UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 COMMON SENSE IN EDUCATION 
 
 5 3 4 6 2
 
 Crown Svo, 6s. 6d. 
 
 Teaching and Organisation 
 
 With Special Reference to 
 Secondary Schools. 
 
 A Manual of Practice. Chapters by Various Writers. 
 
 EDITED BV 
 
 P. A. BARNETT, ma. 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO., 
 LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY.
 
 COMMON SENSE 
 
 IN EDUCATION 
 AND TEACHING 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO PRACTICE 
 
 P. A. BARNETT, MA. 
 
 TRINITY COLLBQE, OXPOltP 
 
 !I (aS>o 
 
 third edition 
 {rrvisbd) 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 
 
 igoi 
 
 7\ov. lOOZ.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 
 
 First Printed, June, 1899; Reprinted, May, 1900; 
 
 New Impression, January, 1901 ; Third Edition, 
 
 December, 1901. 
 
 \ i^ll
 
 
 TO 
 
 EDWIN ABBOTT ABBOTT D.D. 
 
 A GREAT TEACHER AND A TRUE FRIEND 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 
 WITH RESPECT AND AFFECTION 
 
 BV AN OLD PUPIL
 
 Leonato — Nciglihours, you are tedious. 
 
 Dogberry — It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor 
 duke's officers ; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a. 
 king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all on your worship. 
 
 — (Much Ado About Nothing). 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 The basis of this book is a series of lectures, 
 delivered during the winter session of 1898, on 
 the practice of education. It would hardly, how- 
 ever, have been written, it would certainly not 
 have been published, but for the welcome ex- 
 tended by both critics and general readers to the 
 volume edited by me and published in 1897 
 under the title of Teaching and Organisation, 
 which was an attempt to cover the whole of the 
 ordinary field of education in chapters written by 
 specialists who are also experts, teachers as well 
 as teachers of special subjects. 
 
 When Teaching and Organisation first appeared, 
 the value of the several chapters was acknow- 
 ledged generously, but some critics of unquestion- 
 able authority thought that the book suffered 
 somewhat, in spite of the Editor's efforts, from 
 lack of a common point of view, of organic inter- 
 connexion. 
 
 Common Sense in Education does not presume 
 to take the place of Teaching and Organisation.
 
 viii Advertisement 
 
 It is meant rather to serve as preliminary to it, as 
 an introduction to the systematic study of educa- 
 tion, less perplexing because more uniform, being 
 the record of the experience and observations of 
 one person, whose business it is to form an opinion 
 about teaching and teachers in both primary and 
 secondary grades, and who is concerned particu- 
 larly to discover what things most profitably 
 occupy the attention of the teacher at the be- 
 ginning of his career. With all its obvious im- 
 perfections, it has at all events been written from 
 one point of view. 
 
 It is not too much to say that every teacher and k 
 every one concerned in education should have 
 some acquaintance with most of the subjects 
 broached or discussed in the following pages ; 
 they are all directly or indirectly related to the 
 practice and organisation of education as teaching. 
 
 An endeavour has been made throughout to 
 keep discussion as clear as possible from the 
 formalism that comes of attempts to systematise 
 a science before it has passed out of the empirical 
 stage, and if technical language is anywhere used, 
 it is used because it could not well have been 
 avoided. I have always had before me the warn- 
 ing not to complicate simple things by giving 
 them hard names. A hard name is usually a step 
 farther in abstraction, and argument on abstrac- 
 tions is argument in vacuo, safe only so long as
 
 Advertisement ix 
 
 we do not forget that its conclusions are to be 
 accepted without qualification in vacuo only. 
 
 One word I should like to say in support of the 
 expert against the specialist. In these days of 
 subdivision of labour and divided interests we are 
 sadly exposed to bullying at the hands of the 
 patrons of special "subjects". It is the business 
 of teachers and of all practical friends of educa- 
 tion to defend jealously the general and liberal 
 gymnastic against the attacks of those who, in- 
 terested in a particular study or impressed by the 
 immediate practical results of a particular pursuit, 
 would monopolise with it the greater part of the 
 school Time Table. A school Time Table, like all 
 syllabuses, is best when it is simplest, for excessive 
 prescription and definition of duty are the refuge 
 of helplessness and pedantry. The more minutely 
 the subjects of school work are delimited, the less 
 copiously and effectually will pupils be taught. 
 
 I am indebted to many friends and friendly 
 critics for hints embodied in the pages that follow, 
 to so many that I dare not print their names. I 
 cannot, however, evade the duty of thanking my 
 friend and former pupil Mr. R. Delaney for his 
 equal kindness and skill in the compilation of my 
 index. 
 
 P. A. BARNETT 
 
 June 1899 
 
 The " Prefaces " to the Second and Third Editions of 
 this book are printed at the end of it.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. Instruction as Discipline 
 II. The Discipline of Character . 
 
 III. The Physical Basis of Education . 
 
 IV. The Genesis of Curricula 
 
 V. The Manipulation of Curricula 
 
 VI. Audible Speech 
 
 VII. Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 
 
 VIII. Latin and Greek 
 
 IX. Mathematics and Physical Science 
 X. Geography and History .... 
 XI. Warnings from History .... 
 XII. The Making of the Tiiacher . 
 
 / 
 
 35 
 66 
 
 94 
 
 114 
 
 143 
 169 
 19O 
 221 
 
 245 
 270 
 
 ^^9'
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INSTRUCTION AS DISCIPLINE 
 
 Mind . . . grows, not like a Vegetable . . . but like a Spirit, by 
 mysterious contact with Spirit ; Thought kindling itself at the fire of 
 living Thought. 
 
 — Teufelsdrockh in Sartor Resartus. 
 
 The endeavour to lay down rigid rules of procedure in 
 teaching is a serious error in education. It There can be 
 would have its analogue in medicine if the no rigid ruie^ 
 physician prescribed for his patients, without of procedure 
 seeing them, by sending a printed formula of '"instruction 
 directions in reply to an inquiry by post. It is precisely 
 in the diagnoses of different cases and in the varia- 
 tions of treatment required by different individuals that 
 medical skill does its most characteristic work ; for while 
 any one can learn to repeat a general formula, the expert 
 alone can safely apply it with modifications necessary 
 in complicated individual circumstances. There is un- 
 doubtedly a constant type or formula in both education 
 and medicine, for both minds and bodies have respec- 
 tively a large common foundation ; every mind and every 
 body is more or less like every other mind and every 
 other body. Yet for the teacher the important fact is 
 diversity ; the immense significance of which, while it 
 is brought home over and over again to those who 
 philosophise truly, is often wholly ignored by both rule- 
 of-thumb men and cut-and-dried theorists, for these, in 
 their different ways, philosophise badly by trying to fit 
 every mind to the few types recognised by themselves. 
 Again, it is true that the materials which we bring 
 
 I
 
 2 Common Sense in Education 
 
 to operate upon minds and bodies respectively are, 
 within their respective h'mits, t\)e same. The object of 
 knowledge is a unity ; it is ultimately the same for all, 
 as the composition of food or medicine is pretty constant. 
 But a physician administers a potion and a subcutaneous 
 injection in vastly different ways. 
 
 The teacher's special work calls upon him to take more 
 serious note of diversities than resemblances, 
 iruephiio- -jyiq philosopher in his study, the psychologist 
 home to the *"**" ^^^ logician, may lay down the general laws 
 teacher of the growth of mind or the conditions of 
 
 chiefly the valid inferences, but the teacher has to keep 
 diversities j^jg ^jj.g ^lert to modify his treatment from 
 
 and°sub*ects ^^^^ ^° ^^^^ ^° ^^^^ ^^ ^^Y ^uit Tom, Dick, 
 
 and Harry at different times, in different 
 places, and with different subject-matter. In comparison 
 with a practised wit and sympathy, mere theorising is 
 naught. Any intelligent impostor can write a book. 
 
 The differences between Tom, Dick, and Harry as 
 Diversities persons have to be considered first. For 
 between many a long year, as Principal Adams points 
 
 pupils out in his witty little book on Herbartianism, 
 
 the pupil as a subject for consideration was syste- 
 matically neglected. The sole preoccupation of the 
 teacher was the subject-matter of instruction ; as much 
 of this was to be got under the pupil's skin as the skin 
 would hold, and we need not be surprised if it was by 
 physical applications to his skin that the process was 
 expedited. For, at the outset, the error arose from an 
 analogy of purely physical and exceedingly material 
 origin. The implied assumption was that there was 
 somewhere a capacity — a room or space — which had only 
 to be filled, into which stuff could be forced. Locke's 
 comparison of the child's mind to a sheet of white paper
 
 Instruction as Discipline 3 
 
 on which anything could be written was merely one form 
 of this persistent heresy. 
 
 From this we have been rescued, at all events theoretically, 
 by more modern conceptions of perfection — Respect for 
 or one may say, rather, by giving up the out- childhood as 
 worn Pagan notion of a moderation or har- having its 
 mony in some fixed and settled state, and °^" perfec- 
 by recognising in its place, not inferior kinds 
 of virtue or perfection in various stages, but virtue or 
 perfection itself in a process. 
 
 The greater respect for childhood, for what we choose 
 to call immaturity, which is the mark of the more 
 modern rational treatment of children, is not to be set 
 down solely to the influence of the doctrine of evolution. 
 It is quite true that the more modern development and 
 scientific application of this great generalisation, which 
 teaches us that all things are in the condition of be- 
 coming something else that they are not now, gives to 
 imperfect states of development a value of their own 
 which was not before suspected, and warns us not to 
 hurry them. But long before the world adopted the 
 theory of evolution as a fashionable explanation of every- 
 thing, Froebel, as Montaigne before him, had laid it down 
 that " imperfect " childhood had really a perfection of its 
 own ; and that the child-stage of development had its 
 own laws, and required a special treatment which was 
 not the same as that properly applied to older persons. 
 
 We have come next to recognise not only that chil- 
 dren generally must be treated as persons in process 
 of development rather than as persons developed, but 
 also that children differ among themselves, mentally and 
 physically, and in antecedents and habitual environment. 
 Progress is either slower or quicker, and more or less 
 effectual, among different pupils.
 
 4 Common Sense in Education 
 
 There is, first, the allowance to be made for differences 
 Diversities of o^ ^S^- ^^ do not teach, Say, the history of 
 (a) age and the Armada in the same way to pupils of ten 
 (*) status years, fifteen years, and nineteen years of 
 age ; to the first it is more properly a panorama ; to 
 the second it begins to have political meaning and more 
 definite personal interest ; to the third it is a study of 
 evidences and intrigues, part of a great European sys- 
 tem of politics. There are next to be considered the 
 differences of status and antecedents, social and intellec- 
 tual. The pupil who comes from more refined home 
 surroundings may safely be left to fill up gaps in know- 
 ledge which for the less-favoured child the teacher must 
 himself fill up. The teacher of the true secondary 
 school can usually count on his pupils' freer access to 
 books; he can refer them, in their degree, to "author- 
 ities"; he can, with less scruple, make them do " home 
 lessons " ; they need far less predigestion and spoon- 
 feeding. The misuse of the maxim rii'h'/ per saltum is 
 bad enough in the primary school. It is worse in the 
 secondary. We ought to leave blanks purposely, so 
 that the pupil may himself supply the omissions. We 
 can take more for granted in the secondary than in 
 the primary grade, for the secondary pupil has usually 
 a larger vocabulary and all that this implies. 
 
 On the other hand, the primary teacher can generally 
 expect in his pupils a certain shrewd knowledge of the 
 present needs of daily life which more delicately sheltered 
 children will lack. Buying and selling, for instance, are 
 much closer to the experience of tne poor child ; therefore 
 problems connected with the provision-shop abound 
 quite properly in the arithmetical puzzles propounded to 
 little children in the primary schools ; but they are not 
 so suitable elsewhere. Again, we risk less in teaching a
 
 Instruction as Discipline 5 
 
 spoken language analytically in the secondary school 
 than in the primary. The pupil of the secondary grade 
 more generally lives amid surroundings in which the 
 vernacular speech is conversation ; and if it is a foreign 
 tongue that is in question, he has more chance of hearing 
 it used as a living method of communication at a later 
 stage. But if the primary scholar gets more than a very 
 moderate supply of analytical grammar and paradigms, 
 we may be sure he will always remain in that state into 
 which it has pleased a stupid pedagogy to call him. 
 
 Differences in subject-matter are equally important. 
 For though pupils differ infinitely one from _. ... 
 
 ° , Diversities in 
 
 another, and though nature has been as lavish subject- 
 of opportunity to some as she has been cur- matter, and 
 mudgeonly to others, yet skilful teaching can influence on 
 perform marvels when learners are willing, p^^'^'"^^ 
 But the subject-matter used in teaching is very stubborn. 
 Subjects differ, first of all, in regard to the qualities of 
 mind which they severally call into play and the aim to 
 which we address ourselves by using them. The lesson 
 in grammar is not easily made a lesson in literature. In 
 teaching grammar we wish to cultivate mainly th' 
 power of logical analysis, the discrimination of words and 
 phrases according to their various functions in relation to 
 one another, without regard to the effect which they are 
 meant to produce on the feelings. In literature, the 
 emotional or impressive effect is just everything ; it is 
 taste, liking, admiration, that we wish to quicken and 
 regulate. Even Reading we may teach, and indeed, we 
 ought to teach, for different purposes, and therefore in 
 different ways, at different times. To-day it may be 
 designed to cultivate mainly distinctness of speech, 
 to-morrow right emphasis, at another time the elements 
 of oratory. We ought not, for similar reasons, to teach
 
 6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 a modern spoken language as we teach " classics," nor 
 English as we teach either Latin or French. In English 
 we start with a large basis of speech already acquired ; 
 we need not, then, teach declensions, conjugations, and 
 such other analytical devices, seeing that our pupils 
 know them. Our chief object in teaching English as 
 a language is to make it copious and effective in our 
 pupils' mouths. The lists of words become less un- 
 reasonable in a living foreign tongue because under the 
 best circumstances our pupils will lack a large supply 
 of phrases ; though even here we should follow the hint 
 which is given us by the natural method of learning the 
 mother speech. But in the teaching of Latin and Greek, 
 the word and not the phrase may be pardonably made 
 the unit. 
 
 It is the business of the good teacher, then, to vary his 
 procedure according as his perspicacity and sympathy 
 enlighten him about his pupils' condition and needs. 
 Pupil differs from pupil, and the same boy will be a dif- 
 ferent person at various times ; form differs from form, 
 and the same form may have its corporate moods and 
 fancies. The varying "stuff" of knowledge cannot in 
 all cases be treated with the same details of procedure, 
 but must vary according to the instruments which it 
 uses, the qualities it quickens, the teacher's aims. 
 
 There are no " methods" which we can apply rigidly 
 to stated cases. The only infallible prescription is that 
 the teacher should be infallible ; for so we come back 
 to the greatest of all teaching rules : to become good 
 teachers we must teach well. The best we can do is 
 to take the pupil by the hand and to feel the way with 
 him, not merely /or him. 
 
 For practical purposes we may lay it down that vvc 
 teach either in order to extend our pupils' knowledge
 
 Instruction as Discipline 7 
 
 or to cultivate their dexterity in execution. In an ulti- 
 mate analysis the same process is followed in both 
 cases, but we can here afford to consider instruction 
 solely from the point of view suggested by the common 
 phrase " imparting knowledge ". 
 
 In the midst of all diversity the true type of teaching 
 is constant. The diversity arises inside the Yet there is 
 universal scheme which all good teachers a standard 
 follow; the differences are in details which type of 
 are modified to suit individual cases, but in ^^^'^^'"S 
 details only. The main process alters only in so far as 
 its various stages are more explicit or less explicit. The 
 formulation of this type is one of the great services 
 rendered to rational education by the followers of 
 Herbart, but all good teaching has, of course, approxi- 
 mated to it at all times ; bad teaching, so far (being a 
 procedure) as it was bad, has always fallen away from 
 it. All of us, in our occasional triumphs, have duly 
 (i) prepared the way properly, (2) presented our new 
 matter acceptably, and (3) called upon the class to make 
 its original contribution and draw its independent con- 
 clusion. But the possession of a standard by which we can 
 measure our performances is of great service to us; it is at 
 least a reminder of what is expected of us. This useful 
 standard is put at our disposal in the five common "stages" 
 or "steps" in instruction which, with insignificant varia- 
 tions, all the writers of this school approve. The faults 
 of inefficient teachers can generally be expressed as 
 breaches of Herbartian principles. 
 
 It is essential to remember as a preliminary, that 
 knowledge is not a " kingdom " cut up into "provinces " ; 
 it is not a vessel composed of water-tight compartments ; 
 if, when the human mind deals with it, it is like light 
 decomposed in a prism, we must remember that one
 
 8 Common Sense in Education 
 
 colour fades by insensible gradations into all the rest. 
 The minutest of our subdivisions, even those defined by 
 examining bodies, are inseparable from the rest ; just as 
 the human mind itself in all its operations is the same 
 mind. For the convenience of thought and business, 
 more or less legitimate, we have split up the area of 
 knowledge into little fields ; but every branch or item 
 of knowledge may illustrate, help out, complete, any 
 other branch or item. 
 
 Let us examine the formal " stages," and see whether 
 The formal ^^^ ^^" generally apply a knowledge of them 
 stages in the to practice, and with what cautions, 
 imparting of We naturally begin by letting our form 
 knowledge know what our aim is. The more shortly 
 and clearly this is done, the better. Some " trained " 
 Statement of teachers in giving a set lesson think it neces- 
 Aim sar}^ to beat about the bush, to get the class 
 
 to guess what they are driving at, by a process recalling 
 the " animal, vegetable, or mineral " game of our youth. 
 In fact, the pupils begin by putting themselves into a 
 thoroughly false attitude. They enter on a kind of 
 guessing competition, striving to find out what is in the 
 teacher's mind, what he wants them to say. This is bad 
 teaching. Once upon a time, for instance, a master was 
 about to give a lesson on marble to some small boys, and 
 began, for some occult reason, by asking his class to tell 
 him the names of various stones. He thus "elicited" 
 hearthstone, blue-stone, granite, kerb-stone, sandstone — 
 everything but marble. At last he tried another tack. 
 "Do you ever," he asked, " go for walks on Sunday — in the 
 churchyard ? " " Yes, sir," said a little boy. " And what 
 do you see there?" "The tombstones." "Well, don't 
 those remind you of another kind of stone? Think, 
 boys, think ! " " Please, sir, brimstone"
 
 Instruction as Discipline 9 
 
 Now this teacher should have told his boys without 
 any preface that he was going to give them a lesson 
 on marble ; there was not the least reason for beginning 
 his work by getting them to guess what was in his mind. 
 This is one form of the misuse of what is called the 
 " Socratic" method — to be discussed more fully later on. 
 The Socrates of some of the Dialogues used to lead his 
 victims by means of questions to some conclusion quite 
 different from that which they expected ; which anybody, 
 philosopher, or barrister, or pedagogue, can do if he is 
 allowed to have his own way in the arrangement and 
 form of his questions. There was no judge present to 
 moderate the questions put by Socrates, nor is there in 
 the case of the catechising teacher, who may therefore 
 make his pupils say what he wishes them to say and 
 may think that he has thus scored a point. No doubt 
 he has, but it is not a point of much importance ; he has 
 not necessarily taught anything at all. 
 
 The truth is that nothing can be gained by concealing 
 from our class the immediate object of our instruction. 
 In the case of very young children, to be sure, we may 
 be forgiven if, as a whet to appetite, we start with a little 
 brief mystery before we produce (say) the apple which is 
 to be the subject of the lesson ; but we must not tire out 
 their slender powers by setting them to guess-work before 
 we come to real instruction. Later on in school-life, 
 mystery is even more out of place. In dealing with a 
 class averaging twelve or thirteen years of age we cannot, 
 fortunately, conceal the equator under a duster and 
 triumphantly elicit the sacred name before we tell our 
 boys that that mysterious line is to be the subject of 
 our lesson. We more properly begin by finding what 
 various members of the class already know about it. 
 Later on in a pupil's life, the "statement of aim" — to use
 
 10 Common Sense in Education 
 
 the technical name for this preliminary to all teaching — 
 is generally implicit ; it lies, in fact, in the time-table. 
 We go on from where we left off — say, the hundred and 
 fiftieth line of the first book of Paradise Lost ; — unless, 
 of course we are opening up a subject of investigation 
 which stands out as something distinct — say, for instance, 
 the laws of Miltonic versification. 
 
 The point to be remembered then is this : that we 
 must go to work without circuitousness or unnecessary 
 circumstance. The Apple need not suggest a series of 
 questions recalling Man's First Disobedience and the 
 Garden of Eden generally, nor even " what we sometimes 
 have in puddings " ; the equator need not be approached 
 by a dissertation on the cocoanuts that grow in tropical 
 countries ; and no teacher, I imagine, need begin a series 
 of lessons on Milton's verse- writing with remarks about 
 the caesjira in Latin pentameters. 
 
 Ultimately, of course, these pairs of ideas or topics are 
 severally connected with each other, and their juxtaposi- 
 tion may beef great educational value; in the meantime, 
 however, the forcible association of each pair by means 
 of questions fired off at this stage by the teacher, would 
 be work done mainly by himself, not mainly by the class ; 
 and that is bad teaching. The class should see before it 
 an object of attainment ; it should not be led by the nose. 
 It is not however necessary, nor even often desirable, in 
 teaching little children or boys and girls, to parade the 
 name of the particular logical subdivision of science or 
 knowledge with which we are going to deal. We need 
 not write upon the black-board the words "Geography," 
 " History," or " Botany " before setting out ; to do so is 
 to emphasise the logical differences between "subjects," 
 whereas our chief business, in accordance with sound 
 psychology, is to cultivate a sense of the continuity of
 
 Instruction as Discipline 1 1 
 
 knowledge. But our immediate theme — the basin of the 
 Thames, the Corn Laws, or the Germination of a Bean — 
 cannot be propounded too clearly. 
 
 We come now to the first so-called formal step in the 
 process of teaching, the step technically known preparation 
 as Preparation. In stating our aim, we effected awakens 
 a rough kind of synthesis ; we pulled our expectancy 
 pupils' ideas together, so to speak ; concen- ^""^ appetite 
 trated their attention on one thing. The Preparation 
 stage is analytical ; and we shall find that in good 
 teaching synthesis and analysis alternate regularly. We 
 must first find out what the class already knows of the 
 subject in hand ; and we should begin boldly by asking 
 W/io can tell 7ne anything about this apple . . . the equator 
 . Milton's versification ? The pedantical or mis- 
 trained teacher shrinks from such an "omnibus" question. 
 He prefers to put a little question to Tom, another to 
 Dick, another to Harry, with the intention, no doubt, of 
 building up an edifice after his own plan. This was, 
 as he understands it, the method of Socrates, and it has 
 the results sometimes attributed to the work of that great 
 philosopher : it stimulates a very, very small minority, 
 if any of the class happen to see what he is driving at, 
 but it completely silences the greater number, who either 
 regard him and his teaching with indifference or would 
 gladly offer him hemlock. 
 
 Our first duty, then, is to get all we can, in a form as 
 full as possible, from any one willing to speak. We thus 
 set every pupil "rummaging" about in his stock of ideas 
 to see what he can find that is pertinent ; we cultivate 
 the habit of looking for things that may have perhaps 
 slipped out of consciousness ; and we keep alive the self- 
 respect that makes the pupil the teacher's willing com- 
 panion instead of his trailing captive.
 
 12 Common Sense in Education 
 
 We should let our pupils in this way build as much as 
 possible for themselves. There are very few stages of 
 pupilage, above of course the very lowest, in which some 
 members of a class will not have a few details at least 
 which the master has not. If the master tries to get his 
 pupils to build exclusively from the supply of bricks 
 carried in his own hod, he is a stupid, because a wasteful 
 teacher. But when the class has produced all that the 
 teacher judges can be contributed spontaneously, he will 
 arrange this in the most profitable order by a few 
 judicious summarising questions ; placing two facts side 
 by side and making the class recognise one as cause, the 
 other as effect ; adding something pertinent here, re- 
 moving the irrelevant there ; in short, preparing the 
 ground for the formal step that naturally follows next. 
 
 The stage of Preparation has been, in the main, a 
 process of analysis. It is true that in settiner 
 our house in order we do synthesise ; but the 
 teacher's most important aim, so far, has been to render 
 available what his pupils have in stock ; the setting in 
 order was merely an introduction to the next step, Presen- 
 tation of new matter, rather than the essential part of 
 the Preparation. That is, the stage of Preparation was 
 mainly analytical, whereas the stage of Presentation is 
 to be mainly synthetical. 
 
 We may add to a boy's stock of knowledge in three 
 
 The attempt ^^^^^ °"'>'- ^^ ^^'^" '""^'^^ him observe, we 
 to "elicit" can make him infer, and we can tell him what 
 everything is we want him to know. What we cannot do 
 a great snare j^ « gjj^jj. » f,.Q,^ j^j,^^ j^^ dexterous questions 
 knowledge which he did not possess before we set to 
 work. The word "elicit" is a kind of Mesopotamia for 
 sanctity and potency with the over-formal teacher; and 
 the procedure which it usually implies is no less wonder-
 
 Instruction as Discipline 13 
 
 ful, for whereas it was used by Socrates generally in order 
 to show his victims that they knew nothing, it is used 
 in our schools by the imitators of a degenerate Socrates 
 to show their pupils that they really know everything. 
 And the worst of the matter is that it may be made 
 to do one thing or the other, as Socrates' own practice 
 showed, for instance, in the Meno dialogue ; the essential 
 and corrupting fact being that the teacher does all the 
 work and the pupil speaks — nay thinks — only on invita- 
 tion and on a line prescribed. He is, in other words, 
 led by the nose. And this is the origin of endless 
 aimless chattering. 
 
 We may, then, make (i) our boy observe for himself 
 by showing him what to look for and how to look for it ; 
 or we may (2) lead him to see causal connexion between 
 two facts or sets of facts ; or we may (3) tell him. To 
 tell him is often, not the shortest way only, but also the 
 best way ; but how much of one or another procedure is 
 to be used must be determined by the teacher's tact and 
 perspicacity. The better we succeed in getting our boy 
 to put forth effort, the better no doubt he will hold 
 what he attains ; but if we want him to arrive at the 
 fact that a certain king died of a surfeit of peaches and 
 new ale, we had better tell him and have done with it. 
 No questions bearing on the diagnosis of indigestion 
 and the weaknesses of kings will help either our boy 
 or us. 
 
 The Preparation process will have stirred up expec- 
 tation, quickened pertinent ideas, put out points of 
 attraction for other similar ideas. The presentation now 
 performed by the teacher lays the new ideas within reach 
 of the old ones in one of the three ways enumerated ; 
 either by directing observation, or stimulating inference, 
 or by straightforward telling.
 
 14 Common Sense in Education 
 
 If we have been successful in our presentation of new 
 matter, we have not just filled up a gap in knowledge, 
 we have not merely finished off the old ideas existing 
 in our pupils' minds by attaching more ideas ; we have 
 also given the old ideas a new life, transformed and 
 enlarged them ; not satisfied them, but made them 
 readier to appropriate and assimilate more of the same 
 kind of food. The real process, then, is one of compari- 
 son. The regenerated and enlarged ideas begin to sort 
 out from the mental debris of experience, from conscious- 
 ness, other ideas that are like themselves, separating 
 them from the unlike. They perform a kind of analysis, 
 succeeded by an act of synthesis. Contrast or Com- 
 parison marks things out from one another, 
 
 Comparison i • i 
 
 decomposes them, m order to recompose 
 them. All analysis in a healthy mind is followed by 
 synthesis. The formal step called Comparison therefore 
 " sets up parallels ". The teacher of little children makes 
 her pupils compare the apple with other common fruits ; 
 the schoolboy of twelve recalls other sovereigns who 
 have died from famous indigestion ; the scholar of eigh- 
 teen who is reading the history of Roman land legislation 
 compares the Hebrew year of Jubilee with the less regular 
 efforts of the Roman plebs and others to readjust their 
 burdens. 
 
 The step next laid down as usual and necessary is 
 Generaiisa- the formulation of a general fact or law ; this 
 t'^" is the stage of Generalisation, which follows 
 
 naturally upon the process of Association, or Compari- 
 son, or setting up of parallels — sen quocunquc alio nomine 
 — that has already taken place. The pitfall that here 
 commonly waits for the unwary teacher is the favourite 
 fallacy of the illogical, generalisation on too few parti- 
 culars. It happens most frequently in what are called
 
 Instruction as Discipline 15 
 
 "science" lessons. The "scientist" shows that a bar of 
 iron expands under heat or that steam takes up more 
 space than water ; he then triumphantly requires his 
 class to infer that all bodies expand under heat. It is 
 clear that even if the law as stated were true, the one 
 unanalysed illustration is not, taken alone, sufficient 
 to establish it. Nevertheless, teachers, and especially 
 teachers of experimental "science," often seem to be 
 doing their best in this operation to cultivate our natural 
 depravity, our tendency to jump to conclusions on in- 
 sufficient and unchecked evidence, the fount and origin 
 of as many human woes as indulgence in strong drink; 
 for indeed it is a kind of dissipation. If the teacher can 
 so contrive his class procedure as to show his pupils 
 how the laws of logic require that conclusions should 
 be scrutinised and checked, his methods are sound and 
 profitable. If he does not follow this course, his teach- 
 ing may be thoroughly bad training, and can be expected 
 to result neither in the strengthening of the reasoning 
 powers nor in "scientific" discovery. 
 
 Obviously, the generalisations made by pupils of dif- 
 ferent ages will differ. Suppose for instance the Armada 
 is a subject dealt with in three stages of school-life. The 
 boy of eight or nine may be made to understand that 
 a number of quick little sailing ships are handier in a 
 fight than a number of lumbering galleons. The boy of 
 twelve or thirteen may be led to recognise as a general 
 fact that free institutions knit together against invasion 
 people of all creeds and all classes. The older students 
 will, with other things, see deeper into the political situa- 
 tion and the bearing of social and political institutions 
 on the conflict. We must note, of course, that as we 
 ascend in the scale, the power of generalisation neces- 
 sarily becomes greater, and that we do not expect the
 
 1 6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 small boy to group his parallels into laws as freely as 
 the scholar of riper years ; he has fewer facts and is less 
 capable of seeing reason. Many lessons will stop with 
 Presentation. 
 
 We must be on our guard, too, lest in the endeavour 
 to secure a generalisation we make no distinction be- 
 tween the exacter sciences (such as mathematics in a 
 high degree and grammar in a lower degree) and those 
 sciences in which generalisations are less easily obtained 
 because of the lower certainty of the subject-matter, as 
 history, for instance, and geography, and even the ex- 
 perimental sciences, each in its proper degree. 
 
 In mathematics, which deals with types or abstractions 
 throughout, generalisations may be irrefutable ; in the 
 experimental sciences and sciences which can by their 
 nature determine opinion only without justifying convic- 
 tion or certitude, we must be content with something less. 
 Therefore not only will the kind of generalisation made 
 by our pupils differ at different stages of school-life, but 
 the generalising process will always be safer and more 
 legitimate in some subjects than in others. We may 
 allow generalisations to be made freely in mathematics ; 
 in the experimental sciences they must be tentative and 
 hedged round with qualifications ; while in history and 
 geography it will often be best to be content with an 
 orderly and clear apprehension of particulars. 
 
 The philosophers lay it down next that we should 
 Application ^pply our generalisations, gained as we have 
 ofgeneraiisa- described, to somc common or current matter, 
 tion to new We are to make our pupils use their general- 
 particulars isation with a new fact or facts, as a premiss 
 in deducing new results. If we recur to our Armada 
 illustration, the small boy might fairly be allowed to 
 suggest that a big modern battleship may be at the 
 mercy of handier boats of smaller size — given of course
 
 Instruction as Discipline 17 
 
 additional conditions, which must be added to make the 
 reasoning safe. The boy of twelve may make immediate 
 application of his generalisation to the effect of the free 
 institutions of his native land in cultivating a sober 
 national self-reliance. And so forth. This step in its 
 turn must be taken with very great precaution in order 
 to secure that the new particular can properly be brought 
 under the generalisation which is used for its elucidation. 
 A correct minor premiss is not less important than a 
 correct major. 
 
 Let us see now to what extent there is justification for 
 the criticisms directed against this formula. 
 
 First of all it is a formula, and therefore in the com- 
 plexity of things must be liable to large dis- objections to 
 counting. Most good lessons will teach more, the Heibar- 
 and many good lessons will teach less, than is *'*"s' 'yp^ 
 implied in its strict use. The incidental teaching in a 
 lesson is often of greater value than the generalisation in 
 which it accomplishes itself, and " application " may have 
 to stand over for a fit opportunity. 
 
 But this criticism is not more fatal to the general 
 formula of teaching than it is to other useful formulas. 
 For instance " Things that are equal to the same thing 
 are equal to one another " is true only, so to speak, in 
 vacuo; for no one thing can be conceivably equal to 
 another thing. Still, the formula is very useful ; things 
 that tend to be equal to the same thing tend also to be 
 equal to one another ; and by believing this we get very 
 valuable results. 
 
 We come near to the exact use of the Herbartian type 
 in lessons to little children ; and that is one of the reasons 
 why the best training for teachers is training that begins 
 with teaching the very young, for the mental operations 
 of children are simpler, more primitive, less veiled by 
 
 2
 
 1 8 Common Sense in Education 
 
 reserve, than those of older folk. " Object lessons " in 
 particular lend themselves to the standard treatment, 
 the several steps being clearer and the side issues fewer 
 than in most other kinds of lesson. 
 
 It is objected next that some lessons scarcely approach 
 the type ; that the various processes already here enu- 
 merated cannot be applied in lessons which are, so to 
 speak, carried forward over a long period — such as, for 
 instance, the study of a Greek play. But remember, 
 first of all, that it is already admitted that the steps may 
 be merely implicit. We do not always State our Aim, 
 Prepare, Present new Matter, and so forth, formally ; we 
 pick up the thread of our work where we dropped it. 
 The class may know well what is our general aim with- 
 out being told, and in the same way other steps may be 
 merely implicit, or temporarily suppressed, or attenuated. 
 But note, in the second place, that though the whole of 
 a single hour's lesson may not fall into the standard 
 mould, yet every item that we teach, every difficulty that 
 we tackle, actually does. If a good teacher meets a 
 crabbed passage, how does he proceed ? He first, being 
 a good teacher, gives his class clearly to understand what 
 the difficulty is. If he were a bad teacher (and most of 
 us have met such monsters) he would leave the class 
 uncertain about the point to which he would have atten- 
 tion specially directed ; this is the characteristic fault 
 of bad lecturers, and it is commoner in the secondary 
 grade and university teaching than in the primary grade. 
 Having stated his aim, the good teacher prepares the 
 ground by calling for his pupils' voluntary contributions. 
 This is where we note the most conspicuous defect of 
 the primary teacher. He has almost lost the tradition 
 which required boys and girls to " get up " something by 
 themselves ; not only therefore will he not invite a volun-
 
 Instruction as Discipline 19 
 
 tary contribution, but — ah ! how much worse ! — he will 
 only ask a question of which he foresees, or thinks he 
 foresees, the answer. This is indeed one of the several 
 Socrates represented to us by Plato and Xenophon, but 
 it is the worst kind of Socrates. 
 
 The fault of Mangnall's Questions was not that they 
 gave children all sorts of information to learn by heart — 
 which itself might be very useful — but that they actually 
 provided beforehand against the pupil's discursiveness or 
 expatiation ; stopped his earth ; circumvented him. Yet 
 Mangnall's Questions had at least the merit of throwing 
 the work on to the pupil and not the teacher ; for, as 
 Charles Kingsley and Miss Soulsby say, children once 
 used to learn a lesson and say it to the teacher, whereas 
 now-a-days the teacher learns the lesson and says it to 
 the children. 
 
 In tackling our difficult passage, then, we follow the 
 type in making our call first on the class, and when we 
 have led our boys by encouragement and a little question- 
 ing to produce all they can, we proceed to give our version, 
 " present" new matter. After this, we "compare" other 
 similar passages, lead to the general rule, and, as soon as 
 we have the chance, make the class apply the newly 
 learnt rule to a new instance. 
 
 Proceeding thus, the old construing lesson has been of 
 incalculable value as mental training ; and it The constru- 
 still holds its place against every other school ing lesson 
 exercise, precisely because it so naturally approaches the 
 standard which was not propounded till the formal steps 
 were set forth by the Herbartians. If what is called 
 "science" teaching would only take a leaf from the 
 classical book and model itself on the ordinarily good 
 construing lesson, it would do much more to deserve the 
 supreme place in the curriculum which some enthusiasts
 
 20 Common Sense in Education 
 
 claim for it. The whole sum of profitable instruction is 
 to teach people not a chaos of facts, but how to discover 
 and apply pertinent considerations in particular problems. 
 This is exactly what good instruction on the Herbartian 
 model does for us, and there is no better exercise for it 
 than the critical study of literature. 
 
 " Notes of Lessons" should be frequently drawn up 
 Notes of by students and occasionally by all young 
 Lessons teachers, and should be submitted to the 
 
 criticism of an experienced person. The less "stuff" 
 they contain, the better. The traditional division into 
 Matter and Method is generally unsatisfactory because 
 the two things are hardly separable, and what appears as 
 "method" in most Notes of Lessons is usually not method 
 but procedure, telling not why a particular procedure is 
 adopted, but the machinery that is going to be used. 
 Wherever the subject permits, the Herbartian arrange- 
 ment is far better, the least of its merits being that it 
 forces the student to concentration. Certain lessons — 
 discursive literature lessons or " construes " — will not 
 easily lend themselves as wholes to this kind of formula- 
 tion, but it must never be forgotten that the formula is 
 applicable to theparfr, if not the whole, of every piece of 
 real teaching. 
 
 Wherever possible, the notes of a lesson should indicate 
 the next, or any succeeding step, which the pupils may 
 be expected to take the more easily because this lesson 
 has been learnt. It is not to be supposed that any lesson 
 is entirely complete in itself. The process of Application, 
 properly used, should make the scholar feel that the 
 lesson opens up a new field, or new fields, to him. The 
 best closing formula for a lesson would be " Next time 
 we shall be able to discuss . . . See what you can make 
 of it for yourselves," This is what we mean when we
 
 Instruction as Discipline 21 
 
 set home-lessons to be heard at school, and it is therefore 
 of immense importance that home-lessons should break 
 new ground, in ever so humble a way, and with careful 
 regard to age, health, and status, and not be merely 
 " exercises " on work done in school. The mental atti- 
 tude which we should desire our teaching to produce in 
 our pupils is expectancy. Everything that deadens this 
 is bad teaching. If we can get our boys and girls to leave 
 the class-room wishing to know a little more, be sure the 
 process of digestion will be healthy. If they are merely 
 satisfied with their meal, the result may be good or bad ; 
 if they are surfeited, it must be disastrous. 
 
 The young and enthusiastic teacher whose training has 
 perhaps led him to attach undue importance . . 
 to the machinery of the single lesson will do teaching is 
 well to remember that the series of lessons, moreimpor- 
 his plan of teaching a big subject as a whole, 'ant than the 
 is of much more consequence than the elabora- ^'"^'^ '^^^°" 
 tion of each one of thirty lessons. He must think of 
 every subject of the curriculum not aQ a body of facts 
 to be acquired but as a mental habit or attitude to be 
 cultivated. By all means let the items be carefully con- 
 sidered, each in its place ; but it matters less if there 
 are gaps here and there than if the general syllabus and 
 general treatment should be pedantic or inadequate. In 
 these days of brand-new syllabuses and curricula we do 
 well to watch this point with great solicitude. 
 
 We may then fairly doubt whether the " Socratic " 
 method, as commonly understood and prac- Misuseofthe 
 tised, has done our teaching much real good ; "Socratic" 
 and it is to be hoped that it will not devastate method 
 secondary teaching through the enthusiastic misguidance 
 of imperfectly trained teachers. Questioning, in the 
 hands of Socrates, to judge at least from Plato, was often
 
 22 Common Sense in Education 
 
 an " eristic," a merely controversial device, rather than a 
 means of teaching. It was indeed, a kind of " sophistry " 
 in the modern sense, and it could quite truly make the 
 worse cause appear to be the better one. Socrates' 
 questions not unfrequently bemused and confused his 
 victims ; and then, when the master had fairly or unfairly 
 — he did not mind which — proved them wrong, or at all 
 events had intellectually stupefied them, he dropped his 
 catechising and made long speeches ; that is, he lectured, 
 lectured if Plato records aright, gloriously. But this 
 cannot be said to be a good working model for us, 
 Socrates did not usually teach a class of boys. We 
 must not discourage our young pupils by a patter of 
 questions, having confutation as their result ; and little 
 profit is to be got from mere lecturing. We have to 
 induce boys and girls to work ; set them to master 
 things, to bring us the proof and to rejoice in their 
 own articulateness, not in ours. We must not silence 
 them either by perpetually talking ourselves or by pre- 
 scribing the exact form to be taken by their thoughts 
 made articulate. That is, we must be moderate in our 
 use of questioning as a discipline in instruction. We must 
 encourage them to construct for themselves. The exces- 
 sive use of questioning is a worship of mere machinery. 
 After all, it should be remembered that in the common 
 order of nature it is the person needing instruc- 
 xcessive ^j^^^ ^^^ usually asks questions, not the pcr- 
 
 questionmg j x j i 
 
 reverses the ^on giving it. Why should the nature of 
 
 natural pro- things be topsy-turvy in the schoolroom ? It 
 
 cedure and js not SO at home. Why should the ques- 
 
 ea ens tioner in school be almost always the teacher 
 
 initiative . i /• i t -> /-^ i • 
 
 mstead of the learner? Our busmess is to 
 make our scholars feel the lack of information, desire to 
 ask questions ; to encourage them to find out what they
 
 Instruction as Discipline 23 
 
 can for themselves, and to be keen to hear what we have 
 to add to their stock. Tkey must, in fact, question us ; 
 or, at all events, stand in the attitude of those who want 
 to know. 
 
 If our pupils get into the habit of waiting for a ques- 
 tion before they are moved to stir up their existing stock 
 of applicable ideas, they will respond ultimately to no 
 other stimulus ; and they will even be unable, or at least 
 disinclined, to produce an answer unless the question to 
 which they are accustomed comes in the form which 
 they expect. " They never move but by the wind of 
 other men's breath, and have no oars of their own to 
 steer withal," if we may quote Cowley. That is, the 
 knowledge is never truly theirs ; it is still the property 
 of their teacher, who is the holder of the key that fits the 
 lock ; who rubs the lamp in the prescribed way to make 
 the genie appear ; who knows that only a penny, and 
 not a shilling, will fit the slot and disengage the packet 
 of chocolate. A question, rightly put, contains, as we 
 know, more than half the answer, and it is not good 
 teaching to leave so much of the permanent initiative 
 with the teacher. The too convincing proof of this lies 
 in the fact that, on the whole, the pupil of the primary 
 school is generally inarticulate except when just the right 
 sort of question is put to him. His teacher can always 
 "bring out" his knowledge, "elicit" it quite honestly, 
 when the most genial stranger may fail. The boy's ideas 
 are only half alive ; they put out tentacles, so to speak, 
 in one direction only. 
 
 He is in the condition of certain of the sages of 
 Laputa, not indeed by reason of intense speculation, but 
 because his ideas sleep until some familiar sprite stirs 
 them from outside with a magic wand. People in his 
 mental condition, as Lemuel Gulliver describes them,
 
 24 Common Sense in Education 
 
 " can neither speak nor attend to the discourses of 
 others without being roused by some external taction 
 upon the organs of speech and hearing ; for which reason 
 those persons who are able to afford it always keep a 
 flapper in their family . . . and the business of this 
 officer is . . . gently to strike with his bladder the 
 mouth of him who is to speak and the right ear of him 
 or them to whom the speaker addresses himself". 
 
 With us, it is the teacher who too often has to act as 
 the flapper. 
 
 We tend to forget that all the elaborate rules about 
 proper questioning are merely ancillary to the first of 
 all teaching rules, the rule that calls upon us by every 
 available means to induce pupils to think clearly and con- 
 secutively for themselves. For this purpose, the elliptical 
 question, the question answered in one word, the question 
 that evokes a plain Yes or No, may all be occasionally 
 used with point and effect. But questioning is not in 
 itself teaching ; it is a device, an instrument, to be used 
 with proper parsimony, and serviceable only in order to 
 stimulate the pupil to independent effort. 
 
 We shall not fall into the error of excessive question- 
 Theremedy "^S if we remember that our chief business is 
 caU for con- to give the pupil the power and habit of re- 
 secutivere- constituting his knowledge for himself, not as 
 capitulation fragments but as wholes. Let us by all means 
 ask necessary questions, particularly in the stage in 
 which we are preparing the ground for new matter ; but 
 it is far more important that we should call frequently 
 for a concatenated account of the ivhole of a point or lesson, 
 with only such rare prompting as may be necessary to 
 ensure that the recapitulator leaves no serious gap. 
 With younger pupils the process must, of course, be 
 chiefly oral ; one or more should perform this summary
 
 Instruction as Discipline 25 
 
 exercise at various stages and at the end of every lesson. 
 As they get older, pupils can be more frequently called 
 upon to make their summary in writing ; but the oral 
 recapitulation is always exceedingly valuable. The work 
 is then fresh in the minds of the audience, criticism is 
 alert, and confidence is strengthened. Moreover, it is no 
 small gain to cultivate the habit of thinking aloud ; for 
 most of us cease to think connectedly as soon as we 
 begin to speak ; we say what we have thought, not what 
 we are thinking ; we may chatter in the pseudo-Socratic 
 manner taught in the schools, but we do not converse. 
 
 Let us then make our boys and girls stand up and 
 give their own summary, perhaps after a few minutes for 
 thinking it over, at the end of every lesson or every 
 separate part thereof that lends itself to such treatment 
 — history, geography, "science," divinity, mathematics, 
 even philology. Clearly, as our scholars advance in age, 
 the desire which we have encouraged in them to ask 
 questions in class will be assuaged by a larger stock 
 of information and, above all, by a knowledge of other 
 quarters from which information is obtainable. The 
 practice of questioning becomes then chiefly a means by 
 which the teacher finds out what his pupil knows, not 
 so much a means of external stimulus. The youth of 
 eighteen or nineteen may be expected to listen to lectur- 
 ing which would quite properly send younger folk to 
 sleep. 
 
 The " Socratic " method has trailed after it another 
 teaching device of more than doubtful value, t.. ,, 
 
 ° . ' The "com- 
 
 and that is the insistence on the " complete piete sen- 
 sentence" in answer to all questions. It was tence"no 
 discovered that submission to the plague of '■^•"'^dy 
 excessive questioning made the children less articulate 
 and less constructive. It was noticed how incapable
 
 26 Common Sense in Education 
 
 they seemed to be not merely of giving a continuous 
 account of anything, but also of speaking otherwise than 
 by hints and in jerks, as who should move only in answer 
 to string-pulling. They are therefore sometimes expected 
 to acquire copia verbormn by being made to throw all their 
 answers into full categorical form. But this is rather 
 hindrance than help. If to my question " What have I 
 in my hand ? " a child answers " You have an apple in 
 your hand," or " It is an apple," instead of " An apple " 
 (which is what most sane people would say), he has 
 merely expressed at length what was always implicit in 
 the briefer reply. I have made the child evolve no new 
 ideas, reach out to no new knowledge. I have succeeded 
 only in putting a skid or brake on his wheel, making his 
 ratiocination less nimble by cumbering it with machinery. 
 But if I call on him to fix together several steps of teach- 
 ing, he makes not one sentence but many, and constructs 
 a ladder on which he reaches something quite new. To 
 be sure, there is an appropriate and very useful place for 
 the " complete sentence" in teaching, and that is in the 
 "composition" or "rhetoric" lesson, which calls for the 
 conscious manipulation of various forms of speech to 
 produce particular effects. Small boys and girls must, 
 at seven or eight, be taught how to make sentences, 
 which is properly done when the teacher shows them 
 on the black-board how they can summarise a lesson in 
 several sentences all connected. But perpetual insistence 
 on the use of the complete single sentence in answering, 
 even in the infant stage, results, if in no other harm, in 
 the production of unnecessary slowness and " priggish- 
 ness ". The device is not even *' Socratic " ; Socrates 
 was quite satisfied with one word, if it was the word that 
 he wanted ; satisfied even with an elliptical answer, which 
 may be very effective. The quick play of question and
 
 Instruction as Discipline 27 
 
 answer is often most valuable just because of its sup- 
 pression of all but the words necessary to from the 
 skeleton of the working thoughts. There is no reason, 
 let us say again, why the practices of every-day life 
 should be turned topsy-turvy in the school. Questioning 
 and answering in school will be most profitable accord- 
 ing as they approach most nearly the form that intelli- 
 gent conversation takes elsewhere ; and it is certain that 
 the " complete sentence " is not the invariable form even 
 of the best-regulated conversation amongst the most 
 intelligent teachers. 
 
 Shakespeare knew the value of the incomplete sentence. 
 Its very incompleteness is often its very strength. 
 
 K. John. He is a very serpent in my way ; 
 
 And wheresd'er this foot of mine doth tread 
 He lies before me; dost thou understand me? 
 Thou art his keeper. 
 
 Hubert. And Til keep him so, 
 
 That he shall not offend your majesty. 
 
 K. John. Death. 
 
 Hubert. My Lord ? 
 
 K. John. A grave. 
 
 Hubert. He shall not live. 
 
 There are many devices by which we may maintain 
 interest during the process of teaching, though otherdeviccs 
 the main source of interest must always be for maintain- 
 the judicious use of a rational plan. But all 'ngif^'erest 
 teachers, and especially teachers of young people, find it 
 necessary, for the maintenance of willing interest, to 
 "illustrate" what might be, at least at first, or to the 
 more listless members of a class, arid and dull. How- 
 ever engaging our subject may be in itself, the constraint
 
 28 Common Sense in Education 
 
 of class-teaching is constraint after all, and the teacher 
 must help his class to submit to constraint cheerfully. 
 He has therefore to supplement the gifts which he owes 
 to nature, the clear and pleasant voice, good physique, 
 and the rest, by learning to interpret the signs of mental 
 fatigue and unrest ; by cultivating the power of clear 
 consecutive narrative and ready speech ; by using effectu- 
 ally graphic and "object" illustrations; by such means 
 of stimulus as marks and place-taking. 
 
 The effects of the personality of the teacher are dealt 
 with elsewhere, but a word may be said about " illustra- 
 tions " and other means of artificial stimulus which all 
 can command. 
 
 " Illustrations" in the primary school tend to become 
 "iiiustra- a kind of fetich. In the desire to obey the 
 tions" precept "things before words," the teacher 
 
 has often fallen into the error of acting as if "things" 
 could be a substitute for words, as if ideas were naught. 
 Accordingly, elaborate and complicated pictures are pre- 
 pared beforehand and paraded rapidly before the eyes of 
 the class in the hope that all the details over which the 
 teacher or engraver has spent so much time may some- 
 how get under the skin of the listless boy that gapes in 
 the back row. Or an operation which is perfectly simple 
 in three dimensions is obscured by being represented on 
 the black-board in two. The right rule in such cases is 
 surely this — that graphic illustration should be used to 
 help out the mechanical or verbal representation, not to 
 complicate it. If an operation in needlework is under- 
 stood when demonstrated with needle and cotton and 
 working material, a diagram may darken counsel. The 
 making of a beef-steak pie needs no diagram. But 
 if we wish to isolate parts of a complicated process, 
 as for instance in chemical demonstrations, the black-
 
 Instruction as Discipline 29 
 
 board, with its sectional drawing of retorts and test tubes 
 and wires and so on, and its indication of physical process, 
 may be very useful. It is very doubtful, on the other 
 hand, whether the graphic representation of a metaphor 
 illustrating a series of concrete facts, such as that so 
 ingeniously constructed by Mr. Somervell in Teaching 
 and Organisation^ may not lead to most serious confusion 
 of metaphor or illustration with explanation, which is one 
 of the most fruitful causes of error in every branch of 
 knowledge, and notably in history and theology and philo- 
 sophy. So too, in botany teaching, the enlarged sketch 
 gives definiteness and permanence to what under magni- 
 fying glass or microscope is perceived with difficulty. It 
 may be generally said that for teaching purposes black- 
 board illustration is more effective in proportion as it is 
 rapid, rough, and incidental. When a class sees a sketch 
 grow rapidly under the teacher's hand, it believes in it ; a 
 sketch made out of sight beforehand carries little con- 
 viction. Such drawing is a help to abstraction ; it notes 
 down the pertinent things and eliminates what does not 
 matter. It is a kind of shorthand. 
 
 Teachers sometimes load themselves with items or 
 " objects " to show to a class, and think a lesson is good 
 in proportion to the number of "illustrations" so pro- 
 duced. And yet it is not the number of things but rather 
 their pertinence to a clear mental result that makes such 
 devices useful. Not only must the illustrations used in 
 teaching be pertinent ; they must also not be over-elaborate 
 when they are pertinent. The simple black-board draw- 
 ing of Vergil's plough made before the class, the rough 
 sand or clay model constructed under similar conditions, 
 are far superior to many objects which have cost their 
 makers hours of labour. 
 
 The perpetual parading of things before the eyes of
 
 30 Common Sense in Education 
 
 learners is the misuse of a very salutary practice. Lemuel 
 Gulliver saw the like in Laputa. 
 
 " Since words are only names for things, it would be 
 more convenient for all men to carry about them such 
 things as were necessary to express a particular business 
 they are to discourse on. . . . Many of the most learned 
 and wise adhere to the new scheme of expressing them- 
 selves by things, which has only this inconvenience 
 attending it, that if a man's business be very great and 
 of various kinds, he must be obliged in proportion to 
 carry a greater bundle of things upon his back. ... I 
 have often beheld two of these sages almost sinking 
 under the weight of their packs, who, when they met in 
 the street, would lay down their loads, open their packs, 
 and hold conversation for an hour together ; then put 
 up their implements, help each other to resume their 
 burdens, and take their leave." 
 
 There are people, again, whose minds are mere store- 
 houses of observations or " facts ". But there is no great 
 advantage to be secured by photographing on the brain all 
 that we see or hear ; this may lead to mere dissipation of 
 attention. We must try to remember the significant and 
 pertinent things. Like Themistocles when Simonides 
 offered to teach him the art of remembering, we may 
 well say that we would rather learn the art of forgetting ; 
 for like Themistocles, we often forget what we should 
 remember, and remember what we should forget. 
 
 In marking and place-taking, the main point that 
 Marking and should be bome in mind is that we must be 
 Place-taking careful to conserve the self-respect of a boy 
 who is habitually low in a form. We cannot always 
 give honest effort its due. But, in allotting marks, we 
 may at least allow an exercise that shows a minimum 
 number of mistakes to receive full marks ; by this device
 
 Instruction as Discipline 31 
 
 relative excellence need not seem almost unattainable to 
 the ordinary boy who puts his best foot forward, nor the 
 brilliant " freak " be corrupted by having no rival near his 
 throne. Place-taking, a very useful practice indeed, has 
 almost entirely disappeared from the primary schools, 
 no doubt in the main because of the large classes that 
 are common and the break in apparent orderliness which 
 the practice involves. The instinct that retains it in the 
 lower forms of the secondary school is a sound one. It 
 stimulates competitive effort with few risks ; it keeps 
 interest alive ; it cultivates quick-wittedness ; it gives the 
 boys a sense that they are sharing in the game which 
 is otherwise enjoyed by the master alone. With such 
 precautions as those described by Canon Lyttelton in 
 Teaching and Organisation, it is a fine and safe instru- 
 ment of class-discipline. 
 
 It is a matter for regret that a writer on the practice of 
 education as it is organised cannot satisfactorily Examina- 
 dispose of his subject without feeling that his tions 
 views and recommendations must be qualified by con- 
 siderations arising from the influence of public examina- 
 tions. In the course of our day's work we must repeatedly 
 deplore that what we know to be the truly edifying and 
 educative procedure cannot be adopted for the simple 
 reason that the indifferent performance of our pupils in 
 public examinations is too serious a professional disaster 
 for us to face. 
 
 It cannot be too firmly maintained that no examination 
 is really satisfactory as a test of the quality of instruc- 
 tion given which does not provide for the participation 
 of the teacher, the only person who is conversant with 
 the needs and the intellectual condition of his pupil. 
 An ideal examination would combine the internal or 
 domestic with the external or foreign examiner. There
 
 32 Common Sense in Education 
 
 are many ways in which this might be effected. For 
 instance, in every examination the teacher might pro- 
 pound (say) a dozen questions from which the external 
 examiner would be required to choose (say) six, and to 
 these add six of his own. As it is, we may have 
 examiners who have never taught at all, who may even 
 never have been themselves taught in form. In the 
 universities a reasonable representation of recent teach- 
 ing is obtained by the inclusion of examiners who have 
 themselves recently taught, but not taught the candi- 
 dates under present examination. We suffer, again, 
 under the almost entire absence of oral examination, 
 which would in many cases enable a candidate who had 
 been either ill-treated or unfairly favoured by fortune to 
 get his deserts. Moreover, our examinations are exces- 
 sively minute, and, as a consequence, tend to be directed 
 excessively to incidental and collateral knowledge rather 
 than to the things that greatly matter ; to exceptions, to 
 rare and inconsiderable items, to novelties, knotty points, 
 and so forth. 
 
 Of course the skilful examiner is careful to keep the 
 balance true and to try particularly to find out how far 
 candidates have mastered the various parts of their 
 subjects in proper proportion as well as their outlying 
 matter ; but every one knows that many examiners are 
 not experts in teaching, much less in education ; and 
 that the youngest and least experienced of scholars are 
 often set to examine youths and young children, who are 
 most seriously injured by making a wrong start. 
 
 The teacher can do a great deal to mitigate the effect of 
 these evils by distinguishing carefully between examina- 
 tions private and public. We examine our pupils in 
 private for two purposes : first, to ascertain the effect of 
 our own work, to check ourselves no less than them ;
 
 Instruction as Discipline 23 
 
 secondly, to co-ordinate, concentrate, and confirm their 
 knowledge. To this end oral examination is generally 
 more effectual than paper work, the true type of exami- 
 nation being, as Professor Laurie says, intelligent con- 
 versation. Paper work, however, is most serviceable in 
 securing greater deliberateness of thought and exactness 
 of expression ; and it is the more necessary as we 
 advance in the school course and deal with subjects 
 that make greater calls on reflection and cover a larger 
 area of details from which the pupil has to select the 
 material of his answer or theme. Bearing in mind the 
 purpose of private examination, we can use it effectually 
 both to build up mind and character and to correct some 
 of the inevitable perversion of perspective which results 
 from unscientific examination by external authorities. 
 We must be careful so to conduct our inquisition that 
 the pupil may draw help from as large an area as possible 
 of the work done with the teacher; and that it should 
 also be so contrived as to cover at least a little ground 
 noi traversed in teaching. By these precautions we give 
 due weight to memory and capacity for arrangement, and 
 at the same time test the fertilising power of our work. 
 On such occasions, therefore, we very properly set un- 
 usual problems in arithmetic, riders in geometry, general 
 questions in history, and in every way possible encourage 
 work outside the strictly detailed syllabus. 
 
 Public examinations have been devised in order to 
 establish a uniform and comprehensible stand- Public exam- 
 ard of attainment and so to distribute public inations 
 prizes and diplomas, and even certificates of fitness for 
 advancing stages of instruction. "A life that is not 
 submitted to examination," says Plato in the Apologia, " is 
 not a life for a man to h've." Now these public examina- 
 tions are conducted by impartial persons ; but however 
 
 3
 
 34 Common Sense in Education 
 
 impartial such external authorities may be, they neces- 
 sarily find it easier to arrive at results by setting traps to 
 detect ignorance of detail than by laboriously measuring 
 their candidates' actual attainments and relative mastery 
 of points of more general and therefore vital significance. 
 They tend therefore to ask for recondite details, and so 
 they force upon the candidate an unwarrantably concen- 
 trated devotion to exceptions and irregularities. 
 
 One marked indication of this finicking pursuit of 
 the unusual is the compendious and crowded character of 
 examination papers set by English authorities as com- 
 pared with others. Too much importance is attached to 
 a knowledge of details and particularly recondite details 
 worked out by other people, and too little encouragement 
 is given to general mastery of a subject and closer investi- 
 gation on original lines. Hence a multitude of small, 
 unoriginal text books minutely annotated ; hence " cram- 
 ming" and "crammers"; hence excessive uniformity of 
 method ; hence a general subordination of educational 
 to inquisitional purposes. Against these and the like 
 influences the over-aided teacher and over-aided pupil 
 must struggle as best they can. 
 
 For reference : — A. Sidgwick and G. E. Buckle in Teaching 
 and Organisation, and other contributors passim. H. Courthope 
 Bowen's pamphlets — The Training nf the Constructive Imagination 
 and The Training of Judgment and Reasoning, and Froebel's Educa- 
 tion of Man. De Garmo's Herbart. Principal Adams's Th» 
 Herbartian Psychology Applied to Education. Welton's Logical 
 Bases of Education. Herbart's A Text-book of Psychology (trans, 
 pub. New York). Miss Mulliner's Application of Psychology to 
 Education (Herbart). Sully's PsychoUigy for Teachers. Felkin's 
 Introduction to Herbart's '■^Science of Education''. Prof. James's 
 Principles of Psychology (briefer Text Book). Prof. Lloyd Morgan's 
 Psychology for Teachers. Compayre's Intellectual and Moral De- 
 velopment. Fitch's Lectures (see Questioning, etc.). Bwtler 'S 
 Psychologic Foundations of Education. Laurie's Institutes of Educa- 
 tion. Adamson's Teacher's Logic. Welton's Logic. Thring's 
 Theory and Practice of Teaching. Abbott's Home-teaching. Parker's 
 Talks on Pedagogics.
 
 35 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE DISCIPLINE OF CHARACTER 
 
 Moral action, it is never to be forgotten, is immersed in circumstances. 
 — MacCunn in The Making of Character. 
 
 Although custom permits us to divide discipline for 
 the purposes of discussion into two parts, it is 
 in truth] one and the same for training both discipline is 
 mental and moral ; without it, we cannot \^^^^^ ° 
 
 ' ' character 
 
 exercise guidance or evoke effort of any sort. 
 Discipline, therefore, in the formation of character, extends 
 its sphere of activity even into the setting forth of a 
 lesson and into all the details of instruction. In teaching 
 well or ill we encourage the formation of good habits 
 or we check them ; we make the formation of bad habits 
 more difficult or we make them inevitable. And by 
 habits we must mean habits both moral and intellectual, 
 for the two are inextricably associated. But we find it 
 convenient for practical purposes to isolate the process 
 of evoking or communicating knowledge, because know- 
 ledge consists largely in the apprehension of facts, and 
 such apprehension is a part only, though an indispensable 
 part, of the building up of a sound mind. Knowledge 
 is a unity , it is, as an object, the same for all, though 
 different minds may stand in a more or less perfect 
 relation to it. Morality or character is a tendency or 
 will to choose a right course of conduct, and unless 
 we had a system of casuistry we could not set forth 
 exactly the outside or objective conditions of all right 
 action.
 
 ^6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 The key-note of the situation is the necessity of 
 Theeduca- recognising that for man education is never 
 tionofa completed. Whatever man is destined to be, 
 man is never we know perfectly well that he has never 
 completed reached the highest point attainable. All his 
 achievements are but an earnest of what he can be. To 
 profane history the perfect man is not known ; the divine 
 standard has never been reached by mere man in any 
 form of religion which has set up an ideal. Until, there- 
 fore, this unattainable ideal is reached, we must press 
 forward ; it is a law of our being. Other creatures may 
 be developed and trained to apparent perfection. We 
 may breed and exercise our domestic animals until we 
 would wish them to be no better ; and we have no 
 evidence that they have any consciousness of complete- 
 ness or incompleteness. But man cannot escape his 
 ideal ; he must always be growing. We know what 
 purpose is attained by the " virtue " of a horse, as Plato 
 might say, but the chief thing that we know about human 
 " virtue " is that it changes in detailed application with 
 every new combination of circumstances. 
 
 If this is the case, then the educator must at once widen 
 and narrow his taskT" He must communicate 
 Theeducator ^^ j^jg pypjj ^n impulse which opens up end- 
 "^wLe'^^ros'' ^^^^ possibilities of progress, to be handed on 
 pect, but from himself to another generation, perhaps ; 
 not give his he must give him the power of " going on". 
 pupil too /^nd he must be careful not to overwhelm 
 muc to j^j^ pupil and discourage him by rn'viner him 
 
 achieve m ^ ' . ° -^ i-^ & 
 
 successive *^ successive Stages too great a burden for 
 stages each stage to carry. To secure the first end, 
 
 he must make his pupil, as a result of dis- 
 cipline, as nearly as possible independent of circum- 
 stances and of external guidance, by calling into life the
 
 The Discipline of Character 37 
 
 internal motives that will always drive him forward. He 
 must leave none of the functions of intelligence and 
 character dormant. But to secure the second end, he 
 must graduate the tasks which he sets so that the sense 
 of power may grow continuously, the pupil freely work- 
 ing out his own salvation, conquering each time a little 
 world, though beyond it lies immensity. \ 
 
 Two views have been held as to the potentiality of 
 teaching. Some people have said that the The pupil's 
 teacher must let the pupil altogether alone place in his 
 — that " Nature " herself will be sufficient o*" educa- 
 te develop him and shield him from harm. "'*" 
 Others have said that the one thing needed to secure 
 the perfection of men is teaching. It will not be sur- 
 prising if we find that the truth lies between these 
 extremes, though truth is at least touched somewhere 
 by each. The teacher or educator may, indeed, interfere 
 too much or unwisely, and he may interfere too little. 
 
 The teacher's place is in fact determined by his pupil's. 
 The pupil must be called upon to take a share, the chief 
 share, in the task. Nothing else will do. 
 
 There are two opposite errors that seem to have pre- 
 vented this fact from being properly seen and The clean 
 interpreted. First of all there has been the sheet of 
 belief that, in dealing with a pupil, you have p^p^"" 
 from the first nothing to do but to write on a clean sheet 
 of paper whatever you wish to be there. The philo- 
 sophers who held this view regarded all knowledge as 
 proceeding solely from bodily sensations, and all pro- 
 cesses of reasoning as being modifications and com- 
 binations of sensations ; in which case we have nothing 
 to do but to reason with our pupil from the first, because 
 sensations are reasons and reasoning is nothing but 
 appeal to sensations.
 
 38 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Here we see there is little room for independence on 
 the part of the pupil ; the thing most important is what 
 is contributed by the teacher. And the pupil being 
 regarded prematurely as capable of assimilating ideas 
 which we know to be beyond his intellectual digestion, 
 we have a huge excess of memory work, if any result 
 at all, in the hope that "knowledge" thus acquired will 
 be assimilated by some mysterious process of reason. 
 On the other hand, again, successive appeals to the 
 senses directly, giving little time for quiet mental dis- 
 crimination, tend to destroy the power of attention, for 
 attention is the power of ignoring or suppressing many 
 things in favour of a few or one. The persistent cultiva- 
 tion of what is called "observation " to the exclusion of 
 reflection may end not only in bird-wittedness but in a 
 positive weakening of will-power. In the formation of 
 character this leads to cant, which is the tendency to 
 imitate by rote ; and we can have canting action as well 
 as canting speech, neither being of necessity consciously 
 insincere. 
 
 The second serious hindrance to a proper conception 
 of the pupil as co-operator in his own educa- 
 
 Innate ideas . , , . 1 !• r • 1 • • r n 
 
 tion has been the belief m the origm ot all 
 knowledge in innate ideas. This may be held in two 
 different forms. It may be thought that each new 
 human being is born with his full complement of innate 
 characteristics and ideas, or it may be thought that all 
 the characteristics and ideas of each man are merely the 
 resultant general effect on him of those who have lived 
 before him, his ancestors and predecessors in the world. 
 
