SOCRATES AND THESCHOOLMASTER

(This passage is based on actual conversations between the author, who calls himself 'Socrates, and some CGurgaon
villagers. Socrates was a wise man of ancient Greece.)

VILLAGER: Socrates. you are trying to turn my village upside down and change everything.
SOCRATES: No, I am not, Zamindar, but when I see obvious evils and cruelties they muke my blood hot and l
must speak out.
VILLAGER: But you are forever complaining and scolding.
SOCRATES: Yes, Ido complain a lot, but then Ise a lot of evil.
VILLAGER: Don't you ever see any good.

SOCRATES: Yes. plenty of good, but there is no need to talk about the good. It is good and it is going on, and I am
very pleased to see it. After all, the doctor is a stranger to the strong aund healthy: his work is with the sick and the
weak.

VILLAGER: Yes, but if you don't occasionally keep an eye on the healthy and strong. perhaps they will become ill
one day.

SOCRATES: Yes, Iadmit that too, and it reminds me that you people are beginning to forget your good customs
and are dropping them, and are sticking only to the bad ones. You are quick enough, too, to pick a bad custom, but
very slow to pick upa good one. You took to smoking cigarettes like a duck tales to waler, but what ajob we had to
make you dig pits for your refuse!
VILLAGER: Yes, good habits are difficult both to introduce and to stick to. Evil habits come almost instinctively,
and the good old habits we are dropping very rapidly.
SOCRATES: Yes, in the old days the villager had good habits. But nowadays, what with motors and trains and
education, Ithink he is beginning to lose his old virtues and not only keeps his old vices, but is finding a lot of new
ones to0.

Just then the schoolmaster came up.

SOCRATES: Now, masterji. this is your job.

SCHOOL MASTER: What is this, Socrates? I am overworked enough already with my monthly returns and all the
new things I am expected to know and teach.

SOCRATES: Masterji. you ure the guardian of the good old customs.
SCHOOL MASTER: Yet another job for me. Shall I be paid an allowance for this?

SOCRATES: No, Masterji: but in your hands lies the future of the village. As you mould the character of these little
SO will be the
boys and girls -quite a number of girls are now attending your village school, I am glad to see
future character of your village.
SCHOOL MASTER: My job is to teach reading. writing and arithmetic. with history and geography.
SOCRATES: Never mind history and geography. masterji. your job is to educate, to train the character as well as to
leach the brain.

SCHOOL MASTER: How can I Socrates, with all I have to do?

soCRATESs: You are agood man yourself, and you believe in preserving the good old customs and in wcding out
the bad ones?

SCHOOL MASTER: Yes, Ihope so.

SOCRATES: And you don't want your boys to pick up bad. new customs, do you?
SCHOOL MASTER: I hope not.

sOCRATES: Well. by your character and your actions, and by a little said here and said there, and by your attitude
in always supporting the good and opposing the bad. you have to set agood example to your pupils and lead them
into good ways.
SCHOOL MASTER: Ican do that, Socrates, of course.

sOCRATES: Well. do it. It takes no time and costs nothing. You are a lamp of culture shining in the darkness of
your village and you have got to keep your lamp bright.
SCHOOL MASTER: That is a great ideal for a poor vilage schoolmaster, but I will do my best.
SOCRATES: And your village will bless you in the days to come. These children are entrusted to you; see that you
don't fail. Set a good example. That reminds me: yesterday, when I passed your school, I saw a lot of boys and girls
wearing jewellery, and their hands and faces were so dirty Icould hardly believe they had ever been washed since
they were born. Why. some of the girls had so many wires and things in their ears that I thought they 'd got some sort
of machine over there.

SCHOOL MASTER: Yes, they always come like that

SOCRATES: But, isn't it very silly putting jewellery on children, wasting money in this way. instead of spending it
on soap and quinine, mosquito nets and so on ?

SCHOOL MASTER: Yes, it is very silly.

SOCRATES: Then what is the use of teaching them to read and write when they are in this condiion?
SCHOOL MASTER: Well, they come to school to learn, and it is my job to teach them These other things are none
of my concen.

SOCRATES: Your job is to educate, and what is education without health and cleanliness?
SCHOOL MASTER: It is not much good, Iagree, but it is not my job.
SOCRATES: Then whose is it?

