THE EDUCATIONAL LADDER.
THOUGH the Senior Wranglership is doomed, it is resolved to die sensationally. The Mathematical Tripos which was published at Cambridge on Tuesday was distinguished from its predecessors by a union of conditions never before found in combination. One of the Great Twin Brethren of 1908—two names this year are bracketed—stands apart from his rivals in three ways. He belongs to the most exclusive of religions; he comes from the last arrived of European countries; he has been educated at schools mainly attended by the poor. Separately these things are nothing. Some of the greatest men of science have been Jews,. have been subjects of the Czar, have started in the race with no educational advantages above their fellows. But to find them united in the same young man is probably unprecedented. Mr. Brodetsky and his College have good reason to be proud of his success. For, in addition to what be has won for himself, he has enabled Trinity to close the list of Senior Wranglers ou an equality with its chief competitor in the mathematical lists. But for this it would have been one behind St. John's. As it is, the.two Colleges can number fifty-five each.
The annals of Mr. Brodetsky's educational life furnish a series of successes of a special kind. There was, of course, to begin with, a remarkable gift for mathematical studies. But this probably is shared in a greater or less degree by thousands of whom the world never bears. It was 151r. Brodetsky's advantage to live in a time when the edncational ladder of which so much has been heard was really set up, at all events in London. The list of the scholarships and exhibitions he has held is a long one, and each has furnished him with the means of training himself for the next step. This is the goal to which in a community like ours the efforts of the educational reformer _should be mainly directed. We recognise it already in theory, but we have still a great deal to do before its adoption will be equally general. It is not enough that we can point to the scholarships which are won every year by boys and girls who have begun their education in a public elementary school, or that in one case these scholarships have culminated in the highest honour that a famous University has to bestow. That this should be possible is a wonderful testimony to educational progress among us. But successes of this high order are bound to be very occasional. Few poor young men have the abilities necessary for success in such a career ;. few even of these have the opportunities which can enable them to follow it. If the educational ladder only existed to furnish such examples of its use as the new Senior Wrangler has supplied, it would be a showy rather than a Useful implement. It is satisfactory, indeed, to think that,' f a boy of this high capacity is born, it will be his own fault if be does not make full Ilse of his natural faculties. But it would be more satisfactory still if we could assure ourselves that the .ladder was equally open to those who are not fitted to mount so high, and that at every round boys or girls would find the means of taking another step upward, and of turning to account such modest talent as they possess, though it will never make them famous beyond their own narrow circle. Mr. Brodetsky gained exhibitions which enabled him to remain longer at the London school at which he !Ia.,' won them, and then • gained a scholarship at Trinity., and so was passed on to the University. There are many who would be qualified to make these successes their own up to an earlier point, though they might have neither the ability nor the training which would fit them to take their place at a University. But that earlier point is one which is in itself worth reaching. It is true that without the Trinity scholarship Mr. Brodetsky could not have shown the full extent of his mathematical capacity. But in dealing with education on a large scale we have to consider the case of young people whose mathematical capacity, though very inferior to his, is yet good enough to make it well worth cultivating. A system of scholarships may do very useful work, and yet stop far short of the University. It may servo to lengthen the time spent in study, and save the child from having to leave school just when his mind is opening to the real meaning of what he has learnt there. We should like to see the length of schooltime made much more dependent than it is on the use to which it is put. At present the efforts of educational reformers seem to be directed to lengthening the time necessarily spent there. That this prolongation is beneficial in a number of instances we do not care to deny. It is enough for our purpose that it is not uniformly beneficial. There are many children for whom all that can usefully be done is to give them the foundation of education, and leave to themselves the decision how much they shall build on this foundation. If they have no turn for other than elementary subjects, there is not much use in compelling them to make that very small acquaintance with them which is all that a further stay at school can give them. To remain at school a year or two longer does not necessarily mean that they will learn any- thing more that is of value to them. Nor is the evil only negative. If a boy leaves school at fourteen in no way better educated than he was at twelve, lie has been spending time uselessly which lie might have spent to better purpose. His occupations in after life are to be mainly manual, and during these two years he might profitably have been making acquaintance with. the industry by which he will have to live. This is especially true in the case of country schools. In this case the prospect that most naturally offersitself to a boy of twelve is to be an agricultural labourer, to pass. his days among horses and cattle, and to understand. the various ways iu which laud is cultivated. These pursuits are very far from being destitute of interest ; on the contrary, a life spent in them tends to build up a great variety of practical knowledge, and corresponding acuteness -iu applying it. But it demands a kind of familiarity with the work which is not easily gained. except by those who begin early. We keep boys at school till they are too old to familiarise themselves with the elementary details of country business, and then we wonder that they go off to the town,—to the scene, that is, where they look to find those clerkly. occupations in which they will have the privilege of wearing a black coat and working with a roof over their heads. We cannot hope to build an adequate extension of the scholarship system on such a foundation as this.
It will be objected, possibly, that there is no necessary, incompatibility between the two. Why should not all the children in a school remain there till they are fourteen,. and then divide into two classes,—those. who leave to go to work, and those who win scholarships and spend the proceeds of them in helping their parents to bear the, expense of their longer withdrawal from wage-earning labour ? The answer is that this combination of methods. is exceedingly costly. We are spending money to no profit iu keeping dull boys idle at the very same time that we are spending it profitably in enabling clever boys to get additional instruction. We are not likely thus to go on burning the candle at both ends. The educational fund is not capable of indefinite increase. Secondary education is the natural rival of elementary education, and we cannot be extravagant in one direction without. having inconvenient economies pressed upon us from' another. The overburdened ratepayer will at last turn. The true way out of this conflict is to be found, as we believe, in a much nicer discrimination between the education which all ought to undergo and the education which should be reserved for those who show themselves capable of turning it to good account. We would have every child kept at school until he was twelve, and then offered an opportunity of showing that he was fit to receive more than this. If boys or girls are eager to stay longer, let them by all means do so. But the test by which this eagerness is ascertained should be the winning a scholarship dependent on an examination in the subjects which they have been working at for the last seven years. If they can do this, if they can prove their ability to learn more by showing that they have really made their own what they have already learned, then let them stay at school for one or two years more. At the end of that time the process should be repeated. Other scholarships should be offered to the holders of those which are expiring, and in this way a further extension of the school period be secured to all who have proved their qualifications for it. It is not necessary to the acceptance of this system that elementary education should stop at twelve even for those who fail to win, or have no wish to compete for, the scholarships offered. We would give even the dull children the means of consolidating what they had learnt by attendance—compulsory attendance, if need be—at evening schools up to fifteen or sixteen. The important thing is to get rid of the notion that all children without distinction should stay at school till they are too old for much of the work they will have to do, while at the same time they are not fitted to make any good use of the further opportunities which school offers them.
Previous page
