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

And Her

Own, And Produces Estrangement. Deeds Which She Thinks It Desirable To

Encourage, She Gets Performed By Threats And Bribes, Or By Exciting A

Desire For Applause: Considering Little What The   Inward Motive May Be,

So Long As The   Outward Conduct Conforms; And Thus Cultivating Hypocrisy,

And Fear, And Selfishness, In Place Of    Good Feeling. While Insisting On

Truthfulness, She Constantly Sets An Example Of    Untruth By Threatening

Penalties Which She Does Not Inflict. While Inculcating Self-Control,

She Hourly Visits On Her Little Ones Angry Scoldings For Acts

Undeserving Of    Them. She Has Not The   Remotest Idea That In The   Nursery,

As In The   World, That Alone Is The   Truly Salutary Discipline Which

Visits On All Conduct, Good And Bad, The   Natural Consequences--The

Consequences, Pleasurable Or Painful, Which In The   Nature Of    Things Such

Conduct Tends To Bring. Being Thus Without Theoretic Guidance, And Quite

Incapable Of    Guiding Herself By Tracing The   Mental Processes Going On In

Her Children, Her Rule Is Impulsive, Inconsistent, Mischievous; And

Would Indeed Be Generally Ruinous Were It Not That The   Overwhelming

Tendency Of    The   Growing Mind To Assume The   Moral Type Of    The   Race

Usually Subordinates All Minor Influences.

 

 

 

And Then The   Culture Of    The   Intellect--Is Not This, Too, Mismanaged In A

Similar Manner? Grant That The   Phenomena Of    Intelligence Conform To

Laws; Grant That The   Evolution Of    Intelligence In A Child Also Conforms

To Laws; And It Follows Inevitably That Education Cannot Be Rightly

Guided Without A Knowledge Of    These Laws. To Suppose That You Can

Properly Regulate This Process Of    Forming And Accumulating Ideas,

Without Understanding The   Nature Of    The   Process, Is Absurd. How Widely,

Then, Must Teaching As It Is Differ From Teaching As It Should Be; When

Hardly Any Parents, And But Few Tutors, Know Anything About Psychology.

As Might Be Expected, The   Established System Is Grievously At Fault,

Alike In Matter And In Manner. While The   Right Class Of    Facts Is

Withheld, The   Wrong Class Is Forcibly Administered In The   Wrong Way And

In The   Wrong Order. Under That Common Limited Idea Of    Education Which

Confines It To Knowledge Gained From Books, Parents Thrust Primers Into

The Hands Of    Their Little Ones Years Too Soon, To Their Great Injury.

Not Recognising The   Truth That The   Function Of    Books Is

Supplementary--That They Form An Indirect Means To Knowledge When Direct

Means Fail--A Means Of    Seeing Through Other Men What You Cannot See For

Yourself; Teachers Are Eager To Give Second-Hand Facts In Place Of

First-Hand Facts. Not Perceiving The   Enormous Value Of    That Spontaneous

Education Which Goes On In Early Years--Not Perceiving That A Child's

Restless Observation, Instead Of    Being Ignored Or Checked, Should Be

Diligently Ministered To, And Made As Accurate And Complete As Possible;

They Insist On Occupying Its Eyes And Thoughts With Things That Are, For

The Time Being, Incomprehensible And Repugnant. Possessed By A

Superstition Which Worships The   Symbols Of    Knowledge Instead Of    The

Knowledge Itself, They Do Not See That Only When His Acquaintance With

The Objects And Processes Of    The   Household, The   Streets, And The   Fields,

