The Dispensation of Teaching; M. S. Marshall

survivals which ultrasophisticated modernists do not scorn because of its antiquity. Athletic events, symphonies, and parties are drugs to many persons. These examples suggest that a preliminary survey of drugs on a scale broader than usual is essential if we are to reappraise the whole matter in search of a little undrugged san ity. Let me cite an important ex ample. A drug with which society is tremendously preoccupied is called Teaching, the trade name of a drug extracted from members of the botanical genus, Paedagogus. A glance at that segmented tax dollar that appears in the papers annually will show the huge size 629 630 THE FREEMAN October of the sector which goes to schools. Vast sums which are not part of the labeled tax dollar also go to schools. The nearest rival in popu lar usage is alcohol, but Teaching comes first on my list of drugs. A drug is a substance used de liberately to affect the physiology, including the mind. That is why Eve and Teaching both qualify.

Eve operates out of pure deviltry, but Teaching is purchased with tax monies in countless case lots to use on whole groups of minors. The grip that drugs have' on us and our rationalizations of their use are equally shocking. Teaching is purposely bought to affect the minds of those who take it. Its toxic effects are many and uncertain. It is hallucinogenic, and can produce a lasting eupho ria, though usually this effect ceases. soon after the next exam ination. Teaching is frequently used in heavy overdoses, for con trol of the dosage is notoriously difficult. Furthermore, the popularity of Teaching attests to the fact that it is habit-forming. Though new comers to this drug are likely to show marked resistance to its use, when taken they are more than ordinarily susceptible to its effects. Later users become so addicted that they expect everything to be dispensed in courses in schools.

There is much talk about drug addiction in the form of adult edu cation. Seriously afflicted addicts are always enrolling under a teacher somewhere. Even tough industries and businesses have been so infiltrated by users of this drug that they call for ever increasing amounts of it for those they. hire. Employees are even 'urged to go back now' and then for more be-ins with the drug. Unnoticed in the face of the dramatic and less subtle use of alcohol, this shocking adulation of a drug deserves a careful study. Space permits no more than a sug gestion of what is needed. Research Possibilities The first move should be a mat ter of public relations, for Teach ing, though one of our most com mon drugs, is not yet recognized as such. Since it pours funds will ingly into all phases of schools, no doubt a grant could be secured from the government for .this task. Pharmacologic studies come next. Such studies consider the nature of the drug, its physiologic effects 'under different dosages, in cluding its toxicity and the lethal dose, and the mechanism whereby the effects are produced. All these are directly applicable to the drug, Teaching. Our interest in drugs is primarily in connection with man, so we have to distinguish 1967 THE DISPENSATION OF TEACHING 631 carefully between beneficial doses and toxic or lethal doses. Such ranges exist for virtually all drugs.

Applying the principles of study specifically to Teaching, three problems dominate. First, the dis tinction between beneficial and toxic dosages is precarious, not sharp as it is with alcohol, for ex ample, though debates about bene ficial doses of alcohol have also been known to occur. Second, as with all hallucinogenic drugs, the toxic doses offer special difficulties because effects on the mind are measured primarily by behavior, an uncertain and complex yard stick. Third, the mechanism of action is obscure, as it is with many drugs. Sociologists will be quick to un derscore a fourth problem, and well they might. They are con cerned over the effect of any drug on society, and all of them, Teach ing included, have such effects. Earlier Experiments A few illustrations may help to illustrate the need for a com plete investigation. Consider the manner by which Hitler and other dictators have used Teaching.

Whole nations of youth were de liberately given toxic doses, that their minds would perform in ac cordance with someone's wishes. Similar usages exist today. Under the same sort of influence, the drug is also used outside of schools, in all forms of propa ganda from nationalism to no tionalism, in politics, in adver tising, in merchandizing, in ad ministration, and wherever one person or group wants to impose the chosen desires or ways on others. Recently an eminent spokesman for a large educational organiza tion advocated that teachers take a greater part in politics, thus deliberately pushing the use of this drug, Teaching, into the realm of toxicity and habit. Teach ers, who administer Teaching as licensed practitioners, like the rest of us have religious and political beliefs and also preferences in bridge partners and in salads, but the deliberate use of position to foist these preferences on others is an almost fiendish use of the drug. If doses called beneficial mean anything, they imply that those who partake are given a basis for their own judgment, not fed doses which make them pas sive.

