The Story of a Great Schoolmaster

by H. G. Wells

'So with the work in the shops. Men do not want wages, or shorter hours; these demands are only symptoms of a disease; short cuts to amelioration. They are doctoring. What men want is that their work may be such that they can love it, and want more of it. They do not want slaves' work in the shops and a "dose" of the spiritual life out of it. So we believe.

'Parents, too, would let their children remain at school. As a class there is no one more unselfish and self-sacrificing and co-operative than the working-class parent. Boys want to leave school because of the natural urge for making something and getting to business—as they see it at home. To remain at school without joining in some work is unthinkable when they see the life their parents lead.

'I may be permitted to insert one paragraph on the unfortunate opposition to this new position which is claimed for Science in the schools. The opposition springs from the belief that vocational work is simply material, having no spiritual outlook. But the truth is all the other way. Unfortunately the present studies of history, art, economy, literature, are biassed by "possessive" instincts and education, and we claim that Science and its methods are seriously demanded for a new reading of these things. However, the opposition finds expression in high quarters. The Workers' Educational Union, acting in sympathy with the Labour view—that vocational studies are to be avoided—practically taboos technical studies. This is reasonable as things are to-day, when a man's work is too often for the profit of others, and for this reason the workers are not in love with their work, and when the day is over they have seen plenty of it; so the best of them go elsewhere for the springs of the spiritual life. But this is all disastrous to individuals and disastrous to progress. What the workers should do is to watch for the spirit in their daily work, for it is the work itself which will hold a man to God—nothing else will.'

§ 5

I have quoted from this London Reconstruction discourse very fully. In the official Life there are a number of such addresses in which the student will find the main doctrines of that particular address repeated, varied, amplified, but as my object in this book is to strip Sanderson's views down to his essential ideas, I will make only one further quotation from this propaganda material here. This is from the notes he arranged for an address to the Newcastle Rotary Club. His favourite contrast between the possessive instincts and the creative instincts comes out very clearly here. Like all the great religious teachers, Sanderson aims quite clearly at an ultimate communism, to be achieved not by revolution but by the steady development of a creative spirit in the world.

'Schools should be miniature copies of the world we should love to have. Hence our outlooks and methods must have these aims in mind. Schoolmasters have great responsibilities. We should be able to say to a boy, we have endeavoured to do such things for you, and we ask you to go forth, it may be, into your father's business or factory and do the same to the workers. Let me illustrate from the workshops. Workshops in a school are by far the most difficult things to carry on along the lines I have in mind. Here are three conditions which must be kept in the shops:—

'(a) The work boys are doing should not be for themselves, or exercises to learn by; it must always be work required by the community.

'(b) Each boy must have the opportunity of doing all the main operations, and all the operations should be going on in the workshops.

'(c) Whenever a boy goes into the shop he should find himself set to work which is up to the hilt of his capacity. There is no "slithering" down to work which is easy, no unnecessary and automatic repetition, no working for himself but for the community.

'And we can say, and are entitled to say, to the boy, when you go forth into life, perhaps into your father's work or business or profession, you must try to do for your apprentices and workers what we have tried to do for you. You, too, will try to see that every one has work which exacts their faculties—by which they will grow and develop; you will see to it that they are working directly on behalf of and for the welfare of the community, and not for yourself.

'This is your real duty towards your neighbour. It is a vastly hard thing to do. This duty of believing that others are of the same blood with yourself, and have the same feelings, and loves, and desires and needs, and natural elementary rights; this duty of setting them free to exercise their faculties spaciously that they, too, may get more of life—is the real duty towards your neighbour. It is a hard thing. If you think of the works, the factory, the office, it is a hard thing. It involves vast sacrifice—the hardest sacrifice—the sacrifice of belief and economic tradition. We need not be surprised that Christianity has "slithered down" to an easier and softer level of culture and duty towards our neighbours. But whether the workers know it or not, this hard duty is essential in considering the relationships of our community system and our international system to-day.

'It is a hard duty, and boys must be immersed in it in school. The outlook, values, and organisation of a school should be based on the fundamental fact of the community service. By habit of mind, and by the activity of the schools, boys should be imbued with this high duty. It means a reorganisation of methods and aims.