SECONDARY EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2955, 15 December 1916, Page 7

SECONDARY EDUCATION

SUGGESTED CHANGES

At the meeting of the British 'Association, held, at Newcastle eirly. in September the Rev. W. Temple, mi the course of his presidential address to the educational section, ■ discussed the question of secondary, and university education. His views are of particular interest, and value at the present time, and we reproduce portion of them, Mr. • Temple'said:' ; It is a great responsibility as it is a, great honour,_ to be allowed the-op-portunity of delivering the presidential address to'the Education Section of the British Association this .'year. Tho whole subject of education is more before' the public mind than it has been for a generation at least, and one is tempted therefore to range over tho whole field'. My experience has been' entirely with education of the secondary school and university type. We ought to be turning our attention to the building up of an adequate secondary system. It is in the sphere, of secondary education that our whole equipment i§ most conspicuously and lamentably deficient. .'■■■■ ■

One other word of introduction. Tho/present interest of Englishmen in education is partly due to the.fact that •they are impressed by German thoroughness. Now let there be no mistake. .The war has shown the effectiveness of German education in certain departments of life, but. it has shown not -only its ineffectiveness, but its grotesque absurdity In regard to other departments of life, and those the ; depart-:, ments -which are, even in a. political sense, the'most important. - In<-the organisation •of material resources Germany has won well-merited' admiration, but in regard to moral conduct, and in regard ,to all that art of dealing with'other men and other nations which is closely allied to moral conduct, she has won for herself the horror of the' civilised world. If you take the whole result, >and ask whether we prefer German or English education, I at any rate should not hesitate in my reply. With, all its fault's, English education is a thing-generically superior to the Gorman. It is ,to perfect our own,' arid not'.to imitate theirs, that we must now exert ourselves. And so I turn to the discussion of some pArts of this task. Two. Broad "Divisions. There is no contrast in principle between a literary and a scientific education; no education can pretend to com--pleteness at all which does not, in a very considerable degree at least, cover both fields. An education which leaves . either entirely out of sight, and indeed which fails to. implant in the nlind the governing principles and ideas of both, can hardly be said to deserve,the name of education at all. A general education must include, if it is to be truly general, the training of, all the -facuities, and this -plainly' covers manual work as well as mental work'. Moreover, it appears to be established that manual work is for children the best means of developing brain faculty, and therefore. has ■ a direct value for the purely mental side of education. Anyone who has taken .any. part in administering our present educational methods must- surely be convinced that we are relying far too much upon books as our method-of instruction: .There are many people of very decided intelligence and capacitv who can iTaruly learn anything at aljjf&it of. books. One of the. developmentsVwhicli weneedis the far freer use of manual and productive work as a means of education in the : strictest sense,; as.a means, that is, of developing human faculty quite irrespective of the Practical commercial value of such faculty when developed. Technical Education. • At this point it will assist the clearness of the>6ubsequent discussion if we refer to the distinction between technical • education and technical instruction. Technical instruction may be of commercial value, but it has nothing to do with education, and we, as interested in education, have nothing to do with it, except indeed this—that we need. vehemently to protest against such early specialisation as may develop the wealth-producing capacities at the cost of dwarfing the human nature.as a whole.. i . .... . AVhen we analyse the prevailing conceptions current in most, educational dscussions in;the way in ivhich I have attempted, it ; appears that there are two broad divisions of the subjectone concerned with the matter of study.

and tho other concerned with the educational needs-of human nature. The> former gives us the broad distinction of human studies and physical studies; tho latter gives us the broad".distinc- ' tion of spiritual and intellectual. But 1 the fact is that both of. the main elements in human nature with which! education is chiefly concerned can bo developed by means' of either of the two broad .sections into whicli wo liavo divided the possible subjects of study. Tho study of literature can bo so . conducted as to develop a scientific habit of mind, and natural science can bo so studied as to expand the imagination, and, through that, the sympathies. •:

