The London Mercury, Vol. I, Nos. 1-6, November 1919 to April 1920Various
General
The London Mercury, Vol. I, Nos. 1-6, November 1919 to April 1920
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; London (England) -- Periodicals
Amid all the fog of controversy and all the noise of disputing
cheap-jacks that surrounds the art and practice of education I
see some of these infants' class-rooms as clear beacons showing
the incontestably true course. I cannot see any limit of years to
its progress. Many boys' and girls' schools have grasped the same
principles and extended them to the age of fourteen with the same
undeniable success in the results. Naturally, as the child grows the
method has to be adapted, but the principle remains steadfast. I would
not describe it as "freedom," because the child is not free, though he
feels free. One never doubts the existence of a controlling will. But
what is encouraged is authentic expression. In writing, topics are set
which draw out of the child's own world the child's own thoughts. He is
guided to think for himself and to speak his thoughts fearlessly. The
skill of the teacher is shown mainly in the choice of subjects and the
discretion with which corrections are made. Observation is translated
into description, first in speech and then, when the pencil has been
mastered, in writing. A child of nine may be asked to describe a corner
of the class-room so that a blind man could understand exactly what
is there and what it looks like. A child of twelve may be asked to
describe the prettiest room she ever saw. A child of fourteen may be
asked to describe the Harrow Road (_a_) on a Saturday night, (_b_) on a
Sunday morning. Why stop at fourteen?
As well as observation and description, the infant school trains the
elements of imagination and invention. Cannot the child who at eight
years old wrote on "If I were the King...." profitably be asked to
write on "If I had been Oliver Cromwell...." at eighteen? In one girls'
school the teacher merely wrote on the blackboard "When the Moon went
out" and left the rest to the class. In the same way children can
be trained to argue _pro_ and _contra_ about problems of their own
lives which clearly admit of argument, like "Would you rather be six
or sixteen?" "Would you rather be a boy or a girl?" People new to
the method might suppose that, although the brighter children could
possibly attack such themes with success, the ordinary or dull child
would be left staring. It is not so. Whole classes of children trained
in this way produce work which is pleasant to read. The essentials seem
to be stimulating topics, authentic expression without dictation, and
constant practice. To one who has seen the elementary steps there is no
magic in the Perse Plays or the Draconian Poems. They are natural. It
is dullness that is artificial. Real dullness, such as one finds in
Common Rooms, Mess Rooms, Pulpits, and Government Offices is the fruit
of a long, careful, and generally expensive education in that quality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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