 Either of these views, if held without considerable 
 reservations, may lead us to doubt all individual re- 
 sponsibility ; and indeed contemporary legislation seems 
 sometimes to have been conceived in this spirit. But
 
 The Discipline of Character 39 
 
 the psychologist and the educator alike must ignore 
 them, and for practical purposes assume that though 
 they may modify our practice and make us careful, they 
 are not to dictate the character of our efforts in school 
 and the field of discipline generally. The influence of 
 heredity is, no doubt, considerable ; but everything tends 
 to confirm the belief, implicit in all educational effort, 
 that environment is much more powerful. 
 
 We must strike a balance. We must not leave chil- 
 dren to grow up as savages, by cultivating their senses 
 alone. We must not even leave them to the education 
 of their senses together with the mere coercive influence 
 of social institutions, for this would at best produce a 
 spiritless uniformity, and at worst might leave criminals 
 on our hands. We must call other powers 
 into play, and educate. But what powers ? .J '"^P"^"" 
 
 ^ -^ ' r sible life in 
 
 The powers that really lie readiest to our children must 
 hand. It is our chief business to use for the be used as 
 child's own good the life and irrepressible the chief mo- 
 activity of life that are in him, to give him ''^«-p°^^^'" '" 
 
 , , , , , , 111. ,r education 
 
 the knowledge that he can develop himself, 
 and the will to do it even when other persons have 
 ceased to interest themselves in his "education". We 
 have, in fact, to set up the right habits and the tendency 
 to form right habits, that is, to do good habitually. The 
 effect of a good habit is that we can depend on it for 
 suggesting the right act at the right time. It is there- 
 fore a form of orderliness ; that is, impulses in well- 
 disciplined people are so well ordered or arranged that 
 it is easier to do right than wrong. 
 
 The first necessity then for the creation of good habits 
 is orderliness, either in an individual or in a Thefirstneed 
 class. When this orderliness is produced pur- is orderliness 
 poselv we call it discipline, which is the manipulation of
 
 40 Common Sense in Education 
 
 external agencies in such a way as to make the forma- 
 tion of good habits easy and of bad habits difficult. 
 Speaking roughly, we sometimes talk about the "dis- 
 cipline " of circumstances, the " discipline " of events ; 
 but this is to ascribe to outer nature a self-consciousness 
 and intention which it is not proved to possess. The 
 pressure of circumstances may set up good habits, but 
 the adjustment in such cases, the effort to profit by 
 them, originates in the person affected ; he is moved 
 by circumstances to reflect, and thence to discipline 
 himself. 
 
 Good habits may grow by use, and bad habits are best 
 ^ , , eradicated by lack of exercise. The teacher 
 
 Good and i r • i • c ^ 
 
 bad habits must therefore provide opportunity for the one 
 grow by sort, cncouraging them, stimulating them ; he 
 what they must give no openings for the other sort, and, 
 eedon j^ ^^^ appear, nip them and starve them. 
 
 Habit is, as Professor James says, the great conservative 
 force of human nature and human society. Instincts by 
 themselves give little guarantee of personal or social 
 safety ; for instincts are blind, they are that in us which 
 makes us act to produce an effect without meaning to 
 do so, on impulse. They are blind reactions set up by 
 the needs of our physical framework. They take no 
 account of consequences. Habit, on the other hand, 
 though it ultimately tends to become automatic, is set 
 up in the first instance by intention, by the exercise of 
 will. If we set up good habits, we prosper; we "fund 
 and capitalise our acquisitions and live at ease on the 
 interest of the fund," in the words of the writer last 
 quoted. We will to do a good thing in the first in- 
 stance, and will again and again until the pain and 
 difficulty of the first effort pass away, and we " live on 
 the interest of the fund " so amassed.
 
 The Discipline of Character 41 
 
 Disciph'ne then, from the teacher's point of view, is 
 neither more nor less than the steady en- Discipline is 
 deavour to cultivate in his pupils the habit the external 
 of willing well by providing the right atmo- cultivation 
 sphere and the right food. Virtue and vice °^^a^'' 
 themselves are habits, though they imply also a power 
 of seizing new circumstances not implied in mechan- 
 ical habit. Let us see, now, what the teacher can do to 
 check the beginnings of evil and encourage the begin- 
 nings of good ; to maintain the good habit and to starve 
 the evil ; to give a pupil the habit of controlling the acts 
 that make habit. 
 
 He must first of all bear in mind that habits have 
 physical foundations or at least connexions, j^^u; 
 A thing is done more easily a second time closely de- 
 because it has been done once. Physiologists pendent on 
 assure us that the nervous system has under- P^^ysicai con- 
 gone a corresponding modification. We must "'°"^ 
 not therefore wonder or be discouraged if the effort to 
 break a bad trick in an individual, or even more, in a 
 class, seems to be continually baffled. Mere physical 
 drill, as teachers know, may here be found of great 
 service, for it accustoms a class not only to perform the 
 motions immediately prescribed, but also to take up with 
 alacrity the sudden word of command at other times. A 
 teacher can indeed do much to make the physical founda- 
 tions strong. To set up a respect for cleanliness and 
 brightness, we should surround our pupils with clean and 
 beautiful things; what hope would there be of stimu- 
 lating a lively mental picture of clean and lovely things 
 in a dirty schoolroom, ill-kept, disorderly ? It would be, 
 strictly speaking, physically impossible. This is one of 
 the ways — a physical way — by which the teacher creates 
 an atmosphere favourable to discipline. He manipulates
 
 42 Common Sense In Education 
 
 the circumstances under his control in such a way as 
 to make it easier to act well than to act ill. We must 
 therefore do our best to deliver our younger and more 
 impressionable pupils from capricious or irrational temp- 
 tation, by surrounding them with good order and a clean 
 atmosphere. 
 
 When the habit of self-control has been set up in small 
 The place of things, then, and not till then, the temptation, 
 temptation providing it is not too strong, may be per- 
 mitted in order that the will may be strengthened to 
 resist by exercise. We must not, of course, throw in- 
 ordinate temptation in the way of our class. We cure 
 small habits of deceit and the habit of thinking little of 
 such things before we leave our class alone when they are 
 answering examination papers. This is made necessary 
 by the physical, some would even say the " mechanical," 
 foundations of habit. The teacher must next be vigi- 
 lant to permit no backsliding. If we are 
 
 Backsliding. , ^ . , 7 , • . . , 
 
 endeavourmg to set up a good habit, it is clear 
 that we must keep the road as clear as possible from the 
 obstructions of a sudden check. If we have given orders 
 that a certain thing is to be done at a certain time in a 
 certain way, then, supposing that we have a general end 
 in view, we find it all the more difficult to compass it if we 
 allow a lapse. The teacher must see that both his pupils 
 and himself make a good start. Many of the difficulties 
 in the way of setting up good habits in an individual 
 pupil or a class arise from an implicit disbelief in the 
 possibility of change from the bad habits. It may not, 
 The proof of ^^^ instance, be possible for a person who 
 the pupil's has no habits of regular industry to know 
 power to that such habits are cultivable and ultimately 
 himself pleasant. It is clearly then the teacher's 
 
 business to watch for or to make an opportunity to show 
 
 I
 
 The Discipline of Character 43 
 
 the pupil his own power over himself. A sense of the 
 exercise of power is itself pleasant and carries within 
 itself a guarantee of repetition. The consciousness of the 
 power to make, to produce an independent result, is the 
 most powerful of all educating influences. The cultiva- 
 tion of the habit of obedience owes much to this principle. 
 No day passes in school without providing for some, pro- 
 bably for most, pupils an opportunity to do something 
 which in its superficial aspect is difficult or disagreeable. 
 Every fresh intellectual effort is, in its measure, painful. 
 The schoolmaster does for his pupil what Professor James 
 advises every grown man and woman should do for 
 themselves, he " keeps the faculty of effort alive by a little 
 (gratuitous) exercise every day ". Habit may otherwise 
 destroy initiative by making the pupil the slave of con- 
 vention. Hence the often-seen depravity of children 
 coming from overstrict homes. No real power of will 
 has been developed ; every moral effort has been made 
 for them by some one else. We learn therefore that we 
 must not deaden initiative by excessive coercion. A 
 very strict school-system, displaying an excess of routine 
 orderliness and repression, may secure a fictitious order- 
 liness and appearance of good conduct not justified by 
 subsequent development. Military order in school should 
 therefore be exceptional, not habitual ; a tonic, not a 
 food. 
 
 Obedience alone may be slavish and kill initiative ; 
 we must provide opportunity for free choice, provision of 
 Obedience is best cultivated by leaving at opportunity 
 most times a large measure of discretion to for free 
 pupils, by not subjecting them perpetually to ^^°"^^ 
 the word of command. Teachers do not always think 
 enough of the necessity of providing v^ariety of oppor- 
 tunity for the exercise of good habits and for the detec-
 
 44 Common Sense in Education 
 
 tion of defects. Most people understand that defects of 
 one or another sort will display themselves in especial 
 force at some particular stage of development. Under 
 ordinary circumstances, for instance, we may expect our 
 pupils to display defects of feeling most unreservedly in 
 early youth, when the feelings are usually most acute 
 and the will is less effective for purposes of concealment, 
 Selfishness : ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ together explaining the obvious 
 its subtle selfishness of youth. The forms which selfish- 
 forms and ness takes in persons of older standing are 
 school cure j^ore or less subtle modifications — the vulgar 
 noisiness of the underbred person, disagreeable tricks of 
 behaviour, the careless use of the property of the com- 
 munity that includes oneself or of external corporations, 
 and so on. The teacher, then, must watch the early 
 signs vigilantly, while at the same time providing room 
 for the exercise of self-restraint. Small children in their 
 sphere must not strike or pinch one another, and should 
 *' behave mannerly at table " ; adolescents in their sphere 
 The care of must have the care of common interests and 
 common corporate property imposed on them as a part 
 interests Qf their discipline, a tradition in which our 
 
 English public schools are particularly fortunate. It 
 may well be believed that our own countr3'men show, on 
 the whole, a genuine talent for self-government because 
 it has become a general practice in our schools to hand 
 over some of the common concerns of the whole body to 
 the responsible and intelligent care of pupils themselves. 
 The government which in the Kindergarten should 
 entrust the care of the common sponge to one little 
 child, the 'government which in the middle school throws 
 orderly duties on monitors, the rule which in public 
 schools devolves certain details of discipline on prefects 
 — each of these proceeds by the same route. We do not
 
 The Discipline of Character 45 
 
 recognise the need for the ostentatious control of clubs 
 and games in deah'ng with big boys and girls, though 
 teachers are bound to assure themselves that things are 
 working smoothly and that the growing society has the 
 full advantage, as far as possible, of the experience of 
 antiquity. For instance, we may not directly interfere 
 with the conduct of a school club, but we are bound to 
 provide all means for its business-like conduct. Little 
 ones we encourage to play without malice ; and we 
 should give big boj's and girls who have formal meetings 
 access to a " Chairman's Handbook," so teaching them 
 the rules of the game, and placing their little provincial 
 concerns in proper relation to the bigger affairs in which 
 as members of an adult community they will have to take 
 a responsible share. It is part of the teacher's chief busi- 
 ness to get his pupils to recognise that laws exist not for 
 the increase of restraint but for the increase of freedom. 
 We forbid both ourselves and others to do or leave 
 undone certain things solely in order that there may be 
 more general freedom in the result to be divided up 
 amongst all individuals. This is the kind of service 
 which tends to perfect freedom. 
 
 But not only must we consider the stage of develop- 
 ment which our pupils have reached ; we must also 
 consider the varying circumstances in which they may 
 be placed. It will not do for us to enjoin the duty of 
 orderliness and neatness of person and to 
 permit disorderliness of thought. Correct- ^^^ ^.^^i 
 ness and precision of thought should be main- sion ; the 
 tained as carefully as propriety of person ; effort against 
 just as, in the sphere of instruction, we can 'beg^'^'^ 
 make our teaching of composition or rhetoric effectual 
 only if we exact intelligent and intelligible speech at all 
 times. The order of development may be thus expressed
 
 4-6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 by the individual : I try ; I do ; I become. The first 
 step is the effort to do or to make something. The total 
 result is a permanent modification of character, which 
 is good or bad according to the purpose which effort had 
 in view. Effort implies difficulty, difficulty is disagree- 
 able. Therefore, discipline teaches the pupil to overcome 
 something against the grain for the sake of what lies 
 beyond it, the achievement of something. The reward 
 is not only that the effort meets with immediate success, 
 but also that the next step, and all subsequent steps in 
 succession, are easier. Physiologically speaking, nerve- 
 structure is modified and a more constant "state" is set 
 up. The pupil " becomes" something different from what 
 he was before; the change has that general character which 
 we call "qualitative"; it is a change or growth of character. 
 
 We must recognise, teachers as we are, that at best we 
 The school are only "journeymen," day-jobbers, assistants, 
 environment and that the true and sufficient teacher ought 
 IS artificial j.^ ^^e the parent. The school is an artificial 
 institution, and to the schoolmaster and schoolmistress 
 their special work is assigned because the excessive 
 differentiation of occupation on the one hand and the 
 increase of conventional claims on the other take parents 
 from what would appear to be their first duty, the 
 education and supervision of their children. 
 
 If the chief means available for the production of a 
 Home the good character is the setting up of good habits, 
 best nursery it is easy to See that the more permanent 
 of virtue environment must present the more constant 
 opportunity for exercise. In the next place, father and 
 mother should have a more minute knowledge of the 
 tendencies of the children that are theirs, the children 
 whose personality, bodily and spiritual, springs from 
 their own, than any teacher should be expected to 
 
 i:
 
 The Discipline of Character 47 
 
 acquire in the necessary reserve of corporate school-life. 
 Again, the amiable or social instincts arise most spon- 
 taneously in the home by the sympathetic interaction 
 of kindness rendered from the first dependence of the 
 child on its mother. And finally, the little home society 
 has its aboriginal legislators, by whose benevolent v^^ill 
 the common happiness is visibly determined, whose 
 pleasure forms the first common standard of reference 
 in cases of doubt. This is the first form of conscience — 
 the sense of pleasing or displeasing a parent. " The 
 narrow limitation of the family circle and the restriction 
 of sympathy to its few members are the most natural 
 preliminary conditions for the development of sympa- 
 thetic interest and good-will," says Professor Rein. The 
 good home, then, and the good mother in particular, 
 are under ordinary circumstances indispensable for the 
 production of the good character. We may not, of course, 
 say that good men and good women have not come from 
 surroundings which have been, to all appearance, entirely 
 evil, just as beautiful flowers may grow upon refuse heaps ; 
 but there has been something special and extraordinary, 
 something unaccountable, in their constitution or history, 
 which has vanquished the diabolic influence. The business 
 of the teacher is not primarily with such as these ; he deals 
 with the ordinary case, not genius, moral or intellectual. 
 
 But society is so constituted, and father and mother 
 have so many things to do, legitimate or un- ^j^^ parents 
 necessary, outside the home, that they must depute their 
 needs hand over their duties, as for many duties to 
 generations they have already done, to the ^^^^^^''^ 
 teacher, who undertakes to specialise himself for this 
 work. He does not always try to train himself, we 
 know only too well ; he often thinks that as nature has 
 (unfortunately) prescribed no test of fitness before people
 
 48 Common Sense in Education 
 
 undertake the duties of parentage, so also art need not 
 prescribe any rules for the admission of unfit people to 
 exercise the privileges of teaching. Alas ! the possession 
 of many children is no proof of fitness to possess them, 
 nor does the wielding of the rod give a real right to 
 handle it. If it did, the position of the teacher who 
 makes his first experiments unwatched and uncorrected 
 is that of the good woman who was rebuked for feeding 
 her year-old babe on salt herring. " 1 ought to know," 
 she said, "how to bring up children. Fve buried ten." 
 _, , , But the school is a half-way house between 
 
 The school , , , , , . , , 
 
 a half-way ^"^ home, ou the one hand, mcompletely 
 house be- provided with the time and apparatus neces- 
 tween home sary, and, on the other hand, the world, where 
 and the ^.j^^ penalty of unfitness or unpreparedness is 
 
 exacted so pitilessly. Or shall we say that 
 the school is rightly a kind of " purgatory," in its true 
 and legitimate sense for the pupil, even if too often it 
 is a " purgatory " in its secondary or derived sense for 
 the ill-prepared or dispirited teacher? 
 
 The school provides precisely that large field for the 
 exercise of virtue and for training, physical, moral, and 
 mental, which the smaller family circle may lack, though 
 the wisely ordered family circle may be as good as the best 
 school — nay, better — except perhaps for the cultivation of 
 the first aptitudes for conducting public affairs publicly. 
 
 Consider the personal or private habits which the 
 The school school helps to train. Unselfishness is fostered 
 can confirm at home by persistent checking of unpleasant 
 home tram- j-j-jcks, bad habits in care of the person and at 
 '"^^" table, the abandonment of things to be done 
 
 up gaps. ' " 
 
 Virtues and by others which should be done by oneself, 
 vices It is taught on a large scale at school by en- 
 
 forcing respect for the common convenience, comfort, and
 
 The Discipline of Character 49 
 
 property. Habits of personal cleanliness and propriety 
 become at school more inevitable because the loss of 
 public respect is more impressive than the reproof of 
 those with whom we are more familiar. An evil temper 
 and disobedience meet at the school a more automatic 
 punishment than they can at home, for the immediate 
 obedience exacted from a large body is easily recognised 
 as lying at the root of the law and order which are 
 necessary for its existence. At home we often choose 
 the easier path of passing over disobedience, just because 
 it is easier, but at school it is not easier, and so we more 
 consistently repress it. Shyness, often really a want of 
 trustfulness, which is cured at home by encouragement 
 to fear nothing and to suspect nobody of a desire to hurt 
 or belittle one, must be finally routed at a wisely 
 administered school by the tact of the master or mistress 
 who teaches the ill-bred shy boy or nervous girl to do 
 something well enough to deserve legitimate praise and 
 public respect. Cruelty shows itself at home in the 
 natural weakness of children's constructive imagination 
 and sympathies acted on by the love of power which 
 seems common, in greater or less degree, to every 
 healthy-minded person. At home we check it by 
 directly cultivating the sympathies and teaching the 
 child to imagine itself in the place of others, giving it 
 opportunities for the practice of helpfulness. At school 
 we have to cope with it most commonly in the form of 
 bullying of younger by older boys and in the spiteful- 
 ness which is understood to occupy a corresponding 
 position amongst girls. For this there is nothing but a 
 gentle vigilance and Arnold's plan of making the older 
 the responsible guides and friends of the younger, thus 
 providing a benevolent sphere for the exercise of power 
 and influence. Even fagging may be made beneficent 
 
 4
 
 50 Common Sense in Education 
 
 by a cheerful recognition of a natural institution con- 
 ditionally on the older boys recognising their responsi- 
 bility for the comfort and progress of the younger. And 
 it is worth while to point out here that one of the condi- 
 tions of the successful exercise of discipline by boys or 
 girls themselves is that they should be of varying ages. 
 A monitorial or praefectorial system is rarely successful 
 in a school if rulers and ruled are of nearly the same 
 standing. 
 
 A somewhat serious mistake to be carefully avoided 
 The sense of ^^ ^^^ endeavour to appeal to a very young 
 justice as a child's sense of justice to the neglect of his 
 motive with sympathies. The elemental social feelings 
 young people ^^^ there to our hand, but justice is a very 
 complex and highly intellectual conception not to be 
 looked for in a little child. It is far safer to rely upon 
 the cultivation of the sympathetic imagination. The 
 great practical moral injunction is not to distribute 
 justice to every one, — in which case few of us would 
 escape whipping, — but to do to others as we should like 
 them to do to us. This is the way to cure the little 
 habits of selfishness and greed which make youth unlovely 
 and develop into grosser forms, — cruelty, discourtesy, 
 uncharity, in the course of adolescence. When however 
 the boy or girl has been taught to reflect, and has learnt 
 to overcome the natural disinclination to give to every- 
 one his due, our task is an easier one, for we may then 
 make open appeal to a growing sense of fairness. Justice 
 is, in a sense, a compendium of virtue, at all events in 
 one stage of human develoiMiient ; but it is, just because 
 of that, a comparatively late stage, and the teacher must 
 act accordingly. 
 
 The school is, as we see, particularly well adapted to 
 be the nursery of what may be called the public virtues;
 
 The Discipline of Character 51 
 
 and it is equally the seed-plot of public vices. For the 
 sowing of some of the private virtues it is The school 
 very stony ground indeed. As our school may be a 
 system is constituted, if a boy does not learn seed-plot of 
 to be chivalrous and to respect weakness at f"'^^"^ "'^^^' 
 home, he is not likely to learn the lesson else- forms of 
 where. Sisters and mothers are not common virtue pro- 
 in the monastic community of a public school, vides no 
 If a boy or girl has not learnt at home exercise 
 to be generous in the imputation of motive, the absence 
 at school of the intimate companionship and daily con- 
 versation of wiser and older folk will leave the tare to 
 grow till it becomes habitual uncharity. Again, the 
 courage that enables us to bear pain at home and to 
 speak the truth is sorely tried when it is called upon to 
 help us to face obloquy and public dislike in a righteous 
 cause against large numbers amongst whom our whole 
 life is lived. Of course the lesson has to be learnt, but 
 in a school where the " tone " is not good, it cannot be 
 learnt. Hence the very solid ground of Dr. Arnold's 
 peremptory exclusion from Rugby of all moral Expulsion as 
 suspects. For more harm is done in a school school dis- 
 by a few influential bad boys or girls than cipiine 
 good by a few, however much respected, who comport 
 themselves well ; and every one knows how difficult it is 
 to pursue and destroy an evil spirit that has once secured 
 its hold. We cannot of course all hope to possess the 
 powers held by Head Masters in the position of Dr. 
 Arnold, nor is it certain that most of us would use such 
 powers wisely ; and on the other hand, as schools come 
 to be managed by state functionaries or elected bodies, 
 the Head Masters and Head Mistresses find themselves 
 (for good or ill, this is not the place to say) much less 
 autocratic. But the power of school-life and school-
 
 52 Common Sense in Education 
 
 death once generally regarded as the inalienable privilege 
 of the Head of a school certainly makes it easier to remove 
 the elements of disturbance and demoralisation in good 
 time. 
 
 This necessity for vigilance in dealing with the plague 
 The size of spots is a very strong argument against the 
 schools undue enlargement of schools in all grades. 
 
 In the highest grade of schools the Head may count on 
 having on his staff a large proportion of seasoned and 
 responsible colleagues, whose vigilance and sense of 
 duty to the whole school may be as perfect as his own, 
 and whose knowledge of pupils, if the school is of the 
 residential type, will be ample and intimate. But in 
 enormous schools of other grades, where masters and 
 mistresses see their pupils only for a very small part of 
 the working day, and where they have unmanageably 
 large classes, the difficulties of satisfactory guidance and 
 supervision are an unreasonable tax on the resources of 
 every one. 
 
 Truthfulness is not a virtue that we can easily isolate. 
 It is almost as much the product of the sound 
 intelligence as of the healthy temperament. 
 Neither heart nor head can do their best unless fair 
 treatment is meted out most scrupulously ; treat your 
 pupils with justice, and their good sense will be the best 
 guarantee of a reciprocity of fairness. It has often been 
 noticed that behind the lie there is always some mean- 
 ness or selfishness, a desire to outwit for gain or to evade 
 a penalty rightly imminent. It is these that must be 
 tackled in lying of the genuine sort, and the younger 
 the offender the more cautious must the treatment be. 
 A child must be won to truth and courage ; it cannot be 
 frightened or bullied into it. Appeal first to the sense 
 of self-respect, of dignity. What is the child's ideal ?
 
 The Discipline of Character 53 
 
 Show that untruthfulness falls below it. We must not 
 predicate "wickedness" of a little child and tell him he 
 is wicked. To do this is itself false and wicked. A 
 timid little child may be drawn into the habit of truth- 
 fulness by being made to understand that to be trust- 
 worthy is a mark of grown-up goodness. " Grown-up- 
 ness" is his ideal. 
 
 A pupil will soon begin to feel the force of intellectual 
 truthfulness. The careful teacher who faces the diffi- 
 culties of learning in the company of his class, who 
 performs an experiment, construes an unseen passage, 
 works out a problem, with an obvious desire not to let 
 himself or the class be deceived into thinking that a 
 point has been mastered when it has only been ignored, 
 is cultivating that taste and preference for seeing things 
 as they are and for so describing them which are the 
 essence of the virtue. 
 
 Careless teachers do most of their proper mischief 
 because they have not acquired the scrupulous Bad teach- 
 habit of intellectual truthfulness. The lack of ing, andes- 
 it is not felt by themselves; they would be P^ciaiiy bad 
 
 ,. .r .,,.., , logic, may 
 
 mdignant if we tried to bring it home to them. ,^^ ^^_ 
 But from the want of logic and from a touch- truthfulness 
 ing belief in the performance of " experi- »" the soul 
 ments" as "science," the science lessons in particular 
 are often full of reckless deceptions. When, for in- 
 stance, a child is invited to infer from a single illustration, 
 miscalled "experiment," that "heat causes things to 
 expand," he is made to commit that particular offence 
 against logic and truth which is the fountain of most of 
 the errors of reasoning that plague mankind — the in- 
 ference of a general law from one particular. Lessons 
 in other matters may, in their degree, all conduce to the 
 same end, if the teacher's logic is always of like quality.
 
 54 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Imperfect classifications, bad definitions, fallacies of 
 every kind, the fruit of a lack of logical training, all tend 
 to nebulousness of teaching. It is not too much to say, 
 then, that the first duty incumbent on the teacher who 
 would teach truly and teach truthfulness is to learn and 
 to practise the elementary rules of logic. Psychology 
 may wait until the teacher knows how to discriminate a 
 good argument from a bad one. As soon as he knows 
 the meaning of logical inference, self-respect will not 
 permit him to hoodwink himself or allow others to be 
 hoodwinked. 
 
 It is excellent discipline, not for pupils alone, if a 
 teacher will put himself out to find some work in which 
 he is not proficient, and will do it with the class for 
 company. Most of us could probably find some such 
 gap in the omniscience which encases us. When the 
 class sees how the teacher addresses himself boldly and 
 honestly to each difficulty, every member of it learns a 
 lesson which he can never forget ; he feels that he has 
 the same kind of wits as his master, perhaps less nimble 
 and well trained, but capable of being used to equally 
 good effect if used honestly. 
 
 One of the most fruitful causes of school vices, large 
 and small, is loafing. A man who has nothing 
 better to do in life than to look on is always a 
 poor creature, generally useless, often dangerous. Boys 
 or girls, young men or young women, who naturally 
 abound in energy and the desire for movement, must 
 either work healthily, or else find a vent for their super- 
 abundant powers in some kind of useless or vicious ex- 
 cess. Loafing leaves the loafer at the mercy of the first 
 pressure or temptation that comes to quicken the latent 
 energy. Boys and girls should therefore have something 
 to do ; they must not merely stare and gape at others.
 
 The Discipline of Character 55 
 
 Hence the justification of the compulsory games of the 
 great schools. There is an undoubted excess of athleti- 
 cism at many, even most of the boys' boarding schools 
 of these days, but the chief harm done is not to the 
 athletes. It is true that the athletes receive more than 
 their due share of honour and therefore waste a good 
 deal of time ; but they really do something well, and 
 though they run the serious risk of imperfect develop- 
 ment (like an ill-roasted egg, all o' one side) they do 
 learn to work and to strive for a healthy end. But those 
 boys and men who stand in crowds at the football or 
 cricket match, and think themselves sportsmen because 
 they applaud, get no good from the process whatsoever. 
 This, of course, touches only those who have no interests 
 that carry them abroad for other purposes, filling their 
 minds and freshening their bodies. The quieter folk 
 who wander afield in the service of natural history or 
 geology or botany or the like are not loafers. They are 
 getting fresh air and exercise in the way that pleases them 
 best ; they are not merely loolcing on ; they are doing. 
 
 Can morality be taught, as such, in the school ? And 
 if so, can it be taught at any definite age or stage? Or 
 should good conduct be taught as occasion serves at all 
 times with regard to the pupil's power of comprehension 
 and power to will ? I think we shall probably take the 
 latter view. Teaching should and can always be moral, but 
 to teach morality by mere precept is impossible. Morality not 
 If we address ourselves habitually to the task to be taught 
 of isolating a virtue or a desirable opinion on without con- 
 conduct and presenting it thus to young people '^^^^^ exercise 
 without being sure that they have the means to carry 
 it into instant action or to feel its bearing on life, we 
 are shutting our eyes to facts of which the teacher cannot 
 afford to be ignorant. For first of all, the progress and
 
 56 Common Sense in Education 
 
 growth of character, as of mind, is slow and in stages ; 
 and, secondly, the immature mind has not the experience 
 necessary for realising the abstractions so presented to 
 it. At most, our eloquence and earnestness may argue 
 the young mind into apparently and in good faith 
 accepting our opinion ; but the effect attenuates itself 
 into mere sentimentality unless the life of our pupil 
 offers an immediate or certainly very early opportunity 
 for exemplifying the precept or perceiving it in action. 
 To teach a virtue without the concrete material in your 
 hand, so to speak, you must needs appeal to the powers 
 of reflection and judgment which are, as yet, so weak. 
 You cannot hope to get a sincere and effectual acquies- 
 cence ; your process is a kind of intellectual bullying. 
 And there is no such thing as purely intellectual virtue. 
 The oldest of us must have stuff to work on. Old 
 Hazlitt knew this. " The habit of fixing the attention," 
 says he, "on the imaginary and abstracted, deprives the 
 mind equally of energy and fortitude."^ 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the cleverest children 
 Sentimen- have an unhealthy turn for sentiment. There 
 taiity in IS no emotion which, gently stimulated, cannot 
 
 children i^g positively CHjoyed. Robert Louis Steven- 
 
 son has drawn the picture of a monstrous enjoyment 
 of even extreme fear. But moderateness is usually, at 
 first, a necessary element, and it is only repeated doses 
 that dull the edge of appetite and make it ravenous for 
 excess. The enjoyment of sad emotion, which we can 
 take sitting (getting a stool to be sad on), is particularly 
 attractive to the cleverer kind of child. A mother was 
 once asked by her little girl for a story which always 
 opened the fountain of her tears. " No," said the wise 
 mother, " it only makes you cry." " Oh do, mother, 
 ' In "The Conduct of Life".
 
 The Discipline of Character 57 
 
 tell me the story," cried the little sentimentalist, ''and 
 let me cry f This mother was a wise mother, and de- 
 clined to do anything so wasteful or — " psedological ". 
 
 The stories written about children who are " mis- 
 understood " and ill-treated by their elders have a most 
 pernicious influence on young people. There is no 
 warrant for this kind of moral topsy-turvydom in chil- 
 dren's literature ; it is an unusual and unedifying and 
 debilitating influence, sapping a healthy child's healthy 
 confidence in the sagacity and goodness of older people, 
 and making it suspicious and self-conscious. 
 
 Our neighbours in France have a considerable school 
 literature meant to teach morality directly. Morality 
 The effect of most of these on the English cannot be 
 ear is inexpressible. If we teach morality as "taught" in 
 a system, we must needs introduce our youth treatises 
 to all sorts of breaches of good conduct which they 
 might not and probably would not hear of until they 
 were strong enough to place such matters in proper per- 
 spective. In some French books for children you may 
 read pages of arguments to show the impropriety of 
 suicide. No English teacher would think of dwelling 
 on such a subject as this in the course of his school work ; 
 and it may be laid down as a general rule that no breach 
 of morality need fall under school treatment which is not 
 directly suggested by school relations. 
 
 It is a fact that it is harder to know one's duty than 
 to do it. If the best and maturest of us hesi- „, 
 
 We must be 
 
 tates, he is lost. All the more should young ^^^^ before 
 minds not be invited to think about the com- we know 
 position of virtues, but rather be set to prac- ^^^^ g°°"^- 
 tise them. Habitual and persistent injunctions "^^^ '^ 
 and prohibitions, again, however earnest, however strongly 
 backed up by argument, come to very little unless the
 
 58 Common Sense in Education 
 
 opportunity for practice presents itself soon and is at 
 once used. If it were not so, both preachers and con- 
 gregations would be happier than they are. Much breath 
 is at present wasted to no purpose. 
 
 On the other hand, school life offers ample opportuni- 
 ties to the teacher to drop the little word, to insinuate 
 the great moral, to cultivate a preference for the right 
 and a contempt for the wrong. But, above all, let 
 there be no nagging. 
 
 Much has been said and much written about rewards 
 and punishments. Both have been condemned, 
 punishments both have been overdone. We have seen 
 —both have already that discipline has sometimes been 
 been over- inordinately harsh, breaches of prescribed 
 ^°^^ decorum being invariably punished, and 
 
 punished severely. But, in the world, the appeal to 
 emulation grows more intense, it would seem, as the 
 general pressure of competition becomes greater; and we 
 do more in these days by offering rewards and prizes. 
 It is seen that great prizes are got in life by the strife 
 of one against the rest, and the practice is copied and 
 repeats itself in the microcosm of school. Of course 
 rivalry in the pursuit of wealth, of honour, of glory, has 
 always moved men to action ; and emulation has played 
 a very great part in hastening the progress of civilisation. 
 But the giving of prizes to the young may be dangerous 
 in three marked ways. It sets up and helps to make 
 permanent a desire to get something for oneself which 
 others have not, rather than to do what is right or pleas- 
 ing to those whom we ought to please. It is a bad form 
 of the error that measures worth by what it can do, not 
 by what it is. It may easily stir into life the unsocial 
 feelings, vanity and malevolence. These objections are 
 indeed all well-founded and probably borne out by the
 
 The Discipline of Character 59 
 
 experience of most of us, and can be counteracted only 
 by the good sense and vigilance of a very Prizes par- 
 careful teacher. To young children prizes for ticuiariybad 
 unique distinction should be given very spar- for the young 
 ingly if at all, for young children lack as yet the self- 
 control and balance which enable the older people to 
 " play the game " unselfishly even in great things. If 
 rewards are to be given, then they should be sufficient in 
 number to include all who have done their best ; for our 
 praise should be of character, not of achievement. The 
 laudum arrecta cupido can do nothing but harm in the 
 young. As the child matures, the prize may be less 
 harmful, but at all ages there is real danger of exciting 
 in an impressionable person a subtle vanity which may 
 seriously check continuous effort. Where, on the other 
 hand, it is necessary to find out which of a large number 
 is best fitted to proceed to a certain farther step, as in 
 the award of some scholarships, then discrimination is 
 perhaps inevitable ; but it must be made as innocuous 
 as may be by means of the caution administered at the 
 proper time by the wise teacher. And of all forms of 
 reward, the encouraging word in season, not too freely 
 given, is still the best of all. It must be said, however, 
 that the offer of a prize for some special study or object 
 has often stimulated into life a special capacity or taste 
 that would else have lain unused and have added nothing 
 to the achievements of practical life. 
 
 Punishment is more indispensable for the exercise of 
 discipline than are material rewards. For the Punishment 
 greatest of all rewards comes naturally in the more indis- 
 consciousness of the task completed. The pensabie 
 intellectual and moral satisfaction of work ^^^n material 
 well done may be always counted upon by the 
 teacher as almost automatic. If the teacher can get his
 
 6o Common Sense in Education 
 
 pupils to feel and recognise their own progress, then 
 virtue is indeed its own reward. It may almost be called 
 the divine reward, for they " see that their work is good ". 
 As with rewards, so with punishments ; we should econo- 
 mise. The school or class where there is much punish- 
 ment is a poor school ; the chief and most effectual 
 punishment should be the disapproval of the teacher and 
 school-mates. If other punishment is to be inflicted, it 
 should be really painful, especially if it is thought neces- 
 sary to inflict bodily pains. 
 
 On the question of corporal punishment we have a 
 Corporal ^°^*- °^ authorities and little common ground, 
 punishment My own experience leads me to believe that 
 is often with a young child of ordinary temperament 
 
 necessary ^^^ health the infliction of corporal chastise- 
 
 and harmless ^ • r. 11,1 • t 
 
 ment is often absolutely necessary m order 
 to prevent a too painful, perhaps fatal, experience of the 
 automatic punishment of "natural" consequences. A 
 young child's sensations are acute, and the deepest 
 impression is made through that channel. Suppose for 
 instance (I quote a real case) a little child, full of life and 
 movement, is told not to climb a dangerous balustrade 
 which it has been found trying to climb. He still climbs 
 it. A child of five has not sufficient constructive imagin- 
 ation to figure to himself, in the face of such immense 
 temptation, the displeasure of the parents or nurse who 
 have issued the prohibition ; nay, the temptation may 
 have obliterated the memory of both prohibition and 
 displeasure. In such a case there is no such economi- 
 cal and effectual deterrent as short and sharp physical 
 punishment, jlagrante delicto. If we defer punishment 
 and give its infliction an air of laboured circumstance, it 
 is apt to appear to the very j-oung child as vindictive- 
 ness. The child does not forget a punishment, especially
 
 The Discipline of Character 6i 
 
 corporal punishment, in the presence of the pieces jus- 
 tificatives, and he understands the indignation that 
 accompanies it as a moral reproof, not as revenge, for 
 the punishing authority has no obviously selfish concern. 
 Vigilance wide and continuous enough to prevent the 
 child climbing the balustrade may be, as life is consti- 
 tuted, impracticable ; and it is certain that perpetual 
 overlooking and shielding from harm prevents the growth 
 of strength, both physical and moral. We give the 
 children a limited freedom and punish for misuse. 
 
 It will be found that the opponents of corporal punish- 
 ment are most often persons who have not had the per- 
 manent daily charge of young children. Such discipline 
 may not be necessary at school, if it has been adminis- 
 tered when needed at home ; but parents may reasonably 
 resent the comparatively academic formulations of those 
 who treat children in a rarefied atmosphere, where cor- 
 poral punishment may be, and indeed generally should 
 be, and is, unnecessary. 
 
 As children grow, such punishment should become less 
 and less necessary, for imagination, sympathy, and reflec- 
 tion can all be appealed to with more certainty. But it 
 should be remembered that the school has to make up 
 for the defects of home, and a spoilt home-child may not 
 be spared the rod elsewhere if the rod is needed. It is also 
 to be remembered that the child takes physical children 
 restraint and bodily pain as the natural order regard phy- 
 of things ; to him the uni\erse of pain and sicai restraint 
 pleasure means mostly physical pains and ^^ natural 
 physical pleasures, and it is on stepping-stones made of 
 these dead feelings that we raise him to higher things. 
 Again, mere love without respect is a very poor senti- 
 ment, not, indeed, to be encouraged. The child's love 
 for his parents and his teachers will be the stronger if he
 
 62 Common Sense in Education 
 
 is conscious that there is power behind, to protect as well 
 as punish. The mental, moral, and physical superiority 
 of the parent or teacher being incontestable, both posi- 
 tions, of protector and punisher, present themselves to 
 the child as reasonable ; they would be unreasonable (as 
 for instance in the case of the wife-beating husband) if 
 the superiorities were open to doubt, even though the 
 beating were deserved. 
 
 Physical rule therefore, and the physical rule of pain 
 and restraint, seem to be desirable, as Professor Earle 
 Barnes apparently thinks, in three distinct cases, which 
 cover all we need here contend for, — in dealing with 
 young children, with primitive peoples, and with certain 
 types of spoiled people. Specimens of all these three 
 classes are to be found in most schools. But of course 
 such punishments should be inflicted as rarely as possible. 
 With older pupils it is generally understood that certain 
 faults, such as cruelt}^ and certain forms of vicious dis- 
 orderliness, call for the penalty of the rod, and to this 
 opinion I myself incline. Above all things, it seems to 
 me necessary that punishment should be inflicted not 
 in anger, indeed, but in " warm blood ". If it loses its 
 Punish accompaniment of strong moral indignation, 
 
 whenindig- then it presents itself to the culprit as revenge, 
 nation rs A person who has so little self-control as to 
 warm gg^. angrily savage in inflicting punishment 
 
 should not be a teacher at all. But a visible righteous 
 anger is one of the most salutary educational influences 
 conceivable. 
 
 It is well known that the power and the practice of 
 Suggestion recalling old impressions depend upon the 
 as a means strength of the associations that are brought 
 of discipline jf^^Q play. We connect things or ideas with- 
 out necessarily knowing that we are doing so. Under 
 
 M
 
 The Discipline of Character 63 
 
 ordinary circumstances an idea lies unevoked until some- 
 thing comes to "suggest" it. What is true of the so- 
 called intellectual process is true also of the moral ; and 
 the evocation of an idea suggests its being carried into 
 effect, issuing into action. " How oft the sight of means 
 to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done ! " And good as 
 well as evil obeys this law of impulse. Of this it is the 
 duty of the teacher to take immediate advantage. 
 
 The exact nature of imitation has puzzled the psychol- 
 ogists in no small degree. They are not even 
 
 , , , . ... . Imitation 
 
 agreed as to the presence or absence of will m 
 the first act of imitation, some declaring that it proceeds 
 from "impulse" entirely automatic. Understanding 
 current terms in their current connotation, I should 
 prefer to adopt this latter view, because I prefer to attri- 
 bute "will" to human beings only; if mere imitation 
 from the first implies will, then monkeys and parrots 
 possess will. 
 
 It is enough for our present purpose, however, to 
 recognise that for some reason or other the sight of an 
 action or a person acting may become, under the opera- 
 tion of sympathy and imagination, a kind of obsession ; 
 that indeed it does become so. In this way the lively 
 ideas evoked by the earnest words and example of the 
 teacher are amongst the strongest motives that stir the 
 pupil to action. From this point of view, suggestion is 
 of the deepest importance to teachers. Imitation is in 
 a sense the origin of human institutions, manners and 
 customs, fashions and conventions, of all kinds. It de- 
 velops into habits or morals, on the side of volition ; and 
 into ideas and insights on the side of the intellect. 
 "Thought-reading" is said to be mere sensitiveness 
 to suggestion ; and hypnotism, an undoubted fact, is 
 another form of the same phenomenon.
 
 64 Common Sense in Education 
 
 What we call force of character may be, and probably 
 "Force of IS, the power of evoking and quickening the 
 Character" feelings of Others into sympathy and imitation 
 by suggestion — a reflection of the utmost importance to 
 the teacher, for he is thus called upon to regulate his 
 bearing and conduct all the more scrupulously because 
 of the weight which his position of authority may give 
 to his slightest act of suggestion. And every one should 
 remember that, as iron sharpeneth iron, so a man 
 sharpeneth the countenance of his friend ; suggestion 
 may and does come in many forms and at all times 
 whenever two or more are gathered together. Precepts, 
 injunctions, prohibitions, all act by suggestion. If we are 
 perpetually telling a child that he is " naughty," naughty 
 he becomes. If Tommy is told not to push peas into his 
 ears, he is known to feel an importunate desire to do it. 
 
 We must not forget that much of the work of the 
 world, the best and the worst too, is done because 
 people behave as they know we expect them to behave. 
 The wearing of a uniform, material or moral, makes a 
 wonderful difference in one's demeanour and in one's 
 conduct at a crisis. It is well to remember this in 
 school. The parent or teacher who is known to expect 
 honesty and obedience usually gets it, and contrariwise, 
 ostentatious distrust and perpetual nagging, enjoining, 
 and prohibiting, end only in demoralisation. 
 
 Fiction again by its power of raising impressive and 
 importunate ideas, acts on us by suggestion. We be- 
 come the characters about whom we read ; something 
 in our nervous organisation adapts itself to the constant 
 pictures of our imagination. We find it easy to act 
 the parts that are most familiar to our minds. We may 
 well be careful, then, what sort of books we leave in 
 our pupils' paths. 
 
 I 
 
 ii
 
 The Discipline of Character 65 
 
 For reference : — Prof. James's Principles of Psychology (briefer 
 Text-Book). Prof. Rein's Outlines of Pedagogics (van Liew's transla- 
 tion). Prof. Earle Barnes in Education, March 1898, and the same 
 writer's Studies in Education. Harris in U.S. Reports, 1893. Prof. 
 MacCunn's The Making of Character. Prof. Laurie's Institutes of 
 Education. Herbert Spencer's Education. Bain's Education as 
 a Science. Harris's Psychologic Foundations of Education. Prof. 
 Lloyd-Morgan's Psychology for Teachers. Compayrd's Intellectual 
 and Moral Development. Herbart's Science of Education. Mrs. 
 Bryant's Moral Education and Educational Ends. Messrs. Sidg- 
 wick and Buckle in Teaching and Organisation.
 
 66 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF EDUCATION 
 
 What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in 
 faculty ! in form and moving how express and admirable ! in action 
 how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the 
 world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quin- 
 tessence of dust ? — Hamlet. 
 
 Philosophers, as we know, have long been busy in the 
 The assunip- endeavour to arrive at a proper understanding 
 tions of of the relation between knowledge and exist- 
 
 sciences ence. The profoundest question that can be 
 
 offered for solution is the exact meaning of the words I 
 Am, and I Know. But, like other special sciences, psy- 
 chology begins, so to speak, lower down in the hierarchy 
 of systematised knowledge. It takes things for granted 
 which on the strictest grounds of philosophy have to be 
 proved. As a natural science, it assumes that matter 
 exists quite outside of and independent of the mind that 
 perceives it. The science of physics has its own assump- 
 tions, and chemistry and physiology theirs in their turn, the 
 one accepting the data supplied by others. Psychology 
 assumes the existence of thoughts and feelings, and 
 assumes that by means of these thoughts and feelings, 
 or states of consciousness, we can know other things. 
 
 Now the psychologists show us that, as Professor 
 James says, mental life exists primarily and at bottom
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 67 
 
 for the sake of action that preserves the life of the 
 organism It is an endeavour to adjust our Relations of 
 inner to our outer relations. There is no mental and 
 mental condition which is not accompanied P'^ys'cai life 
 or followed by some kind of bodily change obvious or 
 concealed. If, then, teachers can get some sort of guidance 
 in the endeavour to infer one from the other, to interpret 
 bodily signs in their relation to mental activity, and 
 to forecast in some measure the effects of mental activity 
 on the body, it is clear that their task can be performed 
 with a certitude otherwise unattainable. Of course the 
 least experienced of us is accustomed to make some 
 such inferences unhesitatingly ; they are part of the 
 common stock of every-day knowledge. We know well 
 for instance the physical signs of Anger — the convulsed 
 hand, the flushed face, the corrugated forehead, and so 
 on ; Fear, too, and the rest, bring with them equally un- 
 mistakable signs. But the physical changes associated 
 with most states of the mind are so complicated and so 
 obscure, that the teacher must needs place himself in the 
 hands of the physiologist, and do what he can to learn 
 from physiology what it has to tell him about brain 
 action. He may at all events by this means be able 
 to interpret the signs of physical distress or defect so 
 intelligently as to save himself useless labour and spare 
 his pupil (or patient) useless pain ; his judgments will 
 be more accurate and therefore more humane. 
 
 The physiologist tells us that with every state of con- 
 sciousness there is associated a change of some sort in 
 the brain, and the brain is the centre or register of the 
 "voluntary" nervous system. The teacher does well, 
 therefore, to get some idea of the way in which the 
 nervous system puts us in communication with the outer 
 world.
 
 68 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Let us note some of the practical uses to which the 
 Brain exer- teacher Can apply this kind of knowledge, 
 ciseisacon- First of all, taking it in its most general 
 dition of aspect, the hygiene of the effort to learn : 
 health ^j^^. ghould the effort to acquire knowledge 
 
 conduce to health? Why, indeed, is it necessary to 
 health ? The reason is this : that the brain does not 
 grow except under the conditions of exercise ; the stimu- 
 lation of the nervous system, so long as it is not beyond 
 the degree at which recuperation is possible, tends to 
 make it strong, not to weaken it. When the nerve is 
 quickened, something is "discharged," a chemical change 
 or some sort of " combustion " takes place in the nerve- 
 cells. Under conditions of health, this something is 
 replaced by some other thing like itself but of better 
 quality. There is growth, as we say. 
 
 The mere savage, however fine a fellow he may be 
 The best physically, is not so truly healthy as a well- 
 educated are developed member of a society in a high state 
 theheaiihiest of civilisation ; he lacks balance. He may 
 have the acutest senses and a very powerfully developed 
 frame, capable of resisting most forms of physical hard- 
 ships surpassingly well. But he is still inferior to the 
 more delicate civilised man in that the civilised man 
 can resist a larger number of unfavourable influences 
 and in greater complexity ; he would remain sane and 
 healthy where the savage would be lost. He is not 
 so subject to the sudden outbursts of fury which are 
 signs that a man's inner life has ceased to be in safe 
 relation to the world outside. It is a fact that there is 
 more insanity amongst uncivilised peoples than amongst 
 others, and that although the population of civilised 
 Europe has grown so enormously, insanity has not, 
 happily, maintained the same proportion, even though
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 69 
 
 there is a tendency to reckon as insanity smaller aberra- 
 tions from the normal than heretofore. But more than 
 this ; there is less insanity among the educated classes, 
 as they are called, than among the uneducated, less in 
 town districts than in the country, less among persons 
 who use their brains well than among those who use 
 them little. And all this is akin to the fact that 
 the imperfectly educated human being cannot look so 
 far ahead as the one who has been accustomed to in- 
 vestigate cause and effect farther, to follow out acts to 
 their consequences and to provide against contingencies. 
 
 Again, if education stopped short with the senses, and 
 if mankind were not driven by its desires and Education of 
 inquisitiveness to argue about and infer from the senses 
 sensations, we should be hardly better than "o' enough 
 acutely sensitive animals. Somebody has said that if we 
 had had the fine olfactory sense of the dog, the keen 
 sight of the eagle, and so on, we should not have felt the 
 call to cultivate our apperceptive powers, to generalise 
 our knowledge in due order; and we should have re- 
 mained monkeys instead of being related to the 
 angels. 
 
 The physiological bearing of brain action conveys 
 another warning to the teacher. We have .^.^ 
 
 ° The warn- 
 
 seen that exercise is mdispensable to growth, ing against 
 and indeed to existence ; we know what is excessive 
 meant by the maxim that practice makes e.\erciseof 
 perfect. Up to a certain point the repetition ""*^"°" 
 of the functional activities of the nerve makes other 
 similar activities easier. But this may be overdone. 
 The discharge of energy may be so persistent that no 
 time is given for repair, for the replacement of those 
 materials in the tissues which, combined with oxygen 
 from the air, are the source of this energy ; or incessant
 
 yo Common Sense in Education 
 
 repetition may make the loss of energy automatic and 
 therefore involuntary. We must not therefore expect 
 good results from too long and strong a dose of the 
 same study. Moreover, physiology teaches us that 
 the store of mental energy available is strictly limited, 
 and that it can be exhausted not only by excessive 
 persistence in the same study, but also by excess in a 
 variety of studies. 
 
 Within limits, of course, a change of study, by set- 
 ting up different combinations, is really a kind of rest. 
 But the operations of mental combinations, the result 
 of movement, of sensation, and so forth, all take place 
 in the same continuous brain cortex. You cannot play 
 any game, athletic or other, without associating mental 
 effort with movements ; and the consequent inference 
 on which the teacher must take action is this — that if 
 pupils are having a great deal of violent exercise we 
 must not expect from them strictly intellectual work of 
 the best quality or in great quantity. A long run is a 
 severe strain, not on the heart alone, but on the brain ; 
 and there should be a very substantial interval of rest 
 between such an effort and any kind of severe brain 
 work ; it is rest that repairs. In schools this form of 
 error is less likely to cause distress among the younger 
 pupils than among the older ones. Young children are 
 not usually so emulous as their elders ; they certainly 
 do not look as far ahead and are not therefore so ready 
 to postpone present comfort for future gain. They more 
 readily give way to the sleepiness and lassitude by which 
 nature calls upon them to allow their nerves the rest 
 that is needed for their recuperation. But in the upper 
 forms of schools and in the universities the mischief is 
 very considerable, and there is some risk of its spreading 
 from men to women. Many a fine fellow has acted on
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 71 
 
 the presumption that a candle can be safely burnt at 
 both ends ; and in not a few of such cases the penalty 
 has been exacted years after the offences have been 
 committed. Men have got into their thirties, perhaps 
 forties, as scholars and athletes, and have then become 
 confirmed invalids. 
 
 But all these considerations having been duly weighed, 
 it is still true that exercise of all the powers, intellectual 
 as well as bodily, is necessary for health. It remains 
 however, for the teacher to note and make sure of the 
 signs of distress and defect. 
 
 The apparatus needed for this purpose can be as 
 elaborate as the observer may choose to make r^^^ ^j^g^^ 
 it. But, undoubtedly, the simpler it is, the vationof 
 better able will the teacher be to take his pupil distress and 
 unawares and therefore in the best position ^^'^^'^'^ 
 for giving useful indications of his real condition. At 
 this point we will deal solely with such observations as 
 any teacher may make with the least ostentation, not 
 with the view of discovering general laws of develop- 
 ment, but of detecting nervous incapacity, temporary or 
 permanent, in individuals. 
 
 It is much to be wished that every school weighed 
 and measured its pupils three or four times physical 
 each year, or even at the beginning and end observations 
 of each term. The loss of weight in relation to size 
 would at once give the teacher a hint that his pupil was 
 suffering from defective nutrition in some form or an- 
 other, and he would ask himself whether there was any- 
 thing in the school work or the boy's work out of school 
 to account for the unhealthy condition. In a boarding- 
 school, the school doctor would be consulted ; in the 
 case of a day-school boy, the parents would be notified 
 and warned ; and the teacher himself should "go easy "
 
 72 Common Sense in Education 
 
 with the case. In any circumstances it is certain that 
 when disproportion of age, weight, and size is noticed, 
 a pupil may be suffering either from some constitutional 
 weakness (which would need special and continuous 
 treatment) or from insanitary surroundings, from 
 overwork, or work ill-distributed, from insufficient 
 sleep, from underfeeding, or from too rapid develop- 
 ment. 
 
 One of the most systematic and patient of observers 
 and one of the most helpful of writers on the study of 
 children is Dr. Francis Warner, whose book The Study 
 of Children, contains a short schedule of heads under 
 which a teacher may usefully group his notes on each 
 pupil. His classification does not exclude other schemes, 
 but it is particularly valuable to the young teacher 
 because facts of connexion have already been ascer- 
 tained showing how the phenomena, familiar to the 
 physiologist, can be turned to immediate account in the 
 class-room and in the management of pupils by the 
 teacher. And these established physiological facts are 
 far more important to the young teacher than any infer- 
 ences he may himself be tempted to make on the grounds 
 of a limited experience and comparatively untrained 
 observation. He should certainly first learn to base his 
 observations on ascertained physiological truths. 
 
 It is especially important to remark that the changing 
 conditions of brain action under stimulus are infallibly 
 indicated by movements of various parts of the body. 
 Our scales and our measuring-tape, our more or less 
 exact views of facial and general bodily symmetry, may 
 give us a good beginning on which we can enter deliber- 
 ately, at our pleasure. But above all things we are to 
 bear in mind that it is by the rapid and exact observa- 
 tions of movements that we can determine the modes of
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 73 
 
 defective mental action under our eyes ; and under the 
 general term " movements " we are to include all changes 
 of posture, balance, gestures, and so on. Furthermore 
 it is to be expected that the inferences will be easier 
 to make in dealing with childhood than they can be 
 in dealing with adolescent or adult life, for the obvious 
 reason that young children are less self-conscious, less 
 likely to control abnormal movements by spontaneous 
 effort. 
 
 And there is another and most valuable reflection 
 arising from this fact ; and that is, that the f ^e disci- 
 discipline of movements, or as we may say, of pUneof 
 dexterities, is of the highest value not merely movements 
 as indicating but as stimulating corresponding mental 
 action. While the mind is most plastic, most easily 
 biassed, as it is in youth, the senses and reactions in 
 movement should be cultivated so as to work har- 
 moniously and develop as fully as possible, not for their 
 own sake merely, nor for the products of their activity, 
 but because up to a certain point it is demonstrable that 
 their development is connected with brain development, 
 and their healthy condition is indispensable to health of 
 brain, just as inability to perform certain movements 
 correctly is at all ages a test of specific mental defect. 
 Those who are familiar with the work of Froebel, will 
 remember that Froebel lays it down that children should 
 actually handle the geometrical and other objects which 
 are placed before them. It is not enough that they 
 should use their eyes alone. The senses must be co- 
 ordinated, and co-ordination is effected, an adjustment 
 is made, in the brain acting as the " clearing-house " or 
 central receiver and transmitter for the messages brought 
 by hand and eye. The sensation of touch pure and 
 simple without what is called the muscular sense, which
 
 74 Common Sense in Education 
 
 is really an inference, is of little use to us, so children 
 must touch and see and handle at the same moment if 
 the circle of co-ordination is to be completed and their 
 knowledge is to be made serviceable. 
 
 The manual dexterities, as we can see without much 
 
 trouble, involve more than the exercise of themselves. 
 
 The single movement or single series of movements, 
 
 however accurate, does not rise to its proper 
 
 The manual . r • ^^ i i • 
 
 dexterities Complexity as a means of mtellectual education 
 and co-ordi- until many senses are involved and until the 
 nation of adaptation of means to ends is a process involv- 
 brain and -^^^ ^ multitude of steps. The little chicken 
 which almost from birth can co-ordinate its 
 motions so accurately as to snatch up unerringly a morsel 
 of food at one peck has reached a state of development 
 relatively much farther on than the child of six months 
 which with difficulty finds its way to its own mouth ; 
 for the human being struggles towards the power of co- 
 ordinating movements at every stage by complicated 
 intellectual processes, although at later stages of develop- 
 ment he may provide for contingencies so far off as to 
 be almost inconceivable. So the systematic teacher of 
 little children keeps her eye on the simultaneous cultiva- 
 tion of as many senses as can be compassed in one 
 exercise. 
 
 We may be sure, then, that in carefully cultivating the 
 powers of children to do things with their hands we are 
 also increasing their powers of thinking; it is not a purely 
 mechanical capacity with which we are enabling them 
 to endow themselves, but we are stimulating capacity to 
 grow. Let us look at it again. The healthy child must 
 be doing something. There are no such things as idle 
 hands attached to a well-developed young human being, 
 and the mischief that Satan is said to provide is merely
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 75 
 
 misdirection of healthy, that is holy, energy. The 
 young body, with blood bounding in every artery and 
 life exuberant in every nerve, cannot keep still. The 
 endeavour to repress activity of this kind altogether is in 
 truth a violent upsetting of the whole life-system. But 
 activity can be most usefully directed, and this is done 
 by sympathetic co-ordination. By all means, let the 
 child Do, but let him, as Froebel puts it, Learn by 
 doing. 
 
 With this inborn activity a young child possesses also 
 large powers of imitation. "Make-believe" 
 
 ... ) IT Imitation 
 
 is a very large part or every little ones life. 
 Play, said Froebel, is positively the child's highest de- 
 velopment, and Robert Louis Stevenson was strictly 
 accurate, and a Froebelian of the deepest dye, in re- 
 garding it as the real part of the child's life ; it is at all 
 events the freest exertion of all his powers. It is not, 
 we must note, the mere mimicry practised by the monkey; 
 for the human being not only imitates, but is, for the 
 time, the thing he imitates. This is exactly illustrated 
 by Professor Bain's statement that whenever a person 
 shows "spontaneous and unprompted facility" he will 
 also in the same respect be " imitative or acquisitive". 
 
 It is difficult to believe that there ever existed a pre- 
 judice against play as a waste of time, a de- 
 gradation of a human being meant for better 
 things. No particular school of pedagogy however has 
 had a monopoly of this view. Repression and silence 
 have too often been the guiding principles of teachers 
 who have otherwise laid mankind under very great 
 obligations. Take for instance, the Constitutions of tlie 
 Monastery of Port Royal, a typical case. On every page 
 of the regulations the reader is struck by the constant in- 
 junction of silence. And a truly great and good English
 
 76 Common Sense in Education 
 
 clergyman at the end of the eighteenth century would 
 spend hours on his knees, they tell us, because his little 
 pupils, do what he would, continued to sin by playing. 
 
 We cannot doubt that the right view of play was that 
 which was propounded to teachers and to the world first 
 of all by Froebel. He taught that in childhood play is 
 the highest manifestation of human development ; the 
 child cannot possibly do better than play well. Play is, 
 in fact, to him what the work of art is to the grown man. 
 In play, his capabilities find freest and happiest and 
 consequently highest expression. It is therefore the duty 
 of teacher and parent to watch and guide the child, with 
 as little ostentation as possible, at least no less in this 
 than in other forms of activity. 
 
 Every living creature, we may be sure, has its play, its 
 delighted exercise of the powers which it possesses in 
 finest condition ; but the child differs from other animals 
 in being much slower in development, and therefore in 
 power of co-ordination. He is helpless for a much 
 longer time, having regard to the vigilance and know- 
 ledge necessary to save him from harm. It is therefore 
 the duty of the teacher (or educator) to provide above 
 all things the freedom, and then the protection and 
 guidance, which are indispensable for the development 
 of youth. 
 
 People who know little of the real bearing of organised 
 education as a preparation for life find it easy to make 
 merry at the expense of Kindergarten methods, and it is 
 true enough that for various reasons, not always under 
 the control of the teachers, we too often find the shell 
 without the kernel, we see the procedure of the Kinder- 
 garten " system " without the inspiration of its founder, 
 aimless mechanical drill and chatter, alternating with 
 romps. But the principle and the main practice too are
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 77 
 
 sound because they are based upon demonstrable facts 
 of human development. 
 
 Here of course we are dealing with play and games 
 only ; but it may be observed in passing that in a reason- 
 ably organised Kindergarten, progress, as measured by 
 ordinary standards of attainment, may be apparently 
 slow ; but afterwards, in the higher classes, the children 
 who have passed through the Froebelian course, some- 
 times after an awkward pause, occasionally move most 
 markedly in advance of those of their comrades who 
 have had no such advantages. 
 
 There is some foundation, however, for the complaints 
 made against the Kindergarten, to the effect xhe dangers 
 that progress is often slower than it need ofKinder- 
 be. For the formalist teacher iterates and garten 
 reiterates the teaching steps, works with unintelligent 
 rigidity through the prescribed stages, and displays an 
 undue fondness for such mere machinery, not necessarily 
 devised by Froebel, as answers in " complete sentences," 
 and the like. Any whole " system " should be taken 
 as a type, not as an iron prescription. Froebel was a 
 teacher, not an official. 
 
 The special dangers of what are understood to be 
 Kindergarten methods lie, at all events with English 
 children, in excessive interference and governance. It 
 is sometimes forgotten that Froebel and his most eager 
 followers have dealt with racial, social, and political con- 
 ditions materially different from those with which their 
 English and American disciples have to reckon. The 
 little English or American child is not quite the same as 
 the little German. He does not live in such an atmo- 
 sphere of regulation, of police. Personal freedom is more 
 surely bred in his bones ; he is a more restless animal 
 generally, and is less amenable to uniformed restraint.
 
 7? Common Sense in Education 
 
 There is such a thing as a national or racial character, 
 and the Anglo-Saxon character is not marked by patience 
 under methodical external coercion, however brought to 
 bear. The little German quite naturally passes from the 
 drill and direction of the Kindergarten to the military 
 organisation of which he is henceforth a part, and he finds 
 his place the more unhesitatingly and uncomplainingly 
 in the militar}' machine if he is already well drilled and 
 bent in a well-defined direction. But the little English 
 or American boy, passing from his first school, finds 
 himself not in another sort of well-ordered though more 
 extensive garden, but rather in a sort of bracing wilder- 
 ness through which from the very first he is required to 
 make a good deal of his path for himself. The rigid 
 Kindergarten training therefore may make him figure 
 too often amongst his less methodically trained comrades 
 as a little " prig ". Examples have not been wanting. 
 
 Of course Kindergarteners will not admit that this is 
 a necessary or even a common result of the close appli- 
 cation of the methods of Froebel ; but it is certainly a 
 common result of the too rigid practice of teachers who 
 take Froebelian prescriptions as an inspired gospel from 
 which no jot or tittle can be safely omitted. The remedy, 
 of course, is to cultivate Froebel's teaching in the spirit 
 rather than in the letter ; to regard the cycle of " gifts," 
 " occupations," and so forth, as variable according to the 
 teacher's own conviction of their sequence, adaptability, 
 and propriety. And the young teacher especially should 
 be sent to the fountain-head, to the great archetypal books, 
 — Rousseau's, F^roebel's, Locke's, Plato's — for inspiration ; 
 on the understanding that the reasoning and reflections 
 and enthusiasm of the famous reformers are of far more 
 value as inspiration and" direction than any of their 
 formulas, or systems, or prescriptions.
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 79 
 
 We return to the consideration of play. We must 
 not forget that there are other young people __. . 
 besides the little child from three years of of older 
 age to twelve, which seems to be the period of pupils and 
 life exclusively regarded as educable by some ^^^ morale 
 writers on education. Yet without doubt it ° 6^""^ 
 is easier to theorise with profit about the younger than 
 it is about the older pupil, because the mental and moral 
 problems become more complicated with increasing age. 
 We can speak with much more certainty about the body- 
 action and brain-action of the less sophisticated child. 
 Problems of applied psychology are simpler in such cases, 
 and results are more immediately manifest. For this 
 reason, if for no other, a teacher in any grade, from the 
 infant school to the university, would do well to begin 
 his practice with young children. 
 
 As young people grow they organise games for them- 
 selves, and the wise teacher encourages as much as 
 possible any initiative that may discover itself If a boy 
 or girl can invent a game, by all means let the game be 
 invented. On the other hand if a game is played on 
 a recognised plan, let the rules be followed with the 
 greatest scruple, the observer interposing only with due 
 regard to the age of the pupils. It is obviously necessary 
 to deal with very young boys or girls more directly, but 
 after they grow older, to leave the exercise of coercive 
 influence and the imposition of penalties to the young 
 people themselves, that is, to public opinion. For it is 
 in wisely ordered school games that the teacher finds 
 his opportunity to cultivate a respect for fairness and a 
 reasonable sensitiveness to public censure of injustice. 
 
 Games are play organised, and are probably best 
 when they permit entire freedom of individual action 
 within such well-defined larger limits as are necessary to
 
 8o 
 
 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Their value 
 as disci- 
 pline and 
 "recreation 
 
 secure common action. Drill and gymnastics are not 
 so useful for purposes of " recreation " as 
 football or cricket, because the movements in 
 the former are strictly prescribed and allow 
 exceedingly little scope for individuality, 
 whereas football and cricket throw ample responsibility 
 on the individual for personal initiative unrestrained by 
 any considerations beyond " playing the game," obedience 
 to a limited set of regulations, not more than are in- 
 dispensable for successful co-operation. It is a great 
 general gain to the nervous system, and thence to the 
 whole bodily and mental constitution, that uniform 
 currents should be disturbed, that mechanical habit 
 should be broken, that the power to co-ordinate brain 
 and limb by sudden decision should be kept alive, 
 active, alert. 
 
 Games are therefore not mere "exercise" or gymnas- 
 tics ; they fulfil a far wider function. It is 
 greatly in their favour that they have no 
 conscious hygienic or utilitarian purpose ; if 
 they acquire this, they begin to lose their real 
 value. They should be an end in themselves. 
 Victory is properly rewarded by a crown of parsley ; as 
 soon as virtus, the quality of manliness, begins to be 
 rewarded more substantially, it begins to be corrupted. 
 The very essence of a game is its detachment from any 
 motive beyond the mere winning. Again, "exercise" 
 as gymnastics, may, and generally must, limit its bene- 
 ficial operations to particular muscles or powers ; games 
 develop all and any. The very element of apparent 
 disorderliness, which has worried those foreigners who 
 see nothing but the hap-hazard and random surface of 
 our national games, is exactly that part which is most 
 useful, for it cultivates the habit of rapid concentration 
 
 The games 
 as ends in 
 themselves. 
 Order in 
 Disorder
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 8i 
 
 of purpose and co-ordination of movements to secure an 
 immediate end. 
 
 To sum up then, good games should refresh or " re- 
 create," should develop as many bodily powers as possible, 
 should train muscles to rapid voluntary movements in 
 no invariable order, should have no conscious utilitarian 
 purpose while in progress. 
 
