LITERARY COLUMN.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11151, 18 December 1901, Page 7

LITERARY COLUMN.

SOME EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS OF THE HOUB

(Bγ J. W. Jotot, M.A.)

Ji there is one thing in which we how confidence that the world is making progress, it is in education. It could hatpdly be otherwise, considering the amount of, loving thought and disinterested self-sacri-fioe that are devoted to the matter. Some of the best minds of th© age are willing to place above a>ll other problems the question —how shall the young be most thoroughly and efficiently trained? Psyohologiste, in their investigations into the human maud, willing to leave the realm of abstract speculation, and face the practical question —what is the bearing of all this on the orderly evolution and development of on individual mind? Questions of method, both in teaching and in organisation, are canvassed wicn vigour and acumen in journals of education, and even find their ■way into periodicals of a, mom general character, ihe theories which, an individual lias avr.ved at in solittuy meditation or in the practical work o his profession,', are subjected to sea«;hing criticism. Discoveries and improvements, which have revealed themselves to some penetrating eye, have a hard battle to fight against convention and prejudice; but when onoe approved they rapidly assume their ptoe as pazt of the accepted views of th.e--.age. Teaching is now a very different thing from, what it was fifty years ago. Some of the old ideas foave died out like a piece of decayed tissue; others have battled fiercely against innovation, but with the hopelessness of descrepitude matched againsi young and lusty vigour. But this progress bas not been the work merely of ardent reformers; tho general mass of the community has borne a share, not so striking or picturesque, perhaps, but solid and real. The extension of education as ai national system has touched the pocket of the tax-payer; and many an honest worker has learned to deprive himself of some comfort or indulgence, so that his children may liave the schooling which he never had himself.

- But, although the general movement has been in the direction of progress, there are always elements present, which complicate the task of" ths reformer. The gold of educational z-eform is not' pure, but alloyed with a baser material. The question—what is best?—is not allowed to claim exclusive attention; it is generally drowned in the more noisy question;—what pays best? The ideal •requirements \>f education, based on an ideal conception of life, are generally subordinated -to the practical ' requirements, based on the material conditions of life. This is inevitable. The world is very far from 'being an ideal world; and teachers, while doing the best that they can for their pupils' minds and characters, must accept a good, deal of their environment as something beyond their power to alter. Those who have high views about education, and labour far ■ their fulfilment, must resign ihemselrea to a- lower and more commonplace result in , actual achievement. Yet, if they are faithful, they surrender no jofc of their ideUls, nor abate their strenuous efforts for their propagation. The mercenary spirit in education may jpoison t&eir woric at the roots, but there is always some hope that a little fibre here and there may esoaj* the pestilential influence, and some day inoculate the whole with.a healthier virus.-

This .struggle between the claims of what is best and what is most profitable naturally varies according as new ideas or external conditions modify the programme of .each. ■ The ideal training of one generation is not the ideal training of the next; and an the ' other 'hand, what serves for material advancement in one generation may be found useless under the altered conditions of the next. - The. bogey of examinations hast been long with us, and has lost half its repulsiveness through, It is felt that assaults on it are' useless, and men labour to. improve a system which, cannot be dispensed witE tbq old' exclusivenefis in ' the matter-of subjects for the' universities or the public service has-been broken down ; and a wider range of choice saves young minds from-being forced into uncongenial channels through the exigencies of examinations. .And so educationists feel that, with ' all their drawbacks, examinations, if wisely conducted, may be made to exercise a broad* ening and liberalising effect' on' public in* struction.

