Part 1 (1/2)

Cae Essays on Education

by Various

Edited by Arthur Christopher Benson

PREFACE

The sche with underlying aiinated by the University Press Syndicate It see both of use and interest, and the further arrangements were entrusted to a s editor

Our idea has been this: at a time of much educational enterprise and unrest, we believed that it would be advisable to collect the opinions of a few experienced teachers and administrators upon certain questions of the theory and motive of education which lie a little beneath the surface

To deal with current and practical problems does not seem the _first_ need at present Just noork is both co their best; and, if anything, the danger is that organisation should outrun foresight and intelligence Moreover a weakening of the old compulsion of the classics has resulted, not in perfect freedom, but in a tendency on the part of some scientific enthusiasts simply to substitute compulsory science for compulsory literature, when the real question rather is whether obligatory subjects should not be diiven to faculty and aptitude

We have attempted to avoid e our contributors to define as far as possible the aim and outlook of education, as the word is now interpreted

We have not furthered any educational conspiracy, nor attempted any fusion of view Our plan has been first to select so of modern problems, next to find well-equipped experts and students to deal with each, and then to give the various writers as free a hand as possible, desiring them to speak with the utmost frankness and personal candour We have not directed the plan or treatment or scope of any essay; anddetailed suggestions on s contributors to be punctual and diligent, and generally revising what the New Testament calls jots and tittles We have been very fortunate inwith but few refusals, and our contributors readily responded to the hich we expressed, that they should write from the personal rather than from the judicial point of view, and follow their own chosen method of treatations to all who have helped us, and to Viscount Bryce for bestowing, as few are so justly entitled to do, an educational benediction upon our scheme and voluust 18, 1917

INTRODUCTION

In tiendered the belief that great and widespread econoes are needed, there is a risk thatto new sche chiefly because they are new, catching at expedients that have a superficial air of practicality, and forgetting the general theory upon which practical plans should be based At such moments there is special need for the restateument of sound principles To such principles so far as they relate to education it is the aim of these essays to recall the public mind They cover so many branches of educational theory and deal with theorous thinkers, that it would be idle for me to enter in a short introduction upon those topics which they have discussed with special knowledge far greater than I possess All I shall atteeneral probleest of those problems, viz, how to provide eleent now than it was fifty years ago The Act of 1870, followed by the Act which made school-attendance compulsory, has done its work What is wanted now is Quality rather than Quantity Quantity is doubtless needed in one respect Children ought to stay longer at school and ought to have ement to continue education after they leave the elementary school But it is chiefly an i that is wanted, and that of course her co the re profession[1]

The next proble the children of the country and bring the out of these best anisation and machinery; and the process will becoht to bear a part in selecting those who are most fitted to be sent on to secondary schools, have themselves become better qualified for the task of discrimination The question how to train these best led controversy as to the respective educational values of various subjects of instruction, a topic which I must not deal with here What I do wish to dwell upon is the supreress of a nation of the best talent it possesses In every country there is a certain percentage of the population who are fitted by their superior intelligence, industry, and force of character to be the leaders in every branch of action and thought It is a s ability in places where the conditions do not favour its developrowth, just as a seedling tree brought out of the dry shade may shoot up when planted where sun and rain can reach it freely I areat and powerful eneration, who ht, but rather of persons of a capacity high, if not quite first rate, which enables theranted fair chances, to rise quickly into positions where they can effectively serve the community These men, whatever occupation they follow, be it that of abstract thinking, or literary production, or scientific research, or the conduct of affairs, whether comth of the country when they enter manhood, and its realised wealth when they are in their fullest vigour thirty years later We needpains

The voluht continuously applied to the work of life, whether it be applied in the library or study or laboratory, or in the workshop or factory or counting-house or council charowth of our population, our wealth, our responsibilities It is not to-day sufficient for the increasing vastness and coreat nation

We in Great Britain have been too apt to rely upon our energy and courage and practical resourcefulness in elect those efforts to accue, and consider how it can be most usefully applied, which should precede and accompany action This deficiency is happily one that can be reift of nature is less curable The ”efficiency” which is on every one'shastily into action, however energetic It is the fruit of patient and exact determination of and reflection upon the facts to be dealt with

The view that it was the finest ht belonged not merely leadershi+p, but even control also, was carried by the ancients, and especially by Plato and Aristotle, almost to excess Their ideal, and indeed that ofthe masses of the military valour and discipline which the State needed for its protection, and the cultivation ahest intellectual and es, when power as well as rank belonged to two classes, nobles and clergy, the ideal of education took a religious colour, and that training was most valued which made men loyal to the Church and to sound doctrine, with the prospect of bliss in the world to come In our times, educational ideals have become not merely more earthly but more material Modern doctrines of equality have discredited the ancient view that the chief aiovernment of the State It is not s of this world, power and the acquisition of territory, industrial production, commerce, finance, wealth and prosperity in all its for away froes and lasted down into the eighteenth century In some countries, as in our own, that which instruction and training may accomplish has been rated far below the standard of the ancients Yet in our own ti exah Think of the pohich the constant holding up, during long centuries, of certain ideals and standards of conduct, exerted upon the japanese people, instilling senti a certain conception of chivalric duty which Europe did not reach even when hest Think of that boundless devotion to the State as an othe individual, which within the short span of two generations has taken possession of Ger and teaching of a theory which lowers the citizen's independence and individuality while it saps his moral sense seems to us a misdirection of educational effort But in it education has at least displayed its power

Can a fair stateht here and now set before ourselves be found in saying that there are three chief aiht as respects those we have called the best minds?

One aim is to fit men to be at least explorers, even if not discoverers, in the fields of science and learning

A second is to fit them to be leaders in the field of action, leaders not only by their initiative and their diligence, but also by the power and the habit of turning a full streae upon whatever work they have to do

A third is to give the, intellectual pleasures

Many iven pleasure a bad na and powerfully seductive pleasures, pleasures which appeal to all ed to excess, and becaht to have pleasure The best way of drawing theerous pleasures is to teach them to enjoy the better kinds

Moreover the quieter pleasures of the intellectwork