Definition of Teaching. — The Century Dictionary defines "teaching" as "the act or business of instructing," with synonyms: "training" and "education;" and "to teach" is defined: —
- "to point out, direct, show;" "to tell, inform, instruct, explain;"
- "to show how (to do something); hence, to train;"
- "to impart knowledge or practical skill to;" "to guide in learning, educate."
"Educate," we find meaning "to instruct, to teach methodically, to prescribe to; to indoctrinate;" and by "indoctrinate" is meant "to cause to hold as a doctrine or belief." "To educate," says the same authority, "is to develop mentally or morally by instruction; to qualify by instruction and training for the business and duty of life."
Under Traditional Management No Definite Plan of Teaching. — Under Traditional Management there is either no definite scheme of teaching by the management itself, or practically none; at least, this is usually the condition under the most elementary types of Traditional Management. In the very highest examples of the traditional plan the learner may Page 209 be shown how, but this showing is not usually done in a systematic way, and under so-called Traditional Management is seldom in the form of written instructions.
No Specified Time for or Source of the Teaching. —
Under Traditional Management there is no particular time in which this teaching goes on, no particular time allowed for the worker to ask for the instruction, nor is there any particular source from which he obtains the instructions. There is, moreover, almost every hindrance against his getting any more instruction than he absolutely must have in order to get the work done. The persons to whom he can possibly appeal for further information might discharge him for not already knowing. These persons are, if he is an apprentice, an older worker; if he is a journeyman, the worker next to him, or the foreman, or someone over him. An important fact bearing on this subject is that it is not to the pecuniary advantage of any particular person to give this teaching. In the first place, if the man be a fellow-worker, he will want to do his own work without interruption, he will not want to take the time off; moreover, he regards his particular skill as more or less of a trade secret, and desires to educate no more people than necessary, to be as clever as he is. In the third place, there is no possible reward for giving this instruction. Of course, the worker necessarily improves under any sort of teaching, and if he has a receptive mind, or an inventive mind, he must progress constantly, either by teaching himself or by the instruction, no matter how haphazard.
Great Variation Under Traditional Management. — Only discussion of teaching under this type of management with many men who have learned under it, can sufficiently emphasize the variations to be found. But the consensus of opinion would seem to prove that an apprentice of only a generation ago was too often hazed, was discouraged from appealing for assistance or advice to the