2.
Open-mindedness. Partiality is, as we have seen, an accompaniment of
the existence of interest, since this means sharing, partaking, taking
sides in some movement. All the more reason, therefore, for an attitude
of mind which actively welcomes suggestions and relevant information
from all sides. In the chapter on Aims it was shown that foreseen ends
are factors in the development of a changing situation. They are the
means by which the direction of action is controlled. They are
subordinate to the situation, therefore, not the situation to them.
They are not ends in the sense of finalities to which everything must be
bent and sacrificed. They are, as foreseen, means of guiding the
development of a situation. A target is not the future goal of
shooting; it is the centering factor in a present shooting. Openness of
mind means accessibility of mind to any and every consideration that
will throw light upon the situation that needs to be cleared up, and
that will help determine the consequences of acting this way or that.
Efficiency in accomplishing ends which have been settled upon as
unalterable can coexist with a narrowly opened mind. But intellectual
growth means constant expansion of horizons and consequent formation of
new purposes and new responses. These are impossible without an active
disposition to welcome points of view hitherto alien; an active desire
to entertain considerations which modify existing purposes. Retention
of capacity to grow is the reward of such intellectual hospitality. The
worst thing about stubbornness of mind, about prejudices, is that they
arrest development; they shut the mind off from new stimuli.
Open-mindedness means retention of the childlike attitude;
closed-mindedness means premature intellectual old age.
Exorbitant desire for uniformity of procedure and for prompt external
results are the chief foes which the open-minded attitude meets in
school. The teacher who does not permit and encourage diversity of
operation in dealing with questions is imposing intellectual blinders
upon pupils—restricting their vision to the one path the teacher's
mind happens to approve. Probably the chief cause of devotion to
rigidity of method is, however, that it seems to promise speedy,
accurately measurable, correct results. The zeal for "answers" is the
explanation of much of the zeal for rigid and mechanical methods.
Forcing and overpressure have the same origin, and the same result upon
alert and varied intellectual interest.
Open-mindedness is not the same as empty-mindedness. To hang out a sign
saying "Come right in; there is no one at home" is not the equivalent of
hospitality. But there is a kind of passivity, willingness to let
experiences accumulate and sink in and ripen, which is an essential of
development. Results (external answers or solutions) may be hurried;
processes may not be forced. They take their own time to mature. Were
all instructors to realize that the quality of mental process, not the
production of correct answers, is the measure of educative growth
something hardly less than a revolution in teaching would be worked.
