When Teachers Face Themselves

by Arthur Thomas Jersild

This book is concerned with the strivings, satisfactions, hopes, and heartaches that pervade the teacher’s life and work. It deals with aspirations and struggles which large numbers of teachers have described and which all of us share. It searches into meanings we all seek to embrace. While it centers on teachers, most of what it contains applies to people in other walks of life. It has been written for teachers with the help of teachers. The research findings underlying it are noted mainly in the Appendix. The emphasis in the text is on what these findings mean from a personal point of view. This is a personal document, for the voices of those who helped prepare it speak through it. Many of them, in the course of the study, glowed with the dedication of their calling, bristled with anger, trembled with fear, wept as only troubled souls can weep. Many of them unveiled a little of the pride and shame and tenderness people usually keep concealed from one another, and they also voiced hopeful expectations of things to be. They spoke in the language through which people reveal their weaknesses. This is also the language of humility and courage and kindness, through which people reveal their strength. The author and his associates have also tried to speak with this voice, for the concerns expressed by the people in this study are our concerns. Many of them said they have been anxious—so have we. Many spoke of their loneliness—we, too, have tasted the loneliness that flows through so many of the tides of life. Many said they search for meaning—we, too, are involved in this search. Many expressed faith and hope; unless we shared this hope, there would be no point in undertaking a study such as this, and it would be foolish to remain in the teaching profession. Contents FOREWORD Stephen M. Corey CHAPTER ONE Introduction Background and Theme Major Concerns Underlying Sources CHAPTER TWO Anxiety Anxiety as an Essential Concept in Education The Nature and Some of the Conditions of Anxiety Some Theories of Anxiety Anxiety and Fear Perception, Feeling, and Impulse in Anxiety Anxiety in Childhood and Youth Teachers’ Reactions to the Personal Implications of Anxiety CHAPTER THREE Loneliness Conditions Contributing to Loneliness Loneliness and Self-Alienation Homelessness CHAPTER FOUR The Search for Meaning Education and the Search for Meaning Helping Others through Facing Oneself Hopelessness and Despair The Paradox of Meaninglessness Religion Humility CHAPTER FIVE Sex CHAPTER SIX Hostility Externalized Hostility The Feeling of Being Abused Using the Arts of Love to Accomplish the Purposes of Hate Hostility in Education Attitudes toward Authority Hostility, Guilt, and Anxiety The Right to Be Angry CHAPTER SEVEN Compassion Love of Self and Love for Others So Small in the Infinite Scheme of Things — —And Yet So Great BIBLIOGRAPHY "Professor Jersild writes with disarming lucidity about many abstruse conceptions. He has the courage to discuss forthrightly important topics that are generally skirted in discussions about education. I believe that When Teachers Face Themselves will help any but the most recalcitrant reader to face himself more realistically."
—From the Foreword by Stephen M. Corey , Director, Horace Mann-Lincoln Institute of School Experimentation

Genres: Nonfiction, Education

Paperback

First published December 12, 1955

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was required reading for elementary education majors at Bethany College in the mid-fifties, and played a major part in the formation of my philosophy as an educator.