THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND THE EMPIRE.*
THERE is a saying in the Talmud that "by the breath of the school children obeli the State be saved," and some conviction of the truth of this old-world adage is to-day, in spite of many prejudices, forcing its way into the general mind. The sturdy breed of our forefathers who built up the Empire owed perhaps comparatively little to either schools or school- masters, and Englishmen still often look upon education somewhat in the old Roman spirit, as a thing of which strong men may readily have too much. But in recent years things have moved apace, and the man of sixty, if he will look back, finds himself living to-day in an environment which, owing to the advance of science, is becoming wholly different from that of his boyhood. And in this new world, with its vast com- plexity and startling rapidity of change, it is clear that there will continually be less room for the ignorant and incapable. The old inbred virtues of our race will still, indeed, count for much ; but mere grit and dogged tenacity of purpose will more and more need to be reinforced by trained and educated skill Just as iu war, at least among civilized nations, the issue is no longer decided chiefly by sheer courage or strength, so in that international struggle for the command of commerce, which though peaceful is yet pitiless, victory will in the end rest with that country which can rely most confidently not only on the character but on the trained capacity of its sons; and among " the secrets of empire," as Tacitus called them, the one which is to-day perhaps the most necessary, and certainly the least explored, has to do with the higher education of our best youth. And yet there is no question to which, as a nation, we are so indifferent. For elementary and technical education we have done much. But for secondary schools, democracy being rather unconcerned about them, we have done very little, while as regards the "public schools," it is almost a tradition of English statesmanship that to touch them would be sacrilege. Waterloo and Wellington are too inseparably connected with " the playing fields of Eton " to admit of such a thought. And yet surely to any reflective mind it might seem that the upbringing of those of our youth to whom fortune has given the fullest opportunities of public service was something which no wise or truly imperial statesmanship could possibly neglect ; and might not a philosopher perhaps express some wonder if he were told that it is exactly the great public schools of England which enjoy no public guidance or control ? Might he not, when he saw their government left exposed to all the hazards of individual caprice, think that the nation was indifferent to one of its chief national assets, one of the best and surest of its resources, and hardly deserving to be called, in any true sense, "a wise and understanding people "?
It was with some such thoughts as these that we took up the present volume. Its title indicates a great theme, while the ability and long experience of its writer gave promise of a treatment worthy of the theme. Unhappily, however, that promise is not fulfilled. The book might have been a great book, but it is one which those who understand the equal difficulty and importance of its subject will lay down with disquiet and almost with despair. For it is a long and sustained attack made by a headmaster of standing and repute on the whole system of public school education as it exists to-day. To follow the many counts of the indictment is not here possible, nor would it serve any useful purpose to examine carefully the statements of a writer whose motto seems to be J'accuse, and who quotes, with evident relish, whole pages of invective (p. 119, seq.) in which public school boys are described as " without intellectual life," "arrogantly and contemptuously ignorant," "victims in a condition of mental abjectness," or " confined within the blank walls of an ancient cemetery which contains only the sepulchres of two dead tongues," while he himself describes them as dwelling in "a gigantic treadmill "—with the "shades of the prison.
• Ths Pieblic Schools and the Empire. By H. B. Gray, D.D, London: Williams sae Normals. [Si. net.]
