"I am sure it is one's duty as a teacher to try to show boys that no opinions, no tastes, no emotions are worth much unless they are one's own. I suffered acutely as a boy from the lack of being shown this"

A. C. Benson reflects on the vital responsibility of educators to foster personal authenticity in their students. He emphasizes that opinions, tastes, and emotions gain true value only when they are genuinely developed from within rather than passively adopted from others. Benson’s perspective challenges any educational approach that merely encourages conformity or rote absorption of prevailing norms. By urging teachers to help students cultivate their own points of view, he underscores a belief in the inherent importance of individuality.

Benson’s comment reveals a deeply personal resonance, as he relates the pain he experienced in youth due to the absence of such guidance. He suggests that being taught, either explicitly or implicitly, to accept ready-made beliefs and tastes leads not only to intellectual impoverishment but also to emotional distress. There’s a clear sense of regret about an education that was insufficiently attentive to nurturing independent thought and self-awareness.

The passage suggests that genuine growth, intellectual, emotional, and aesthetic, depends on discovering one’s own preferences and convictions. When youths are simply given opinions and emotions to hold, rather than encouraged to arrive at them themselves, those feelings and beliefs lack depth and authenticity. Instead, Benson advocates for an educational environment where curiosity, questioning, and the courage to differ are cultivated.

For Benson, the role of the teacher extends beyond transmitting information; it involves guiding students through the difficult process of self-discovery. Such teaching empowers students to trust their own judgments, to appreciate their unique sensibilities, and to become adults capable of critical thought and sincere feeling. Ultimately, Benson laments that without such guidance, one grows up uncertain and imitative, suffering the acute discomfort familiar to anyone who has never been encouraged to truly become themselves. By highlighting this, he calls for a more humane and liberating approach to education.