The Purpose of the Educator

                                                                              By Chelsea Rickert

     There are many underlying meanings to the idea of education. In the Dictionary of Word Origin, compiled by Joseph T. Shipley, the definition of education is actually referenced under the word destroy. The passage defines that instruction, or �piling in�, grows from a theory of child training, to pack the information in, or draw the talents out. One might wonder about the category that this word originates, and in fact there are many contrasting points of view on the subject of education.

      Sydney Harris writes of this controversial subject in �What True Education Should Do�. He states his metaphor of a student being an over-stuffed sausage casing; expressing the point that teachers fill their students with knowledge until the student is extremely over-loaded. The only remedy is to unload--and thus forget the information that was crammed in. �Pupils are more like oysters than sausages.� -Sydney J. Harris, What True Education Should Do. Harris is saying that it is better to let the student absorb the knowledge instead of force-feeding it to them unemotionally and haphazardly.

     Instruction is in the hands of the instructor, and I believe that the better the instruction, the more there is that is absorbed by the pupil. Thus comes the idea of a teacher, and of teaching. There are many ways of teaching, but only so many are useful or correct.

      In an essay entitled �Symbols�, found in Hayakawa's Languages in Thought and Action, the subject of description and everyday life is examined. Symbol meanings vary from person to person, depending on what he or she was raised to think. For instance, the bald eagle is a national symbol for the US, and means liberty and freedom to every American. To our neighbors of the north, the Canadians, the bird is just a beautiful child of creation. Native Americans sometimes identify bald eagles as a noble brother, and often were spirit guides for a man. In every culture and belief there are many symbols and many meanings for everything we see and do, and sometimes these symbolic meanings conflict between cultures.

      Teachers, in fact, are symbols in themselves. �There is no necessary connection between the symbol and that which is symbolized,� -Hayakawa�s �Symbols�. When I picture a teacher in my mind, I see a lady standing in front of a small group of children in a one room schoolhouse, as on Little House on the Prairie. Another person may envision an old and pious catholic nun, or perhaps a dusty, pipe-smoking college professor buried behind stacks of ancient literature and saying �quite the contrary, my dear boy,� every so often.

      Symbols are things that which are interpreted in many different ways, according to the individual who is interpreting them. Many types--symbols--of teachers exist, from literal teachers in a University, to parents, tutors, and anyone who leaves a lasting impression upon someone's life. Teachers are definitely of great importance, yet quite a few schoolteachers live up to such fabled importance that comes with the job description.

      In the classroom, there is a certain predicate that is at hand; the teacher teaches and the student learns. Most teachers chose to go no further than that, while others go above and beyond. Some teachers, if permitting, decide to go to a personal level with their students. This can have many outcomes, good and bad: from a well-based, business-like friendship, to undeserved favoritism directed toward a few students. There are also stories of affairs between student and teacher, and of course that crosses the line on grounds of morality.

      When teachers chose to stay out of their students' lives, other results can occur. Failure to entice the student to absorb the knowledge willingly happens quite often when the student feels no obligation to learn. Or perhaps a teacher who is clearly set on having his students know what it is he is teaching, a student might buckle down out of respect and be the apt pupil that every student should be.

      Beyond the teacher/student relationship lays an even greater barrier, the ability to be a teacher. I recall a discussion about this topic, and someone said clearly, "Some people are meant to be teachers, and some are not. It takes a talent." It is definitely an arguable topic, but I must agree with it. Sometimes, various teachers in my past have had the ability to enthrall their pupils and make them want to learn what they were teaching, no matter what the subject. As a result, the students respected the teacher quite a lot and thus a relationship between teacher and student was formed. There were other teachers who seemed not to have any reason--or want--to be a teacher, who perhaps did not posses the aforementioned talent.

      This is where the symbol of a teacher becomes muddled. Teachers demand the respect and authority that they truly haven't earned and when their students realize this, the importance of knowledge is lost, and opinion takes over. Pretty soon the student refuses to listen to the teacher and all hope for passing or learning has been depleted, and the teacher no longer has a true purpose.

      In everything in life, there must reside a happy medium, and that does not exclude the classroom. The teacher must know how, and want, to teach, and the students must know how and want to learn. Whether it is the student or the teacher who takes the initiative, one extreme must be achieved before the other will happen; both will not happen at the same time right out of the blue. I believe that it is the teacher's responsibility to take this initiative and find the flame in their students to make them crave the knowledge that the teacher offers.

�The most important part of education is the instruction of a man in what he has inside of him.�--William Ernest Hocking, Harvard philosopher.