But broad and liberal views of education are now confronted with anew peril, which is the outcome of contemporary conditions throughout the civilised world. . We seem to be entering on an era in which the stress and strain of competition in , industries and commerce will fee the most potent and absorbing influence in the lives of men. The air is full of. indications of such an -era. Drifting has given place to struggle; th* slumbering are being awakened; vigilance is gueoeedlng to apathy. All the conditions which, can influence success or failure are being tested ; the "Strain of feeling is becoming every day more intense, as the conviction grows that it may really be national existence that is at stake. Who can wonder that in the jsurvey of the conditions of the problem, men's glance should fall on education as one of the most decisive of them? The most natural question under such circumstances is—Are our educational methods on'the Tight lines for enabling the next generation-to grapple with the situation, which may then have reached a very acute stage? And this question), thrown among the eddies of an agitated public sentiment, has propagated a wave of opinion which may be compressed into the following form—2lo; the general character of our education is and has been too exclusively literary; and not sufficiently scientific and technical.

There are large issues involved'in this apparently simple comment. Teachers are familiar enough with the demands of parent?, that tbeir children shall only be taught what will be of direct use to them in their future business. Here is the same demand on an expanded BC Aj,e, viz., that a whole nation shall only dp taught what will have a direct bearing on some anticipated line of activity. And just as teachers, with their broader view of tie part played by education in Kfe, smilt> at the purblind view of parents, which is limited to reading, writing, and a little "arithmetic, so all thoughtful educationists may well smile, possibly a little sadly, at a. whole people proposing to shape its programme for the future on a smattering of practical science and technical education. Tibe proposal has all the narrowness and shortsightedness which ideas conceived in panic generally have. Wβ seem incapable of looking all round the problem of national destiny. Sometimes it ie one aspect of it that fills the foreground, sometimes another; but wMchevar it is, the otihers axe for the time practically obliterated.' Just now the whole problem of the future sans itself rap into the quesJbion of comsmgicial and industrial supremacy; all . the ( vast questions involved in the religious, intellectual, and moral character of the race, have for the moment glided into iixe background of the -national ooinsciousnese. To show how to devise a new electrical switchboard, or manipulate exports to iruit on «c-------ceutria market/ is a greater thi&g toban^o

teadb a nation to be wis©, to rule rightSoo*. Jr, and to appreciate noble thoughts and deeds.

It anust he carefully observed tliat the issue 'here discussed i« not the time-hon-oured one between literature and science as means of mental training, or as furnishing intellectual nutriment for a life-time. The oLd-<fashioned view, which saw only rivalry between these two, has long given place to a higher synthesis, which regards ttoem as mutually complimentary, and equally indispensable. For ifae struggle, which, seems approaching, literature and science raoge themselves on the same side, as furnishine a basis for right feeling, right thinking, and accurate observing. It is only begging the question to say that our education is too literary in ita character, and must be made more scientific and technical. The real contrast is blurred, perlfaps through a halfconscious hope of gaining over some overzealous advocate of « purely scientific education to join in dealing a blow at the claims of languages and , literature. But it is to be 'hopui that pure scientists will see the danger, and decline to descend into such en arena. If they <10, they will soon find are, without haying intended it, prostituting their high ideas to ignoble ends, and bowing in the house of Mammon ■fche knee which had only bent in the fair temple of Truth. They will presently be told that t&2 passion for truth and distoovery is not wanted, or is only to be made a convenience of for the purpose of finding out the best way to make things. And, instead of having exterminate.a the so-called rival, the study of languages, they will find it still exercising its pernicious influence in a debased form.

