COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION
SIR,—In his article on Robin Pedley's book Comprehensive Education Sir Eric James asserted (Spectator, October 5) that 'Teachers have no excuse for complacency.' May I suggest that Sir Eric is looking in the wrong direction? It is so easy to blame the teachers in schools for everything from the shortage of scientists to 'rock 'n' roll,' but if he would visit the universities and seek out some of the truly complacent people who set examination papers he' might discover the real cause of many of our more serious problems.
In the subjects broadly classified as 'Arts'
(Continued on page .574) many examiners still encourage genuine educa- tion, but in the 'Sciences' pupils are required to prove that they have memorised vast numbers of useful—though often questionable—facts. Boys are incessantly urged to concentrate on technical knowledge in order to earn large incomes and to maintain national prosperity; genuine education is ruthlessly pushed aside to make way for what is foolishly ,considered to be a practical preparation for a profitable career.
Science used to be known as Natural Philosophy; the scientist was honourably occupied in the search for Truth. Today science is regarded as the servant of industry; philosophy is either relegated to the dustbin or tolerated as a study of the methods by which language can be shown to exclude the possibility of thought about anything except practical, profitable affairs. The Platonic Values are merely out-moded myths; goodness is a relic of Cartesian dualism or of Kantian intuition, beauty is a more tolerable survival because it can be exploited by advertising agents and cinema stars.
Complacency? Humiliation would be a more suitable word. Even teachers realise that industry needs men who can deal with human problems, help to produce team-spirit and happy co-operation and think clearly, logically and sympathetically about all kind of problems. Science can be a most educational subject if it is dealt with primarily as a search for truth, but at present the examiners en- courage the production of machine-like brains rather than the adequate development of human beings.-.--Yours faithfully,
HUGH MORRIS
Bexhill-on-Sea
Previous page