 An honest organised or combined game is the basis of 
 a good working barbarian conception of duty ; of selfish 
 achievement vigorously and pleasurably sacrificed to the 
 community ; for an advantage which is not material, but 
 merely for the delight of living vigorously and healthily. 
 
 "Exercise" and gymnastics have their places, but 
 they are formal, hygienic, curative, corrective, ..Exercise" 
 regulative ; and usefijl as they must be, have and gymnas- 
 a distinctly smaller moral value, and are there- "« in the 
 fore of less importance in education than games. ^^^°^^ P'**^ 
 Some training in gymnastics and drill is undoubtedly good 
 for all ; it is certainly profitable to teach people, old and 
 young, how to move together at the word of command, 
 and in a school it is almost indispensable for good order. 
 Gymnastics should be devised and supervised The uses of 
 by qualified persons, and should be directed gymnastics 
 especially to correct bodily defects pointed out by medical 
 examination. But great harm has very often been done 
 by leaving young men and young women to use the 
 gymnasium and its appliances at their own indiscretion. 
 A gymnasium which is not properly watched may do far 
 more harm than good. Boys and girls will strain them- 
 selves, will persist in a difficult exercise till they become 
 "silly"; they will proceed directly to gymnastics after 
 a heavy meal, and in other ways turn to their permanent 
 loss what is meant for their benefit. 
 
 Gymnastics under proper conditions may be said to 
 
 6
 
 82 Common Sense in Education 
 
 be directly useful to the teacher in three chief ways ; first, 
 as affording opportunity for observing and discovering 
 certain physical defects and even defects of character; 
 secondly, as a means of ensuring symmetrical develop- 
 ment ; thirdly — a point of special importance in dealing 
 vi'ith women — as a practical protest and protection 
 against the fashionable crazes which encase people 
 within garments that cramp natural activity and lower 
 vitality. 
 
 Distinctions must of course, be made between the 
 Games for games played by girls and those played b}- 
 girls boys. To begin with, we must not forget 
 
 that there are fundamental differences of physical for- 
 mation ; thus a blow from a hard cricket ball on the 
 chest is a far more serious matter with a girl than a boy. 
 There are differences of physical capacity and endurance; 
 boys bear up more easily than girls against a prolonged 
 strain. Moreover, girls " make-believe " at a heavier cost 
 than boys ; their intentness more easily passes into 
 anxiety and excessive vehemence ; they take the loss of 
 a game more to heart. This last is, indeed, a defect 
 which the passing of time may do something to cure. 
 When the " race of women " has acquired an older tradi- 
 tion of corporate activity, they will learn to care more 
 for the game and less for the result as it affects them- 
 selves. Girls' games should, for these reasons, be lively 
 and spirited and short. If there are necessary differences 
 between the games of boys and girls respectively, the 
 questions involved are of even greater importance to the 
 latter than to the former, for they have a long lee-way of 
 tradition to make up, they are less well trained to asso- 
 ciated or corporate action, they tend more to become 
 victims of excessive sensibility, and they are in more im- 
 perative need of protection against monstrous fashions.
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 83 
 
 To what extent teachers shall take part in games is a 
 question that hardly admits of a satisfactory Teachers 
 general answer. The quality and extent of and games 
 interference must be determined chiefly by the age of 
 the boys and girls concerned ; the younger the pupils, 
 the safer interference will be. But at all times it is 
 pretty certain that the teacher should leave as much as 
 possible of the organisation and administration of games 
 to the boys or girls themselves ; he should remain behind 
 in such matters, as a court of final appeal and an oc- 
 casional discreet monitor. Ostentatious supervision is 
 always undesirable ; it debilitates pupils and it adds 
 quite unnecessarily to the duties and responsibilities of 
 the teacher. But the lively interest of the master or 
 mistress in school games is a most healthy influence. 
 It shows the teacher to be human, it affords him a 
 fine field for supplementary observation, it stimulates 
 " loafers," and is a security for fairness. For all these 
 reasons a teacher may take part in games, regard of 
 course being had to the maintenance of a proper balance 
 of weight in contests. 
 
 If there arises any question as to the kind of games 
 that are to be preferred for school use, it what games 
 will probably be found wise to consider shall be 
 principally three conditions; which games pi'eferred? 
 can be played in the open air ; which can include the 
 largest number of actual pla}'ers ; which cultivate the 
 largest number of physical dexterities. 
 
 Let us remind ourselves that ever>' free harmless 
 movement having no conscious utilitarian object is play. 
 Every one must have noticed the habitually loud voice 
 of the healthy child ; this is a natural and necessary 
 gymnastic, and when it has to be controlled and coerced 
 in the schoolroom into dove-like gentleness, something
 
 $4 Common Sense In Education 
 
 is lost which must be compensated in the playground. 
 The play of the young has its exact counterpart in the 
 work of art of the grown man ; the child's play has no 
 conscious end, the greatest works of art have no for- 
 mulable "moral". And yet both play and works of 
 art are the finest expressions of self or personality of 
 child and man each in his sphere ; and unless they 
 conduce to healthiness, that is holiness, in its simplest 
 and original sense, they are not merely unmoral but 
 vicious. We may well, then, think equally seriously 
 about our children's play and the things that delight 
 ourselves in our maturity. 
 
 We have seen that there can be too much imitation ; 
 Play should perpetual repetition relaxes the power of con- 
 be varied trol over the mechanism of nerve discharge ; 
 every now and then, therefore, processes must be varied 
 and the capacity for initiation must be called upon to 
 assert itself. Left to themselves, individual children 
 should be constantly devising new play for themselves. 
 The teacher's interference is wanted chiefly to suggest 
 games in common, and to see that these are played fairly. 
 
 Besides the spontaneity of action in the child and 
 Inquisitive- his tendency to imitation, both mechanical 
 ness and and imaginative or " make-believe," the wise 
 Interest teacher of the young will recognise also the 
 
 child's desire to know, his inquisitiveness. The mis- 
 chievousness that Satan is supposed to suggest is often 
 truly the prompting of this most profitable of human 
 instincts. It may be merely a variety of the inclination 
 to get possession of things, to make them one's own. 
 But in any case it is very distinctly serviceable. The 
 teacher of children remarks furthermore that the individual 
 child exhibits the tendency noticed amongst primitive 
 or child-like people to be attracted by striking colours
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 85 
 
 rather than to be interested in forms. Every one knows 
 how the infant turns to the light and, later on, grasps at 
 bright-coloured things ; this preference for colour is a 
 valuable indication to the teacher as to the earliest means 
 of interesting children and inducing them to reason. 
 Colour is less abstract than form, and therefore it is an 
 instrument of education available at an earlier stage. 
 
 It would be improper to conclude this part of our sub- 
 ject without some consideration of the place of Manual in- 
 manual training in school above the kinder- struction 
 garten age. Such instruction is warmly advocated by high 
 authorities on several grounds, some of great importance. 
 
 The close relation of manual dexterity to early de- 
 velopment is established beyond a doubt, and for young 
 children of all grades and every status " sloyd " or the 
 like seems to be essential. By its help not only does the 
 brain develop better, but much is also gained by accustom- 
 ing hands and eyes to work together merely as a prepara- 
 tion for those everyday duties in which an awkward man 
 or woman is at a clear disadvantage. Furthermore, many 
 a lad who would be helpless before the excessive bookish- 
 ness of our school curriculum, who would pass and be 
 classed as a dull fellow on his merits in relation to the 
 ordinary work, discovers capacity and develops self- 
 respect as soon as he is set to work in which his hands 
 and his eyes have liberty of expression. For the best 
 thing that education does is to give us the power of 
 expressing ourselves. 
 
 Nor is it a small matter that prestige is given to manual 
 work by inclusion in a Time Table, for this plants a re- 
 spect for it in a boy's mind which no mere preaching of 
 the dignity of labour can ever produce. The achieve- 
 ments which the actual experience of early life shows us 
 to be difficult and honourable we appraise most truly
 
 86 Common Sense in Education 
 
 when we are old. The contempt for physical labour is a 
 kind of " priggishness " from which nothing but contact 
 with labour will ever cure us ; for the true mark of the 
 "prig" is an inordinate and exclusive respect for the 
 narrow range of things within his own experience and 
 capacit)'. From the practical and industrial point of 
 view this consideration is of great moment ; for, as it is, 
 we tend to attract people more and more from the manual 
 to the clerkly arts, a profound misfortune for crafts and 
 professions alike. 
 
 On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that 
 manual training is of far more consequence for the pri- 
 mary and higher primary than for the secondary school ; 
 for those more certainly destined to industrial pursuits 
 than for those who are to be organisers of industries and 
 members of professions ; for those whose games are few 
 and rough and practised only for a short period and at rare 
 intervals than for those whose training in skilled games 
 is elaborate and continuous. Manual training seems to 
 be essential to a proper primary course, and to be very 
 useful as part of the curriculum of a secondary school. 
 
 The problem of interest which passes beyond the 
 simple consideration of the use of the hands and eyes 
 in early youth, is properly considered as discipline in in- 
 struction. Here we must be content with the proof that 
 the training of the senses and the consequent employ- 
 ment of the tendencies to spontaneous activity are indis- 
 pensable conditions for health, not merely bodily health, 
 but mental and even moral health. And if we once 
 make this point clear to ourselves, it will be easier for us 
 to understand and to admit that the pupil, and therefore 
 his education, must be considered as a whole. We get 
 here into touch, not for the first time, with the doctrine 
 of concentration or connectedness in education, 
 
 I
 
 Th« Physical Basis of Educaticxn 87 
 
 For the teacher must recognise in his pupil the co- 
 existence and the need for the co-ordination ^. 
 of those three chief states of the mind which ^^^^ niove- 
 have already claimed some of our attention — ments to cui- 
 feeling, knowing, and willing. The end of tivate mental 
 feeling is that we are something or in some ^^p^*^"'" 
 desired condition. The end of the impulse to know is 
 an understanding of the' real relations between things; 
 the truth, as we say. The end of willing is to do, or to 
 make something. 
 
 Now in furtherance of the pupil's health the good 
 teacher uses these possibilities of the mind in conjunc- 
 tion with the unrestrainable impulses to movement in 
 such a way as to make them all work together to a good 
 result. Feelings are successively stimulated and regu- 
 lated or repressed so as to induce the pupil to feel, find 
 out, and to act in accordance with right reason. The 
 child is to learn that he can be what he likes, know what 
 he likes, and make what he likes — if he will only find 
 out the way. 
 
 There has of late been a very great increase in the 
 interest taken in the close and detailed study psy^hoioRi- 
 of childhood, and that on what are probably cai observa- 
 very good grounds. Psychology suffers the tion and 
 serious disadvantage of being in the main an '^'^cuities 
 introspective study. We learn about the operations of 
 mind in general mostly by watching the operations of 
 our own minds, and we may, of course, be systematically 
 making observations that are vitiated from the first by 
 our own inability to see ourselves without some sort of 
 predispositions or prejudices. We see too often what we 
 expect to see. One of us must think differently from 
 every one and any one else, for the simple reason that 
 he is himself and no one else. We may use precisely
 
 88 Common Sense in Education 
 
 the same words, but the same words may have, nay, they 
 must have, a dififerent meaning to each several mind. It 
 is possible, on the other hand, for me to learn a good 
 deal by observing other people, and by comparing what 
 I see in other people with what I know to be in my 
 own mind ; and by comparing notes again with others 
 making similar observations, I can get some sort of rough 
 agreement. But there are still difficulties. The normal 
 man or woman or any child above infancy becomes self- 
 conscious as soon as we begin our operations, and even at 
 ordinary times the adult is a bundle of reserves and con- 
 cealments. There are however many observations and 
 experiments partly physical, partly psychological, that 
 can be made without exciting excessive or irrelevant 
 responsiveness on the part of those whom we are observ- 
 ing. We can, for instance, measure the extent of a 
 man's responsiveness to touch or to sound by arranging 
 with him standards and means, though even here the 
 tension of self-consciousness may seriously interfere with 
 the justness of our conclusions. 
 
 Medical men very often draw their most valuable 
 Pathological lessons from unusual or abnormal cases, 
 observations They Can judge best of the tendency of a 
 disease by examining a case in which its operations have 
 been unchecked. So the experimenter in psychology 
 may learn most valuable facts from the observations of 
 persons who are imperfect or undeveloped. It is not 
 possible nor perhaps desirable for all of us to make 
 investigations into cases of arrested or diseased develop- 
 ment — imbeciles or idiots — but we have the developing 
 man and woman with us eternally in the persons of the 
 pupils in our schools. We can make observations on 
 them because we have them with us for considerable 
 periods and under circumstances that present them to
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 89 
 
 us with reasonably frequent opportunities of finding 
 them off their guard, and of making proper allowances 
 for vigilant self-consciousness. 
 
 Observations are one thing, experiments another. To 
 perform experiments safely and unerringly we must know 
 a good deal by way of preliminary about the action of 
 the nervous system, or we must at all events have the 
 word of the physiologist for the justification of the 
 inference that we are drawing. In the meantime the 
 individual teacher can profitably make careful observa- 
 tions in detail. Remembering what has been said about 
 the prior claim of observations tending to illustrate and 
 confirm the relations which physiologists have proved 
 to exist between physical and mental development, the 
 young teacher gives himself excellent original practice 
 by setting aside a page or two in a book to record the 
 doings and inferred characteristics of each member of the 
 class he meets regularly. By taking these preparatory 
 steps he learns at least what are the facts that first strike 
 himself as noteworthy, and he will forthwith endeavour 
 to tabulate and explain them. He may then proceed to 
 organise his investigations more systematically, perhaps 
 adopting some of the schemes which have been pro- 
 pounded by such authorities as Dr. Warner or Professor 
 G. Stanley Hall or Professor Sully. 
 
 For after the success of one's first endeavours to work 
 out something for oneself, time is saved and rapid pro- 
 gress is made by finding out, from some one who has gone 
 before, what to look for. 
 
 Professor Sully once made an appeal for information 
 as to specific errors in teaching, compiled, we Professor 
 may presume, by the teachers themselves. SuUy'siist 
 How good it would be for us (if we had the time) to 
 record our own failures under such heads as he suggests : —
 
 90 Common Sense in Education 
 
 " Misjudgments as to children's previous knowledge and 
 mental capacity, as seen in springing the unknown upon 
 unprepared minds, assigning too easy or too difficult 
 tasks, etc., {b) failure to recognise the natural forces and 
 tendencies of the childish mind, as seen in their charac- 
 teristic ways of imagining and reasoning, {c) inadequate 
 recognition of the special lines of the children's interest 
 and curiosity, and more generally errors arising from 
 imperfect sympathy with child nature, {d) errors having 
 their source in a slovenly and unintelligent handling of 
 language, talking over children's heads, and so forth ; 
 (e) errors connected with questioning, such as telling 
 children what might be brought out by questioning, and 
 the converse error — putting unsuitable questions — and so 
 forth ; {/) errors dealing with the feelings of children, 
 including mistaken appeals to them and equally mis- 
 taken neglect of them ; {g) faults of government, disci- 
 pline, mistaken attempts to correct and influence them ". 
 
 It is clear that we may gain very distinct advantage 
 out of such general and systematised study. We may 
 at least accumulate facts which sooner or later will be 
 the basis of useful generalisation. Indeed some discov- 
 eries have already been made. For instance, we have 
 learnt not only to detect great fatigue, but its early 
 and otherwise unnoticed beginning. The tests of Dr. 
 Warner are strictly of this character, though some call 
 for a considerable knowledge of the nervous system 
 before certitude can be attained. 
 
 We might, perhaps, roughly divide the subject matter 
 Tests of our investigations into observations of con- 
 
 proposed ditions displaying themselves in clear bodily 
 manifestations and observations of the more obscure 
 phenomena not so obviously connected with the bodily 
 health. Under the first head we can test children's touch,
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 91 
 
 sight, hearing, breathing power, power of movement, 
 general nerve power. The study of the power of touch, 
 of skin sensibility, is of course often indispensable in 
 the investigation of general defect of nerve power, and is 
 one of the forms of observation that require, for great 
 exactness, a considerable knowledge of physiology, deli- 
 cate apparatus, and great acuteness and experience in 
 the observer, but there are certain rough tests that any 
 teacher may himself apply, as Dr. Bryan has shown in 
 the United States Education reports of 1893-4. 
 
 For instance without any apparatus, we may secure 
 useful results in this particular by touching a part of the 
 child which he cannot see (the back of the head is 
 suggested usually), and then requiring him in turn to 
 touch the same spot. VVe may be able by this or other 
 such tests combined .with ordinary schoolroom experi- 
 ence to find out whether those whose sensitiveness of 
 skin is least are also different from their comrades in 
 other particulars. 
 
 After Touch, take Sight. We cannot of course, unless 
 we are trained oculists, arrive at a knowledge of the 
 cause and extent of visual imperfection in our pupils ; 
 but we can, by systematic tests, get valuable information 
 and warning. Any one can learn to use a test-card in 
 order to discover whether a pupil's vision is sufficiently 
 near the normal to need no special attention in the 
 arrangement of school work, places, and the like. There 
 is always the black-board if we have no test-card. 
 
 Hearing in its turn can be judged by ordinary, we 
 may say domestic, experiments, the ticking of a watch, 
 or a whisper, th^ pupil of course being blindfolded and 
 the watch being held nearer to one ear than to the other. 
 
 The Breathing tests help us often to the first hint as 
 to general defect not of body only, but of mind. Perfect
 
 92 Common Sense in Education 
 
 health requires that breath should usually be taken 
 through the nose and that the inhalation should not stir 
 the breast muscles alone. Any departure from the 
 standard type, especially in young children, should at 
 once put the parent and teacher on the watch The 
 Motor Test, or tests as to power of movement, include 
 also observations on Balance and Postures. We begin 
 by separating the obviously ill-balanced and defective- 
 looking from the symmetrical ; for when two sides of the 
 body do not move alike, the difference is commonly due 
 to the diminished force or energy of brain. We note 
 what children are slower than others in obeying the 
 word of command ; we may even note, in examining 
 individuals, the interval between command and obedi- 
 ence. Signs of brain action, says Dr. Warner, are best 
 noticed in the movements of the digits rather than in 
 the larger parts of the body ; or in the behaviour of the 
 mouth, the forehead, the eye-balls, the eyelids, and so 
 on. The mouth should not twitch, the forehead should 
 not corrugate or twitch spasmodically, the iris of the eye 
 should contract when the eyes are exposed to sudden 
 light ; the eye should move easily (the head being rigid) 
 in pursuit of a travelling object. If we can associate 
 these with what we observe in the same children of 
 inattentiveness, poor memory, weak power of reasoning, 
 small will power (or wilfulness), violence of temper, and 
 the like, we shall have made observations of the highest 
 value, both to ourselves and our pupils. It is entirely 
 true, as has been said already, that it is in young children 
 that nerve-signs can be detected most frequently ; there 
 is less concealment about the very young, and, besides, 
 the nervously unfit are to some degrees weeded out before 
 they can come into schools for older children. But no 
 teacher should be without some sort of physiological
 
 The Physical Basis of Education 93 
 
 guidance to enable him to interpret the commoner signs 
 of distress and defect. Every teacher should be able to 
 recognise the point at which his pupils are physically 
 incapable of benefiting by work in the schoolroom, when 
 allowances should be made, and what conditions of food, 
 warmth, light, sleep, air, and rest, are necessary for 
 mental health and healthy effort. He may not be able 
 to control all these, but he must do what he can, 
 and he may always find it in his power to mitigate the 
 evil effects of pernicious circumstances which he cannot 
 entirely alter. 
 
 For reference : — Prof. James's Principles of Psychology ; younger 
 students will tind his briefer Text-Book more convenient. Dr. 
 Warner's The Study of Children. Dr. Gowers in the Journal of 
 Education, 1896, p. 408. Froebel's Education of Man. Herford's 
 Froebel, vol. i. H. Courthope Bowen's Froebel. Dr. Dukes and 
 }^\[ss\Welldon in Teaching and Organisation. Miss Dove in Work 
 and Play in Girls' Schools. Prof. Sully in the Journal of Education 
 of Feb. 1895. Miss Louch in the same volume. Dr. W. L. Bryan 
 in U.S. Reports, vol. i., 1893-4. Oppenheim's The Development of 
 the Child. Butler's Meaning of Education. Harris's Psychologic 
 Foundations of Education. Prof. Lloyd Morgan's Psychology for 
 Teachers. Baroness von Marenholz Bulovv's Child and Child 
 Nature in Miss Christie's translation. Mark's Individuality and 
 the Moral Aim in Education.
 
 94 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE GENESIS OF CURRICULA 
 
 The education of youth . . . he looked upon as the greatest and 
 most glorious work of a lawgiver. 
 
 — (Plutarch's Lycurgus, in Langhorne), 
 
 It is not difficult for us, after all that has been said in 
 The im- previous chapters, to recognise the paramount 
 
 portance of importance of curriculum in education, though 
 curriculum jts importance lies less in the power possessed 
 by the teacher to manipulate it than in its dependence 
 on the opinions of society. The essential province of the 
 teacher is Method ; to a large extent he must take Cur- 
 riculum as he finds it. Nevertheless, teachers of standing 
 and influence may do much to modify conditions which 
 are in the main imposed on them from without, and every 
 teacher may follow curriculum in a more or less profit- 
 able manner. 
 
 Curriculum is important because it provides the main 
 material, the main food, out of which are made mind 
 and character. We cannot get equally good results from 
 one set of studies as from another, any more than we can 
 profit equally by different sorts of food. Some foods are 
 more digestible than others, better fitted for assimilation 
 by the body, more easily made into bone and muscle and 
 nerve ; so some studies, or some arrangements of studies, 
 are better than others for building up mind and character. 
 In fact, just as some foods are so wholesome that they
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 95 
 
 " digest themselves," as we say, so some studies are so 
 exactly the material which the growing mind craves for 
 the purposes of further growth, that what is called Method, 
 that is, artificial predigestion or presentation, is of dis- 
 tinctly smaller importance. 
 
 This fact is of the very highest moment when we are 
 considering Method in relation to earlier and 
 later studies, and in relation to the curriculum . .... 
 
 ' in relation to 
 
 of the primary and secondary schools. Rules the training 
 
 of arrangement and procedure, even correct of teachers 
 
 and salutary rules, are not so important in an ^^'^ P'^°- 
 
 advanced stage of instruction, or in a series '^^ "'^.^'" 
 
 t63.chtncr 
 
 of studies which can be followed at reasonable 
 leisure, as they are in a curriculum which is meant to 
 do hastily the work which for proper maturing requires a 
 long time. This should be remembered in administer- 
 ing systems designed for primary and secondary grades 
 respectively ; it is too often forgotten by over-zealous 
 advocates of training for secondary teachers, who weaken 
 an excellent case by failing to recognise the disciplinary 
 merits of mere curriculum, and its relative independence 
 of skilfulness in teaching. 
 
 The primary teacher is called upon to do in a woefully 
 short time and with a therefore makeshift curriculum 
 what the teacher using a genuine secondary course does 
 in alliance with a sounder curriculum and with time itself, 
 the most powerful of all agencies in education, lending a 
 powerful hand on his side. It is therefore of infinitely 
 greater importance that a teacher should be a cultivated 
 and highly trained man if he is to serve in the primary 
 grade than if his work is to deal with the more liberal 
 material of the true secondary grade. It is really hardly 
 too much to say that an inferior teacher may safely do 
 work in the secondary school which in the primary school
 
 g6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 should be entrusted to none but the best. It is there- 
 fore quite reasonable to require, what indeed we find, that 
 primary teachers should be, as a body, more skilful than 
 others in the procedure of instruction. 
 
 The material we need for edification, in its truest sense, 
 is not, indeed, provided by curriculum alone. 
 
 Surround- 
 
 ingsand J'^'^^ ^^ ^^^ body needs air and light, exercise 
 atmosphere and warmth, in order to make digestion pos- 
 areasim- sible, SO too in education surroundings and 
 portantas atmosphere must be humane and cultivated, 
 clean and bracing. The teacher cannot en- 
 sure this for his pupils at all times, when they are out 
 of his sight and influence as well as when they are in the 
 school. His own honesty, width, urbanity, and resource- 
 fulness may indeed do , something, and something of 
 permanent value, just as he can open windows, let in light, 
 insist on a clean school-room and so forth ; but the main 
 life of his pupils is not ordinarily lived under his eyes and 
 his protection ; it is not the teacher's influence that tends 
 to be strongest in the process of moulding mind and mak- 
 ing character. 
 
 The main point, however, to remember is that curri- 
 culum is a matter for most serious consideration because 
 nothing can take its place. Some people have said, and 
 even philosophers have asserted, that it matters little what 
 we teach if only we teach it well. But we have seen 
 enough already to know that this kind of treatment will 
 not suit the human mind, for neither mind nor body can, to 
 use Professor Laurie's words, be fed by a series of difficult 
 exercises in digesting, but only by food which they can 
 readily assimilate and digest. Abeunt studia in mores. 
 
 On the whole, this view is taken by society. The 
 curricula of instruction embody to a large extent the 
 opinion of the world as to what ^natters in education. It
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 97 
 
 is hardly to be supposed that such opinion is entirely 
 wise ; some things are occasionally taught which scarcely 
 seem to serve a healthy spiritual end ; just as, according 
 to the writers on dietetics, the food with which we pro- 
 vide our bodies is not uniformly chosen with discretion. 
 Neither the educational habits nor the dietetic habits of 
 society have been thought out beyond the possibility of 
 mistake in dealing with individuals. 
 
 There is immense variety, and very probably we should 
 be thankful for it. In both cases tradition is curriculum 
 powerful ; and tradition represents not habit andTradition 
 alone, but also the uncodified experience of generations. 
 Hut we are beginning to feel that we should profit 
 by some endeavour to use a device not unknown to 
 antiquity, as we shall see in chapter xi., and establish 
 forms of curricula suited to definite public ends. Govern- 
 ment does not yet prescribe our table diet, unless it has 
 a special interest in our bodies, as when we are in the 
 army or navy or in prison, or otherwise contributing 
 directly to the convenience of the State. But in education 
 all civilised countries have already some general ofificial 
 formulas, as in elementary "codes," besides the special 
 formulas for limited classes — army and navy, for instance 
 — destined to special work. In Germany, where of all 
 places in the world there is the most consistent and metho- 
 dised effort to mould all individuals to a definite national 
 end, there are unmistakable signs of the belief in the 
 supreme importance of curriculum by the imposition of 
 a definite course of studies as a test of military fitness, the 
 ideal and aim of German education as officially conceived. 
 
 Two main tests seem from time to time to be applied 
 in estimating the value of a "subject" in a curriculum. 
 The first is whether or no a particulai study tends to the 
 good of existing social organisations. If a, "subject" 
 
 7
 
 98 Common Sense in Education 
 
 cannot be shown to do this, directly or indirectly, it 
 ry^^^^ has no proper claim, according to the prin- 
 
 appiied to ciplc assumed, to be admitted to the scheme 
 "subjects", of instruction. 
 
 The Civic "pj^g scrious, and probably the fatal, objec- 
 
 tion to this view is that it sets up a standard 
 which is civic and therefore provincial ; in relation 
 to some specific function or product, not man's largest 
 sphere of activity, his character and conduct. Thus 
 militarist rulers, honestly or dishonestly, identify the 
 interests of their own dynasty with the interests of 
 the state and even the interests of morality and religion. 
 Even where personal selfishness is apparently eliminated 
 in favour of a more generous aim, such as, for instance, 
 the greatest happiness of the greatest number, we still 
 get a too utilitarian and therefore narrow view. By 
 aiming at the greatest happiness of the greatest number, 
 we may become the slaves of industrialism and com- 
 mercialism, which are apt to see the final purpose of 
 The danger human activity in the production and distribu- 
 of the com- tion of a large number of " useful " things. In 
 merciai this way the area of individual freedom is 
 
 standard contracted, and, in direct consequence, there 
 follows a diminution of individual responsibility. For if 
 the existence and prosperity of a society is our standard 
 of propriety in education, we are driven to a narrow 
 conception of individual power and worth, to unmoral 
 standards of duty (as " patriotism " in its most restricted 
 sense), and all sorts of perversions of conscientiousness. 
 It is easy to see the mote in our neighbours' eyes, so 
 Germany and France together are excellent object- 
 lessons. The beam in our own eye is the now fashion- 
 able conception of industrial or commercial success as 
 the guiding light in education.
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 99 
 
 The truth may be that England has become strong 
 in industry exactly because she has never consciously set 
 up the commercial or industrial standard in education by 
 educating her sons through specific curriculum for commerce 
 and industry. If she has set up any standard at all, it 
 has been manifested in the conservation of liberal subjects 
 of study that do not " pay," and in the free scope given 
 to individuals, unaided and undirected by excessive state 
 intervention, to conquer and possess. It is, indeed, just 
 because she is not a commercial nation, a nation of shop- 
 keepers, that she is going to school to Germany, where 
 the civic conception of duty is now the traditional and 
 official formula. Commercialism is, indeed, the humaner 
 side of modern militarism. The rulers have sacrificed 
 much to military organisation and aims ; it is to be 
 hoped that they are doing more wisely in their cult of 
 commercialism. 
 
 The civic standard in education might indeed be 
 accepted at once if we were agreed about the tests and 
 conditions of admission to the greatest of all states, the 
 Civitas Dei. But all our ideas of citizenship are relative 
 to our imperfect humanity. Even the military standard 
 of citizenship, even devotion to a particular dynasty, 
 have at times been set up in Christian countries as 
 the essence of the duty owing to God, and there is a 
 perennial tendency to identify organisations manifestly 
 temporal, so long as they contribute to present order, 
 with the Kingdom of God. 
 
 The second great test of propriety in education is the 
 effect which a study or series of studies may -phe cuitiva- 
 have on the cultivation of the individual will, tionofchar- 
 I want to make my pupils willing and able ^^^^^ 
 to find out truth and to do what is right, by whatever test 
 they are led to discriminate. I suggest some tests —
 
 lOO Common Sense in Education 
 
 a true teacher will never lack them — and I strengthen 
 mind and character by examples and exercise. This 
 assumes that there is a common goodness, attainable by 
 all, not confined to a caste, a sect, or set ; not different 
 for different people ; a spiritual equality. This seems 
 to be the true lesson of all real religion, certainly of 
 Semitic religion ; and I believe it to be the keynote of 
 real education. 
 
 What is good for anybody is good for everybody ; 
 and if the world were what it should be, this would, 
 of course, result in a common curriculum. But such a 
 condition of things is not good for existing corporations, 
 for vested interests ; and therefore a common curriculum 
 will long be resisted by all the forces of both healthy 
 and unhealthy conservatism — very possibly a most 
 salutary provision of Providence, a stage through which 
 mankind must necessarily pass. But this consideration 
 ought certainly to remind us that existing corporations — 
 army, industrial societies, and even kingdoms — may rest 
 on an unmoral basis, and are not final facts in civilisation. 
 
 So far, then, as the teacher is concerned in the training 
 of youth, it would seem to be desirable that, to pursue 
 his work intelligently, he should be guided by a desire 
 to cultivate character without reference to a civic stan- 
 dard. In cultivating the desire to know the truth and 
 to do right, be sure we are bringing the Kingdom of God 
 nearer to accomplishment. But having satisfied our- 
 selves what our scheme of studies is to aim at, the 
 good of the state or of individuals as social beings, 
 A definite ^^^ should we arrange our studies in definite 
 sequence of sequence ? For these reasons : first, we must 
 studies is have regard to the gradual growth of mind, 
 necessary qj. g],,^ ^^j. yyQ,-]^ y^y\]\ \^q futile because Con- 
 fusing ; we must, in fact, consider the Pupil. Secondly,
 
 The Genesis of Curricula lOi 
 
 we must keep in view the existing body of human 
 knowledge ; we must, in fact, consider the Matter of 
 instruction, and its use as mental food and gymnastics. 
 Thirdly, we must not throw aside the experience of 
 generations ; we must respect Tradition, 
 
 Our plan should consider, first, what each age and stage 
 of school-life can compass ; secondly, what chief aspects 
 of knowledge claim recognition ; thirdly, what places have 
 been estabhshed for themselves by current studies. 
 
 Certain preliminary considerations help a good deal to 
 clear away obstacles. For instance, mere pre- Tradition 
 scription or tradition is sure to be " behind Umps behind 
 the times " in details, but it represents in its discovery 
 entirety the largest available body of solid and safe 
 guidance ; it is accumulated wisdom. It is always a 
 kind of triangular compromise between (i) the parent, 
 representing the world, (2) the preaching and teaching 
 of great men, reformers, innovators, and (3) the teacher. 
 To be sure, a system of education ought properly to be 
 a harmony, not a compromise ; and if the science of 
 education were truly and fully developed, this harmony 
 would have been satisfactorily established. But common- 
 sense tells us, in the meantime, to live and let live. We 
 should — nay, we must — give and take in matters of 
 education as in matters of politics. Neither education 
 nor politics is yet an exact science. 
 
 We are guided, in the second place, by the remem- 
 brance that the current divisions of human 
 
 1 II 1-1 , 1 . , ,. . The common 
 
 knowledge are logical, not psychological, divi- divisions of 
 sions. They grow out of one another logically, knowledge 
 one providing data or material for the next in are logical, 
 order, which starts where the other leaves off; "o' psyc^o- 
 but they do not conform in order of intelli- °^'*^^ 
 gibility to what we know of the stages of mind-growth.
 
 I02 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Metaphysics may be said to provide data for logic ; but 
 we teach logic first, taking the metaphysical bases as 
 proven. Mechanics, chemistry, and biology provide data 
 for natural history ; but we begin, in teaching, with the 
 last. 
 
 The growth of mind proceeds in a fairly well estab- 
 lished order, but the objective sciences are continually 
 subject to rearrangement consequent on great general 
 discoveries. The early physiology was a theory of 
 "humours"; the theory of evolution upset all the hier- 
 archy of sciences ; the discovery of gravitation placed 
 mechanics in a commanding position ; physiology itself 
 may be only a branch of mechanics ; and heaven only 
 knows what rearrangement of the pyramid of sciences 
 may result from bacteriology. But minds grow in an 
 order tolerably well ascertained, so that in settling mere 
 curriculum the teacher derives from psychology much 
 more useful guidance than from logic and metaphysics, 
 which may, indeed, lead him far astray. 
 
 The teacher therefore selects studies firstly with due 
 regard to the progressive growth of mind. 
 studies con- ^^ selects Studies, secondly, with due regard 
 sider(i)Psy- to their architectonic or edifying quality, 
 choiogy, (2) their generality, their bearing on a large area 
 Log'c, (3) of life and experience, their fruitfulness in 
 making subsidiary studies easy. He selects 
 studies, thirdly, with due respect to tradition. 
 
 The last point is one of some importance, for curricula 
 tend in time to become institutions, they fix themselves so 
 firmly. The environment which will make them applic- 
 able is, so to speak, established and in waiting for them. 
 They are therefore adopted by people without question 
 or demur. We know them ; and we know, or seem to 
 know, their use. They are bound up with history ; they
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 103 
 
 have always been taught more or less. They have their 
 own history ; they have been taught in various ways 
 because they have been adapted to various ends. 
 
 The more primitive the conditions of life and of out- 
 look, the simpler are the materials and the The tradi- 
 methods of education. If we could imagine tionai stages 
 any time at which individuals lived in isola- of curricula 
 tion, there could be no education imaginable, for educa- 
 tion implies at least human companionship. But the 
 first imaginable and, indeed, recorded state of mankind, 
 is that in which the Family is the unit, when the father 
 is the head and (with the mother no doubt) the teacher 
 of useful arts. This is a simple, primitive, predatory 
 stage. Then the State emerges. The father is still the 
 head of the family, but duty is imposed and measured 
 by the needs of the City ; family no longer preys on 
 family. Such is the earliest recorded condition of Greece 
 and Rome. Families are here combined for warlike 
 purposes. Very soon differentiation begins, the warlike 
 individuals being separated from the un warlike. Then 
 the peremptory claims of the state are questioned ; they 
 are broadened by the discovery of new arts necessary 
 for its life — industry, commerce. A quicker process of 
 differentiation begins. Then comes competition, and 
 with it more marked process of differentiation. With 
 the growth of population it becomes increasingly difficult 
 to assign definite spheres to so many individuals ; differ- 
 ences of individual development become more manifest 
 with the creation of a larger number of complicated 
 functions. Into this chaos comes the religious con- 
 ception of equality before God, individual responsibility 
 and worth, individual rights. It is this religious con- 
 ception of individual responsibility and worth that im- 
 poses on us the double duty of both providing sufficient
 
 I04 Common Sense in Education 
 
 opportunity for each individual and also of preventing 
 such excessive specialisation as will destroy the general 
 balance of character and development. Equality before 
 God is the bond and standard and guarantee of a justly 
 constituted human society, and therefore of a humane 
 education. 
 
 As a matter of fact, individuals tend to sort them- 
 selves, first, according to their Opportunities, 
 
 People sort ' . , , . , ^^ , . . 
 
 themselves ^uch accidents as birth, status, upbringing, 
 
 according to and SO forth ; and secondly, according to their 
 
 Opportunity Capacities, that is, what they can do best, 
 
 for finding Qj.^ ^.^ p^^ ^^^ ^^^^ somewhat differently, they 
 
 stitutions ^^^^ ^"^*-* ^^^^^ rank, first, according as they 
 and Capacity have had means for securing themselves 
 fordoing permanent places in institutions, in social 
 something organisations established for the discharge of 
 
 corporate functions — the Church, law, com- 
 merce, army, navy and the like — and secondly by the 
 growing necessity, under the pressure of the minute 
 division of labour, that each man should do something 
 particularly well. 
 
 And observe the influence of these conditions on 
 
 educational curricula. The great social in- 
 studies best stitutions, the organisations which mark man 
 prepare men as man, are just those activities for which the 
 for places in j^gg^- preparation is found in the more "liberal " 
 
 studies, that is, the studies of greatest gener- 
 ality : language, history, mathematics, science ; and even 
 poetry and music, which are great bonds of union. It 
 is very natural therefore that people should expect the 
 "professional" men to have had a good "general" 
 or " liberal " education. After these come the special 
 studies, the studies of special arts and sciences, which 
 though valuable for the use of man, are not indispens-
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 105 
 
 able as bonds of social comprehension and union. This 
 is the sphere of " technical " studies. There is, of course, 
 a certain amount of overlapping in the two classes, and 
 it is conceivable that what in one age and place is re- 
 garded as a " liberal " study may become " technical " in 
 another, and vice versd. Thus in England the use of 
 arms was once a necessary part of the equipment of 
 every liberally educated man, and it is so still in some 
 countries. Again, new arts may be discovered of such 
 general bearing on life that they may pass from the 
 rank of technical to that of liberal studies ; thus already 
 there are signs that drawing and painting are achieving 
 this promotion in public opinion and therefore in the 
 opinion of those who construct curricula. 
 
 It is the business of the statesman so to contrive 
 political conditions that equal opportunities are given to 
 all, or, at any rate, to as many people as possible. It is 
 the business of the teacher so to cultivate the aptitudes 
 of his pupils that they may use fairly and fully all the 
 opportunities provided. 
 
 The statesman's power is limited in two chief ways. 
 First, by the imperfect economical organisa- The limita- 
 tion of society. The distributing agencies tionsofthe 
 are not capable of giving each individual the statesman's 
 means which he needs for perfect development, po^v^r 
 Wealth tends to concentrate itself in comparatively few- 
 hands. Secondly, there is a strong general disinclination 
 to disturb existing arrangements. This conservatism 
 is by no means necessarily or generally selfish, though 
 it sometimes is certainly open to that reproach. It is 
 probably a useful safeguard against the violent interrup- 
 tion of steadiness in social evolution. 
 
 In the meantime it is clear that education can do its 
 very best for a minority only, if even for a minority •
 
 io6 Common Sense In Education 
 
 and our working theory of what constitutes a liberal 
 education must be a compromise between an ideal, 
 that which would develop every side of human nature 
 completely and harmoniously, and the practicable, that 
 which is the best available under the circumstances. 
 The teacher, as such, must satisfy himself chiefly with 
 the latter, keeping his eye on the first for guidance when 
 opportunity offers. 
 
 The traditional division of education, as a process. 
 Traditional was in three stages : the preparatory, the 
 divisions of liberal, the special. In the preparatory stage 
 curriculum were taught the instrumental, ancillary, or 
 conventional subjects, the keys to what were to follow. 
 Such subjects were Reading, Writing, the elements of 
 Calculation ; the " three R's," as they were called. In 
 the liberal stage were comprised the studies which were 
 regarded as cultivating all the greater (that is, the more 
 general) aptitudes : mathematics, languages, and the 
 like ; the field of knowledge concerned with man as 
 man, history and literature and so on. In the special 
 stage were taught the things directly necessary for the 
 purpose of gaining a livelihood. Large masses of our 
 contemporaries have been starved on the first and the 
 last, a bad combination. 
 
 A more fruitful and popular division of studies gives 
 The popular US two main classes, " human " and " real ". 
 division The humanistic studies are those which culti- 
 
 vate human feeling and a sense of human continuity. 
 Such studies are literature with language as literature, 
 history, philosophy, and religion. The realistic studies 
 are those which cultivate the knowledge of outer nature 
 and enable us to discover its laws. Such studies are 
 geography and allied subjects, "science" generally so 
 called, applied mathematics, and the like. Outside these,
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 1 07 
 
 but with some affinities to the first class, are the arts of 
 refined appreciation and expression : music, drawing, 
 languages as speech, and the like. 
 
 Whatever theoretical division of studies may be 
 adopted, we certainly ought to do what we ^ liberal 
 can to exclude from a liberal education, or at education is 
 all events from that part of education which essentially 
 we consider the liberal part, pressing con- P'"eparatory 
 siderations of livelihood-earning. Thus, to teach lan- 
 guage as literature and language as (say) commercial 
 correspondence are two different things. We must make 
 up our minds that the general side of the liberal training 
 is the important side, although, as the doctrine of Interest 
 teaches us, it is quite legitimate and even occasionally 
 necessary to show the bearing of the more general studies 
 on the problems of practical life. A liberal education is 
 in its essence preparatory and always incomplete.! It is 
 meant to make the pupil receptive, appreciative, capable 
 of indefinite growth. It must be placid ; it must not in- 
 troduce, as definite " bread-studies " do, elements of fear 
 and unrest, which indeed, would h^ propter vitam vivendi 
 perdere causas. 
 
 One of the indubitable marks of progressive civilisa- 
 tion is the gradual extension of the concep- xhepro- 
 tion of immaturity. Inferior animals mature longationof 
 rapidly ; man takes longer to reach his full yo"'^ 
 growth. Yet youth, as shown elsewhere, was in former 
 generations, even amongst cultivated English people, 
 conceived as a short and regrettable stage, which should 
 be compulsorily closed as early as possible. * Children of 
 well-to-do and well-bred parents were stuffed with all the 
 learning they could hold, and girls were women of the 
 world at fourteen. Even now, in our own age and 
 country, mere children of some ranks have to take upon
 
 io8 Common Sense in Education 
 
 themselves the responsibilities of adult life, toiling, earn- 
 ing daily bread, even marrying. But enlightened people 
 defer the working age till adolescence is passed ; and 
 the heroes and heroines of modern fiction are older than 
 those of a generation ago. Those of us that can afford 
 it keep our boys and girls at school until they are nine- 
 teen, twenty, twenty-one ; and the heroines of the 
 novelists of to-day are usually nearer twenty-six years 
 of age than sixteen. 
 
 A "liberal " education, then, will usually cover adoles- 
 cent life at least until the end of the nineteenth year ; 
 whatever we do within a more contracted period must 
 be a make-shift. To this the teacher must, for this 
 generation at all events, reconcile himself. 
 
 We come then to this : that the test of the claim of 
 Three modi- ^ " subject " to a place in the school course 
 ficationsof is its relation to a liberal education and the 
 the ideal cur- time available for its use. We must, in 
 ricuium consequence, recognise here and now, three 
 
 common modifications of an ideal curriculum : we must 
 have one for pupils who leave school from eleven to 
 fourteen years of age, one for those who leave from 
 fourteen to sixteen, and a third for those who leave 
 between sixteen and nineteen. The first class leaves 
 school for the work of life in shackles ; it can receive but 
 an apology for education ; the bulk of its acquisitions 
 must be the mere instrumental or ancillary subjects : 
 reading, writing, and some calculation — all liable to pass 
 away from disuse. The second class can secure at least 
 the working elements of a liberal education. The third 
 can certainly get all that its stage of development needs. 
 
 A school education completed at twelve or thirteen 
 cannot be regarded as a satisfactory " liberal " education. 
 At its best it must be inadequate. It must depend largely
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 109 
 
 on the training of the sensations and feelings, and very 
 h'ttle on the training of the powers of reflection, which are 
 then very weak. The teaching must be mainly instruc- 
 tion in the instrumental subjects, and as these lack 
 inherent interest, the learning must be often against the 
 grain. Again, the senses may be adequately cultivated, 
 but if pupils' homes are not good, there is inevitable 
 perversion of emotions ; and the children are not long 
 enough at school, ex hypothesis to gain the necessary 
 steadiness there. Moreover, the exclusive or ill-propor- 
 tioned training of the senses and powers of observation 
 is apt to produce dulness and to make mental processes 
 mechanical. When attention is directed mainly to things 
 which stir little interest — spelling, mechanical reading, 
 the routine processes of arithmetic, formal grammar — 
 the effort is made more unpleasant than it would be if 
 these exercises were deferred or insinuated or spread out 
 almost imperceptibly in a longer course. Little room 
 is left for the discursive powers, for initiative, for self- 
 help ; and this is all the worse when conditions and, it 
 must be added, prejudice, prevent the use of " home- 
 lessons ". 
 
 And yet the developments of modern life and inevitable 
 political progress make it more and more necessary that 
 a larger number of persons should have this liberal train- 
 ing, inasmuch as political and social conditions place 
 legislative power on an increasingly democratic basis, 
 whether we like it or not ; influential leaders of opinion 
 and even administrators emerge from ranks which have 
 rarely heretofore supplied them. 
 
 It is most important that the active imaginations and 
 emotions of children condemned to an imperfectly liberal 
 education should be used to their utmost extent in order 
 to stir up admiration for the right things, for beautiful
 
 no Common Sense in Education 
 
 things in nature, for greatness and goodness in historical 
 or fictitious character. In the primary grade 
 
 Substitutes , , , , . , , 
 
 for liberal ^^ must needs also appeal more directly and 
 education in more often to the utilitarian sense than we 
 the primary should in another grade. It is a settled prin- 
 ^^^^^ ciple in education that we should use the 
 
 pupils' ideal as an allurement to effort. Children of the 
 lower social rank naturally look upon wage-earning as the 
 most desirable of all conditions ; they know and under- 
 stand before their time the pressure of the struggle for 
 life. We are forced to take advantage of this know- 
 ledge, and get them to feel that mastery of the school 
 subjects is translatable into more shillings per week as 
 wages. 
 
 Note, now, the richer opportunity of the secondary 
 teacher. He need not — nay, he must not — 
 
 The 3.(iv3,n- 
 
 tagesofthe weary his class with formal studies. He need 
 secondary trouble himself less about spelling, for his pupils 
 teacher's are likelier to learn that art in the natural and 
 syllabus easiest way, by reading. In arithmetic, accu- 
 
 racy and rapidity of work are of less consequence than 
 such a mastery of principles as enables the class to proceed 
 quickly to algebra and geometry. Analytical or formal 
 grammar may be set aside for more genuine study of 
 language as literature, both for its own sake, and as an 
 instrument of progress in other directions. 
 
 Again, the secondary teacher can more surely develop 
 his pupils' humaner side, planting their sympathies and 
 knowledge both deeper in the past and with a wider 
 hold over the present by means of history and language, 
 ancient as well as modern, foreign as well as native. In 
 dealing with nature or scientific studies, he can more 
 effectually stimulate and satisfy the desire to know 
 because he has more time for experiment and illus-
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 1 1 1 
 
 tration, and, again, can cover a more varied ground and 
 cover it more logically. He can count, too, with some- 
 what less doubt, though not always with certainty, on 
 more humanising home influences. To live in cramped 
 and often sordid surroundings is itself an obstacle to 
 reasonable human development. Those who live hard 
 lives grow callous. It is easy to be virtuous, as Becky 
 Sharp says, on two thousand a year. 
 
 And finally, the secondary teacher can usually count 
 on his pupils' possessing a greater range of ideas than 
 the children in the " elementary " grade. They travel 
 more ; see more people, more books and newspapers. 
 Their minds therefore present more points of attraction, 
 so to speak, for other ideas, are easier to move to reflec- 
 tion and acquisition. 
 
 If we look a little more closely into the nature of the 
 machinery by which a subject is admitted jhe teacher" 
 into a curriculum, we may more exactly power of 
 ascertain the teacher's power of determina- choice is 
 tion. Such questions are mostly decided for '™'t«d 
 him by others : by the state ; by the influence of in- 
 dividual parents ; by bodies constituted for the purpose 
 of organising and conducting examinations. The state 
 is practically supreme in the primary sphere, intheprim- 
 a fact which need surprise no one who ex- ary sphere, 
 amines the historical and economic circum- ^y the state 
 stances which have called for the state's interference. It 
 prescribes both curriculum and tests, though there is 
 much evidence of gradual relaxation. In the secondary 
 sphere the state imposes no direct general j^^ ^^^^ 
 test, and therefore prescribes no authoritative secondary 
 set of subjects ; but it exercises very power- sphere, by 
 ful influence on curricula indirectly. The 'Restate 
 Board of Education, the Civil Service Commission, the
 
 112 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Charity Commission, each in its sphere works to this end, 
 but on no common principle. The consequent diversity- 
 may be salutary ; there may be very good reasons for 
 objecting to such a uniformity as is produced (say) in 
 Germany by state examinations, determined, as they 
 are by military and dynastic considerations. 
 
 Individual parents demand this teaching and that, 
 moved partly by fashion, and partly by utili- 
 tarian ends of their own. They may wish, 
 for instance, their sons to enter a particular kind of 
 business. 
 
 Corporate examining agencies, of which the univer- 
 By sities are the greatest, do a good deal to 
 
 examining maintain a tradition of liberal education. But 
 corporations ^.j^gy ^j.g perpetually diverted by the claims 
 of utilitarianism, and they tend to impose not alone 
 uniformity of aim, but uniformity of method, too, by the 
 necessarily uniform standard and manner of examination 
 which it is their boast to maintain. A system of ex- 
 amination of course produces a system of teaching, or, 
 it may be, of " cramming " which will secure the best 
 results, and the tricks that prosper will soon become 
 known generally. 
 
 A teacher's power of determining both aim and method 
 will always be less than it should be, so long as he is not 
 as a matter of course associated in examinations with 
 the "external" examiner. In England (as in China) 
 there is a monstrous fear lest the teacher should take 
 part in the examining of his pupil, and the consequence 
 is not merely that justice is in peril, but also that method, 
 the teacher's peculiar province, is largely determined for 
 him by some one else, and his proper influence in the 
 eyes of his pupils as their highest guide is gravely 
 weakened. Many a fine teacher has failed to exercise
 
 The Genesis of Curricula 113 
 
 his due influence over his pupils because he has not 
 worked them for examination, and examining bodies 
 are sometimes disastrously out of touch with those whom 
 they examine. 
 
 (For references, see list at end of next chapter.)
 
 114 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE MANIPULATION OF CURRICULA 
 Will you play upon this pipe ? — Hamlet. 
 
 It is clear that under ordinary circumstances the teacher 
 The teacher must Content himself with making the most 
 must com- profitable combinations of subjects which the 
 promise prescribed curriculum permits, teaching these 
 
 as wisely as he can. As a citizen he can and must do 
 his best to influence public opinion to listen less to 
 specialists in "subjects" and more to experts in educa- 
 tion — not mere experts in pedagogy, but to those who 
 understand the sociology of pedagogy — yet he cannot 
 expect, nor should he, that " the public " will ever place 
 itself unreservedly in professional hands, for reasons 
 already sufficiently explained. 
 
 With his possible curriculum in front of him, the 
 The prin- practical teacher, having made up his mind 
 cipiesof what effect he wishes to produce, is guided 
 economy chiefly by two considerations : the principle 
 and fitness ^f economy or parsimony, and the principle 
 of fitness. He asks himself first, how little will suffice, 
 not how much he can include. Not, indeed, that he 
 excludes this or that branch from treatment in school, 
 but that he contrives his teaching to be inclusive of much 
 that unskilful teachers, organisers, and administrators 
 regard so unintelligcntly as separate " provinces " in the 
 kingdom of knowledge, such as " ancient " and " modern " 
 
 I
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 115 
 
 history, " political " and " physical " geography, arithmetic 
 and algebra, " drawing " and " shading," and so forth, in 
 a score more formal distinctions, which, of course, can 
 be multiplied by every one of the ever-growing swarm of 
 specialists. He will teach History, Geography, Mathe- 
 matics, Drawing, as wholes ; and all together as one. 
 His unintelligent brother will teach them in snippets 
 and arbitrary divisions devised by the official hiero- 
 phants of the sciences or the organising bureaucracy, 
 but quite unknown to the nature of things. His pupils 
 will be kept in a perpetual childhood, floundering about 
 in search of a woefully misunderstood accuracy, exactness, 
 thoroughness, and what not ; never seeing the forest for 
 the trees. True economy consists not in leaving out 
 "subjects," so called, but in leaving out irrelevant matter. 
 To the young pupil an infinity of dates is irrelevant 
 matter ; so is a gazetteer-knowledge of geography; so are 
 the exceptions in French, Latin, Greek, and German 
 grammar ; so is a knowledge of tare and tret and stocks 
 and shares. " If in doubt, leave out." It is easier to kill 
 immature intelligence by too much than by too little ; 
 satiety is worse than incompleteness. " Interest," says the 
 wise Dr. Rein, " depends not on quantity but quality." 
 
 After economy comes the principle of fitness, which 
 demands consideration of the age, antecedents, and en- 
 vironment of pupils. It would be impossible to outline 
 here the multitude of schemes which by permutation and 
 combination would be best for all sets of pupils ; we can 
 only sketch faintly the sort of development which an 
 average ordinary course permits. 
 
 Up to seven years of age books are of less consequence 
 than other means of encouraging intellectual a skeleton 
 activity. At this period there is a close and course 
 even definable connexion between the bodily growth
 
 ii6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 and intellectual development. Such procedure as the 
 sensibly organised kindergarten encourages is needed to 
 stimulate and co-ordinate the powers of making and of 
 learning by efforts originating from within the child him- 
 self. The mechanical memory is very strong at this 
 period, and so long as it is exercised without too pro- 
 longed a strain, it is not easy to overload it. But its 
 achievements soon pass away, because they are not the 
 objects of reflection. 
 
 From seven to nine the power of rational acquisition 
 is growing. The child tries to understand. He is still 
 full of undisciplined fancy, and is sensitive chiefly to 
 physical pleasure and pain. Accuracy and a sense of 
 duty are at this stage best taught not in the class-room 
 but in the playground. Excessive detail in this stage 
 is mere loss; excessive "observation" prolongs the 
 purely empirical stage of intellectual effort. Reading 
 aloud ; the use of simple tools ; geography on a big 
 scale, with some general knowledge of the atlas, of shape 
 rather than names ; how to tell the parts of speech, as 
 Dr. Abbott prescribes ; how to tell the parts of a sentence, 
 according to Mr. Somervell's procedure ; concrete arith- 
 metic and a little practical geometry ; the elements of 
 speech in one foreign language — these must be the bulk 
 of the work done. 
 
 From nine to twelve, lessons may be gradually 
 lengthened, though it should be always remembered 
 that it is safer to occupy too little time in study than 
 too much. This is the age of object lessons, but not yet 
 of experimental science, for the simple reason that the 
 pupil's reasoning would be not imperfect only, but even 
 erroneous ; he cannot yet conceive the conditions of 
 legitimate inference. 
 
 From twelve to fourteen we throw a boy more on his
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 117 
 
 own resources. He nmay have home work as well as 
 work in class. He may begin to read a foreign book at 
 school, but as a book to be read, not studied. He learns 
 how to keep a note-book. His drawing becomes more 
 exact — maps and models. He still has object lessons 
 in natural history, but he may be introduced to the 
 beginnings of experimental science, not by merely 
 watching a teacher, but by doing things himself. He 
 reads much by himself, miscellaneously, among good 
 books. 
 
 From fourteen to sixteen is the stage during which 
 English grammar is to be entirely dropped, and Rhetoric 
 substituted. With French, the boy now reads also 
 Latin or German, or even both. Natural history passes 
 into a preponderating experimental science. It becomes 
 more necessary now to give real preparation work to 
 be done at home, not merely repetition of school work, 
 but something to find out either by physical experiment 
 or by the use of books of reference, gazetteers and 
 dictionaries. 
 
 From sixteen to eighteen it is important to increase 
 the amount of work done by the boy himself, the master 
 guiding and correcting. The taking of notes and making 
 of abstracts of books should be taught as a definite part 
 of education. It is not desirable yet to drop all the 
 "real" studies or all the "humanistic" by premature 
 specialisation, but the bulk of the one or the other may 
 be lessened in view of the now clearly discovered bent 
 of the pupil's mind. Just at the end of this period an 
 admirable effect is produced on general studies by a 
 little training in formal logic. The knowledge of the 
 simple conditions of valid proof will provide a boy with 
 a principle of intellectual steadiness for all time. 
 
 The necessity for concentration or connectedness in
 
 ii8 Common Sense in Education 
 
 studies should be pretty obvious. Things that are 
 Connected- not related to one another in our minds by 
 ness some rational association are likely enough to 
 
 pass away and be lost to memory, and finally fade away 
 so entirely as to be irrecoverable. If what we learn is 
 merely a string of accidents, then what we retain is at 
 best rote-work. If, for instance, we learn lists of the 
 manufactures that flourish in a country and lists of its 
 chief physical characteristics, without associating the two 
 as effect and cause, the ideas lie in our consciousness 
 side by side only by accident, and our knowledge lacks 
 life ; it is not only incoherent, but also incapable of 
 seizing other items of knowledge and relating them in 
 their turn to ideas already appropriated or yet to come 
 within reach. Thus if we possess the two sets of ideas 
 already mentioned in causal relation, we find it easy to 
 apprehend the facts of historical development connected 
 with them. Towns grow up and a country has a history 
 because of, amongst other things, the industries and 
 occupations which arise from its geography. We ought 
 therefore to do what we can to co-ordinate studies. We 
 can best make new ideas clear by connecting them with 
 the older ones. Again, most people are open to lively 
 impressions on some special side ; they are attracted 
 by some branch of knowledge or practice more than 
 by others. The educator, then, ought to find this out 
 in each case ; or at all events so to link the facts 
 of the curriculum to one another that there may be 
 a hook to catch every pupil somewhere. For instance, 
 history and historical grammar ; geolog)^, geography, 
 and thence history ; these and an indefinite number of 
 combinations may be made, starting from some one of 
 them. 
 
 Thirdly, unity and consistency of thought and of intel-
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 119 
 
 lectual life is a mark of mental health. Unified know- 
 ledge is science. The more points of rational connexion 
 there are between our ideas, the more knowledge are we 
 said to have, the better we understand the world. If we 
 understood any one thing in all its relations, we should 
 be omniscient. 
 
 Flower in the crannied wall, 
 
 I pluck you out of the crannies ; 
 
 Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
 
 Little flower — but if I could understand 
 
 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 
 I should know what God and man is. 
 
 It is a sign of health to want to connect the new and the 
 old, and the teacher is to blame if he does not get a 
 pupil to feel the value of learning a particular " subject ". 
 The teacher ought certainly, in dealing with pupils of a 
 reflecting age, to make them see the purpose of one study 
 by means of a comprehension of its relations either to 
 others or to immediate application. 
 
 We must, fourthly, concentrate and connect so as to 
 save effort in details. Hasty persons take the most 
 pains, and make the least speed ; they work without con- 
 centration. It is clear that if we allow our subjects to 
 overlap without illustrating one another, or if we crowd 
 our curriculum with subsidiary studies and neglect those 
 that are fundamental, we are spendthrifts of time and 
 endeavour. And this is what is assuredly brought on us 
 by a congested curriculum. 
 
 On the other hand, the same considerations that warn us 
 against the congestion of studies supply argu- An extended 
 ments for a curriculum extended as widely as curriculum 
 time will permit. For the more things we learn in con- 
 nexion, the better we understand each ; and it is probably 
 true that the fault of existing schemes is not, in the main,
 
 I20 Common Sense in Education 
 
 excess in the number of subjects taught but rather a waste- 
 ful lack of co-ordination. We could carry greater weight 
 if we packed better. 
 
 Of course all good teachers have endeavoured, time 
 out of mind, to excite and keep up the interest of their 
 pupils in their studies. But it is important to remember 
 that the interest required is not the sort of inducement 
 which is represented by the rubbing of honey round the 
 rim of the cup of medicine. It is rather the pupil's 
 lively desire and readiness to link the new fact to its 
 fellow in the regiment of the old facts established in 
 his mind. 
 
 The great apostles of "concentration" technically so 
 Concentra- called have laid down in setting forth their 
 tion : se- curriculum the need for securing both a verti- 
 quenceand cal or psychological sequence of studies in 
 connexion ^j^g |jfg ^f learners, and also a horizontal or 
 logical connexion of studies or topics, so that what is 
 related in fact may be related also in the learner's mind. 
 But the endeavour to unite the psychological and logical 
 plan in this way is not always successful. 
 
 We are all agreed as to the need for a proper sequence 
 of studies, but errors are easily made in practice. Few 
 people would make the mistake of setting forth subjects 
 to young learners in the pyramidal rather than the psycho- 
 logical order. We know well, for instance, that our labour 
 would be lost if we talked to them ever so learnedly about 
 protoplasm, though it is a fundamental conception of 
 biology. But a young learner, a child, is at once 
 interested in a live animal and its ways. In fact, the order 
 of ideas as they exist in analytical hierarchy is not 
 the order in which it is best to present them to the 
 young. We must not expect them to apprehend the last 
 results of our painful analyses. Hence the injunction
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 121 
 
 to begin in mos I oi our teaching with the particular, rather 
 than the general. When therefore we arrange a curricu- 
 lum we must appeal in the early stages to the personal 
 interest of children in life, their delight in broad colouring, 
 strong situations and heroic acts, not in articulations, 
 mechanism, and subtle characteristics ; for literature or 
 history, to their interest in striking personalities, not 
 constitutional law and political philosophy ; for natural 
 history and science, not to protoplasm and cells and other 
 fundamentals of biology, but to the lively animal which 
 they know. 
 
 The theory which lays it down that there should be a 
 vertical sequence in studies, has of course been acted on 
 by good teachers, more or less, at all times ; for they have 
 endeavoured to make one subject prepare for another, 
 or at all events to illustrate it. It is naturally easiest 
 to carry it into effect with very young children, whose 
 tender age necessitates a very simple curriculum. The 
 teacher, for instance, gives a lesson on birds' nests ; 
 then sets the children to draw birds' nests under various 
 conditions ; then asks them to write down or tell what 
 they know about birds' nests, or narrate tales about 
 them. 
 
 But besides a vertical sequence of subjects, there must 
 also be a horizontal connexion of topics. Allied subjects 
 must be linked together, the objective being transformed 
 in what appears to be nature's order, to subjective, in the 
 learning mind. The connexion, according to the strictest 
 gospel, is to be in the form of concentration round a 
 "core," and this "core" is to be history. History is to 
 be taken in epochs, and round each epoch other studies 
 are to be clustered — geography, literature, mathematics, 
 and so forth. Each is to illustrate the others, or at least 
 to illustrate the history epoch adopted.
 
 122 Common Sense in Education 
 
 The main objections to this plan of sequence and con- 
 centration may be thus summarised. To begin 
 
 Objections to ... , , r n 
 
 the strictest With, it would appear, after all, to construct 
 plan of a curriculum on analytical grounds rather than 
 
 sequence and psychological. The adult looks round and 
 concentra- g^gg^ ^^^ what does, but what he thinks ought 
 to, interest the pupil, and so constructs his 
 system. Secondly, the plan affects to base the order of 
 studies on the order of the development of a people or 
 mankind in civilisation, though the analogy drawn is 
 certainly not yet close enough to justify, on grounds of 
 logic, any very far-reaching inference, for this one reason 
 if for no other — that the child in civilisation inherits ten- 
 dencies, which the race in its corresponding stage did not. 
 Again, we have no right to assume that either a people, 
 even the German or English or American people, or that 
 mankind itself, has completed its passage through all 
 stages up to final maturity ; it may still be in the infant 
 or youthful or adolescent stage ; whereas we do know the 
 beginning, middle, and ripe end of contemporary indi- 
 vidual human development. The fourth objection is even 
 weightier. The course proposed should at least last up 
 to the arrival of the adult term of development, whereas 
 the authorised programme of the theory gives the pupil 
 his last lesson in his fourteenth year. Fifthly, the use of 
 history as the nucleus or core of studies leads to a viola- 
 tion of psychological law. We are driven to the use of 
 types, and types are very difficult for children to com- 
 prehend. It is useless to expect a child to understand 
 that the history of the patriarchs is typical of pastoral 
 life, the history of the kings of Israel typical of ordered 
 government, and so forth. 
 
 We are driven then, as teachers, to content ourselves 
 with such careful manipulation of our time table as lies
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 123 
 
 in our power. We must provide as well as we can for 
 the three great working branches of education what the 
 already set forth. We must provide the right teacher can 
 proportion of time tor each study in relation ^° 
 to its importance in our eyes. We must fit the material 
 that we employ to the age of the class, giving it what it 
 can digest in appropriate form. We must call for less 
 continuous effort from younger than from older children. 
 We must try to put the heaviest work earliest in the 
 day, when the brain and body are best able to sustain 
 fatigue. 
 
 Perhaps the most important reform needed by our com- 
 mon school system is some plan which would 
 limit the actual school hours in relation to 
 age. A young child ought not to be under constraint, 
 even the mild constraint of the true Kindergarten, for so 
 much as a whole morning. But the school time has been 
 determined by tradition ; our practice is partly a survival 
 of the long-standing view which regarded the child as 
 capable of endless learning and saturation, and partly 
 the result of the parent's wish to get him out of the way 
 — a wish which reflects less discredit on the poor than on 
 the well-to-do, who have the means of serving their 
 children's permanent interests and yet neglect them. 
 Experience and experiment have both shown that the 
 shorter hours are the more profitable. The time required 
 for mental digestion, during which there should be no 
 thought of teaching or directed mental activity, is longer 
 in the case of the child than in the case of the youth, and 
 in the case of the youth than in the case of the adolescent. 
 At all times, but particularly in early life, a class that is 
 being perpetually taught has no time to learn. Our little 
 children would often benefit more by being turned loose 
 in the playground, or even in the school-room, than by
 
 124 Common Sense in Education 
 
 the most constant pseudo-Socratic use of the pseudo- 
 Socratic " method ". 
 
 The relation of " grades " to one another, and the 
 ■•Grades" possible bifurcations of curriculum depend 
 and Curricu- on what has been already set forth So far, 
 ^""1 no one has popularised a curriculum for the 
 
 primary school which shall be both complete in itself and 
 shall also form the natural basis for work in a secondary 
 stage. That is, if a pupil moves from the primary grade 
 to the secondary, he must in great measure start afresh. 
 Work is different in many important respects from the 
 first for children whose school life terminates at different 
 periods. 
 
 The education of the poorest children is at once fuller 
 and more meagre than that of others. We must remem- 
 ber once more that the radiating centre of training is the 
 home. But the poorest children are most at home in 
 the street, and here they get a training in practical life 
 and in devices for which the more favoured children have 
 to wait a much longer time. On the other hand, they see 
 less of books and of those leisured employments which 
 even in unrefined homes soften manners, School-life for 
 such children, and even for those of the artisan class, 
 will from the first be more " practical ". It will be more 
 immediately utilitarian. It cannot afford the longer pro- 
 cess of letting-alone which is so necessary for fuller 
 development. Their shorter course must fit them out 
 at once for earning a livelihood. The school atmo- 
 sphere must be attractive, even seductive, to a degree 
 not by any means so needful in the case of those 
 who have better chances of wholesome pleasure in 
 other places. How little real gaiety the children of the 
 poor enjoy is astonishing, and we must therefore par- 
 ticularly exclude from the school all uncheerful topics
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 125 
 
 and associations. The primary school cannot be made 
 too bright. 
 
