WHAT THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE DOING.
IATHAT the Public Schools are doing would appear to be, judging by much that is said and written, a matter of public ignorance. What their "old boys" have done, are doing, and will continue to do on the field of battle is known to all, and applauded by all but a captious and negligible minority. Detraction dies hard, but most observers willingly admit that the Public Schools of England, whatever their shortcomings, have more than sustained their claim to be framers and developers of character. Verily the shade of Arnold of Rugby, could it revisit the familiar classrooms and playing-fields, might well rejoice over the triumphant issue of seed sown in hours of insight. Field-Marshal Lord Grenfell lately told an audience of schoolboys that the country would have been hard put to it to find officers in this war but for the O.T.C. And even Mr. A. C. Benson, long an unfavourable critic of the Public Schools on their intellectual side, has admitted freely that there is that in their system which breeds men well fitted to lead the rank- and-file against the enemy.
But what about the oft-repeated educational reproach—that boys are turned out at eighteen with no intellectual curiosity or interests ? It is here that the public are generally imperfectly informed. The remark is often heard that great changes, one supposes, are coming in education ; it would be more correct to say that great changes have already come. The alterations in the curriculum effected during the last quarter of a century are less apparent because gradual. They are none the less considerable. Moreover, they have gathered momentum every year. Those who clamour for reform in secondary education appear to be unaware of the immense changes brought about in the last decade. It may be helpful if one who has returned to Public School work after an interval of a dozen years seeks to turn up the electric light in a darkened building.
First, there is the old growl about the classics. So much time, it is said—and credited—is devoted to Greek and Latin that there is no room left for science. To begin with, in most of the chief schools a parent can ensure his son getting a training in science by putting him on the " Modern " or " Mathematical " side (the nomenclature varies), where Greek is not taught, and even Latin is not obligatory after a certain stage. The writer knows of at least one school, and there may be others, where Latin is wholly excluded (mistakenly, as he thinks) from the Modern side. Moreover, what strikes him after his protracted absence is the very general shrinkage of Classical sides. In a certain Public School of five hundred boys only one- sixth of the whole number are on the Classical side. Again, we have it on the authority of a speech-day utterance of the Head- Master of a " middle-class Eton " of the Midlands that less than a quarter of his boys are studying Greek. (What a contrast, by the way, to the days of which Dr. Johnson wrote that " of Greek every one gets as much as he can "—days, observe, which saw the creation of the British Empire, which bred Clive and Hastings and Chatham.) " Nearly half the school," the speech proceeds, " are taking science, and a great many others in the course of time will do the same."
School magazines, unread by the general public, supply corrobora- tive evidence. Thus we find that at one school during the month of June last papers were read by boy-members of a " Society of Applied Science " on wireless telegraphy, wireless telephony, and the principles of flight. The writer of the first-named " was able to tell the Society many interesting points which he had been able to find out in the course of his practical experiments." This does not look like a dearth of intellectual interest. Who will say after this—when he remembers, too, the scientific and engineering facilities of Bradfield and of Oundle—that Science is an educational Cinderella in our Public Schools ? For of course "applied science" connotes a previous study of pure science. Not even, we should imagine, Mr. A. C. Benson ; not even the signatories of a recent " pro- science " manifesto.
The facts indicate that the Public Schools have been and ars reshaping their education from within. It is not they who are obstructionists. Similarly, the older Universities are continually improving and amplifying their scientific schools. In fact, the wrath of the men of science would probably be appeased if two reforms were granted—one the abolition of " compulsory Greek," the other the putting of science on an equal footing with classics and philosophy in our principal public examinations. Both reforms are very widely approved ; there seems no reason why the second should not any day be effected by the Civil Service Commissioners, with a strong backing from the Board of Education. As to the first—the flaming sword which bids the Greekless keep their distance from our elder Universities—who are those that are averse from sheathing the sword ? Not, it is understood, the majority of University teachers. " Compulsory Creak " would soon go, if these had their way. But the tutors are swamped by out-voters ; and if the Univer- sities cannot manage so to reform their procedure as to let this question be decided by the resident and teaching Faculties, then one can only say that it is time for Government to help them to do so.
