He enlarged still further on the subject of fields, and while he was describing the technical details, I saw him metaphorically enveloped in a magnetic field of force. Here, too, an influence, transmitted through space from point to point, made itself felt, and there could be no question of action "at a distance" inasmuch as the effective source was so near at hand. His gaze, as if drawn magnetically, passed along the wall of the room and fixed affectionately on Maxwell and Faraday.
CHAPTER IV
EDUCATION
School Curricula and Reform of Teaching.—Value of Language Study.—Economy of Time.—Practice in Manual Work.—Picturesque Illustrations.—Art of Lecturing.—Selection of Talents by Means of Examinations.—Women Students.—Social Difficulties.—Necessity as Instructress.
OUR conversation turned towards a series of pædagogic questions, in which Einstein is deeply interested. For he himself is actively engaged in teaching, and never disguises the pleasure which he derives from imparting instruction. Without doubt he has a gift of making his spoken words react on wide circles anxious to be instructed, composed not only of University students, but of many others quite outside this category. When, recently, popular lectures on a large scale were instituted, he was one of the first to offer his services in this sound undertaking. He lectured to people of the working class, who could not be assumed to have any preliminary information on the subject, and he succeeded in presenting his lectures so that even the less trained minds could easily follow his argument.
His attitude towards general questions of school education is, of course, conditioned by his own personality and his own work in the past. His first care is that a young person should get an insight into the relationship underlying natural phenomena, that is, that the curricula should be mapped out so that a knowledge of facts is the predominating aim.
"My wish," Einstein declared to me, "is far removed from the desire to eliminate altogether the fundamental features of the old grammar schools, with their preference for Latin, by making over-hasty reforms, but I am just as little inclined to wax enthusiastic about the so-called humanistic schools. Certain recollections of my own school life suffice to prevent this, and still more, a certain presentiment of the educational problems of the future."—"To speak quite candidly," he said, "in my opinion the educative value of languages is, in general, much over-estimated."
I took the liberty of quoting a saying that is still regarded as irrefutable by certain scholars. It was Charles V who said: "Each additional acquired language represents an additional personality"; and to suggest the root of language formation he said it in Latin: "Quot linguas quis callet, tot homines valet." This saying has been handed down through the ages in German in the form: "Soviel Sprachen, soviel Sinnen" (An added language means an added sense).
Einstein replied: "I doubt whether this aphorism is generally valid, for I believe that it would at no time have stood a real test. All experience contradicts it. Otherwise we should be compelled to assign the highest positions among intellectual beings to linguistic athletes like Mithridates, Mezzofanti, and similar persons. The exact opposite, indeed, may be proved, namely, that in the case of the strongest personalities, and of those who have contributed most to progress, the multiplicity of their senses in no wise depended on a comprehensive knowledge of languages, but rather that they avoided burdening their minds with things that made excessive claims on their memories."
"Certainly," said I, "it may be admitted that this gives rise to exaggeration in some cases, and that the linguistic sort of sport practised by many a scholar degenerates to a mere display of knowledge. An intellectual achievement of lasting merit has very rarely or never been the result of a superabundance of acquired linguistic knowledge. An instance occurs to me at this moment. Nietzsche became a philosopher of far-reaching influence only after he had passed the stage of the philologist. As far as our present discussion is concerned, the question is narrowed down considerably: it reduces itself to inquiring whether we do sufficient, too little, or too much Greek and Latin. I must remark at the very outset that, formerly, school requirements went much further in this respect than nowadays, when we scarcely meet with a scholar even in the upper classes who knows Latin and Greek perfectly."
It is just this fact that Einstein regards as a sign of improvement and a result of examining the true aims of a school. He continued: "Man must be educated to 'react delicately'; he is to acquire and develop 'intellectual muscles'! And the methods of language drill are much less suited to this purpose than those of a more general training that gives greatest weight to a sharpening of one's own powers of reflection. Naturally, the inclination of the pupil for a particular profession must not be neglected, especially in view of the circumstance that such inclination usually asserts itself at an early age, being occasioned by personal gifts, by examples of other members of the family, and by various circumstances that affect the choice of his future life-work. That is why I support the introduction into schools, particularly schools devoted to classics, of a division into two branches at, say, the fourth form, so that at this stage the young pupil has to decide in favour of one or other of the courses. The elementary foundation to the fourth form may be made uniform for all, as they are concerned with factors on education that are scarcely open to the danger of being exaggerated in any one direction. If the pupil finds that he has a special interest in what are called humaniora by the educationist, let him by all means continue along the road of Latin and Greek, and, indeed, without being burdened by tasks that, owing to his disposition, oppress or alarm him."