 The curriculum must be more synthetical than ana- 
 Ij'tical throughout. These children more than all others 
 must learn to do, to put together, to speak. 
 
 Bifurcation at the age of sixteen or seventeen opens 
 out a new set of difficulties. Here too, the Bifurcation 
 difficulty turns upon the necessity that presses in the see- 
 on some pupils to prepare for their special ondarygrade 
 work, that is, for the work of their livelihood, before their 
 liberal education is complete. The point is treated very 
 fully by Mr. Glazebrook in Teaching and Organisation, 
 but we may note here that the main points of differentia- 
 tion are, first, the postponement of Latin, so that it need 
 not be taken up at all by those who are to pursue a 
 purely commercial career, and, secondly, an increase of 
 the time given to applied sciences and modern languages. 
 
 Permutations and combinations within these limits are 
 endless. But two remarks may be made. The entire 
 exclusion of Latin is a serious matter, even when a 
 school course is completed at the end of the sixteenth 
 year. If Latin were more rationally taught, that is, less 
 analytically from the first, it might be made to do real 
 service even by then. And by the end of the sixteenth 
 year, if teaching has been real, a boy should be able to 
 read and speak at least one foreign language quite well 
 enough to make a good start in " business ". 
 
 The secondary schools for girls have certain great ad- 
 vantages over those of boys. First of all, if Girls' schools 
 they have no tradition to guide them, they and girls' 
 have also no tradition to hamper them ; and curricula 
 the field of their operations has been, compared with 
 that of boys' schools, comparatively unencumbered by 
 precedent. They have been freer to compose their
 
 126 Common Sense in Education 
 
 curriculum on sound lines. In the next place, in spite 
 of all that has been done to open out, very properly, 
 new spheres of activity for women, women's functions are 
 far less diversified than those of men ; and therefore the 
 curricula drawn up for them present fewer difficulties in 
 the way of reconciling the claims of formative or general 
 studies with the special studies preparing for the getting 
 of a livelihood. The curricula of girls' schools may there- 
 fore be expected to be more liberal than those of boys' 
 schools of a corresponding type. 
 
 In girls' schools, therefore, we are not called upon to 
 consider the necessity of preparing pupils for a multitude 
 of different avocations ; we can give greater weight to 
 the studies that bear rather upon life than upon liveli- 
 hood ; our training can be more truly an " all-round " 
 training. Home life is the truest and most real part of life. 
 
 But schools must have some principle of classification. 
 Mrs.Bryant's Some girls are so much better prepared than 
 principle of others in early years ; and girls differ, too, so 
 classification yery widely in physical and intellectual vigour. 
 Authorities tell us that there is far more uniformity 
 among boys than among girls. 
 
 The classification, then, seems naturally, as Mrs. 
 Bryant lays it down, to be simply a higher and lower 
 classification. A secondary school for girls is to provide 
 a simple ordinary course, together with one that may 
 lead the stronger and abler girls to work of a higher 
 standard. All need a training in letters, but not all will 
 want Latin and Greek, or medieval English ; all will 
 want some mathematics and science, but only some will 
 want higher mathematics and specific sciences ; all will 
 want at least some acquaintance with the more "aesthetic" 
 subjects, but a few only will specialise in music or graphic 
 art.
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 127 
 
 The side in the girls' curriculum corresponding to 
 the professional specialisation necessary in the Girls' special 
 boys' schools will be the subjects connected studies 
 with the special position occupied by women at home, 
 which has claims on the majority of them parallel to the 
 claims of external occupation on the majority of men. 
 They will therefore be taught the elements of domestic 
 and general economy, and the arts that make home 
 healthy and pleasant. The superstition which condemns 
 all girls alike to spend many hours of the working day 
 in the cultivation of music cannot be too strongly con- 
 demned. It is easy to concede that an average girl may 
 be more naturally expected to acquire a pleasure-giving 
 art than an average boy, but it is cruel and foolish to 
 send all girls through the same mill and to prevent 
 thereby the acquisition of other knowledge and the culti- 
 vation of other capacities which are of greater spiritual 
 importance. The practice is, to be sure, a relic of the 
 old-established notion that women are designed chiefly 
 to make things pleasant for their male relations, but 
 though that is (possibly) an excellent end to have in 
 view, it is not the most important. 
 
 We may well rejoice that in some particulars the treat- 
 ment of English girls in relation to school life physical 
 has in this generation approximated to the differences 
 education hitherto consecrated to boys. It would be 
 grossly absurd to ignore the physical differences and 
 even physical inferiority of girls, for they cannot bear 
 such long strains and so much strenuous competition as 
 boys. But a wider curriculum than that of the girls' 
 schools of the older type, and a greater degree of phy- 
 sical freedom and muscular education, tend demonstrably 
 to make women fitter to perform satisfactorily not only 
 duties which may be transferred to them from the sphere
 
 128 Common Sense in Education 
 
 hitherto limited to men, but duties also from which no 
 legislation or social developments can relieve them. The 
 careful educator of women will subject girls to shorter 
 tasks than boys, will reduce emulation to its narrowest 
 limits, will send them as much as possible to real exercise 
 of limb in the open air, and will cultivate in them, above 
 all things, simplicity and self-control. Everything that 
 gives girls a reason for action is to be encouraged ; the 
 development of mere sentiment is a peculiar and compli- 
 cated danger. 
 
 During the last thirty years so much striking work 
 The need for has been done in the growth and strengthen- 
 baiance in ing of women's education as to give rise to a 
 girls' schools danger, — so sensible women occasionally tell 
 us, — that some women may see things in a mischievously 
 distorted perspective. Boys, we know, trained exclu- 
 sively in a man's atmosphere and amidst the often un- 
 civilising surroundings of exclusively male institutions, 
 tend to become rough and ungraceful, if not ungracious, 
 in their dealings with women. The corresponding defect 
 in girls is the growth of a pervading sense of difference 
 between them and men. The girls' school where girls 
 are hearing perpetual appeals and remonstrances directed 
 to them in their character of women, where woman's 
 work, woman's place in history, woman's duties, woman's 
 claims, are constant topics, is not an entirely healthy 
 institution. The proper balance is somehow destroyed, 
 there is inevitable posing, and the eternally feminine 
 atmosphere not unfrequently causes weariness and irrita- 
 tion. The result shows itself sometimes as an affected 
 contempt for all men and men's matters, sometimes by 
 mannishness and an equally disagreeable affectation of 
 contempt for other women. The teacher of women does 
 well to recall on occasion essential differences of the
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 129 
 
 sexes, but boys and girls are best treated simply as 
 persons ; and the essential facts of their differences in 
 constitution and duties as men and women should be 
 reserved for rare treatment arising strictly out of special 
 occasion and proper opportunity. 
 
 This brings us naturally to the question of schools or 
 classes in which boys and girls, or men and Mixed 
 women, receive education in common. This schools and 
 " mixed " system is not very popular in this classes 
 country, though it has some very earnest advocates. 
 So far as primary schools are concerned, the experiment 
 has, to some extent, been tried over a sufficiently large 
 area and in a sufficiently large number of instances to 
 give us some grounds at least for coming to a conclusion. 
 In Scotland as in America the " mixed " system is all 
 but general, and though by no manner of means is 
 approbation universal, acquiescence and apparent satis- 
 faction are sufficiently common to justify the claim that 
 its practicability and usefulness, with certain reservations, 
 are proved. In England the rural primary school is 
 mostly " mixed," the town school mostly confined to 
 one sex or the other. In Scotland most schools just 
 above the primary are "mixed," in England very few 
 indeed. 
 
 From what we have just seen in regard to the dis- 
 tortion of perspective in schools limited to one sex, it 
 may very properly be argued that the " mixed " plan 
 tends to the maintenance of a proper balance and natu- 
 ralness of sentiment. The ordinariness of the common 
 association of boys and girls in their most important 
 daily relations ought to — and observers say it does — 
 cultivate sane, equable, and graceful relations between 
 them. 
 
 After long indecision, I am inclined to believe that 
 
 Q
 
 130 Common Sense in Education 
 
 the advocates of the common education in school are 
 Common ^'S^^- The grave objection that the associa- 
 educationof tion of boys and girls in school may tend 
 the boys and to sentimental distraction from the intellec- 
 ^irisaques- j-^al work constituting the chief and proper 
 ' '^ ° . sphere of school activity is substantial enough, 
 
 convenience ^ ■' ° ' 
 
 but it may disappear before sensible govern- 
 ment and reasonable vigilance. A much more serious 
 objection seems to lie in the difficulty of suiting a curri- 
 culum to the distinctly different needs of boys and girls 
 without destroying on the one hand the variety which in 
 practice is found necessary for the boys, and on the other 
 the greater simplicity which is at present the special 
 privilege of the girls. The " common " or " mixed " 
 system seems to be essentially unsuitable to a school 
 on the residential plan. The sobering influence of the 
 normal relations and habits of home life check the growth 
 of sentimental difficulties arising from the school associa- 
 tion of boys and girls ; but in institutions where youths 
 and young women are brought up together, the great 
 preoccupation of discipline seems to be to keep these 
 victims of such abnormal organisation apart, and that 
 very effort produces the most undesirable effects. 
 Something remains to be said on the question of 
 
 " mixed " staffs. Is it possible and is it desir- 
 
 Mixed staffs 1 1 , • 1 1 • 1 • , • 1 
 
 able to give boys and girls instruction at the 
 
 hands of both men and women ? In this matter too, the 
 primary schools have made some experiments for us by 
 sometimes adopting the plan of mixed staffs for economic 
 reasons, if for no other ; and it is a fact that women un- 
 doubtedly make the best of teachers for young boys as 
 well as girls. When we are dealing with older boys, the 
 physical necessities of discipline give rise to critical diffi- 
 culties, and in view of this, the primary schools do not
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 131 
 
 usually give women charge of boys over nine or ten, 
 except where other conditions of organisation make it 
 inevitable. No such restriction, however, is found neces- 
 sary in America, but whether discipline in the absence 
 of physical restraint is as satisfactory as it might be 
 is a point on which neither Americans themselves nor 
 impartial foreign observers are agreed. 
 
 It seems reasonable to believe that it is as bracing 
 for girls to receive occasional instruction from a refined 
 man who has a sense of humour as it is for boys to 
 be taught by a cultivated woman. Women teachers of 
 girls are too often excessively prim and serious, and 
 men teachers of boys do not invariably give boys the 
 opportunity of experiencing the disciplinary influence of 
 delicacy and refinement. 
 
 From what has already been said, it will be readily 
 understood that any purposes of specialisation g g^j^^j 
 should be held subservient to the main end of studies in 
 education, the teaching people how to live so relation to 
 as to make the best of their powers ; how to live ^"^^ ^"^ 
 rather than how to get a livelihood, for to get 
 a livelihood is by no means equivalent to making the 
 best of one's powers. True education, as Mr. Rooper 
 says, is disinterested, is an end in itself; "technical" 
 education is interested, aims at contingent advantage. 
 
 Observe, however, that the term "special studies" 
 may be applied in three different ways. We studies 
 may mean either the studies tending to the may be 
 cultivation of some capacity highly developed "special" 
 in a particular individual and therefore likely, '" ''^^ 
 if encouraged, to confer a great intellectual ^^'^^^ 
 benefit on the community ; or wc may mean the culti- 
 vation of some capacity or set of capacities likely to be 
 of extraordinary service to an individual in getting a
 
 132 Common 'Sense in Education 
 
 livelihood, or of some side of his intellectual or moral 
 nature which has not shown a natural normal develop- 
 ment ; or we may mean the cultivation of what is called 
 "accomplishments," the arts which make the externals 
 of life more ornate and stately, if not more agreeable. 
 
 The first seems, under certain conditions, to be justi- 
 Speciaiisa- fiable on the s^round of " public policy," 
 tion, why because the finely cultivated individual, the 
 desirable great man, has from time to time manifestly 
 added enormously to the sum total of the human stock- 
 in-trade, social, material, political, literary, and so forth. 
 The history of mankind has, indeed, sometimes been 
 described as the history of its great men, and has been 
 so treated. 
 
 The second seems to be desirable, and indeed inevit- 
 able, owing to the operation of the laws governing the 
 division of labour or differentiation of function. The 
 more complicated society grows, the more difficult is it 
 to conceive of all men knowing all things and discharging 
 all duties. We are constrained, by economy, to devise 
 separate spheres of labour, and to employ one man to do 
 only a few things. We find that in order to do only a 
 few things well a man must be more minutely trained for 
 a limited series of operations than others are who are not 
 called upon to discharge those duties. So the pressure 
 of competition settles the question for us. To be sure 
 of emjiloyment, a man must show that he is better than 
 the average person at some one thing ; and so by himself, 
 or by those responsible for his upbringing, he is put under 
 special discipline. 
 
 All forms of specialisation may be justified furthermore 
 on the ground that they provide the valuable stimukis of 
 wholesome emulation. It is good for a man to feel 
 Uiat in some particulars he can do very good work ;
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 13 j 
 
 work above the average of achievement. If we all have 
 a special line of activity, this is a real help to healthy 
 development, to energy, to industry. No class in society 
 is so hopeless as the class of drudges, the unskilled 
 labourers; and for this condition the dead level of their 
 effective power is a sufficient explanation. With the 
 consciousness of skilled capacity, hope springs at once 
 into activity, and a man or woman works and improves. 
 
 With the first, the ordinary school has comparatively 
 little to do. The advent of the genius who makes his 
 promise manifest during his school career is not a common 
 thing, and specialised training in this kind is generally 
 given, if at all, as it was to Mr. J. S. Mill, privately. 
 The genius for music is the gift of which we hear n.ost 
 often as detected and trained in >outh ; most other forms 
 of fine natural capacity do not usually manifest them- 
 selves so early, and are therefore not subject to the pains 
 and privileges that fall to the lot of the precocious 
 musician. 
 
 The second form is the commonest form known to us, 
 and we ought to make up our minds as to the propriety 
 and effect of it. Every one can understand that a youth 
 may leave school or college either more or less able to 
 enter into the affairs of life with profit ; but it is much 
 harder to decide what kind of profit we ought to look 
 for, and whether we are to expect quick or slow returns 
 for our investments. 
 
 Let us see on what grounds the school is called upon 
 to prepare directly for professions and crafts, jj^^ school 
 First, there is the pressure of competition, and prepara- 
 which is so fierce that the man or woman who t>on for pro- 
 starts later than others finds the ground too ^^^^'°"s 
 fully occupied to give to the beginner even a foothold. 
 There is, next, the hurry and impatience of actual
 
 134 Common Sense in Education 
 
 business, which deprives the senior craftsman or em- 
 ployer of the necessary leisure for the instruction of his 
 pupil. There is, thirdly, a growing conviction all over 
 the world that, to whatever end directed, the school career 
 should be longer than it has been for most people hereto- 
 fore ; that is, public opinion is insisting more and more 
 on the disciplinary value of school as a preparation for 
 life, while it is also demanding that the school should pre- 
 pare more directly for the material struggle for livelihood 
 — a very remarkable fact indeed. Competition is a 
 present consideration which we must admit to be very 
 serious ; we must accept also, for we cannot modify, the 
 disinclination of the employer to teach his journeymen, 
 a fact not more notable than the parents' abandonment of 
 most of their duties to the schoolmaster. The question 
 remains how we can use the growing belief in the dis- 
 ciplinary efficiency of the school to check or neutralise 
 the evils of premature competition and the neglect of the 
 teachers provided originally by nature. 
 
 Several times in the course of our investigations we 
 Speciaiisa- have seen reason for thinking that the bear- 
 don and ing of school pursuits on life must in some 
 Interest in measure be brought home to the minds of our 
 Instruction pjjpjjs in order to ensure their interest. And 
 the difference between the secondary and the primary 
 school in this particular was that the pupils of the pri- 
 mary school had already a premature interest in and 
 knowledge of the means of getting a livelihood, and 
 that therefore the primary school must needs be more 
 "practical," must sacrifice the formative studies to those 
 which are of immediate application, — writing, ciphering, 
 designing, industrial science, and the rest ; whereas the 
 secondary school, keeping its pupils kitcr, can appeal to 
 reasons of remoter interest — the trigonometry that steers
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 13 j 
 
 the ship, the history that enlightens politics, the geo- 
 graphy that explains history and helps commerce, and 
 the language studies that open books and give merchants 
 of different countries the means of intercommunication. 
 
 Specialisation in secondary schools may and should be 
 based on such a liberal preliminary as would ^ . ,. 
 
 ^ ■' Specialisa- 
 
 be provided by the subjects already discussed tion must be 
 in the preceding chapter. It may, because preceded by 
 no excessive claims need be made in point 'lie liberal 
 of time ; it should, because specialisation is *^°^^* 
 more profitable when the general foundation is good. 
 We may agree with Mr. Glazebrook in laying it down 
 that specialisation before sixteen is a misfortune. But it 
 is a regrettable though inevitable fact that in schools of 
 a type just above the primary a sort of specialisation 
 begins as early as the fifteenth year for commercial and 
 industrial pursuits. It is still, however, in the power of 
 the school to modify possible evil effects of this early 
 diversion to subjects of material importance by providing 
 that the general education shall proceed side by side 
 with the commercial arithmetic or the industrial chemis- 
 try or whatever else it may be that has become the 
 pupil's main preoccupation. 
 
 For youths cut off early from the chance of a more 
 extensively liberal curriculum, the lessons in 
 
 T^ , . , , r \ 1 • • ^ "^^^ lessons 
 
 English become of abounding importance ; -^^ English 
 and this fact has therefore been actually literature 
 recognised in the constitution of the schools and rhetoric, 
 known as " Organised Science Schools " under of abounding 
 the Board of Education. In schools of this ""P^"^"*^^ 
 type we may expect that not more than two-thirds 
 of the pupil's time should be given, under any cir- 
 cumstances, to "special " studies ; the one-third remain- 
 ing should be most religiously dedicated to studies
 
 136 Common Sense in Education 
 
 having no obvious bearing on the means of gaining a 
 livelihood. 
 
 If by giving up even two-thirds of the boy's time 
 to bread-winning studies we can secure a third of it for 
 liberal education, and keep the boy at school for another 
 two years, the gain is enormous. Quite apart from the 
 moral and intellectual use of the time so employed, the 
 prolongation of the status pupillaris and the deferring of 
 precocious responsibility constitute a gain in themselves. 
 In schools which do not keep their boys much beyond 
 this age, the class system of teaching is one of the 
 necessary conditions of school organisation, so that there 
 is still the great stimulus of companionship, and the 
 specialisation of study loses much of its harmfulness in 
 still necessitating the discipline of collective work. This 
 point also must be borne in mind, that some kind of 
 rational balance must be maintained amongst " subjects," 
 or else none will be properly assimilated. If we cut off 
 a boy's history in order to teach him more geography, 
 we do not necessarily succeed even in that purpose ; 
 geography and history not only help out each other 
 where they touch and overlap, but in their alternation 
 afford that variety in mental food which is necessary for 
 digestion. 
 
 Specialisation of whole schools of a type higher than 
 Deferred that just indicated must be even more jealously 
 specialisation regulated. In the first place, the practical 
 makes difficulties are greater ; for the later on in life 
 
 organis^ion^ differentiation of function is carried, the more 
 specialised it must become, and therefore the 
 later specialisation is minuter, more complicated, more 
 varied than the earlier. Thus it is easier to determine a 
 uniform specialised plan of teaching in a school which 
 all pupils leave at sixteen than in a school where most
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 137 
 
 stay till eighteen or nineteen ; the basis in the first case 
 can be frankly "scientific," or frankly "commercial," 
 and many pupils can be put through the same mill. But 
 in the second type of school the difficulties are much 
 greater. Here we have boys who are to be doctors, boys 
 who are to be clergymen, boys who are going into 
 business or industries as managers, boys who wish to get 
 into the army, boys going to the universities, and so on. 
 It is clear that in one school it would be impossible to 
 provide separate courses for all these distinct classes of 
 boys ; any such attempt would call for an almost im- 
 possible complication of the Time Table and would 
 (worse still) largely disorganise the school by jeopardising 
 the corporate feeling which results from a large com- 
 munity of interests and pursuits. On the other hand, in 
 dealing with pupils of this age and presumed status, we 
 can count, very obviously, on a larger outlook and on 
 the operations of a more remote interest than with 
 younger pupils drawn from narrower surroundings. The 
 bases of specialisation may thus be pretty broad and not 
 very many in number. We shall then find that they fall 
 into three or four fairly well-defined classes. 
 
 First we have chiefly to consider the general divisions 
 which the traditional wisdom of the uni- jhebro d 
 versities has laid down as the bases of the bases of 
 larger specialised teaching provided by itself; speciaiisa. 
 and we find that the main lines thus prepared ^'°" 
 for us are (i) classics, philosophy, and history, or, shortly, 
 the classical curriculum ; (2) mathematics and the physical 
 and experimental sciences ; (3) modern languages and 
 literature. Within these general limits it is possible to 
 train three different types of mind, and to train them well. 
 No one type rigidly excludes another, but each represents 
 rather a predominant study for which a school Time
 
 138 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Table may provide, either for individuals or classes, a 
 relatively predominant preparation. 
 
 If we consider, in the second place, the future of those 
 pupils not necessarily passing to the universities, the 
 general types need not be greatly different. The profes- 
 sions will range themselves under those heads for which 
 they have greatest affinity ; clergymen will need chiefly 
 classics and what is implied in a classical course ; doctors, 
 engineers, captains of industry, will find the mathematical 
 and science courses most appropriate ; those going into 
 commerce would be attracted by modern languages, or 
 a combination of this and the former type. And this 
 is what in effect is the practice of the modern 
 ome grea sc^qqI • the essential value, however, of some 
 
 general ' ' ' 
 
 Studies great general study or studies — English, 
 should ai- Divinity, and the like — being never lost from 
 ways be view. For though diversity of aim and pro- 
 pursue in cedure is very valuable, community of feeling 
 
 common . •; .,, « 1 
 
 and interest is more valuable still. And it is 
 of the highest national importance that those who are 
 to figure as the effective intelligence of the nation should 
 be as much as possible together and get as much as 
 possible of their moral and intellectual preparation under 
 similar refining influences. We ought to be able to 
 secure this without treating all our pupils and their 
 subjects of instruction as if the teaching of the university 
 was destined to complete the school course in every 
 case. Genuine university " extension " should begin in 
 the upper forms of the school. 
 
 We have yet to consider the subjects which stand, 
 "Accom- according to the old conventional view, out- 
 piishments" side the regular curriculum, as things indif- 
 ferent, as "accomplishments". Properly speaking, as 
 we have seen reason to believe, there are certain arts,
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 139 
 
 aesthetic arts, the pursuits that cultivate "taste," which 
 may well appear to have strong claims to necessary in- 
 clusion. Class-singing and music are amongst 
 
 Singing 
 
 these. " Plain song " was once a very general 
 part of the education of gentlehood ; and collective sing- 
 ing has most fortunately established itself from the first 
 as a part of modern education, at least in the primary 
 schools. It is a pity that a place has not yet been found 
 for it in every secondary school also. To put it on its 
 lowest ground, it is a fine physical exercise ; it culti- 
 vates very directly a sense of community and common 
 endeavour ; and it is a very powerful means of stimulating 
 strong sentiment on wholesome lines. A fine school 
 song or a fine patriotic song has a value not unlike in 
 kind that of a notable hymn. And, it may be added, 
 the reading of music at sight is a necessary foundation 
 for a more elaborate education in music. A little time 
 taken every week for training in the art of vocal music 
 would repay itself many times over. In the meantime, 
 there seems to be a good deal of danger lest the children 
 of the "classes " will lack an aesthetic capacity which in the 
 children of the " masses " will have been properly culti- 
 vated. And this would be to lose something of real profit. 
 Drawing, too, is one of those subjects which the older 
 fashion regarded as something " extra," but 
 which later practice has insisted on as a part rawing 
 of general education, systematically connected with other 
 parts of the usual curriculum. It represents indeed a 
 very natural transition in the school for little children from 
 the coarser manipulation of bricks and from modelling in 
 clay to the reproduction in two dimensions of things seen 
 in three. It is therefore a most valuable part, in the early 
 stages of education, not only of that cultivation of manual 
 dexterity, of co-ordination of hand and eye, but also of
 
 I40 Common Sense in Education 
 
 the power of expression which we know to be of essential 
 importance in all training. Later on it serves, as nothing 
 else can, to assist the pupil to comprehend and to register 
 in permanent form the facts of science, of history, of 
 geography, which might otherwise have no permanent 
 place in memory because they would have passed before 
 it like parts of a shifting panorama. For by drawing, 
 whether it be the drawing of a diagram or of a natural 
 object, the pupil both observes better, and makes what 
 he observes his own as he would by no other means. 
 The practice of drawing serves, graphically, to produce 
 the same effect as, rhetorically, the continuous reproduc- 
 tion of knowledge in an oral paragraph. In each case 
 the separate parts of the object of knowledge are joined 
 together by the original action and energy of the pupil's 
 mind, and they thus become his permanent property. 
 Drawing, therefore, is a powerful " aid to appercep- 
 tion ". 
 
 The relation of Drawing and Writing is purely acci- 
 Drawingand dental, and they are mentioned together 
 Writing merely for the purpose of insisting that writ- 
 ing should properly come later than drawing and be 
 counted as a school pursuit of far less importance. It is, 
 as a school subject, an instrumental or ancillary matter. 
 Although it is usually linked with Reading and Arith- 
 metic, it does not in truth possess the same claims as 
 these subjects have, in their ordinary developments, to be 
 counted as the bases of a liberal education. But again 
 we must distinguish between the primary and the sec- 
 ondary schools. In the primary schools, Reading and 
 Arithmetic, being necessarily restricted by reason of lack 
 of time to those parts only which are mainly preparatory 
 to higher purposes, remain almost as severely instrumental 
 as Writing is, and are cultivated to similar ends. Doubt-
 
 The Manipulation of Curricula 141 
 
 less, each of the three can be taught so as to be, for certain 
 limited purposes, either good discipline or bad ; but we 
 are constrained to teach them in their earlier stages, not 
 for what they are in themselves, but for what they in- 
 troduce. They are instrumental, but not general. In 
 teaching Writing, we may cultivate accuracy, neatness, 
 rapidity of execution ; but it would be possible and 
 perhaps easier to cultivate all these things by other 
 processes, and without teaching writing at all. Writing 
 remains, on the whole, then, merely a subject the mastery 
 of which makes others in certain ways easier. It is prob- 
 able that we make too much of very good writing, and 
 that the time so spent would be more profitably spent 
 in Drawing. We ought all to possess a legible and not 
 unlovely handwriting, but farther than this, in the en- 
 deavour to secure uniformity, we ought not perhaps to 
 go. A fine variety is the best test of successful teaching. 
 One of the best of the most recent books on the Art of 
 Teaching, that of Mr. D. Salmon,^ sets forth sixteen 
 different specimens of style taught in schools to-day, 
 most of them hopelessly ugly and mechanical, but worth 
 careful examination for the purpose of learning what 
 should be avoided. The most beautiful examples 
 arranged for teaching purposes are to be seen in the 
 charming book A New Handwriting, compiled by Mrs. 
 Robert Bridges,^ from whose Introduction I venture to 
 make, and commend for consideration, the following 
 extract : — " The ordinary copy-book, the aim of which 
 seems to be to economise the component parts of the 
 letters, cannot train the hand as more varied shapes 
 will ; nor does this uniformity, exclusive of beauty, offer 
 as good training to the eye : moreover, I should say that 
 
 ' Longmans, 1898. '^Oxford University Press.
 
 142 Common Sense in Education 
 
 variety and beauty of form are attractive, even to little 
 children, and that the attempt to create something which 
 interests them, cheers and crowns their stupendous efforts 
 with a pleasure that cannot be looked for in the task of 
 copying monotonous shapes ". The point best worth 
 consideration in the teaching of writing to young children 
 is the necessity of using a style which does not contort 
 the body, or focus the two eyes in different ways, or 
 puzzle the eyes of the reader by the needless multiplica- 
 tion and emphasis of uncurved strokes. The beautiful 
 writing of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries usually 
 shows a minimum of straight strokes, and is therefore 
 legible as well as pleasing. We can test the mere legi- 
 bility of writing by observing at how many angles of 
 vision it can be easily read ; the more, the better. A 
 style which requires the result to be held at a particular 
 angle in order to be legible should be severely shunned. 
 
 For reference : — Teaching and Organisation, chapters by Messrs- 
 Pollard, Glazebrook, and the Editor. Laurie's Institutes of Edu- 
 cation, and the same writer's volume of Teacher's Guild Addresses, etc. 
 Sadler on Problems in Prussian Secondary Education in Education 
 Department Special Reports, vol. iii. Rein's Pedagogics (Van 
 Liew's translation). Miall's Thirty Years of Teaching. Butler's 
 The Meaning of Education. Harris's "The Correlation of Studies" 
 in Report of the Committee of Fifteen. Report of Committee of Ten 
 (U.S., 1893). Bain's Education as a Science. H. Spencer's Educa- 
 tion. Mrs. Bryant's Educational Ends and the same writer's Cur- 
 riculum in Girls' Schools in the Education Department's Special 
 Reports, vol. iii. H. Courthope Bowen's pamphlet The Subjects 
 which should be Taught in Middle Class Scliools. Miss Burstall in 
 the Educational Review, Feb. 1899. H. B. Garrod in the Educa- 
 tional Review, Jan. 1899. W. Dyche in the Educational Review, 
 March 1899. Mark's Individuality and the Moral Aim. Bosan- 
 quet's Education of the Young (from the Republic of Plato). Fouill6's 
 Education from the National Point of Vietv, translated by Green- 
 street in International Education Series.
 
 H3 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 AUDIBLE SPEECH 
 
 What is "pourquoi"? Do or not do? I would I had bestowed 
 that time in the tongues that I have in fencing, dancing, and bear- 
 baiting. had I but folloived the arts ! 
 
 — Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night. 
 
 In The Vernacular 
 
 In most schools, if what is called Reading is taught at 
 all, the exercise is a rather perfunctory cere- Reading 
 mony, designed apparently, if there is any Lessons of 
 design involved, to see whether the pupil various 
 pronounces his words intelligibly and renders '^'"'^^ 
 print in such a way that he is not taken to be a foreigner. 
 A further step is usually made if the teacher endeavours 
 to cultivate what is called " expression," when the pupil 
 is required to render the printed words as if they were 
 meant to be intelligible not as words only but as con- 
 secutive thoughts, A third and more rational kind of 
 lesson in Reading is given when the teacher first of all 
 allows pupils the time and means to master the meaning 
 of their author for themselves, and then gets them to 
 render it in the way in which they individually under- 
 stand it. T/iez'r author, as Charles Lamb would insist ; 
 he is not theirs till they take his meaning, master it, 
 appropriate it. 
 
 Now each of these exercises is, in its degree, legiti-
 
 144 Common Sense in Education 
 
 mate; but every one of them tries to raise a superstructure 
 before laying truly and well the necessary foundation. 
 They all take a great deal for granted and concern 
 themselves at too early a stage with what should be 
 developments coming later. 
 
 Let us understand at the outset that the Reading lesson 
 is primarily a lesson in speaking. Both pupil 
 ties of ^"d teacher are deeply concerned in the culti- 
 
 misuseof vation of audible speech. First as to mere 
 speech- intelligibility. Clearly, men or women who 
 
 """^"^ cannot speak without difficulty, or who are not 
 
 easily understood when speaking, lack one of the first 
 endowments indispensable for social communion ; much 
 of what they say must be ineffective, and the more 
 ineffective in exact proportion to the numbers addressed. 
 What they say passes by as the idle wind. Easy intelli- 
 gibility is indispensable to the teacher above all others. 
 The difficulty of maintaining the attention of a class, a 
 class even of adults, is increased beyond measure if the 
 speech of the teacher distracts or discourages or deadens 
 effort by its harshness or its inaudibility. 
 
 But there is worse behind. Speech that is in any 
 degree inaudible under reasonable conditions of locality 
 indicates a physical defect or mismanagement of vocal 
 organs that brings on the offender a cumulative penalty ; 
 every such error repeated tends to the injury and finally 
 to the destruction of that most delicate mechanism which 
 produces voice. Indirectly, too, it may seriously affect 
 the general health. No class of the community suffers 
 from this cause so seriously as teachers, for none use 
 their voices so persistently and under such hard con- 
 ditions. 
 
 Let us first consider the relation of the subject to 
 general health. It turns mainly on the primary need
 
 Audible Speech I45 
 
 for a proper use of the breathing apparatus. No other 
 exercise can be regarded as a satisfactory substitute, for 
 no other exercise cultivates the use of the lungs and as- 
 sociated organs under conditions that can be so exactly 
 co-ordinated. We are not always playing football, riding 
 bicycles, or even performing gymnastics ; but we are 
 always breathing and frequently speaking. Proper care 
 and training teach us to breathe habitually in such a way 
 as to use lungs and throat to their utmost legitimate 
 capacity at all ordinary times. We need not be medical 
 men in order to recognise what this means. A larger 
 chest-capacity means more air in the lungs, and more air 
 in the lungs means more oxygen for the purification of 
 the blood, which, as we are told, is the whole secret of 
 health. 
 
 The systematic teacher of reading and allied subjects, 
 then, begins with the gymnastics of breathing ; Tjje gy^,. 
 with such exercises as regulate the inhalation nasties of 
 of breath, strengthen the mechanism of the breathing 
 lungs, and control the exit of breath in the formation of 
 sound. Incidentally, and in immediate consequence of 
 this, the muscular capacity of chest and abdomen is 
 increased astonishingly, and with it, of course, the capa- 
 city for storing and using the very fuel of life. The 
 second great step is voice-formation proper ; the use of 
 the proper vocal key and the means for securing reso- 
 nance, sound-carrying quality, and the like ; which to 
 those who have to live by their voices are matters of 
 the very first importance. 
 
 When the secret of correct breathing and sound pro- 
 duction is learnt — but not till then — it may be said that 
 the more strictly hygienic practice ends and the teaching 
 of elocution, in its stricter sense, begins. Up to this 
 point the chief steps have been taken to put the machine 
 
 10
 
 146 Common Sense in Education 
 
 into proper order. But it must be remembered that 
 constant practice is necessary, and if a teacher wishes 
 his class to retain the lessons which he is giving them, 
 the reading lesson should very frequently, if not always, 
 be preceded by breathing exercises to be carried into 
 effect in the subsequent lesson. This practice is not 
 useful to the class only ; it is especially indispensable to 
 the teacher himself, if only because it serves as a reminder 
 to prevent him from relapsing into bad habits and from 
 forgetting that carelessness is so heavily penalised. If, 
 then, the teacher wishes to preserve his own voice, he 
 will give his class a little regular exercise in voice- 
 production for however short a time daily. 
 
 It is not, of course, to be supposed that breathing 
 alone, however accurate, can do all that is necessary. 
 As all real authorities insist, in order to secure for one's 
 own all the good effects that should come from syste- 
 matic breathing exercise, we must have good ventilation, 
 easy dress, regular bathing in tepid or cold water, general 
 scrupulous personal cleanliness, and ordinary free and 
 energetic general exercise. 
 
 The penalties of neglect paid by the teacher are three- 
 Thepenaities fold. There is, first of all, actual voice 
 of neglect disease. Those who see a large number of 
 teachers, primary and secondary, at their work, know 
 that affections of the larynx are all too common and 
 only too easily recognised. The persistent sore throat 
 from which so many teachers suffer is due very generally, 
 though of course not altogether and in all cases, to ex- 
 cessive strain on a few overtaxed organs called upon to 
 do work that should be otherwise distributed ; and it 
 is a bad symptom that ought at once to be referred to 
 the family doctor, or a properly qualified voice-specialist. 
 At the earliest available period of his teaching career
 
 Audible Speech I47 
 
 the young teacher should see that his actual practice is 
 in accord with wholesome rule ; and those who are 
 responsible in any measure for the training of teachers 
 are under the most serious obligation to see that this is 
 done, if only for the preservation of health. We have, 
 to be sure, to remember that many circumstances may 
 contribute to produce the disease besides the practice of 
 imperfect breathing and an ill-pitched and overstrained 
 voice. Some general warnings we have just noted. In 
 certain respects the teacher is at a special disadvantage, 
 as for instance, in having so often to inhale chalk-dust 
 and in being made a victim of the extraordinary help- 
 lessness that still seems to beset our architects when 
 they approach the problems of airing and warming large 
 spaces. But regular voice gymnastics and breathing 
 exercises for a short time every day are the best pro- 
 tection that can be devised against the perils of school 
 strain and are the best possible reminder of the general 
 need to strengthen our defences. 
 
 That insistence on this point is not a mere monomania 
 is only too sadly proved by such statistics as are available. 
 For instance, quite recently, when four thousand teachers 
 in the service of the London School Board accepted the 
 Board's invitation to apply for lessons in voice-production, 
 more than a fourth of them were declared to be or to have 
 been suffering from some form of throat trouble. 
 
 Throat trouble, we know, is not the only definite and 
 marked consequence of the bad use of the voice. In 
 addition to this, most of us have found ourselves at the 
 end of a day's teaching far more exhausted than we ought 
 to have been ; yet five hours' talking or lecturing, even 
 in a difficult room, ought not to leave us weary and 
 worn out. Given decent conditions of premises, we 
 should feel stronger and healthier and more cheerful after
 
 I48 Common Sense In Education 
 
 this as after other physical exercise. But if our day is 
 spent in a constant battle to get work done by organs 
 which are not duly strengthened, or which are called upon 
 to perform functions that should be shared by other organs 
 now becoming atrophied because they are not used ; if 
 the throat and upper part of the lungs have to do work 
 in which the mouth, the throat, and the whole of the 
 lungs are alike concerned, it needs little medical or 
 physiological knowledge to see that the inevitable result 
 is nervous exhaustion and ultimate breakdown. 
 
 It is possible that many an earnest teacher thinks the 
 strain and pain and the spending of himself in this way 
 is inevitable, and that at all events the result is satisfactory 
 so far as his class is concerned ; at all events the teaching 
 is effective. Yet even this is often a delusion. Facts 
 are obvious enough, of course, when a teacher is brought 
 up abruptly by illness or absolute physical incapacity ; 
 there is no ambiguity about such a circumstance as that. 
 But a harsh and irritating voice, a noisy voice, a muffled 
 voice, a monotonous voice, are all in their way ineffective ; 
 that is, they all hinder the teacher from producing on his 
 class the result that he desires to produce. They all 
 distract and tire according to their degree, where the 
 effect should be interest and gentle stimulus. The 
 uneasiness and restlessness of a class may often be safely 
 set down to the unimpressive or harassing voice of the 
 teacher ; the pleasant voice is emphatically one of the 
 best means of legitimate " suggestion " that a teacher 
 could use. A well-managed voice carries and impresses 
 in difficult and noisy rooms, when an ill-controlled voice 
 and careless speech merely become part of the hurly- 
 burly that is straining the nerves and temper of a class and 
 making " discipline" impossible, A teacher should there- 
 fore be quiet, restrained, and distinct in speech. Let his
 
 Audible Speech 149 
 
 words be few but let every one of them have its value for 
 the class. There should be no loss by the way. A soft 
 voice is an excellent thing in teachers. 
 
 So much for the teacher's duty in regard to a proper 
 discipline of audible speech in himself. He is none the 
 less bound to exact it fully from his pupils. 
 
 In the first place he has to combat in them the 
 characteristic fault of English speech, its indis- The faults 
 tinctness. For one reason or another — some of English 
 writers have suggested our native fogs— an speech 
 Englishman does not open his mouth as widely as other 
 folk, and he has therefore fewer tones. Perhaps, also, 
 his comparative monotonousness is part of the general 
 gravity and reserve of his character. Again, although it 
 is true that England is not the only country where people 
 indicate a word without fully pronouncing it, the effect 
 is more serious in our case because our syllabic accent 
 tends to fall back upon the first part of the word, with 
 the consequence that we indicate the word by its earlier 
 syllables and leave the latter syllables to take care of 
 themselves. They are consequently slurred ; vowels lose 
 their original values, and the final consonant, if we are 
 careless, receives only faint recognition. The vowels in 
 the last syllables of Oxford, London, water, coachman, and 
 bun, are, as usage prescribes, almost indistinguishable 
 one from another. If, then, we are not scrupulous about 
 the final consonant of a word, the means of identification 
 are by so much the fewer. 
 
 Again, in the natural course of things, the final con- 
 sonants are corrupted very frequently by the initial 
 consonants of the following word. "Shut your mouth" 
 (an excellent piece of advice) becomes " shutch oor 
 mouth " ; " his ship " becomes " hizsh ship " ; " first shot " 
 appears as either " firs' shot" or even "firsh shot". All
 
 150 Common Sense in Education 
 
 these and such like corruptions tend to indistinctness 
 and inaudibility. And if, in addition to faulty pronuncia- 
 tion, the tone is monotonous and the voice is wasted by 
 confinement between closed teeth, indistinctness and 
 inaudibility are inevitable. Such indistinctness brings 
 with it as a first consequence, ineffectiveness. To be 
 informing and convincing, speech must be readily un- 
 derstood, and reasonable precision of speech is some 
 indication of a desire to be clear in thought. The 
 boys and girls who at school are permitted to " express 
 themselves " in slovenly form are the less likely to grow 
 up into intelligence and intelligibility ; they are therefore 
 the more likely, in their turn, to miss their points and to 
 lose the influence which is the due of those who know 
 what they mean and can communicate their meaning to 
 others without effort and without error ; for the purpose 
 of speech is to inform and to persuade. It is quite worth 
 the while of the teacher to show a class the difference 
 between impressiveness and unimpressiveness proceeding 
 from this cause. Our boys and girls in general leave 
 school more or less inarticulate; whatever they may 
 know, they certainly find great difficulty in saying it. 
 Provinciality of accent is another defect which the 
 school should do much to remove. Variations of dialect 
 in themselves no one with a scientific or scholarly sense 
 can deplore, and the children of primary schools at all 
 events must be allowed a large licence so long as they 
 speak articulately and bring their voices from the right 
 quarters. But in schools of the secondary type we may 
 exact from our pupils general conformity with the 
 usage common in educated society. We need not con- 
 cern ourselves to look for a final standard, for we shall 
 be disappointed ; no class of society has a monopoly of 
 correct speech, and no dictionary is quite trustworthy.
 
 Audible Speech 151 
 
 Above all, it would be extremely unsafe to follow the 
 example set by " the stage," which besides its select store 
 of mannerisms (such as m^ for my and traditional pro- 
 nunciations in certain stock passages) has as many 
 defects as any other institution recruited at haphazard. 
 We can merely satisfy ourselves approximately that 
 such and such is the pronunciation of the most cultivated 
 people of our acquaintance, and follow this rather than 
 any dictionary that was ever compiled. 
 
 To secure distinctness and accuracy of speech, whether 
 in the mother-tongue or any other language, The teach- 
 the most gradual way is also the shortest, ingof 
 We must begin, indeed, here as everywhere, speech 
 with imitation pure and simple. No one is so crazy 
 an enthusiast for the analytical method as to teach an 
 infant to speak by giving it unmeaning sounds to copy. 
 Automatic synthesis precedes analysis. The babe in 
 arms learns words and then agglutinates words to make 
 sentences ; and he must do this to a considerable ex- 
 tent before he passes into the hands of the professional 
 teacher. Perception and conception and judgment are 
 all at work, though of course at their weakest, as soon 
 as thought begins. But when children begin to recognise 
 the written or printed symbol and to associate it with a 
 sound, we must do our best to see that the associated 
 sound is a correct one, that is, such as conventions 
 require. 
 
 We begin, of course, with the mother speech, teaching 
 all the sounds, simple and compound, that the infant 
 needs every day. It can hardly be right at this stage to 
 trouble a child with sounds not represented in his own 
 language. No good purpose can be served by such a 
 practice, for the sounds taught are too easily forgotten 
 in childhood unless they are associated with percepts,
 
 152 Common Sense in Education 
 
 A word may be here interposed to point out the 
 The objections to the phonic method of teaching 
 
 Phonic reading in the earliest stages. This plan seems 
 
 Method to be a clear case of premature analysis and 
 
 rationalisation. To teach children that the letters are 
 mere symbols for impersonal sounds is to deprive letters 
 of much of the interest which attaches to them if tJiey 
 have names. The child is not more perplexed by " H 
 for Horse " than by the injunction to remember that the 
 symbol H is reproduced by the reader in such and such 
 a way. Give the letters names, and they acquire a per- 
 sonality and therefore interest. Besides, it is no small 
 matter that, with names, they can be committed easily 
 to memory. There is reason for thinking that the old 
 way is, here again, at least as good as the new. 
 
 When the child has mastered the difficulties of reading 
 the simplest matter, we may then profitably begin to 
 analyse sounds so as to secure absolute correctness and 
 quickness of ear. This plan offers few obstacles if the 
 teacher confines himself to the sounds of the native lan- 
 guage, for the child has already a familiar stock to draw 
 upon for examples ; and it certainly prepares him for a 
 correct apprehending of strange sounds when he comes 
 to them as soon as he is put to systematic training in a 
 foreign language. 
 
 When this last point has been reached, the need for 
 Analysis of a more systematic analysis of sounds is more 
 sounds marked. Sound-drill and sound-analysis can, 
 
 of course, be conducted without a special alphabet, but 
 obviously at a disadvantage. The correct reproduction 
 of sounds must always be ultimately a matter of imita- 
 tion ; but if we have an alphabet whose symbols respec- 
 tively represent one sound and one only, it is possible, 
 having once learnt the key, to reproduce all the sounds
 
 Audible Speech 153 
 
 in any of the languages which the key is contrived to 
 unlock. And if the sounds are arranged in systematic 
 order according as they arise simply or in combination, 
 then the task of understanding and remembering them 
 is reduced to its lightest. Clearly the teacher must here 
 call in to his aid representations, as graphic as he can 
 make them, of the mechanism of sound. It is possible 
 to make a pupil produce a difficult sound correctly by 
 showing him the position of the vocal organs most ob- 
 viously concerned. The so-called deaf-mutes are most 
 successfully taught to pronounce and articulate by being 
 made to see, and even feel, the work done by the mouth, 
 lips, teeth, tongue, throat, and so on, in other people. 
 
 We ought now to consider the proper procedure of the 
 Reading Lesson. It may well be believed that 
 it is a really desirable exercise at all stages, ^-^^^ j-^^. 
 from the first to the last stage of school-life, procedure 
 It is equally certain that the procedure must in the 
 be different in different stages. The little Reading 
 child must be first made to pronounce words 
 correctly ; but as soon as his stock of words is sufficient 
 to provide instances of all English sounds, he should be 
 taught to analyse the sounds, and to produce them 
 properly, using every speech-organ properly. The voice- 
 exercise should then become a part of every lesson 
 that calls itself a lesson in reading. 
 
 As soon as we have passed through the initial stages, 
 and pupils begin to be able to take in the sense of a 
 whole paragraph, say at the age of six or seven, the 
 ordinary lesson should be preceded by a few minutes of 
 private reading during which the class is mastering the 
 passage which it is to be called upon to read. The teacher 
 will then require one or more of the class to repeat the 
 substance of the paragraph or chapter, making sure that
 
 154 Common Sense in Education 
 
 every child sees the drift of the passage. Explanations 
 of unusual words in isolation are best left until the whole 
 passage has been read aloud ; but when a real difficulty 
 shows itself the teacher may well give a paraphrase from 
 which the class can infer the meaning of a strange word, 
 or (better still) phrase. If a teacher habitually supplies 
 the class with the meaning of a strange word, the chil- 
 dren will inevitably acquire the habit of waiting for some 
 foolishly kind Providence to supply a synonym whenever 
 an unusual sound strikes their ear ; whereas their instinct 
 should rather move them to try to infer the meaning from 
 context. This kind Providence, who is also placed (by 
 publishers) at the service of teachers, is represented in 
 our reading books by the lists of words with their defini- 
 tions that appear at the tail of each exercise. These 
 should be neither needed nor used ; they are types of 
 the too much instruction which is such bad teaching. 
 
 When the teacher has satisfied himself that the general 
 drift is understood, he can call upon his boys in succes- 
 sion to read ; requiring, first, distinctness, particularly of 
 consonants ; next (in a school not severely " elementary ") 
 purity of vowel sound ; and finally, such natural intona- 
 tion and variation as show that the reader understands 
 the passage and wishes it to be understood by others. 
 
 Punctuation may very generally be ignored, for the 
 Punctua- purposes of reading aloud, if, as Mr. Burrell 
 tion and enjoius, wc make the unit of phrasing a definite 
 Phrasing image or idea. The image or idea is, in fact, 
 the unit commonly used in intelligent speech. We run 
 on until the idea is interrupted or completed. Then we 
 draw breath and proceed. The old-fashioned " counting " 
 at stops is both mechanical and inaccurate, and places the 
 reader at the mercy of circumstances and the printer's 
 corrector,
 
 Audible Speech 155 
 
 As a rule, " pattern " reading of short passages and 
 simultaneous or collective reading are both Pattern 
 most undesirable expedients. Both tend to kill reading 
 real intelligence and originality ; each has its other peculiar 
 demerits. If a teacher begins a lesson, as too many- 
 teachers do, by reading a sentence or a few sentences for 
 the class to imitate, the class infers that the first thing 
 expected of them is that they should imitate the teacher, 
 whereas the all-important thing is that they should under- 
 stand the passage and read it so that others may under- 
 stand it as they understand it. Pattern-reading comes 
 properly at the end or in the middle of a lesson, if the 
 teacher is reading only a short passage. On the other 
 hand, an occasional half-hour which the time-table gives 
 to Reading the teacher may spend with the greatest 
 profit in reading new matter carefully and clearly not to 
 the eyes, but to the ears of his pupils, their books being 
 closed. The teacher should not, in the formal Reading 
 Lesson, read the passage till it has been read aloud by 
 one or more of the class ; and he should never call for an 
 exact imitation unless it be to correct a fault of emphasis, 
 in which case it may be indispensable. 
 
 This subject of emphasis is very curious. Until one 
 
 has tried to teach reading, it is hard to believe ^ ,_ . 
 1 r 1 r • 1 • Emphasis 
 
 how many people of apparently fair education 
 
 are unable to stress an italicised word. It is a question, 
 no doubt, of intelligent apprehension ; and a few experi- 
 ments serve to show that much reading aloud is done 
 almost mechanically, by the eye alone, the mind being 
 only partially interested and partially employed. The 
 ordinary reading lesson in places where they teach reading 
 cultivates this senseless habit only too often. Unskilled 
 readers tend to lay emphasis almost invariably on the 
 last word of a sentence, except of course when it is ^
 
 156 Common Sense in Education 
 
 particle ; and in fact our English sentences do generally 
 require this usage. But the drift of a sentence, and 
 therefore its intelligent reproduction, can always be most 
 easily reached by the practice of finding out and stressing 
 the word which the author means to be the key-word. 
 
 Simultaneous reading or speaking is hardly ever defen- 
 Simui- sible, except on grounds which are a reproach 
 
 taneousor to Organisation — that is when classes are so 
 collective excessively large that otherwise the bulk of the 
 reading pupils get no practice. It causes shouting, it 
 
 promotes uniformity and sing-song, it gives the lazy boy 
 the opportunity of shirking, it spoils the natural voice, 
 and it is a terror to civilised ears. If it must be used, 
 then the class should be trained to read or speak in a 
 very subdued manner ; but it may well be believed that 
 it is better that some pupils should get too little practice 
 rather than the whole class should be demoralised by 
 simultaneous intoning. 
 
 So far what we have said ought to apply to younger pupils 
 only — to classes of children between the ages of seven 
 and thirteen or fourteen. The reading lesson after these 
 Distinctness Stages should be rather a means of keeping up 
 always the habit of precision and distinctness, properly 
 
 important moderated pace, and, in general, the healthy 
 and effective use of the vocal organs. At every stage 
 of school life these things are important, and at no time 
 should a teacher permit a slovenly habit of indistinct 
 speech to grow up in his class. Care about such 
 matters as these reacts on all parts of the work ; the 
 best work is done when the tools are kept in best con- 
 dition. Clearness of speech and clearness of thought are 
 not far apart. 
 
 The recitation exercise requires treatment similar in all 
 obvious respects to that given in the case of reading. It
 
 Audible Speech 157 
 
 should be used first as a kind of compendium or memo- 
 randum of the qualities required in clear and 
 
 rr ■ t T/" . 1 Recitation 
 
 effective speech. If the passages chosen are, 
 as they should be, of fine literary quality, then they are 
 possessions for ever, and of priceless value in the cultiva- 
 tion of taste. In practising this exercise we must not 
 allow our pupils, during the first stages, to recite in too 
 big a room, for this tends to induce them to pitch their 
 reading or reciting voice too high, and the habit grows. 
 Good results in training the habit of distinctness may 
 come from an occasional use of whispering as an 
 exercise. 
 
 In Foreign Tongues 
 
 It is highly important to note here how much the study 
 of a foreign tongue as speech helps us to dis- 
 
 .' , . , , Learning a 
 
 tmctness m speakmg our own language. In fo^gj^ 
 
 learning a foreign tongue one soon feels — I do tongue to 
 
 not say that one consciously recognises — that g>ve pre- 
 
 clearness and distinctness, that is, the plain vision to th*; 
 
 ...... ,- ■, [■ ,. ,, vernacular 
 
 discnmmation of sound from sound, is all- 
 important ; and one comes back to the use of one's own 
 speech with a clearer sense of what is needed. No one 
 speaks his own language so clearly as one who has tried 
 to make it intelligible to foreigners. The learning of 
 Latin and Greek by heart, necessitating the precise 
 discrimination of sounds and particularly the careful 
 rendering of the final syllables, has been of incalculable 
 service in rendering the English gentleman less inarticulate 
 than he would be if left to draggle-tailed monoglottism. 
 For this purpose Latin and Greek are better than French 
 (though not perhaps German) because in French the final 
 consonant is naught, and the final vowel is all in all.
 
 158 Common Sense in Education 
 
 In order to secure some universal representations of 
 Phonetic different sounds philologists have constructed 
 alphabets phonetic alphabets. It is true that all the 
 alphabets propounded are in a greater or less degree 
 arbitrar}', the most frequently used, and apparently the 
 best, being that which has been adopted and, to a certain 
 extent, popularised by Professor Victor. All alphabets, 
 however, phonetic or arbitrary, are open to the objection 
 that, in spite of every effort to secure a symbol for every 
 sound, there are dialectical differences, small and great, 
 which the alphabet is powerless to deal with, except by 
 an infinite multiplication of symbols. 
 
 Phonetic symbols, for instance, may indeed be devised 
 to mark the differences between (say) the English and 
 French renderings of I, t, and d ; but it seems easier, and 
 quite as effectual, to show once for all how in French these 
 letters are pronounced further forward in the mouth. We 
 may haply end by burying ourselves under our machinery. 
 On the other hand, phonetic drill may well be used, in the 
 modified forms just suggested, from the first ; and it 
 should gradually grow in difficulty until all the sounds 
 of the associated languages are well produced. 
 
 That a phonetic alphabet is, in the present condition 
 of teaching, assuredly valuable, if not too complex, for 
 older pupils who can interpret it admits, to my mind, of 
 no doubt ; certainly the best to our hands until, as Pro- 
 fessor Spencer suggests, every schoolboy has his own 
 phonograph to which he can betake himself for the model 
 sound. Moreover, the phonetic alphabet must be all but 
 indispensable to the bulk of those who are called upon at 
 the present time to teach modern languages in schools. 
 It seems to be agreed that, with some brilliant exceptions, 
 Frenchmen and Germans do not teach their own languages 
 very well to English boys and girls ; and French and
 
 Audible Speech 159 
 
 German school authorities themselves act on a like 
 presumption in instructing their own youth, seeing that 
 they entrust the teaching of English to EngHsh teachers 
 only under very rare and most exceptional circumstances. 
 
 Of course the teacher of a foreign language should 
 have mastered it ; but at present the supply of Pronuncia- 
 Englishmen and Englishwomen who, having tion 
 thoroughly learnt French and German where they are 
 spoken, are ready for service in the schools, is very small 
 indeed. We must therefore be content with less expert 
 agents, and something less than perfection in the teacher 
 may secure results, not the best possible, but still of 
 lasting benefit. In the meantime, it is not too much to 
 ask of English teachers that they should take the utmost 
 pains to secure accurate pronunciation and intonation in 
 such a way as to enable them to transmit the sounds 
 fairly well to their pupils, fai is not jay, mere is not 
 mare, nor rire rear, nor lui looee, nor voulu vooloo ; and 
 yet I have heard all these, and even worse, from teachers 
 in the act of teaching. 
 
 Nor is intonation a matter of small consequence. A 
 Frenchman will understand less perfect French 
 from an English speaker if the Englishman has 
 some practical notion of the way in which the French 
 speaker modifies his tones. Even English, as we know, 
 can be spoken with an American intonation and becomes 
 then less intelligible and less pleasing to an English ear. 
 How much, then, must it puzzle a Frenchman if an 
 English speaker uses in French the somewhat mono- 
 tonous deflection of voice and falling emphasis which 
 is characteristic of English. 
 
 It is of all things important that the pupil should be 
 made at the earliest stage to think in the foreign tongue, 
 to associate what he gets in perception and conception
 
 i6o Common Sense in Education 
 
 not with the English word, so long as he is speaking a 
 _^ , . foreign tongue, but in its foreign setting, with 
 
 The foreign ^ & ' b> ^ &> 
 
 tongue must ^hc foreign word. This is why it is so un- 
 be used for desirable, most particularly during early 
 thought from stages, to spend time laboriously translating 
 ^ ^ "' from one language into the other, and 
 
 particularly in translating from the foreign into the 
 native language. Every time we allow the pupil to put 
 the two words together, the vernacular word and the 
 foreign word, we make it more difficult for the foreign 
 word to come spontaneously to the " tip of his tongue" 
 without the English word to bow it out ; we interpose a 
 quite unnecessary obstacle between the object or idea 
 and its immediate presentation under the foreign name. 
 In fact, the mind stops to translate when it should think 
 the thing or idea without any intervening medium. More- 
 over, in the learning of a language, the most serviceable 
 unit is not the word but the phrase ; it is the phrase 
 that gives its value to the word, and not vice versd. If 
 pupils can be got to think in phrases, three parts of the 
 work is done ; but if they have to spend time in com- 
 paring (or rather contrasting) words and idioms, they can 
 never learn to speak at once with ease and correctness. 
 
 The fact is that our common practices in the teaching 
 of modern spoken languages have, like a good many 
 other forms of procedure in teaching, suffered by having 
 been assimilated to the traditional and, in their own 
 cases perhaps inevitable, methods of teaching 
 analogy ^^^ " dead " classical languages. Professor 
 
 between Blackic taught even ancient Greek as a spoken 
 
 spoken and language, and his method had no doubt much 
 dead Ian- ^^ recommend it ; but there is this great differ- 
 gua^es Q]^cQ between an ancient and a modern tongue: 
 
 in the modern you can and must appeal to the living
 
 Audible Speech i6i 
 
 standard of correctness, whereas in the ancient there is 
 less pressing need for correctness in the vitally important 
 matter of accent, pronunciation, and intonation. For we 
 do not use an ancient tongue as a means of living com- 
 munication, nor can correct accent, pronunciation, and 
 intonation be exactly ascertained. Our best efforts can 
 only, in fact, be an approximation reached by a painful 
 process of deduction and conjecture. When you are 
 learning classical Latin and Greek, you cannot go to the 
 fountain head, to the world where Latin and Greek are 
 thought. You may therefore have to be content in these 
 languages to take the word as the unit at your first step, 
 and work up only gradually to the point at which you 
 read the phrase itself without analysis. But in neither the 
 mother-tongue nor in any other living language thai 
 you wish to speak should you pursue this toilsome path. 
 
 It is this consideration which condemns the excessively 
 analytical method usually followed by English Excessively 
 schools in what is understood to be the analytical 
 teaching of our own language. Instead of English 
 beginning with systematic efforts, properly "'^''^°'^* 
 graduated, to cultivate the pupil's power of expression, our 
 teachers are mostly accustomed to spend their time in 
 teaching grammatical analysis and parsing, nomenclature, 
 and such like. This excessive analysis is more truly 
 paralysis ; for the study of English comes to mean for 
 most of our youth the dissection of sentences into words 
 and clauses, not fecundity and accuracy of expression. 
 And too many teachers think, or appear to think, that 
 " composition " can be taught only by setting a theme 
 and telling a class to write round about it. 
 
 But except in the very lowest forms, no lesson that lends 
 itself to recapitulation should be considered as complete 
 until one or more pupils have stood up in their places and 
 
 II
 
 1 62 Common Sense in Education 
 
 recounted, without prompting, what they have learnt. 
 Oraireca- This process IS not unknown in English 
 pituiation of schools, but IS far more the rule in France and 
 lessons Germany and America, with the natural result 
 
 that whereas our boys and girls of sixteen or seventeen 
 seem often to be unable to put half a dozen sentences 
 together, the French or German or American pupil of cor- 
 responding status can not only sit down and write a logical 
 and connected narrative without effort, but stand up, and 
 standing up, think aloud. If this is generally insisted 
 on, every teacher becomes, in a measure, a teacher of the 
 native tongue ; and something more. For knowledge 
 that lies waiting, only half alive, until the appropriate 
 question is asked, is not knowledge at all. The properly 
 instructed pupil should be able to make his knowledge 
 come, so to speak, at call, in proper series and connexion. 
 It is no uncommon experience in oral examination to find 
 that a class can answer an infinite number of questions, 
 and show a large possession of disconnected facts, but 
 that it is unable to produce them, make use of them, 
 command them, at will. The pupils have not realised 
 that it is each member of the class for himself, and not 
 the teacher, who is the link binding these facts together 
 into a whole ; that they are his facts and not the teacher's. 
 The facts are, in truth, only imperfectly " apperceived," 
 and they soon sink out of memory. 
 
 After securing simple audibility, the teacher, then, 
 must cultivate the power of continuity of speech. 
 
 Let us revert to the questions connected with the 
 teaching of speech in modern languages. The con- 
 siderations that weigh here are not quite the same 
 as those that guide us in getting a language studied 
 for the purpo.ses of literary mastery. The power to 
 read and understand written or printed matter may
 
 Audible Speech 163 
 
 go with marked inability to speak and to understand 
 speech. 
 
 In the enforcing of the truth that every language must 
 be learnt by use rather than by rules, M. The services 
 Gouin and the apostles of his teaching have ofM. Gouin 
 rendered real service. They have, at all events, called 
 attention to the futility of the attempt to teach speech 
 exclusively by the slow and imperfect method of books 
 and translation. They have not rediscovered, but they 
 have advertised, the practice of teaching by means of per- 
 cepts and concepts at first hand. In so far as the culti- 
 vation of audible speech is concerned, it must be admitted 
 that this is a vast gain, even if more is claimed for the 
 " method " in rivalry with old practices than it seems to 
 deserve. It may well be taken as a general inspiration ; 
 but its rigid rules seem to experienced teachers to be 
 unnecessary, and it is assuredly an immense strain on 
 the teacher. 
 
 M. Gouin's method claims to be original in recognising 
 the immense work done in the learning of languages by 
 the visualising imagination. I do not know that this 
 can be sustained as it stands. It would seem preferable 
 to admit that M. Gouin has done more than others to 
 carry into effect the principle of teaching by means of 
 things, that is, objects and actions, and that he has ren- 
 dered admirable service in suggesting a more rational 
 series in successive stages of teaching than is provided 
 by the arbitrary analytical method on which most of us 
 have been brought up. He is distinctly and unexception- 
 ably right in taking as his type of procedure the stages 
 by which we learn our mother-tongue, the immediate asso- 
 ciation of the object or idea with the word that represents it. 
 
 The chief points on which the Gouinists oppose the 
 prevaihng classical methods seem to be as follow :
 
 164 Common Sense in Education 
 
 (i) The classical method permits, even requires, a 
 book to be read before lessons in pronunciation are given ; 
 M. Gouin would not permit the printed symbol to be 
 seen until the pronunciation and meaning are part of the 
 student's mental stock, and known not separately, but as 
 parts of an organic phrase. 
 
 (2) The classical method interposes the native word 
 between the foreign word and the object or idea ; M. 
 Gouin proceeds direct from the idea to the foreign name 
 or phrase. He will have no " translation ". 
 
 (3) The classical method sets " exercises " which have 
 no psychological connexion ; M. Gouin contrives a rational 
 series or sequence linked by development in time, forming 
 separate but not disparate dramatic scenes of life, and 
 therefore ready at once to become part of the learner's 
 mental stock. 
 
 M,. Gouin devises "series" which are typical, i,e., 
 general, but also exhaustive, because applicable to all 
 similar objects, in their doings and relations. Thus he 
 claims to divide the possible expression of ideas in any 
 and every language into fifteen or twenty chief series, 
 subdivided again into fifty or sixty special series, all 
 logically connected. 
 
 In his own words — "A series follows the being it is 
 dealing with, first in the life of one day, then in its life 
 during the four seasons of the year. It thus embraces 
 the totality of its existence, and consequently reproduces 
 the totality of the terms which the language possesses for 
 the expression of all that we know about this being." 
 Not a single detail of the life should remain unexpressed ; 
 the whole vocabulary should be used ; the whole thirty 
 thousand words of the ordinary language being arranged 
 in " system ". 
 
 As in teaching the objective language, so in teaching
 
 Audible Speech 165 
 
 the language of action, every step is successive to another. 
 The teacher acts the scene, and the pupil follows suit. 
 The value of this method is not to be denied. But it 
 most obviously throws a heavy burden on the teacher, the 
 perpetual effort to visualise and to act being most serious; 
 and unless the teacher works at very high pressure, it 
 may easily become mechanical. Moreover, it hardly 
 allows for inevitable breaks. On the other hand, a 
 very liberal use of it, combined especially with pictures, 
 is probably the best procedure yet devised. 
 
 The golden rules seem to be these : 
 
 (i) Avoid translation as much as possible; use rather 
 first talk and then free composition however The golden 
 
 clumsy. rules 
 
 (2) Teach by means of the sentence. If a new word 
 is wanted, let it be seen in several sentences and its 
 meaning inferred, not communicated by label. 
 
 (3) Provide an object where you can, and suggest a 
 mental picture where you cannot, in all that you teach. 
 
 (4) Put off syntax till a substantial basis of practic- 
 able speech has been learnt ; and then have the chief 
 rules inferred. 
 
 It is objected to the plan of acquiring a language 
 colloquially that if soon learnt by this method objections to 
 it is also soon forgotten. This is true enough, colloquial 
 but the objection assumes that the practice "method 
 is confined to mere talking. It is of course obvious 
 that little can come of such an exclusive method, because 
 comparatively few words are needed for ordinary col- 
 loquial purposes, and because we do not, fortunately, 
 spend so large a part of our lives in talking as to cover 
 all subjects of interest in our daily conversations. But 
 the first steps must needs be colloquial if the pupil is to 
 be cofiz^inced iha.t the language is a real and living medium
 
 1 66 Common Sense In Education 
 
 of thought. The infant learns to think and to speak at 
 the same time. This is the mother-method of nature, 
 and, as Professor Laurie says, to the child even the 
 mother-speech is foreign. Learning Latin and Greek as 
 most of us have had to do, we can hardly in our youth 
 have believed that Julius Csesar and Thucydides spoke 
 the tongues with which we are so imperfectly acquainted. 
 But if we had ever spoken Latin and Greek ourselves, 
 our conviction would have been different. We can easily 
 agree with Heine when he says that the Romans would 
 never have had time to conquer the world if they had had 
 to learn the Latin grammar. Nor will our pupils " under- 
 stand " ideas in French or German unless they begin by 
 associating them with objects rather than, however uncon- 
 sciously, by labelling them with names. 
 
