True Education

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. TEd 141.2

Christ discerned possibilities in every human being. He was not turned aside by an unpromising exterior or by unfavorable surroundings. He called Matthew from the tollbooth, and Peter and his associates from the fishing boat, to learn of Him. TEd 141.3

The same personal interest, the same attention to individual development, are needed in educational work today. Many apparently 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 precious material that will stand the test of heat, storm, and pressure. True educators, keeping in view what their students may become, 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 develop all their powers. However imperfect, every effort to conform to right principles will be encouraged. TEd 141.4

Every young person should be taught the necessity and the power of application. On this, far more than on genius or talent, success depends. 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 we marvel, is almost invariably united with untiring, concentrated effort. TEd 142.1