Education- is very, vitally concerned to see that tho physical conditions is such as may be the basis for tho intellectual and moral life. It is now a commonplace of the subject that it is impossible to teach, and indeed cruelty tj try to teach, 'those who are hungry or who arc over-tired. Vigorous intellectual work,, and still more moral character, can _ hardly be expected when the physical system is cither stunted or disproportionately developed. The whole matter, therefore, of phvsical health _ and development is one that s - vital to education, not only as a part/of education itself ih tho largest sense, but as a condition which must be satisfied before education in the narrower sense can satisfactorily do its work. The Spiritual and the Intellectual. From this we may roturn to the two broad divisions of hurnau personality which are tho actual concern of education in the narrower sense—tho spiritual and the intellectual. Tho spiritual sido of human nature, the capacity for fellowship and for devotion, is best trained by the life of membership in a society. No instruction or study can tako the place of this. Thistis the great inheritance 'that comes down t'i us, in England at any rate, from the Middle Ages. The side on which : those great private institutions which are called public schools and the older universities are particularly strong is the social life which is their most leading; characteristic. What is needed is a society which shall indeed be under general supervision, but 1 of which the piembers actually determine tho character and life, so that each feels that he is a member of this community in the fullest sense, that its welfare depends upon his loyalty, while his welfare depends upon its general character. I confess that I doubt the possibility of securing this fully realised membership otherwise than in a boarding school, but hero I speak with great ignorance; at any' rate, I am sure that for the spiritual development of the rising generation we urgently need that corporate life in schools which the so-called public schooft possess in so large a measure. Every

y CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND REVIEWED

POINTS OF GENERAL. INTEREST

member of one of these schools, or of one. of our older universities, knows quite well, that what'has been most valuable to him in his training has been the whole life of the place, and not- the specific teaching of the classroom or laboratory. The great evil has been that the boys of a public school' all come from one social class, so that, though their public spirit is keen, their horizon is very narrow, and they do not see the need or even the opportunity to exercise public spirit except "iu the ways traditional i". their class.

In order that this social life may exist in any real completeness it is necessary that its control should be in the hands of members of the school itself. Now one main activity of a society composed of children or adolescents will necessarily ho found in games. " This is partly because physical. growth is one of the main businesses of life at that stage, and it is right that the growing boy or girl should delight in developing and exercising tile physical faculties. But it is ■also because a gamo is felt to be more communal than school work. With work arranged as it now is it inevitablv follows, that school work is regarded as being, (lone for one's own sake, while the boy who plays hard is regarded as serving the community: he does it for his house or the school as much as for himself. Social Life of the School and College. I have already said that we give too exclusive a place to books in schooK, education. Many boys, not at all stupid, are failures at school because they are bad at books. If manual work is given , a larger place, it can be so arranged that the great moral difficulty about school work is remov-ed-yiiamely, its individualist and competitive character. Co-operation cannot be carried far in 'book Svork. But manual work can be done in teams, s ,° t £ large co-operative clement comes iu, which is of great value as a training for citizenship. It is possible to do something of this sort with regard to'book work.

