The Story of a Great SchoolmasterWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
History
The Story of a Great Schoolmaster
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Sanderson, F. W. (Frederick William), 1857-1922; School principals -- Great Britain -- Biography
'This is not a Utopian scheme, but one within possibility in town and
country. To each large central high school should be associated groups
of elementary schools, and there should be free highways between them,
neither barred by examinations nor barred by expense....
'Another change must also come. Books on modern problems, strangely
enough, are not yet read in schools. For example, the time is overdue
for a change in the English books: Burke's _Reflections_ and Pitt's
_War Speeches_, or Addison, to Ruskin's _Unto This Last_ and _Time and
Tide_, or to Bernard Shaw, Wells, Galsworthy, and the modern poets.
Some would go so far as to give Shakespeare a rest. It is astonishing
how the newer books bearing on the large questions of the day, and
bearing on the actual life of the boy, strike the imagination of
boys--even quite young boys of the upper elementary school age. They
stir up the faculties and appeal to a less used kind of imagination.
It is surprising, too, what open and live views young boys will reach.
And one thing the study of these books possesses, which I hope to dwell
upon later, is that they bring the schools into close touch with the
everyday life of their homes and of the community.
'Creative education demands that schools should be brought into harmony
with the community life, and should take part in the industrial and
economic life. When boys and girls go home from school (even to the
humblest home) the parents should find there is something their
children have done at school which will help them in their work. This
means that technical and vocational training should hold a prominent,
and not a subsidiary, place in the schools. It is not difficult to see
that this kind of work contains within it the spirit and genius of
Science. We claim that education should be turned in this direction,
with confidence and inspiration. The divorce of industrial life from
the life of the spirit is one of the tragedies of the age. It produces
calamitous results. A man's work may be of an impossible kind, it may
be sordid and destructive of life--and the cure proposed is that he
should have shorter hours and more pay. This leads to bad diagnosis of
the cause of the Labour difficulty, and prevents necessary reforms in
the industries....
'Creativeness, the co-operative spirit and method, the vision, the
experimental method of searching for the truth, form the unique gift
Science and Industry have to give to the "New Education." Under the
influence of this new outlook all other departments of knowledge must
be restudied. Under its influence the life of school will become
active, the workers self-reliant, love abounding. It will make good
craftsmen and make the school of use in the community--whether in the
manufacturing life or in the investigation of economic conditions.
Incidentally it will give rise to a new body of men capable of going
wholly or in part to teaching, and the school will be thus linked up
with the life of the place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account