Public School Life: Boys, Parents, MastersWaugh, Alec
History
Public School Life: Boys, Parents, Masters
Waugh, Alec
Education, Secondary; Endowed public schools (Great Britain)
The four main objects of criticism, then, are the moral question, the
evil of athleticism, the false scale of values that is inculcated at a
Public School, and the subsequent conspiracy of silence. On the moral
question the advanced idealists have talked more and to less purpose
than on any other phase of school life. They have written of the
discovery of the soul, of the unfolding of the flower. They have
maintained that through art and literature the boy's emotional nature
will be directed to a higher, a nobler conception of life. The
psycho-analyst speaks of 'sublimation,' and they have fastened on to
this cliché. Was not this what they had been saying so long, in other
words--the sublimation of the sexual impulse?
Now, in the case of a celibate priest or a maiden lady it is, no doubt,
highly desirable and perhaps possible to sublimate an impulse which has
been and in all probability will be, denied natural satisfaction. But it
is a pretty hopeless job to sublimate an impulse that has every hope and
prospect of complete, direct, and natural realisation; and that is the
task that the advocates of flowers and poetry and the dawn have set
themselves. If we are to change the moral tone of a Public School we
shall have to find either an alternative system, or we shall have to
modify in some way the existing system.
Two alternatives are offered: co-education and the day school. In
neither case should immorality be general or serious, and the number of
romantic friendships correspondingly slight. It seems hardly possible
that a normal healthy boy would be attracted by a smaller boy when, at a
school like Bedales, he would be constantly in the company of young and
charming scholars. And though the day boarder lives for the greater part
of his day in a monastic society, he spends the majority of his spare
time outside it. And during the week-ends he has full opportunity to
continue any romance on which he may have embarked during the previous
holidays. Although it is only possible for me to speak here from
second-hand information, it can be assumed, I think, that at the
co-educational and day school the moral question must sink to
comparative unimportance. It has to be considered, however, whether this
relegation compensates for the consequent disadvantages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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