THE GERMAN SCHOOLBOY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPROTITOR..]
Sia,—Like your correspondent "Twenty Years in Germany" (Spectator, December 12th), I can speak from experience of German school life, having passed two years at a Beal- gymnasium. It is true my experience is many years old, but I am told German schools are still pretty much the same as they were in my day. Undoubtedly at that time the boys were seriously overworked. I was not personally overworked, nor were the other three Scotch boys who were with me in the school. It passed the wit of German masters to make us Scotch boys overwork ourselves. If we got what we con- sidered unduly heavy tasks, we simply did not do them, and so on the whole we had a happy time at school. But the unfortunate German boys worked terribly hard. They existed in a state of chronic dread of the masters, and dread of the wrath of their parents should they fail of promotion to Obersekunda, and thus secure exemption from the three years' service. The school-day in winter was from eight till five, with a break of two hours, and in summer from seven till four, with the same break. After that long day of confinement the average German boy had to do from three to four hours' hard study in the evening in order to keep up with the work of the form. Of course there were a few brilliantly gifted boys who were able to keep up without extreme effort. There are boys of that kind in every school, and I think they were rather more numerous in my form in Germany than in my form in Scotland. But the vast majority were a dull-headed lot who had to work excessive hours to make up for slowness of brain. I am sure that the average German boy of my day /was a duller creature than the average Scotch boy of the same period. I greatly fear, however, that by the Germanising of our schools through the introduction of a rigid "leaving certificate" modelled on the German Abiturienten Examen, and requiring the same overpressure for its attainment, the snap is being taken out of the present generation of Scotch lads. German methods are sure to induce here the same dullness of wit which is their outcome in Germany. For I do not imagine that the German boy is naturally less alert than the Scotch boy. It is merely that his schooling dulls him.
I do not for a moment believe that German industrial expansion is the result of German methods of education. Great Britain developed enormous industries without systematised education. Why, therefore, need we call in the dominie to explain the more recent German development ? Germany has expanded in recent times simply because she did not expand earlier. Inhabited by a naturally capable, civilised race of white men with an at least normal proportion of highly gifted individuals, she could not for ever remain with her material resources undeveloped once she decided to
develop them. Wars, a disunited country, each little State having its own little tariff, and a pleasing habit of mind that esteemed philosophy and poetry as more worthy pursuits of the wise than the production of mere material commodities,—. these and other causes delayed Germany's serious entry upon the race for wealth. But, once entered, she was bound to cover the ground. Even the Japanese can now make things ; and why not Germany if she has a mind to ? Far be it from me to minimise the value of a good education. No Scotchman will do that. But heaven save us from the cast-iron German systems, which even now are being riveted on our Scottish schools, and will be riveted on English schools also if England does not watch the educational experts most narrowly.—
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