Mankind in the MakingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
Mankind in the Making
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Social problems; Social sciences
social body, whether as engineer, business manager, doctor, priest,
journalist, public administrator, professional soldier, or what not.
And before we ask what must constitute (i) it may be well to define the
relation between the first and the second section of the College stage
of education.
It is (i) that will constitute the essential _work_ of the College,
which will be the especial concern of the Professorial staff, which will
“count” in examinations, and I conceive it as occupying typically four
full working days in the week, four good, hard-driving days, and no
more, of the students’ time. The remaining three, so far as they are
not engaged by physical exercise, military training, and mere amusement,
must be given to (ii), which I imagine an altogether more general,
discursive, various, and spontaneous series of activities. To put the
thing briefly, with the use of a convenient slang word (i), is “grind,”
and (ii) is general culture, elements that are altogether too greatly
confused in adolescent education. A large number of people will consider
it right and proper that (ii) on the seventh day of the week should
become devotional exercise or religious thought and discussion. I would
submit that under (ii) there should be formally recognized certain
extremely valuable educational influences that are at present too often
regarded as irregular or improper invasions of school and college
work, the collegiate debating society, for example, private reading,
experimental science outside the curriculum, and essays in various arts.
It should be possible to provide a certain definite number of hours
weekly in which the student should be required merely to show that he
was doing something of a developmental kind, he would have his choice
between the Library--every College ought to have a good and not too
priggishly conceived Library, in which he might either read or write--or
the music master, the debating society, the museum, the art studio,
the dramatic society, or any concern of the sort that the College
authorities had satisfactory reason for supposing to be alive and
efficient. In addition (ii) should include certain minor but necessary
studies not included in (i), but pursued for all that with a certain
insistence, taught or directed, and controlled perhaps by examinations.
If, for example, the acquisition of a foreign language was a part of the
preliminary schooling, it could be kept alive by a more fastidious study
in the higher grade. For the making of the good, all-round, average
citizen (i) will be the essential educational factor, but for the boy or
girl with a dash of genius (ii) will rise from the level of culture to
that of a great opportunity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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