At school he
should have the opportunity of meeting other ways of believing, and the
teacher should lead him to understand these, and to see the unity
underneath them. The teacher must never make a boy discontented with his
own faith by speaking contemptuously of it, or by distorting it through
his own ignorance. Such conduct on his part leads a boy to despise all
religion.
Then again there are many different customs which belong to the
different parts of the country. People often exaggerate these and look
on them as essential parts of religion instead of only as marks of the
part of the country in which they were born. Hence they look with
contempt or disapproval on those whose customs differ from their own,
and they keep themselves proudly separate. I do not know how far this is
a difficulty in western countries, but in India I think that customs
separate us much more than physical distance or religious differences.
Each part of the country has its own peculiarities as to dress, as to
the manner of taking food, as to the way of wearing the hair, school
boys are apt at first to look down upon those of their schoolfellows
whose appearance or habits differ from their own. Teachers should help
boys to get over these trivial differences and to think instead of the
one Motherland to which they all belong.
We have already said that patriotism should be taught without race
hatred, and we may add that understanding and loving other nations is
part of the great virtue of tolerance.
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