PART V
VIRTUES
CHAPTER I
TRUTH
Novelties in Education.
The Special Committee of the London School Board issued a report in the early part of the year 1888, in which it declared that “fearless truth, bravery, honour, activity, manly skill, temperance, hardihood,” were objects of national education.
Repression of Individuality.
Dictated Opinions.
Case of a French Boy.
Training in Intellectual Dishonesty.
Some of these are very remarkable novelties in education, and if such a scheme should ever be carried into practice, it will produce unprecedented results. Fearless truth, bravery, and honour (if moral courage is understood to be a part of bravery) have usually been represented in education by their opposites, that is to say, by mental submission, by the timidity of the boy who expects to be browbeaten, and by the hypocritical expression of dictated opinions. The individuality of the boy and his honesty have not been encouraged, but repressed. He has been told what to think and what to say, and even what line of argument to follow, without pausing to consider whether he had any intellect or any conscience of his own. I remember a striking instance of this in the case of a French boy who was preparing an essay as a pupil of the philosophy class in a public school. We talked over the subject of his essay, and I thought he expressed his opinions, which were also mine, with great cogency and clearness. “There,” I said, “you have all that is wanted for your essay; why not say what you think in that manner?” He answered, “If I were to write like that, my essay would not be received, and I should get no marks. On all philosophical questions we are to express the opinions that are determined for us by the traditions of the University, so I shall say the contrary of what I think, and then I shall get marks.” This training of boys in intellectual dishonesty may be of the greatest value to them in after life, for in real life nothing is so useful to a man as to be able to profess, on occasion, the contrary of what he thinks, but surely it must rob education of all interest even for the educator, seeing that, as he does not hear the truth from his pupils, he can never adapt his reasoning to their case. He does not know their case.
Dread of Liberty of Thought.