THE CLASSROOM AND THE COMPUTER SCREEN Online Education | Page 7

and correction the others receive from teacher and student. Of course, an
the teacher. Quintilian nicely brought education could lack such qualities for
these points together when he reasons other than the communication
explained why fellowship induces medium. Often poor teachers are to
healthy ambition: blame—teachers who lack either a
Further, at home he can
only learn what is taught
to himself, while at
school he will learn what
is taught others as well.
He will hear many merits
praised and many faults
corrected every day: he
will derive equal profit
from hearing the
indolence of a comrade
rebuked or his industry
commended. Such praise
will incite him to
emulation, he will think it
a disgrace to be outdone
by his contemporaries
and a distinction to
surpass his seniors. All
such incentives provide a
valuable stimulus, and
though ambition may be
a fault in itself, it is often
the mother of virtues. 6
capacity for sympathy or the
imagination to design effective lessons.
Too many brick-and-mortar
classrooms are sites of poor education
simply because teachers fail to utilize
the pedagogical opportunities at their
disposal. Another culprit that curtails
sympathy and fellowship might be an
oppressive regime of badly-crafted
regulations that hem in a teacher’s
freedom to practice his craft.
Administrators, school boards,
government officials and legislatures
often overregulate today’s classrooms
and hinder the very education they
purport to serve. Administrators who
choose the path of least resistance
This principle of fellowship, like the
would rather change out textbooks,
principle of sympathy, is fundamental
scopes and sequences, and rubrics,
to effective education.
instead of mentoring and correcting
The best learning environment is
weak classroom teachers. They prefer
one that supports these two principles:
neat and tidy curricular change
fellowship among students, and a
because it is largely impersonal, and
sympathetic relationship between
remain averse to managing teachers
6
Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, I.ii.18-
22.
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