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
'It may be well to state that with an education of this kind based
fundamentally on Science a capable boy will leave a secondary school
with a good knowledge of Science and of its application, with a
research attitude towards history and modern problems, and with a good
working knowledge of two, or three, or even four languages....
'The study of social questions is seriously needed. Industries would
then have a close connection with the boys and girls, and yet boys
and girls would be free to follow the best of their own talents and
inclinations--the industrial life would not be separated from the
spiritual life; and we may hope that some part of this ideal would pass
over into the workshops and factories; so that the labourer would learn
to love his work better than his wage--for so indeed he would wish to
do. And the faculties of the worker would grow. The method of the work
would follow the method of the school, as it is doing more and more
in our own land and in many a workshop. For the spirit is with these
ideals; the practice difficult for any single firm to carry out. Hence
is the need for radical change in schools. Firms are being driven to
start trade schools of their own, when they would prefer the work to
be done with all the wider scope of a school. And the same enlightened
firms endeavour to "promote" their men.
'And here we come to what is probably the natural source of all
labour "unrest"--the unstretched faculties of the worker. Men there
are in any great shops who have intellectual faculties of the highest
order, and these faculties are not used, so the greatest possession
a man has, and the greatest his country has--the "faculties" of its
owners--is allowed to dissipate. And in the feeling of the mental want
of equilibrium, in the slow frittering away of life, there arrives the
turbulent spirit. The study of these questions is the problem for our
coming international university. The industrial and economic problems
involved can only be approached under international agreement. All that
has been possible at present in the way of making industrial life pure
and holy is by legislative restrictions, often enough rankling to the
worker even when needed for his amelioration. Such legislation (Factory
Acts, Insurance Acts, wages, hours) does not remove the source of the
disease; at best it only mitigates the worst results. More drastic
changes may be needed in the nature of the work--to the ruling out
certain manufacturing processes until new discoveries can be made.
'So with the work in the shops. Men do not want wages, or shorter
hours; these demands are only symptoms of a disease; short cuts to
amelioration. They are doctoring. What men want is that their work may
be such that they can love it, and want more of it. They do not want
slaves' work in the shops and a "dose" of the spiritual life out of it.
So we believe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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