THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS -I
By A HEADMASTER
THERE was a time when learning was considered the main aim of education—perhaps the sole aim, seeing that it was assumed that learning brought with it a stiffening of character and a deepening of sympathy. When the basis of education was broadened by Dr. Arnold and his imitators during the nineteenth century, it was all to the good, and a system was evolved, vulnerable no doubt at many points, but able to produce a man of sound learning, dutiful character, and healthy physique. But to finish the product entailed the expenditure of a large sum of money ; and consequently this type of education was only within the reach of a few. Those who could not afford it did not attempt to, but con- tented themselves with the more old-fashioned type of educa- tion provided by local grammar schools. The very poor, " for the better preservation of their inferiority " went for many ages without the burden of an educated mind. The reformers and philanthropists soon changed all that ; the bliss of ignorance was forbidden by law and by the beginning of this century secondary education of one sort or another was open to all. This vast revolution, conceived in departmental minds, brought suffering to many institutions and still brings it. The pains will go on until there is quite a new spirit of self-sacrifice and co-operation in privately-owned schools.
The rich old foundations, like Eton and Winchester, are not vexed like their smaller and cheaper kinsmen. They can devote their resources and their energy to providing a good education, the cost of which need not concern them. Until there is a very violent social revolution in this country, there will be plenty of men willing to pay high fees to have their sons educated at Eton : and it is well worth the cost. Such schools are safe. At the other end of the money scale, secondary day schools, charging very small fees and supported by public money, are safe, too. Safe though they are, they have no cause to be complacent. But the schools in between, the Public Schools of too to 30o boys, charging fees of Doo to £150 per annum, are ground between the upper and the nether millstone.
Of these schools some are the old Grammar Schools, which, faced with a choice between the dead hand of an educational authority and the seductive glitter of social prestige, made the more human choice. Some are new schools," or old schools with new names and new objects. Indeed there is no dearth of these small Public Schools, but there is a dearth of boys for them, and even those that appear prosperous cannot safely bet on the future. The position of these schools is bad and growing worse. They have small endowments or none, their expenses are relatively much heavier than those in a bigger school, they cannot economise beyond the point where they may still be faintly compared with their more prosperous kin, and they have entered upon a ruinous form of competition with each other, in which the less scrupulous, and therefore less truly educative, forces gain the advantage. While this unseemly battle goes on, rich parents are filling Eton and Winchester, poor parents are filling the secondary day schools, cheap parents buy an old school tie in the lowest market, and many wise parents, who have little money, choose the day school and save up for the University. In any organised system of education, if the idea of small boarding schools were admitted at all, they woulu be the most expensive and select, but in this capricious and haphazard arrangement they are obliged by competition and over-production to charge uneconomic fees, impair their amenities and service and run into debt. Many Governing Bodies, finding the numbers in their school dropping and knowing no way to arrest the falling birth-rate, will appoint, as Headmasters, men, whom Arnold and Kennedy would hardly recognise as members of their profession. It is not that Headmasters are no longer required to be learned, they are not even required to be honest. If only they get boys no questions are asked. It used to be enough to run your school well, win successes in scholarship and games, and send into the world a thoughtful and healthy type. That counts for little enough nowadays ; the work of a Headmaster is far more subtle and refined. He must be a good showman : his school is his shop window and he must stand at the door rubbing his hands. In his shop there is always an unofficial sale and he must know at exactly what point in his bartering he should hint at a possible reduction of price. He must only show his customer the best : the shoddy goods are in the background and need not be seen until payment has been made and the parcel unpacked. He must not stop at that. He must be his own traveller and carry his wares to the front doors of strangers and gain admittance by the polish of his public-school manners. He must turn the conversation in railway carriages and all public places back to his school and with an affectation of modesty record the praises of his finest athletes. He will find the pulpits of the private preparatory schools have their uses as platforms of advertisement : the Christian religion may as well be made to serve a practical end. Indeed he will be well advised to spend a lot of his time in preparatory schools patting the heads of small boys and flattering young parents : no doubt he will find time during these visits for some quiet informal talks with the Headmaster. He need have no fear that a talk with the Headmaster of a preparatory school will tax his intellectual range or expose his ignorance. Gossip about other Headmasters, comparisons of sanitation in different schools, some cursory references to " Curriculum Reform," advice on how to write a prospectus, references to the unimportant distinctions of Old Boys, especially in sport : these provide the surface topics of the conversation. Matters of importance are kept on an easy business level. These quiet informal talks between the Headmasters of public and private schools are man to man talks, pleasant personal- contacts with a basis of give and take—one side gives the money and takes the boys. There have been agreements— no doubt still are—between doctors and chemists ; why not between these quacks of education ? Though this may seem exaggerated, it is yet the stark truth. Such practices confine themselves no doubt to a few schools only but infection spreads until only those who resist the disease will be con- sidered as common and unclean.
It is alleged sometimes that this competition amongst schools, this showmanship, this keen business outlook, is good for them : it freshens up their ideas and forces them to provide what the public want. It used to be the duty of educational institutions to lead the public taste, not follow it. But no small public school can now confidently do that : a good Headmaster of course provides everything a parent wants, from shorthand to good accent, and eschews all that the parent dislikes, from fagging to Latin. And if he can pick up from a preparatory schoolmaster, at a premium, a boy with a cheap title, his school is made.
If that were all the truth, it were too hard to believe or bear. Many Headmasters of small public schools resist with tenacity and fortitude the commercialisation of education, and con- tinue to provide at a moderate cost a sensible and healthy training for boys. But the odds are heavily against them. Attempts are made, and regulations are introduced by the Headmasters' Conference, to protect small schools from the unscrupulous goings-on of the charlatans of the pro- fession. But no amount of regulations can alter the fact that there are not enough boys to go round, and that there is an unhealthy spirit of competition abroad and base attempts to pass upon a genteel and snobbish public a superficial sub- stitute for true education. It is.:to that_ end that the exag- gerated cult of " the Old School" has been directed.- Ii is a natural and almost inevitable thing that most men. turn back with affection to their school days, and the school that gave them their early experiences of joy and sorrow.- " The child is father of the man " and the man who feels no interest and no sentiment about his old school has-built his life on false foUndations. But instead of leaving nature alone, the organisers and busybodies must harness nature to the cause, and by a multiplicity of ties, dinners, insurance schemes, appeals, cricket matches, &c., bolster up the school and incidentally give the snobbish and weak-minded an undeserved feeling that by being good " Old Boys " they have fulfilled the whole duty of man Parents meanwhile need no longer make sacrifices for. their children. There are plenty of convenient bursaries available, which will enable them to keep on the car. If one Headmaster feels confident enough to resist the unashamed pretence of poverty, there are plenty of others ready to swallow the bait. - .
Enough has been said-:-.too much perhaps—in criticism and contempt of Public Schools, and, if this article now seems to support the hysterical cries of self-centred freaks, it has strayed too far already from its particular object. The argu= ment is that the Public Schools have a valuable training to- offer but that many of them are being driven and will still further be driven into- cheapness and absurdity by too much competition ; in other words because there are too many Public Schools for the number of boys available. That position will continue, and up to now only haphazard and somewhat undignified attempts have been made by individual schools to solve the problem. All that has been written above about these attempts is a warning that in time any small Public School which wishes to survive will find itself obliged to cut a similar caper. In second article I shall attempt to suggest , a method of avoiding such a ridiculous catastrophe.
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