Philosophy and the Teaching of English Literature
Abstract
The teacher of English literature has a mighty mission, a sacred responsibility, a Christ-like task. To him it is given to spin the gossamers of the mind, and forge the anchors of the souths To him it is given to teach reverence for moral and spiritual ideals, to touch the heart with the vision of what lies beyond, to refine the sense of value, to interpret life, inspire a love of culture, develop social efficiency, - in a word, to make the individual grow to the full stature of manhood. Real teachers have succeeded in this task, and in their success have been pillars of fire in the night of 'time , steering the great army of struggling humanity through the modernistic maze of irreligion to the port of vision and virtue. The sculptor works with clay and marble, the painter with line and color, the poet with rhythm and rhyme,. but the teacher works with souls, - immortal souls. With a telescope in one eye and a microscope in the other, he scrutinizes for those souls the two most frightful inverse depths of human life, the infinitely great and the infinitely little—tee love of Lod in the heart and the tiniest desire that leads us to or away from that love, before the wonder-widened eyes of youth, the teacher unravels with a mother's care, that tangled web called Life, step by step, she reveals its meaning and its mystery.
Subject Area
Philosophy|Literature
Recommended Citation
Angels, St. Margaret of the, "Philosophy and the Teaching of English Literature" (1929). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI31189822.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI31189822
