Education in 1978—A Retrospect
THE student of history will reflect with a smile, as he looks back on the record of the last fifty years, that the revolution, when it came, was not in the least what had been expected. Expropriators were not expro- priated, nor was capital destroyed. The movement took the simple form of the assertion of personal liberty, which is perhaps the profoundest instinct of our race, and the abolition of all officials, who had left to the individual citizen nothing more than the career of the over-indus- trious ant or the working bee. The execution of all those members of the Civil Service, who in the previous twenty years had been awarded the K.C.B. or K.B.E., of all Secretaries of Trade Unions, and all Directors of Education, was perhaps a strong measure, though many consider it to have been a regrettable necessity. There was, however, no other bloodshed, and it was rightly thought that the junior officials with this example before them would conform to the wishes of the people. The main object has been gained, for already it can be said that, though the country in certain mechanical aspects is a less efficient machine, the individual man and woman of our land are infinitely happier.
It is, however, our business to consider the history of education. Those among us who have attained to the age of three score years and ten will remember the storm which arose when the Labour Party, returned to power early in the second quarter of the century, enacted, in conformity with the sacred principle of equality of opportunity, the regulation that 25 per cent. of the vacant places at Eton in each year should be reserved for ex- elementary pupils of the London County Council, and that 25 per cent. of the normal entrants to Eton should be selected by ballot, and drafted to the elementary schools of Poplar and other suitable districts. The object was good : it was to bring about the fusion of classes, and to enable each to understand the point of view of the other. But very rapidly this particular problem ceased to be acute, for in a short time education in all its grades became free, and the public schools, as they had been hitherto known, ceased to exist. They became simply secondary schools conducted according to the regulations of the central authority, with " boarding bursaries " attached. From the first, however, it was noticed that these bursaries were gained in exceptional numbers by the sons and relations of members of the official caste in the Unions, and Government and muni- cipal offices.
At the same time the mechanization of all education proceeded apace. The main instruments of this process were the cinematoscope, the gramophone, the wireless, and television. All the pupils in a given area received the same lesson from a teacher, whose " matter " had been approved in the Education Offices and whose voice had been passed by the B.B.C. Television, when it was perfected, enabled all schools to witness the same play of Shakespeare at the same moment, and as they received suitable comments at the end of each scene by wireless they were enabled to take the School Certificate after identical preparation. Modern languages, so far as they can be said to have continued to be taught, were taught from selected gramophone records, again supplemented by wireless. But in spite of all these miraculous aids which science contributed to the aid of education it was found that the standard of knowledge attained by the children steadily fell, and the teachers, in spite of the fact that they were all on the Burnham scale, and treated with exact equality, were singularly discontented.
Discontent with the low standard of attainment in the schools at first lent force to the attack which the official directors of education, who would admit no criticism of the system- - whiCh they` had elaborated, conducted against the examination system which they had in- herited from less enlightened days. It was argued that it was undemocratic to require a standard in any general examination which was beyond the range of the weakest candidate, who was certified to be.normal by the eXamin- ing panel of the Medical Officers of schools. At the same time, the fact that women were in a majority in the voting body of the country lent force to the argument con- stantly presented with increasing force both by the Association of Headmistresses, and many feminist societies, that it was contrary to the sacred principle of sex equality to plough in any examination a greater percentage of girls than boys: In these' circumstances it became too dangerous for any examining body to plough anybody, and, as all candidates passed, examina- tions were abolished as a recognition of the complete efficiency of the system, and a certificate was issued at the end of the school courses to each pupil, signed by the Director of Education and countersigned by the President of the Board of Education. It was an imposing document, and its issue was convenient to all parties.
Not much was heard during this controversy of the argument that examinations interfered with the freedom of the teacher, for the teacher had long ceased to be free.
The teacher had become a minor functionary, who saw that the attendance registers were duly kept, that the gramophone was turned on at the right time, that the classes were in their places for all television, cinema, and wireless hours, that all necessary particulars were supplied to the medical, psychological, and financial departments of the Directorates of Education, and that the regulations for disinfection, ventilation, and heating had been observed. Power was entirely in- the hands of Directors of Education, of whom the most famous were those who were quickest to borrow a new idea from a suitable quarter, and the most able in having it carried out by other people. For neither purpose was it necessary for them to leave the central office. The Board of Education had become a complicated .host of accountants and statisticians, whose annual report was staggering in its complexity, though whether the bewildering figures meant anything in particular left considerable room for doubt.
It will be remembered that the revolution began with the complete strike of teachers of every grade, and the movement which they -began in the interests of indi- vidual liberty rapidly spread to all classes of citizens. The bureaucracy, which had been accustomed to get everything done by means of minutes written on official documents, was at once rendered powerless by the strike of the real working classes. Their attempt to cut off supplies produced exacerbation, and there followed the reign of terror which was mercifully brief, but which un- doubtedly cleared the air; In the period of reconstruction, which has marked the last ten years, certain principles have emerged : that the sole realities in education are the teacher and the members of his class ; that personality alone is valuable ; that what counts is the effort made by each individual pupil in reaching out of himself for knowledge ; that the best teacher is he whose personality kindles this enthu- siasm ; that there are many " methods " ; that a teacher is not necessarily a back number who is not trying the latest ; that good playing-fields are as necessary to every school as good classrooms ; and, finally, that it is a bad thing to ignore the existence of God, the facts of Nature, or the moral law, and that the end- of -true educa- Aion—before even the attainment of certificates—is to make the children aware of these. -CYRIL NORWOOD.
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