The Aim of Education.—What is the aim of education? Should we seek to educate the child for society; or should it be our primary aim to cultivate the inborn capacities of the child? The value of the individual depends upon two factors, upon the capacities and qualities he has inherited, and upon the capacities and qualities he has acquired. Education must not attend exclusively to one group or to the other, but must deal with both groups harmoniously. The child must be taught to adapt itself to all possible circumstances and conditions; at the same time it must receive an education suited to its own capacities and endowments. In the character of every child there exist the germs of individuality. Whether it is normal or abnormal, whether it is a foundling or not, whether it is educated by its parents or at school, in the family or at an institution, it must be educated in accordance with the needs of its own individuality. The educationalist’s device should be—individualisation.
The greatest delight of every individual, whether child or adult, is to be occupied in accordance with its own inclinations, and to be treated by others in a manner suited to its own peculiar tendencies. This perhaps depends upon one of the primary laws of physics, that motion takes place in the direction of least resistance. Individualisation in education is an exceedingly difficult matter; and yet it is less difficult than appears at first sight. Differences in individual character are far less extensive than is generally believed, and it is an error to suppose that the character of every child differs in important respects from that of every other. It is an impossible aim of education to make every child a being with a well-marked individuality. If the differences were too great between those whose education is completed—that is, between those grown persons who play their parts in ordinary human intercourse, such intercourse would be less extensive and more difficult than it now is.
The child must be educated in such a way that its actions are not instinctive and uncontrolled, but consciously purposive and self-controlled; but at the same time the educationalist must guard against the danger of making the child into a will-less puppet. It has frequently been observed that obedient children are unlikely to grow up into men of any particular note, the reason being that they are accustomed to do only what they are told, and have never learned to act on their own initiative.
Knowledge is a mighty weapon, but it is one which can be used either to good purpose or to ill, and it is per se neither moral nor immoral. Knowledge is Power, but it is not Virtue. It is not the ability to read and to write which matters; the important question is, what one reads and what one writes. Among those who can neither read nor write, we find many who are extraordinarily rich in practical experience. This is to be explained by the fact that those who can read and write are able to gain impressions indirectly as well as directly, whilst illiterate persons are entirely dependent upon their own direct experience of life.
Among the causes of crime, illiteracy by no means plays so important a part as is generally believed. For this reason, when we are studying the condition of any particular country, we must avoid laying too great a stress upon the percentage of illiterates among its population. The number of illiterates depends in part also upon the proportions of persons at various ages, inasmuch as, in reckoning the percentage of illiterates to the general population, those under school age are left out of the account.
By no means is it the aim of education to provide general culture. The State cannot possibly insist that every individual should devote himself to the acquirement of general culture, for the most talented person is at times unable to earn his own living. In the struggle for existence, general culture, taken by itself, is utterly useless.
Good Example.—The phenomena which the child has opportunities for observing exercise a great influence upon its development. Although the view that the child imitates everything instinctively is erroneous, it is unquestionable that education will prove successful only in cases in which the personality of the child’s teacher is one which puts a good example before the child’s eyes. It is not enough merely to instruct a child verbally. It is essential that the child should see that the teacher himself practises all which is theoretically asserted to be right and admirable.
Confidence and Love.—Authority and compulsion are important factors of education; but those take the wrong path who attempt to influence the child by means of authority and compulsion alone. For individualisation in education the device should be, Confidence and Love. These mean to the child what sunshine means to the plant: without sunshine, the plant lags behind in its growth, and ultimately perishes; but in the sunshine it flourishes abundantly.
Reward and Punishment.—The view that neither reward nor punishment should be employed as instruments of education is erroneous, for unquestionably both have considerable influence upon human activities and intercourse. The only matter really open for consideration is, what should be the nature of the rewards and the punishments to be employed, and what should be the method of their application? It is wrong to punish or reward a child so often that either becomes habitual. The teacher, who is in most cases the accuser and the injured person (since a child’s wrong actions are apt to take the form of offences against an instructor), should not also assume the office of a judge against whose decision there is no appeal, and the office of executioner. Above all, the time-honoured system whereby every childish offence is expiated by deliberately inflicted physical pain must be abandoned.
The corporal punishment of children is certainly harmful. (a) Corporal punishment is injurious to the child’s health. In former times this objection had perhaps less weight, for the child’s constitution, and especially the child’s nervous system, were then less sensitive than they are to-day. (b) Corporal punishment gradually makes the child quite indifferent to the handling and making-use of its body. In many instances, either in the chastiser or in the chastised, or in both, it gives rise to sexual excitement. It is especially dangerous for girls, whom it is apt to prepare for a life of prostitution. (c) Corporal punishment has a coarsening and hardening influence both on teacher and on child. The teacher tends ever more and more to give way to his impulses, and thereby becomes a disastrous example for the child. (d) Corporal punishment breaks the child’s will, and induces a sense of degradation which is greater in proportion to the intensity of the child’s own self-respect. (e) Corporal punishment makes a child hypocritical and deceitful, and gives it a hint to be wilier the next time. For ultimately the idea is formed in the child’s mind that it has been punished, not for committing a fault, but because it has been found out.