Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11), Herbert Spencer [historical books to read .txt] 📗

Part 1 Chapter 2 (Intellectual Education) Pg 36

Similarly With The   Correlative Requirement, That The   Method Of    Culture

Pursued Shall Be One Productive Of    An Intrinsically Happy Activity,--An

Activity Not Happy Because Of    Extrinsic Rewards To Be Obtained, But

Because Of    Its Own Healthfulness. Conformity To This Requirement,

Besides Preventing Us From Thwarting The   Normal Process Of    Evolution,

Incidentally Secures Positive Benefits Of    Importance. Unless We Are To

Return To An Ascetic Morality (Or Rather _Im_-Morality) The   Maintenance

Of Youthful Happiness Must Be Considered As In Itself A Worthy Aim. Not

To Dwell Upon This, However, We Go On To Remark That A Pleasurable State

Of Feeling Is Far More Favourable To Intellectual Action Than A State Of

Indifference Or Disgust. Every One Knows That Things Read, Heard, Or

Seen With Interest, Are Better Remembered Than Things Read, Heard, Or

Seen With Apathy. In The   One Case The   Faculties Appealed To Are Actively

Occupied With The   Subject Presented; In The   Other They Are Inactively

Occupied With It, And The   Attention Is Continually Drawn Away By More

Attractive Thoughts. Hence The   Impressions Are Respectively Strong And

Weak. Moreover, To The   Intellectual Listlessness Which A Pupil's Lack Of

Interest In Any Study Involves, Must Be Added The   Paralysing Fear Of

Consequences. This, By Distracting His Attention, Increases The

Difficulty He Finds In Bringing His Faculties To Bear Upon Facts That

Are Repugnant To Them. Clearly, Therefore, The   Efficiency Of    Tuition

Will, Other Things Equal, Be Proportionate To The   Gratification With

Which Tasks Are Performed.

 

 

 

It Should Be Considered Also, That Grave Moral Consequences Depend Upon

The Habitual Pleasure Or Pain Which Daily Lessons Produce. No One Can

Compare The   Faces And Manners Of    Two Boys--The One Made Happy By

Mastering Interesting Subjects, And The   Other Made Miserable By Disgust

With His Studies, By Consequent Inability, By Cold Looks, By Threats, By

Punishment--Without Seeing That The   Disposition Of    The   One Is Being

Benefited And That Of    The   Other Injured. Whoever Has Marked The   Effects

Of Success And Failure Upon The   Mind, And The   Power Of    The   Mind Over The

Body, Will See That In The   One Case Both Temper And Health Are

Favourably Affected, While In The   Other There Is Danger Of    Permanent

Moroseness, Or Permanent Timidity, And Even Of    Permanent Constitutional

Depression. There Remains Yet Another Indirect Result Of    No Small

Moment. The   Relationship Between Teachers And Their Pupils Is, Other

Things Equal, Rendered Friendly And Influential, Or Antagonistic And

Powerless, According As The   System Of    Culture Produces Happiness Or

Misery. Human Beings Are At The   Mercy Of    Their Associated Ideas. A Daily

Minister Of    Pain Cannot Fail To Be Regarded With Secret Dislike; And If

He Causes No Emotions But Painful Ones, Will Inevitably Be Hated.

Conversely, He Who Constantly Aids Children To Their Ends, Hourly

Provides Them With The   Satisfactions Of    Conquest, Hourly Encourages Them

Through Their Difficulties And Sympathises In Their Successes, Will Be

Liked; Nay, If His Behaviour Is Consistent Throughout, Must Be Loved.

And When We Remember How Efficient And Benign Is The   Control Of    A Master

Who Is Felt To Be A Friend, When Compared With The   Control Of    One Who Is

Looked Upon With Aversion, Or At Best Indifference, We May Infer That

The Indirect Advantages Of    Conducting Education On The   Happiness

Principle Do Not Fall Far Short Of    The   Direct Ones. To All Who Question

The Possibility Of    Acting Out The   System Here Advocated, We Reply As

Before, That Not Only Does Theory Point To It, But Experience Commends

It. To The   Many Verdicts Of    Distinguished Teachers Who Since

Pestalozzi's Time Have Testified This, May Be Here Added That Of

Professor Pillans, Who Asserts That "Where Young People Are Taught As

They Ought To Be, They Are Quite As Happy In School As At Play, Seldom

Less Delighted, Nay, Often More, With The   Well-Directed Exercise Of

Their Mental Energies Than With That Of    Their Muscular Powers."

