Mankind in the MakingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
Mankind in the Making
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Social problems; Social sciences
the great mass of the linguistic training of the citizen, in the use of
his own and any other necessary language, should not be done for good
and all by fourteen, why he should not have a fairly complete mastery of
form and quantity through mathematical training and drawing, and why the
way should not be clear and immediate for the development of that adult
mental edifice of which this is the foundation.
By fourteen the power of abstract reasoning and of an analytical
treatment of things is in existence, the learner is now less to be
moulded and more to be guided than he was. We want now to give this mind
we have established, the most stimulating and invigorating training we
can, we want to give it a sane coherent view of our knowledge of the
universe in relation to itself, and we want to equip it for its own
special work in the world. How, on the basis of the Schooling we have
predicated, are these ends to be attained?
Now let us first have it perfectly clear that this second stage in
development lies no more completely within the idea of College than
the former lay completely within the idea of School. In the general
discussion of these things we are constantly faced by the parallel error
to that we have tried to dissipate in regard to schools, the error that
the Professor and his Lecture and (in the case of experimental sciences)
his Laboratory make, or can make, the man, just precisely in the same
way that the Schoolmaster or Schoolmistress is supposed to be omnipotent
in the education of the boy or girl. And, unhappily, the Professor,
unless he is a man of quite exceptional mental power for a Professor,
shares this groundless opinion. The Schoolmaster is under-educated in
regard to his work, and incapable of doing it neatly; the Professor
is too often over-specialized and incapable of forming an intelligent,
modest idea of his place in education; and the same consequence flows
from the defect of either, an attempt to use an improperly large portion
of the learner’s time and energy. Over-direction, and what one may call
intellectual sectarianism, are faults from which few College courses
are free to-day. The Professor stands between his students and books,
he says in lectures in his own way what had far better be left for other
men’s books to tell, he teaches his beliefs without a court of appeal.
Students are kept writing up their notes of his not very brilliant
impromptus, and familiarizing themselves with his mental constitution
instead of the subject of study. They get no training in the use of
books as sources of knowledge and ideas, albeit such a training is one
of the most necessary of all acquisitions for an efficient citizen,
and whatever discussion the modern student indulges in is all too
often treated rather as presumption to be discouraged than as the most
necessary and hopeful of mental processes. Our Universities and Colleges
are still but imperfectly aware of the recent invention of the Printed
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