MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON I HAVE been reading this week a pamphlet by Mr. J. H. Simpson, Principal of the College of St. Mark and St. John, which throws an interesting sidelight upon the problem of our Public Schools. Mr. Simpson was for twelve years headmaster of a small boarding-school, in which the majority of pupils came from working-class, or lower middle-class, homes. He is thus one of the few men who have had direct and prolonged experience of the effect of the boarding-school system upon the working-class boy. His views, for this reason, merit every attention. His argument is based upon the assumption that, whereas a few Public Schools may be able for some years to survive the New Economic Order, most of them will be unable to maintain themselves without financial assistance from the State. He asks whether such assistance would be justified, or in other words whether the taxpayer would obtain a really useful return for his money. He therefore addresses himself to the problem whether the virtues and advantages taught or provided by our Public Schools could, by some readjustment of our educational machinery, be rendered available to children in the lower income groups. This leads him to an examina- tion of these advantages and to the consideration whether in fact they could be transferred or transmitted to the boys and girls of the elementary day school.
* * * * Mr. Simpson asserts that there are seven main virtues or advan- tages which are generally associated with the Public School system. The man who has had the privilege of a Public School education is generally free from feelings of social inferiority, is more confident and assured in his dealings with his fellow-men, and is " less prone to certain mean habits of thought and action which come from an attitude towards life which is primarily defensive." Enjoying as he does the advantages of a comparatively cultured home, he becomes more adept in the art of living. In the course of his training he acquires a sense of responsibility towards those who are less for- tunately situated than himself. The Public School boy, moreover, inherits a long religious tradition, acquires pride in his own school, and learns to act loyally towards his masters and school-fellows. And, finally, the fact that at a tender age he is removed from home influence and urban surroundings has a marked, and upon the whole a beneficial, influence upon his health and character. How many of these seven advantages, asks Mr. Simpson, are transferable and how many are exclusive? He contends that the first three (namely, social self-confidence, a cultural home and responsibility towards the less fortunate) are not transferable, since they depend not upon any educational machinery, but upon the present condition of society. According as income-levels become more uniform these class dis- tinctions will tend to diminish, and the sense of responsibility will merge, as it has merged in the United States, into a diffused social conscience. The next three advantages (religious tradition, pride and loyalty) will, without State intervention, be acquired by secondary day schools once they are able to settle denominational problems and to acquire greater prestige and self-reliance. Thus of the seven virtues or advantages provided by the Public School system, three are not transferable and three are not exclusive. It is in his opinion imprudent to spend large sums of public money upon something which you will never get or upon something which you will acquire in any case. Mr. Simpson concludes, therefore, that " it is not in the national interest that money should be spent by the State with the direct object of preserving the Public Schools."
* * * * Mr. Simpson's argument is not, however, wholly negative. He is left with his seventh virtue, namely, the advantage derived from the boarding system in itself. He has little doubt that it is of value to a boy (and presumably to a girl also) to be away from home for certain periods before the age of eighteen. He agrees that the rural surroundirigs, the amenities and the beauty of many of our Public Schools do confer a distinct physical and mental benefit upon those who are privileged to enjoy them. He would like to see those benefits extended to the children of poor parents,
although he feels that the four years at present devoted to Public School education are too protracted, and that a year, or even six months, should suffice to meet all requirements. His proposal is therefore that those of the Public Schools which are unable to main- tain themselves without State assistance should be turned into " reception schools " or " short-period boarding-schools" to which day school children could be transferred for a certain period of their course. Subject to this exception he would let the Public Schools sink or swim without assistance from the State.
* * * * Mr. Simpson's pamphlet is impressive, since it deals objectively and from an unusual angle with a problem which is often blurred either by prejudice or by sentiment. There are those who detest the Public School system because it is to their minds the symbol, and perhaps even the cause, of class distinctions. There are those whose attitude towards the problem is coloured by sentimental affections and who are unable to approach it with reason or with calm. If it be wholly true that the Public School system is the expression of social and economic conditions rather than the ex- pression of a conscious educational theory, then it is probable that
• before the century closes the whole system will have become an anachronism. As such, it could scarcely be preserved by subsidies from the Exchequer. But is this assumption wholly true? It may well have been a misfortune that the different levels of our educa- tional. system should have tended to coincide with the different levels of income, rank or status. But it would be incorrect to assume that our Public Schools mean nothing more than reserved enclosures in which the children of the rich are given a luxury education. The resentment which this assumption has created tempts people to ignore, or to minimiseohe educational value which the system possesses. In. fact, the Seven Virtues which Mr. Simpson defines, and then eliminates, do not by any means comprise the total range of advantage offered by a Public School. There are other valuable virtues which are taught or absorbed to an extent not found in any other country or under any other system. There is the virtue of humility, which is the foundation of any proper exercise of power ; there is tolerance, which is the companion of reason ; under the Public School system boys learn to differentiate between conceit and pride, between authority and arrogance, between obedience and subservience. The very harshness of the system fortifies character more often than it warps it ; and if the purpose of education be to adjust the individual to the group, then the processes of adjustment practised at a Public School are certainly more effective than any which I have observed abroad. I doubt whether these advantages are provided to the same extent by any day-school.
* * * *
I am reminded of a phrase which occurs in Mr. J. F. Roxburgh's little book, Eleutheros. " If," he wrote in 193o, " the best of the English Public Schools . . . can select and secure the very best young Englishmen of each generation, this country will begin to build up a new aristocracy of character and capacity such as the world has not hitherto' seen." So far,. from abolishing the Public Schools or allowing them to perish from inanition, Mr. Roxburgh would open their doors to the best boys from the elemen- tary day-schools. Mr. Simpson would not agree with this suggestion, since he is opposed to the theory that the Public Schools should allot free or special places to boys from elementary day-schools. He points out that this method would mean that the ablest working-class boys were segregated from their fellows at the age of twelve ; that the secondary day-schools would thereby be deprived of their most promising material and relegated " to a recognised second-best"; and that it is doubtful whether the boys thus transplanted would in fact achieve either happiness or self- confidence. I am impressed by this argument, since Mr. Simpson has very special experience of the problem he is discussing. But I hope none the less that when Mr. Butler comes to frame the great Education Act of 1943 he will devise some means by which ou- Public Schools shall cease to be purely private.
Previous page