Is Becoming Tolerably Exhaustive--Only Then Should A Child Be Introduced

To The   New Sources Of    Information Which Books Supply: And This, Not Only

Because Immediate Cognition Is Of    Far Greater Value Than Mediate

Cognition; But Also, Because The   Words Contained In Books Can Be Rightly

Interpreted Into Ideas, Only In Proportion To The   Antecedent Experience

Of Things. Observe Next, That This Formal Instruction, Far Too Soon

Commenced, Is Carried On With But Little Reference To The   Laws Of    Mental

Development. Intellectual Progress Is Of    Necessity From The   Concrete To

The Abstract. But Regardless Of    This, Highly Abstract Studies, Such As

Grammar, Which Should Come Quite Late, Are Begun Quite Early. Political

Geography, Dead And Uninteresting To A Child, And Which Should Be An

Appendage Of    Sociological Studies, Is Commenced Betimes; While Physical

Geography, Comprehensible And Comparatively Attractive To A Child, Is In

Great Part Passed Over. Nearly Every Subject Dealt With Is Arranged In

Abnormal Order: Definitions And Rules And Principles Being Put First,

Instead Of    Being Disclosed, As They Are In The   Order Of    Nature, Through

The Study Of    Cases. And Then, Pervading The   Whole, Is The   Vicious System

Of Rote Learning--A System Of    Sacrificing The   Spirit To The   Letter. See

The Results. What With Perceptions Unnaturally Dulled By Early

Thwarting, And A Coerced Attention To Books--What With The   Mental

Confusion Produced By Teaching Subjects Before They Can Be Understood,

And In Each Of    Them Giving Generalisations Before The   Facts Of    Which

They Are The   Generalisations--What With Making The   Pupil A Mere Passive

Recipient Of    Other's Ideas, And Not In The   Least Leading Him To Be An

Active Inquirer Or Self-Instructor--And What With Taxing The   Faculties

To Excess; There Are Very Few Minds That Become As Efficient As They

Might Be. Examinations Being Once Passed, Books Are Laid Aside; The

Greater Part Of    What Has Been Acquired, Being Unorganised, Soon Drops

Out Of    Recollection; What Remains Is Mostly Inert--The Art Of    Applying

Knowledge Not Having Been Cultivated; And There Is But Little Power

Either Of    Accurate Observation Or Independent Thinking. To All Which

Add, That While Much Of    The   Information Gained Is Of    Relatively Small

Value, An Immense Mass Of    Information Of    Transcendent Value Is Entirely

Passed Over.

 

 

 

Thus We Find The   Facts To Be Such As Might Have Been Inferred _À

Priori_. The   Training Of    Children--Physical, Moral, And Intellectual--Is

Dreadfully Defective. And In Great Measure It Is So Because Parents Are

Devoid Of    That Knowledge By Which This Training Can Alone Be Rightly

Guided. What Is To Be Expected When One Of    The   Most Intricate Of

Problems Is Undertaken By Those Who Have Given Scarcely A Thought To The

Principles On Which Its Solution Depends? For Shoe-Making Or

House-Building, For The   Management Of    A Ship Or A Locomotive Engine, A

Long Apprenticeship Is Needful. Is It, Then, That The   Unfolding Of    A

Human Being In Body And Mind Is So Comparatively Simple A Process That

Any One May Superintend And Regulate It With No Preparation Whatever? If

Not--If The   Process Is, With One Exception, More Complex Than Any In

Nature, And The   Task Of    Ministering To It One Of    Surpassing Difficulty;

Is It Not Madness To Make No Provision For Such A Task? Better Sacrifice

Accomplishments Than Omit This All-Essential Instruction. When A Father,

Acting On False Dogmas Adopted Without Examination, Has Alienated His

Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 15

Sons, Driven Them Into Rebellion By His Harsh Treatment, Ruined Them,

And Made Himself Miserable; He Might Reflect That The   Study Of    Ethology

Would Have Been Worth Pursuing, Even At The   Cost Of    Knowing Nothing

About Æschylus. When A Mother Is Mourning Over A First-Born That Has

Sunk Under The   Sequelæ Of    Scarlet-Fever--When Perhaps A Candid Medical

Man Has Confirmed Her Suspicion That Her Child Would Have Recovered Had

Not Its System Been Enfeebled By Over-Study--When She Is Prostrate Under

The Pangs Of    Combined Grief And Remorse; It Is But A Small Consolation

That She Can Read Dante In The   Original.

 

 

 

Thus We See That For Regulating The   Third Great Division Of    Human

Activities, A Knowledge Of    The   Laws Of    Life Is The   One Thing Needful.

Some Acquaintance With The   First Principles Of    Physiology And The

Elementary Truths Of    Psychology, Is Indispensable For The   Right Bringing

Up Of    Children. We Doubt Not That Many Will Read This Assertion With A

Smile. That Parents In General Should Be Expected To Acquire A Knowledge

Of Subjects So Abstruse Will Seem To Them An Absurdity. And If We

Proposed That An Exhaustive Knowledge Of    These Subjects Should Be

Obtained By All Fathers And Mothers, The   Absurdity Would Indeed Be

Glaring Enough. But We Do Not. General Principles Only, Accompanied By

Such Illustrations As May Be Needed To Make Them Understood, Would

Suffice. And These Might Be Readily Taught--If Not Rationally, Then

Dogmatically. Be This As It May, However, Here Are The   Indisputable

Facts:--That The   Development Of    Children In Mind And Body Follows

Certain Laws; That Unless These Laws Are In Some Degree Conformed To By

Parents, Death Is Inevitable; That Unless They Are In A Great Degree

Conformed To, There Must Result Serious Physical And Mental Defects; And

That Only When They Are Completely Conformed To, Can A Perfect Maturity

Be Reached. Judge, Then, Whether All Who May One Day Be Parents, Should

Not Strive With Some Anxiety To Learn What These Laws Are.

