The Texas Standard, Volume [39], Number [5], November-December 1965 Page: 7
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ly for a rich, varied, and creative pat-
tern of experiences?
2. Does he use clues which he finds
in the cumulative records and in daily
a contact as a springboard for individual-
™ ized assignments and projects? Does
he, in fact, have an ever-increasing
storehouse of knowledge about each
child ? Is he tolerant of extreme devia-
tions in interests, values, intellectual
specialties, creativeness, and compe-
tencies ?
3. Does he involve his pupils in
cooperative planning to bring into the
open individual goals, concerns, and
aspirations, as well as common needs
and goals?
4. Does he record a description of
each pupil's attainment and unique-
ness, for his own future reference and
to aid other teachers who will have
the same child? And does he assess
the accuracy of the description at in-
tervals ?
5. Does he provide outlets for the
drive for recognition and success?
6. Does he find ways to limit over-
selfish ambitions?
7. Does he help each pupil gain
insight into his own limits and lacks
as well as his unique strengths and
resources, in such an atmosphere that
the pupil can afford to seek a deepen-
ing self-perception and realistic self-
appraisal ?
^ 8. Does he develop such relations
w that there is a general atmosphere of
warmth in the classroom and each
child feels himself to be accepted and
supported ?
9. Are pupil-teacher relations of
such mutual confidence and openness
that a child can bring his personal
objectives as well as his problems and
difficulties—in learning or in personal
matters—into the open without fear
of loss of status, lowering of marks,
recrimination, or humiliation?
10. Does the teacher genuinely en-
courage the free exchange of questions
and new ideas? Is the situation con-
ductive to boldly trying out new ex-
periences ?
11. Are creative productions and
special aptitudes given recognition?
12. Are dissenters accepted as nor-
mal ?
BEING YOURSELF
The art of being yourself at your
best is the art of unfolding your per-
sonality into the man you want to be.
A famous biologist has said that the
possibility of even identical twins be-
ing wholly alike is one chance to all
of the electrons in the world: each
man is a unique individual being.
By the Grace of God you are what
you are; glory in your selfhood, accept
yourself and go on from there.
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1965
A good place to begin is by having
faith in yourself and your destiny.
"Trust yourself," wrote Emerson,
"every heart vibrates to that iron
string."
Champion the right to be yourself;
dare to be different and to set your
own pattern; live your own life and
follow your own star.
Respect yourself; you have the right
to be here and you have important
work to do.
Don't stand in your own shadow;
get your little self out of the way so
your big self can stride forward.
Make the most of yourself by fan-
ning the tiny spark of possibility
within you into the flame of achieve-
ment.
Follow the advice of Socrates: Know
Thyself; know your strengths and
your weaknesses; your relation to the
universe; your potentialities; your
spiritual heritage your aims; and pur-
poses; take stock of yourself.
Create the kind of self you will be
happy to live with all your life.
Consider the words of the new con-
vert who prayed: "Oh, Lord, help me
to reform the world beginning with
ME."
Be gentle with yourself, learn to
love yourself, to forgive yourself, for
only as we have the right attitude
toward our selves can we have the
right attitude toward others. In the
relationship of yourself with all of
the other selves of the world follow
the wise axiom of Shakespeare, who
wrote: "To thine own self be true,
and it must follow, as the night the
day, thou canst not then be false to
any man."
INTEGRATION
In dealing with the problem of in-
tegration, we are indeed dealing with
the greatest single problem of our
time. It is a problem for all society
and not for the schools alone, and
yet the fact that we cannot do every-
thing should not hinder us from doing
as much as we can.
I firmly believe that the struggle
for quality integrated education is
squarely in the mainstream of Amer-
ican hope and American idealism and
that it extends the American dream
of equality to millions of children.
Many years ago, John Dewey said
that democracy must be born anew
every generation and that education
is the midwife. The delivery of demo-
cracy for the new generation in these
troubled times is, I think, truly in the
hands of the teachers and school ad-
ministrators of America—and I hope
we can have the courage and the wis-
dom to do right by the new baby.
Professional Practice
Committee Urged
"The quality of education in the
schools in the LInited States of Amer-
ica depends to a greater degree on the
quality of teachers than on any other
factor."
And to make sure that the quality
of teachers remains at the highest pos-
sible level, the teaching profession it-
self "must become accountable and
responsible for the competent perform-
ance and ethical behavior of the in-
dividuals in practice."
These thoughts are from a new
booklet, "Professional Practices Regu-
lations: A Plan for Action," which
advocates that what it calls a "pro-
fessional practices commission" be
established in each state. Each com-
mission, made up of educators, would
act as a sort of court of first resort to
judi^e cases in which the competence
and the ethical behavior of members
of the teaching profession have been
ouestioned.
i
The book is a publication of two
units of the National Education Asso-
ciation—the National Commission on
Professional Rights & Responsibilities,
and the National Commission on
Teacher Education and Professional
Standards.
The book makes clear that a pro-
fessional practices commission would
not take away any of the present con-
st'tutional rights of educators appear-
ing before it. The commission would
not act as a government court. Instead,
"the approach should be primarily one
of guiding and counseling—preventive
and remedial rather than policing."
The commission could make recom-
rnendat'ons to the state board of edu-
cation in instances which concern sus-
pension or revocation of teaching cer-
tificates.
As envisioned in the book, the
commission could act not only against
incompetent teachers but for compe-
tent ones. The book points out that
"protecting teachers against unjust
treatment liberates them to perform
their professional duties without the
threat of improper pressure. The
guarantee of academic freedom is of
special importance to elementary and
secondary school teachers because of
the nature of their positions and the
pressures to which they are subjected."
The book suggests that state law
establishing the commission include
(Continued on Page 15)
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McDaniel, Vernon. The Texas Standard, Volume [39], Number [5], November-December 1965, periodical, November 1965; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth193827/m1/7/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Prairie View A&M University.