Manners maketh (hu)man: or, Servetus’ interview question answered

I have a .doc file of questions I’d ask Mr. Armitage if I ever met him or had the chance to interview him. Since I spend a lot of time on education in its various guises (educating myself and others), one of the big questions that’s been on that list practically from the beginning of my Armitagemania has been: “Who were the most important teachers in your life, and can you give us specific examples of what they taught you, and how they got it across?”

Question answered, at least partially, today, in the online Coventry Telegraph, where Mr. Armitage is quoted from a letter he wrote to the family of the woman (in advance of her death) who founded Pattison College and taught him (h/t Richard Armitage Online). Mr. Armitage is quoted as having written: “I think it’s safe to say that it was the most influential time of my life and really laid the foundations for, not only my subsequent career, but also my character” and “At the beginning I was afraid of disappointing Miss Pat. But by the time I left I was concerned about disappointing myself.” On the lessons Mr. Armitage drew from his time at school, look at the Vulpes Libres interview (no link here, as I’ve pingbacked them too many times already).

This is again me choosing to give him a B reading, and what he’s quoted as saying is of course the sort of thing one says when one writes a letter like this one (this is the C reading — genre), but at the same time, no one is forced to write a letter of sympathy these days. One chooses to write, in the first place, because the teacher was important, maybe even decisive. I’ve had teachers like that. Teachers who made me grow, who made me learn what my own expectations of myself were, and internalize them so I didn’t have to be nagged to fulfill them, which is also mentioned in Mr. Armitage’s remarks. And I also like it because I think one of the most important things a teacher has to teach, even at university, is character. Teachers must strive to be true themselves, or insisting that their students search for truth –however defined– is pointless. That has to happen with acknowledgment of difficulties and flaws and so on; students have to learn to see the failings of the teacher as well as the inspiring qualities if they are to grow to teach themselves. Teaching can’t be unsubtle or it’s just indoctrination.

Maybe it’s just politeness (C or D); as we know, Mr. Armitage values it. But politeness can in itself be ethical. And in the end, I just really like this letter because I think Mr. Armitage got it right — both in what he says about the role and influence of a memorable teacher, and in saying something that comforted her family. And I like to be the fan of a kind of guy who does things like this: politeness may not be sincerity, but it has its own important role to play in human interaction. Quoting Pattison College’s homepage: “The school is not academically selective and will accept pupils whom it considers would benefit from a traditional education where discipline, hard work, consideration for others and good manners are an important part of the school ethos.” This is the sort of insight fundamental to the Renaissance: that proper behavior and manners were fundamental not only to human relationships, but to constituting the ideal self.

Finally, I’m grateful that Mr. Armitage had such a good teacher, one he remembers more than two decades after leaving school.”Miss Pat” apparently did us a big favor. Here are some further tributes to her. May her family be comforted by the memories of so many grateful students.

~ by Servetus on September 29, 2010.