Mankind in the MakingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
Mankind in the Making
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Social problems; Social sciences
When we digressed to the general question of the political, social, and
moral atmosphere in which the English-speaking citizen develops, we left
the formal education of the average child, whose development threads
through these papers and holds them together, at about the age of
fifteen and at the end of the process of Schooling. We have now to carry
on that development to adult citizenship. It is integral in the New
Republican idea that the process of Schooling, which is the common
atrium to all public service, should be fairly uniform throughout the
social body, that although the average upper-class child may have all
the advantages his conceivably better mental inheritance, his better
home conditions, and his better paid and less overworked teachers may
give him, there shall be no disadvantages imposed upon the child of any
class, there shall be no burking of the intellectual education for
any purpose whatever. To keep poor wretches in serfdom on the land by
depriving them of all but the most rudimentary literary education, as
a very considerable element in the new Nature Study Movement certainly
intends, is altogether antagonistic to New Republican ideas, and there
must be no weeding out of capable and high-minded teachers by filtering
them through grotesque and dishonouring religious tests--dishonouring
because compulsory, whatever the real faith of the teacher may be. And
at the end of the Schooling period there must begin a process of sorting
in the mass of the national youth--as far as possible, regardless
of their social origins--that will go on throughout life. For the
competition of public service must constitute the Battle for Existence
in the civilized state. All-round inferiority in school life--failure
not simply at this or that or at the total result (which, indeed, may be
due very often to the lopsidedness of exceptional gifts) but failure all
along the line--is a mark of essential inferiority. A certain proportion
of boys and girls will have shown this inferiority, will have done
little with any of their chances in or out of school during their
school life, and these--when they are poorer-class children--will very
naturally drop out of the educational process at this stage and pass
into employment suited to their capacity, employment which should not
carry with it any considerable possibility of prolific marriage.
A really well-contrived leaving-school examination--and it must be
remembered that the theory and science of examinations scarcely exists
as yet--an examination which would take account of athletic development
and moral influence (let us say provisionally by the vote of
fellow-pupils) and which would be so contrived as to make specially high
quality in one department as good as all-round worth--could effect this
first classification. It would throw out the worst of the duffers and
fools and louts all along the social scale. What is to become of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account