 

 

 

As Suggesting A Final Reason For Making Education A Process Of

Self-Instruction, And By Consequence A Process Of    Pleasurable

Instruction, We May Advert To The   Fact That, In Proportion As It Is Made

So, Is There A Probability That It Will Not Cease When Schooldays End.

As Long As The   Acquisition Of    Knowledge Is Rendered Habitually

Repugnant, So Long Will There Be A Prevailing Tendency To Discontinue It

When Free From The   Coercion Of    Parents And Masters. And When The

Acquisition Of    Knowledge Has Been Rendered Habitually Gratifying, Then

Will There Be As Prevailing A Tendency To Continue, Without

Superintendence, That Self-Culture Previously Carried On Under

Superintendence. These Results Are Inevitable. While The   Laws Of    Mental

Association Remain True--While Men Dislike The   Things And Places That

Suggest Painful Recollections, And Delight In Those Which Call To Mind

By-Gone Pleasures--Painful Lessons Will Make Knowledge Repulsive, And

Pleasurable Lessons Will Make It Attractive. The   Men To Whom In Boyhood

Information Came In Dreary Tasks Along With Threats Of    Punishment, And

Who Were Never Led Into Habits Of    Independent Inquiry, Are Unlikely To

Be Students In After Years; While Those To Whom It Came In The   Natural

Forms, At The   Proper Times, And Who Remember Its Facts As Not Only

Interesting In Themselves, But As The   Occasions Of    A Long Series Of

Gratifying Successes, Are Likely To Continue Through Life That

Self-Instruction Commenced In Youth.

 

 

 

[1] Those Who Seek Aid In Carrying Out The   System Of    Culture Above

Described, Will Find It In A Little Work Entitled _Inventional

Geometry_; Published By J. And C. Mozley, Paternoster Row, London.

 

 

 

 

Part 1 Chapter 3 (Moral Education) Pg 37

 

The Greatest Defect In Our Programmes Of    Education Is Entirely

Overlooked. While Much Is Being Done In The   Detailed Improvement Of    Our

Systems In Respect Both Of    Matter And Manner, The   Most Pressing

Desideratum Has Not Yet Been Even Recognised As A Desideratum. To

Prepare The   Young For The   Duties Of    Life Is Tacitly Admitted To Be The

End Which Parents And Schoolmasters Should Have In View; And Happily,

The Value Of    The   Things Taught, And The   Goodness Of    The   Methods Followed

In Teaching Them, Are Now Ostensibly Judged By Their Fitness To This

End. The   Propriety Of    Substituting For An Exclusively Classical

Training, A Training In Which The   Modern Languages Shall Have A Share,

Is Argued On This Ground. The   Necessity Of    Increasing The   Amount Of

Science Is Urged For Like Reasons. But Though Some Care Is Taken To Fit

Youth Of    Both Sexes For Society And Citizenship, No Care Whatever Is

Taken To Fit Them For The   Position Of    Parents. While It Is Seen That For

The Purpose Of    Gaining A Livelihood, An Elaborate Preparation Is Needed,

Part 1 Chapter 3 (Moral Education) Pg 38

It Appears To Be Thought That For The   Bringing Up Of    Children, No

Preparation Whatever Is Needed. While Many Years Are Spent By A Boy In

Gaining Knowledge Of    Which The   Chief Value Is That It Constitutes "The

Education Of    A Gentleman;" And While Many Years Are Spent By A Girl In

Those Decorative Acquirements Which Fit Her For Evening Parties; Not An

Hour Is Spent By Either In Preparation For That Gravest Of    All

Responsibilities--The Management Of    A Family. Is It That This

Responsibility Is But A Remote Contingency? On The   Contrary, It Is Sure

To Devolve On Nine Out Of    Ten. Is It That The   Discharge Of    It Is Easy?

