Procrustes

PROCRUSTES OR THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
M. ALDERTON PINK, M.A.
New York E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 681 Fifth Avenue
Published, 1927 By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All rights reserved
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

PROCRUSTES
Andrew Undershaft. —“Every blessed foundling nowadays is snapped up in his infancy by Barnado homes, or School Board Officers, or Boards of Guardians; and if he shows the least ability he is fastened on by schoolmasters; trained to win scholarships like a racehorse; crammed with second-hand ideas; drilled and disciplined in docility and what they call good taste; and lamed for life so that he is fit for nothing but teaching.”—( Bernard Shaw ).
During the Debate on the last Education Estimates (1925), Lord Hugh Cecil made a speech which most enthusiasts of education dismissed offhand as hopelessly reactionary. In the central part of his argument he deprecated the doctrine that education is to be equally distributed to all sorts of people, irrespective of their real capacity. He maintained that we must train children for the station to which, not by birth but by natural capacity, they properly belong. He would select the clever children and spend money liberally in giving them the fullest possible opportunities for higher study. But to the great body of children who are incapable of really using any higher teaching he would give a very low standard of education confined to the three R’s: the teaching of reading should be made the basis, for reading is the key to knowledge.