Abstract:
One of the greatest problem facing the West African teacher is his lack of knowledge of the children he teaches. He is so much concerned with class teaching that the pupil never appears before him as an individual. This is, of course, a sad affair because we can help the child better only when we know him more intimately. Our knowledge of him should make him break through the barriers of mere acquaintance whose relation to us only means the possibility of a salary. He should mean to us more than that: a human being with the beginning of a history come to us so that we may help him develop his potentialities and aptitudes along satisfactory lines. What else must our first task be than striving to know this child who has swum into our ken? And knowing him means, knowing his home environment; the manner in which he is housed, taken care of and fed; his likes and dislikes; his favourites and favourite games; the situations that anger or please him et cetera.
