An example would thus be set in the school of members of different religions living happily side by side, and showing respect to each other’s opinions.  I feel that this is one of the special functions of the school in the life of the nation.  At home the boy is always with those who hold the same opinions as himself, and he has no opportunity of coming into touch with other beliefs and other customs.  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.  Boys are obliged to learn the history of their own and of other nations; and history, as it is taught, is full of wars and conquests.  The teacher should point out how much terrible suffering has been caused by these, and that though, in spite of them, evolution has made its way and has even utilised them, far more can be gained by peace and good will than by hatred.  If care is taken to train children to look on different ways of living with interest and sympathy instead of with distrust and dislike, they will grow up into men who will show to all nations respect and tolerance.

4. Cheerfulness.  No teacher who really loves his students can be anything but cheerful during school hours.  No brave man will allow himself to be depressed, but depression is particularly harmful in a teacher, for he is daily in contact with many boys, and he spreads among them the condition of his own mind.  If the teacher is depressed the boys cannot long be cheerful and happy; and unless they are cheerful and happy they cannot learn well.  If teachers and boys associate cheerfulness with their school life, they will not only find the work easier than it would otherwise be, but they will turn to the school as to a place in which they can for the time live free from all cares and troubles.