SCHOOL MASTER: I don't know: not mine, anyway. Perhaps it's the parents' job.
SOCRATES: Yes, certainly: but they were only brought up as you propose to bring up these children. So they don't
know. Who is to make a beginning, masterji?
 SCHOOL MASTER: Idon't know; it's not down in any of my school textbooks.
sOCRATES: Perhaps these books were written by people who didn't know village life and ways.
SCHOOL MASTER: Very likely, indeed.

SOCRATES: Well, what is the object of your school education?

SCHOOL MASTER: To teach eading and writing.
SOCRATES: And what is the object of reading and writing?
SCHOOL MASTER: Idon't know, to make children able to read and write, Isuppose.
SOCRATES: But there must be some final object of it all?

SCHOOL MASTER: Ican't sce any, unless it is to enable them to carn their living.
sOCRATES: But if they learn to waste their money on jewellery, where will their living be? And if they live in dirt.
most of them will die of disease before they grow up.
SCHOOL MASTER: You confuse me, Socrates, with all your quesions and theories.
SOCRATES: Well. Isuggest that the object ofeducation is to make the boys and girls better, and better able to live
good, healthy, happy lives. They learn to read to enable them to learn how to improve their homes and farms.
SCHOOL MASTER: Yes, that must be the real object of education in the end, I suppose.
SOCRATES: Then surely the first esson at school is not A B C, but to wash faces and eyes and hands; and not to
wear jewellery, but to use quinine and mosquito nets instead.
SCHOOL MASTER: These are excellent lessons certainly.
SOCRATES: Can you think of any better?

SCHOOL MASTER: No, certainly not.

SOCRATES: Then why not teach them?

sCHOOL MASTER: Then Ishall fail to pass them through the classes and so lose my prootion.
SOCRATES: No, you won't masterji. This is practical education, and your boys and girls will never let you down if
you teach them in this way. Their intelligence and keenness will increase so much that they will pass all the more
quickly, and you will at last be giving them some real education, preparing the children for the great battle of life
when they grow up.
Just thena mother was heard scolding her child and using language which made Socrates jump with horror. No one
else took any notice.
SOCRATES: There's a horrible custom.

sCHOOL MASTER: What? I noticed nothing.

SOCRATES: Didn't you hear that filthy language?
 SCHOOL MASTER: Oh, that's nothing. Iuse that to my pupils as terms of affection, and everyone uses it, both to
children and to cattle. No one means any harm by it.

SOCRATES: But do you really think it is right to use these filthy words?
SCHOOL MASTER: No, I suppose I don't; but we mean nothing by it, and no one minds and it does no harm. I
daresay.
SOCRATES: Of course it does harm and you know it perfectly well, maserji.
SCHOOL MASTER: Well, I suppose it does when you come to think of it.

SOCRATES: Then stop it and teach your pupis to avoid filthy language. How can you ever command respect and
how can your children ever respect their sisters and mothers, when you all use such disgusting words?
SCHOOL MASTER: You are very particukar, Socrates, but you are really righ. This habit of using filthy language
is most deplorable.
SOCRATES: Then set yourself to kill it at any rate in your village. Why, when I was a boy, if I said anything dirty.
my mother took soap and a brush and scrubbed my tongue to clean it. I can tell you I soon learnt to avoid using
nasty words!

SCHOOL MASTER: Ithink if we used that method here, we should soon scrub away the whole of the tongues, not
only of our children but of ourselves too.

SOCRATES: Well, make a beginning, anyway. It is wonderful what power you schoolmasters have if you will only
use it properly.
F.L. Brayne

[Adopted from Socrates in an Indian village]

Glossary
I. Instinctively: Naturally: without thinking.
2. Quinine: A medicine which is used against malaria.
3. Disgusting: Very unpleasant.
4. Deplorable: Very bad.
QUESTIONS:
1. By what example does Socrates show that the villagers do not pick up goodcustoms quickly?
2. Why has the schoolmaster a great responsibility?
3. How should the school master set an example to pupils?
4 What expression does Socrates use to suggest this example?
5. Why does Socrates complain about jewellery?
6 Why can parents not look after their children's health and cleanliness?
7 What is the object of reading and writing?
8 What do you understand by 'Practical education?
9. Why did Socrates 'jump with horror'?
10. What happened to Socrates in his youth if he used bad language?