 There is a great deal of justice in the recommendations 
 Report to the o^ the conference on modern languages which 
 American reported to the American Committee of Ten. 
 Committee " A mistaken idea of thoroughness may cause 
 of Ten ^.j^g waste of much valuable time. Sight 
 
 translation should begin at the very outset of the first 
 year's course, and should always form an important 
 part of the work ; it should proceed as briskly as possible, 
 the teacher lifting beginners over hard places, and showing 
 them how to find their own way through the rest. All 
 passages of an abstruse or technical nature should be 
 skipped, or translated by the instructor ; not a moment 
 should be lost in contending with difficulties that have 
 no necessary connexion with the language. . . ." 
 
 A plan that has been known to succeed well in dealing 
 
 A scheme for with small claSSeS of young learners pro- 
 beginners ceeds on lines somewhat as follow : — Some 
 simple illustrated book, say in French, such as Mrs. Bell's 
 French WilJiout Tears, graduated, and repeating over
 
 Audible Speech 167 
 
 again words that have occurred, is read and re-read to 
 the children with the illustrations — but not the text — in 
 front of them, until they almost know what is coming. 
 Concurrently, the children are taught nursery rhymes — 
 preferably those for which they have the English key, 
 such as The House that Jack Built — by oral repetition. 
 Then the French text itself is placed in front of them, 
 and they read it with delight as French, showing little or 
 no hesitation over pronunciation, for it does not occur to 
 them to pronounce the words except according as their 
 ear has been already attuned. After two or three books 
 have been so treated, the class will be able to read simple 
 fairy-stories with something like ease. German may be 
 treated, at a later stage of school-life, in the same way. 
 The child reads Shock-headed Peter in English till he 
 knows it, and after some such drilling as above described 
 in the case of French, he reads the original Struwwelpeter 
 with little difficulty. 
 
 Good results have been known to come from the use 
 of the method here described for teaching one language 
 and the use of the old " Prendergast " method for teach- 
 ing another concurrently. By the " Prendergast " system 
 the child learns to translate at sight and instantly a series 
 of phrases and sentences gradually growing in complexity. 
 After a large number of these have been mastered, he is 
 taught to translate in the usual way, without learning any 
 analytical or formal grammar, but strengthening the 
 general habit of rapid retranslation already implanted. 
 It is no small part of the value of this method that the 
 use of the slips of paper on which the sentences are 
 written suggests a game which the child delights to play. 
 
 In teaching modern languages, however, more than in 
 any other study, we are seriously obstructed by our sys- 
 tem of examination, which mostly attaches an altogether
 
 1 68 Common Sense in Education 
 
 excessive importance to the written exercise, to the entire 
 exclusion of speech. An immediate though only partial 
 remedy might be applied by the introduction of dictation 
 into all language examinations. 
 
 For reference : — Burrell in Teaching and Organisation and the 
 same writer's Clear Speaking and Good Reading. Voice, Song and 
 Speech by Lennox-Browne and Behnke. Behnke's Voice-Produc- 
 tion. Soames's Teacher's Phonetic Manual. Reading and Recitation 
 by Rooper and Lott. Miss Beale in Work and Play in Girls' 
 Schools. Spencer in The Aims and Practice of Teaching. Storr in 
 Teaching and Organisation. Swan's translation of Gouin's New 
 Method. Rippmann's Hints on Teaching French. Report to the 
 (U.S.) Committee of Ten (Washington, 1893). Special Reports on 
 Modern Language Teaching, pubHshed by the Board of Education.
 
 169 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 LITERATURE AND FORMAL LINGUISTIC STUDY 
 
 All this is ours for the asking. All this we shall ask for if only it 
 be our happy fortune to love for its own sake the beauty and the 
 knowledge to be gathered from books. — Arthur Balfour. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand the grounds for the 
 assertion that the chief basis of a liberal education is the 
 knowledge of and familiarity with great books. 
 
 In the first place, the fine work of literary art is the 
 best thing that a nation has to show. It xhepersist- 
 is the highest outcome of the national life, enceofthe 
 Political and social institutions pass away, or great book 
 become modified by absorption into other systems ; so 
 the Rome and Greece and Judaea of antiquity, in so 
 far as their ancient politics are concerned, are now mere 
 geographical expressions, but their great works of literary 
 art survive in and by themselves. They do not merely 
 modify other like works but they also remain as they 
 were left fresh from the hands of the producers. David, 
 Homer, Vergil, Dante, Shakespeare, and the rest, are 
 alive now and are living influences. The works of 
 graphic art, such as painting and statuary, have a com- 
 paratively short life ; and though greater in apparent 
 bulk, are more fragile and transitory. The great pro- 
 ducts of engineering art — roads, bridges, buildings, monu- 
 ments — fall into decay or lose their individuality and 
 often their history with the development of civilisation. 
 But the great book remains.
 
 lyo Common Sense in Education 
 
 It is, no doubt, partly an accident that great books 
 should enjoy such long life — that accident the discovery 
 of printing. Yet it is a great tribute to the inherent power 
 of great books that what they contain must in some famous 
 cases, such as the Homeric poems, have been handed 
 down from mouth to mouth for generations. Country-side 
 ballads have been handed down even in this century in 
 England, and would still, no doubt, survive in the minds 
 of the people but for the inevitable result of teaching 
 everybody to read, the weakening of the habit of memory. 
 
 In the second place, literature provides us with his- 
 Literature torical landmarks. We cannot be said to 
 provides understand the general "history" of a par- 
 historical ticular time unless we know something of the 
 landmarks thought that Stirred its most subtle thinkers, 
 and interpreted and made articulate the spirit of the 
 times in which they lived. The most notable facts in 
 the history of the times of Edward III., of Elizabeth, 
 and of Victoria, are that Chaucer and Shakespeare and 
 Tennyson and their contemporaries lived and wrote. 
 Political history, social history, economic history, even 
 ecclesiastical history, are all reflected, illustrated, and 
 interpreted by what we find in the great works of con- 
 temporary literature. Of course, as books are multiplied, 
 the stock of material becomes richer, and it is found 
 more and more difficult even physically to compass a 
 complete knowledge of contemporary ideas. We cannot 
 read everything that is significant. But our embarrass- 
 ment is the embarrassment of excessive wealth, which 
 makes it all the more necessary in a comparatively 
 advanced stage of society, such as that in which we live, 
 for the educator to step in and appraise books rightly, so 
 that the youth of the schools may have guidance early, 
 before they lose their way in the wilderness open to them.
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 171 
 
 The third reason for the importance to be attached to 
 thei study of literature is that it completes Literature 
 and embraces all other studies. This does isacom- 
 not imply approval of the horrid hotch-potch pendium of 
 of grammar, history, geography, antiquarian- s'"<^'^^ 
 ism, science, orthoepy, and the rest, which, in the guise 
 of notes, often chokes the life out of a fine piece of liter- 
 ature offered for the delectation of a class of young 
 people ; but rather that the study of the great book 
 puts life into all other branches of interest and school 
 study. All other studies are of small consequence in 
 a " liberal " education if thought is mean and unlovely, 
 if the imagination is foul or uncultivated, if the apprecia- 
 tion of the power of lucid and beautiful expression is 
 lacking. But fine literature gives a zest to any subject, 
 and a fine book may be written about anything that enters 
 as more than a piece of gymnastics into the school course. 
 
 The fourth reason arises out of the last. Power of 
 appreciation, of which we shall speak at length j.^^ powers 
 presently, can be so cultivated that the power of apprecia- 
 of expression is easier. The more carefully we tion and ex- 
 read and examine the work of great writers, P'^^^sion 
 the easier is it for ourselves, when we speak, to say what 
 we mean. This does not necessarily imply that we 
 make models of the great books propounded for our 
 study ; it means rather that every effort to discover the 
 secret of the rhetorical power of a fine passage or the 
 ethical influence of a great book quickens the divine 
 spark in ourselves. 
 
 The study of literature, again, has its value as a train- 
 ing in patriotism of the honourable and re- 
 putable kind, as we shall see, by inspiring a 
 rational love of country through a respect for its great 
 past and for great common possessions.
 
 172 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Finally and chiefly it is important to send our pupils 
 An aesthetic out of the school with some sort of sound 
 standard aesthetic Standard. This we cannot achieve 
 except by giving them some means of judging between 
 the great or beautiful and the mean or unlovely. The 
 discipline that cultivates nobility of character, the pre- 
 ference for the good rather than the base, provide a 
 standard of appreciation in conduct through acquaintance 
 with great exemplars and admiring love for them. So 
 the discipline of literature cultivates the sense of pleasure 
 in great books by accustoming the student to see the 
 world as great writers have seen it, by teaching him to 
 understand and place himself as nearly as possible at 
 their point of view. We cultivate character by quicken- 
 ing in our pupils the good that is in them, and we do 
 this most surely if we can fire them with admiration of 
 good men ; we cultivate refined pleasure in noble literary 
 work by stirring up in their minds, so far as we can, 
 those ideas which respond to the magnificent, picturesque, 
 or subtle ideas enshrined in great books. Thoughts 
 not entirely mean, lying somewhere like dull sparks in 
 ourselves, burst into flame in the atmosphere about great 
 writers. And we must not impose on sermons and 
 theology the whole duty of giving moral and elevating 
 ideas. 
 
 If we have once succeeded in making our pupils aware 
 of the fine qualities of great prose or verse, they are the 
 more likely to look for such things elsewhere and to pre- 
 fer them to inferior material when the choice is offered. 
 It is a libel on human nature to say that familiarity, 
 if by familiarity we mean intimate knowledge, breeds 
 contempt. The things we know best we love best. 
 To despise what is familiar is a mark of littleness oi 
 soul.
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 173 
 
 We should notice that our subject is literature, but not 
 the literature of England only, though that Literature- 
 must needs supply us with our examples and not English 
 is most important for English people. For literature 
 it is necessary to remember that the lesson in ^^°"® 
 literary appreciation can and should be given incidentally 
 when we are dealing with literature in any language, and 
 that comparison in literature is one of the most stimu- 
 lating of processes conceivable, as soon as pupils are old 
 enough to understand it. Opportunities for illustration 
 occur oftener than one would think. We may enliven 
 Caesar by finding an illustrative passage in Kinglake or 
 Napier ; a class advanced enough to read Moli^re may 
 be invited to suggest parallels in Dickens, even if we 
 cannot find suitable illustrations in our own eighteenth 
 century writers ; an idyll of Theocritus sends us to 
 Matthew Arnold, and so on. Where other languages 
 are taught at all by means of great books, it is of the 
 greatest service in the cultivation of what we call taste to 
 find the parallel in our own stock. Education, as it has 
 been said, is meant to fit people for life. And Literature 
 is life.^ 
 
 We begin by making a clear distinction between the 
 three branches of literary study sometimes „„ .. „ 
 — too often — combined under the name of study is of 
 "English"; between the knowledge of a books, of 
 book or books, the knowledge of the gram- philology, of 
 mar and history of the English language, and °"' '"" 
 the knowledge of the "outlines" of English literature. 
 
 1 For herein may be seen noble chyualrye | Curtoyse | Hu- 
 manyte | frendlynesse | hardynesse | loue | frendshyp | Cowar- 
 dyse I Murdre | hate | vertue | and synne | Doo after the good 
 and leue the euyl | & it shall brynge you to good fame & re- 
 novnee | And for to passe the tyme thys book shal be plesaunte
 
 174 Common Sense in Education 
 
 These are three distinct branches of study ; the first 
 cultivates the power of appreciating and analysing on 
 rhetorical and aesthetic grounds some famous book of 
 great value in itself; the second combines science and 
 history ; the third is history pure and simple. They 
 are best treated apart, and the second and third should 
 be used in connexion with the first only for the pur- 
 poses of elucidation, the pupil being lifted rapidly and 
 easily over difficulties so that he may not be brought up 
 suddenly and put off the track of enjoyment, which is 
 the indispensable condition of any training in literature 
 D • u that is worth the name. The training of the 
 
 begin by _ _ ° _ 
 
 presenting power of appreciation is of all our objects 
 the book as that which we should work hardest to attain. 
 a whole j^^ every stage we must begin by presenting 
 
 the subject as a whole. We must get the general view 
 first of all. Let us take it for granted that no passage 
 or book should be chosen for the lesson in literature 
 unless it is possible for the class to get a fair general 
 notion of its drift by inspection, by reading it through 
 cursorily. Before a piece of literature we are in the 
 condition of a three or four year old child who is intro- 
 duced to an "object" — say an orange. We should not 
 expect much to come out of an endeavour to introduce 
 him to rind, skin, pips, and so forth before we handed him 
 the whole orange, to make him acquainted with it as 
 a whole, however lacking in articulation his knowledge 
 may be. It is not otherwise with a work of art ; if your 
 pupil is to "know" it, he must see it first as the maker 
 meant it to be seen when it came from his hand. After he 
 
 to rede in | but for to gyue fayth & byleue that al is trewe that is 
 conteyned herin | ye be at your lyberte | but al is wryton for our 
 doctryne, — Caxton's preface to the UorU D' Arthur.
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 175 
 
 has made acquaintance with it, he must be got to know 
 its parts, and to know about it. Let us see how this 
 works out. 
 
 To " appreciate " is, first, to set a value on a thing, or 
 to examine its claims to be valued ; secondly, 
 
 , . , , , . - , , Appreciation 
 
 to set a high value on a thmg, for good and 
 sufficient reasons. Appraise and appreciate are different 
 forms of the same verb. It is no small thing to have 
 got your pupils to like a fine piece of literature, a book, 
 a passage, a line, a phrase. You have placed in their 
 possession at all events a standard of comparison. You 
 have to a greater or less extent, enriched their thought ; 
 and therewith, pretty certainly, their vocabulary. Shake- 
 speare's vocabulary is richer than that of any other 
 writer. 
 
 But this alone is not enough. To be most fruitful, 
 appreciation should be critical ; that is, there must be 
 judgment, and ground for judgment. As a pupil grows 
 up, he must be taught to examine the mechanism of 
 literature, and to discover, so far as discovery is possible, 
 the external qualities by virtue of which a great piece 
 of literary art acquires impressiveness. 
 
 It is perfectly true that when we have exhausted all 
 our criticism and made all our discoveries, there remain 
 still in great literary work those impalpable suggestions 
 and those inexplicable strokes of insight that cannot be 
 analysed. But we must not therefore forbear or shrink 
 from the endeavour to analyse a rhetorical effect into 
 its superficial causes, if we can compass such analysis. 
 The discoverable use to which genius puts rhetorical 
 devices need not make us think less respectfully and 
 reverently of its work ; while, on the other hand, the 
 careful examination of the modes of expression used by 
 a great writer to produce a certain effect reacts at once
 
 176 Common Sense in Education 
 
 on our own power of expression as well as of general 
 appreciation. 
 
 Rhetorical analysis is not grammatical analysis. The 
 Rhetorical purpose of speech is first to inform, then to 
 andffram- persuade. Eveu the poet who writes his 
 maticai verses and then secretes them in his desk 
 
 analysis addresses himself to at least an imaginary 
 
 auditor, in order to inform or persuade him. By what 
 devices, then, does the writer whom we are studying 
 secure that his information shall be clearest and most 
 telling, his persuasion most effective ? Rhetorical analy- 
 sis helps us to find out at all events the more mechani- 
 cal artifices of composition, and to remember them by 
 giving them names. Grammatical analysis enables us 
 to understand the formal relation of word to word and 
 of clause to clause, but no more. When we read a 
 great author in the spirit of rhetorical analysis, we know, 
 of course, that he did not set out on his task with a 
 Treatise on Rhetoric before him ; but we can only avoid 
 conveying that impression to our pupils if we take the 
 precaution of seeing that they have mastered the general 
 contents of their book before proceeding to its parts. 
 Our admiration or appreciation of beauty and force that 
 we cannot define in great work should be all the greater 
 when we have learnt the most that we can by rhetorical " 
 examination. Each kind of great work has its un- 
 capturable qualities ; its fancy, grace, insight, majesty, 
 eloquence, and the like. But their whereabouts and some 
 of their modes of action can be detected by those who 
 know what devices tend to what effects, what are the 
 Rhetorical main lines of style in poetry and prose, what 
 analysis and the figures of Speech and their results in stimu- 
 coinposition lating cmotlon. This knowledge, again, tends 
 directly to strengthen the power of composition. Com-
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 177 
 
 position at every stage is the exercise of intelligent, 
 intelligible, and consecutive expression. A child " com- 
 poses " as soon as it speaks ; for thought is, in its very 
 nature, composition ; and speech is thought expressed. 
 The cultivation of the power of consecutive expres- 
 sion may be begun as early as you please ; indeed, it 
 tnust begin before any analytical grammar whatsoever. 
 Happily, mothers are still sufficiently uneducated to let 
 their children learn to speak before they are taught to 
 pick out nouns and verbs from sentences ; and the 
 children begin to learn "composition" at — nay, on — 
 their mothers' knees. The suggestion that " composi- 
 tion " should be taught only after some analytical 
 grammar has been taught is a flagrant instance of the 
 vice that delights in sealing up " subjects " of education 
 in water-tight compartments. It is an unpardonable 
 violation of the principle of connectedness. 
 
 During the actual process of teaching, it is mere 
 pedantr}'^ — and impracticable pedantry, too, Answers in 
 as we have seen — to insist on every question complete 
 being answered in a complete sentence. But sentences 
 note : as an occasional exercise with young pupils this 
 practice is useful and even necessary, the need however 
 being distinctly greater if the children come from a slow- 
 thinking class, from homes where they hear little intel- 
 ligent general conversation and are therefore less " quick 
 at the uptake ". From such children you do not expect 
 rapidity or nimbleness of thought, and therefore no great 
 harm comes from a fairly frequent use of the exercise ; 
 but it must not be exacted invariably or too often. For 
 all children it is one of the paths to composition under 
 two conditions : — the first, if it is used in the lesson 
 designedly devoted to composition, and the second, if 
 a child is also called upon to recapitulate the substance 
 
 12
 
 17B Common Sense in Education 
 
 of a lesson both immediately after it has been given and 
 also after some interval, in a series of sentences Speech 
 in complete sentences, if you like ; but no uniform in- 
 sistence on answers in complete sentences.^ 
 
 Every lesson that lends itself to such an exercise should 
 
 be recapitulated orally by one of the class. Children in 
 
 secondary schools may well be expected to 
 
 Composition . , • r .1 11- 
 
 write down summaries for themselves from 
 their eighth or ninth year ; before that, the " composition " 
 (that is the recapitulation of the lesson) should be built 
 up on the black-board by contributions from the class. 
 Pupils of primary schools, for reasons already given, will 
 remain in this latter stage longer than others. The com- 
 position lesson proper will follow the literature lesson and ' 
 the lesson in rhetoric that accompanies it. Pupils may 
 be called upon to write a page, making use, if possible, 
 of certain figures of speech discussed and explained, on 
 matter, if possible, arising out of the literature lesson, 
 being taught to avoid the characteristic defects of each 
 figure. In the earliest stages we are content if pupils use 
 and and but, he, she, and it, correctly. Another stage is 
 the use of the relative. Then come sentences contain- 
 ing subordinate clauses. An intelligent pupil of thirteen 
 should be able to expand a metaphor into a simile, and 
 a little later to construct metaphors out of similes. At 
 fifteen he can be taught to marshal his information in 
 
 1 This heresy of the complete sentence we get, like so many 
 other more useful things, from Germany; and we have most 
 warmly adopted it just when Germans are beginning to laugh at 
 it even in their comic papers. "Will you marry me?" asks a 
 Professor in a well-known German Punch, addressing himself to 
 the lady of his choice. " Yes, by all means," says she. " Pardon 
 me," the swain replies, " let me have your answer in a complete 
 sentence." 

 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 179 
 
 logical order and to use safely other simple figures such 
 as antithesis, climax, metonymy, and the rest. 
 
 Paraphrasing is of great use if sparely used. It is how- 
 ever most undesirable to set for paraphrase a Paraphras- 
 passage which expresses a great thought in ing 
 form so perfect as to be " inevitable," beyond improve- 
 ment. Nothing whatever is gained by the endeavour to 
 turn what we feel to be perfect into comparative mean- 
 ness. But in the elucidation of a crabbed passage or of an 
 occasional phrase which lends itself to expansion without 
 sacrifice of noble form, paraphase may be used with much 
 profit. The exercise however should always be set with 
 a caution and an apology. We must make sure that our 
 pupil does not regard a paraphrase as merely another way 
 of saying the same thing, a way as good as the author's. 
 If we leave such an impression, we may easily poison his 
 mind ; we go far to destroy his reverence, that respect 
 which the cultivated person conceives for persons or 
 things just because there is in them something great, 
 beautiful, or lovable, which is theirs inalienably and not, 
 as he feels, within his own power of achievement. Those 
 mean spirits to whom nothing is admirable, who affect 
 to regard even great things as matter of mechanism, 
 are simply deficient in the sense of proportion ; they 
 themselves are, in their own conceit, too big to conde- 
 scend to admire. We ought to be cautious therefore not 
 to give our pupils any excuse for suspecting that a noble 
 idea nobly expressed is merely one way among many of 
 dressing up commonplace. 
 
 Literary interest is, at bottom, an interest in man. We 
 are first of all interested in his doings, then in -pj^g source 
 his thoughts. When we are children, it is of interest in 
 action that fascinates us ; as we get older we literature 
 know that the thought, the thought sometimes expressed
 
 i8o Common Sense in Education 
 
 in the "winged word," is the truer life of man. This is 
 why young people and people who remain young love 
 romances, and why people who know the world and 
 have thought about it find their highest literary pleasure 
 in works that deal with action reflectively, 
 
 A very little child does not care for action which it 
 cannot well realise ; that is why infants prefer, of all 
 stories, stories in which they themselves are made to 
 figure. Imagination grows, they acquire simple notions 
 of goodness and naughtiness, and then they love to hear 
 of grotesque personages, of unlimited might and stupen- 
 dous personality, fairies, giants, dwarfs, good or bad. 
 The world is not yet for them a system of causes and 
 effects uniformly concatenated ; and if you tried to make 
 it so, you would find that their experience of details is too 
 limited ; they will not believe you, though your folly may 
 appear to win a superficial assent. You must proceed 
 gradually by helping them to recognise in process of 
 time the usual order of events, and in the meanwhile 
 cultivate their taste for letters and humanise them by 
 making them familiar with the fancies and traditions of 
 Fairy story thosc who have gone before them. This is 
 and epic the justification of the use of the fairy story 
 and the epic — both, we see, on the grand scale — as 
 instruments of education. Providence is the real hero 
 of both fairy story and epic ; in both fairy story and epic 
 the providential end is reached by grotesque and mon- 
 strous means ; less grotesque and monstrous and more 
 rational in the epic than in the fairy story ; but the end 
 is reached. In the fairy story the personages are inter- 
 esting because of their grotesqueness, in the epic because 
 of their size, their heroism. The epic is the more advanced 
 taste, for its actions and characters are less amorphous, 
 and the child's appreciation of goodness and badness is
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study i8i 
 
 growing more definite and conforming itself gradually 
 to the adult standard ; he wants less chaos, more order. 
 This is the period during which we should teach the great 
 world stories, the Homeric, Vergilian, Germanic sagas. 
 Between this and the next stage come the semi-historic 
 ballads, still epic in form, the personages large and heroic, 
 and performing impossibilities ; but having a faint back- 
 ground of fact, and easily connected with the lessons in 
 recorded history. It matters little that fiction forms their 
 bulk ; the fiction only makes them more interesting, and 
 the child gets with them what is positively truer than 
 any narrative, and that is something of the contemporary 
 feeling of the historic age of composition. When he reads 
 the sober narrative history, he will have the better atmo- 
 sphere and will understand his text the more surely. 
 
 Science is no substitute for the fruitful wonderment of 
 fairy story. The " fairy land of science " is not at all 
 wonderful to a child. He turns away with just disdain 
 from the phonograph, and electric telegraph, and bacteria; 
 they are no marvels, especially if we try to " explain " 
 them. But Jack and the Beanstalk is quite another 
 thing. No explanation of this convincing history is 
 possible ; and if it were possible, it would be impertinent. 
 The next stage is the history ; not the text book, but 
 the writings of the statelier historians, Claren- The epical 
 don, Gibbon, Prescott, Macaulay ; read, not for histories 
 the training in historical method, of which we shall speak 
 hereafter, but purely to cultivate a sense of spacious- 
 ness and style. This is the period at which a pupil 
 reads the historical speech ; Burke, it may be, or a more 
 modern master of political eloquence, such as Bright or 
 Disraeli or Gladstone. When our pupil has worked up 
 to this point, and has had concurrently lessons in rhetoric 
 and in the practice of rhetoric, that is composition, he is
 
 1 82 Common Sense in Education 
 
 fit for the closer study of more complex forms of litera- 
 ture, and, in particular, poetry. Poetry the pupil will 
 have had from the beginning, though it may 
 have been poetry in the form of prose or 
 ballad. He will have learnt much ballad verse and 
 some lyrical verse by heart ; but he ought, at sixteen, to 
 make a serious attack on prosody, and, in order to learn 
 the difficulties and respect the achievements of the great 
 poets, he should be occasionally called upon to write 
 English verse himself, in the style of the particular poem 
 which he is or has been studying. 
 
 It is not easy, it is not even desirable, to draw up an 
 exclusive list of authors for the last three years (sixteen 
 to nineteen) of school life. But it may be reasonably 
 required that a good deal should be done with the very 
 greatest writers of verse, and always with particular 
 emphasis on prosody, for the cultivation of the ear — 
 Shakespeare, Milton, Gray, Wordsworth and his con- 
 temporaries, must all find a place. It is equally impor- 
 tant that some great contemporary or comparatively 
 recent poem should be read and known well, in order 
 to keep alive the sense of continuity, reality, and 
 modernness. 
 
 In every one of these stages it is important that the 
 study should be the study of literature, and the result 
 most desirable is that our pupil should know some great 
 works well and should find fervid pleasure in them. 
 The pleasure will be the greater when, after all the 
 study, the great writer still keeps the secret of his influ- 
 ence ; and when we find that, with all our rhetoric, we 
 have only learnt a few of the devices that move us to 
 admiration for which we can account in terms of the 
 schools. Indeed, the proof of the greatness of the 
 greatest works is that every time we come to them we
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 183 
 
 discover that there is yet more in them than we had felt 
 before ; and that is why we never tire of them. Mark, 
 too, that if we do not plant a taste for good literature, 
 and especially for good verse, during adolescence, we 
 cannot hope that it will sow itself later in life. We never 
 forget the things that have in youth warmed us with 
 delight, and the pleasure in noble thought and subtle 
 expression is second only in purity to the pleasure 
 inherent in unselfish action Base pleasures also trail 
 behind them a craving for repetition, and we must fight 
 them with the delight of nobler experience. Adolescence 
 is the period during which the deepest spiritual impres- 
 sions are made for good or for evil ; and not to use fine 
 literature, portable and accessible as it is, in order to fill 
 the place which lies open then to spiritual influences, 
 is to throw away the most powerful instrument of good 
 education. 
 
 It is well to remember that for every stage of education 
 there is to be found appropriate literary food and training 
 in what William Allingham calls " verse-poetry ". The 
 delight of the ear in verse-effects is ultimately unanalys- 
 able, but those who would prepare the young wisely for 
 life should begin early to lay up in their minds incor- 
 ruptible stores of good poetry. " Babes love the sound 
 of it, youth passionately delights in it, age remembers it 
 gladly ; it helps memory, purifies and steadies language, 
 guards elocution ; it gives wings to thought, touches 
 hidden verities, can soothe grief, heighten joy, beautify 
 the common world, and blend with the divinest aspira- 
 tions." 
 
 If a pupil has passed through such a course as we 
 have here in outline, he will have achieved two great 
 things : he will have formed the habit of critical apprecia- 
 tion and he will have a standard of taste for life. He
 
 1 84 Common Sense in Education 
 
 will also be well fitted for further systematic work, at 
 the universities or elsewhere ; although, as the Literature 
 Schools are mainly taken by women, perhaps for the 
 neutral He I should here say rather the exclusive She. 
 
 It is no doubt desirable to correlate history and litera- 
 Literature ture studics as much as possible. But it must 
 and History be remembered that literature is not the same 
 as history, and that the training of the power of literary 
 appreciation, though all the easier and all the truer if we 
 can get pupils to realise the far-off setting and atmo- 
 sphere, is primarily a training in feeling, or " aesthetics ". 
 We are not therefore to exclude King Alfred or King 
 Canute from our histories merely because we cannot ask 
 our school population to master the contemporary speech 
 of those heroes ; nor are we to forbid Gulliver's Travels 
 to our children merely because the book treats of politics 
 in a fashion far beyond the comprehension of the little 
 boys and girls who take most delight in it. On the other 
 hand, wherever history and literature can be made to 
 illustrate each other, the teaching of both gains enor- 
 mously in true and permanent effect ; and when the 
 last stage of school life is reached, it is of the greatest 
 advantage to read history and the contemporary literature 
 side by side. 
 
 We must remember again, that, though excellent in 
 itself, the study of the History of Literature is not the 
 study of Literature. The study of literature (let us say 
 it again) is a training in appreciation, in aesthetics ; and 
 the history of literature is history, appealing mainly to 
 the memory. We can cultivate a literary sense, to be a 
 refining influence and a pleasure and possession for ever, 
 while imparting little or no knowledge of the history of 
 books and the influences working to produce them ; 
 though it is emphatically true that the appreciation is
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 185 
 
 sounder and truer when it is correlated to an exact 
 knowledge of each thing. 
 
 The History of Literature, then, should, certainly till 
 the last year of school life, say eighteen or nineteen, be 
 used in detail merely when it is necessary to get a correct 
 environment for the work under consideration. For in- 
 stance, an intelligent study of a play of Shakespeare should 
 reasonably include (but as subsidiary to the aesthetic 
 study) some knowledge of the way in which plays were 
 produced, the events of contemporary history necessary 
 to explain the text — and not much else in the " histo- 
 rical " side. It does no harm, indeed, to make a pupil 
 in an upper form read (though not commit to memory) 
 a short History of English Literature ; but anything like 
 a detailed study is surely better left to a time when 
 wider reading will have given the pupil something real 
 to work upon. It is worse than useless, it is distinctly 
 injurious, to set young people to learn dates and lists 
 and gorgeous criticisms concerning works of art with 
 which they have no acquaintance. It cultivates literary 
 hypocrisy and pretentiousness, and is an obstacle to real 
 reading and the saturation which is the chief thing 
 necessary. Of course, it is desirable that our pupil 
 should learn to use a History of Literature for refer- 
 ence ; indeed a great deal that we try to impose on the 
 memories of our pupils, in more studies than this, is 
 better left to be looked for when required. It is precisely 
 this power of profitably using books of reference which 
 the children of so many of our schools lack, the efforts 
 to teach them being divided mainly between telling and 
 "eliciting". 
 
 At every stage our pupil should be required to deal at 
 length, both orally and, as we advance, on paper, with 
 part of the subject matter treated in the lessons ; and
 
 1 86 Common Sense in Education 
 
 subjects should be so prescribed that, without being too 
 recondite, they may frequently involve some little re- 
 search and consultation of authorities, with room for the 
 free expression of individual opinion. At the top of the 
 school, pupils may be encouraged, as they are in France, 
 to get up some special point for oral exposition from the 
 teacher's chair, to the class. The first shyness is soon 
 overcome, and the practice once started is most stimu- 
 lating and suggestive. 
 
 The history of the English language is not literature, 
 The History but it is an Undoubted fact that we appreciate 
 of Language literature the better if the language is felt to 
 have a continuous existence and to have its roots far 
 back ; and so much of our finest literature is more or 
 less archaic, that some knowledge of the structure and 
 nature of the growth of English is indispensable to a 
 proper enjoyment. But the scientific study of language 
 is as truly a " science " as the thorough investigation of 
 any other complex physical phenomena ; and not memory 
 alone, but reasoning power too, is called into play. 
 Historical Grammar and the History of Literature go 
 together as illustrating and helping to constitute history 
 proper, but the school cannot be expected to go very 
 far with either. "History" is in the main social and 
 political history ; the history of literature illustrates these, 
 and is in turn illustrated by the history of grammar and 
 the like. 
 
 Miss Wardale says that " the ideal preparation for 
 Preparation University study at school would be as much 
 for Univer- sound training in English grammar and Latin 
 sity study ^s possible, and a little special work at Old 
 English grammar and translatfon for perhaps the last 
 year. Failing this, some Chaucer would not be difficult, 
 and would be helpful in bridging over the gulf between
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 187 
 
 Modern English and that spoken before the Conquest." 
 But the first alternative must be the course for those who 
 are to specialise, in pursuit of a degree. For the ordinary 
 pupil it may be admitted that the outlines of Historical 
 Grammar, with or without the Chaucer, is all that our 
 curriculum allows us. On the claims of Latin we shall 
 have something to say when we come to our chapter 
 on the Classics. 
 
 Incidental teaching in morals, love of country, and 
 the like, may well centre round the literature incidental 
 lesson ; but any ostentation, any display of set teaching 
 purpose in such teaching, is the surest way to render it 
 ineffectual. No teacher lacks opportunity for the teach- 
 ing of morals ; but the literature lesson covers so much 
 ground, may bring up so many topics in the ordinary 
 course of work, that it must needs touch the pupils in 
 many different ways. A few words during the lesson on 
 a character or a sentiment should be a power- nq special- 
 ful sermon, and for this reason it would seem ists for 
 to be desirable that whatever other subjects English 
 are assigned to specialists, every form-teacher should 
 qualify himself to superintend the lesson in literature in 
 which opportunities for this so often occur. One may 
 be excused for distrusting the multiplication of specialist 
 teachers in schools praeiernecessitatetn. By this practice 
 we get a large number of persons all acquainted with a 
 small part of each pupil ; and it would therefore seem to 
 be a sound principle to assign " the ordinary English 
 subjects " of one form as much as possible to one person. 
 The great teachers have been people who taught more 
 than one subject to their pupils, and had thus many 
 lights on each individual character, and means of culti- 
 vating a many-sided personal interest. And we may go 
 farther, and say that no one is properly qualified to teach
 
 1 88 Common Sense in Education 
 
 any subject without a strong tincture of letters, if only 
 because a literary sense is one of the most powerful of 
 impulses to a multiform sympathy. 
 
 Set lessons on morals, love of country, and the like 
 Morals and may be ineffectual and worse. A class will 
 patriotism in regard them as pretence because they lack 
 literature ^j^g reality which comes from circumstances 
 of immediate application. Even sermons to adults, de- 
 livered solemnly in sacred places, often fail to produce 
 their effect because there is nothing, saving the eloquence 
 of a preacher, to bring them home. But the morals of 
 the story of Washington and his father's cherrj^-tree, and 
 of Hamlet and his indecision, are effective in their vastly 
 different ways and for pupils of different stages, because 
 circumstances, that is the interest of personality and 
 action, give them life. Love of country may be stimulated 
 by a very few words after you have read Herodotus' 
 account of the battle of Marathon, or the fine apostrophe 
 in Shakespeare's "Richard H.," to pupils of different ages. 
 But if you teach a blind reverence for a name or a flag, 
 however eloquently, you sacrifice the substance for the 
 shadow, and you may pervert patriotism into mere un- 
 reasoning prejudice. This preaching of conduct or morals 
 without immediate application does indeed make pedants 
 and Pecksniffs. Children learn a cant as quickly as 
 their elders ; and unless we can point our moral from a 
 historical or contemporary fact which is real to them, 
 they may learn the language of virtue without its 
 practice. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances, the best text book that 
 
 the accomplished teacher could prescribe for 
 
 his class would be one without notes. He 
 
 could then make sure of two conditions essential to a 
 
 rapid first-hand knowledge of the book studied : that the
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 189 
 
 book itself would be read, and that he could securely 
 direct the attention of his class to the points which they 
 ought to notice, undistracted by learned notes on matters 
 of little relative importance. If notes must be used (and 
 it is to be feared that most teachers are too diffident 
 and some too incompetent to dispense with them), then 
 the briefest are the best ; and, of these, those that tell 
 students where they can get information if they want it, 
 " Introductions" and notes alike should be read after the 
 book has been once publicly read and discussed on 
 general or aesthetic grounds ; its general meaning, its 
 various parts, its arguments, its characters, and so on. 
 Then, having so comprehended it, let the class take the 
 parts themselves to pieces, and set about mastering the 
 text and all the lore which their examiners are likely to 
 look for. The process, mutatis mutandis, is the same in 
 all stages ; first the general idea, then the parts, then the 
 exegetic details. But always, where our class is likely 
 to profit by it, let us use the text for lessons in rhetoric 
 and " composition," graduated, of course, according to the 
 capacity of the class. 
 
 The school library will vary in constitution according 
 as we are providing for pupils found in the The school 
 primary grades or other grades above them ; library 
 but one principle may be laid down for all — they should 
 be a little way beyond the strict standard of school. A 
 library that is made up of books just on the level of those 
 who have to use them will fail in one of its chief pur- 
 poses, the suggestion of a field of attraction beyond the 
 customary commonplace. Thus, if your library contains 
 novels and romances, as it should, they should be 
 specially selected so as not to represent the sort of 
 literature that boys and girls find most commonly ready 
 to their hands in the periodical literature which is easiest
 
 190 Common Sense in Education 
 
 of access. This principle goes farther than we suspect. 
 It is from the reading book that is just a httle hard for 
 him that the primary scholar learns most. If you write 
 down exactly to his level, you deprive him of the 
 advantages which the children of another rank get by 
 wholesome " browsing," which is profitable to them 
 exactly because much of it is beyond them. 
 
 In the primary school, however, teachers have to 
 consider as paramount the necessity for cultivating in 
 their pupils a taste for any sort of reading at all, a 
 problem of much less consequence in the secondary 
 grade — speaking, of course, generally. In the primary 
 school, therefore, the library must be mainly books of 
 the more obviously interesting kind, story books. All 
 boys may be got to love Scott, Stevenson, Blackmore, 
 some Marryat, Besant, Dickens, some Fenimore Cooper, 
 some Mayne Reid, Charles Kingsley, and Tom Hughes, 
 some Haggard, and with a little encouragement even 
 Thackeray. This encouragement of book-reading is 
 the most important service performed by the library of 
 the primary school, where the traditions and methods 
 so often keep the children from first-hand acquaintance 
 with real literature. But even the primary school should 
 have its real if modest supply of books of reference, 
 dictionaries of various sorts, larger manuals of history 
 and geography, and natural history, geology, physics, 
 chemistry and the rest, to which pupils should be referred 
 occasionally for information and which they should be 
 warmly encouraged to use. One type of a bad school- 
 book is a book that explains everything. 
 
 In the secondary schools the implanting of a taste for 
 reading is of less pressing importance because their 
 pupils will be more likely to get the books and the 
 opportunity for reading in their own homes. The point
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 191 
 
 to be secured here, in stocking the library with the 
 lighter prose literature, is the inclusion of nothing but 
 the best, and the choice should be determined either 
 by a specially qualified member of the school staff or 
 a vigilant committee. You would not include all the 
 novels of all the authors just mentioned, and you would 
 add a hundred names here omitted. 
 
 Secondary schools, according to their grade and re- 
 spective resources, should consider a library as an indis- 
 pensable part of their equipment. Circumstances must 
 determine whether the school requires a copious supply 
 of novels and romances in its lending-library, but there 
 can be no doubt that as many of the best and latest 
 books as possible, of real authority, should be placed 
 handily for general use. Even if the collection must 
 needs be a very limited one, such a stock may well be 
 expected to make the ordinary work of the school more 
 real by connecting it with the great work done elsewhere, 
 to light here and there the sacred flame of original 
 individual interest, and cultivate a taste for sober reading. 
 The library, indeed, takes up the teacher's task at the 
 point where the teacher must needs leave it, where the 
 pupil is left to himself to make his own investigations 
 and face his own difficulties. It stands midway between 
 the intellectual training which the school undertakes to 
 give, and the merciless experience which a man has to 
 look for when he gets into the world where there is no 
 help or guidance. 
 
 Formal Grammar has sometimes occupied far too large 
 a space in school teaching. It has been a Formal 
 singularly arid study, perhaps largely because Grammar 
 it has been the stronghold of the vicious old method of 
 "teaching rules," the abstract and general before the 
 concrete and particular. It may be safely affirmed that
 
 192 Common Sense In Education 
 
 unless in the study of grammar language is treated like 
 other material about which we ascertain laws (that is 
 rules, generalisations) by induction, then it fails to have 
 its due effect either as a gymnastic or as an art. Formal 
 Grammar is an investigation of the usages of language, 
 of the laws or rules followed in combining words into 
 sentences. It does not teach us how to speak, but it may 
 tell us how to avoid formal errors in speech by analysing 
 for us correct and incorrect schemes of speech, either 
 word for word, or clause for clause. Its purpose as a 
 science is to discover the rules determining the order of 
 words meant barely to convey information : its purpose 
 as an art is simple propriety, that is, the prevention of 
 incorrect ordering of speech ; its purpose is not " com- 
 position " ; not clearness, nor force, nor elegance — these 
 belong to rhetoric. 
 
 We could, indeed, teach the body of formal English 
 grammar to English pupils at a very early stage, for the 
 " rules " discoverable are few. A fairly intelligent class 
 averaging eight or even seven years of age, by the use of 
 such inductive methods as those set forth in Abbott's How 
 to Tell the Parts of Speech, or in Fitch, chapter ix., should 
 easily learn how to tell the parts of speech and to parse 
 sentences in the course of a year's work. No books and 
 no "exercises" are needed if the black-board is used 
 faithfully. There should certainly be no formulation of 
 rules or definitions followed by " examples ". If pupils can 
 be got to generalise by themselves from the examples 
 which you present to them, they learn a good deal more 
 than formal grammar. To be sure, we must supply 
 them with names for the families of words that they dis- 
 cover, but we must not begin by naming or defining for 
 them. In this way, the grammar lesson, so dull and 
 tiresome to most children, may bring with it all the
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 193 
 
 delights of scientific discovery, for speech is, after all, not 
 less interesting as material for investigation than flowers 
 or chemical compounds ; and the material and apparatus 
 is a good deal cheaper than those needed in the study 
 of botany or chemistry. 
 
 But formal grammar and grammatical analysis, as 
 regular parts of the curriculum, can and should be 
 dropped, for every pupil, at the stage at which a formal 
 study of the grammar of a classical or modern language 
 is begun. It would seem desirable to get the formal 
 grammar over early rather than late, because it is quite 
 easy if taught inductively, it is exceedingly interesting, 
 even to the child of seven or eight, if so taught, and the 
 classification of words according to their function is both 
 a fine gymnastic in itself and one of the best means of 
 teaching young pupils the meaning of scientific classifica- 
 tion in general. The American Committee of Ten would 
 postpone grammar teaching of this sort until the twelfth 
 year, but for the reasons here assigned, this would seem 
 to be undesirable. Of course, all through the study of 
 books, appeals must be made again and again to formal 
 grammar for elucidation and comprehension of passages 
 otherwise obscure ; but it should never be forgotten that 
 people can and do learn to speak and write good English 
 with little or no aid from this study ; and it is certain that 
 some of the writers of the noblest English could not parse 
 or ai.alyse as well as most children in the sixth standard 
 of a public elementary school. 
 
 For pupils who are to learn Latin, procedure will differ 
 from that followed in the case of those whose analysis 
 of grammatical form is likely to be confined to modem 
 languages. In the case of the former, conjugations and 
 their nomenclature are of much less importance, and 
 formal grammatical analysis may be safely reduced to a 
 
 13
 
 194 Common Sense in Education 
 
 minimum. On the other hand the simple analysis of an 
 English sentence is undoubtedly not without use as pre- 
 paration for the disentanglement of a Greek or Latin 
 complex sentence. For instance, the pupil who has 
 learnt the secret of the Noun-Sentence in English will 
 be less puzzled at the behaviour of " Accusative and 
 Infinitive " construction in Latin ; and the early habit of 
 analysis will certainly make anacoloutha less distressing 
 experiences than they would otherwise be. 
 
 But as soon as possible this exercise of grammatical 
 analysis might with the greatest profit make way for 
 logical analysis and the elements of formal logic, if only 
 because the study of formal logic helps us not merely to 
 speak with propriety, but to draw inferences justified by 
 what has gone before. 
 
 Something must be wrong if it is true (and it 
 probably is true) that thousands of the children in 
 our schools can "analyse" admirably in the grammatical 
 sense, but cannot construct a single periodic sentence 
 correctly or detect a simple fallacy in argument. Gram- 
 matical analysis is an excellent tonic and test — a tonic if 
 it teaches the pupil to avoid an unnecessarily complicated 
 style, and an excellent test of simple accuracy where a 
 construction appears to be involved and obscure. But 
 to become a permanent or even prolonged part of a 
 school scheme, a study should lead somewhere. If 
 grammatical analysis is given too large a place, to the 
 exclusion of a more copious practice of synthesis or 
 " composition," it does more harm than good, for it seems 
 to become an end in itself and a meaningless gymnastic. 
 
 For reference :— Laurie's Lectures on Language and Linguistic 
 Method. Whitney's Language and the Study of Language. Glaze- 
 brook in Xin, Essays (Percival). H. Courthope Bowen On
 
 Literature and Formal Linguistic Study 195 
 
 Teaching English. Abbott's Teaching of the English Language. 
 Gow's Method of English. Messrs. Barnett and Martin in Teaching 
 and Organisation. The Report of the (U.S.) Committee of Ten. 
 Harris in Report of (U.S.) Committee of Fifteen. Miss Lumby in 
 Work and Play in Girls' Schools. Messrs. Beeching and Allcock 
 in Essays on Secondary Education.
 
 196 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 LATIN AND GREEK 
 
 A soldier's work lasts for an age, a scholar's for ever. 
 
 — Robert Burton. 
 
 Of all the branches of study pursued in school, Latin 
 ^^ .. and Greek have left their marks deepest on 
 
 1 he anti- '■ 
 
 quityofthe the character of English education. They 
 study of the have not so long a past as some other 
 classics subjects, Considered as a part of general 
 
 European education. To Plato the beginning of all 
 wisdom was geometry ; and the contemporaries of Plato 
 felt themselves under no obligation to learn foreign 
 tongues, or to do more than master their own tradi- 
 tional literature and acquire the art of talking. But 
 Greece in captivity conquered and civilised her captor 
 Rome, and a century after the defeat of Philip V. of 
 Macedon every Roman gentleman learned Greek as a 
 matter of course. In the time of Cicero Greek was 
 much more to the Roman man of affairs than even 
 French is to us ; more truly speaking it occupied the 
 position taken by French in relation to Scotland of 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But with the 
 rise and development of the Christian Church in the 
 West, Greek, oddly enough, had to give way to Latin. 
 The earlier Christian writings and controversies had, of 
 course, turned on Greek writings and the interpretation
 
 Latin and Greek 197 
 
 of Greek texts and doctrines formulated in Greek ; but 
 the separation of the Eastern empire from the empire of 
 the West, the ultimate separation of the Church towards 
 the end of the fifth century into two distinct sides, one 
 with its centre at Constantinople and the other at Rome, 
 naturally promoted the use and growth of Latin in the 
 West at the expense of Greek. 
 
 Christianity and empire together being once established 
 lU Rome, Latin there became the chief Ian- The triumph 
 guage of controversy, of exposition, of prayer, of Latin 
 as it had so long been of business. It is worth while to 
 remember that the first book ever printed — long after- 
 wards to be sure — was the Vulgate, the Latin version 
 of the Scriptures made at the end of the fourth century 
 by St. Jerome. 
 
 Now the Church was the one society in the welter of 
 West Goths, Franks, and Burgundians, which preserved 
 the tradition of a great common central organisation, 
 whether it was protected by a Catholic like Clovis in 
 Gaul, or an Arian like Theodoric in Italy ; and with its 
 common tradition it conserved also the literature, forms, 
 and formulas of Roman origin. It is true that when 
 Romans combined with those whom they found in pos- 
 session to form the " Romance " nations, new languages 
 ultimately sprang up in common use which were neither 
 Roman nor native, but something made up of both 
 elements. On the other hand the teeming Goths and 
 other Teutons were captured spiritually and morally by 
 the Romans who came under their nominal sway. These 
 Romans long kept their own language and their own 
 laws, the clergy being necessarily Roman because the 
 Romans had more learning and a longer tradition at 
 their backs. And in the midst of the vulgarising of the 
 older Latin into the later Romance spoken dialects, the
 
 198 Common Sense in Education 
 
 clergy and other men of learning preserved good Latin 
 for general literary purposes, just as to this day literary 
 Arabic and spoken Arabic differ from each other. Now 
 Christianity being based on a historic tradition and its 
 western centre being Rome, it is obvious that the clergy 
 would scrupulously preserve the Latin of the early 
 organised Church in their religious services as in their 
 religious literature ; and the tradition abides with us 
 to-day. The central and most significant of all Roman 
 Catholic religious ceremonies must still, the whole world 
 over, be performed in Latin. 
 
 Latin then was first established as the language of 
 learning generally, being of course incomparably more 
 fixed, polished, and stately than the unstable dialects of 
 the Teutons ; and secondly it remained the language of 
 the Church because the Church was Roman. These two 
 influences maintained it for literary, political, and ecclesi- 
 astical purposes in every part of Europe, even so late as 
 the days of the English Commonwealth ; for every school- 
 boy knows that Milton was the State Latin secretary. 
 Latin was the current language of the universities and 
 of the schools, for both universities and schools were for 
 centuries mainly great theological establishments and 
 nurseries of theologians. Books that were meant to live 
 were almost invariably written in Latin ; and as late as 
 the time of Bacon, Latin still occupied so commanding a 
 place as the repository and instrument of learning that the 
 great philosopher hastened to get what he regarded as his 
 greatest work translated into Latin, so that his contribu- 
 tions to philosophy might not share the decay and ob- 
 livion which he was convinced were to be the fate of books 
 written in more modern tongues. It is true that some 
 history and some poetry of first-class importance and 
 destined to a long life were in later medieval times written
 
 Latin and Greek 1 99 
 
 in English and in French, but the traditions of learning and 
 the long supremacy of the Latin Church still maintained 
 the language of ancient Rome in a commanding position. 
 Greek in the meantime was almost forgotten. Greek 
 scholars were rarer and rarer until the fall „, . , 
 
 The revival 
 
 of Constantinople and the break-up of the last ©f Greek and 
 vestiges of the Eastern Christian empire scat- its stimulus 
 tered learned Greeks over Europe and stimu- *° '^^ ^'"^y 
 lated a study of their language amongst the 
 Rome-shadowed nations of the West. The Greek tongue 
 could never, of course, displace the long-established Latin ; 
 and it actually gave the Latin more importance, because it 
 set people comparing the Roman authors and authorities 
 with the Greeks from whom they traced much of their 
 origin, material or spiritual. Greek was taught with Latin 
 in most of the universities of Europe, and acted as a 
 powerful solvent in modifying and stimulating to effectual 
 ends the opinions of religious controversialists. 
 
 But the world was long unable to emancipate its 
 literary instincts from the influence of the Latin tradition. 
 The supreme greatness of the Greek literature was, in 
 any general sense, the discovery of the eighteenth and 
 nineteenth centuries. The restrained, often imitative, 
 and even somewhat narrow Roman literature was much 
 more to the taste of our forefathers than the bolder and 
 more spontaneous writings of the Greeks. 
 
 On the other hand, the place occupied by Latin, and 
 assured to it by immense achievements as the language 
 of the people of the greatest administrative capacity 
 known to the world, is almost in itself sufficient justi- 
 fication for the preference accorded to it as a subject 
 of study. Knowledge of Roman history and affairs of 
 Roman personages and statesmen had been continuous 
 and was on continuous record. There had hardly been a
 
 200 Common Sense in Education 
 
 break, too, in the continuity of Latin literature, either as 
 poetry or philosophy. So Latin maintained itself in the 
 schools, and gave only a grudging place to Greek right up 
 to the beginning of this century, when a sounder literary 
 instinct and revolt against the medieval tradition raised 
 the estimation of Greek literature to the higher place that 
 it properly occupies. But though people were not unwill- 
 ing to admit the literary and philosophical superiority of 
 Greek, Latin still remained the more important school 
 study. Let us see why. 
 
 First of all consider its established place as a school 
 Latin the subject. It had never left the schools. The 
 moreim- "grammar" schools were the schools where 
 portant for Latin was taught. Text books, such as they 
 school were, were Latin, and the Latin grammar 
 
 written in Latin survived to our own day. In the 
 next place, consider its position, already noted, as the 
 universal vehicle of literature. Bacon, as we have seen, 
 speaking urbi et orbi and writing for all time, deliberately 
 chose Latin, and though after Bacon's time the rapid 
 development of national literatures was promoted by the 
 continued ferment, intellectual and social, which began 
 in the revolt against Latin Catholicism and extended in 
 subtle forms even over Catholic societies, yet the literary 
 purists still harked back, all for illustrations and some 
 for their models, to Roman writings ; and Latin was still 
 therefore the educated man's chief possession. Nor, in 
 the third place, was it a small matter that the Romance 
 languages in their earliest forms, and the Teutonic tongues 
 (English notably) in their borrowings, were so deeply 
 indebted to Latin. A knowledge of Latin was clearly, if 
 not the key to a knowledge of most European tongues, 
 yet oil to the lock ; and though philology was ill under- 
 stood — nay, for that very reason — the significance
 
 Latin and Greek 20 1 
 
 and importance of Latin "jumped to the eyes". The 
 philologists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
 not only recognised the old services of Latin, but dragged 
 it into further use in defiance of philological laws which 
 later generations were to discover and formulate. Again, 
 there is a fourth reason to justify the old place and dignity 
 of Latin. Not only hterature as such, but the nomen- 
 clature of the sciences also was largely based on Latin, 
 just as, when Latin gave out, in later times it has been 
 supplied largely by Greek. We still profit by this plan. 
 The chemists and physicists of London, of Paris, of Berlin, 
 and of Rome, use terms in describing their work which are 
 either identical or recognisably similar. The language of 
 theology and philosophy, the sciences earliest current in 
 Europe, was Latin before it was Greek ; and though we 
 have added largely to the connotation of the early bor- 
 rowed words, we are still driven for scientific philosophical 
 nomenclature at least as much to Latin as to Greek. 
 
 The dead languages, moreover, just because they are 
 dead, are particularly useful when we have to make new 
 words to express novel ideas or things. Because they are 
 dead, the new term can be made morej-estricted and pre- 
 cise in its meaning, freer from ambiguous current associa- 
 tions, than any term we could transfer from speech still 
 used and therefore still changing in connotation. But 
 the seventh and final reason for the position assigned to 
 Latin in the schools seems to be stronger than all the 
 others. The dead languages of Greece and Rome are 
 the unalterable records of the past, social, political, and 
 religious, which constitutes the main basis of the exist- 
 ing western civilisation. The seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries were inclined rather to take Greece and Rome 
 as models, having in some respects themselves maintained 
 the exclusive political and social traditions of antiquity,
 
 202 Common Sense in Education 
 
 and not recognising, as we must do, the gradual modifica- 
 tion and evolution of societies towards a presumably- 
 higher type. No doubt, Greece and Rome still provide 
 us with copious instances of error, if not of models of 
 political and social propriety ; but their value for us lies 
 precisely in the facts that, taken altogether, they are a 
 stage on the way to the higher type which we may expect 
 civilisation to evolve, and that we cannot understand 
 and properly estimate our own position unless we recog- 
 nise and respect their contributions to the civilisation 
 which we received in so great measure from them. But 
 it is easier to understand the relation of Rome to modern 
 civilisation than to understand the relation of Greece, 
 which is, at least in point of time, a stage farther removed. 
 It is natural therefore that the traditions, history, and 
 literature of Rome should have the first claim to be 
 noticed and should have taken firmer root in the schools. 
 
 Let us see whether any of the conditions that operated 
 Claims of ^° S^^^ ^^^ dead languages, Latin particularly, 
 the dead such a commanding position in education are 
 languages jn operation in our own day ; for although there 
 to-day j^^y l^g good practical reasons for abandoning 
 
 these studies, we ought to be quite sure that we are not 
 losing in the process something of enduring value. 
 
 We are required first of all to take into account the 
 position which centuries of use have established for the 
 study of the languages of Greece and Rome in our schools. 
 We cannot, even if we ought to, shake ourselves free from 
 such long associations in the course of a generation or two. 
 It is a valid argument in favour of the pursuit of any 
 branch of knowledge that "most educated people" are 
 familiar with it. The best parts of life are not neces- 
 sarily the pursuits which provide our livelihood ; social 
 sympathy and the grace and ease of social intercourse
 
 Latin and Greek 203 
 
 are matters of real and abiding importance. On the 
 other hand, Latin and Greek derived their early import- 
 ance from distinctly practical considerations, and with 
 great material discoveries come also new ideas of life. 
 Philosophical science, for instance, has demonstrated the 
 vast importance of the process of evolution in relation to 
 all things human, and attention will therefore be more 
 closely directed to such pursuits of physical investigation 
 as those which established the value of the evolutionary 
 theory. Persons of education thus attach less and less 
 importance to the old training in classical letters. 
 
 We must therefore admit that the claims of Latin and 
 Greek on the grounds of their established position be- 
 come less pressing. For the theories of development by 
 which we are all sensibly or insensibly affected weaken 
 the hold of the past upon us, and direct our view forward 
 rather than backward. Authority is less, unauthorised 
 discovery is more. 
 
 The ancient languages are no longer the sole or the 
 chief or even common vehicles of literature. Be it for 
 good or ill, we have seen that traditional authority 
 appears to have less weight than heretofore, not in 
 science only, but in matters of opinion also ; and the lan- 
 guages in which authority spoke its mind, and to which 
 it was necessary to go in order to learn that mind, may 
 be of less moment than the more modern tongues with 
 their newer associations. 
 
 And yet the very immobility of classical Latin and 
 Greek is a point of exceeding value. Some people still 
 think that the first great discoveries and generalisations 
 of morals and politics (not to speak of religion, which will 
 have its special importance for millions) are best expressed 
 in the simpler and less ambiguous speech of the dead 
 Latin and Greek. It is probably to some extent an
 
 204 Common Sense in Education 
 
 instinctive appreciation of this that has preserved for 
 Latin its place in the liturgy of Roman Catholicism, 
 which thus affirms a primitive unalterable basis for right 
 conduct and religion for all people alike, under all skies, 
 and in all circumstances. On a like ground, too, most 
 Jews all the world over conduct their worship in the 
 tongue that first gave expression to their religious ideas. 
 
 Latin and Greek are still useful for the general study 
 of languages, both practically and philologically. Under 
 the first head, Greek is of far less value than Latin. 
 Latin is undoubtedly a very direct help to the acquisi- 
 tion of all the Romance languages — French, Italian, 
 Spanish, Portuguese. 
 
 For a knowledge of Aryan philology (if Aryan is the 
 right word), both are absolutely indispensable ; and phil- 
 ology is a branch of natural science properly so called, 
 of exceeding importance as subsidiary to history and 
 sociology. On these considerations it is needless to 
 dwell. 
 
 Latin and Greek are indeed useful for nomenclature, 
 but no very extensive knowledge of either as a language 
 is necessary to this end. At the same time, the point is 
 a respectable argument in support of those who would 
 maintain that at least Latin is valuable in education, even 
 if no great progress is made in the real acquisition of the 
 language as literary expression. 
 
 But the claim made on behalf of the classics as litera- 
 The Greek ^urc is a vcry strong one. As an instrument of 
 and Latin education the Latin and Greek literatures are 
 classics as valuable on two chief grounds, simplicity and 
 literature richness. The great primitive masterpieces that 
 have served as models for two or three thousand years 
 are necessarily nearer, as a rule, to the appreciation of 
 young people who are to be trained to understand and
 
 Latin and Greek 205 
 
 like literature than the more elaborate compositions of 
 later days ; and they have the incomparable advantage 
 of being mostly the true and spontaneous expression of 
 their times. They are at once the means of cultivating 
 taste and also first-hand documents of history, in which 
 our pupils can make discoveries for themselves. 
 
 And for richness, every one of the great divisions of 
 literary composition is represented by some noble exem- 
 plars. In point of poetry we have not yet improved, as 
 Matthew Arnold points out in his " Wordsworth," on the 
 classification of poetic composition which we owe to the 
 Greeks ; and in every kind the Greeks at least have done 
 supremely well. In point of prose, Greek and Latin 
 historians and philosophers are amongst the greatest of 
 the great, models and possessions for all time. 
 
 We ask, in the next place, whether Greek and Latin 
 are as valuable as they once were for training The classics 
 in logical method. The question however is asgymnas- 
 really whether they are as valuable as other ^'" 
 subjects — in particular, the experimental sciences. We 
 may admit at once that as a training in the processes of 
 induction, they are certainly inferior to physical science 
 properly taught in that they do not permit the use of 
 the most valuable of all inductive devices, experiment. 
 Of course it is open to us in language study, as in the 
 study of the applied physical sciences, to draw conclusions 
 from a multitude of instances ; that is, to make induc- 
 tions ; but the most valuable form of mental gymnastic 
 provided by the systematic and careful study of the 
 classics is the setting of authorities one against another 
 and the deduction of interpretations from ascertained 
 rules of syntax. As a training in the honest weighing of 
 evidence, the solving of a problem in translation or the 
 interpretation of a Greek or Latin text is of the highest
 
 2o6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 value. And the language studies have this advantage 
 over the applied physical sciences, that the apparatus is 
 cheap and plentiful. 
 
 Finally, is the study of Latin and Greek still valuable 
 The classics ^^ a key to the history of Western civilisation? 
 as aids to The answer is obvious. It is impossible to 
 history know what our civilisation means if we do 
 
 not understand the nature of the contributions made 
 by Greece and Italy : social, political, literary, legal, 
 religious. Unless we see things in succession we shall 
 have no proper perspective. The social reformer, there- 
 fore, the politician, the poet, the historian, the lawyer, 
 the clergyman, none of these, to be masters of their tools, 
 can afford to neglect the classics. They may, of course, 
 use translations ; but form and spirit are too closely 
 united in literature to make translations more than a 
 makeshift. 
 
 The last three reasons assigned for the permanent 
 value of Latin and Greek as school studies, namely, the 
 richness and simplicity of the literature, its excellence as 
 providing material for training in the logic of discovery, 
 and its importance as the key to an understanding of 
 the evolution of civilisation, these are enough to justify 
 conservation. But we must examine the criticisms com- 
 monly made upon the views here set forth. 
 
 Objectors will say that the literatures may be admir- 
 Obiectionsto ^^le, but few scholars arrive at the point of 
 the classics really understanding and enjoying them ; and 
 as school this is a good and sound objection. But the 
 subjects objection can be attenuated by better teach- 
 
 ing. If we were to begin to teach Latin and Greek as 
 literature from the first, many more of our pupils would 
 be able to enter into the rich heritage which the scholars 
 of three centuries have preserved for them and which
 
 Latin and Greek 207 
 
 has stimulated and enriched centuries of later literature 
 in all western languages. 
 
 Objectors say, again, that the judgment is trained by 
 history studies and the capacity for making deductions 
 by mathematical studies ; so that linguistic studies are 
 less necessary for these purposes ; and that of course the 
 applied physical sciences provide satisfactorily for induc- 
 tive training. Well, the study of comparative grammar 
 is a fine training in both inductive and deductive reason- 
 ing, but it may be admitted that in the former particular 
 the applied sciences are better than languages. On the 
 other hand, let it be remembered that a great deal of 
 the business of life depends on our being precise in the 
 meanings which we assign to words, and that the evils 
 of ambiguity in language would appear to be most easily 
 and naturally avoided by the careful cultivation of the 
 precise and honest rendering of a Latin or Greek passage 
 in the light of all the limited evidence that can be col- 
 lected for its one interpretation. To the last claim made 
 on behalf of classics, their importance as documents of 
 civilisation, no valid objection can be raised. They are 
 absolutely indispensable as monuments and landmarks ; 
 and the greatest and best men who have pronounced on 
 civilisation as a process without taking the literature of 
 Greece and Rome into account are to that extent un- 
 trustworthy as guides to opinion. 
 
 But to get all available good out of classics as a regular 
 school subject, certain main points seem to ^, . 
 
 11 /- -1 -1 • T-. r- ., Classics must 
 
 call for special consideration. First of all, we ^^^ be de- 
 must abandon the memorising of accidence pmedofin- 
 by which interest is so absurdly strangled in terestinthe 
 the early stages of study. We must begin with ^""^^ ^'^^^^ 
 a book, preferably with a book treating a story already 
 well known to the pupils. We must proceed summarily,
 
 2o8 Common Sense in Education 
 
 covering ground at first rather rapidly, and cultivating 
 accuracy gradually and in accordance with the pupil's 
 capacity to become accurate. You cannot be accurate 
 if you have no material ; you must start your pupil with 
 something to go on. It may be well, no doubt, to start 
 an adult pupil on grammar, but a young pupil should be 
 brought up on a plan nearer that of nature, on speech. 
 For language, ancient or modern, is, in its essence, 
 speech, and not logic. 
 
 We must make up our minds that it is waste of time 
 to teach those who cannot get far enough to profit. A 
 school life that ends at fourteen should not be burdened 
 with Latin ; but after that stage, even a couple of years 
 at Latin, providing that a real book is used from the 
 first, will bear good fruit, and put it in the pupil's power 
 to go on by himself, which he would never do if he had 
 merely been struggling sadly with grammar and exercises. 
 Teach him language by this study ; language first, logic 
 afterwards. 
 
 Translation back into the Latin or Greek of a passage 
 Regressive read is a fine exercise in expression, and should 
 translation be practised from the first.^ It is far better than 
 the use of any series of exercises artificially systematised 
 on a scheme of grammar, however well graduated it may 
 be, and however skilfully the series may be compiled. 
 But minute philological inquiries and the severer " com- 
 position " exercises of prose or verse, though not without 
 
 ' Of course an old device, as Ascham witnesses. '* After this 
 the childe must take a paper booke, and sitting in some place 
 where no man shall prompt him, by himself, let him translate into 
 English his former lesson. Then showing it to his master, let the 
 master take from him his Latin booke, and pausing an houre at 
 the least, let the childe translate his own English into Latin again, 
 in another paper booke."
 
 Latin and Greek 209 
 
 value, may take up too much time in the case of those 
 who are not pursuing classical studies beyond their six- 
 teenth year. The cultivation of " taste " and the power 
 of expression can in these cases be satisfactorily provided 
 for by the use of corresponding exercises in English — 
 prose or verse — as complementary to the lesson in 
 Rhetoric. 
 
 Let us compare the commoner present practice with 
 what may be suggested as a better way. And objections 
 note that we should keep our eye on the aver- to current 
 age pupil, not the most highly gifted ; for our practices 
 current practice conspicuously demoralises or at least 
 wastes the time of the pupil of ordinary ability. It is not 
 pertinent — though it is perfectly true — to say that the 
 best pupils in the great schools are often quite admirable 
 scholars ; and that for elegant and exact scholarship, if not 
 for minute and extensive specialisation, our universities 
 are pre-eminent, so long as we select the individuals on 
 whom we are to base our favourable judgment. This is 
 true ; but where are the votive tablets of those who have 
 been shipwrecked ? Do the nine-tenths of those who fail 
 to reach scholarship standard get their money's worth ? 
 
 The chief objections to the present method of study 
 are : first, its unreality ; secondly, its small value to those 
 who spend only a couple of years in classical study; 
 and thirdly, its exceeding slowness to all but the very 
 best scholars, that is, to those who are not spoilt. First 
 as to its alleged unreality. It takes some time under 
 our present system to convince pupils that either Latin 
 or Greek was ever really spoken. They give an intel- 
 lectual assent to our assurance, but if they get little 
 beyond the accidence, they are not called upon to act on 
 that assent, and do not believe the fact, for people be- 
 lieve only those propositions on which they can conceive 
 
 14
 
 2IO Common Sense in Education 
 
 action. They have no moral conviction that the language 
 is anything but a clumsy puzzle. I remember well how 
 the dry bones of my Greek grammar began to stir with 
 life when I first took up a Greek testament and found 
 that, with my recollection of the English version, I could 
 make out the meaning. No language, ancient or modern, 
 can be learned with conviction until it is learnt as some- 
 thing organic — " apperceptively," in fact. 
 