For modern languages are to be honoured with a place in the new scheme of equipment. But th ! ey are not to be studied scientifically, as massive outgrowths of human intelligence, enshrining within themselves priceless treasures of human thoughts and feeling. Questions of structiare and idiom, the delicate play of meaning, subtle differences between inflected and uninflecttd, the prismatic effect of different forms of expression in reflecting and refracting thought, accents of emphasis or emotion revailing themselves through order of words—all this is to be relegated to the limbo of cifete pedantries. Above all things a huge skin must be stuffed with rags,-labEiUed "grammar" in large letters, and ;«et up for the enlightened youth of the emancipated school to shy at. * All. that we want out of kucli poor stuff as French and German is a few dozen glib phrases th'afc will qualify us to be commercial agents at Marseilles or Hamburg. Of what use ure Ooetiie and Voltaire compared to bills of lading and descriptive catalogues? No literary culture is needed for outwitting an American in the, Continental markets. It might be as well, of course, to be able to read a monograph 'describing gome new German invention ; but ttoen, yem know, a good many of the technical words are like English, and a mere smattering of the language will enable a smart yooith of the new school to get at the meaning. And so, too, when you want to recommend some product of your own firm's enterprise, it is easy to compile a few sentences of glowing eulogy, which, with a free admixture of compound words, may be trusted to produce an impression. And when you run dry, fall back on English; the German business-men are generally linguists; and will be sure to iinderatond you. It is not difficult to conceive the sort of "French and German" that wo should hfave in a cod* revised under (Jie influence of the new commercial exigencies. It would be in the highest degree abeurd and quixotic to stout one's eyes to the practical side of education, nor is any such folly advocated here. It is fully recognised tbat the vital and effective energies of a nation can only be directed into channels , of success by the sound intellectual training of the young. But what is asserted, and with conviction, is thia: Thkt the limi*

tatdon of teaching to a prescribed channel in order to accomplish a (prescribed end, is the surest means of defeating that end, or leading to a second-rate accomplishment of jt; and while this is being done, other ends of commanding importance are ignored. Writers and thinkers on ethics ore familiar with the principle that the least effective way to secure happiness in this life ie to pursue it deliberately and consciously, as on object. It Is by pursuing other object*, and following other impulses of our nature, thUfc we attain happiness indirectly ; whereas, if it is sought directly, not only is it not found, bub the really noble and attainable ends of life are sacri-

diced to the pursuit; of ft chimera. All who havo devoted themselves to the problem of education, from Roger Ascham to EtJward Thring, aimed at the training of t(ho facilities and the building up of the full and perfect nature on a sound foundation. Ana, however defective our practice, there te.no doubt that this conception of education is recognised in principle by all honest labourers in this field to-day. ' If. they are to be frightened out of it now by panic, the result will be that the structure of eottnd ideas and methods, which has been built.up slowly and painfully, in the . face of buffetings and contradictions, will ,tumb}e. into ruics, and the intellectual progress of the race Viil be thrown back for generation*. The difference between education in its bighest sense and education such as we are threatened with, is the difference between a living organism of delicate m& complex adjustments; and & piece of lifeless mechanism. We must pause occasionally and examine where*we are and whither we atfe tending. Technical education and applied science we must have j the conditions of the world demand it.. But if we allow ourselves to bo swtpt off our feet by this demand, and throw overboard ail that makes for moral stability and intellectual expansion, the damage wilt be swift and irretrievable. In a generation or two we ehall be a nation of dexterous finger*, sharp, wiaened faces, and cietui, shrivelled aouls. We can only be saved from fhis fate by keeping othter influences at work. To the ancient Athenian the mechanical arts were mean, because there was nothing either intellectual or warlike about them. The men who took this view were brilliant, but jnot over scrupulous; of extraordinary intellectual acumen, but limited moral perceptions. At the opposite pole eland the metalworkers of Nnremberf? in the fifteenth and (sixteenth centuries. These men were #rave. dignified, and devout. They imparted tlmr dignity to their craft, and derived a reflected dignity from the perfection which they strove for and accomplished. In modern times' industrialism has developed on a gigantic scale; but it has in the same proportion degenerated from such, a type as that of the Nuremberg craftsmen. It tends to become a. race for wealth, and the j •worth and dignity of life are sacrificed. . iHow are they to be saved, even partkLy? By a broad and enlightened system of education y. a system which takes as little a*- . count as possible of money-making, whictt teaches the sanctity of work for its own cake, and lays foundations of character and culture which tlie sordid interests of the world can nevr shake.