Education; Educational psychology; Moral education
After the summer holidays in the fifteenth year, I shall assume that a
boy or girl who so desires is allowed to specialize, and that this will
be done in a large proportion of cases. But where there is no definite
preference, it will be better to prolong an all-round education. And
in exceptional cases specializing may begin earlier. All rules, in
education, should be capable of being broken for special reasons. But I
think that, as a general rule, pupils of more than average intelligence
should begin to specialize at about fourteen, while pupils of less than
average intelligence should usually not specialize at all at school,
unless in the way of vocational training. I am refraining, in this
book, from saying anything on this subject. But I do not believe that
it ought to begin before fourteen, and I do not think that, even then,
it ought to take up the whole of the school time of any pupil. I do
not propose to discuss how much time it should take up, or whether it
should be given to all pupils or only to some. These questions raise
economic and political issues which are only indirectly connected with
education, and which cannot be discussed briefly. I therefore confine
myself to the scholastic education in the years after fourteen.
I should make three broad divisions in school: (1) classics, (2)
mathematics and science, (3) modern humanities. This last should
include modern languages, history, and literature. In each division it
might be possible to specialize somewhat more before leaving school,
which I shall suppose does not occur before eighteen. Obviously all
who take classics must do both Latin and Greek, but some may do more
of the one, and some more of the other. Mathematics and science should
go together at first, but in some sciences it is possible to achieve
eminence without much mathematics, and in fact many eminent men of
science have been bad mathematicians. I should, therefore, at the
age of sixteen, allow a boy or girl to specialize in science or to
specialize in mathematics, without entirely neglecting the branch not
chosen. Similar remarks apply to modern humanities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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