Excerpt from Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations Manual, 1912-13: Subject: The Individual and Society
Upon you, more than any one else, will depend the success of this Manual. If you possess the ability to make old things new, by leading the learner into a deeper insight of them, there will be no lack of the joy of discovery upon which inter est constantly depends.
The Manual has a three fold aim. First, that inspiration which promotes the desire to be a better individual and a better member of society. This inspiration will be enhanced by the manner in which truths are presented coupled with the truths themselves. If you, as the instrument of presenta tion, are full of inspiration, and unfeigned interest, the impres sion will be lasting, because ever afterwards that feeling will spring more or less into activity in the presence of those truths whenever recalled. Thus comes the double advantage of learning and thinking 1n the atmosphere of inspiration.
You should lead with the spirit of leadership; that is, honesty and enthusiasm for that in which you lead. Make each lesson the all-1n-all of that ho.ur If you are a leader of students, you must possess and show the student spirit which comes only from being a student.
The students may have already considerable information on the subject presented, perhaps it is in excess of their inspiration. They know the facts, but have drawn few con elusions, and made fewer resolutions.
You can plant failure in any course or lesson, by belittling the subject or the textbook. You can sow the seeds of success by magnifying them and the book before the students at the outset. Optimism energizes; pessimism puts on the brakes when the car of life is pulling upgrade.
The second, or information aim, should lead to intention rather than to extension. The procedure should be in the direction of deepening the mind by thinking rather than broadening it by accumulation of information.
The relative amount of emphasis given to learning and to thinking will be governed, of course, by the grade of the students, but in general right thinking is the goal of learning.
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