"All the King's Children"
WIDESPREAD, favorable interest has developed in the address President Dickey delivered in Boston, June i, at the commencement exercises of Wheelock College, from which his daughter Sylvia was graduated. Following are some excerpts from his address, entitled "All the King's Children and You":
Learning is the prime business of every creature, teaching comes next, and no one needs to hold onto this lifetime truth more tightly than the professional teacher. Permit me to say why I think this is so.
It is so because whatever else a teacher may or may not be successful in teaching, she will inevitably and always teach herself. (Incidentally, I am limiting my references to "he's" and "him's" in these remarks for what I trust are obvious reasons.) A self that is not learning is almost certainly not enjoying life, and God protect a student, and the rest of us, too, from teachers who have never learned the enjoyment of life.
It is a sure thing that the heartbreaks of life will be taught you by the greatest teacher of all, the universe itself. The joy that goes with the heartbreaks, however, is manmade and the making of joy must be learned by each of you on your lonely own. No person can tell another just how to make the joy of life. Some find it in one field, some in another, and some find it all over the place. I am anly certain that it is a learned dimension of life, that its learning is the prime business of any lifetime and that Robert Louis Stevenson was eternally right when he told us in The Lantern Bearers, "those who miss the joy miss all."...
A good teacher learns from her pupils. She learns each day a little more of the uniqueness of each one of them as she also learns each year a little more of their common lot as human creatures; she learns from them wonderful and terrible things about parents; she learns from the fresh questions of each day a new way to look at old lessons and, above all, she learns about herself.
I wonder how many of you have ever carefully read the words of the musical play TheKing and I, by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II? I am sure all of you have heard its music and many of you have seen it on the stage or the screen but I promise you that beyond these experiences there is a depth of delightful wisdom in the lyrics that rewards the reader and especially the rereader of them. If I could give each of you a light, bon voyage present as you venture into teaching, I think it would be this little book.
Do you remember the scene in which Anna, the English teacher of the King's many children, is attempting to reassure the class that Siam and they are important even though Siam is but a small spot on the map? One of the children asks the critical question in all human problems—"you like us?" Anna replies, "I like you very much. Very much indeed." The children are delighted and she then sings these wise and lovely words:
"It's a very ancient saying, But a true and honest thought That 'if you become a teacher By your pupils you'll be taught.' As a teacher I've been learning (You'll forgive me if I boast) And I've now become an expert On the subject I like most:
Getting to know you, Getting to know all about you."
I have only one criticism of that passage. Anna was surely both boasting and mistaken in saying that she was getting to know all about her pupils. That is never permitted anyone, even a teacher; yes, especially a good teacher.
A good teacher never knows all about any pupil. If the teacher is successful, the creative growth of the pupil is in some respect always at least one very unexpected jump ahead of what the teacher knows and hopes. On the other hand, if a teacher is unsuccessful, well, her pupil is almost certainly several other things than that teacher knows—and fears. No, never, never imagine you are ever going to know all about any pupil. Indeed, if can be said, I think, that any absolute relationship as between teacher and pupil is incompatible with true education.
formal classroom education in our system extends from that beginning day in the first grade when mother and child parted as if never expecting to see each other again until this commencement day 16 years later when they beam at each other as if nothing had happened. But as we all are supposed to know, if education has taken place a lot has happened in the course of that 16 years' passage from classroom to classroom.
It may be helpful to you in your teaching career to think of this experience in organized education as an equation that always contains two factors—teaching and learning. At the beginning end, the educational equation, of necessity, is about 99 percent teaching and 1 percent learning, simply because the new pupil knows not how to learn; but when that pupil is where you graduating seniors are today, the educational equation has either shifted to 99 percent learning and 1 percent teaching or, to put it mildly, your higher education was not as high as Wheelock aimed to have it. If you have any doubt about my having misjudged how the equation stands at this point, you might simply test it by inquiring of President Mayfarth as to whether Wheelock provides a teacher to go with your diploma. Her answer.. would undoubtedly be "Of course we do, my dear—you're it." And so you are.
You are also "it" in a slightly slangy but deeply significant sense. Most of you, I assume, will be either teachers at home or in the early grades, where, as I have said, of necessity, teaching is a much more dominant factor in the educational equation than it is in the later years. You, like every other good teacher must, of course, be constantly alert to the need for disengaging yourself and encouraging the youngster to go on more independently, but, however well you do that, you will inevitably build yourself more deeply into the inner foundation values of the children you teach than those who work at the so-called higher levels. I am sure myself that we are only beginning to understand how terrifyingly true it is that a society cannot rise much above the values that are learned by its children before the age of 10.
And this brings me to my final word about you and all the king's children.
Anna's King of Siam had 77 children, but, as he explained, he had not been married very long and he was "next month expecting 3 more." Our western marriage customs and laws make it unlikely that you will share Anna's fate and face only one all-knowing father in your parent-teacher association meetings. I think you should prepare to meet a lot of uncrowned kings at such affairs.
In ancient times those who taught the children of a king were often the most powerful influence in shaping the destiny of even the most absolute monarchy. So it was with Anna, and so it has been with countless nameless teachers who over the centuries for the most part worked to make the children of kings and other greats a little more worthy of their position and power.
The great unanswered American question is, Can this be done for all the king's children of a democracy? I will only say that it will not be done by all the king's horses and all the king's men. If it is clone, it will be done by you and the likes of you. Don't forget to learn Anna's secret for being brave, and all good fortune all the way.