Certainly Not: Of    All Functions Which The   Adult Has To Fulfil, This Is

The Most Difficult. Is It That Each May Be Trusted By Self-Instruction

To Fit Himself, Or Herself, For The   Office Of    Parent? No: Not Only Is

The Need For Such Self-Instruction Unrecognised, But The   Complexity Of

The Subject Renders It The   One Of    All Others In Which Self-Instruction

Is Least Likely To Succeed. No Rational Plea Can Be Put Forward For

Leaving The   Art Of    Education Out Of    Our _Curriculum_. Whether As Bearing

On The   Happiness Of    Parents Themselves, Or Whether As Affecting The

Characters And Lives Of    Their Children And Remote Descendants, We Must

Admit That A Knowledge Of    The   Right Methods Of    Juvenile Culture,

Physical, Intellectual, And Moral, Is A Knowledge Of    Extreme Importance.

This Topic Should Be The   Final One In The   Course Of    Instruction Passed

Through By Each Man And Woman. As Physical Maturity Is Marked By The

Ability To Produce Offspring, So Mental Maturity Is Marked By The

Ability To Train Those Offspring. _The Subject Which Involves All Other

Subjects, And Therefore The   Subject In Which Education Should Culminate,

Is The   Theory And Practice Of    Education._

 

 

 

In The   Absence Of    This Preparation, The   Management Of    Children, And More

Especially The   Moral Management, Is Lamentably Bad. Parents Either Never

Think About The   Matter At All, Or Else Their Conclusions Are Crude And

Inconsistent. In Most Cases, And Especially On The   Part Of    Mothers, The

Treatment Adopted On Every Occasion Is That Which The   Impulse Of    The

Moment Prompts: It Springs Not From Any Reasoned-Out Conviction As To

What Will Most Benefit The   Child, But Merely Expresses The   Dominant

Parental Feelings, Whether Good Or Ill; And Varies From Hour To Hour As

These Feelings Vary. Or If The   Dictates Of    Passion Are Supplemented By

Any Definite Doctrines And Methods, They Are Those Handed Down From The

Past, Or Those Suggested By The   Remembrances Of    Childhood, Or Those

Adopted From Nurses And Servants--Methods Devised Not By The

Enlightenment, But By The   Ignorance, Of    The   Time. Commenting On The

Chaotic State Of    Opinion And Practice Relative To Family Government,

Richter Writes:--

 

 

 

     "If The   Secret Variances Of    A Large Class Of    Ordinary Fathers Were

     Brought To Light, And Laid Down As A Plan Of    Studies And Reading,

     Catalogued For A Moral Education, They Would Run Somewhat After

     This Fashion:--In The   First Hour 'Pure Morality Must Be Read To The

     Child, Either By Myself Or The   Tutor;' In The   Second, 'Mixed

     Morality, Or That Which May Be Applied To One's Own Advantage;' In

     The   Third, 'Do You Not See That Your Father Does So And So?' In The

     Fourth, 'You Are Little, And This Is Only Fit For Grown-Up People;'

     In The   Fifth, 'The Chief Matter Is That You Should Succeed In The

     World, And Become Something In The   State;' In The   Sixth, 'Not The

     Temporary, But The   Eternal, Determines The   Worth Of    A Man;' In The

     Seventh, 'Therefore Rather Suffer Injustice, And Be Kind;' In The

     Eighth, 'But Defend Yourself Bravely If Any One Attack You;' In The

     Ninth, 'Do Not Make A Noise, Dear Child;' In The   Tenth, 'A Boy Must

     Not Sit So Quiet;' In The   Eleventh, 'You Must Obey Your Parents

     Better;' In The   Twelfth, 'And Educate Yourself.' So By The   Hourly

     Change Of    His Principles, The   Father Conceals Their Untenableness

     And Onesidedness. As For His Wife, She Is Neither