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
'Parents, too, would let their children remain at school. As a class
there is no one more unselfish and self-sacrificing and co-operative
than the working-class parent. Boys want to leave school because of
the natural urge for making something and getting to business--as they
see it at home. To remain at school without joining in some work is
unthinkable when they see the life their parents lead.
'I may be permitted to insert one paragraph on the unfortunate
opposition to this new position which is claimed for Science in the
schools. The opposition springs from the belief that vocational work is
simply material, having no spiritual outlook. But the truth is all the
other way. Unfortunately the present studies of history, art, economy,
literature, are biassed by "possessive" instincts and education, and
we claim that Science and its methods are seriously demanded for a new
reading of these things. However, the opposition finds expression in
high quarters. The Workers' Educational Union, acting in sympathy with
the Labour view--that vocational studies are to be avoided--practically
taboos technical studies. This is reasonable as things are to-day,
when a man's work is too often for the profit of others, and for this
reason the workers are not in love with their work, and when the day
is over they have seen plenty of it; so the best of them go elsewhere
for the springs of the spiritual life. But this is all disastrous to
individuals and disastrous to progress. What the workers should do is
to watch for the spirit in their daily work, for it is the work itself
which will hold a man to God--nothing else will.'
§ 5
I have quoted from this London Reconstruction discourse very fully.
In the official Life there are a number of such addresses in which
the student will find the main doctrines of that particular address
repeated, varied, amplified, but as my object in this book is to strip
Sanderson's views down to his essential ideas, I will make only one
further quotation from this propaganda material here. This is from the
notes he arranged for an address to the Newcastle Rotary Club. His
favourite contrast between the possessive instincts and the creative
instincts comes out very clearly here. Like all the great religious
teachers, Sanderson aims quite clearly at an ultimate communism, to be
achieved not by revolution but by the steady development of a creative
spirit in the world.
'Schools should be miniature copies of the world we should love to
have. Hence our outlooks and methods must have these aims in mind.
Schoolmasters have great responsibilities. We should be able to say to
a boy, we have endeavoured to do such things for you, and we ask you to
go forth, it may be, into your father's business or factory and do the
same to the workers. Let me illustrate from the workshops. Workshops in
a school are by far the most difficult things to carry on along the
lines I have in mind. Here are three conditions which must be kept in
the shops:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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