 Consider next the small value of classical study to 
 those who under existing circumstances spend no more 
 than two years in the occasional study of a dead language. 
 They probably begin it at too early an age, nine or ten 
 perhaps, and learn nothing but lists, lists, and lists again 
 — declensions and paradigms, which are not even the 
 skeleton of the language, but rather its unarticulated 
 bones. 
 
 And then, again, its amazing slowness. For most 
 people, even some proud B.A.'s, have, after achieving 
 their degree and putting their books away, read no 
 author, perhaps no single work, all through ; and have 
 in all likelihood compassed at most about half a dozen 
 long excerpts from some well-known writers. At the 
 end of many years, then, the bulk of their knowledge is 
 little indeed. 
 
 By what means can we make the most of our lessons 
 in Latin and Greek ? Let us set forth some general 
 cautions as preliminaries. 
 
 First of all, as we have seen, we must convince our 
 The means pupils of the reality of the study by introduc- 
 of improve- ing them at as early a period as possible to a 
 ro«n' real book ; and this will be all the easier if 
 
 only we are allowed to postpone the beginning of Latin 
 until the thirteenth year and of Greek till the fifteenth. 
 The fourteenth, as our American friends have found.
 
 Latin and Greek 111 
 
 is, generally speaking, too late to ensure a profitable 
 beginning of Latin. 
 
 Secondly, in the earlier stages, we should make little 
 of the grammar, teaching it rather incidentally than as 
 a separate subject. The main uses of case-terminations 
 may be taught from a series of instances collected, if 
 need be, by the teacher, and laid before the class ; but 
 the method of induction would be too tedious to use 
 throughout. A few of the more important syntactical 
 rules may be stated as occasion arises, and after the first 
 year the regular declensions or paradigms may be learnt 
 in the orthodox way. 
 
 Thirdly, cover plenty of ground and cover it quickly. 
 The possession of a sense of mastery is the only means 
 by which we can ease the toilsomeness which makes 
 Latin and Greek study such a drudgery. Our teaching 
 need not become less accurate by the use of this method, 
 but we must give more help and encouragement at first, 
 translating beforehand the verbs and the harder words 
 or hard constructions, aiming always at giving the work 
 a meaning, and supplying our pupils with a vocabu- 
 lary. Vocabulary and plirases come first, grammar next. 
 Herbart formulated this plainly enough, when he con- 
 fessed in his introduction to his Science of Education 
 that at first he " erred in keeping far too closely to the 
 routine of the schools, teaching accurate grammatical 
 analysis, when for this beginning only the principal 
 signs of inflection should have been taught and ex- 
 plained. ..." 
 
 Fourthly, we must not in the early stages aim at the 
 critical mastery of a short text, but rather at cultivating 
 the capacity to translate backwards and forwards, by 
 exercising the class in rendering the original author into 
 English, and back again from the English version into
 
 2T2 Common Sense in Education 
 
 the Latin. " Compositions," or original renderings from 
 English, should not be required till later stages, when 
 the pupil has passed into his sixteenth year ; until then 
 we should be content with exercises on the books read. 
 
 Fifthly, we ought to insist from the first on the strictest 
 scrupulousness in regard to pronunciation and quantities. 
 Those teachers who have used both the older English 
 pronunciation and the revised scheme (like that at the 
 end of Dr. Abbott's Latin Prose, or that propounded in 
 the little pamphlet issued by the Latin Professors in the 
 University of Wales, or that set forth in the U.S. Con- 
 ference reporting to the Committee of Ten) are thoroughly 
 satisfied that the revised is the better It is certainly 
 demonstrably nearer the original, and it is far more 
 musical than the singularly barbarous longs and shorts 
 which English scholars have used for three centuries. 
 The false quantities of the imperfectly instructed are not 
 only excruciating to the more cultivated ear, but they 
 also make it more difficult to acquire a sound appre- 
 ciation of the melody and stateliness of verse or of 
 the subtler music of prose. At first, quantities must be 
 marked for the beginner, who should be encouraged also 
 to note quantities for himself; and as soon as he learns 
 to construe verse, he should be set to learn it by heart ; 
 and a little later, prose as well. 
 
 Sixthly, if we are able to choose for ourselves, we 
 should begin with authors in whom young folk may be 
 expected to take some real interest. To the boy or 
 girl on the threshold of Latin, Caesar's Commentaries 
 are indubitably dull and therefore unsuited and unsuit- 
 able ; such easy prose as Eutropius or Cornelius Nepos 
 or simple selected passages of graduated difficulty are 
 far preferable. But better than any of these, to my 
 mind, is the Latin Bible. The use of this for a year or
 
 Latin and Greek 213 
 
 more will not seriously affect the young learner's capacity 
 to acquire a good style when he begins later to read 
 prose of the Augustan age, and it will confer the abso- 
 lutely inestimable advantage of facility. After the all- 
 important start, it matters less what authors are read. 
 The traditions of English scholarship are so sound that 
 there is an abundant supply of the noble classics, edited 
 only too well. But it is matter for wonder that later 
 Latin, singularly suitable as it often is for school use, is 
 so little favoured. Such books as the younger Pliny's 
 letters, for instance, are attractive, interesting, full of 
 useful matter, and excellent models of style ; but, of 
 course, they are not " Augustan "} 
 
 It will be noticed that we take it for granted that we 
 begin with Latin, and not Greek. This order Latin or 
 has in its favour : first, prescription ; secondly, Greek first? 
 the more general and obvious connexion of Latin with 
 the business and traditions of European society ; thirdly, 
 the not inconsiderable fact that there is no new alphabet 
 to learn. Except for this, it would be easy to agree 
 with Herbart and to lead off with the Odyssey, which 
 is singularly suitable in scope and style for the young. 
 
 If there is any branch of teaching work in which the 
 English schoolmaster should be perfect it is 
 in the conduct of a construing lesson ; and, 
 in fact, the great English schoolmasters have probably 
 been at their best in this truly fine exercise. For a 
 construing lesson gives unequalled opportunity for the 
 practice of all intellectual and many moral virtues ; even 
 Herbartian pedagogics cannot devise a better gymnastic 
 for the powers of apperception. It is an incomparable 
 training for thoroughness and the honest weigliing of 
 the force of every bit of evidence that can be brought to 
 bear on the task of interpretation. 
 
 * 3ce Kabelais' Paiitugruel, chap, viji,
 
 214 Common Sense in Education 
 
 To most of those who condemn the study of Latin 
 and Greek, classical study means, we should find, merely 
 the learning of so much translation and the understand- 
 ing of as many " allusions " as the text may supply. To 
 the scholar, it is, in point of bulk, an acquaintance with 
 some, at least, of the great masterpieces of literature ; 
 in point of training, the capacity to interpret a strange 
 tongue readily, honestly, and exactly ; and in point of 
 accomplishment, the command of an English style at 
 once accurate and concise. That is, the construing lesson 
 is a most convenient road to knowledge, to logic, and to 
 literary style. Let us now see by what means we may 
 make the construing lesson best serve the purposes which 
 we desire. 
 
 We have to remember, first of all, that the end which 
 we are to keep before the class is the material 
 end, not the disciplinary end. The class is 
 to understand its author exactly. We will suppose that 
 the work is " unprepared ". The teacher takes the first 
 paragraph, and reads it aloud to the class; the longer 
 the passage you feel yourself free to take at one time 
 the better. The purpose of this is to give the class the 
 habit of regarding the Latin or Greek passage as a whole 
 and not as an ingenious arrangement consisting, like a 
 Chinese puzzle, of parts {i.e., words) fitted together with- 
 out organic relation. Read it therefore as you would 
 speak it, once, twice. The next step is to find out 
 whether any member of the class has caught the drift, 
 and to encourage the contributions of various members 
 of the class. The harder words may be translated at 
 once by the teacher, but a word for word translation is 
 not desirable except as a last expedient. An excellent 
 plan with young pupils is to give them in English the 
 substance or ^ precis of the passage before they are called
 
 Latin and Greek 215 
 
 upon to construe, so that they may not be discouraged 
 by facing matter which is entirely unintelligible. 
 
 The next step is to get translation as much as possible 
 by phrases, not single words, and in the Latin order 
 of phrases. The effect of this is to make sure that the 
 class understands the emphasis as the writer meant it to 
 be understood. If the words offer no further difficulty, 
 these phrases should be most accurately rendered into 
 the nearest equivalent in English ; but if there is still a 
 word the meaning of which the teacher wishes the class 
 to gather from the context farther on, a provisional 
 rendering is, of course, permissible, the difficulty being 
 noted as not yet resolved. But at no point should a 
 sentence be dismissed until not only an accurate transla- 
 tion is made, but an "elegant" one also. In this way 
 the Latin or Greek lesson becomes a most valuable 
 adjunct to, if not substitute for, the lesson in Rhetoric ; 
 and it is to be remembered that the use of such a lesson 
 is to cultivate not only the power to write and speak well, 
 but also the power to appreciate good writing and speak- 
 ing elsewhere. 
 
 In the correction of errors is our best opportunity for 
 teaching syntax. The skeleton of syntax, with 
 younger pupils certamly, is more easily taught 
 as the need presents itself for the interpretation of new 
 passages. The rule as discovered by the pupil under 
 the direction of the teacher is recorded by the pupil in his 
 note-book and a space is left for other examples as they 
 occur. After some progress has been made thus, it would 
 be waste of time not to master the bulk of the syntax 
 without waiting for examples to present themselves in 
 the course of reading. When a mistake in translation 
 indicates that the pupil construing has no proper know- 
 ledge of the rule broken, it is well not merely to correct
 
 2i6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 the error, but to elicit or to show what would be the Latin 
 (or Greek) equivalent of the rendering wrongly given. 
 
 As new words are met and mastered, the class should 
 The diction- be encouraged to classify them and their cog- 
 ^'J nates and derivatives in families, as often as 
 
 possible in phrases. In this way, we drive the class to 
 an intelligent use of the dictionary, and at the same time 
 force it to conclude that translation by phrase is nearer 
 correctness than translation by word, for the reason 
 that exact synonyms in two languages are exceedingly 
 rare. 
 
 This faithful use of the dictionary and other books of 
 reference in preparing a lesson is a most valuable part of 
 the classical training. The scholar is thus driven to get 
 light on his task from all the quarters known to him to 
 be likely to supply it, his teacher exacting from him some 
 guarantee that he has used all reasonable means to ferret 
 out information before giving him help in the actual con- 
 struing before the class. 
 
 A word here on the use of annotated texts. These 
 Texts and are both a good and a bad sign of our times, 
 notes They certainly show a great deal of exact and 
 
 industrious scholarship, and are often models of interest- 
 ing as well as learned editing. They are also, both to 
 the teacher and the class, what bladders are to the 
 swimmer ; they ease effort, they save time and trouble, 
 and they do much therefore to deprive the rigid study of 
 the text of a great deal of its value as discipline. When 
 a teacher or a pupil knows that his editor has done all 
 the work, except the memorising, beforehand, has, in fact, 
 predigested the intellectual food, he naturally reserves 
 his own energies for other emergencies. References are 
 quoted in full, not indicated, and so he is not even re- 
 quired to verify his references, which we used to be told
 
 Latin and Greek 217 
 
 was the essence of scholarship. Certainly, classically 
 trained people now-a-days know less of the inside of a 
 large number of books than in the days when classical 
 knowledge was not arranged in a multitude of little 
 assorted heaps. Physiologists say that the triumphs of 
 cooking and chemical discovery will ultimately deprive 
 us of our teeth and most of our bodily organs of digestion. 
 Something of the sort is certainly happening in dissimili 
 materie, our classical learning. 
 
 The remedy, so far as a remedy can be suggested, is 
 the imposition of a great deal of unprepared unprepared 
 translation, to be done vivd voce in the class- translation 
 room. Master and pupil here stand on the same ground 
 with a bare text, and the function of the master is leader- 
 ship of the party of discovery. He assists and suggests, 
 but leaves the actual steps towards certitude to be taken 
 by the pupil. The bold teacher, too, will at all times 
 prefer the plain text, though this, perhaps, is a counsel 
 of perfection. 
 
 The serious evil of predigestion, as we may call it, is 
 not peculiar to the secondary school ; its The evil of 
 work has indeed been less fatal here than predigestion 
 in the primary school, but only because the ground 
 to be covered is greater in the one than in the other. 
 All contrivances seem to be used to the end that the 
 learner shall have knowledge imparted to him with the 
 least possible expenditure of his own efforts, and the 
 general effect is an alarmingly low uniformity and loss 
 of initiative. If we are not vigilant, the time will come 
 when the scholars of a secondary school will be as in- 
 capable of using a book of reference as the children of 
 primary schools. Instead of this, they will have tit-bits 
 of information presented to them at odd times, and they 
 will not necessarily know where they can go for more of
 
 2i8 Common Sense in Education 
 
 such information when they want it. This will be dis- 
 sipation with a vengeance. 
 
 The better known books of " Antiquities " and such 
 Books of admirable compilations as Dr. Gow's Com- 
 reference paiiion to Classical Studies ought to be in the 
 library of every young scholar, who should be driven to 
 them on all possible occasions. The books used for refer- 
 ence or concurrent reading need not be mere dictionaries 
 or records of antiquities. A most valuable lesson in the 
 reality of the classics is to be learnt from the illustration of 
 the classical book set for current study by the use of some 
 great history or biography, Plutarch, Suetonius, Mommsen, 
 or, it may be, Froude. In the reading of history especially, 
 it seems to be desirable to bring together the original autho- 
 rities and the later historians for purposes of comparison. 
 
 The repetition lesson has been much abused and much 
 misunderstood, although ("perhaps because) it is the oldest 
 established of all forms of classical teaching. The reci- 
 tation of Homer and Vergil were Greek and Roman 
 exercises, as they are English exercises now ; repetition 
 (of prose, as well as verse) has been considered the Mother 
 of Studies from ancient and medieval days to ours ; and 
 a good deal is to be said for it still. It may be admitted 
 at once that in regard to the matter learnt by heart the 
 gain may be greatly over-estimated, though we need not 
 agree with Plato and Messrs. Bain and Spencer and 
 other distinguished men, in thinking that any serious 
 moral harm comes of the celebration of primitive de- 
 structive passions and ideals of life. But the learning of 
 great masterpieces cultivates the taste by establishing in 
 our pupil's minds, as familiar friends, the most famous 
 and beautiful works of literary art ; and if we think the 
 powers of imitating noble speech worth having and the 
 effort of imitation good as discipline, then the penalty
 
 Latin and Greek 219 
 
 exacted, the burden on the memory, is a small price to 
 pay for a permanent benefit so valuable. 
 
 Incidentally, as we have seen in discussing recitation 
 in English, the need for care in reciting a foreign tongue 
 tends to greater precision in the use of our own ; and the 
 English gentleman who has learnt to recite Vergil, or 
 Horace, or Homer, however painfully, has had at least 
 some training in the niceties of distinct speech. 
 
 We have seen reason for thinking that the practice of 
 re-translation from the prose-rendering back , 
 
 • • , • • IT- , /- 1 Latin Prose 
 
 agam mto the origmal Latm and Cxreek serves 
 to give permanence to the effects of the original lesson. 
 When the proper stage is reached, the formal composition 
 in Latin Prose serves a still further end of the same kind. 
 It serves at least to fix the syntax more firmly, and 
 thereby makes all subsequent efforts of translation easier 
 — more automatic, that is to say — for the effort to use 
 the idiom to express a vernacular phrase makes it at least 
 one degree more truly our own. It is also a proof and test 
 of the scholar's power to " think in the terms of another 
 century," of another people. The finest flower of scholar- 
 ship is to realise most exactly and intimately the mode of 
 thought of another time, to move as a gentleman among 
 equals, to comport oneself aright amongst strangers. 
 
 To this end, it is well, after the first step has been 
 taken and plenty of re-translation has been practised, to 
 use such exercises as give the greatest scope for the 
 knowledge and application of idioms contrasting with 
 our own, and to follow the common practice of setting 
 pieces of fine original prose to be got by heart. 
 
 Latin verse composition has been much attacked and 
 sturdily defended, but the attack has come Latin Verse 
 with the less force in that its most strenuous Composition 
 opponents have not been in a position to estimate its
 
 2 20 Common Sense in Education 
 
 methods and merits at first hand. It may be at once 
 admitted that where a marked inability to make verses 
 is shown, it is waste of time to exact a large tale of 
 them ; and there should be some alternative exercise — in 
 mathematics or history or logic — presenting reasonably 
 equivalent difficulty to average boys. 
 
 Where on the other hand the reading of a pupil is 
 wide enough and there is some facility, the writing of 
 verse helps, as prose composition helps, to fix syntax 
 and to cultivate atmosphere and imagination. Verse 
 is an easier training than prose for the ear, and has, in 
 its turn, a fine effect in quickening the general taste and 
 the sense of propriety in style. Moreover, the need for 
 paraphrasing leads first of all to a carefully critical 
 analysis of the passage to be rendered, and then drives 
 the verse-maker to review a large number of words and 
 phrases before he decides on his final choice. It serves, 
 indeed, to give finish and fixity to the classical reading, 
 as riders on Euclid do to Euclid's Geometry. 
 
 For reference : — L3rttelton in Teaching and Organisation and the 
 same writer's pamphlet on the teaching of Latin verse Composi- 
 tion. Cookson in Essays on Secondary Education (Clarendon Press). 
 Laurie's Lectures on Linguistic Method. Report to the (U.S.) Committee 
 of Ten (Washington, 1893). Messrs. Paton and W. Rhys Roberts 
 in Aims and Practice of Teaching.
 
 221 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE 
 
 All candidates for admission to this academy must pass a preliminary 
 examination in Geometry. — Plato. 
 
 It is of course hardly possible to exaggerate the im- 
 portance of the studies usually associated under these 
 heads. They are quite indispensable, not only as gym- 
 nastics but also for their definite and applied results. 
 
 The sciences are generally marshalled under two main 
 heads : the exact or mathematical, based mainly on de- 
 ductive reasoning, and the experimental sciences, the 
 physical and natural sciences, which use chiefly the' 
 method of induction. Under the head of exact or mathe- 
 matical sciences, we include arithmetic, algebra, geometry, 
 and the like ; under experimental sciences come physics, 
 chemistry, together with the sciences of observation, such 
 as geology and botany, in whatever degree they lend 
 themselves to experiment. Any science in which we 
 can vary conditions so as to produce varying results and 
 so establish laws or discoveries on logical grounds is an 
 experimental science. 
 
 The especial value of the first class for educational 
 purposes lies in its very unlikeness to the ^he value of 
 second. There is no doubt about the starting the "exact" 
 points ; the axioms are self-evident, and all sciences 
 that we have to do is to raise a consistent superstructure 
 on them ; or rather, to use the appropriate metaphor,
 
 222 Common Sense in Education 
 
 we are to draw from them a whole series, an infinite 
 series, of irrefragable results. That is, from a few great 
 principles (however derived) we elaborate our knowledge 
 of the relations of number and magnitude. Thus we are 
 trained in exact reasonmg, for at no stage is there any 
 doubt whatsoever about the premisses from which we 
 start or about the meaning of the terms that we employ. 
 Obviously, if we could conduct all reasoning on such 
 lines, human errors would be few indeed. In so far as 
 every stage is clear and can be clearly tested, the reason- 
 ing of mathematics is a type of perfect reasoning. 
 
 The strength of mathematics is derived from the very 
 fact that its truths are detachable by abstraction from 
 the concretes in which they exist for our senses. We 
 argue in vacuo, so to speak, without any possibility of 
 error arising from the accidents of individual inexperience, 
 prejudice, opinion, or the imperfection of our senses. 
 That two and two make four, that things which are 
 equal to the same thing are equal to one another, are 
 always true ; and from these and a few similar facts we 
 can derive other facts to infinity, so to speak, without 
 appealing perpetually to concrete presentations. It is 
 true that we teach, if we are wise, by means of concrete 
 examples from the first, but we very soon show that what 
 is true (say) of two and two in the case of apples is true 
 also of two and two in the case of nuts, without asking, 
 as Mr. Oldmixon asks in the Dunciad, 
 
 " Ah I why, ye Gods, should two and two make four ? " 
 
 Putting aside both nuts and apples, two and two make 
 four ; and this is the first systematic lesson in abstraction. 
 Arithmetic deals with those operations which lend them- 
 selves earliest in life to abstract treatment. Our earliest 
 experiences of diversity suggest, for instance, duality
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 223 
 
 and the like long before they suggest any other general 
 or collective notion ; plurality, that is, comes in order of 
 abstraction before other conditions. Arithmetic or com- 
 putation, therefore, comes earliest in the mathematical 
 training of the child ; and its business is to examine the 
 manner in which numbers are formed and how they 
 combine. 
 
 The older fashion of teaching this subject, as we well 
 know, was from the first to set forth the Arithmetic 
 " rules " and " tables," to make pupils learn should begin 
 them by heart, and then to propound exercises with con- 
 and examples, severally unconnected with ^^^^^ 
 each other and of the smallest possible real interest to 
 the learner. This of course strikes at the heart of what 
 we have come to regard as good teaching, the natural 
 stimulus of interest. A "rule" is not an axiom ; and to 
 set it forth baldly and without the preliminary of previous 
 effort to formulate it, is, we must admit, not only to 
 deprive the pupil of a valuable lesson in inferential 
 reasoning, but also, by asking him to recite and believe 
 a formula which does not easily carry conviction, to 
 paralyse his reason at the outset, and to make his work 
 mechanical and less interesting than it should be. 
 
 This means that the learner ought, particularly at first, 
 to play the part of explorer and discoverer. It is there- 
 fore indispensable that teaching should, for a time at 
 least, be as objective as possible, and especially in the 
 earlier stages. If it is not so, our pupils are certain to re- 
 gard the manipulation of numbers as a kind of magic, for 
 which no reason in the nature of things can be assigned. 
 
 In this study, more than in any other, it seems de- 
 sirable that the text book should serve very The teacher 
 strictly to supplement the teacher, not to as pioneer 
 supplant him. And even if explanations and methods
 
 224 Common Sense in Education 
 
 were always left to the teacher entirely, one could hardly 
 regret this substitute for some existing amorphous works 
 on arithmetic. Learners should be shown a process, and 
 with the help of the teacher should formulate the reasons, 
 and then, but not till then, state a rule. To take the 
 easiest of examples ; — it is better to show by the mani- 
 pulation of objects that 2 x 3 is the same as 3 x 2 than 
 it is to state the fact, and demand the assent of the 
 learner to what is by no means a self-evident truth. 
 When on our altering the position of the same objects, 
 the pupil can see that there are no more and no less than 
 before, he is forced to apprehend the commutative law 
 even without our impertinent intervention. 
 
 For these reasons, the reformers of our arithmetic 
 teaching urge that the relations of magnitudes should 
 as far as possible be at first presented in concrete form. 
 Numbers are necessarily pure symbols, but lines, for 
 instance, are not. If the pupils see lines, join them, 
 divide them, combine them, and so on, they soon learn 
 what is meant by the process of multiplication and 
 division of fractions, and can learn thence to formulate 
 the law or rule by themselves. What they have seen 
 with their eyes in the case of lines or other concrete 
 magnitudes, they can generalise or abstract in the form of 
 numbers. Thus, in teaching the weights and measures of 
 the metric or any other "system," the measures and weights 
 should, of course, first be seen and touched and handled 
 by the pupil. The comparison and contrast of" systems " 
 would seem to demand this imperatively. Actual work 
 in measuring and weighing should be done by the pupils 
 themselves ; their proceedings otherwise lack reality. 
 
 It is part of the same plan to associate the operations 
 of arithmetic as much as possible with matters in which 
 the learners are interested by reason of familiarity or
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 225 
 
 contiguity. Thus the discreet teacher of the primary 
 school knows that his pupils are sent to shops by their 
 parents, and he sets his youngest pupils such problems 
 as they are called upon to perform from day to day at 
 home. In the teaching of mensuration, the first examples 
 are provided by the schoolroom and the school play- 
 ground. 
 
 An American committee of expert teachers says : ^ 
 " The problem of computing the quantity of coal which 
 would have to be burned in order to heat the air of a 
 room from the freezing point to 70° would probably be 
 beyond the powers of all our college graduates, except 
 those who have made physics one of their specialities. 
 Yet there is nothing in its elements above the powers 
 of a boy of twelve. At this age the child could, by a 
 few very simple experiments, gain the idea of a quantity 
 of heat much more easily than the idea of stock in a 
 corporation." Whether this view can be fairly maintained 
 or not, it may suggest to us the desirability of abolishing 
 the perversely obsolete subjects that still oc- obsolete and 
 casionally find their way into adthmetics. technical 
 Most arithmetic of the strictly commercial arithmetic 
 kind might surely be left for the technical school ; it 
 forms no part, or a very inconsiderable part, of the ele- 
 ments of a liberal education. "Percentages," say the 
 authorities just quoted, "should not be fanciful; in- 
 surance, discount, profit and loss, and the more advanced 
 questions of interest, should be treated conformably with 
 the comprehension of the class, if at all. The problems 
 involved in some of these processes are all but beyond 
 the young pupil's understanding." 
 
 At the point at which Arithmetic is the chief mathe- 
 matical study of the pupil, such subjects as can be 
 treated easily by algebraical methods would seem to be 
 
 15
 
 226 Common Sense in Education 
 
 more properly relegated to that treatment ; cube root 
 and compound proportion are subjects of this kind. 
 
 The question of excessive preciseness is one that 
 Excessive attracts increasing attention. There is a point 
 preciseness at which minuteness ceases to be correctness, 
 in calculating for correctness is strictly relative to the object 
 results which you have in view. In painting an effect 
 
 which is to be seen from a long distance, an artist knows 
 that it is waste of time to make his work over-elaborate. 
 If I am asked my age, it is not necessary for me under 
 ordinary circumstances to state it in term of years, 
 months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds. This 
 precision is, indeed, pure mechanicalness ; it serves no 
 purpose ; nothing is being produced, although the ma- 
 chinery still grinds away. Its analogue in language 
 study is excessive detail in " parsing," and it finds peculiar 
 illustration in all branches of "scientific" (so-called) 
 study. Professor Miall is a notable critic of this fault. 
 He writes : " Looking the other day at a child's drawing 
 of a dog, I found that the dog had only two legs, and no 
 ears or tail. The little artist had made some progress 
 with his outline, when it suddenly occurred to him that 
 a dog is hairy and that hairs would be very easy to 
 draw. Accordingly he began to draw hairs, and went 
 on till his time or his energy was used up. That is very 
 like a good deal which goes by the name of science." 
 
 It is this, indeed, as exemplified in the "science" 
 teaching and, above all, in " science " examinations, which 
 has often made the natural sciences bywords for wasted 
 effort in school and college. It is far easier, of course, 
 to record facts and work examples to an almost infinite 
 exactitude than to keep first principles in mind and pass 
 rapidly from step to step of wider knowledge. The 
 exactitude frequently reached in calculations has nothing
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 227 
 
 corresponding to it in our experience, and no use can 
 be made of such results. Problems in this way cease to 
 be real, and cease therefore to be useful. The answer, 
 says Professor Hudson, though it must be right, is the 
 least important part of a sum. For the teacher, the 
 process is everything ; and a pupil's method should 
 show gradual improvement of the reasoning power. It 
 is idle to expect him to use the "best" method of 
 solving a problem from the first, and it is bad teaching 
 to show it to him until he has done all he can in succes- 
 sive efforts to arrive at it by himself. 
 
 It is of the highest importance to get pupils to realise 
 the value of their mathematics in ordinary ingenuity in 
 affairs. From the concerns and details of the process 
 schoolroom, as we advance up the school, we rather than 
 can easily choose such problems or exercises ^^'^^^^^Y '" 
 as are within the scope of the pupils' interest 
 either commercially, or in production, or as statistics 
 illustrating some moot point, or as truly scientific com- 
 putations pertinent to some school study. So Professor 
 Miall and Dr. Wormell would have us set, not long sums 
 to be worked out mechanically, full of pitfalls and of no 
 use to anybody, but rather easy sums which require thought. 
 
 All recent writers agree in urging that we should teach 
 our pupils in performing simple multiplication to multiply 
 first by the left-hand figure of the multiplier and to pro- 
 ceed in successive lines in the same way. The reasons 
 set forth by Dr. Wormell show that this is imperative as 
 soon as we consult other processes of arithmetic and 
 algebra ; and more particularly because it is the basis of 
 methods of approximation, in which the pupil is positively 
 forced to think of what he is doing, and cannot woik 
 mechanically. It is quite legitimate and even desirable 
 to forecast roughly what a result is likely to be.
 
 228 Common Sense in Education 
 
 Dr. Stanley Hall holds that a good deal of arithmetic 
 r^ ._ should be taught technically — that processes 
 biiity of fHciy often be shown first and examples given, 
 
 excessive the reason for the processes being left to " flash 
 rationaiisa- jnto " the mind at a later stage, when reason 
 ''°° is more maturely developed. Without ac- 
 
 cepting all that this recommendation implies, it may 
 perhaps be at once admitted that the strict and unvary- 
 ing drill of young children during the practice of the 
 four chief rules or processes in the decimal discrimination 
 of adjacent figures (ones, tens, hundreds, and so on), may 
 be and often is carried to ridiculous excess. No doubt 
 they should be frequently reminded that the figures have 
 a decimal value according to their place, right or left ; 
 but if we require them invariably to give to figures their 
 names in the decimal hierarchy, we place an unnecessary 
 obstacle in the way of rapidity of work in calculation — 
 just as the " complete sentence," used inordinately, pro- 
 duces clumsiness in general ratiocination. 
 
 We must not be in a hurry. We can easily disgust 
 and confuse learners by making calls on capacities not 
 yet developed. The Ingenious Cocker thought he had 
 constructed an " Arithmetick suitable to the Meanest 
 Capacity for a full Understanding of that Incomparable 
 Art " ; Professor Bain takes a view somewhat more 
 modest than that of the earlier sage. " The full bearings 
 of Arithmetic as a science," he says, "cannot be seen 
 until the pupil has made some way in the higher branches 
 of Mathematics ; and they are never completely known, 
 except to the few that attain the conception of the highest 
 scientific or logical method. In the lower stage of school 
 training, ease and accuracy in calculation, extended to 
 the ordinary compass of arithmetical problems, must be 
 chiefly looked to. The persistent practice of years should
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 229 
 
 bring about this result ; while rapidity is attained by 
 special drill in Mental Arithmetic." Professor Matthews' 
 authority is more recent, but even more weighty. " I 
 am convinced," he says, " that less harm is done now-a- 
 days by teaching by rote than those ill-advised attempts 
 at rational instruction which are inspired by imperfect 
 knowledge. Thus, for instance, if you state the binomial 
 theorem for a fractional exponent, and the conditions for 
 its validity, you do not educate your pupil, but you give 
 him a piece of information which he can learn to apply, 
 and which may be practically useful to him ; but if you 
 go on to make him learn one of those unsatisfactory 
 " proofs " of the theorem which still keep their place in 
 some of the text-books, you are doing positive mischief 
 and replacing harmless ignorance by a mere pretence of 
 knowledge." 
 
 The study of Geometry begins properly in the Kinder- 
 garten, where from the manipulation of the The concrete 
 prescribed "gifts" and the exercises in draw- beginnings of 
 ing and modelling the children acquire a know- G«onietry 
 ledge of geometrical forms and figures and a sense of the 
 reality of the subject matter which a more abstract be- 
 ginning certainly lacks. It is not only possible, but it is 
 also most desirable that we should not begin, as in the 
 orthodox way, by a statement of something that we are 
 going to prove. We should rather, as the highest authori- 
 ties urge, let the class as a first step see the main facts of 
 plane and solid geometry. Drawings should be made, 
 models of cardboard and other materials should be 
 manipulated and rearranged in such a way as to give 
 the learners the opportunity of standing as discoverers 
 in their own right. 
 
 This kind of interest can and indeed should be main- 
 tained all through the study. To quote Mr. Workman,
 
 230 Common Sense in Education 
 
 when we are dealing with " that awkward youth who is 
 _, , , always sulkily asking us the wherefore of these 
 
 The useful- . -^ , ,, , , • , 
 
 nessofgeo- triangles, parallelograms, and circles, it is no 
 metry must use to tell him that they are whetstones for his 
 be brought wits. He is not aware that his wits need 
 home to the sharpening, nor would he greatly relish the 
 prospect if he were. Indeed, he regards his 
 discovery of the uselessness of Euclid as a proof of his 
 already superior sharpness. So we may lawfully use 
 lower motives with him. We may tell him that there is 
 a science of trigonometry which is merely the Algebraical 
 statement and expansion of Euclid I., 47. That it is 
 this science which enables ships to sail in straight course, 
 or St. Gothard Tunnels to be pierced so exactly that 
 engineers from Switzerland and engineers from Italy 
 meet within an inch or two, in the centre of the moun- 
 tain, after five miles of independent burrowing from 
 opposite sides." The same kind of appeal to living 
 interest prescribes that we should encourage the young 
 learner to prove the validity and usefulness of his mathe- 
 matics by the co-operation of his own hand and eye. 
 He cannot pierce tunnels or sail ships, but he can make 
 plans from his own measurements and approximations ; 
 he can model simple geometrical solids in cardboard or 
 in clay. 
 
 Here as everywhere else we must encourage the pupil 
 The making to make his own definitions. It is a great 
 of definitions mistake to treat the definitions which we find 
 in the books as matter for memory or even for uncon- 
 ditional assent. Passing over the elemental and funda- 
 mental difficulties in getting empirical definitions of 
 point, line, plane, and so on, it is still easy to get our 
 pupils to define for themselves most of the figures that 
 form the basis of geometrical reasoning. This, indeed,
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 231 
 
 constitutes the earliest step in teaching the pupil how to 
 form unexceptionable definitions, and is a most valuable 
 service to his intellectual development. The principle 
 of economy is, of course, of the highest importance in 
 definition, and it is easier to secure this in plane geo- 
 metrical definition than in any other, the limitation to 
 two dimensions, length and breadth, excluding irrelevant 
 details, as it were, automatically. 
 
 There may be some inclination to accept work from 
 pupils which is slovenly in form, on their pro- Neatness of 
 ducing proof or even mere indications that work 
 they understand the point under discussion. But it 
 should be remembered that geometrical reasoning, in 
 particular, offers especial opportunity for cultivating the 
 precision, exactitude, and conciseness which are of such 
 vast importance in all logical method and statement. 
 Mere written work, however careful, is not enough ; it 
 should be largely supplemented by very cautious and 
 exact oral work. This use of demonstrative geometry 
 is the best beginning possible of the study of formal or 
 symbolical logic. 
 
 Above all things, it seems to be true that the know- 
 ledge of the prescribed author, be it Euclid or The need for 
 any other geometer, is of little consequence "riders" 
 unless the principles involved can be applied to the 
 solution of derivative problems or riders. Practised 
 teachers say that the first step towards cultivating 
 power to this end is to treat the Euclidian proposition 
 (if we are working with Euclid) from our own point of 
 view, to try to worry it out before having recourse to the 
 book solution, and to provide by all possible devices 
 that the knowledge of the class shall not be limited to 
 the figure and letters as they are found in the printed text. 
 The great purpose to be attained is to free the inferior
 
 232 Common Sense in Education 
 
 student " from slavish dependence on his text-book while 
 the able student ' may ' gain power enough to make his 
 own geometry". The practice of geometrical drawing 
 is of course of great service here and elsewhere. 
 
 Amongst matters of importance is the question whether 
 ^ K we are to use Euclid's Elements or some one 
 
 Can we sub- 
 stitute a else's. Opinions differ. Professor Miall looks 
 
 better text to See Euclid disappear altogether from the 
 
 bookfor school. Dr. Wormell and Mr. Workman, 
 
 both of them recent writers and teachers of 
 
 eminence, would have us retain a text book which is, I 
 
 believe, used for the teaching of Geometry by England 
 
 alone. The chief reasons for abandoning Euclid may be 
 
 compressed under two heads : — 
 
 (1) Geometry itself has made progress, in its develop- 
 ment and applications, and in nomenclature. There is 
 no reason, it is said, except prescription, why the term 
 " angle " should not be extended to include two right 
 angles and even an angle greater than two right angles. 
 
 (2) Euclid's order is not the order of increasingdifficulty, 
 and therefore is not the " psychological " order which is 
 said to be the best for teaching. 
 
 On the other hand, it is urged that 
 
 (i) We should take some account of the claims of 
 sacred tradition, which has placed Euclid in such a com- 
 manding position in England, and 
 
 (2) The exigencies of examinations and the need for 
 uniformity as a guide to the preparation of work and 
 setting of papers are overwhelming. 
 
 The case for the earl)' introduction of Algebra into 
 Algebra the curriculum seems to be a very strong one, 
 
 should come although there are authorities of considerable 
 early weight on the other side. But it would seem 
 
 preferable to treat early training in Mathematics as th«
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 233 
 
 beginning of Algebra as well as of Geometry, for formal 
 Geometry in the school is surely merely the continuation 
 of the established Kindergarten teaching, with its dis- 
 tinctly geometrical basis ; and Arithmetic very soon 
 resolves itself into Algebra. On the other hand, it is 
 certainly easier to demonstrate geometrical truth from 
 the first by actual objects which the class can see and 
 handle and manipulate for itself, and we may therefore 
 reasonably expect that a class should be able to use the 
 abstract language of geometry somewhat earlier than it 
 could profitably employ the symbolism of algebra, the 
 signs of operation, brackets, positive integral indices, etc. 
 This however should not prevent us from preparing a 
 class of young children for the symbolical method by 
 the occasional translation of numbers and quantities into 
 letters. It should not be hard to familiarise them with 
 the notion that a nuts + b nuts = a + b nuts. Nega- 
 tive numbers, as presenting special difficulties, would be 
 postponed to a later stage. But there seems to be no 
 reason for postponing the solution of simple equations 
 and the like. Problems should, of course, be exceedingly 
 easy, and every step made exceedingly clear. But this 
 great advantage will be gained — that the pupil will be 
 called upon to use his wits, and the arithmetic will become 
 less mechanical than it must otherwise be. 
 
 It must be repeated here that there are no strictly 
 delimited provinces in the Kingdom of Know- j^ j^ 
 ledge ; it is not possible to separate the whole tics, in its 
 of arithmetic from the whole of algebra. And various 
 more : it is possible, and it may indeed often ^''^nches, is 
 be desirable, to pass from the elementary parts °"^ ^'" ^ 
 of the one straight to the other. A certain accurate 
 knowledge of arithmetic is presupposed before algebra 
 is attempted, but as soon as a boy can understand
 
 234 Common Sense in Education 
 
 symbols, he may, nay he should, according to teachers of 
 greatest weight, be straightway introduced into problems 
 involving simple equations. 
 
 Again, algebra being in truth inseparable from arith- 
 metic, being in fact "higher" arithmetic, a teacher who 
 aspires to teach arithmetic should be well acquainted 
 with algebra, just as only a teacher with a good know- 
 ledge of at least general European history can teach 
 English history profitably. And it is equally necessary 
 for students to know that the ordinary algebra is only 
 one of several kinds of algebra. 
 
 Moreover, advanced parts of the text-book divisions 
 have their easier portions which it is possible and desirable 
 to taste before attacking the whole course of dishes. We 
 need not, says one who knows, read the whole of a chapter 
 before passing on to the next, though of course our 
 pupil must depend on expert direction to save him from 
 "o'erleaping his selle". 
 
 Professor Matthews notes two points that need special 
 care. It must always be clear that x denotes a number 
 and not a concrete quantity ; and the symbol = means 
 not "is," but "is equal to". The same writer urges, 
 Even in most reasonably, that "just as practical geo- 
 
 aigebra metry may fitly precede the systematic study 
 
 "doing" of the science; just as experimental demon- 
 may precede gtration of physical laws helps to the compre- 
 
 nowing herision of abstract dynamics ; so the practical 
 application of the laws of algebra, before their logical 
 necessity is fully realised, is not only harmless but even 
 helpful towards the complete understanding of the very 
 abstract considerations upon which their general validity 
 is based. The proper course would therefore seem to be 
 to exercise the student as soon as possible in the practice 
 of the fundamental rules by applying them to rational
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 235 
 
 integral functions of a single variable : the process 
 {without the theory) of finding the highest common factor 
 of two polynomials is particularly valuable for this pur- 
 pose." This lends weight to Dr. Stanley Hall's view 
 quoted above ; the reasons for the processes will " flash " 
 on the learner when the mechanism of the process has 
 become familiar. 
 
 The conference that reported to the American Com- 
 mittee of Ten speaks in the same sense. Certain alge- 
 braical propositions are to be presented to the learner 
 before he can well be expected to understand their 
 demonstration, as in the case of the rule of signs in mul- 
 tiplication and the binomial formula. The plan here 
 should be to convince the learner of the propositions by 
 illustrating them, and to leave the strict demonstration 
 to a later stage. "That minus multiplied hy minus is 
 plus is proved by never leading us to a wrong conclu- 
 sion," says Bain. 
 
 It is usually laid down that algebra as a special study 
 can be safely begun in the thirteenth or fourteenth year ; 
 and it is certainly true that it is better to do a little well 
 than to spend time " in solving catchy problems and 
 summing fantastic series ". Accuracy in process is more 
 important than facility and rapidity, for accuracy is atten- 
 tion, is conscious, and is much more than mechanical. 
 The chief purpose of the inclusion of algebra in the 
 school course is that it helps to teach the pupil to reason, 
 to use his wits. 
 
 There seems to be no doubt that very great advantage 
 is gained in the school teaching of mathematics -pj^g common 
 by the practice of introducing the pupil at the ground of 
 earliest stage possible to the points where Algebra and 
 algebra and geometry join hands, and where G^°"^^^''y 
 mathematics enters into physical science. We all know
 
 236 Common Sense in Education 
 
 that the investigation of mechanical or other physical 
 phenomena becomes more interesting and the more fruit- 
 ful in proportion to the power of exact calculation and 
 prediction. It is this quality which gives to mathematics 
 its high place as a study of practical importance in the 
 business of life, quite apart from its value as a gymnastic. 
 The wise teacher accordingly endeavours to connect 
 mathematics, in special applications, with the natural 
 science studies of his form ; never, of course, venturing on 
 the more abstruse questions, and taking care that pupils 
 do not delude themselves into thinking they understand 
 what is still dark to them. We must not, on the other 
 hand, be in such a hurry as to forgo in school teaching 
 the preliminary and constant use of practical experiment 
 and the investigation of concrete phenomena merely 
 because we can get the same results in a more generalised 
 fashion, by the deductive or mathematical process. The 
 penalty paid for this error is that the learner is less 
 thoroughly interested and less thoroughly convinced ; for 
 the demonstration is intellectual only, and lacks the 
 reality that is, we know, associated in young and adolescent 
 minds with concrete phenomena alone. " We approach 
 the subject first by the comparatively clumsy experimen- 
 tal method in order that the boy may acquire the quasi- 
 instinctive mechanical bias which comes of grappling with 
 concrete problems," as Professor Miall says. 
 
 Out of this subject rises another which has caused con- 
 siderable discussion, often, I think, the result 
 
 Are the . • , 1 • a 
 
 "sciences" of some misunderstandmg. Are we to teach 
 to be taught the " sciences " in any particular order ? And, 
 severally in in particular, is the teaching of Physics to pre- 
 any particu- ^^^^ ^^^ teaching of Chemistry ? If we remind 
 ourselves of what has just been said in regard 
 to the need for making our mathematics as real as pes-
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 237 
 
 sible, we ought to be led back to the principle which we 
 have already established, to the effect that in the school 
 stage of education we must think primarily of connected- 
 ness in curriculum. The study of the specialised sciences 
 should be postponed as long as possible, in order that the 
 closest connexion may be maintained between the matters 
 studied. Now there is really no question in dispute as to 
 the primary claim of the simplest zoology and botany to 
 a place in a child's education. The animals and plants 
 about us are so intimate and near, make such com- 
 paratively slight calls on the powers of abstraction and 
 lengthened reasoning, that their early claims are gener- 
 ally conceded. But, at a later stage, the question between 
 chemistry and physics has been very earnestly contested. 
 
 In England it is almost true to say that *'all the 
 speakers are Whigs and all the voters are 
 Tory". Whereas our school science has for of Chemistry 
 a long time been primarily and often ex- and Physics 
 clusively chemistry, the experts have mostly respectively 
 claimed the earlier place for physics. In '° P""^' 
 America, on the other hand, the body of ex- 
 pert teachers of greatest weight has pronounced almost 
 unanimously in favour of chemistry as the best of the 
 sciences for early school use. 
 
 Now logically physics would naturally precede chemis- 
 try ; chemists and physicists have inclined to believe 
 that chemical action, the behaviour of molecules and 
 atoms, is, at bottom, a series of special cases of mechanical 
 laws. Some investigators have gone so far as to say that 
 even nervous changes and adaptations are probably of 
 this character. That is, there is at least reason to sup- 
 pose that the laws of mechanics or physics are more 
 general, cover a wider ground, than the laws of chemistry. 
 But this does not prove that such laws are apprehended
 
 238 Common Sense in Education 
 
 by the learner in that order ; the psychological is not 
 necessarily the analytical order. Indeed, the presumption 
 is the very contrary. 
 
 However, in favour of the precedence of physics is the 
 fact that a great part of the subject understood by this 
 term deals with phenomena that can be seen and felt ; 
 they are distinctly concrete, whereas in chemical action 
 the greater part of our knowledge is the result of in- 
 ference. For instance, chemical "affinity" is much 
 harder to understand than mechanical " cohesion " or 
 " adhesion ". We infer the affinity ; we see the cohesion. 
 " To make the study of chemical theory as little artificial 
 and as much rational as possible, and to secure intel- 
 ligent conception of its many and close relations to 
 physical laws, a previous training in the conceptions 
 and measurements of such fundamental quantities as 
 mass, density, specific gravity, heat, specific heat, and 
 others, would seem practically indispensable. ... In 
 fact it seems not unreasonable to suggest that the whole 
 subject of elementary physics forms a desirable basis 
 for the study of the elements of chemistry." So urges 
 Professor Waggoner. 
 
 . ' It seems probable that English teachers are likely to 
 adopt the view held by Professor Waggoner, and prefer, 
 as a starting-point for experimental science, the study 
 of elementary physics, beginning with mechanics, to any 
 form of chemistry however elementary. It can hardly 
 be doubted that the daily life of young scholars, the 
 things they see and handle and talk about, supply 
 copious material for observation, experiment, and reason- 
 ing. They notice weight, mass, movement, and the 
 like, before other phenomena. Chemistry comes next, 
 if treated very strictly in an experimental way, with a 
 minimum of lecturing and a maximum of manipulatory
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 239 
 
 work on the part of the class. The elements of physi- 
 ology or botany may or may not be included, according 
 to the length of the curriculum ; but with the elements 
 of physics and mechanics the strictly school course 
 should be considered sufficient. I cannot say that 
 animal physiology seems to me a good school subject. 
 It is on many grounds unattractive and even offensive. 
 Botany, on the other hand, may be made an admirable 
 exercise in reasoning if only because under proper con- 
 ditions it shows so clearly the principle of adaptation 
 to environment. But great care is needed to prevent 
 botany from making an inordinate demand on mere 
 memorising powers. It is very easy to cram ; and it does 
 its best only by sending pupils out with their eyes open. 
 Physiography is a necessary preliminary to geography 
 and is dealt with under that head ; and geology is too 
 specialised a study to be suitable for work in school. 
 
 It should not be impossible to include in a school 
 course for pupils up to the age of sixteen or seventeen 
 a general training in science and scientific method, in- 
 cluding the things of most importance in physics and 
 chemistry, and of course physiography as a foundation 
 for geography. After this stage the studies may become 
 more special, but there seems to be good ground for 
 preferring physics to chemistry. 
 
 It is generally agreed that the inclusion of science in 
 the school curriculum is essential. Much harm "Science" 
 has been done by reaction from the violently as discipline 
 excessive prejudice in favour of the physical and experi- 
 mental sciences set up by Mr, Herbert Spencer nearly 
 forty years ago. According to him, "science" is the 
 sum total of knowledge. The fine arts themselves, he 
 says, are based on " science " ; " science " is poetry, 
 " science " affords the best moral discipline, " science "
 
 240 Common Sense in Education 
 
 is the great stimulus to religion itself. " Accomplish- 
 ments, the fine arts, belles lettres, and all those things 
 which, as we say, constitute the efflorescence of civilisa- 
 tion, should be wholly subordinate to that instruction and 
 discipline in which civilisation rests. As they occupy the 
 leisure part of life, so they should occupy the leisure part of 
 education" 
 
 To establish against Mr. Spencer the paramount place 
 of belles lettres in a liberal education, would be to discuss 
 again much of what has been already said in this book 
 about literature generally. It must suffice here to 
 say that literature is not meant to occupy the leisure 
 part of life, but rather to pervade the whole of it ; it is 
 life in certain most important aspects. And we admit 
 no leisure part in education. A study is profitable in 
 making character, or it is not. If it is not, we have no 
 concern with it. But in spite of unconscionable exaggera- 
 tion, Mr. Spencer's claim on behalf of science in edu- 
 cation is the locus classicus in which its moralising power 
 is celebrated. 
 
 Although the fine arts are not " based upon science," 
 yet knowledge of detail and the eye for it, 
 
 now e ge ^^Q^^i^j^g^ v^VC^ the inspiration and enthusiasm 
 
 of Items does ^ 
 
 not confer that are unanalysable, undoubtedly make the 
 creative completer artist. We may, however, push 
 
 power nor q^j. knowledge of detail ever so far, we may 
 ^^^^^ master all the systems of rhetoric and know 
 
 the uses of all figures of speech and schemes 
 of prosody ; there still remains something in the finest work 
 of art which defies all analysis, which, indeed, testifies to 
 its spiritual originality and independence. We may 
 be able to say in what modes creative genius expresses 
 itself, by what channels or instruments ; but we do not 
 know what makes the result so wonderful. An artist,
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 24 1 
 
 a painter or poet, may be inaccurate in pictorial or 
 descriptive detail and yet profoundly effective ; as 
 Shakespeare is in spite of his disregard of " the unities," 
 or what a niggling criticism would call "accuracy". 
 " Scientific " accuracy may even be impertinent. 
 
 Still it remains true that the more we understand of 
 the order of the universe, and the connected details of 
 phenomena, the better able we should be to see their 
 beauty. Patient and minute observation, intimate know- 
 ledge, combined with a reverent temperament, undoubt- 
 edly confer this gift of appreciation, as they did in the case 
 of Sir Isaac Newton, in the case of Huxley, and as they 
 may do in the case of Mr. Spencer himself But without 
 reverence and humility, it may become mere arrogance. 
 For it is just what we do not understand, the part of our 
 experience that evades analysis, it is this which is the 
 source of aesthetic pleasure. No doubt the rounded 
 rock marked with parallel scratches may call up less 
 poetry in an ignorant mind than in the mind of a geolo- 
 gist, who knows that over this rock a glacier slid a 
 million years ago. But the poetry is in part the result 
 of the geologist's not knowing exactly what set the 
 glacier in motion and who ordered the million years. 
 If nothing were left to wonder at, there would be no 
 poetry and no religion. Science should therefore culti- 
 vate reverence and humility, if it is really science. 
 
 As a mental discipline, again, the claims of science 
 are very high. Accuracy in observation re- science both 
 quires that we should eliminate from our con- feeds and 
 sciousness all the points that do not matter, in exercises the 
 order to note those that do ; this is the way in ™°'^ 
 which we cultivate attention, the first thing necessary 
 for successful mental effort of the simplest kind. Most 
 of us go through our daily life with very little continuous 
 
 16
 
 242 Common Sense in Education 
 
 concentration on phenomena ; there is, indeed, little need 
 for us to be habitually " attending " to the things about 
 us. It is even better to let our minds be reasonably 
 " vacant " than to be in a state of perpetual effort. 
 But just as in morals it is salutary, and even essential, 
 that we should have frequent opportunities for the exer- 
 cise of self-denial (such as domestic life provides foi 
 most of us), so in order to keep the intellectual powers 
 fresh, we ought to have frequent calls for the concentra- 
 tion of our attention. The observation of phenomena, 
 the vigilant detection of results and their accurate 
 measurement, are just what experimental science pro- 
 vides. 
 
 Most of our practical intellectual errors arise from the 
 
 haziness of our ideas ; for instance, we confuse 
 
 ., one class of things with another class, we 
 
 trains the ° ' 
 
 mind best by define One term in such a way as to include 
 referringcon- other terms not in question. Several people 
 sciousiy to may mean several different things when they 
 the laws o gpeak of gas, or of the British Constitution, or 
 of a republic ; when a child says that a noun is 
 something that tells you what a person or object does or 
 suffers, his definition may cover a book, a verb, a phono- 
 graph, and many other things. 
 
 It is often matter for wonder that teachers do not 
 spend more time in the direct cultivation of the power 
 of classification and definition. Botany, for instance, is 
 a common subject of school study, though by no means, 
 as used, one of the best forms of "science" ; and pupils 
 are taught to classify plants according to certain charac- 
 teristics. Here is the opportunity of the good teacher 
 to show the class the logic of classification and the 
 meaning of a good definition ; what precautions must 
 be taken to distinguish species from species, and species
 
 Mathematics and Physical Science 243 
 
 from genus ; and how to make a definition which is 
 clear and sufficient — distinguishing the thing defined 
 from all other things, and just enough and no more for 
 its exact identification. We might well begin by point- 
 ing out how the rules of logical classification and of 
 definition hold in geometry, and get pupils to apply the 
 same principles to classification and definition in (say) 
 their botany and their grammar. A vast advance is 
 made in profitable teaching if the pupil is induced to 
 recognise the validity of the same logical laws of classifi- 
 cation, definition, proof, and so forth, as well as the need 
 for logical precision, in every subject of investigation. 
 In every-day affairs, the knowledge on which we act is 
 gained mainly by induction, and we ought to teach our 
 pupils how to use inductive methods most surely. We 
 arrive at generalisations by a careful examination of 
 individual facts, and we should provide our pupils with 
 some standard for judging on what grounds they are 
 entitled to make inferences, and what pitfalls lie in the 
 way. Yet teachers perpetually encourage children to 
 make a general inference from one unanalysed particular, 
 a most pernicious practice. We are all liable to error 
 from hasty generalisation, and young people necessarily 
 more than others, whereas real knowledge can be 
 measured by the number of general truths which we 
 have arrived at for good and sufficient reasons. If, 
 then, the teacher of science — physical or philological — 
 will be at pains to show how each step which he takes is 
 secure on grounds of logic, he teaches his class a lesson 
 that is priceless because it is applicable over the whole 
 range of practical activity. 
 
 For reference : — Dr. Wormell and Prof. Miall in Teaching and 
 Organisatiofi. Prof. Matthews in The Aims and Practice of Teaching
 
 244 Common Sense in Education 
 
 and the Educational World, Jan. 1899. Prof. Miall in Journal 
 of Education, 1895, p. 406. Report to (U.S.) Committee of Ten. 
 Bain's Education as a Science. Harris in Report of the (U.S.) 
 Committee of Fifteen. Stroud in Journal of Education, 1897, p. 44. 
 Welton's Lo^ic. Adamson^s Logic for Teachers. Welton's Logical 
 Bases of Education.
 
 245 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY 
 
 7 am not here to teach you history. No man can do that. I am here 
 to teach you how to teach yourselves history. I will give you the scaffold- 
 ing as well as I can. You must build the house. 
 
 — Charles Kingsley. 
 
 Nothing has been proved more conclusively by scienti- 
 fic investigation than that man, whatever his Geography 
 origin, has been made what he is, to an and History 
 extent beyond our computation, by the '" Education 
 action of physical forces playing upon him from time 
 immemorial. If, then, it is essential in education that 
 we should know the world we live in and our relation 
 to it, we must obviously attach the highest importance 
 to the two great series of studies that tell us, first, the 
 nature and operation of the forces that have made the 
 earth's surface — that is, the home of man — what it is ; 
 and secondly, how these great physical forces in combina- 
 tion with spiritual forces have affected men collected 
 together in societies. The first is the substance of what 
 we call Geography ; the second, of History. Geography 
 helps us to a knowledge of what man's home or environ- 
 ment is and how it comes to be what it is ; History 
 helps us to a knowledge of what he has done and is 
 likely to do in it, and why. 
 
 If men were the result solely of physical forces, 
 geography might well be taken as an all-embracing
 
 246 Common Sense in Education 
 
 and sufficient study. In that case, from a knowledge of 
 Geography those facts which Professor Huxley compre- 
 and its hended under the name of Physiography, we 
 
 connexions should be able to explain all that man has 
 m the done, is doing, and is likely to do. But man 
 
 has all sorts of instincts and tendencies that 
 are unanalysable as the results of mere physical environ- 
 ment, and yet are clearly inseparable from his nature ; 
 so physiography must hand on the task to political 
 geography, and political geography requires the help of 
 history to explain the spiritual and intellectual influences 
 at work on man. Geography is thus on the one side 
 connected with the natural sciences, and on the other 
 with the "humanities"; and if properly studied, must 
 concern itself with both. There is a kind of succes- 
 sion ; physiography investigates the great forces affecting 
 the whole world ; physical geography investigates the 
 results of these forces as they are expressed in the dis- 
 tribution of land and water ; political geography throws 
 light upon the action of these geographical results in 
 human societies, and vice versd. Thus, again, geography 
 is not merely physiography, because its scope of inquiry 
 is different ; it deals not with the general questions of 
 the action of great forces, but it introduces the limita- 
 tions of locality. It asks as physical geography what 
 local physical effect a particular physiographical fact 
 produces in a given place ; and as political geography, 
 it asks how this physiographical fact affects the political 
 and social relations of men in that given place, and how 
 men in their turn modify the conditions and fortunes of 
 their local surroundings. 
 
 But it can hardly be doubted that a real or philo- 
 sophical comprehension of political geography and of 
 history requires considerable knowledge of general geo-
 
 Geography and History 247 
 
 graphy ; and that a knowledge of general geography is 
 necessarily based on a knowledge of physio- i^ ^^^^^ 
 graphy. It is possible, however, to treat stages, geo- 
 physiography, when we are dealing with the graphy is 
 later stage of school-life, that beginning ""cience" 
 at fifteen, as the business of " science " teaching. We 
 must suppose that the school curriculum recognises some- 
 where that a well-instructed and well-prepared youth 
 should know something of the configuration of the earth's 
 surface, of meteorology and climate, and of the things 
 found in and on the earth — minerals, animals, and the 
 like, the one set of phenomena being determined by the 
 other next above it — in this case, physiography. 
 
 But the Geography lesson proper asks what is the 
 meaning of all these things to man, how this Geography, 
 particular " environment " affects him and his the meaning 
 affairs. The geography lesson as distinguished '° ^^^ 
 from the lesson in physiography must therefore deal 
 somewhat cursorily with subjects which are the main 
 matter of physiography. For instance, physiography has 
 little immediate concern with the density of population in 
 various centres of the earth ; but the geography lesson 
 makes a point of emphasising this. Density of population 
 is determined in very many cases by copious rainfall ; 
 but geography is content to note this fact of copious 
 rainfall, the full reasons for which are given by physio- 
 graphy, and to use it, together with other facts non- 
 physiographical, to explain, as a secondary result, density 
 of population, and, as tertiary or derivative results, those 
 divisions of the earth's surface which we call political. 
 Thus we see that though political distribution may 
 depend remotely, though in a direct line, on physio- 
 graphical causes, the lesson in geography cannot do 
 piore than briefly accept the information supplied by
 
 248 Common Sense in Education 
 
 physiography. Thus, again, the teacher's task is to 
 choose not how much but how little he is to teach, though 
 he must teach in such a way as to give his pupils the 
 power of knowing what facts are significant, and the 
 power of "going on". 
 
 If we are dealing with pupils who are not yet of an 
 age to apply themselves to intensive and detailed study 
 of physiography as such, physical geography as such, or 
 political geography as such, we must, of course, teach 
 the elements of the one with the elements of the others, 
 in order to make each interesting ; but we must bear in 
 mind that the natural divisions and features of the 
 surface of the earth are the result of physiographical fact, 
 and the administrative divisions are results of natural 
 divisions, more remotely in the series. 
 
 In any case it should be clear to us that, to be effectual 
 or sufficient, our knowledge of home surroundings can 
 be ultimately built solidly and philosophically only on 
 the larger or more general basis supplied by a knowledge 
 of great natural forces and their action in other places 
 beyond our sensible experience. We must teach some 
 physiography, and some general geography before we 
 can hope that our teaching of home geography is as 
 serviceable, and even as intelligible, as it may be. We 
 teach it roughly at first, by observation, such as it is , 
 we can get our pupils to interpret these observations 
 aright ultimately by the more general studies. 
 
 The point of chief importance to notice here is that 
 Geography geography is, all through, an inquiry into 
 as a core of causcs and effects, and therefore, as a subject 
 instruction of study, has the supreme merit of being well 
 concatenated, related in its parts, capable of being made 
 into a rational whole. This constitutes its great value 
 as a centre or core of instruction, if it is properly taught.
 
 Geography and History 249 
 
 If taught unscientifically, it is of little consequence ; we 
 might as well set our pupils to "get up " a gazetteer. If 
 geography is not treated as a study of causal relations, 
 it is merely topography ; and topography is the main 
 part of the old-fashioned geography, which burdened 
 the memory with a great number of details which, on 
 any rational principle, were unconnected. 
 
 It should be clear to us, then, that our geography, to 
 be really profitable, must contain a general The general 
 element ; and this in two main ways. We can element in 
 easily see how close is the bearing of the facts Geography 
 of physiography on geography, that is, how the action of 
 the great master forces must be understood before we 
 can explain their local effects. But more ; we must also 
 step out beyond the borders of our own political limits 
 so as to get means and material for comparison and 
 contrast. We must know other lands as well as England 
 before we can understand England. " What should they 
 know of England who only England know ? " To confine 
 English learners to a study of the " geography of Great 
 Britain " might result in a minute knowledge of the 
 topography of their own country, but it would not be 
 geography, although this kind of limitation is much less 
 perilous in the case of Geography than of its sister study 
 History. 
 
 It would seem desirable therefore, first, to base geo- 
 graphical study on a study of physiography and then to 
 direct the pupil's attention at as early a stage as possible 
 to countries outside his own, so that he may recognise 
 the features common to all. Here another question 
 emerges. How are we to begin ? Are we to postpone 
 all knowledge of detail until the basis is well and truly 
 laid in physiography ? Or can we profitably teach the 
 elements of physiography and of geography, physical
 
 250 Common Sense in Education 
 
 and political, side by side? The answer that will be 
 given by the practical teacher probably admits of no 
 doubt. We must begin with what the young learner can 
 see and verify ; we must interest him first of all in the 
 things about him. A plan of the school or house, a map 
 of the familiar neighbourhood, would seem to be an in- 
 dispensable beginning to the most profitable course of 
 geographical lessons, — invaluable if we can get a child 
 to make them, however imperfectly, for himself. But it 
 would be mere pedantry to try to work in this way con- 
 tinuously. We begin with our pupil, it is true, when he 
 is quite young. As in Mathematics, we take measures 
 from time to time to convince him that what he is learn- 
 „, „ ing as abstractions lie hidden in concretes. 
 
 The con- ° 
 
 Crete" me- But we Can soon quit our little beginnings, 
 thod must our schoolroom, or house, or neighbourhood; 
 not be used ^^(^ when ouce the step has been taken, it is 
 "" "^ the privilege of civilised beings for whom 
 
 maps are made to be able to travel by mental effort a 
 thousand miles away, if need be, from their own doors. 
 The chief business of this early introduction to topo- 
 graphical geography should be to teach the class to 
 understand the language of maps and other graphic re- 
 cords of geographical facts ; to read them as an accom- 
 plished musician reads a score. Under very favourable 
 circumstances, when we have hills and rivers within the 
 compass of a walk, we may go farther and get children 
 to realise their maps more truly, but our chief purpose 
 in this first stage must be to enable our pupils to inter- 
 pret the mapped records of position, distance, area, and 
 so forth. Moreover, in these days of model-making and 
 pictures, it would be mere wastefulness not to use them 
 for the purpose of giving our children some working 
 notions of the commonest physical features of the earth
 
 Geography and History 251 
 
 — rivers, mountains, plains, valleys, islands, and so on, 
 those first which are next to the child's experience, and 
 therefore psychologically fitted for early presentation. 
 Here the abstract must be used to correct the concrete. 
 Pupils brought up on coarse and monstrously ill-propor- 
 tioned models may get seriously erroneous views as to 
 geographical or physiographical facts. 
 
 Side by side with this somewhat topographical study, 
 we may well introduce the class to the more Meteorology 
 familiar phenomena of meteorology and climate ^"^ climate 
 — rain, clouds, snow, hail, wind, and sea ; and later still, 
 to the phenomena caused by the planetary character of 
 the earth, its atmosphere and tides and currents ; and 
 finally the effect of climate and physical configuration 
 on animals and vegetation. 
 
 It is obvious that we shall soon have to supplement 
 the map by a " globe," as soon, indeed, as it becomes 
 necessary to get our pupil to take account of the fact 
 that the earth is round ; we cannot otherwise explain 
 the phenomena of day and night, latitude and longitude, 
 tides and currents, and the like. 
 
 There seems to be no reason why we should not 
 accustom boys and girls to know a good many of the 
 more obvious topographical details about places whose 
 names are familiar to them. Learning useless lists is one 
 thing, but knowing the relative positions of places that 
 are frequently mentioned is quite another. To this end 
 it is desirable not indeed that lists should be committed 
 to memory, but that our pupils should be encouraged to 
 con the map, and to use it very freely, whenever a well- 
 known place is mentioned in the course of any of their 
 studies. 
 
 Hitherto we have been dealing with the material and 
 pnethods which may be supposed to be fitted for the
 
 252 Common Sense in Education 
 
 teaching of geography up to the fourteenth or fifteenth 
 year, and it may be taken that the line thus indicated 
 would cover a course complete in itself, so far as it went, 
 for that period, and would also be a satisfactory prepara- 
 tion for a more detailed and intensive study in school- 
 life prolonged farther. We must recognise in every 
 subject, but particularly in subjects like history and 
 Different geography, where breadth and generality of 
 ages require conception depend on widening experience of 
 different the world, that it is necessary to begin by 
 procedure teaching the more striking and interesting ele- 
 ments with strict reference to the capacity of youth to 
 understand ; and that we must be prepared to go over 
 the same ground again, perhaps more than once, in a dif- 
 ferent way, in accordance with the growing expansion of 
 a learner's horizon and power of conception. Thus we 
 shall teach the facts concerning rivers and mountains 
 differently to children of seven years and ten years and 
 fifteen years of age. At each stage we shall begin, in a 
 logical sense, farther back ; with matter covering a larger 
 area. You would say nothing to a little child about the 
 shrinkage of the earth's crust, but a pupil of fifteen or 
 sixteen would find little difficulty in conceiving such a 
 fact, and could be easily got to recognise the confirma- 
 tion of our teaching in accessible areas of observation. 
 If we remember this, we shall not be puzzled by the 
 apparent quarrel between those on the one hand who 
 would have geography to be " a demonstrative " science, 
 derived directly from the premisses supplied remotely by 
 mechanics and then by physiography, and those, on the 
 other hand, who declare that we ought to start from home 
 and teach the learner to observe, in ever-widening circles, 
 with his own eyes, and accept no " facts " which he has 
 not himself acc^uired through his own observations.
 
 Geography and History 253 
 
 The same is true of History studies. The history of 
 our own country, which is most sedulously History and 
 taught in our schools, must be related to the histories 
 general history of the world on the one hand and to the 
 history of other countries on the other. It would other- 
 wise fail to produce its most profitable effect as a branch 
 of education, first the widening of the intellectual and 
 moral horizon, and secondly the cultivation of the power 
 of weighing evidence. 
 
