Essays on Educational ReformersQuick, Robert Hebert
History
Essays on Educational Reformers
Quick, Robert Hebert
Education -- History; Educators
§ 18. I. Mr. Browning attributes to Rabelais, Montaigne, and Locke the
desire to bring up a well-developed man rather than a good scholar. But
Rabelais certainly craved for the knowledge of _things_; and if he is
to be classed at all I should put him rather with the Realists, albeit
he lived before the realistic spirit became powerful. Montaigne went
more on the lines of developing rather than teaching, and, shrewd man of
the world as he was, he thought a great deal about the art of living.
But his ideal was not so much the man as the gentleman. This was true
also of Locke; and here we see some explanation why both Montaigne and
Locke do not value classical learning.[119] On the Continent classical
learning has never been associated with the character of an accomplished
gentleman; and, as far as I know, the conception that the highest type
of excellence is found in the union of “the scholar and the gentleman”
is peculiar to this country. In the society of Locke’s day this union
does not seem to have been recognized, and Locke observes: “A great part
of the learning now in fashion in the schools of Europe, and that goes
ordinarily into the round of education, a gentleman may in a good measure
be unfurnished with, without any great disparagement to himself or
prejudice to his affairs.” (_Thoughts_, § 94, p. 74.) So Locke sought as
the true essential for the young gentleman “prudence and good breeding.”
He puts his requisites in the following order of importance:—1, virtue;
2, wisdom; 3, manners; 4, learning; and so “places learning last and
least.” Here he shews himself far ahead of those who still held to
the learned ideal; but his notions of development were cramped by his
thinking only of the gentleman and what was requisite for him.
§ 19. II. Was Locke a utilitarian in education? It is the fashion (and
in history as in other things fashion is a powerful force), it is the
fashion to treat of Locke as a great champion of utilitarianism. We
might expect this in the ordinary historians, for “when they do agree
their unanimity is” not perhaps very wonderful. But there is one great
English authority quite uninfluenced by them who has said the same
thing, viz.—Cardinal Newman. The Cardinal, as the champion of authority,
is perhaps prejudiced against Locke, who holds that “the faculty of
reasoning seldom or never deceived those who trusted to it.” Be this as
it may, Newman asserts that “the tone of Locke’s remarks is condemnatory
of any teaching which tends to the general cultivation of the mind.”
(_Idea of a University._ Discourse vij., § 4; see also § 6.) A very
interesting point for us to consider is then, Is this reputation of
Locke’s for utilitarianism well deserved?
§ 20. First let us be quite certain of our definition.
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