on the summit of Mt. Rigi and not become a better and a stronger
man for the experience. A writer on art says that it is worth a trip
across the ocean to see the painting of the bull by Paul Potter; but
that, of course, depends upon the ideals of the beholder. All these
illustrations conform to and are in harmony with the psychological
dictum that in the educational process the spirit reacts to its
environment.
=The teacher as environment.=--But the environment may include people as
well as inanimate objects, mountains, rivers, flowers, and pictures.
And, as a part of the child's environment, the teacher takes her place
in the process of education by absorption. A city superintendent avers
that there is one teacher in his corps who would be worth more to his
school than the salary she receives even if she did no teaching. This
means that her presence in the school is a wholesome influence, and that
she is the sort of environment to which the pupils react to their own
advantage. It might not be a simple thing to convince some taxpayers of
the truth of the superintendent's statement, but this fact only proves
that they have not yet come into a realization of the fact that there
can be education by absorption.
=The Great Stone Face.=--The people of Florence maintain that they need
not travel abroad to see the world, for the reason that the world comes
to them.
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