 The chief essential in both History and Geography to 
 prevent either from becoming a mere list of ^ 
 
 ~ ° Comparison 
 
 facts is constant comparison and contrast and contrast 
 The facts concatenated in history as causes continually 
 and effects will still remain mere catalogues "^cessary 
 of things in succession unless they are generalised by 
 being shown to be like other causes and other effects in 
 similar succession. So, too, in geography. As a begin- 
 ning of geographical study, we must needs secure a rough 
 mastery of our immediate surroundings, and the isolated 
 position of England makes the step at once natural and 
 convenient ; but this done, we should proceed at once 
 to a more extensive consideration of little points. We 
 should compare the size and shape of England with 
 that of all other countries in Europe ; then the mountain 
 systems of one marked physical section with that of 
 another in the same continent ; and then the river sys- 
 tems in like manner. To take political divisions as 
 the order of successive teaching is a much less rational 
 and a much less useful method of teaching, even as 
 a means of memorising. If then (to make a practical 
 suggestion), we have to teach a class of children the geo- 
 graphy of the chief political divisions of Europe in a given 
 time, we shall certainly gain by choosing the rational 
 order rather than the order of arbitrary succession.
 
 2 54 Common Sense in Education 
 
 ''Commercial" or "Economic" geography is not a 
 Commercial kind of geography different from the sort 
 or Economic which the school should teach, but rather a 
 Geography special application to particular problems of 
 the general capacity trained in school. The geographi- 
 cal problems of commerce and economics may with 
 great advantage be treated as an occasional part of the 
 school exercise in geography, as " riders " so to speak. 
 In school we give the same general training in mathe- 
 matics to the man who is to be an accountant, an 
 engineer, a surveyor, a gunner, or the like ; but each 
 subsequently devotes especial attention to the kind of 
 problem likely to help him in the discharge of his pro- 
 fessional duties. So in geography ; we give the indis- 
 pensable general training before we apply the capacity 
 thus trained to special purposes. 
 
 *' The root of all geographical ability," say Mr. Mac- 
 kinder, " lies in being at home with maps." This does 
 not imply a mere familiarity with multitudinous details, 
 which constitute a mere burden to the memory, but 
 rather a thorough acquaintance with the general physi- 
 cal and political features of the countries of the world, 
 and the natural conditions obtaining in each section ; 
 statistical information about details is incidental, but the 
 power of appreciating the significance of statistics and 
 of acting upon them is vital. When once the general 
 geography is mastered, the student of commercial geo- 
 graphy may be directed to the special consideration 
 of definite commercial problems. But above all things 
 the general training should come before specialised 
 study ; Geography and Commerce before Commercial 
 Geography. 
 
 Geography, we saw, helped us to a knowledge of the 
 home of mankind, with its effect on men and their recip-
 
 Geography and History 255 
 
 rocal effect on it. We cannot properly dissociate Geo- 
 graphy from History, nor was it ever done until History is 
 these later days of excessive sub-division of of political 
 studies. No one reads the history of Greece societies 
 and Rome without an atlas, but the inordinate " modern- 
 isation " of studies has divorced two studies that should 
 never have been put asunder. History tells us what 
 men do and have done in organised political societies, 
 *' grouped in governments ". It views things in the aspect 
 of time ; as they go on ; as processes. Plainly, history 
 at its highest is a biography, a biography however, ulti- 
 mately not of individuals, but of communities. And just 
 as in geography we begin with familiar and striking de- 
 tails of home surroundings, so in history we introduce 
 children to the biographies of individuals before we 
 expect them to take any interest in communities. 
 
 There are some misconceptions, it would appear, as to 
 the effects produced by history study on the The effects 
 mind. Too much is expected of it. First of of history 
 all, it is true here as elsewhere that a good ""'^y 
 teacher will do more work with a bad " method " than a 
 bad teacher armed with brand-new and irrefragable psy- 
 chological theories. In the next place the study of 
 history would seem to serve for intellectual very much 
 more than for moral progress. The study of history 
 does not necessarily enlarge sympathies, nor prove the 
 destructive results of unrighteousness, nor inculcate the 
 duty of individuals to the state, though it may help to 
 do all these things in the hands of a good teacher who 
 works on material otherwise well prepared. The "appli- 
 cation " of history lessons is their weakest point, for the 
 reason that the lessons may be made at different times 
 and in different hands to prove such various things. We 
 may perhaps like people the better because we know
 
 256 Common Sense in Education 
 
 more about them ; but history does not show unrighte- 
 ousness on a grand scale invariably followed by retribu- 
 tion ; nor that the devotion of the individual to the state 
 has always been justified by results in common happiness 
 or prosperity or virtue. Moreover history is much more 
 concerned in proving differences between nations than 
 in showing that we are all men-and-brothers. The study 
 of history does not necessarily make people impartial, 
 if their sympathies or prejudices are naturally acute. 
 Macaulay, Freeman, Froude, among ourselves ; Treit- 
 schke and Mommsen among the Germans ; these are 
 not models of impartiality. 
 
 It is beyond doubt, however, that lessons on personages 
 and incidents of history can be made to enlarge and 
 purify the sympathies, to stir wholesome enthusiasm and 
 patriotism and a sense of civic duty; but then these 
 lessons are not really history, and it is positively essential 
 that we should recognise the fact that most school 
 " history," being necessarily picturesque and panoramic, 
 must be merely preparatory for the real study of history 
 proper, which may be begun in the later stages of 
 secondary school-life, but as a special science is much 
 more truly a study for adults. That is, history at school, 
 in order to be successful as a subject of teaching, must 
 not attempt too much, must not indeed try to deal with 
 some important aspects of history unless in a very ten- 
 tative way and with advanced pupils. The examination 
 of authorities is a very difficult business if you have them 
 merely at second-hand. 
 
 The main work of scientific history is to weigh "; 
 The weigh- evidence, and the just estimation of the value 
 ingofcvi- of evidence is the highest flight of the critical 
 dence intelligence. The picturesque and panoramic 
 
 part of history is useful and necessary in the school in^
 
 Geography and History 257 
 
 order to give atmosphere and perspective, to cultivate ima- 
 gination, to enable young people to learn to realise times 
 and places far removed from their own experience. The 
 true significance of facts cannot be properly taught till 
 comparatively late in the course of study, and history in 
 the school must therefore not attempt too ambitious a task. 
 
 It is important to get this clear because in history 
 perhaps more than in any other school study it has 
 become the fashion to require both more and less than 
 should be expected. For instance, constitutional history 
 is entirely unsuited for school. It is largely a question 
 of accumulated precedents, and calls for a far more 
 precise knowledge of detail and judicial capacity than 
 a young scholar can in reason be supposed to possess. 
 But " foreign " history is indispensable. 
 
 Let us examine the purposes which school history may 
 be properly called upon to serve, and see if Atmosphere 
 the ends we have in view help us to deter- and per- 
 mine method of procedure. First of all, we spective 
 want to give our pupils atmosphere and perspective. 
 Intellectual and moral vulgarity arises from narrowness 
 of vision, from failure to understand other people's point 
 of view. To the vulgar person everything which can- 
 not be stated in terms current and familiar is ridiculous, 
 strange, and uncouth ; the historical atmosphere, then, 
 must help our pupils to realise, pictorially in the first 
 instance, other ages and other lands. But then they 
 want perspective also ; they should be able to look on 
 mankind down a long vista ; to feel that the state of 
 things with which they are themselves acquainted has 
 its beginnings in a very distant past. We must there- 
 fore get them to realise the succession of events, and of 
 states of society and of governments. 
 
 They must learn to see these things in their right 
 
 17
 
 258 Common Sense in Education 
 
 proportions and _ in their proper places in successive 
 stages of human development, for only thus will our 
 pupils learn to respect other times and other manners. 
 A vulgar and ignorant person may be expected to think 
 little of Julius Caesar because the Roman of eighteen 
 hundred years ago knew nothing of the steam engine 
 or aniline dyes or dynamite ; but when he begins to see 
 the relation of this great man to his own times and to 
 the subsequent development of western civilisation, the 
 political perspective of a scholar becomes more correct, 
 and his views wider and juster. The case here imagined 
 may seem to be a very much exaggerated illustration 
 of vulgar ignorance, but it is really only a special case 
 of the general vulgar ignorance of the unlearned and 
 unlettered who think this age and its achievements so 
 incomparably greater than those of long ago. It is 
 history that teaches us to distinguish between the real 
 greatness that can be expressed in terms of spiritual 
 and moral force and the greatness that is mere bulk. 
 We want our pupil to understand the significance of 
 the process which history examines ; to discriminate 
 the stages of evolution ; to enclose in brackets, as a 
 mathematician does, the quantities that can be treated 
 collectively. The formal value of history as a mental 
 gymnastic is its unifying power. 
 
 It is a wholesome instinct then that makes us almost 
 Ancient invariably teach ancient before modern his- 
 
 before tory. Few of us have known successful his- 
 
 niodern tory teaching of young children begin with the 
 
 history reign of Queen Victoria. We naturally begin 
 
 with the ancient Britons and their woad, or with Arthur 
 and his Round Table, or with King Alfred and the cakes 
 which he did not neglect. These are more personal and 
 therefore more picturesque than the multitude of blurred,
 
 Geography and History 259 
 
 confused, and kaleidoscopic events and movements that 
 make up our more modern records. We naturally work 
 down in succession, the task covering more and more 
 details as we descend the centuries ; but though we are 
 brought down at last, even with young scholars, to our 
 own times, we shall find remarkable confirmation of the 
 propriety of the order of precedure, ancient to modern, in 
 the fact that our children are positively more interested 
 in the personages of the earlier parts of history than they 
 are in those of the later. So we need not fear that we 
 are wasting time when we teach ancient and medieval 
 history in picturesque fashion at school rather than recent 
 history of the constitutional variety. We are really pre- 
 paring a very necessary background for the later learn- 
 ing high in the school or at the university, or for work 
 later in life upon minuter details. Perhaps it is not 
 truly history that we are teaching ; but we are certainly 
 creating the atmosphere absolutely essential if the sub- 
 sequent teaching is to be of real value. To begin, then, 
 with the earlier history is the more natural, because, first, 
 the order of time is the natural order, and most early 
 understood ; because, secondly, the details are fewer ; 
 because, thirdly, they are more picturesque ; because, 
 fourthly, they are, as a consequence of all these con- 
 siderations, better suited psychologically for the use of 
 youth. Some people would have us begin to teach this 
 and kindred subjects with a lesson on The Policeman. 
 The significance of the policeman may well be taught ; 
 but surely it is mere pedantry to try to evoke in the 
 minds of children the abstract ideas on which the ulti- 
 mate justification of the policeman's presence depends. 
 For the child, the policeman exists to punish wrong- 
 doers ; he is not an expression of highly organised social 
 development.
 
 26o Common Sense in Education 
 
 Custom, then, and, it would appear, right reason, have 
 Ancient his- Settled that we should teach ancient history 
 tory should early in the school career and that we should 
 not be merely even begin with it. But we ought not to con- 
 native £j^g |.j^jg ancient history to the concerns of our 
 own country. It is, again, atmosphere that we want. 
 After a young pupil has obtained a general knowledge 
 of the chief personages and events of English history, 
 which can certainly be effected by the ninth year, two 
 or three years can most profitably be devoted to the 
 elements of world-history, concurrently, if you will, with 
 English. He will have got much of the background 
 already in the history which he has learnt as literature. 
 He should have read the stately narrative of the Bible, 
 the Odyssey and Iliad, many English ballads, and any 
 sagas and lays of ancient days that may come in his way. 
 These things should have been read or heard as stories, 
 not, of course, as lessons with " meanings and allusions". 
 
 We must begin our teaching of history as social life 
 History of began before society became highly organised. 
 Social life We must go far enough back to secure a 
 conspectus, something which the pupil can comprehend 
 " in the lump," to use a phrase sanctioned by Professor 
 Withers. History, as a process, begins in a p/exus which 
 we cannot unravel, and so much the better is it as a 
 start. It begins as narrative, and narrative, so far as we 
 can tell, in song, and perhaps with dance, as the use of 
 metre possibly indicates. It is, in fact, at the outset one 
 and the same with literature. We should, then, use 
 great narrative stories or poems, as early as we can ; poems 
 in prose, as Malory, if we cannot find ballads sufficiently 
 simple, the Arabian Nights, early Greek stories, and so on. 
 To quote again the distinguished authority just named, 
 the point we must consider is not whether such stories
 
 Geography and History 261 
 
 are historically true — that very matter becomes the sub- 
 ject of investigation to which the scholar will ultimately 
 be directed — but whether they were once told as true. 
 This it is which gives them their significance in the 
 education of mankind, and marks them out as probably 
 most acceptable to young learners. Our child reads 
 English history from his seventh to his ninth ^. . . , 
 
 ° , , . First ennch 
 
 year, inclusively, three times, each time in the imagina- 
 greater detail, once a year ; for if we wait and tion by a 
 worry over details, covering little ground at a s^^^rai 
 time, we destroy interest and enjoyment, in 
 history as in literature, by spoiling the pictures. At the 
 end of his ninth year, he will have a pretty complete 
 general knowledge of English history, as a panorama, a 
 series of interesting events and personages. If we proceed 
 at once to take the next analytical step, and try to get 
 him to appreciate history as a study of evidence, we make 
 a futile appeal to powers that hardly exist in a brain so 
 immature. But we can most profitably proceed with the 
 business of enriching the imagination and sympathy ; 
 preoccupying the ground, so to speak, which might other- 
 wise become hereafter the seed-plot of ignorant provin- 
 ciality and vulgarity. Think what a rich world this is 
 for those people to whom it is the visible result of the 
 teeming activities of a thousand interesting personages 
 whose bones were dust and whose tools were rust cen- 
 turies ago ! And how poor to those who know it only 
 as the little street in which they live and the persons 
 about them from day to day ! 
 
 When, then, our pupil is ten, unless we are constrained, 
 as alas ! so many of us are, by examinations and other 
 influences so often destructive of the main purposes of 
 learning, a valuable year might well be spent in getting 
 general knowledge of the great personages and peoples
 
 262 Common Sense in Education 
 
 of the East, using the Bible where it is available ; then in 
 the eleventh and twelfth years, would come the outlines 
 of the history of Greece and Rome ; in the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth the history of modern Europe ; all, of 
 course, treated very generally. A pupil who began his 
 fifteenth year with the stock that this course — a perfectly 
 practicable course — implies, might then be turned with 
 the greatest profit, to the beginning of a study of history 
 as a matter of evidence and origins. 
 
 This general knowledge of the panorama of history is 
 of vital importance to a proper understanding of that 
 political side of geography which is its crown and com- 
 pletion. The study of geography remains topography 
 and physiography still unless we proceed farther in our 
 study of cause and effect, and investigate its bearings on 
 the constitution and behaviour of human societies. This 
 we cannot understand without making an extensive, 
 even if superficial, survey of the chief facts of history 
 in general. 
 
 Any hard and fast distinction that has yet been made 
 between ancient and modern history seems to have little 
 value except as a means of marking off the history of 
 political societies that still live from those that have 
 become extinct or, as has happened generally, have been 
 merged in others. History is one. 
 
 A training in the science of history, to be begun not 
 History and before the pupil has a very solid groundwork 
 the forma- of undisputed facts to build upon, is, speak- 
 tion of ing psychologically, the best possible means 
 
 opinion Qf cultivating the judgment. We teach our 
 
 pupils at this stage how to use all available means to 
 form just opinions ; for history, so far as its end is 
 practical, is directed to sifting the materials out of 
 which opinions are formed. In studies like geometry
 
 Geography and History 263 
 
 or physics, there is no room for mere opinion, though 
 there may be for hypothesis ; hypothesis is pretty sure 
 in the course of experiment and investigation to be 
 rejected or to become certainty ; but history must mostly 
 remain matter of probability, that is, of opinion, to the 
 end. The investigation of the problems of history, then, 
 is nearly connected with the daily problems offered to 
 our judgment; it should help us to "put things together," 
 to appreciate character considerately and indulgently ; 
 to give due importance to the facts that matter and to 
 put aside the facts that derive their weight from preju- 
 dice, mere iteration, or untrustworthy authority. And 
 these considerations should help to impress on us the 
 conviction that any real study of scientific history must 
 be not, perhaps, entirely neglected, but properly left to 
 a late stage in the school course, to be more effectually 
 pursued in the university. 
 
 University teachers of history sometimes say that they 
 prefer to receive pupils who have had no pre- 
 
 ^. , . . ,. ,, . ^ School 
 
 vious teachmg m history at all, smce most history as a 
 university students have to unlearn so much preparaUon 
 when they address themselves to the study of for special- 
 history as a science. This is unreasonable. '^^^ umver- 
 For what such sturdy beggars really demand 
 is that the school should forgo a study which even in 
 its preliminaries is of the highest civilising and educating 
 value for all pupils, merely in order to reserve a clear 
 field, a hortus inclusiis^ to the specialists who receive a 
 favoured few for special cultivation at the university. 
 These critics would deny a like privilege to other 
 subjects, asking, in effect, that the elements of all other 
 studies should be properly taught, and the pupils thus 
 specially prepared then handed over, soul and body, to 
 themselves.
 
 264 Common Sense In Education 
 
 The same sort of claim is made by the boat-racing 
 experts and most other specialists. But it is the busi- 
 ness, almost the chief business, of teachers, to keep the 
 specialists in their place ; and to insist that all specialist 
 efforts should be regulated by general considerations of 
 what is good in education for the greater number of those 
 in our schools, those, in fact, who are not to become 
 specialists. We cannot too often remind ourselves that 
 teachers are not all teachers of special subjects, nor 
 called upon primarily to prepare pupils for the opera- 
 tions of specialist teachers. It is above all things our 
 business to implant in our pupils the habit of regarding 
 knowledge in connexion, and we must therefore make the 
 basis of our teaching as broad as possible. 
 
 History has its varieties of application just as geo- 
 Speciai gr^P^y has. Each serves, in so far as it is 
 
 branches of a school subject, for the general training of 
 History capacity ; each is meant to give the learner a 
 
 general power to interpret facts and to arrange them in 
 the way most likely to suit his particular purposes from 
 time to time. As there is a special application to com- 
 merce of geographical facts, so is there also of historical 
 facts. The history of discovery, the history of taxation, 
 the history of trade guilds and trading governments 
 might be called commercial history, and to the man of 
 business are of real importance. Other varieties of 
 history are easy to think of — history of the Church, of 
 the constitution, of military organisation, and the rest — 
 a list almost inexhaustible. But all these special applica- 
 tions must be subordinate to the general training in 
 history which the school is required to give : first the 
 necessary background, and then exercise in the esti- 
 mation of evidence and in the discovery and weighing of 
 authorities. We cannot ascertain the truth of records
 
 Geography and History 265 
 
 unless we know where to look for the most trustworthy 
 account and unless we know how to set one account 
 against another and extract the truth from varying de- 
 tails. History may thus, in the right hands, become a 
 training in patience and temper and intellectual truth- 
 fulness, always providing we can exclude the bias of 
 partisanship ; and this, after all, may be regarded as 
 easier in the school than it is in the more mature and 
 prejudiced society outside it. 
 
 But it remains true that during the greater part of the 
 life at school we can only very cautiously treat history 
 as a science of discovery. Our chief business is to see 
 that our pupils get to know and to remember undoubted 
 facts that matter, the memorable and significant things ; 
 and we do this most effectually by cultivating their power 
 of selection, making them read with attention, training 
 them in the power of noting and succinctly recording 
 sets of facts bearing on the solution of a particular pro- 
 blem or illustration of a particular idea, increasing our 
 call for detail as we proceed higher in the school. This 
 done, our pupils will have the key to unlock all history 
 with some profit to themselves ; both materially, in the 
 actual gain of information and mastery of general truth, 
 and also in a disciplinary sense, for they will have 
 acquired a most valuable judicial capacity and, perhaps, 
 habit of mind. 
 
 The use that the time-chart serves in a course such 
 as is here laid down should be very obvious. The Time- 
 Every school should have, placed in a con- Chart 
 venient place and on a large scale, one or more such 
 charts as those made by Mr. E. J. Ensor, displaying 
 graphically the synchronism of the most notable events 
 and landmarks in history. Just as our knowledge of 
 England as a sectional map is all the truer and more
 
 266 Common Sense in Education 
 
 profitable if we relate it to other world -divisions of 
 varying magnitudes, so we understand the bearing of 
 an important event all the better if we know its relation 
 in time to other events ; and if this can be most easily 
 and most enduringly rendered graphically, it is folly to 
 despise or to neglect such a device. 
 
 But this may well be supplemented by the Line of 
 The Line of Time described by Principal Withers, which 
 Time is, in brief, a long strip of paper pasted inside 
 
 the history note-book, indicating to the right and left 
 of the central point which we make our era (the date 
 assigned for the birth of Christ) the position of various 
 great events in stated positions corresponding to their 
 proximity or distance. By means of this strip, which he 
 receives blank and fills up by additions from time to 
 time made by himself, the pupil is perpetually called 
 upon to relate new facts in point of time to all facts, and 
 to recall old facts anew. He thus learns dates in a much 
 more rational way than by merely committing them to 
 memory piecemeal, and they are more profitable because 
 the additions arise out of the processes and needs of his 
 own reading. 
 
 The map is another absolutely essential device for the 
 Maps in effectual teaching of history. It is necessary. 
 History first, as a means of fixing in the memory the 
 
 mere names of places which are of significance in history; 
 a mere mechanical means, perhaps, but one of the most 
 useful that can be employed. The map is even more 
 necessary for the understanding of both the rapid suc- 
 cession of events, as in a campaign, and the slower 
 working of economic forces, as when we have to account 
 for such facts as the powerful isolation of England, the 
 growth of great ports, manufacturing centres, political 
 centres, centres of population, and the like. The historical
 
 Geography and History 267 
 
 atlas should be regarded as an indispensable part of equip- 
 ment, no less than the atlas representing the political 
 divisions of the world as they are. And if the economic 
 meaning of a particular situation on the map is once 
 understood, its exact position will not be forgotten. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that everything that gives 
 reality to the conception which the pupil gains Devices of 
 from his study of books is a valuable device in illustration 
 the teaching of history. Models, coins, plans, and the 
 rest serve as objective attachments to much which might 
 otherwise fade away for want of definite hold ; and such 
 models as the pupil constructs with his own hands, or 
 such other illustrations as he acquires by his own exer- 
 tions are, of course, far more effectual than anything 
 which owes its origin to the teacher. 
 
 A considerable impulse has been given of late years 
 in the sphere of primary education to a sys- 
 tematic study of the duties and rights of ^ 
 citizenship. It is not unreasonable that a beginning 
 should be made in the primary grade rather than in 
 the secondary, though it is at first sight rather sur- 
 prising. For it is to be remembered that the primary 
 school age generally terminates, even under favourable 
 conditions, at the end of the fourteenth year, and a cur- 
 riculum so much abbreviated must needs lack much of the 
 general training which helps the better-prepared pupil 
 to find out for himself what it concerns him to know in 
 regard to civic and national administration. Something 
 must therefore be done to teach the half-educated little 
 citizen what a vote is, what its value may be, the delimi- 
 tations of the various bodies for which votes are cast, and, 
 above all things, the necessity in a civilised community 
 for ordination and subordination. A boy of fourteen 
 may easily be got to understand the purpose of the
 
 268 Common Sense in Education 
 
 common forms of public organisations in securing protec- 
 tion from external enemies and from internal disorder. 
 The constitution of the navy and army, parliament, law, 
 the policeman, and the rest, may be explained roughly 
 in the primary school. It is quite worth while, even as 
 early as this, to enlist the sympathies of the young on 
 the right side, of which they must be got to consider 
 themselves a part, with " a stake in the country" In 
 this grade, the evening school should deal with the more 
 elaborate and complicated organisation of purely local 
 institutions, and to some extent with the elements of 
 municipal and national economy. Such matters as these 
 should certainly be treated in the secondary school, but 
 there hardly seems any pressing reason for isolating 
 them as we are bound to do for scholars of the primary 
 schools. The history lesson should offer sufficient op- 
 portunity to the dexterous teacher for little excursuses 
 into civic and economic subjects, but government as a 
 system of duties and rights dependent on large questions 
 of political evolution and economy is a special and tech- 
 nical study, and the appropriate province of the School 
 of Economics. 
 
 A word must be said about the historical novel. It 
 is true that it is often inaccurate, often wildly wrong, 
 both in atmosphere and detail. The " Wardour-Street " 
 romance is of little value to any one. But if we choose 
 well, the harm done is insignificant in comparison with 
 the immense gain in forcing conviction on the ordinary 
 unscientific reader. Thackeray, Sir Walter Scott, Sir 
 Walter Besant, Richard Blackmore, and many others 
 have made dry bones live and planted a taste for history 
 which more accurate information would not easily have 
 quickened. 
 
 I began with a few lines from Charles Kingslcy. I will
 
 Geography and History 269 
 
 end with a quotation from his great adversary, Newman. 
 He says of Scott : ' ' The general need of something deeper 
 and more attractive than what had offered itself elsewhere 
 may be considered to have led to his popularity, and by 
 means of his popularity he reacted on his readers, stimu- 
 lating their mental thirst, feeding their hopes, setting 
 before them visions, which, once seen, are not easily for- 
 gotten ; silently indoctrinating them with nobler ideas 
 which might afterwards be appealed to as first principles". 
 {Apologia.) 
 
 For reference : — Chapters in Teaching and Organisation by 
 Withers, Somervell, and Gonner. Freeman's Methods of Histori- 
 cal Study. Report to (U.S.) Committee of Ten (Washington, 1893). 
 Harris in Report of the Committee of Fifteen (U.S.). Mar>*Sheldon 
 Barnes' Studies in Historical Method. Mackinder on the " Scope and 
 Methods of Geography" in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographi- 
 cal Society, March, 1887. The same writer's Notes on Physical 
 Geography, and Address delivered in 1895 to the Geographical 
 section of the British Association. Miss Reid in Work and Play 
 in Girls' Schools. H. Yule Oldham in Aims and Practice of Teach- 
 ing. Parker's How to Study Geography.
 
 270 
 
 CHAPTER Xr 
 
 WARNINGS FROM HISTORY 
 
 We, look you, boast ourselves to be far better than our fathers. 
 
 — Homer's Odyssey. 
 
 The history of education is the history of civilisation. 
 History of '^^^ ideals of a nation, the things that it hopes 
 Education is for and strives for, are the measures of its pro- 
 a History of gress. If its ideals are mean or selfish, gross 
 Ideals Qj. pettifogging, we may expect to find either 
 
 that it is at a low stage or that its development has 
 been arrested. Education is an unerring register of the 
 ideals which a community pursues ; for the systems and 
 methods adopted in the upbringing of youth record the 
 things which are understood to determine the future 
 prosperity of the race and the means by which these 
 things are to be secured. If people teach their children 
 this or that, it is because they believe that this or that 
 will vitally affect their children's future ; if this or that is 
 omitted, it is omitted either because it is understood to 
 affect the future very little or not at all, or else because 
 some other thing is of greater importance. The subjects 
 of instruction indicate the points upon which the com- 
 munity is prepared to stake its future existence and 
 welfare. In a military age or society, the predominant 
 place will be taken by military arts, because the general 
 sense of the most powerful part of the community tends 
 to the belief that excellence in warfare will be most nec- 
 essary for its continued life. If the basis of society is theo-
 
 Warnings from History 271 
 
 cratic or deeply religious, using the term in its conventional 
 sense, theological studies will have greatest weight. If 
 the ideal of the community is the copious production and 
 easy distribution of wealth, the result is felt immediately 
 on the subjects prescribed for the training of youth. 
 
 In the same way the bias of individuals betrays itself 
 in their ideal of education. Enthusiasts for cookery 
 teaching, for drawing, domestic economy, chemistry, 
 laundry-work, sewing, may all (or none) be right ; but 
 in each several case their emphatic recommendation of 
 a particular study shows that, for good reason or bad, 
 they think that these things matter supremely for the 
 future of the community ; or, as I should prefer to say, 
 for the conservation of the essential parts of the existing 
 framework of society. 
 
 Systems of education are, of course, at once both cause 
 and effect of political and social ideals, a systems of 
 double character which deserves careful at- Education as 
 tention. They are almost always determined causes and 
 in the main by a deep-seated instinct to with- ^^^^ 
 stand change, and they testify to the feeling, not by any 
 means necessarily selfish, that, on the whole, whatever is, 
 is best. They are thus, on the one hand, produced by 
 existing institutions, which are the corporate expression 
 of ideals ; and, on the other, their first business is the 
 filial duty of protecting and perpetuating the institutions 
 to which they owe their existence, by promoting the 
 ideals from which they spring. This principle of con- 
 tinuity is, indeed, a great social safeguard. Condemnation 
 of an institution, ecclesiastical or social or political, on the 
 ground that it goes great lengths in order to maintain its 
 influence and identity by monopolising as far as it can 
 the instruments of education, is cheap and easy ; but its 
 efforts to this end are really both a measure of its belief 
 
 <
 
 272 Common Sense in Education 
 
 in itself and a salutary guarantee that social development 
 or evolution will not be violent. 
 
 Indeed, we shall do well to apply these same considera- 
 tions to all earnest conflicts for the possession 
 possession of °^ *^^ schools. One of the most convincing 
 the schools a proofs of the vitality of our own municipal 
 proof of or local and religious or ecclesiastical institu- 
 
 vigour in in- ^{q^^, is the keenness of the struggle in what 
 is known as educational politics. No one of 
 the bodies thus striving for local or national predominance 
 could give a surer sign of vigorous life than its desire to 
 perpetuate its ideas in education. Each one believes it 
 knows best what is of most enduring value to coming 
 generations, and is prepared to put its heaviest stake, 
 its own future, on the result of its propaganda. Though 
 there is no necessary conscious selfishness about these 
 strivings, it must be pretty clear that no institution 
 would propagate ideas which it felt to be destructive of 
 itself. And we may go farther and venture to say that 
 no institution would spend its energies on propagating 
 ideas which were not likely to conduce to its own per- 
 sistence and well-being, 
 
 A study of the history of education, then, will materially 
 help the teacher to understand the purposes 
 
 uca lona ^^^ results of many historical movements which 
 
 movements , , • , 1 r,^, 1 
 
 throw light might Otherwise be obscure. The place of 
 on general Latin, for instance, in the curriculum of Europe, 
 History, and ^g explained in chapter viii. of this book, is 
 arc explained ^ j^j^ j ^f gpitome of one Side of the political, 
 social, and religious history of Western civili- 
 sation. Thus also a true appreciation of the place of 
 applied science in the curricula of our own day explains, 
 and is in turn explained by, the very complicated social 
 and religious conditions that obtain amongst us now.
 
 Warnings from History 273 
 
 And it is clearly the teacher's business to know for 
 what reasons and to what ends his course is laid out for 
 him ; the better he understands what is behind and what 
 is before him, the better will he be able to shape his 
 voyage 
 
 It would, for the rest, be absurd to ignore the history 
 of education, because at least the more obvious ^. , . 
 
 ' The history 
 
 faults of our forefathers supply us with abun- of education 
 dance of object-lessons. There are certain recordswam- 
 errors which betray themselves on " inspec- '"S^ for 
 tion," for deplorable results may have had ^^'^•=^'°" 
 similar causes to deplore ; and though the more philo- 
 sophical and ultimately more satisfactory explanations 
 may be supplied by psychology, we may be amply 
 justified in attributing certain facts to certain antecedents 
 if our own daily experience gives confirmation. There 
 is a good deal of philosophy in the theories held by the 
 man in the street. In education, as in morals, the daily 
 common sense of mankind has constructed, roughly but 
 effectually, well-understood operative maxims or prin- 
 ciples, which have been worked out in practice and are 
 sufficiently illustrated in the history of individuals and 
 of the race. And it is quite possible to look at our 
 records and to draw directly from them warnings and 
 encouragement for ourselves. Some actions which we 
 have generally agreed to call immoral have demonstrably 
 bad effects ; we do not therefore wait, before condemn- 
 ing them, to propound a full-grown theory of ethics. 
 Nor need we practise a corresponding economy in 
 education. 
 
 The development of education has been twofold : in 
 organisation, both social, religious, and political ; and in 
 the procedure used for the discipline of character and the 
 discipline of the intelligence. It is true that the one side 
 
 18
 
 274 Common Sense in Education 
 
 of the development is inextricably interwoven with the 
 ,^ , ,^ other, and one will condition the other ; but, 
 
 The twofold ' 
 
 development generally speakmg, the organisation or frame- 
 ofEducation work of education has been determined by the 
 in Aim, and national or communal aim, while the methods 
 in Methods ^^ training and instructing have depended 
 more directly on current theories of psychology, formal 
 or implicit. Errors in both kinds show themselves in 
 unsatisfactory results, but organisation covers a larger 
 ground and is influenced more directly by common 
 opinion, social or political or religious ; the details of 
 training and instruction are more generally left to the 
 expert, the teacher. The first kind of error tends to 
 disappear with more liberal conceptions of social duties 
 and individual rights ; the second kind, errors of method, 
 reappear with every new teacher. 
 
 In this chapter attention will be directed mainly to 
 errors of aim as expressed in organisation and demon- 
 strated by results in history ; errors of method have been 
 more properly treated elsewhere, and particularly in the 
 chapters dealing with Discipline. Most of these errors 
 of aim have their counterparts in modern life, even if 
 they do not always present themselves in their ancient 
 guise. 
 
 It is reasonable to suppose that with our remote 
 „ . . ancestors, as with ourselves, the first teachers 
 
 The primi- . . 1111 
 
 live aim and were the parents ; it is equally probable that 
 organisation then, as now, they used the most sagacious 
 ofeducation, " Kindergarten " methods, the methods sug- 
 in the family, ggg^ed by parental instinct to the mothers of 
 are per ec jj^Qst animals, until the pressure of circum- 
 stances and the need for organisation cut their patience 
 short and set them theorising, as rule-of-thumb people 
 will, and sometimes, after the manner of those same,
 
 Warnings from History 275 
 
 taking short cuts that save no time. The primitive 
 aim, the aim of the isolated mother or father, is the best 
 of ail aims : the good of the individual children ; and if 
 there were nothing in the world but parents and children, 
 organisation would be perfect because perfectly simple. 
 
 But as soon as education in the family comes to be 
 organised in relation to other families, per- social com- 
 haps the first thing that strikes us is the plications 
 mysteriousness and exclusiveness that goes and exciu. 
 with learning. This is, after all, not surprising, siveness 
 It has always been considered a duty to keep up family 
 tradition ; but the ancient family tradition appears gen- 
 erally to have been, as it was undoubtedly amongst our 
 predecessors in civilisation, the Latins and Greeks, a 
 tradition of common ancestor-worship, with which were 
 associated set ceremonies and formulas communicated 
 only to members of the same gens or sept. The man 
 who knew what was the right thing to say or to do at 
 a given ceremonial crisis was the " man of family" ; and 
 this is the origin of our own notion of gentle-hood. A 
 nobler individualism has transmuted this notion, and we 
 are more generally inclined now-a-days to give the title of 
 gentleman to any man who bears himself seemly under 
 any circumstances. 
 
 But before we arrived at this stage, even yet not uni- 
 versal, learning has constantly presented itself Learning as 
 as the exclusive privilege of a class ; this or a class mys- 
 that corporation or caste has preserved its ^^^ 
 secrets jealously not merely because the possession of 
 them conferred distinction, but also because they were 
 profitable. The priests of ancient Egypt were not merely 
 the custodians of the temples, but the politicians and 
 professional men of their day, as befitted members of the 
 highest caste ; they even had their own cryptic kind of
 
 276 Common Sense in Education 
 
 writing. (It is curious, by the way, to notice how in 
 Egypt whole races have until yesterday still monopolised 
 certain functions. Even now, the accountants and clerks 
 in the service of Government are almost all Copts, and 
 to Copts the like duties have been assigned from time 
 immemorial.) 
 
 The caste system of Brahmanic India survives in great 
 strength, though of course necessarily modified by civilis- 
 ing agencies tending to break it up. And the whole of 
 it has tended to the elevation of the highest or Brah- 
 manical caste above the rest. But even India is a poor 
 example of the strength of the learned tradition when 
 compared with China ; for China, not split up into castes, 
 yet distributes its highest posts as the direct reward of 
 mere learning, which is, in the main, interpreted as a 
 thorough knowledge of prescribed ceremonies, and is, in 
 fact, confined to a comparatively small class. It is to 
 be remembered that China is in our own day the very 
 sanctuary of ancestor- worship. 
 
 Learning is, to be sure, not education ; but it will be 
 The Arts foi- found that the institutions which confine the 
 low Learning most Valuable gifts of tradition to an exclusive 
 class limit in the same area the practice of those arts 
 which are felt to refine and civilise. The Persians did 
 not teach their slaves to ride and to shoot, nor did they 
 expect them to speak the truth. Amongst ourselves, at 
 the time when book-learning was regarded as a privilege 
 of the " upper classes," it would have seemed to be mere 
 midsummer madness to teach drawing to the " lower 
 classes " — nor indeed was this done until it was shown 
 that drawing had an industrial value which could be 
 expressed in terms of profit to employers. 
 
 Exclusiveness is demonstrably most pernicious when 
 it is hereditary, as it seems to have been in its earliest
 
 Warnings from History 277 
 
 stages, — if, at least, we attach any importance to the testi- 
 mony afforded by the worship of ancestors. 
 When, however, an exclusive profession recruits ciusiveness of 
 itself from without, it acquires a strength in corporations 
 proportion to its power of attracting and assi- recruited 
 milating the choicest spirits. The Roman ^o™ outside 
 Catholic Church of the middle ages and the Renaissance 
 was the only institution of first-rate importance that 
 offered a career indubitably open to talent drawn from 
 any and every rank. And its prizes, or, at all events, its 
 patronage, were not confined to any one art ; it could find 
 room for a Fra Angelico and even for a Fra Lippo. 
 The Church was not a whit more selfish than the other 
 guilds and societies that were contemporary with its un- 
 questioned supremacy ; it was only more catholic. 
 
 In truth, the Church contained within itself the 
 sovereign antidote to the exclusiveness of The Catho- 
 which it seemed to be, and was, the most licityofSemi- 
 striking expression ; theologians may, and ^'"^ religion 
 do, maintain that its exclusiveness as a governing 
 organisation was only another side of its true univer- 
 sality. Its greatest gift — apart from all questions as 
 to its claims to be the appointed custodian and channel 
 of divine grace — was the persistent witness which it bore 
 to the great Jewish conception of the equality of all 
 souls before God, the equal worth of each individual, his 
 equal duties and equal rights.^ The Church could not 
 give equality of opportunity ; it was not she, as a spiritual 
 corporation, that could, of right, raise the humble and bring 
 low the proud ; but every soul had an equal claim to her 
 sacraments and to what she regarded as the covenanted 
 
 ^"I am a Mosaic Radical," said Cardinal Manning in our own 
 days ; " My watchword is, For God and the People." (Purcell's
 
 278 Common Sense in Education 
 
 means of grace. Just as the covenant of Jehovah had 
 been with his people Israel, with every individual of 
 the nation, Benjaminite no less than Levite, so it was 
 with every individual in the Christian Church, layman 
 or Pope. It is clear, then, that at times when, under 
 the influence of hereditary or caste claims, society was 
 still organised in almost impermeable strata, the Church 
 preserved the characteristics of a truly democratic body 
 in, first, admitting all comers on their merits to its 
 hierarchy, and, secondly, in giving every single human 
 being an equal right to its ministrations and to its 
 promised heaven. The greatest of the Greeks never 
 quite shook themselves free of the obsession produced 
 by what they saw in the scheme of things existing 
 around them ; a man to them was either a freeman or 
 a bondman ; he still belonged to a class. Having no 
 working conception of a God before whom all, great and 
 small, are equal, their schemes of education either provide 
 for the education of people in the class to which their 
 original birth-status has confined them, or else prescribe 
 a course different in every sense for persons destined by 
 selection to special functions. Even Plato's Socrates 
 provides for the education of Rulers and Soldiers alone. 
 There is no proof that Greeks or Romans effectually re- 
 cognised, except under the influence of Semitic ideas, the 
 spiritual equality, and therefore spiritual responsibility, and 
 therefore spiritual freedom, of man. Equality, Respon- 
 sibility, and Freedom are three facets of the same gem. 
 
 Whether we have liberated ourselves in these days 
 A"iberai" ^''^'^ ^^^ prepossessions of caste is a question 
 education for which few of US could ansvvcr frankly. But 
 every "soul in SO far as we believe that every man and 
 to be saved" gyei-y woman has "a soul to be saved," we 
 shall be more generous in our views as to what constj- 
 
 i
 
 Warnings from History 279 
 
 tutes a claim to a " liberal " education, the education 
 which is to teach a free being to use freedom properly. 
 Many a one of us may be prepared to hold, as a senti- 
 ment, that every individual is equal befare God and 
 should therefore be equally precious in the eyes of his 
 fellows ; but the sentiment falls short of being a real 
 belief so long as we are not prepared to take action 
 upon it. Our service is lip-service, and our talk is cant. 
 
 If social and spiritual exclusiveness has proved an 
 obstacle to the development of the educa- Excessive 
 tion of man, and has sacrificed the common deference to 
 man and woman, an excessive deference to iradmon 
 authority and tradition, especially literary tradition, has, 
 in its turn, done its share to contract the conception of 
 education where it has been undertaken. Social ex- 
 clusiveness confined the benefits of education, in its 
 liberal sense, to a few ; deference to tradition tended in 
 time to give these few not the best education available 
 but an education too exclusively dependent on written 
 records. This was natural enough. After all, tradition 
 is a pretty good practical guide to what is likely to 
 succeed ; at all events, it represents the wisdom of 
 experience. The wisdom of experience can be imposed 
 only as the voice of authority ; and authority. Protean 
 as it is, acquires most definite form in literature, whether 
 we call it sacred or profane. 
 
 Authority is not, as it has been called, " a necessary 
 evil " ; it is not necessarily an evil at all, 
 any more than any other power in the Uni- ^jgreiy " a 
 verse is an evil. Inequalities are matters of necessary 
 fact ; men are not born equal although they evil " but a 
 are, as spiritual beings, entitled to equal con- fact of the 
 sideration. If the world were a cosmos of 
 ecjudl forces instead of a cosmos of forces harmonise^
 
 28o Common Sense in Education 
 
 in fluctuating equilibrium, if there were no greater and 
 less, no higher and lower, no commanding fathers and 
 obedient children, no straining natural agents harnessed 
 in the service of man, we should be at a standstill, cease 
 to exist. We can live only by the perpetual exercise of 
 and submission to authority. " Conscience," says J. H. 
 Newman, " is an authority ; the Bible is an authority ; 
 such is the Church ; such is Antiquity ; such are the 
 words of the wise ; such are hereditary lessons ; such 
 are ethical truths ; such are historical memories ; such 
 are legal saws and state maxims ; such are proverbs ; 
 such are sentiments, presages, and prepossessions." 
 
 The practical problem is to what kinds of authority 
 we should willingly submit, and how far ; the philo- 
 sophers and theologians are divided mainly upon this 
 very question. 
 
 Now, for good or evil, the authority of the book has 
 played an enormous part in the development 
 
 The autho- "^ . , i • i i i i • i i • , 
 
 rityofthe °^ humankmd, and notably m the history of 
 
 book and Jews, Christians, and Musalmans ; all of them, 
 reverence for in the language of the last. People of a Book. 
 its appurten- RevercHce for the Bible as revelation we must 
 not discuss here ; but it is of great importance 
 to recognise that reverence for the written word as the 
 depository of divine truth has led, in a remarkable de- 
 gree, to an excessive, because exclusive, reverence for 
 its accompaniments, the antiquities and apparatus of 
 literature. The Book itself being so important, every- 
 thing that fixes it, illustrates it, explains it, acquires an 
 all but equal value. So, as a first consequence, you get 
 a Mishna to explain the Law and a Talmud to explain 
 the Mishna ; the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and eighteen 
 centuries of textual commentary ; the Koran and in- 
 numerable expositors, who count up exactly, as the
 
 Warnings from History 281 
 
 Masoretic text of the Jewish Canon was counted, the 
 words and letters of which the scripture is composed. 
 And as a second consequence, you get an ineradicable 
 general reverence for mere literary form in other works, 
 an almost inevitable result of the additional honour with 
 which the one Book is invested by the labour spent 
 upon it. 
 
 When this reverence is extended to books not in the 
 canon, we are permitted to think that it has had too 
 large an influence on schemes of education. It has fixed 
 all eyes on literature, or, rather, on its antiquities and 
 apparatus, to the exclusion of other things. And yet 
 here again the Church preserved within itself Religion and 
 the antidote to the bane. The "secular" real studies 
 learning of the Renaissance attenuated itself at last into 
 an excessive and barren respect for literary authority, for 
 form ; but the logicians and creed-makers of the Church 
 dealt with what they demonstrably believed to be realities, 
 things that mattered as life and death matter. We may 
 take what view we like about each of the endless religious 
 controversies ; but their preoccupations were clearly the 
 antithesis of those of mere formal scholarship. If a text 
 was to be settled, it was as a question on which human 
 salvation was staked, and it is this vital quality which dis- 
 tinguishes the ceaseless process of Christian disputation 
 down to our own day. Theology, in fact, whatever it may 
 be now, has for centuries served to divert Western educa- 
 tion from the worship of mere form, and it is fair to believe 
 that if Brahmanism, or Confucianism, or Islam had stirred 
 the same earnest strife on the formulation of creeds, the 
 minds that have spent themselves for centuries on vain 
 repetitions and elaborations of literature would have 
 struck out a practical and progressive philosophy. Lord 
 Chancellor Bacon may have thought little of the cobwebs
 
 282 Common Sense in Education 
 
 of the school-men, yet he was their heir, and enjoyed 
 the fruits of their strenuous labours ; he stood on their 
 shoulders, and saw the promised land which they never 
 entered. 
 
 Every one knows how the worship of literary form 
 worked out in the first period of the Renaissance. It 
 may be, as Mark Pattison said, that there was a great 
 gap in the cultivation of the literary art until Greek was 
 rediscovered, and until comparisons instituted between 
 Greek and Latin authors and their works set people for- 
 mulating literary laws ; but the truth seems to be that 
 the reading public of the middle ages, that is the clergy, 
 The early were too busy with the matter of the Roman 
 Renaissance writers and the Fathers of the Church to give 
 a worship of much time to rhetoric and style. With the 
 form Renaissance came a conception of education 
 
 as a training in Latin and Greek classics, with a sort of 
 implicit belief in the sufficiency of such a training as 
 a complete preparation for life, concealing a remarkable 
 deterioration in the significance and quality of the prob- 
 lems which the learning so acquired was to solve. In 
 fact, a knowledge of literature is indeed necessary to 
 fulness of life, but, if it is to be effectual as training, it 
 must be used with other studies for the investigation 
 of other problems — religious, philosophical, historical, 
 scientific — and must not concern itself merely with its 
 own apparatus and appurtenances, that is, with mere 
 form. 
 
 This worship of literary form was secondary, to be 
 The classical sure, to the excessive value set upon the Latin 
 languages and Greek literatures as the depositories of all 
 knowledge, the effects of which have been denounced by 
 every reformer from Bacon downwards ; but we must 
 not forget that, of the two, Latin in particular lon^ and
 
 Warnings from History 283 
 
 justly retained an important place in the hierarchy of 
 studies, which it has not yet lost, merely because so 
 much of the records of organisation and discovery, — of 
 art, of religion, of law, of medicine, — was written in 
 that tongue. 
 
 Oi the unsatisfactory result of taking the old classical 
 method of language teaching as a model for the teach- 
 ing of languages still in daily use, I have spoken in a 
 previous chapter. The mischief began in the practice 
 of teaching the classical before the vernacular tongue, 
 which necessarily concentrated the main attention on 
 the instrument of instruction rather than on the subject- 
 matter, whatever that might be. If everything is to be 
 taught in a foreign language, most of the teaching will 
 be language-drill ; if the teaching is mostly language-drill, 
 then analytical grammar — accidence, and the like — will 
 acquire an importance altogether excessive. We must, 
 as Ratke pointed out, teach first and mainly through the 
 vernacular, so that mere language may keep its proper 
 place in the scheme of studies, and not be elevated at 
 the expense either of literature or of other subjects. 
 
 The origin of some of the most serious errors in the 
 aims and organisation of education is to be The concep- 
 found in the conception of man as a mere tionofman 
 citizen. It is easy to see how the necessities as a citizen 
 of common defence banded families together against 
 external foes, and it is equally obvious that this necessity 
 threw all chief power into the hands of those who dis- 
 posed of the communal weapons. Thus the pressure of 
 external danger helped to establish internal law and 
 order, which is necessarily based on physical force, so 
 long as the best energy of the community is drawn to 
 the maintenance of such force by the need for vigi- 
 lance against powerful foes outside, who menace the
 
 284 Common Sense in Education 
 
 community's very life. Hence come ordination and sub- 
 ordination, generals and soldiers, kings and subjects ; 
 and the most emphatic teaching of the commonwealth is 
 that every man must comport himself as befits his place 
 in it. " Virtus " itself, the name given to the quality most 
 useful in military arts, is the Latin word for the whole 
 perfection of character, as was also the Greek word cor- 
 responding. Except in terms of the prosperity of the 
 state, a man had no value. Roman and Greek philo- 
 sophy and history are full of this lesson, and it survives 
 in some very obvious and some rather obscure forms in 
 our own day. 
 
 The civic standard of worth is not a good criterion of 
 Not a good the value of education. In the first place, it 
 criterion in assumes that the existing state-organisation is 
 education final, and that therefore a man's ultimate and 
 highest function can be found in the framework so 
 constituted. He must, in consequence, be prepared 
 strictly for the position which he is certain to occupy ; 
 and it is perfectly clear that dominant classes will view 
 with the most serious disfavour any indication of a 
 tendency to obliterate distinctions of rank. That is, 
 the civic standard must primarily tend to keep people 
 stationary, to determine their whole lives by what Maine 
 calls status rather than by contract. It leads, in edu- 
 cation, to the prescription of schemes of study or training 
 designed for the comparatively narrow purpose of pre- 
 serving existing institutions. It is clearly less hard to 
 provide for the safety and conservation of the established 
 state of things than to make the way easy for the most 
 perfect and varied development of individuals. So 
 powerful is this conservative sentiment that even the 
 perpetuation of a particular political constitution, nay, of 
 fi particular dynasty, has been represented as a duty not
 
 Warnings from History 285 
 
 civic only, but religious ; and of this opinion Europe of 
 to-day provides examples in high places. So, from an 
 adoption of the civic standard, we may get not only an 
 excessive respect for things constituted, but also a per- 
 verted, grotesque, and even monstrous " patriotism ". 
 
 We do not rid ourselves of it when we have (if indeed 
 we have) set aside all military considerations. 
 
 -Ill ^ ^ It •• It The stan- 
 
 1 he " practical man and the scientist are dardsofthe 
 using the same standard ; they also are measur- " practical " 
 ing worth by its value, as they conceive it, to man and the 
 the community. It is true that the material "scientist" 
 profits on which they base their judgments 
 may be more generously diffused than are the advantages 
 of a military system ; but they still estimate a man, not 
 by what he is, but by what he contributes to the stock 
 of things. It is true that the conditions of their success 
 are more fluid than are those of military prosperity ; 
 there is greater mobility and interchange of classes ; but 
 they set up in education a test which is easy, indeed, to 
 apply, seeing that it is expressed in terms of production, 
 but most fallacious as a guide to the educator, who should 
 be considering not what his pupil can do or make, but 
 what he is becoming. 
 
 Education cannot be measured summarily by material 
 results. We may, to be sure, be justified, as has already 
 been shown in this chapter, in condemning a system or 
 systems of education which, after long trial, have not 
 succeeded in doing what they set themselves to do ; but 
 we must observe the chief condition of all valid induction 
 per enumerationem simplicem ; our observations must at 
 least cover a very large area. And, in the schoolroom, 
 the teacher must remind himself again and again that he 
 is not making good men by cultivating merely his 
 pupils' powers of production, nor will he form a fair
 
 286 Common Sense In Education 
 
 estimate of them by what they do, but rather by what 
 they try to do. 
 
 It may not always have been noticed that the status 
 of women has been lowered and their educa- 
 _ tion corrupted by this same civic standard of 
 tionof worth. If women had been able to con- 
 
 women in tribute as directly as men to the offensive and 
 relation to defensive power of the state, they would always 
 t e cmc have shared equal consideration and have been 
 
 standard 
 
 treated as well as men in schemes of education. 
 Women are now enjoying the same consideration as men 
 and equal chances with them most unrestrictedly in those 
 communities in which the civic standard is least strictly 
 applied, and especially where there is least militarism. 
 The state organised on the military basis will, of course, 
 devote its best efforts to perfecting its military class and 
 organisation. The state which is organised mainly on 
 an industrial basis will honour most and educate most 
 assiduously those persons and qualities that are aptest 
 for industrial production ; this is why the girls in our 
 primary schools, and in some called secondary, are oc- 
 casionally taught, without protest, just as boys are taught, 
 not a few subjects which, except on commercial or in- 
 dustrial grounds, have nothing to recommend them. 
 Such are among the results of applying the civic stand- 
 ard in its modern form. The industrial principle is, 
 indeed, an improvement on the military principle of 
 organisation, but the one is a transitional stage no 
 less than the other ; and neither is a good standard in 
 education. 
 
 The Civitas Dei is the only state which might justly 
 grade men according to the efficiency of their citizenship, 
 but it is generally agreed that it is unsafe for human 
 societies to claim for themselves the privileges of the
 
 Warnings from History 287 
 
 divine kingdom ; the best we can do is to cultivate in 
 our pupils the desire to deserve the gift of its freedom. 
 
 Psychological errors, that is errors arising out of 
 mistaken views as to the constitution of the Psychoiogi- 
 human mind, seem to divide themselves under cai Errors 
 two main heads. 
 
 The first of these was put into its most striking peda- 
 gogical form by Locke, although it was implicit in most 
 of the educational practices of his predecessors. He 
 regarded the pupil's mind as a tabula rasa or sheet of 
 white paper on which anything could be written. Sen- 
 sation and reflection are only more or less complicated 
 forms of the same intellectual operation ; and you may 
 therefore begin to reason with your pupil from the first, 
 and from the first expect him to perform the most 
 complicated mental operations. The effect of this view 
 was to exaggerate the power of the teacher, and to 
 leave him free to exact whatever he chose from the 
 pupil without regard to the gradual development of 
 mind, or, indeed, of even the logical order of the sciences. 
 
 There is next a doctrine which has taken various 
 forms, but under all guises lays it down that the main 
 work has been already done by Nature. The child is 
 either, as Rousseau formulated it, " good, as he comes 
 out of the hands of the Author of things " ; or he is, 
 as so many theologians have held, hopelessly vicious 
 and therefore to be perpetually coerced. 
 
 These theories all represent very partial truths. We 
 can agree heartily with Locke that teaching can do a 
 great deal ; with Rousseau that the teacher's interference 
 has often been excessive and injurious ; and with (say) 
 Calvin that evil tendencies are strong in the natural 
 man and call for strong measures of repression. But 
 the way out of all the psychological difficulties seems
 
 288 Common Sense in Education 
 
 to be the frank recognition of life itself and childhood 
 in particular as a process. The child is not merely a 
 little man, but something not-yet-a-man ; his mind not 
 yet equally capable of all operations, but growing in 
 complexity and power. This is the great lesson which 
 we learn from Pestalozzi and Froebel. 
 
 For reference : — Quick's Educational Reformers. Compayr6's 
 History of Pedagogy. Fainter' s History of Education. Rousselot's 
 Pedagogic. Cadet's Port-Royal Education. Guizot's History of 
 Civilisation in Europe. Lecky's History of European Morals. 
 Laurie's Occasional Addresses and The Rise and Early Constitution 
 of Universities,
 
 289 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE MAKING OF THE TEACHER 
 
 " Such address and intelligence as I chance to possess" said Mr. 
 Micawber, "will be devoted to my friend Heep's service. I have 
 already some acquaintance with the law— as a defendant in civil 
 process." 
 
 — David Copperfield, chap, xxxvi. 
 
 It ought not to be necessary to prove to this generation 
 the need for some technical preparation of its 
 
 SpficijilisfiL' 
 
 teachers for their work. The whole trend of ,.^^ . 
 
 tion 01 
 
 the time is to division of labour, and if or- function 
 
 dinary men and woman are to discharge makes the 
 
 special functions satisfactorily, one would 'raining of 
 
 naturally think that they must have some- ^^'^ "^* 
 
 •' •' necessity 
 
 thing besides the ordinary trammg. The 
 butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker, are all in- 
 ducted under supervision into the practice of their 
 respective crafts, and they must all be the better for 
 it, or else the practice of training them for their work 
 would long ago have been discontinued. The work of 
 teaching is not such work as can be undertaken by any one 
 "dumped " into it at any time of life without preparation. 
 At the same time the opposition to the special training 
 of teachers, such as it is, should not be dismissed as 
 mere obscurantism or prejudice. It is based partly on 
 a very wholesome sense of the primary importance and 
 effectualness of a liberal education as a preparation for 
 
 19
 
 290 Common Sense in Education 
 
 any profession ; it is a protest against the excessive speci- 
 alisation which makes men one-eyed and one- 
 tion to the sided. If a liberal education is the chief thing 
 training of necessary in any walk of life, it is most indu- 
 teachers is bitably indispensable to those who are to teach 
 not mere others how to walk through life, more necessary 
 
 prejudice , , , r 1 • • a i 
 
 than any other part of their equipment. And 
 a teacher's information must not be wide only, but exact 
 as well ; for as R. L. Stevenson said, " a man must be 
 very sure of his knowledge ere he undertakes to guide a 
 ticket-of-leave man through a dangerous pass". Any 
 scheme that affects to give a teacher the power of teaching 
 others something that he does not himself know, which 
 is the definition of training once scornfully propounded 
 by a supercilious and badly informed critic, is self- 
 condemned ; only this same critic had not conceived of 
 a system which required the aspirant to get something 
 approaching exact knowledge of the object as well as of 
 the subject of instruction. It is emphatically true that 
 one of the first qualifications for teaching well is a liberal 
 education, and that nothing will take its place. But that 
 is not the only equipment necessary. 
 
 Something further is to be said for the view which 
 deprecates the general systematic training of 
 teachers' Secondary teachers for their profession. There 
 greater need are different grades of teaching, the result not 
 of training ^f mere class prejudice or selfish political 
 action, but of hard .social and economical facts ; we may, 
 we ought to, do what we can to attenuate distinctions, 
 but we cannot ignore them. The primary teachers, in 
 comparison with their brethren in other grades, labour 
 under two marked disadvantages which impose upon 
 tliem a more pressing need for training. In the first 
 place, they have had to acquire the liberal foundations
 
 The Making of the Teacher 291 
 
 of their own education under all but insuperable diffi- 
 culties ; a liberal education calls for a certain 
 leisure during adolescence, whereas the young ^^ ^^^-^ ^^,^ 
 primary teacher has, for the most part, spent difficulties in 
 his most strenuous years in earning his living, securing a 
 The Training College can undo only part of ''^^'■^' ^"" 
 the mischief which economic conditions have 
 made inevitable. The liberal education of the bulk of 
 our primary teachers has been therefore a perpetual 
 struggle against adversity, and can hardly be said to be 
 uniformly satisfactory in the end. The many examples 
 of exceptional individuals who have burst the bonds of 
 circumstance and acquired a cultivation and range of 
 knowledge which greater leisure could hardly have 
 augmented serve only to prove the general rule. 
 
 The next consideration gives a dubious force to the 
 arguments of the few who oppose the training , ) Because 
 of teachers for the secondary and higher much of the 
 grades. An inferior teacher may safely be work of 
 entrusted with work in the secondary grade, secondary 
 whereas in the primary, if the best effects are fjp'^T*'^ 
 to be secured, none but the best teaching is curriculum 
 good enough. We tend to forget the extreme and environ- 
 importance and effectualness of curriculum '"^"^ 
 and environment. In a real secondary school the range 
 of the subjects of instruction gives a proper place to 
 Language, to genuine Mathematics, to History, — in 
 short, to the " humanities " ; and pupils have the neces- 
 sary leisure to work by themselves, enjoying at the 
 same time an environment that of itself civilises and 
 expands. In such a school, therefore, a vast amount 
 of educating work is done by pure curriculum and en- 
 vironment ; and the teacher may be, and he often is, 
 entirely lacking in the technical knowledge needed to
 
 292 Common Sense in Education 
 
 make a very little opportunity go a very long way. 
 Now this last need is just the peculiar and ever-present 
 problem that confronts and is successfully tackled by 
 his brother in the National or Board school ; who, 
 manipulating an inevitably starved curriculum, dealing 
 with children often demoralised by home surroundings 
 and street experiences, struggling against such most 
 depressing circumstances as the spasmodic attendance 
 and physical incapacity of his scholars, labours from 
 mom till night to turn out good citizens — turn them 
 out straight from the school into the work of making 
 a living. The primary teachers, and it may be added, 
 those who administer the primary system, are compelled 
 by economic facts to make their bricks with the smallest 
 modicum of straw. From such difficulties the teacher in 
 the higher schools is relieved by the automatic virtues 
 of a richer curriculum and more civilising surroundings ; 
 so that the primary teacher must be taught to do what 
 is already done for his brother by "the nature of things ". 
 He should therefore be a better man, better educated 
 and better trained. He should know better how to 
 economise teaching force and how to get a great deal 
 done in a very short time ; he must have a better know- 
 ledge of the mistakes recorded in history because he 
 cannot trust to time to undo any he may commit him- 
 self; he must have reasoned schemes and technical 
 devices where his brother can rely for help on a hun- 
 dred other influences of curriculum and society. In 
 short, he must be a better man. 
 
 But neither of these considerations proves that the 
 teacher of the higher schools is in no need of training ; 
 they prove merely that an untrained teacher does less 
 harm in a secondary than he would in a primary school ; 
 and they explain in some measure the disinclination
 
 The Mak'iig of the Teacher 293 
 
 sometimes shown to admit the need for the training of 
 secondary teachers. Yet most secondary teachers begin 
 their career as Mr Micawber began the practice of the 
 law. He was well acquainted with the law, as a de- 
 fendant ; they are well acquainted with teaching, because 
 they have been taught. 
 
 Before proceeding farther it may be boldly laid down 
 that no one who has had any real acquaintance with 
 the procedure of training, even on such generally un- 
 satisfactory lines as those which obtain in this country, 
 and who has had the opportunity of seeing what training 
 can do for the ordinary person, has ever doubted the 
 efficacy of the process. And when critics point to them- 
 selves and say that they were never trained and have yet 
 done pretty well, they are certainly open to the retort 
 that they might conceivably have been the better for 
 training. 
 
 The fact is that training at least enables a teacher 
 to teach all that he knows, to turn all his wares to profit. 
 The untrained teacher may or may not be so effective ; 
 as a rule a good deal of at least his earlier work is 
 wasteful and unnecessarily exhausting. 
 
 Let us see what can be done for the teacher, and 
 why. 
 
 The first necessity is to be sure that the natural 
 aptitudes and sympathy are not lacking. A Natural apti^ 
 sympathetic imagination and a taste for teach- tude the first 
 ing are the gifts of Providence, not to be con- necessary 
 ferred, though they may certainly be improved, qualification 
 by study and practical training. The fact is that a teacher 
 is both born and made. On the other hand, it is diffi- 
 cult to discover the aptitude unless the candidate is 
 brought into actual contact with the problems of teach- 
 ing a pupil or pupils in the flesh ; and this fact is a
 
 2 94 Common Sense in Education 
 
 sufficient reason, if there were no other, for some sort of 
 modified probation or apprenticeship. At all events, no 
 one ought to enter definitively on the career of a teacher 
 before he is well assured that he possesses the chief 
 constitutional qualities that make for success. 
 
 He must next have a good liberal education, such an 
 Next, a education as will enable him to make a just 
 
 liberal edu- survey of the field which he is to deal with, in 
 cation j|-g double aspect, of character and intelligence 
 
 to cultivate and of material to be used in instruction. 
 He must certainly not be a mere specialist, informed 
 in his own "subject" alone. However willing such a 
 teacher may be to listen to the claims of other "subjects," 
 he is yet liable to the danger of attaching an excessive 
 importance to the study over which he has spent his own 
 absorbing endeavours. It is, in fact, one of the duties of 
 the trained teacher, aided by the man in the street who has 
 himself had a liberal education, to prevent the domineer- 
 ing of the specialist; and a man will teach a "special" 
 subject all the better if he has been subjected to the 
 moderating and widening influence of a good liberal 
 education. 
 
 It must be remembered that what we have to say. here 
 The quaiifi- applies mainly to the general preparation for 
 cations and such dutics as are usually discharged by the 
 place of the form-master. The tendency to distribute 
 form-master g^udies amongst Specialist teachers is very 
 much to be regretted, for it necessarily limits the area 
 which the form-master controls ; and yet it has even 
 been suggested that " English " should be taught by a 
 specialist. It ought to be clear that until pupils have 
 advanced a considerable distance, it is most undesirable 
 to divide up the direction of their work in several hands, 
 if only because they thus lose the advantage of the 
 
 i
 
 The Making of the Teacher 295 
 
 consistency of treatment which is secured by the form- 
 master's interest in individuals. 
 
 A form-master ought, then, to be an all-round man ; or, 
 afteast, his education should not have been specialised 
 too narrowly. If he has been, as he should have been, a 
 member of a university, he will almost certainly have 
 ultimately followed some favourite line of study in par- 
 ticular detail, but it may be taken for granted that the 
 more general and " humanistic " the foundation of his 
 studies has been, the better qualified will he find himself 
 for the management of a form. We need not dispute, 
 what is now often enough maintained, that a liberal 
 education may be constructed round almost any " core," 
 — science, history, geography, and even " commerce " — 
 but there is general agreement, even amongst teachers 
 of science, that the humanistic element should pre- 
 ponderate at all events in the school. 
 
 If the future teacher is fortunate and well advised, he 
 will graduate before he applies himself to the study of 
 education. But whether he does so or not, he must 
 recognise that the preparation for his work has two 
 sides, both of unmistakable importance, the practical 
 and theoretical. 
 
 The practical side is, in my opinion, by far the more 
 indispensable. For it is by practice in the practical pre- 
 schoolroom, and not by the reading of books paration for 
 or by discussion in the lecture-room, that a teaching 
 young teacher " finds his legs," or arrives at the timely con- 
 viction that he is incompetent. If first-hand experience 
 is postponed until the whole of the theoretical foundation 
 shall have been well and truly laid, a double disadvan- 
 tage is incurred : the tiro may either find that he has 
 travelled a serious distance on a career for which he is 
 unfit ; or, if that danger is safely avoided, he will lose the
 
 296 Common Sense in Education 
 
 only means of making his reading profitable, observa- 
 tion and experiment in school, made concurrently with 
 his studies in theory and giving life to them. 
 
 It is essential that the practical work undertaken 
 should be continuous and intimate. A merely occa- 
 sional lesson or a perfunctory series of visits of obser- 
 vation do not allow a young teacher either time 01 
 opportunity for testing his capacity to stand alone or 
 to deal with a class under the strain and monotony 
 of daily intercourse. And the single lesson, devised, it 
 is to be feared, for examination or parade purposes, 
 tends, like all examinations, to emphasise the collateral 
 and not the main conditions of the work — the plan of 
 this lesson, without regard to its place in a whole scheme 
 of instruction ; the " illustrations " and " objects " that can 
 be paraded before the class ; the black-board summary 
 which the teacher has determined beforehand is to be 
 the outcome of his teaching, whatever may be already 
 in the heads of the wretched victims. 
 
