II. SOCIAL REALISM
[Illustration: FIG. 123. MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-92)]
MONTAIGNE AND LOCKE. Social realism represents a still further reaction away from the humanistic schools. It was the natural reaction of practical men of the new world against a type of education that tended to perpetuate the pedantry of an earlier age, by devoting its energies to the production of the scholar and professional man to the neglect of the man of affairs. The social realists were small in number, but powerful because of their important social connections and wealth, and they were very determined to have an education suited to their needs, even if they had to create it themselves (R. 213). The French nobleman, scholar, author, and civic officer, M. de Montaigne (1533-92), and the English philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704), were the clearest exponents of this new point of view, though it found expression in the writings of many others. Each declared for a practical, useful type of education for the young boy who was to live the life of a gentleman in the world of affairs.
Neither had any sympathy with the colleges and grammar schools of the time (R. 214), and both rejected the school for the private tutor. This tutor must be selected with great care, and first of all must be a well-bred gentleman—a man, as Montaigne says, "who has rather a well-made than a well-filled head" (R. 215). Locke cautions that "one fit to educate and form the Mind of a young Gentleman is not every where to be found," and of the common type of teacher he asks, "When such an one has empty'd out into his Pupil all the Latin and Logick he has brought from the University, will that Furniture make him a fine Gentleman?" (R. 216).
Both condemn the school training of their time, and both urge that the tutor train the judgment and the understanding rather than the memory. To impart good manners rather than mere information, and to train for life in the world rather than for the life of a scholar, seem to both of fundamental importance in the education of a boy. "The great world," says Montaigne, "is the mirror wherein we are to behold ourselves. In short, I would have this to be the book my young gentleman should study with the most attention." "Latin and Learning," says Locke, "make all the Noise; and the main Stress is laid upon Proficiency in Things a great Part whereof belong not to a Gentleman's Calling; which is to have the Knowledge of a Man of Business, a Carriage suitable to his Rank, and to be eminent and useful to his Country, according to his Station" (R. 216). Both emphasized the importance of travel abroad as an important factor in the education of a gentleman.
THEIR PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. Both Montaigne and Locke were concerned alone with the education of the sons of gentlemen, individuals now coming rapidly into prominence to dispute place in the world of affairs with the higher nobility on the one hand and the clergy on the other. With the education of any other class Montaigne never concerned himself. As for Locke, he was later appointed a King's Commissioner, with certain oversight of the poor, and for the education of the children of such he drew up a careful report which, in true English fashion, provided for their training in workhouses and their apprenticeship to a trade (R. 217). He wrote nothing with regard to the education of the children of middle-class workers and tradesmen. Both authors also deal entirely with the work of a tutor, and not with the work of a teacher in a school. Neither deals specifically with elementary education, but rather with what, in Europe, would be called the secondary-school period in the education of a boy. Locke was extensively read by the gentry of England, as expressive of the best current practice of their class, and his ideas as to education were also of some influence in shaping the instruction of the non-conformist teachers in the academies there. His place in the history of education is also of some importance, as we shall point out later, for the disciplinary theory of education which he set forth. Still more, Locke later exerted a deep influence on the writings of Rousseau (chapter XXI), and hence helped materially to shape modern educational theory.
[Illustration: FIG. 124. JOHN LOCKE (1631-1704)]
THE NEW SCHOOLS FOR THE SONS OF THE GENTRY. Both Montaigne and Locke, in their emphasis on the importance of a practical education for the social and political demands of a gentleman concerned with the affairs of the modern world, represent a still further reaction against the humanistic schools of the time than did the humanistic realists whom we have just considered. Still more, both are expressive of the attitude of the nobility and gentry of the time, who had almost deserted the schools as pedantic institutions of little value. France was then the great country of Europe, and French language, French political ideas, French manners, and French tutors found their way into all neighboring lands. A new social and political ideal was erected—that of the polished man of the world, who could speak French, had traveled, knew history and politics, law and geography, heraldry and genealogy, some mathematics and physics with their applications, could use the sword and ride, was adept in games and dancing, and was skilled in the practical affairs of life.
[Illustration: FIG. 125. AN ACADEMIE DES ARMES
From an early eighteenth-century Parisian poster, advertising an Academy.]
To give such training the French created numerous Academies in their cities. A writer of 1649 states that there were twelve such institutions at that time in Paris alone. Not infrequently some nobleman was at the head. Boys were first educated at home by tutors, and then sent to the Academy to be trained in riding, the military arts, fortification, mathematics, the modern languages, and the many graces of a gentleman. The Englishman, John Evelyn, who was in France in 1644, thus describes the French Academies: