Mankind in the MakingWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Philosophy
Mankind in the Making
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Social problems; Social sciences
What subject or group of subjects is to constitute (i)? There are at
least three, and quite probably beyond the very limited range of my
knowledge there are other, arrangements of studies that can be contrived
to supply this essential substantial part of the College course. Each
suffices completely, and I would hesitate to express any preference for
one or the other. Each has its special direction towards certain sorts
of adult function, and for that reason it may be suggested that the
secondary education of an English-speaking country might very well
afford all three (or more) types of secondary course. The small schools
might specialize upon the type locally most desirable, the larger might
group its triplicate (or quadruplicate) system of sustained and serious
courses about a common Library and the common arrangements for Section
ii. of the College scheme.
The first of these possible College courses, and the one most likely to
be useful and fruitful for the mass of the male population in a modern
community, is an expansion of the Physics of the Schooling stage. It may
be very conveniently spoken of as the Natural Philosophy, course. Its
backbone will be an interlocking arrangement of Mathematics, Physics,
and the principles of Chemistry, and it will take up as illustrative and
mind-expanding exercises, Astronomy, Geography, and Geology conceived as
a general history of the Earth. Holding the whole together will be the
theory of the Conservation of Energy in its countless aspects and a
speculative discussion of the constitution of matter. A certain minimum
of Historical and Political reading and of general “Library” would
be insisted upon in Section ii. This could be made a quite noble and
spacious course of instruction extending over from three to five years,
from fourteen or fifteen up to eighteen or twenty-one (or even longer
in the case of those partially employed); its less successful products
would drop out--it might be before completion--to take up the work
of more or less skilled artisans and technical workers, and its more
successful ones would pass some of them into the technical colleges for
special industries with a view to business direction, into special study
for the engineering trades, for the profession of soldiering, [Footnote:
I may perhaps explain that my conception of military organization is a
universal service of citizens--non-professional soldiers--who will be
trained--possibly in boyhood and youth, to shoot very well indeed,
to ride either horses or bicycles, and to take up positions and move
quickly and easily in organized bodies, and, in addition, a special
graduated profession of soldiers who will be in their various ranks
engineers, gunners, special-force men of various sorts, and, in the
higher ranks, masters of all the organization and methods necessary for
the rapid and effective utilization of the non-professional manhood of
the country, of volunteers, militia, or short-service enlistment
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