 The young teacher should have dealings with his class 
 long enough and continuous enough to enable him to 
 make and record observations in detail of individuals. 
 Such records may be of no great value for the purposes 
 of generalisation, but they will serve most profitably in 
 Begin with directing the work and unifying the scattered 
 the teaching impressions of the observer. Moreover, it is 
 of young worth while to note here how desirable it is 
 children j.]^^{. ^ tcacher's experience should begin with 
 
 young children. In the first place, the organisation of 
 a school designed for such pupils will be of necessity 
 simple and therefore easily understood. Moreover, the 
 relation between the liberal or formative part of the 
 curriculum and other "subjects" imposed by the circum- 
 stances of the school will be less complex. Again, the
 
 The Making of the Teacher 297 
 
 pupils will be less self-conscious, and in a more ingenu- 
 ous stage of mental and moral development than if they 
 were adolescent ; for in adolescence the material for 
 observation is more reflective, more intricate, and more 
 fruitful in obstacles. And, most important of all, it is 
 easiest to see in the young child the intimate connexion 
 between mind and body and the dependence of mental 
 and physical states on one another, which so vitally 
 affect the conditions of teaching and discipline. 
 
 It is not less important for training that the student 
 should see endeavours made by accomplished observation 
 teachers to carry into effect the injunctions of good 
 and conclusions of the lecture-room. It is teachers 
 not necessary here to urge at length the exceeding value 
 of suggestion by example ; the whole body of our ex- 
 perience is full of it. The best preparation for the sys- 
 tematic professional study of teaching is to have been 
 taught well ; every practical teacher knows how deep 
 his obligations are to those who in his own case set a 
 pattern of careful, thorough, and patient work. But the 
 example set by the trainer should not, as Dr. Findlay^ 
 shows, be vitiated by the notion "that the lecturer on 
 Education or other experienced teacher should display 
 himself as a model of perfection to his students," to be 
 followed blindly and slavishly ; though " the theoriser 
 can never be safe unless he follow the inductive method 
 and builds up his doctrine out of his personal experience 
 as a teacher". Nothing else will prove to the student 
 that to become a good teacher one must teach well, and 
 
 ' I cannot refrain here, although I differ strongly from Dr. 
 Findlay on one or two points, from expressing my admiration of 
 and general concurrence with his paper on The Study of Education, 
 in the Board of Education's Special Reports, vol. 2. Its main 
 contentions and arguments seem to me conclusive.
 
 298 Common Sense in Education 
 
 that, though other things will help, nothing else will 
 take the place of earnest effort. Only the sight of good- 
 ness in action is effectual to teach practical morality, and 
 the good man, not the good theoriser, is the father of 
 right action. " Does a man who is in training," asks 
 Plato in the Crito, "and who is in earnest about it, 
 regard the praise and blame and opinion of any man, or 
 of that man alone who is a doctor or trainer ? " To be 
 listened to with effect, the lecturer must show his com- 
 petence to do what he assures his pupils can be done. 
 Unless he does, they will not believe him to be a trainer. 
 
 We must now ask what is the relation of theory 
 Theory and to practice in the cultivation of teaching 
 Practice capacity. 
 
 There are many things which mere thinking will not 
 do ; for instance, it will not add a cubit to a man's stature 
 nor an inch to his chest measurement. But we do not 
 know how effectually we can devise means to a desired 
 end until we have tried. It is doubtful, perhaps, whether 
 means can be devised to make a man tall — though ille- 
 gitimate procedure may give him a false appearance of 
 height — but it is certain that proper exercises will increase 
 the accommodation provided between his ribs for a supply 
 of air. And we are assured by those who have tried, that 
 we can reason out means for improving the teaching ca- 
 pacity of all people who have the capacity by the original 
 gift of Providence. We cannot, of course, give capacity 
 to those who have it not, any more than we can construct 
 a barrel round a bung-hole. 
 
 Theorising in education is nothing more than seeking 
 a reason for success in educating ; if we can find the 
 reason, we have a valuable hint for further procedure. 
 And it is quite worth while to remember that good 
 teaching was not invented in the eighteenth or nine-
 
 The Making of the Teacher 299 
 
 teenth century ; so we start with some material by 
 the gift of the past. If, however, we theorise without 
 the genuine opportunity of seeing our ideas worked 
 out in practice, either by our own efforts or in the 
 work of others, and of varying procedure or seeing it 
 varied, we inevitably fall into the pedantry of Education as 
 "methods" and "systems". The untrained an empirical 
 and badly "trained" teachers are equally the science 
 victims of " methods " ; with one difference. The badly 
 trained teacher probably uses procedure which has at all 
 events been the subject of some sort of discussion and 
 public criticism, whereas his untrained brother habitually 
 adopts procedure which is the result of his own manu- 
 facture and has probably been amended by no other 
 man's counsel. The science of education is no more an 
 exact science with indisputable premisses ascertained 
 and affirmable, as a religious dogma is affirmed, than is 
 the science of conduct. It is not Religion, nor Logic, 
 nor Psychology, nor Ethics, nor Sociology ; but all these 
 things and some others. The purpose of education, 
 whatever our formal definition may be, is to influence 
 people in such a way that they may have the will and 
 the power to advance when the teacher's stimulus is 
 removed. The study of education will therefore neces- 
 sarily comprise all those sciences which concern them- 
 selves with the history of man, his constitution as a living 
 and thinking being, and the purpose of his being. 
 
 Now it is perfectly clear that we cannot wait until a 
 student has gone through a voluminous and complete 
 course of history and philosophy before com- we learn 
 mitting to him the duty of teaching. This how to teach 
 would be pedantry indeed. Duties even ^^ teaching 
 more serious and far-reaching than those of teachers 
 are imposed by nature on mothers and fathers without,
 
 300 Common Sense in Education 
 
 unfortunately, the production of any certificate of com- 
 petence. Pedantry would make rules and endeavour to 
 fit the facts of the universe in accordance ; it is our 
 business, rather, to make the best we can of facts as we 
 become acquainted with them. 
 
 The post-graduate student of education may be re- 
 quired to proceed systematically through a process of 
 inquiry into the aim, the administration, and the practice 
 of education ; and under these heads there is no doubt 
 that the topics bearing most directly on the conduct 
 of teaching and of discipline can be most conveniently 
 treated. But there seem to be certain general considera- 
 tions by which the less fortunate ordinary practitioner 
 may in the meantime guide himself. He will do well 
 ultimately to proceed through the complete course, if 
 he has the time and the means ; but what shall he do 
 in the face of his daily difficulties ? 
 
 He will generally have to accept his curriculum as it 
 A shorter ^^ provided for him ; and he may console him- 
 coursefor Self by the reflection that whatever he may 
 the acting think of it in details, it is the general re- 
 teacher gyj^ Q^ what experience has shown to be the 
 current need. He may and he ought to have his own 
 views of the value of the curriculum as a whole, but 
 he must contrive his best to get the utmost possible 
 out of the means provided. Tradition very 
 
 Tradition , . .^i i i i i. . 
 
 properly gives us the lead, because tradition 
 is our fathers' wisdom ; and our fathers' wisdom is the 
 complex result of the experience of many generations. 
 This tradition affects not only the curriculum, but also 
 the procedure of teaching, in which his own views and 
 principles will be more easily applicable. It is worth 
 while to warn the young teacher not to throw aside a 
 traditional procedure in favour of a new " method " with-
 
 The Making of the Teacher 301 
 
 out very serious reason and without bringing everything 
 connected with it to the test of experiment. For in- 
 stance, as is elsewhere shown in this book, it is possible 
 to give a too universal application to a pseudo-Socratic 
 /'method," or to discard on most insufficient grounds 
 the splendid exercise in the logic of discovery known as 
 the construing lesson, merely because the one is new, or 
 is supposed to be new, and the other is old and associated 
 with the study of " dead " languages. 
 
 After interrogating tradition, his next chief business is 
 to make the best that he can of his own oppor- 
 
 . •■■ c ■ ■ ■ 11- Class-work 
 
 tunities for gainmg experience and makmg 
 experiments. His own honest and original observations 
 and investigations are of more value than the records 
 made by a dozen other people, however acute they may 
 be. 
 
 He must next rationalise and justify what he does, 
 correct his mistakes, and acquire guidance and Teaching 
 suggestion, from a study of all the sciences with a reason 
 that may throw light on his material ; that is, on his 
 pupils and on the subjects of instruction. It is not to be 
 supposed that he must be always working out his theories 
 of pedagogy consciously. Life is not long enough ; nor, 
 for the rest, would his work then have the spontaneity 
 and decision which is one of the necessary conditions of 
 successful education or instruction, I quote Dr. Findlay 
 again. " If a student," or any young teacher who wishes 
 to know his tools properly, " is set to teach Algebra, he 
 must inquire into the nature of Mathematics and into the 
 mental processes by which the ideas of algebraic symbols 
 are acquired ; he will prepare each lesson, step by step, 
 referring every stage of his operations to the theories 
 which it illustrates. In later years, as a practitioner, he 
 will have no leisure to think out the formal steps by which
 
 302 Common Sense in Education 
 
 he conducts his work ; nor will he need to take this 
 trouble, for his training will have given him correct 
 habits. The preparation which occupies the beginner 
 for hours of anxious thought can be completed by the 
 experienced teacher in a few moments, just as a skilled 
 physician can make a rapid diagnosis of a case which 
 occupies a medical student for days, since the latter is 
 only acquiring the habit of thought which has become 
 the familiar property of the physician by long usage." 
 
 It must be remembered that the counsel given in this 
 book, and especially in this chapter, is addressed to the 
 student of education who has no means of postponing 
 the serious business of teaching until he has satisfactorily 
 traversed the circle of sciences bearing directly on peda- 
 gogy. He is, in my opinion, bound for practical purposes 
 to rely first on tradition, and secondly, on a daily empirical 
 method which can only gradually rationalise itself as he 
 reads and thinks ; he cannot, with any prospect of im- 
 mediate satisfactory work, attack problems of aim and 
 administration in any other way. To try to do other- 
 wise would be, if the views here presented are correct, 
 to paralyse action. 
 
 But he can get direct help in his work from the special 
 The three ^"d Systematic study of three subjects : from 
 special the history of educational theory and practice, 
 
 studies from logic, and from psychology. 
 
 It will be noted that the history of educational theory 
 The history and practice is not the history of education, 
 of education which, as has been shown, may be made to 
 cover nearly the same ground as the history of civilisation. 
 The school is a little world, and the history of schools 
 and scholars and teachers in the little worlds that pre- 
 pared for the great world would be only general history 
 in another aspect. But it is quite possible to get con-
 
 The Making of the Teacher 303 
 
 siderable profit and practical guidance by isolating facts 
 connected with education, — the lives and work of active 
 teachers and influential philosophers, school practices, 
 plans of instruction, devices of discipline, and the like — 
 and endeavouring to interpret them in the light of what 
 seem to be their results. Some facts occur so uniformly 
 after others, as we have seen elsewhere, that we are 
 justified in arguing " on inspection " ; in regarding the 
 first as causes and the second as effects ; and if what we 
 know of the constitution of the human mind leads us to 
 expect such process, it is perfectly safe and desirable that 
 we should act upon our discoveries. The life and work 
 of great teachers, the accounts of their struggles, their 
 successes, and their failures, are just as valuable for 
 guidance in the practice of education as the biographies 
 of good men are in the practice of virtue. 
 
 In the study of the history of educational practice we 
 must include the reading of the great architectonic works 
 of the famous educational thinkers. And here I venture 
 to repeat words originally used in a somewhat different 
 context. 
 
 In every branch of study, and in every stage, the same 
 principle holds good. If we are studying a we should 
 science, it is the great book, not the text read the 
 book, that is most important in education. ^^^^ writers 
 In biology, it is from books like the Origin of Species 
 that the student derives the most real help and the truest 
 inspiration ; in mathematics, Newton's Principia and the 
 like are the great stimulators ; in history, the student is 
 rightly sent to Thucydides, or Mommsen, or Gibbon, or 
 Freeman ; in education, nothing can take the place ot 
 the study of such writers as Plato, or Locke, or Rous- 
 seau, or Froebel, or Herbart. The profit of such reading 
 lies not merely in the subject-matter ; that may be
 
 304 Common Sense in Education 
 
 disputable — it must be disputable. The theorising may 
 be philosophically unsound, the practical maxims may 
 lead us to absurdities, just as in pure literature we may 
 heartily dissent from the morals of a great essayist, poet, 
 or dramatist. But the method of working by beginning 
 at the beginning, the marshalling of great arguments, 
 the pregnant reflections, — these, if our intellectual life is 
 lived amongst them, are the things from which we draw 
 the stuff for our best work, are the atmosphere, are the 
 cultivators of perception, are the natural enemies of 
 intellectual commonplace, vulgarity, pedantry, obscur- 
 antism. 
 
 What a revolution, for instance, is implied in Froebel's 
 great discovery, that, to use his own words, " Play is the 
 highest point of human development in the stage of 
 childhood ". It is the fount and origin of much (not all) 
 of what we admire and prescribe in the best teaching 
 of young children. But what a dull and mechanical 
 maxim this may become — it has been well denounced in 
 the " Instructions to Inspectors of Elementary Schools," 
 and in a special circular on Varied Occupations, — if it is 
 supposed to mean the use of a particular kind of toy, 
 and romps, and songs. The fact is, it cannot be pro- 
 perly understood without reading its context in the 
 book in which it is arrived at, propounded, and illus- 
 trated, in its own quaint, sentimental, and semi-poetic 
 setting. And then see the "high seriousness and deep 
 meaning" which Froebel claims for play set forth in an 
 English way by our own great writer, Robert Louis 
 Stevenson, in his Virginibus Puerisque, where he sup- 
 plies us with a common measure for the little child's 
 game of make-believe and for Shakespeare's King Lear. 
 
 We must therefore take our strong stand on the great 
 books; on literature, as the most general of studies; on
 
 The Making of the Teacher 305 
 
 the great masterpieces in all studies, as indispensable 
 to the profitable use of the text book. In the study of 
 education, particularly, the school-management book or 
 the book on psychology is a positive danger unless a 
 classic is read also as an antidote to pedantry ; and all 
 the better if it is not read for examination. If narrower 
 studies are to be fruitful, the atmosphere must be broad 
 and wholesome ; their roots in the ground, their branches 
 and leaves in the sun and air. The best of text books, 
 from its very nature, must present summaries and con- 
 clusions rather than show by what unrestricted processes, 
 independent of the pedantries of established opinions 
 and psychologies, the great thinkers attack perennial 
 problems afresh. Every really great book on teaching 
 is, in its time and place, an instrument of disintegration, 
 an object of ridicule to those who do not read it or read 
 it without sympathy, but a breeze of fine air to those 
 who like their lungs to be filled. The perpetual plague 
 of education is the tendency to become dry and formal, 
 the rule-of-thumb man being the greatest formalist of 
 all ; and the practical teacher is observing only a proper 
 precaution in refreshing himself frequently at head- 
 waters.^ 
 
 The "historical" method does not preclude the 
 "scientific" method; it is indeed an essential part of 
 the scientific process. History is a note-book for the 
 student of any science. It records the experiences, the 
 experiments, the achievements, the errors, of other 
 generations. If we neglect the history of a progres- 
 sive science, we are constantly liable to waste time by 
 
 ' I ought here to acknowledge the courtesy of the editor and 
 proprietors of the Educational Review in placing at my entire dis- 
 posal my article on " Atmosphere and Perspective " that appearec) 
 in the January, 1899, number. 
 
 20
 
 3o6 Common Sense in Education 
 
 covering ground already mastered and even to fall into 
 ancient and confessed errors. The medical man who 
 knows what mistakes his predecessors have made, why 
 they made them, and how those errors were detected and 
 amended, is assuredly a safer practitioner than the man 
 who has worked out the whole of his detailed knowledge 
 solely on the modern text books of medicine and allied 
 sciences. 
 
 So long as Logic does not occupy a foremost place 
 in the ordinary liberal curriculum, where it 
 would be a most profitable substitute for the 
 "accidence" and "analysis" of the current Grammar, 
 it will be the business of the young teacher to devote 
 very early and very earnest attention to the laws of 
 deduction and the logic of discovery as a part of his 
 professional equipment. How constantly teachers sin 
 against the simplest laws of logic in the ordering of 
 their instruction is not to be believed except by those 
 whose business it is to take note. Pupils are persistently 
 invited to draw conclusions and make inferences which a 
 comparatively short drilling in the formal laws of logic 
 would show the teacher to be ridiculous. They are 
 thus demoralised by those very persons and devices 
 that we require to brace and strengthen their powers. 
 Moreover, a method of exposition which is logically 
 exact is also the economical method ; not because it is 
 the shortest, but because it leaves nothing to unlearn. 
 A teacher who does not know the fatal logical effects 
 of question-begging, of imperfect definition, of illicit 
 conversion of propositions, of all the fallacies of improper 
 mediate or immediate inference, is pretty certainly a 
 slipshod reasoner. Unless his fairy god-mother brought 
 him logic as a christening gift, he is a dangerous in- 
 structor of youth.
 
 The Making of the Teacher 307 
 
 The stuay tnat would seem to be next in importance 
 for the practical teacher is psychology, and 
 particularly the physio-psychology which is 
 represented by such writers, among others, as Professor 
 James and Professor Lloyd Morgan. It is safest to begin 
 with generalisations and practical devices put at our dis- 
 posal by books so frankly physiological as those of Dr. 
 Warner. No teacher is too young (or too old) to begin 
 to endeavour to interpret mental processes by physical 
 signs. This is the A B C of the teacher's business ; 
 and although for complete knowledge we ought to have 
 a complete training in animal physiology, and perhaps 
 biology, mechanics, chemistry, and the rest, yet we are 
 bound (for life is short and art is long) to take a sub- 
 stantial part of our work as done for us in other people's 
 laboratories. The schoolroom gives us ample oppor- 
 tunity for making observations and even crucial experi- 
 ments without any sort of injury to our subjects. One 
 caution only is to be remembered : an observation or 
 experiment is almost always invalidated if the subject 
 is aware of our operations. 
 
 The assumption of an older school of theorists, that 
 psychology gives us a map of mind with which in our 
 hands we could safely traverse the whole field of educa- 
 tion, would be valid on two conditions : that we had as 
 many psychologies as there are minds to deal with, and 
 that we had a map of each. Psychology can certainly 
 give us many most useful rules, both positive and 
 negative ; but its value is chiefly in its cultivation of a 
 methodically observant attitude. We learn by its aid to 
 translate process into procedure, but, above all things, 
 not to be content with procedure alone. 
 
 The personality of the teacher is a very large part of 
 his success or his failure. A man or woman may have
 
 3o8 Common Sense in Education 
 
 all the wisdom of all the schools, yet lack of personal 
 The teacher acceptability will go far to make the best in- 
 himseif tellectual and even moral gifts unproductive. 
 
 The first necessity is a high standard of life. Good 
 work, or (should we say?) work relatively good, can be 
 done by people of mean views and poor ideals. But the 
 best work is done only by men and women of large 
 heart and habitual singleness of purpose. It is these 
 only who are most secure and steadfast. They are not 
 turned aside by the petty worries and sordid cares of the 
 daily turmoil of school from the great aims which dignify 
 their office and grace all that they do. The great school- 
 masters and school-mistresses live in the minds of their 
 pupils as exemplars of the great saving virtues : honesty, 
 justice, courtesy, courage. Our bearing before the pupils 
 amongst whom so much of our life is spent reflects our 
 inner life in a hundred ways not suspected either by us 
 or by them. Most of us recall only too easily occasions 
 on which we have shirked our duty, evaded difficulties, 
 failed to press home a difficult or disagreeable business, 
 found our stock of patience or courtesy spent. Most of 
 our pupils remember such things more easily than we, 
 and all suffer from them. 
 
 We are bound to exact proper respect, but it is our 
 office as teachers, not ourselves as persons, that claims 
 most respect at their hands. It is easy to be too prim 
 and stiff — a feminine fault, some people say, rather than 
 one common in men. Genial "chaff" is a weapon far 
 more potent and infinitely less dangerous than sternness, 
 which should be reserved for such serious cases as deserve 
 moral displeasure. 
 
 We become tyrants, if we are not on our guard, in 
 our own despite. Says Abraham Cowley, " I take the 
 profession of a school-master to be one of the most
 
 The Making of the Teacher 309 
 
 useful, as it ought to be one of the most honourable 
 in a commonwealth ; yet certainly all his fasces and 
 tyrannical authority over so many bodies take away 
 his own liberty more than theirs ". 
 
 A gentle and pleasant-sounding voice, a simple manner 
 and few words, ease of demeanour, all are important 
 defences against this danger. Even proper care about 
 personal appearance has its reward ; discipline (in the 
 common application of the word) has been known to 
 suffer because of the disrespect bred of so simple a fault 
 as disorder in dress. 
 
 It is a teacher's obvious duty to be in good health. 
 Petulance of temper, a "jaundiced" view of venial 
 faults, forgetfulness of one's own youth and youthful 
 failings, impatience in expecting rapid mental operations 
 in immature minds, all these and the like faults may 
 spring out of small malaises but develop into habitual 
 ill-temper. We must therefore observe the simple rules 
 of hygiene in our own persons as we would keep tools 
 of precision in perfect order. Overstrain and over- 
 fatigue are bad for both body and mind. One of the 
 first conditions of cheerfulness of soul is soundness of 
 body. 
 
 And it is useless to attend to one set of rules if we 
 habitually disregard others. The daily out-door exercise 
 — preferably a game ; — the morning tub ; carefulness in 
 food ; the spare use of strong drinks, alcoholic or other ; 
 these are excellent things to bear in mind. But if when 
 we get into our class-room we shut all windows, light 
 gas for purposes of warmth, misuse our voices and so 
 forth, our other precautions are largely in vain. 
 
 For the rest, we cannot aim too high ; but it is not 
 possible to be straining at every moment after a high 
 ideal. We must cultivate character in ourselves as in
 
 3IO Common Sense in Education 
 
 our pupils, so that the pursuit of the great aim may be 
 easy because it is habitual. Every now and then we must 
 call a halt and refresh ourselves by a review of our own 
 spiritual forces. This alone, with the aid of the stimulus 
 provided in great literature, can save us from the tedium 
 and depression to which the uninspired and vulgar life is 
 subject. On one further condition : we must think nobly 
 of the individual soul, and no way approve the opinion of 
 those who, seeing nothing but the poor tenements that 
 it sometimes inhabits, do not recognise its infinite 
 capacity for expansion and improvement. To educate 
 well, we must believe in the ultimate triumph of good 
 education, because we fight on the same side as the stars 
 in their courses. 
 
 Education is a constant force ; so many souls, so much 
 endeavour to influence other souls. It is as foolish to 
 say that we have " too much education " as it would be 
 to say that we have too much Gravity or too much 
 Electricity. Education operates wherever ideas are 
 alive ; for good or for evil ; whether we like it or not. 
 The purpose of the wise organisation of this ever-active 
 social force is to make it tend to conservation and not 
 destruction. Of education rightly directed we cannot 
 have too much. 
 
 \
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 
 
 The first edition of this book has been more kindly 
 received and has succeeded better in the end which 
 was proposed than the author had any right to 
 expect. In more cases and places than he hoped 
 it has stimulated discussion and led to a reconsider- 
 ation of some accepted opinions and practices 
 which seem to have achieved a popularity not 
 entirely deserved. 
 
 The author is indebted to friendly critics for 
 many helpful suggestions, and if a longer interval 
 had elapsed between the first appearance of the 
 book and the call for a second edition, he might 
 have felt it desirable to strengthen some of his 
 positions and to extend some of his arguments. 
 As it is, though he has gratefully profited by all 
 criticisms, he has adopted some only which seemed 
 to him indubitably to have found joints in his 
 armour. 
 
 P. A. B. 
 
 April, 1900.
 
 PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 
 
 If the subjects treated in this book had to be 
 treated afresh, undoubtedly they would be pre- 
 sented to the benevolent reader with some 
 differences ; but the changes would be of shape 
 and colour rather than of material and texture. 
 For an enlarged experience and further reflection 
 have not led me to suspect, on a new reading, 
 that I have been seriously wrong in any point 
 of moment, although some opinions, expressed 
 originally without qualification, have in occasional 
 details required restatement. 
 
 It may be urged that the method which I have 
 followed has been too generally critical. It is 
 true that, as time goes on, one would naturally 
 tend to vote outright for some views which at first 
 one would prefer to leave as alternative. But 
 practical education is so absolutely dependent on 
 all the sciences which help us to adjust ourselves 
 to life, that it is idle to pretend that it has a 
 definite set of principles of its own on which we 
 can forthwith raise a formal science. The most 
 we can do as yet is to find out the grounds on
 
 314 Preface to the Third Edition 
 
 which we are to admit to the practice of education 
 the principles established by other branches of 
 knowledge, better systematised, because more 
 abstract. 
 
 Education is a practical matter first and chiefly, 
 and we may be humbly grateful for any contri- 
 bution to our stock of knowledge from any quarter. 
 We need not therefore feel bound, before accepting 
 a maxim in our business of educating, to establish 
 its connexion with any set of psychological or 
 other principles. It is enough for the present 
 if it does not violate truths derived from other 
 sciences : psychology, physiology, sociology, or 
 what not. On the other hand, seeing that the 
 actual material manipulated by the educator, 
 whatever his purpose, is always human mind and 
 character, the sciences which devote themselves 
 especially to the investigation of the phenomena of 
 mental and moral life have the first and chief claim 
 to a hearing. Within their province necessarily 
 lie our chief operations ; and they must be our chief 
 guides in the regions which it is their particular 
 business to explore and map out. 
 
 If it is idle to pretend that education has prin- 
 ciples of its own from which all middle axioms can 
 be derived, it is worse to treat the science of 
 education as if, ex vi termini, it called for the ex- 
 clusive or preponderant use of experimental science 
 as the stuff and gymnastic of training. And yet 
 
 I
 
 Preface to the Third Edition 315 
 
 " the pubh'c " is in real danger of deception by this 
 very thin Idolon. A knowledge of the elements 
 of positive science is a necessary discipline for 
 the cultivation of the human spirit, and practice in 
 the method of discovery is even more important, 
 as it is, of course, more ancient. For although, 
 under the name "heuristic," equally barbarous in 
 Greek, German, and English, it is sometimes 
 unwarrantably proclaimed as a New Method, and 
 as such is at last entering, not without noise, into 
 the school teaching of the positive sciences, 
 teachers have always used it, in different materials, 
 from Orbilius to Professor Miall. 
 
 A book which is to be useful in the practice of 
 education must needs be critical. The critical 
 view tries to get at things from all sides. It does 
 not accept as authoritative maxims lightly fished 
 up from the shallows of an unsound psychology 
 by theorists who call themselves " practical " and 
 disclaim all connexion with the philosopher next 
 door. It does not wave aside as uselessly " ideal " 
 an appeal to high spiritual and national purposes. 
 Before adopting educational maxims, it will 
 examine them with due regard to history and 
 philosophy as well as to the claims of the moment, 
 of this or that class, this or that "interest". It 
 will endeavour to separate the large from the 
 small, the real need from the artificial, the per- 
 manent from the evanescent.
 
 3i6 Preface to the Third Edition 
 
 All true educators, all who are concerned in 
 training human beings rather than in the promotion 
 of particular studies or researches, will do well to 
 stand out squarely for a general education which 
 shall leave no great side of healthy human interest 
 unstimulated. They may safely neglect neither 
 letters, by which the most truly human instincts 
 are quickened, nor the sciences which put their 
 children into intelligent relation with the non- 
 sentient universe. They must not allow them- 
 selves, either as "Humanists" or "Realists," or 
 called by any other bad name, to be hustled into 
 starving or warping the souls committed to them. 
 After all, education deals first and foremost with 
 children, and not with separable parts of them ; 
 with their whole life, and not only with that part 
 of it by which they are to make their living. 
 
 P. A. BARNETT. 
 
 November, 190 1.
 
 3'? 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 "Accomplishments": their place in 
 
 the school course, 138, 
 Activity of children : to be utilised, 
 
 74- 
 .(Esthetic standard acquired by study of 
 
 Literature, 172, 184. 
 
 — value of such a standard as a 
 safeguard, 172. 
 
 Affectation in girls' schools : its cause, 
 
 128. 
 
 Aim of Education, 274. 
 
 Algebra : 233. Symbols and simple 
 problems to be introduced early, 
 233; caution with regard to sym- 
 bols, 234. 
 
 Analogy: between teacher and physi- 
 cian, I. 
 
 — false, between child's mind and 
 clean sheet of paper, 2, 287. 
 
 — false, Ijetween children and 
 primitive races, 122. 
 
 Analysis, grammatical : its limited 
 value in study of English, 176, 
 
 195- 
 
 — rhetorical, its great value, 176. 
 
 — of sounds, its place in the teach- 
 ing of reading, 152. 
 
 Analytical methods of teaching lan- 
 guage criticised, 161. 
 
 Anger : its value for disciplinary pur- 
 poses, 62. 
 
 Annotated texts, distract attention 
 from Literature, 189. 
 
 — destroy initiative and self-reli- 
 ance, 2l6. 
 
 Answers in complete sentences : a 
 heresy of German origin, 178. 
 
 — may be demanded in early com- 
 position lessons, 177. 
 
 — not invariable in intelligent con- 
 versation, 27. 
 
 Anthropometrical observations in 
 
 school, 71, 90. 
 Appreciation, 175. 
 
 — of literature : a valuable step in 
 pupil's progress, 175. 
 
 Approximations in Arithmetic, 227. 
 Aptitude for teachmg, 293. 
 Arithmetic : should begin with con- 
 crete examples, 224. 
 
 — should be associated with daily 
 life of pupils, 225. 
 
 — commercial, might be left to 
 technical schools, 225. 
 
 — obsolete forms of, 225. 
 
 — value of problems requiring in- 
 genuity, 227. 
 
 — processes may be taught before 
 reasons, 228. 
 
 — excessive preciseness in calculat- 
 ing results, 226. 
 
 Armada, the Spanish : varying scope 
 of lessons for pupils of different 
 ages, 4. 
 
 — treatment of, as example of 
 generalisation, 16. 
 
 Arnold, Dr., and school morals, 51. 
 Art : its place taken among children 
 by play, 76, 83. 
 
 — its main features owe nothing to 
 science, 240. 
 
 Ascham, on re-translation, 208 (foot- 
 note). 
 
 Association of ideas : 10. [See Con- 
 centration.] 
 
 — of word and thing in teaching 
 foreign tongues, 164. 
 
 Athletics : a warning, 70. 
 Atlas, the use of the, 254, 255. 
 Atmosphere and perspective \n history, 
 
 257- 
 Audible speech, 143. [See Reading 
 
 and Voice.] 
 Authority of Books, ao8.
 
 3i8 
 
 Index. 
 
 B. 
 
 Backsliding, to be guarded against in 
 discipline of character, 42. 
 
 Balance, occasionally lacking in girls' 
 schools, 128. 
 
 Bible, Latin, suitable for beginners, 
 
 213. 
 
 Biography : its place in the teaching 
 of History, 255. 
 
 — its value for moral training, 256. 
 
 — History, the biography of com- 
 munities, 255. 
 
 Books : the great book the highest 
 outcome of a nation's life, 169 ; 
 should be first read as a whole, 
 174, 189 ; familiarity with great 
 books the basis of a liberal educa- 
 tion, 169. [See Literature.] 
 
 — of small value in teaching young 
 children, 115. 
 
 — written to teach morality direct- 
 ly, wrong in principle, 57. 
 
 — for children's reading, 57, 64. 
 [See Library.] 
 
 Botany of the simplest kind suitable 
 for young children, 237. 
 
 — scientific, not a good school sub- 
 ject, 239. 
 
 Brain exercise necessary to health, 67. 
 Bread-studies, 107. 
 
 Breathing, correct. Its great import- 
 ance in voice-production, 146. 
 Breathing-power, tests of, 91. 
 
 Caesar, of doubtful use for beginners, 
 
 212. 
 
 Cant, induced by set lessons on morals 
 
 and patriotism, r88. 
 Caxton, quoted, 173 (note). 
 Character : discipline of, 35 e/ seq. 
 
 — its cultivation a test of curricula, 
 99. 
 
 Chaucer, study of, 186. 
 
 Chemistry and Physics, their respective 
 claims, 237. 
 
 Child : a person in process of develop- 
 ment, 3, 388. 
 
 — his natural activity, not sinful, 
 
 39- 
 
 — his mind not a tabula rasa, 2, 
 387. 
 
 — his share in his own education. 
 [See Self-help, j 
 
 Child : recent organised study of ' ' child- 
 nature," 87. 
 
 Citizenship, as a school subject, 267, 
 268, 283. 
 
 Civic standard in education, 98. 
 
 — its shortcomings, 284, 285. 
 Civitas Dei, 99, 100, 286. 
 Classical learning : Historical review 
 
 of, 196-200, 282. 
 
 — its claims less pressing than 
 formerly, 203. 
 
 — indispensable to certain profes- 
 sions, 206. 
 
 — value of the immobility of Latin 
 and Greek, 203. 
 
 — objections to classics as school 
 subjects, 206. 
 
 — objections to prevailing methods, 
 209. 
 
 — value as training in logic, 205. 
 Classics as language and literature, 
 
 196. [See Latin and Greek.] 
 Cleanliness, growth of habit assisted 
 
 by surroundings, 41, 49. 
 Clubs, their value in schools for char- 
 acter-discipline, 45. 
 
 — the teacher's share in manage- 
 ment, 45. 
 
 Co-education of boys and girls, 129. 
 Coercion, destroys moral initiative, 43. 
 Co-ordination of the senses and mo- 
 tions, 73, 74. 
 
 — of studies, ii8, 131. 
 Colloquial method in foreign lan- 
 guages, 164, 165. ^ 
 
 Commercialism : as bad as militarism, ."I 
 
 99. 
 
 as a standard in education, 98. 
 Commercial geography, 254. 
 Conmiercial arithmetic, 225. 
 Comparison, as a stage in the process 
 
 of instruction, 14. 
 
 — needs adaptation to various ages, 
 14. 
 
 — essential in History and Geo- J| 
 graphy, 253. ■[ 
 
 — a stimulus in study of Literatiure, '*' 
 
 173- 
 Composition, 161, 178. 
 
 — improved by rhetorical analysis 
 of literary masterpieces, 175-177. 
 
 — begins before teaching of formal 
 grammar, 177. 
 
 — lessons should follow literature 
 lesson, 178. 
 
 — suggestions for procedure, 178. 
 Composition, Latin prose, 308, 219.
 
 Index. 
 
 319 
 
 Conflicts for the possession of schools, 
 
 a sign of vitality, 272. 
 Concentration of related ideas and 
 
 studies, 118, 121. 
 
 — conduces to unity of intellectual 
 life, 119. 
 
 — saves effort in acquisition of 
 details, 119. 
 
 Constitutional History unsuitable for 
 school work, 257. 
 
 Construing : its value as mental gym- 
 nastic, 20, 213. 
 
 — procedure, 19, 214. 
 Continental systems of education, 98, 
 
 99- 
 
 — examination-papers, 34. 
 Continuous speech, to be cultivated, 
 
 162. 
 
 Counting at stops, in reading, 154. 
 
 Cowley, quoted, 23. 
 
 Criticism of Literature, should consist 
 largely of rhetorical analysis, 176. 
 
 Cruelty in children, 49. 
 
 Curriculum : its genesis and manipula- 
 tion, chapters iv. and v. 
 
 — its importance, 94, 96 ; its rela- 
 tion to method, 95 ; determined 
 by public opinion, 96; influence 
 of tradition, 97 ; tests applied to 
 " subjects" proposed for curricu- 
 lum, 98-100, 114 ; cultivation of 
 character the chief consideration, 
 100. 
 
 — the arrangement of, 100; definite 
 sequence and concentration neces- 
 
 . sary, loo; the best guides are (1) 
 psychology, 120; {2) logic, 121; 
 (3) tradition, 102 ; modific.uions 
 rendered necessary by ditTerent 
 ages of leaving school, io3, 124; 
 skeleton of a course extending from 
 infancy to eighteen, 115 ; advan- 
 tages of a widely extended cur- 
 riculum, 120. 
 
 — should be more liberal in girls' 
 schools, 126. 
 
 Despair, an obstacle to improvement 
 
 of character, 42, 43. 
 Details : teaching of, relation to 
 
 thoroughness or accuracy, 115. 
 
 116. 
 — crowding out vital points in 
 
 public examinations, 34. 
 X)ialect in schools, its treatment, 150. 
 
 Dictation in foreign languages, 168. 
 Dictionaries, their right use to be 
 
 taught, 216. 
 Discipline : is all of character, 35. 
 
 — definition of, 39. 
 
 — of consequences, so-callud, 40 ; 
 corporal punishment often prefer- 
 able, 60. 
 
 — military, 43. 
 
 — by suggestion, 63. 
 
 — of movements, 73. 
 Disciplinary value of studies, their 
 
 highest claim, 100. 
 
 Distinctness in native tongue, helped 
 by speaking a foreign or classical 
 language, 157. 
 
 Diversities of pupils in regard to age, 
 antecedents and status ; their 
 significance in theory and prac- 
 tice, 1-6. 
 
 — of aim, subject-matter, and 
 methods of education, i-6. 
 
 Drawing, its educational value through- 
 out the school, 140. 
 
 — its relation to writing, 140. 
 Drill, physical, value in forming habits 
 
 of obedience, 41. 
 Drudges, 133. 
 
 Economy of subject-matter important 
 
 in curriculum, 115. 
 Economy, domestic and general, 127. 
 Education, of man, never completed, 
 
 36. 
 
 — can do its best for a minority 
 only, 105. 
 
 — its traditional division, prepara- 
 tory, liberal, special, 106. 
 
 — the universal need for a liberal 
 education, 275, 276. 
 
 — warnings from the history of, 
 270. 
 
 — a liberal education, what it in- r> 
 eludes and excludes, 107, 169, 
 172. 
 
 — history of, a history of ideals, 
 270. 
 
 — systems of, as causes and effects, 
 271. 
 
 Educational Philosophy, limit of Us 
 value, 2. 
 
 Educational Politics, what they indi- 
 cate, 272. 
 
 Elegance, to be insisted on in constru- 
 ing, 205.
 
 320 
 
 Index. 
 
 ' Eliciting," leads to guessing, 9. 
 
 — generally means increased effort 
 for the teacher, 10. 
 
 — frequently irrational, 12, 13. 
 Empiricism, inevitable in Education, 
 
 299. 
 
 Employers, unable or unwilling to 
 teach principles to juniors, 134. 
 
 Emphasis, in Reading, 156. 
 
 English, generally includes literature, 
 philology, and literary annals, 173; 
 the two last to be treated as sub- 
 sidiary at first, 174. 
 
 — excessively analytical methods 
 of teaching, 161. [See Books and 
 Literature.] 
 
 Enjoyment, a necessary condition of 
 profitable study of literature, 182. 
 
 — moral value of a cultivated taste, 
 
 183. 
 Environment, more powerful than 
 heredity, 39. 
 
 — the scbool environment a substi- 
 tute for the Home, 46. 
 
 Equality : the standard of a humane 
 education, 104. 
 
 — conditioned by individual ca- 
 pacity and opportunity, 104. 
 
 Errors in teaching, the value of a 
 teacher's record of his own errors, 
 89, 90. 
 
 — of aim in education, 274. 
 
 — in psychology, 287. 
 
 — of method, 1-4. 
 
 — in construing, to be utilised for 
 teaching syntax, 215. 
 
 Eutropius, suitable for beginners, 
 212. 
 
 Euclid. [Sec Geometry.] 
 
 Evidence, weighing of, cultivated by 
 study of the classics, 207 ; by 
 scientific study of history, 256, 
 262, 265. 
 
 Evolution Theory, its influence on 
 theories of Education, 3. 
 
 Examinations, their effect on educa- 
 tion, 31, 113, 167. 
 
 — participation of the teacher, 32, 
 112. 
 
 — private and oral, 32. 
 
 — Continental, contrasted with 
 English, 34. 
 
 Examiners, their qualifications, 39. 
 
 Exclusiveness of learned classes of a 
 nation, 276. 
 
 E.xercise. [See Games and Gymnas- 
 tics.] 
 
 Expectancy, a desirable mental attitude 
 
 in pupil, 21. 
 Expression, power of, cultivated by 
 
 study of literature, 177. 
 
 Fagging, 49. 
 
 Fairy stories, justification of their use 
 in education, 180. 
 
 — the "wonders of science" not 
 an adequate substitute, 181. 
 
 Family, the primitive school, 103. 
 
 — its educational aim, 275. 
 
 Fiction, its effect on character, 64. 
 
 Figures of speech, suggestions for ex- 
 ercises on, to form part of the 
 composition lesson, 178. 
 
 Force of Character, 64. 
 
 Foreign literature, to be illustrated by 
 English parallels, 173. 
 
 Form-master, best as an all-round 
 man, 295. 
 
 Formulas for lesson-giving, their lim- 
 ited applicability, 7. 
 
 Freedom of choice, necessary to 
 strengthen character, 43. 
 
 Froebel, 75, 288. His doctrine that 
 childhood has a perfection of its 
 own, 3. [See Kindergarten.] 
 
 G. 
 
 Games : the teacher's part, 79, 82, 83, 
 84. 
 
 — superior to gymnastics and drill, 
 80, 81. 
 
 — for girls, 82. 
 
 — choice and variety, 83. 
 Generalisation : as a stage in lesson- 
 giving, 14. 
 
 — dangerous prevalence of hasty 
 generalisation, 14, 15. 
 
 — power of generalising varies 
 with age of pupils and subject 
 taught, 15, 16. 
 
 — in experimental sciences is ten- 
 tative and qualified, 16. 
 
 General basis necessary for special 
 knowledge in History and Geo- 
 graphy, 249, 261. 
 
 Gentleman, development of the idea 
 of, 275. 
 
 Geography : its scope, divisions, and 
 connexions, 24^, 247. 
 -■- as 3i " core" of instruction, 248.
 
 Index. 
 
 321 
 
 Geography : stages in school geo- 
 graphy, 249-252- 
 
 — maps, globes, and models, 250. 
 
 — necessity of comparison in geo- 
 graphy, 253. 
 
 — commercial geography, 254. 
 Geometry, to begin with the concrete, 
 
 229. 
 
 — its usefulness to be brought 
 home to pupils, 230. 
 
 — pupil to make his own defini- 
 tions, 230. 
 
 — the object of " riders," 231. 
 
 — arguments for and against Eu- 
 clid as a text-book, 232. 
 
 Girls' schools, grading of, 126. 
 
 — less hampered by traditional 
 and commercial standards, 125. 
 
 — mischievous results of the ex- 
 clusively feminine atmosphere, 128, 
 
 — gymnastics and games, 81, 82. 
 
 — music and domestic economy, 
 127. 
 
 — require more liberal curriculum 
 than boys' schools, 126. 
 
 Girls less uniform than boys, 126. 
 Gouin method of teaching foreign 
 
 languages, 163. 
 Grades of schools, 124. 
 Grammar, English : a scientific study, 
 
 193- 
 
 — the objects of the lesson, 5, 192. 
 
 — procedure in teaching. 193. 
 
 — to be dropped when the gram- 
 mar of another language is com- 
 menced, 193. 
 
 — overdosing dangerous in the 
 primary school, 5. 
 
 — historical, subsidiary to litera- 
 ture, 186. 
 
 Greece, conditions affecting education 
 in, 103. 
 
 Greek, its part in the history of educa- 
 tion, 196-199. 
 
 — literature unsurpassed as a 
 subject of study, 205. 
 
 — greatness of its literature redis- 
 covered, 199 
 
 Gymnastics, uses and dangers, hygienic 
 and moral, 81. 
 
 H. 
 
 Habits: the conservative force of 
 human society, 40. 
 
 Habits : virtue and vice are habits, 41. 
 
 — physiological aspect of habit, 
 41. 46- 
 
 — and temptation, 42. 
 
 — obedience, cleanliness, 41 ; self- 
 ishness, 44 ; accuracy, 45 ; truth- 
 fulness, 52 ; loafing, 54. 
 
 Health ; brain-exercise a condition of 
 67. 
 
 — signs of weakness or fatigue to be 
 noted by teachers, 71. 
 
 — affected by posture in writing,i42 
 
 — affected by use of the voice, 147 
 
 — the first duty of teachers, 309. 
 History of Education, warnings from, 
 
 273- 
 
 History of Curricula, sketch of, 103. 
 
 History of Literature, should be de- 
 ferred, 185. 
 
 — special danger of cramming 
 criticisms, 185. 
 
 History of Language, subsidiary to 
 study of Literature, 186. 
 
 History : effects of the study intel- 
 lectual rather than moral, 255. 
 
 — the panoramic aspect of, 256. 
 
 — constitutional, unsuitable for 
 schools, 257. 
 
 — importance of correct atmos- 
 phere, 258. 
 
 — "ancient," 259, 260. 
 
 — special branches of, 264. 
 
 — the comparative method in, 253. 
 
 — the unity of, 262. 
 
 — maps, charts, coins in, 266. 
 
 — of social life, to begin with 
 simple states of society, 260. 
 
 — as a means of teaching citizen- 
 ship, 267. 
 
 Historical novels, 268. 
 
 Historical speeches as literature, 181. 
 
 Home-lessons, should break new 
 
 ground, 21, 117. 
 Home surroundings of pupil condition 
 
 the teacher's work, 4, 109, iii. 
 Home, the best nursery of virtue, 46, 
 
 47- 
 
 I. 
 
 Illustrations in teaching : 37-30, 267. 
 
 — tendency to overdo in primary 
 school, 28. 
 
 — right use of graphic illustrations, 
 28. 
 
 — effectiveness of rough sketches 
 in the art of teachmg, 29. 
 
 21
 
 322 
 
 Index. 
 
 Imagination : its part in the learning of 
 languages, 163. 
 
 — cultivated by early lessons in 
 history, 257. 
 
 Imitation, its nature, and value in 
 
 education, 63, 75, 153. 
 Indistinct speech : examples of, 149. 
 
 — its ineffectiveness, 150. 
 Innate ideas, the doctrine of, 38. 
 Inquisitiveness of child valuable to 
 
 teacher, 84. 
 Insanity, rarest among educated 
 
 people, 68. 
 Instincts give little guarantee of per- 
 sonal or social safety, 40. 
 Institutions and a liberal education, 
 
 104. 
 Intelligence in reading aloud, secured 
 
 by previous silent study of the 
 
 passage, 154. 
 Interest, devices for maintaining, 27, 
 
 120, 
 Interference by the teacher : to be 
 
 judicious, 37, 83, 84. 
 
 — in school clubs, 45. 
 Intonation, in foreign languages, 159. 
 Introductions (long) to lessons, gener- 
 ally useless, 8. 
 
 J. 
 
 fustice, sense of, not developed in a 
 young child, 50. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kindergarten methods: their sound 
 basis, 76, 116. 
 
 — require modification for English 
 and American children, 78. 
 
 — should be studied at their 
 sources, 78. 
 
 Knowledge : its object a unity, 2. 
 
 — is gained by observation, infer- 
 ence, or instruction ; cannot be 
 " elicited," 13. 
 
 — its repeated subdivision into 
 subjects misleading, if convenient, 
 8. 
 
 — should be unified by rational 
 concentration, 119. 
 
 — its common divisions are logical, 
 not psychological, xoi, 121. 
 
 L. 
 
 Languages, modern ; when to begin 
 teacliing, 116. 
 
 — one foreign language should be 
 known well at sixteen, 125. 
 
 — not usually taught well by 
 natives, 158. 
 
 — accurate pronunciation neces- 
 sary, 159. 
 
 — desirability of thinking in the 
 foreign language, 159. 
 
 — common faults in prevailing 
 methods, 160, 164. 
 
 — the Gouin method, 163. 
 
 — a scheme for beginners, 166. 
 
 — the Prendergast system, 167. 
 Languages, foreign and classical, as 
 
 literature, 173. 
 
 Languages, claims of the dead lan- 
 guages, 200-202. 
 
 Larynx, diseases of, caused by neglect 
 and misuse, 146. 
 
 Latin : historical causes of its import- 
 ance, 197, 198 ; stimulated by 
 revival of Greek, 199 ; debt of all 
 European languages to, 200 ; fixed 
 nature of classical Latin and 
 Greek an advantage, 203. 
 
 — Grammar, can be taught in- 
 ductively and at first incidentally, 
 211, 215. 
 
 — Prose composition to be pre- 
 ceded by retranslation of author, 
 211, 219. 
 
 — authors suitable for beginners, 
 212. 
 
 — construing, 213. 
 
 — verse composition, 219, 220. 
 
 — pronunciation and quantities, 
 212. 
 
 Laws and regulations, their beneficial 
 object to be shown, 45. 
 
 Lessons : stages in the giving of, 8 
 ieq. ; preparation, 11; presenta- 
 tion, 12 ; comparison, 14 ; general- 
 isation (and cautions), 14-17 ; 
 application to new particulars, i6 ; 
 apparent or necessary variations 
 from this type, 18. 
 
 Liberal education, 104, 105, 290. 
 
 Libraries for scholars, 189. Hints on 
 suitable books, 189, 190, 191, 268. 
 
 Literature : not to be confounded with 
 grammar, 5. 
 
 — best treated by the form-master, 
 187.
 
 Index. 
 
 323 
 
 Literature : its beneficial reaction on 
 other studies, 171, 184, 260. 
 
 — cultivates appreciation and ex- 
 pression, 171. 
 
 — gives a sound aesthetic standard, 
 172. 
 
 — cultivates a reasonable patriot- 
 ism, 171. 
 
 — not merely an accomplishment, 
 240. 
 
 — its value destroyed by over- 
 annotation, 171. 
 
 — what it should achieve in school, 
 183. 
 
 Literary appreciation and criticism, 
 
 175- 
 
 Loafing, a cause of school vices, 54, 55. 
 
 Locke's misleading comparison of 
 child's mmd to a clean sheet of 
 paper, 2, 37, 287. 
 
 Logic : limit of its influence on educa- 
 tional practice, 2. 
 
 — as a guide to the sequence of 
 studies, I02, 121. 
 
 — value of a training in, to teach- 
 ers, 54, 306. 
 
 — — to older scholars, 117. 
 
 — taught indirectly through His- 
 tory, 256, 262, 265. 
 
 M. 
 
 " Make-believe" in child-life, 75. 
 
 Man, thecentreof literary interest, 172. 
 
 Mangnall's questions. 
 
 Manual Instruction, often gives a dull 
 boy a chnnce to excel, 85 ; teaches 
 the dignity of labour, 85 ; its 
 national value, 86 ; its place in 
 primary and secondary schools, 86. 
 
 Maps : relation of, to early geogra- 
 phical leaching, 250, 254. 
 
 — to be used in the history lesson, 
 255, 266. 
 
 Marks for exercises, 30, 31 ; to stimu- 
 late " duflers," 30. 
 
 Mathematics. [See also divisions of 
 the subject.] 
 
 — admits of safe generalisations, 
 16. 
 
 — indispensable as gymnastic, and 
 for its applications, 221. 
 
 — a type of perfect reasoning, 222. 
 
 — the unity of mathematics, 233, 
 
 235- 
 
 — to be connected with physical 
 science a.s early as possible, 236. 
 
 Memory, 176, 170. 
 
 Mental Energy, strictly limited in 
 quantity, 69. 
 
 — physical effort a drain on same 
 source as mental effort, 70. 
 
 Method : its relative importance in 
 diverse curricula, 95. 
 
 — errors of method, 2, 4, 9, 10, 12, 
 26, 89, 287 and passim. 
 
 "Mixed' schools: their distribution, 
 129 ; advantages, 130. 
 
 — difficulty of organising, 130 
 
 — unsuitable when school is resi- 
 dential, 130. 
 
 Mixed staffs, 131. 
 
 Models, geographical, may give wrong 
 
 impressions, 251. 
 Moral training : must be graduated, 
 
 36. [See Habits.] 
 
 — the pupil must do his share, 37. 
 
 — morality cannot be taught by 
 precept alone, 55-57. 
 
 — dangers of preaching, 188. 
 
 — incidental teaching, in litora- 
 ture, 187. 
 
 Monitors, 44. 
 
 Movements of children : to be co- 
 ordinated, 73. 
 
 — instrumental in cultivating men- 
 tal capacity, 86. 
 
 — to be studied as indications, 72. 
 Multiplication should begin with left- 
 hand figure of the multiplier, 227. 
 
 Music: its place in curriculum of girls' 
 schools, 127. 
 
 — value of, as training, 139. 
 
 N. 
 
 Names of "subjects" not to be 
 
 paraded, 10. 
 Nature's share in education, 37, 39, 
 
 287. 
 Nerve-power, tests and observation of, 
 
 92. 
 Newman, Cardinal, on .Scott, 269. 
 Note-books, to be kept by scholars, 
 
 117. 
 Notes of Lessons : as an exercise, 20. 
 
 — " Matter-and-Method " arrange- 
 ment, generally faulty, 20. 
 
 — Herbartian's arrangement pref- 
 erable, 20. 
 
 — should indicate what lesson may 
 follow next, 20. 
 
 Novels, historical, value as a stimulus, 
 a68.
 
 324 
 
 Index, 
 
 O. 
 
 Obedience, the habit of, 41. 
 Object-lessons : the right age for, n6. 
 
 — lend themselves to the standard 
 treatment, 18. 
 
 — objects shown to class should 
 not be too many, 30. 
 
 Objections to classics as school subject 
 
 considered, 206 
 Observation over-cultivated may hinder 
 
 reflection, 38, 116. 
 Observation : of physical health of 
 
 pupils, 71, 90. 
 
 — psychological, difficulties of, 87. 
 Observation of good teaching as part 
 
 of teacher's training, 297. 
 Opportunities of choosint; freely be- 
 tween right and wrong, 43. 
 Oral recapitulation of lessons, 162 ; as 
 
 an exercise in composition, 178. 
 Oral exposition on prepared topic, by 
 
 a pupil in class, 186. 
 Original sin, relation to educational 
 
 theory, 287. 
 ' ' Organised science schools , ' ' provision 
 
 for literary studies in, 135. 
 Over-assistance and over-graduation, 
 
 common mistakes in all schools, 4. 
 
 P. 
 
 Paraphrasing, its legitimate use and its 
 dangers, 179. 
 
 Parent, the proper teacher for the 
 child, 46. 
 
 Parsing and analysis, of limited value, 
 161, 193. 
 
 Patriotism, cultivated by study of liter- 
 ature, 171. 
 
 Perfection recognisable in a process, 
 as well as in stable harmonious 
 states, 3. 
 
 Personality of the teacher, an import- 
 ant factor, 307. 
 
 Perspective in History, 248. 
 
 Pestalozzi, his experience of teaching 
 Latin, 211. 
 
 Philology : unimportant, and often mis- 
 chievous, in the early study of a 
 great book, 174, 186. 
 
 — usefulness of Latin and Greek 
 in the study of, 204. 
 
 Phonetic Alphabet, necessary in leach- 
 ing foreign languages, 158. 
 
 Phonic method of leaching reading, 
 objections to, 152. 
 
 Phrase, as the unit in teaching lan- 
 guage, 161. 
 
 Physical basis of Education, 66 et seq. 
 
 Physical and Mental effort, their alter- 
 nation not necessarily recuperative, 
 70. 
 
 Pliysical observations of children, 71 ; 
 Dr. Warner's schedule, 72. 
 
 Physical drill, 41. 
 
 Physics, logically anterior to chemistry, 
 237, 233. 
 
 Physiography, 239. 
 
 Physiology, not a good school subject, 
 
 239- 
 Physiology of habit, 41. 
 Physiology, its relation to psychology, 
 
 66. 
 Place-taking in class, 31. 
 Plane-song in schools, 139. 
 Play takes the place of " Art " for the 
 
 child, 76, 83. 
 
 — Port- Royal views on play, 75. 
 
 — Froebel's proclamation of its edu- 
 cational value, 75. [5^e Games.] 
 
 Pliny's Letters, suitable for school 
 
 Latin, 213. 
 Poetry : suitable authors for literary 
 
 study, 182. 
 
 — modern, should be represented 
 in syllabus, 182. 
 
 — much should be learned by 
 heart, 182. 
 
 — imitation of, as an exercise, 183. 
 Political institutions of a nation, 
 
 transient as compared with its 
 
 literature, T69. 
 Practice in school, as part of the 
 
 teacher's training, 295, 296, 301. 
 Practice and theory in education, their 
 
 relation, 299. 
 Precision of language, cultivated by 
 
 study of the classics, 207. 
 Prt^cis-writing, 117. 
 Prefects, 44. 
 ' ' Prendergast " system of teaching 
 
 languages, 167. 
 Preparation -stage in a lesson, mainly 
 
 analytical, 12. 
 Presentation-stage in a lesson, three 
 
 methods possible ; mainly syn- 
 thetical, 12. 
 Prigs, 78, 85. 
 Primary schools : special conditions of 
 
 their work, 4, 95. 
 
 — have to contend with limited 
 time and makeshift curricuhmi, 
 95-
 
 Index. 
 
 325 
 
 Primary schools : cannot give an edu- 
 cation complete in itself and 
 also a basis for secondary work, 
 124. 
 
 — greater need for training in the 
 case of primary teachers, 3, 96, 
 290. 
 
 Prizes : dangers of prize-giving, 58. 
 
 — useful to encourage special 
 studies, 59. 
 
 Problems in Arithmetic, 227. 
 Processes may be taught before the 
 
 reasons for them, in Arithmetic, 
 
 228, 229 ; in Algebra, 234, 235. 
 Professions, suitable special studies 
 
 preparatory to, 137. 
 Pronunciation : standard, in English, 
 
 150, 151. 
 
 — of final consonants especially 
 important in English, 149. 
 
 — of foreign languages by English 
 teachers, 159. 
 
 — of Latin, 212. 
 
 Proofs, mathematical : danger of pre- 
 mature and misleading " proofs," 
 229. 
 
 Provincial accent, 150. 
 
 Psychology, its limited scope in the 
 regulation of educational practice, 
 
 2. 307- 
 
 — its postulates, 66. 
 
 - difficulty of the study. 87, 88. 
 
 — as a guide in arranging cur- 
 riculum, 102, 120, 115-117. 
 
 Punctuation in reading, 154. 
 Punishments : more necessary than 
 material rewards, 59. 
 
 — much punishment a mark of a 
 poor .school, 60. 
 
 — corporal punishment, 60-62. 
 
 Qualifications neces.sary in a teacher, 
 
 293- 
 Quantities, in Latin, to be taught from 
 
 the beginning of the course, 212. 
 Questioning : its excessive use, 22-24. 
 
 — of children by teacher perpetu- 
 ally reverses the natural order of 
 things, 22. 
 
 — elliptical, and requiring Yes or 
 No in answer, occasionally useful, 
 
 24- 
 
 — Answers cannot, and should not, 
 always be in complete sentences, 
 as- 
 
 Reading : 143 !fq. 
 
 — lessons of various kinds, 143. 
 
 — should be based on lessons in 
 speech, 144. 
 
 — objections to the Phonic method, 
 
 152- 
 
 — procedure in the reading-lesson, 
 
 153- 
 
 — silent preparation of a passage 
 for reading aloud, 153. 
 
 — for older scholars, 156. 
 
 — simultaneous, injurious, 155, 
 156. 
 
 — pattern-reading, use and abuse 
 of. iSS- 
 
 — cultivation of taste for, 190, 191. 
 Reading-books, generally give too 
 
 much help, 154. 
 Recitation, hints on teaching, 156. 
 
 — in Latin and Greek, its value, 
 
 2l8. 
 
 Recapitulation of lessons orally, by 
 
 children, 24, 25. 
 Reference Lists of Books on Educa- 
 tion, 34, 65, 93, 142, 168, 195, 
 
 220, 244, 269, 288. 
 Rein, Professor, quoted, 47. 
 Rc'ations between teacher and pupil, 
 
 II, 21, 54. 83. 
 Renaissance, its character, 282. 
 Rest, necessity for quiescence as well 
 
 as change of effort, 69, 70. 
 Restlessness natural in a healthy child, 
 
 74- 
 Rewards, 58. \See Prizes.] 
 Rhetorical and grammatical analysis 
 
 contrasted, 175. 
 Riders, in Geometry, 231. 
 Rome, conditions affecting education 
 
 in, 103. 
 Rousseau, 287. 
 Rules of procedure in teaching must 
 
 not be rigid, i. 
 Rules of granunir should be few, and 
 
 taught mostly inductively, 192, 
 
 193- 
 
 s. 
 
 Savage, the, considered psychologic- 
 ally, 68. 
 
 Science : the assumptions of various 
 branches of, 66. 
 
 — two groups, c.tact and experi- 
 mental, 231.
 
 326 
 
 Index. 
 
 Science : as discipline, 239 ; cultivates 
 attention, 242 ; trains mind by 
 conscious reference to the laws 
 of logic, 242 ; should cultivate 
 reverence, 241 ; dangers of bad 
 teaching, 16, 243. 
 
 — Spencer's claims on behalf of 
 science, 239, 240. 
 
 — What art owes to science, 240, 
 241. 
 
 — experimental, should be taught 
 sparingly before fourteen, 117. 
 
 Scientific nomenclature, and Latin and 
 
 Greek, 201. 
 School : a half-way house between the 
 
 home and the world, 48. 
 — the nursery of public virtues and 
 
 the seed-plot of public vices, 50 
 
 SI- 
 
 — often too large to allow of ade- 
 quate moral training, 52. 
 
 — School-hours excessive in length, 
 owing to false view of education, 
 123. 
 
 — secondary, has time, home sur- 
 roundings and curriculum in its 
 favour, 4, 95, no, in. [S^e 
 Primary schools. Girls' schools.] 
 
 Self-government, in clubs, a very 
 valuable part of school training, 
 44. 
 
 Self-help, should be counted on, 4. 
 
 — developed by encouraging pupils 
 to ask questions, 23. 
 
 — in games, 82. 
 
 — in using books of reference, 185, 
 190. 
 
 — diminished by over-annotated 
 texts, 217. [See also 11, 18, 19, 
 36, 38, 218.] 
 
 Selfishness, its various forms, and cure, 
 
 44- . . „ 
 
 Semitic religion, its democratic mnu- 
 
 ence on education, 278. 
 Senses, education of, in relation to 
 
 human progress, 6g. 
 
 — tests of the keenness of the, 90, 
 91, 92. 
 
 Sentimentality in children, 56; m 
 girls' schools, 128. 
 
 Sequence of studies : a psychological 
 scheme, 115. 
 
 Series in teaching, more important 
 than the single lesson, 21. 
 
 Shyness, 49. 
 
 Singing, value of class-singing in edu- 
 cation, 139. 
 
 Slowness of classical study. 210. 
 Social complications affecting educa- 
 tional aims, 275. 
 Socrates : his object in questioning, 
 
 22. 
 
 — the so-called Socratic method 
 very circuitous, and of little value, 
 
 9. II. 13- 
 Sorting-out of individuals, according to 
 
 capacity and opportunity, 104. 
 Specialists, their influence excessive, 
 
 114, 187, and Preface. 
 Specialisation, the result of division of 
 
 labour, 132, 137. 
 
 — provides the stimulus of emula- 
 tion, 132. 
 
 — desirable in the case of a pupil 
 with a special gift, 132. 
 
 — should be subservient to the 
 main end of education, 131, 263. 
 
 — At what age it should commence, 
 117, 134, 136. 
 
 — in girls' schools, 126, 127. 
 
 — the three broad bases of, 137. 
 
 — Some general studies should bo 
 taken in common to secure cor- 
 porate feeling, 138. 
 
 "Special studies" — a term used in 
 three senses, 131. 
 
 — should be concurrent with lib- 
 eral studies, 136. 
 
 Speech : the faults of English, 149. 
 
 — its purpose, to inform and per- 
 suade, 176. 
 
 — the teaching of speech, 151. 
 
 — continuity of speech, to be cul- 
 tivated, 162. [.s>(f Voice, Reading, 
 Pronunciation.] 
 
 Stage, the, not a safe arbiter of pro- 
 nunciation, 151. 
 
 Standards in education, the civic, 
 commercial, and disciphnary, 98- 
 100, and 283-286. 
 
 Statesman, his power to provide op- 
 portunity limited by economic 
 conditions, 105. 
 
 Subjects of Study. {See Curriculum. ] 
 
 Surroundings as important to the 
 pupil's training as curriculum, 96. 
 
 Swift, quoted, 23, 30. 
 
 Sympathy, superior to knowledge' of 
 "theory" in the teacher's work, 
 2, 293. 
 
 Syntax, Latin, may be taught In cor- 
 recting construes, 215. 
 
 Synthetic teaching, necessary in com- 
 position lessons, 178, 194.
 
 Index. 
 
 327 
 
 T. 
 
 Taste, formation of, a chief aim of 
 literature-teaching in school, 183. 
 
 Teacher and statesman, their related 
 duties, 105. 
 
 Teacher's freedom of choice in cur- 
 riculum, limited by the state, the 
 parent, and the examiner, iii ; by 
 the principles of economy and fit- 
 ness, 114 ; what it can do, 123. 
 
 Teacher, special studies for, 302, 303 ; 
 necessity for direct study of great 
 books, 303, 304. 
 
 — his personality and influence, 
 308 ; manner, 309 ; health, 309 ; 
 loftiness of aim, 309. 
 
 — training of, 47, 48, 95, 289 ; 
 need for training, especially for 
 teaching in primary schools, 96, 
 290. 
 
 Teaching, the standard type of, 7, 17. 
 
 Technical studies, 105 ; their claims to 
 a place in school, 133. 
 
 Texts m English Literature and Clas- 
 sics best without notes, 189, 216. 
 
 Text-books in Psychology and School 
 Management, the danger of their 
 use, 305. 
 
 Theology, a study of realities, 281. 
 
 — and the Renaissance, 281. 
 Theory, its relation to teaching, 298. 
 Thoroughness, mistaken idea of, 166. 
 Throat disease among teachers, 147. 
 Time, too much devoted to teaching, 
 
 123. 
 T ime-chart, in teaching History, 265. 
 Time, the Line of, 266. 
 Tradition, educational, its power, 97. 
 
 — a compromise between parent, 
 teacher, and reformer, loi ; as a 
 guide to the sequence of studies, 
 102 ; excessive deference to, 280. 
 
 Tradition in method, 300. 
 Translationfrom foreign languages, 166. 
 
 — back into foreign language, 208. 
 Translations of great classics, their un- 
 satisfactory nature, 206. 
 
 Trigonometry, 235. 
 
 Truthfulness, intimately connected 
 
 with intelligence and with other 
 
 virtues. 52. 
 
 — the teacher himself to be intel- 
 lectually honest, 53 ; evils of bad 
 logic. 54. 
 
 Types in History, difficult for children 
 to comprehend, 122. 
 
 u. 
 
 University study, preparation for, 186, 
 
 263. 
 Unreality of clnssical studies in schools, 
 
 209, 2IO-212. 
 
 V. 
 
 Verse-writing, as an exercise in Eng- 
 lish, 182. 
 
 Verse-effects, the delight of the ear in, 
 183. 
 
 Verse, Latin, a valuable exercise for 
 those capable of it, 220. 
 
 Virtues and vices, developed at home 
 or at school, 48, 51. [See Habits.] 
 
 Vocabulary : meaning of a new word 
 best inferred from context, 154. 
 
 Voice- production : penalties for misuse 
 of speech-organs, 144, 146-148 ; 
 importance of correct breathing 
 and general health, 146 ; ineffec- 
 tiveness of a disagreeable voice, 
 148. 
 
 Voices of healthy children, naturally 
 loud, 83. 
 
 W. 
 
 Warnings from History, 273. [See 
 also Errors, Standards of Educa- 
 tion, and Tradition.] 
 
 Whispering, exercises in, to teach 
 distinctness of consonants, 157. 
 
 Withers. Principal, on teaching of 
 History, 260, 266. 
 
 Women, status of, endangered by civic 
 standard of education, 286. [See 
 Girls' Schools.] 
 
 Writing, should be taught later than 
 Drawing, 140. 
 
 — less important than Reading 
 and Arithmetic, 140. 
 
 — need not be uniform throughout 
 a class, 141. 
 
 — ugliness of some common styles, 
 141. 
 
 — hygienic considerations, 142. 
 
 Youth, includes a longer period than 
 
 formerly. 107. 
 
 z. 
 
 Zoology, simple facts of, a necessary 
 part of a child's education, 2^7.
 
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