WRONG THINGS TO TEACH
SIR,—Constance Reaveley's article, in your issue of February 2nd, is very much to the ..point. Education should be for life in the fullest sense. Today it can rightly be said that " man has measured the heavens with a telescope and driven the gods from their thrones." We have an abundance of scientific knowledge but a deficit of balanced wisdom. But not all of this can be taught to children in schools. Sir Richard Living- stone has testified that you don't get very far with classes in philosophy with those who have but a brief experience of the world and the people in it.
And I would add a special plea for more instruction in the arts, music, and architecture. What average adolescent knows the difference between early English and perpendicular? How many are familiar with Piper's picture of burning Coventry?
A week or so ago I played a portion of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony on records to an audience of 15o young people of the 14 to 19 age-group. Not a single one recognised the music. What education is this?—Yours truly, " La Collette," Roundwood Park, Harpenden, Herts.
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