house," of course, thrown in—or in " strongholds of stern and unbending Toryism," or in "barracks" with "a feudalistic atmosphere," and the like. Such intemperance of protest only provokes discredit ; and yet there is, we think, in Dr. Gray's. criticism much that has substance and reality. The "wastrels" of our public schools, such as he has met in Canada, are far too numerous ; the average boy learns far too little, and when Dr. Gray heads a chapter "The Present Discontent" the words describe a real though vague feeling which exists to-day that the public schools are only partially and inadequately performing the great duty they owe the nation. Nor, we think, could there be a better subject for a good book than to inquire with an impartial mind into the " Causes" of that " Discontent," and in a wise, sober, and practical spirit to suggest remedies. Dr. Gray, however, demands. " not merely reform but revolution." He ignores the great. past of our great schools and their large measure of present usefulness, and there is little apparently he would not alter. He would place them all under direct State control ; there should be "organic severance " from the Universities ; classical study, except for some few specialists, is to be done away with ; competition, not only for scholarships but in form and in the playing field, ought to be prohibited; " the games-ridden assistant master," along with " the pestilential superstition of athlete-worship," must go ; the method of "pumping in" is to give way to " elicitation" and " heuristic" ; and although, in a sentence which begins with no fewer than seven clauses headed with " if," he concedes the possible merits of a boarding-school, he believes that the day-school furnishes "the more salutary system of education." Nor does he ask for great changes without just cause. The present want of any common policy in our schools tends, as every schoolmaster knows, to confusion and even chaos ; competition has its grave evils; classical study can no longer claim exclusive rights; the cult of mere skill in games is deplorable, and so• on. The evils are patent and acknowledged. But where evil is mixed with much good, with much that is of proved value, it is the part of wisdom to emend rather than to destroy, and not to get rid of the old without some assurance that the new is better. For example, that " independence, variety, and elasticity " about which headmasters often talk fluently when they deprecate interference from without, does, no doubt, often mean little more than unlimited power to follow each his own humour or the particular convenience of the moment, with complete disregard to the larger needs of education. But does Dr. Gray dream that when party interests weigh as they do now with politicians, when the Ministry of Education is treated as a mere halting-place for young ambitions, that the public schools would really gain by being placed under the government of Whitehall ? And when he has got rid of the " dead" languages, bow does he know that living tongues may not be taught equally badly, and with no higher result than to produce the glibness and capacity of a polyglot waiter ?
Dr. Gray, however, cares little for these and many other like considerations on which we have no space to dwell. The spirit of prophecy is upon him, and prophecy with him means denunciation. For we are, it seems, " a people incapable of deductive reasoning," "sluggish to apprehend new ideas," " essentially self-satisfied and immobile," " led astray by claptrap," and "with powers undermined by the chronic intoxication of money-making," while in addition there exists "a great conspiracy of national self-adulation" which keeps " our ears dulled by the soft platitudes of Editors, Politicians, and Priests." That is the mood in which he approaches his subject, and though he gradually cools down, yet so ardent is he in denouncing that he almost wholly forgets to tell us what to do. The unhappy reader becomes gloomier and gloomier, but seeks almost in vain for any ray of enlightenment. The book contains 374 pages, and yet it is only on p. 306 that there comes the important question, " And the remedies ?". Thereat the reader revives, but it is only to find a list of studies drawn up which is wholly ordinary in its nature except for the fact that "Latin and Greek should be treated RS a specialistic study, Knrior TI Kat ?-yiccalarricriza irAoirrov,". and that English should be "taught ab ereo"—which, for the benefit of those who have not that Latin which is "the adorn- ment of wealth," is explained as meaning "from A B C to Milton and Burke." But having got so far, Dr. Gray imme- diately dashes off into a diatribe against the Universities,
until on p. 336 he again raises our hopes by speaking of "entering on the main theme," only again to destroy them, so that it is not before p. 343 that we come to the words, "This being premised, it only remains for the writer to express briefly his views on the main theme." For here at last Dr. Gray wakes up to the fact that " such an exposition may fairly be demanded," since it otherwise might be alleged against him " that he is only " a destructive critic," and he thereupon launches into a biological discussion on " heredity" and " adolescence." Indeed, after careful efforts we have been wholly unable to discover what the "main theme" really is, and where it is treated in this book. Dr. Gray had a great opportunity, but he has, we think, failed wholly in his use of it. Indeed, those who think that some reform of our public schools is urgently needed in the public interest may perhaps feel that his merely destructive energy is likely to hinder rather than to help the cause of progress.
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