 

 

From The   Parental Functions Let Us Pass Now To The   Functions Of    The

Citizen. We Have Here To Inquire What Knowledge Fits A Man For The

Discharge Of    These Functions. It Cannot Be Alleged That The   Need For

Knowledge Fitting Him For These Functions Is Wholly Overlooked; For Our

School-Courses Contain Certain Studies, Which, Nominally At Least, Bear

Upon Political And Social Duties. Of    These The   Only One That Occupies A

Prominent Place Is History.

 

 

 

But, As Already Hinted, The   Information Commonly Given Under This Head,

Is Almost Valueless For Purposes Of    Guidance. Scarcely Any Of    The   Facts

Set Down In Our School-Histories, And Very Few Of    Those Contained In The

More Elaborate Works Written For Adults, Illustrate The   Right Principles

Of Political Action. The   Biographies Of    Monarchs (And Our Children Learn

Little Else) Throw Scarcely Any Light Upon The   Science Of    Society.

Familiarity With Court Intrigues, Plots, Usurpations, Or The   Like, And

With All The   Personalities Accompanying Them, Aids Very Little In

Elucidating The   Causes Of    National Progress. We Read Of    Some Squabble

For Power, That It Led To A Pitched Battle; That Such And Such Were The

Names Of    The   Generals And Their Leading Subordinates; That They Had Each

So Many Thousand Infantry And Cavalry, And So Many Cannon; That They

Arranged Their Forces In This And That Order; That They Manoeuvred,

Attacked, And Fell Back In Certain Ways; That At This Part Of    The   Day

Such Disasters Were Sustained, And At That Such Advantages Gained; That

In One Particular Movement Some Leading Officer Fell, While In Another A

Certain Regiment Was Decimated; That After All The   Changing Fortunes Of

The Fight, The   Victory Was Gained By This Or That Army; And That So Many

Were Killed And Wounded On Each Side, And So Many Captured By The

Conquerors. And Now, Out Of    The   Accumulated Details Making Up The

Narrative, Say Which It Is That Helps You In Deciding On Your Conduct As

A Citizen. Supposing Even That You Had Diligently Read, Not Only _The

Fifteen Decisive Battles Of    The   World_, But Accounts Of    All Other

Battles That History Mentions; How Much More Judicious Would Your Vote

Be At The   Next Election? "But These Are Facts--Interesting Facts," You

Say. Without Doubt They Are Facts (Such, At Least, As Are Not Wholly Or

Partially Fictions); And To Many They May Be Interesting Facts. But This

By No Means Implies That They Are Valuable. Factitious Or Morbid Opinion

Often Gives Seeming Value To Things That Have Scarcely Any. A

Tulipomaniac Will Not Part With A Choice Bulb For Its Weight In Gold. To

Another Man An Ugly Piece Of    Cracked Old China Seems His Most Desirable

Possession. And There Are Those Who Give High Prices For The   Relics Of

Celebrated Murderers. Will It Be Contended That These Tastes Are Any

Measures Of    Value In The   Things That Gratify Them? If Not, Then It Must

Be Admitted That The   Liking Felt For Certain Classes Of    Historical Facts

Is No Proof Of    Their Worth; And That We Must Test Their Worth, As We

Test The   Worth Of    Other Facts, By Asking To What Uses They Are

Applicable. Were Some One To Tell You That Your Neighbour's Cat Kittened

Yesterday, You Would Say The   Information Was Valueless. Fact Though It

Might Be, You Would Call It An Utterly Useless Fact--A Fact That Could

In No Way Influence Your Actions In Life--A Fact That Would Not Help You

In Learning How To Live Completely. Well, Apply The   Same Test To The

Great Mass Of    Historical Facts, And You Will Get The   Same Result. They

Are Facts From Which No Conclusions Can Be Drawn--_Unorganisable_ Facts;

And Therefore Facts Of    No Service In Establishing Principles Of    Conduct,

Which Is The   Chief Use Of    Facts. Read Them, If You Like, For Amusement;

But Do Not Flatter Your Self They Are