We pass to the second growl: that boys don't got a conversational knowledge of modern languages. This is in most cases a true bill, but it ignores what they do get—an excellent grounding in the syntax of such tongues and an acquaintance with some of their master- pieces. A top-dressing of six months on the Continent (after the war) will add conversational facility to their attainment. " But," says the parent, " why can't my son learn that at school ? " For several sufficient reasons. Ideally, at a French lesson not a word but French should be uttered, at a German lesson not a word but German, and so on. Where are the teachers capable of this ? A man cannot make himself proficient to such an extent without adding considerable expense and time to an already costly University career ; and he will not, until it is made better worth his while than it is at present. In other words, the position of assistant-masters must be improved. The desired teaching can be got ; but it is a question of expense on the one hand, of remuneration on the other. The Germans hold (and here we might, for once, take a hint from their practice) that no teacher should undertake more than one modern language. With us, a master is expected to go straight from a French to a German lesson; and he must be an exceptionally able and instructed man if he is to handle both successfully.
Grumble number three is concerned with the teaching of English. We are told that boys leave school incapable of expressing them- selves on paper in tolerable English, and knowing next to nothing
of English literature. This count is partly libel, wholly exaggeration. At most schools there is a weekly essay, and a reasonably high
standard of composition is reached. Not every boy, we may remark in passing, is being brought up to be a " leader "-writer, though some folks talk as if he were. As to literature, there is certainly room for improvement. The tendency is overmuch to intensive study. A single play of Shakespeare, and nothing else, seems remarkably short commons for a term of twelve weeks. Far better would it be for every boy to possess some such book as the Fifteen Plays of Shakespeare lately published by the Clarendon Press. Then two or more plays could be read in each term ; and a volume of some standard prose author should be added. At present schools are organized with a view to travelling progressively through the great authors, but too little is read. An alteration in this respect could easily be made, and would be to the benefit and satisfaction of both pupil and teacher. One great value of English is that it is a recreative study. But it cannot rank, educationally, with Greek (say) or physics. Boys will not take it with real seriousness, because it is in the dear, familiar mother-tongue. They invariably " think they know it," and examination usually proves they don't. The wise teacher will not fret at this, if he knows his English hours have given his form enjoyment. As to mathematics, no grumblings have been heard. No one complains, so far as the writer is aware, that they are insufficiently or badly taught. The too exclusive pursuit of mathematics, as of any other subject, would narrow a boy's horizon and make a man of limited outlook. We have not fallen into that error, hitherto, in the Public Schools. The teaching of geography has greatly improved. In the teaching of Scripture uniformity is not to be looked for ; enough, here, to say that it is not neglected, and that form-masters do their best according to their lights.
No study, surely, deserves to he disinherited, Greek least of all. It is presumably understood by now that the abolition of " com- pulsory Greek " does not mean the destruction of Greek study. What it does mean is the relief of embryo men of science from the more or less painful acquisition of a sorry modicum of Greek—in some cases almost memorized—which is thrown overboard directly its examination value is utilized. Genuine "Grecians" there will always he ; boys whose inherited taste makes them take to Greek as readily as others take to science. The rights of these must be jealously protected, and assuredly always will be. It is inconceivable that the study of Greek should fail to retain an honoured place at Oxford and Cambridge, or that those who pursue it should ever be robbed of a fair share of the honours and emoluments which they have to bestow. " Still more majestic shalt thou rise ! " This study will not be minished by ceasing to be a bogy to men of science and to a certain proportion of boys to whose capacity it would be, in the past perhaps has been, a source of pain rather than of profit.
Boys should get a good general education, in which some science should be included, and then should be encouraged to follow their special bent. The writer, himself bred on the classics and a teacher of them, regards the fact that some boys leave school without any tincture of science whatever as a reproach to our secondary educa- tion. But there is no sufficient reason why this reproach should not be removed. The classical ship might be lightened, and the hours required for science gained, by giving up the practice of verse composition in the Greek and Latin tongues. The Public Schools, this one reform effected, need not fear to meet their enemies in the gate.
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