The most important Qualification in education is Love, and I will take
that first.
It is sad that in modern days the office of a teacher has not been
regarded as on a level with other learned professions. Any one has been
thought good enough to be a teacher, and as a result little honour has
been paid to him. Naturally, therefore, the cleverest boys are not
drawn towards that profession. But really the office of the teacher is
the most sacred and the most important to the nation, because it builds
the characters of the boys and girls who will be its future citizens. In
olden days this office was thought so holy that only priests were
teachers and the school was a part of the temple. In India the trust in
the teacher was so great that the parents gave over their sons
completely to him for many years, and teacher and students lived
together as a family. Because this happy relation should be brought
back again, I put Love first among the Qualifications which a teacher
ought to have. If India is to become again the great nation which we all
hope to see, this old happy relation must be re-established.
I. LOVE
My Master taught me that Love will enable a man to acquire all other
qualities and that "all the rest without it would never be sufficient."
Therefore no person ought to be a teacher--ought to be allowed to be a
teacher--unless he has shown in his daily life that Love is the
strongest quality of his nature. It may be asked: How are we to find out
whether a person possesses Love to a sufficient degree to make him
worthy to be a teacher? Just as a boy shows his natural capacities at an
early age for one profession or another, so a particularly strong
love-nature would mark a boy out as specially fitted to be an
instructor.
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