Educational Ideals, by Alexander Haddow

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But if we are so desperately in earnest as this, will it not tend to make the teaching too serious and cast a sort of gloom over the school?

Why should it? A religion that is worthy of the name must live in all that is good in life. If it cannot find itself in the humour as in the pathos of life, in the joy as in the sorrow, in the little things as in the great, it but shows its own weakness, its own limited nature. A religion that would tend to crush the happy joyous laughter of children would stand self-condemned. [...] In the teaching of poetry I would hope for that spirit which we find sometimes in truly religious people. They do not talk much about religion or the church, but there seems to breathe from them a spirit of serene faith that finds its work and its religion in all around.*

by Alexander Haddow fl. 1925-1935

From ‘On the Teaching of Poetry’ (1925) by Alexander Haddow.

* See Sense and Sensitivity, in which Richard Whately praises Jane Austen for spreading the gospel without seeming to do so.

Précis

Haddow then addressed the charge that such seriousness would make the classroom a dull place. A certain kind of piety can too often have that effect, he acknowledged; but the best among the Christians find joy in everything, and bear about them an atmosphere which is immediately attractive. The devoted teacher of poetry, he hoped, might leave a similar impression.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Précis

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