Before we leave this quest-ion of so- . cial life in the school or college and its influence as an instrument of spiritual education, let me point out what the adoption of this view involves. The school must be recognised as having a real life of its own in which its members must find their place. Then again real playing fields are needed in the neighbourhood of each school —not.just an asphalt yard for the children to run-about in, but grounds ■ where organised'-games as part of the normal life of the school are possible. This is needed for physical growth,' but' it js also vitally needed for the production of that social. spirit in the school which is the 1 best of all training in good citizenship. The school leaving age, selected, is unfortunate in the last degree and that in two waysi Firet, it. releases children from the discipline of school just at the moment when discipline begins to be most essential. Down to the beginning of adolescence what ive need is something.thatmay more fitly be called' supervision, and. for myself J have graat sympathy with those who hold that under a general supervision there should be the utmost possible freedom for the child. But with' adolescence tbero comes a temporary ch{ios in the psychological make-up, and duriug that period there is an urgent need, not only for'supor- . vision, but expressly for discipline as that word is commonly understood— namely, the imposition of restraint, forcible if need be, in order that .certain impulses may not break loose and destroy the harmony of the whole nature. But the school-leaving age is unfortunate in another respcct also. We teach tho child to read, and then send him away from school at a time when ,it is too .early to have biSgun the train- 1 ing of his taste and judgment. We have made him a prey to all manner of chance influences, but have not supplied him with the power of selection between thesej or the'means of resisting those ■ which' his better judgment condemns; ' v ■' The School Age. \ Something, 110 doubt, can be done by means; of .continuation classes provided that- the time for 'them is ; takeii. out of tbe hours-of-employment and not . added oil -to'these; but nothing will really meet the case except an all-round raising of the school age. And oven then we still need to get away from tho conception of - a necessary minimum. •What we have to aim at,is the maximum:, attainable by each scholar, not the minimum that will niako him a tolerable member of a civilised community. If wo aim at" a minimum that will be what moat of the scholars also aim at. But how are we to make this change? The obvious method is a large system of exhibitions, maintenance grants, and tho like, and' wo must welcome the proposals of tho consultative committee presided over by Mr. Acland, which were mado public during July last. The proposals are better than tho report, which, as was pointed out in "Tho Times Educational Supplement," is too much under German influence. But here again we eomo to another false suggestion. Any system of scholarships and exhibitions, is false in principlo because it inevitably suggests io the child that it is to pursue its studies for tho sake of its 'own advancement; the whole system coheres with the ideal of the educational ladder, by means of which men and women may climb from ono section of society to another. We have also to remember that, when by education yon lift a child from ono section of society to another, you expose him to one of the' most insidious of all temptations, tho, temptation to despise his own people. And if once his native sympathies' are thus broken up, it is' unlikely that lie will grow any more. An educational 'system which depends upon the laddei is in a fair way to train a nation of self-seekers. Our demand, and hero 1 know that I am speaking for tho';wholo community of ■Labour, must tho educational highway. Out ain must he, not chiefly to lift gifted individuals to positions of eminence, but io carry the wholo mass of the pcoplo forward, even though it be but', a, comparative little way. We want t-ht whole system to be all the while suggesting that. the child's faculties are.being trained, not for its'own advancement, but for tho benefit which the community is to recpu'c. And 'the righ\ way to suggest this, while also' securing for tho community the maximum benefit, is, as !t seema to. me, nothing loss than a system of free education frim elementary school to the univorsity, lyhich, instead of offering exhibitions to enable those who are capable to proceed, will, 011 tho contrary, exclude at certain wisely chosen stages those who are unable to benefit further by school education. At each of such stages there should bo for those who are excluded from further advance some form oS apprenticeship, and if tile stage comes early this should be conducted so far as possible according to tho principles of school life, with all its discipline as well as supervision.

The Tutorial Class Movement, But while I regard that as tho ideal, of course I recognise that it cauuoj; he achieved at once, and for the moment the Ji'ic. of advance must bo that suggested by Sir. Acland's Committee, supplemented by the greatest possible development of tho tutorial class system, which owes its origin to tho Workers' Educational Association, and for a full account of which I must refer to Mi'. Mifhsbridge's book, "University Tutorial Classes." Tho tutorial class movement has made two important discoveries. Tho first is that there is a very great, amount of literally first-olflss ability in the country going to waste for lack of opportunity. The other discovery is this. A man who has had no secondary education at all can take up work of tho university typo when he is of full ago if his mind has remained alert. I believe many continuation classes fail through ignorance or neglect of this fact. I. turn now to .nroblems connected with subjects of study. Provided there has been established a social life as I have describe'!.;. .there will be less harm than othexwise 'resulting from some degree of specialisation in secondary schools. Wo may state the question perhaps in this way. In order that a man may live his life and discharge his responsibilities as a citizen he needs knowledge. What is the most important sort of knowledge to have? None can be put on a level with the knowledge of human nature: Whatever a man is going to do, he will have to deal with his fellow-men and find his own place among them. This knowledge cannot be adequately obtained from books alone, and, as I have said already, training through membership in a social life is the best means to it. But it may be also fostered in a very high degree by what are called the humane studies. But it j is no doubt true that wo have allowed !two. evil things to.happen. In the first place," we have, not sufficiently cognised the value of natural science in education, and, still more disastrous, wo have tended to identify the study of tho humanities with the study of the classical languages. The upholders of tho classics, taken as a group, have 110 one but themselves to, blame if the studies in which they believe are an object of very general attack, for thoy have been defiant ,in manner and. retrograde in practice.. And yet the attack upon the classics is unintelligent; It is very noticeable that the most elaborate study which has ever been compiled of the British Empire and of the problems which it must face in the near future should find it necessary to begin its survey with an account of the civilisation of ancient Greece and Rome. lam referring, of course, to "The Commonwealth of Nations," by Mr. Lionel Curtis. History and Literature. But after oil chief point that I wish to urge is tnac the classics are not the only available form- of humane study. I should like to see an experiment conducted on the following lines. The staple of the school curriculum to be European history and English literature. At the bottom of the school there "should be elementary Latin, which undoubtedly provides good mental gymnastics,; and; of course, elemontary mathematics and natural science. ; Perhaps also French, though of. this I am more doubtful. Those boys,who Showed real facility in Latin should, if they so' desired, begin to study Greek at about'tho age of sixteen or sixteen and a half. They should then, have one term in which tbey do very little except Greek. Experiments suggest, that in.'' forms 'consisting only, of boys who have already shown some aptitude for.a classical language one term's concentrated study will bring, them to tho point reached by efforts of'several to our present methods, aris-tne devotion of a singlo term to this would not seriously interrupt the general course. There would not be a classical side and a modern side, for the staple study of the whole school would bo history. Boys ( who do not take this classical course would tako mathematics, scicnce, and at least one modern language, the mathematics and the science being as far as possible combined; specialisation either in the linguistic or thv scientific branch would bo encouraged in the highest ' departments. Tliere would also, of course, be opportunity for specialisation in history by means of divisions which would provido a course of study supplementary to Scat which formed the staple of the school curriculum.