The advocates of such dosages are so evidently operating on the belief that they are entitled to domina,te others that the toxic levels used would seem to be con spicuous, but the danger passes unseen. This air of special wisdom is especially evident among some 632 THE FREEMAN October of the men who are employed as drug-dispensers of political sci ence. Instead of requiring that they either dispense beneficial doses impartially or that they step entirely out of the scholarly roles they claim, they are allowed to step into the open and campaign for their special choices, thus dis pensing toxic doses of Teaching indiscriminately to the unprepared and unwarned. We might suppose that teachers who dispense small doses of Teach ing, perhaps that three and two are five, or that assorted squiggles can be used to represent the oomphs and gurgles we use to con vey messages and ideas to one an other, might never border on the dangers of toxicity. To accept this supposition too literally gives a false sense of security.

Forming the Habit Whereas a number of modest doses of Teaching, like vitamins, are necessary for full develop ment, a careful study will show that no Teaching can be adminis tered without some risks -from the drug. Among those with allergy, even death may occur. Both by definition and by act a teacher im poses his or her will on the taker of the drug, a process which up sets the mental activities of the victim. To be sure, strong minds will accept the :t>enefits without loss of independent operation, but by -no means all minds among the takers are strong. Since strong minds exist also among the dis pensers of Teaching, domination and acceptance on a passive basis is a notably common occurrence. Teaching then reaches excesseS and may become a habit. We face a drug which, though it is necessary to prevent a sort of mental beriberi, is subjected with many other drugs to tremen dous exploitation and excessive usage, with all the claims, self pity, and rationalizations that ac count for the sale of more than half the pills in the nearest drug store. A drug notably low in its threshold of toxicity, with definite habit-forming proclivities and with a grave social menace, can call for only one reasonable course of procedure.

Teaching is a dangerous drug, but it is essential. Though strictly a hallucinogenic drug, affecting the mind, the mind does control our acts. With a low threshold of toxicity, the drug has widespread social connotations. It is a drug which is in some degree used al most universally, but which is con centrated in schools more than elsewhere. In schools and on campuses, dis pensers of this drug carry licenses from society, in the form of em ployment and titles. The more ad1967 THE DISPEN8-ATION OF TEACHING 633 vanced the title, the more dan gerous the drug, potentially and too often in fact. Professors at tain a feeling that whatever they dispense is for that sufficient rea son beneficial. This supposition is verified by ample evidence, most simply by the fact that professors disagree among themselves more than most groups, thus proving that the dosages prescribed by any one of them needs at least some counterbalance. In itself, the as sumption of such wisdom should warn society sharply into action.

Protective Labeling and licensing May Be in Order Studies of the drug, Teaching, are certain to lead to the conclu sion that our practitioners who prescribe so much of this drug, our teachers, need to be kept un der careful surveillance. The idea that this drug increases its bene fits the more it is taken is as false with Teaching as it is with aspirin or sleeping pills. Beneficial doses lead to independent opera tion, without the drug. Otherwise the drug is too heavy and the user becomes a passive addict, a social pawn, a slave to his political party, a puppet in his religion instead of a believer, a subscriber equally to charity and to the wiles of the con man, and a swallower of all statements positively put. Heretofore not clearly labeled as a dangerous drug, this drug war rants open criticism, warning, and action. Its use must be held at a low level with special care to bal ance the enthusiasm of doctors who prescribe the drug, the in doctrinators of the classrooms, for every form of Teaching, however mild, consists of the administra tion of a hallucinogenic drug.

Once this idea is exposed, then every form of the drug, Teaching, outside of schools and campuses as well as inside, quite properly will meet with some resistance. Those who partake of only bene ficial doses of this drug become judicial and to that degree skepti cal, preserving their own minds in good order to make reasoned decisions. They drive carefully. Only such persons can be called educated persons. Come to think of it, since the presentation of any ideais a form of teaching, these words contain some of the drug. Consider them to be equivalent to the warning message on a pack of cigarettes, except that the danger is notably more serious as a risk. ~ A SEARCH FOR REASON JEROME TUCCILLE IN AN AGE when rioting, hunger, racial warfare, exploding popula tion, crippling strikes, and general disorder have become the rule rather than the exception, it is a curious thing to consider that the responsibility for these destructive social diseases is most frequently attributed to a single universal scapegoat: the capitalistic system.