Jón Bjarnason Academy - 01.05.1935, Blaðsíða 23

There is an ultimate reason for both the main and these minor
activities. Acquiring the ability to think in French as one
masters the art of speaking, reading or writing, without having
to revert to the translation method represents mental power
added, a proper attitude toward study formed, a new interest
mastered, and personality strengthened.
Turn briefly to history and civics. During adolescence one
is becoming aware of his relation to and responsibility in the
home, the school and the community. It is a period when social
iiiterests and a sense of responsibility may he and should be
acquired. The secondary school, be it private or public, must
accept responsibility for shaping the social and civic attitudes
of those who enter. The value of history and civics in the
secondary school curriculum lies not in acquiring factual in-
formation but rather in utilizing such material in order that
the individual may come to understand the forces underlying
social progress and the meaning of worthy social institutions.
The learning product is a new attitude towards one’s fellows
and a greater sense of responsibility for social and civic affairs.
The learning comes by way of organizing facts and seeing them
in their proper relations. The process of learning is reflective
thinking. Facts may fade but social and civic attitudes remain
the one real gain from good instruction and guided reading.
Across the ages man has sought happiness and peace of
soul in the good, the beautiful and the true; in the simple
recognition of worth as expressed in the plastic and pictorial
arts, in music, in the great literatures and in religion. From
contact with these cultural treasures of his past and present
one feels the grandeur and in silent contemplation idealizes
the unseen powers that ultimately shape moral standards and
laws governing human relations. Learning comes through fre-
quent contact with these models of human achievement which
create tastes and attitudes in turn accompanied hv an emotional
coloring that reacts upon behavior and conduct. The parent of
ancient Athens, recognizing the importance of such training
during adolescence, accompanied his son to the temple, the
theatre and among the art treasures that lined the streets so
that the boy might have a rich experience of values, which
could scarcely be acquired otherwise. Just taking leave of
frontier conditions, we in Western Canada have not understood
the significance for adolescent education of much which for us
lies waiting within the field of the appreciation studies. Apart
from religion and to some extent music, we have scarcely gone
beyond impressions, nor can we until the understanding of
its educational worth in shaping ideals and the power to pass
along the message have in a much larger measure become the
possession of the secondary school instructor. The process of
learning is by contact and casual instruction, the learning
product a new and acquired sense of values. The reaction may
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