■ Again, I want to see boys and girls who study modern languages reading tho great literatures which constitute the value, of those languages, as boys a*, the top -of a classical side read Aeschylus and Plato. But wo-shall nofv.reach. that without help from tho universities, Valid- at present the universities refuse their help. - \ . The Ultimate Belief. But);, al'ter all, important as are the subjects ot; study and the machinery for pursuing them, all of this is'subordinate to the spirit, which should direct an<J inspiro the whole. I say tho less about this because it has beon so admirably" dealt with by Mr. Clut-ton-Brock' in his recent little book, "The Ultimate Belief," which I could wish that , all my hearers would read. Broadly, however, my' contention, like his, would \be that the aini of education is primarily spiritual, and that there are three, and only three, primary aims of the spiritual life. These are Goodnessj Truth, and Beauty. It must always be insisted that these aro ends in themselves. School discipline must be so conducted as to suggest constantly, that goodness of character is not to bo sought as a means to happiness or any form of success, but as an end in itself. So much is commonly admMited, though seldom acted on, but the same principle must bo impressed with regard to Truth and Beauty. In the case of Beauty our education hardly recognises at all that it is an ond, with the result that thoso whoso spiritual activity most naturally takes this form .find themselves in rebellion against tho upholders of truth, and still more against tlio upholders of goodness.

Beauty, Truth, and Goodness cannot in the end of the day bo sought for the sake of anything beyond themselves, though it is true that innumerable). benefits follow even the partial attainment of them. But the search i-s doomed from the outset if it is not coneontrated upon thpm as themselves being tho prize of tho soul.

The main purpose of education may he summed up in tho great phrase of St. Paul: —"Whatsoever tilings are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just,•whatsoever things are pure, whatsoover things aro lovely, whatsoever things are of goorf report; if there be any virtue, and it there be any praise, think ou theso things." It should lift us above that material world, absorption in which is tho occasion of_.nH strife and enmity. For tho material goods aro at any given moment limited in amount, so that the moro one has tho less there is for others, and if all aro aiming at these, thoy aro bound to be brought into conflict. Education should lift us to the pursuit of tho spiritual goods, love, joy, peace, loyalty, beauty, knowledge; of which it is true to say. that tho moro one has tho more, everyone else will have on that account. Such an education would savo our nation from its divisions, which weaken it Ear more than any deficiences in technical skill, and would lift all the nations of tho'world that. followed it to that plane of being where each would rejoico in bringing its contribution to the general weal and none would seek an advantage that could only bo won at .1 loss to humanity as a whole. That is

a far-off goal; but it must be far-off .goals and on lofty ideals that wo sat our aspiration, it' out of the terrors of this time we are to win a result that shall bo commensurate with tho suffering through which we are passing. Meanwhile, there is in many quarters, and most conspicuously in the ranks of Labour, a disinterested desire for knowledge as a real emancipator of the soul, which all who care for education should watch and help to the utmost .of their power. It must bo from tho .aspiration of the common people that tho salvation of tho people comes. Nothing that is really good can be imposed upon people by well-wishing superiors. In education, as in everything that concerns tho spirit, freedom is tho one condition of progress. It is for freedom that we are fighting in the war; it is for freedom that those who caro for education arc struggling at: home; for there is nothing that so much hinders tho effective freedom or our people as tho fact that they arc left without facilities for tho whole development of their faculties. In the namo of those who have died for the freedom of Europe, let us go forward to claim for this laud of ours that of truo education which shall be tlio chief guaranteo of freedom to out children for lever.