Great Britain -- Social conditions; Moral conditions; Social problems
The cost of this great reform need not intimidate us. Enormous sums of
money have been given (by men like Mr. Carnegie) or bequeathed for the
purpose, and the admirable practice will continue. But we need a
searching revision of educational endowments, foundations,
scholarships, etc. There is strong reason to suspect that estates
which are now of great value are not applied to the scholastic
purposes for which they were intended, or are badly administered, or
are used in giving gratuitous or cheap education to the children of
comfortable parents who secure favour or influence. A consolidation of
all the endowments which had not in their origin an express sectarian
purpose would provide a fund to which the State and municipal
authorities need add little. The scheme would bring some order into
our chaos of schools and colleges, and, while the more snobbish
establishments would continue to preserve their pupils from the
society of the children of tradesfolk, and would waste valuable
resources on uncultivable minds, the youth of the nation generally, of
both sexes, would be developed to the full extent of its capacity.
These things have a monetary value. A distinguished historical writer
told me that, on sending his son to Sandhurst, he proposed that they
should study together the campaigns of Napoleon. The youth presently
informed him that the traditions of Sandhurst did not allow them to do
serious work outside the general routine. A few years later we heard
the details of our South African War.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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