Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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Education: Intellectual, Moral, And Physical
The Four Chapters Of Which This Work Consists, Originally Appeared As
Four Review-Articles: The First In The _Westminster Review_ For July
1859; The Second In The _North British Review_ For May 1854; And The
Remaining Two In The _British Quarterly Review_ For April 1858 And For
April 1859. Severally Treating Different Divisions Of The Subject, But
Together Forming A Tolerably Complete Whole, I Originally Wrote Them
With A View To Their Republication In A United Form; And They Would Some
Time Since Have Thus Been Issued, Had Not A Legal Difficulty Stood In
The Way. This Difficulty Being Now Removed, I Hasten To Fulfil The
Intention With Which They Were Written.
That In Their First Shape These Chapters Were Severally Independent, Is
The Reason To Be Assigned For Some Slight Repetitions Which Occur In
Them: One Leading Idea, More Especially, Reappearing Twice. As, However,
This Idea Is On Each Occasion Presented Under A New Form, And As It Can
Scarcely Be Too Much Enforced, I Have Not Thought Well To Omit Any Of
The Passages Embodying It.
Some Additions Of Importance Will Be Found In The Chapter On
Intellectual Education; And In The One On Physical Education There Are A
Few Minor Alterations. But The Chief Changes Which Have Been Made, Are
Changes Of Expression: All Of The Essays Having Undergone A Careful
Verbal Revision.
H.S.
London, _May 1861_
Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 6
It Has Been Truly Remarked That, In Order Of Time, Decoration Precedes
Dress. Among People Who Submit To Great Physical Suffering That They May
Have Themselves Handsomely Tattooed, Extremes Of Temperature Are Borne
With But Little Attempt At Mitigation. Humboldt Tells Us That An Orinoco
Indian, Though Quite Regardless Of Bodily Comfort, Will Yet Labour For A
Fortnight To Purchase Pigment Wherewith To Make Himself Admired; And
That The Same Woman Who Would Not Hesitate To Leave Her Hut Without A
Fragment Of Clothing On, Would Not Dare To Commit Such A Breach Of
Decorum As To Go Out Unpainted. Voyagers Find That Coloured Beads And
Trinkets Are Much More Prized By Wild Tribes Than Are Calicoes Or
Broadcloths. And The Anecdotes We Have Of The Ways In Which, When Shirts
And Coats Are Given, Savages Turn Them To Some Ludicrous Display, Show
How Completely The Idea Of Ornament Predominates Over That Of Use. Nay,
There Are Still More Extreme Illustrations: Witness The Fact Narrated By
Capt. Speke Of His African Attendants, Who Strutted About In Their
Goat-Skin Mantles When The Weather Was Fine, But When It Was Wet, Took
Them Off, Folded Them Up, And Went About Naked, Shivering In The Rain!
Indeed, The Facts Of Aboriginal Life Seem To Indicate That Dress Is
Developed Out Of Decorations. And When We Remember That Even Among
Ourselves Most Think More About The Fineness Of The Fabric Than Its
Warmth, And More About The Cut Than The Convenience--When We See That
The Function Is Still In Great Measure Subordinated To The
Appearance--We Have Further Reason For Inferring Such An Origin.
It Is Curious That The Like Relations Hold With The Mind. Among Mental
As Among Bodily Acquisitions, The Ornamental Comes Before The Useful.
Not Only In Times Past, But Almost As Much In Our Own Era, That
Knowledge Which Conduces To Personal Well-Being Has Been Postponed To
That Which Brings Applause. In The Greek Schools, Music, Poetry,
Rhetoric, And A Philosophy Which, Until Socrates Taught, Had But Little
Bearing Upon Action, Were The Dominant Subjects; While Knowledge Aiding
The Arts Of Life Had A Very Subordinate Place. And In Our Own
Universities And Schools At The Present Moment, The Like Antithesis
Holds. We Are Guilty Of Something Like A Platitude When We Say That
Throughout His After-Career, A Boy, In Nine Cases Out Of Ten, Applies
His Latin And Greek To No Practical Purposes. The Remark Is Trite That
In His Shop, Or His Office, In Managing His Estate Or His Family, In
Playing His Part As Director Of A Bank Or A Railway, He Is Very Little
Aided By This Knowledge He Took So Many Years To Acquire--So Little,
That Generally The Greater Part Of It Drops Out Of His Memory; And If He
Occasionally Vents A Latin Quotation, Or Alludes To Some Greek Myth, It
Is Less To Throw Light On The Topic In Hand Than For The Sake Of Effect.
If We Inquire What Is The Real Motive For Giving Boys A Classical
Education, We Find It To Be Simply Conformity To Public Opinion. Men
Dress Their Children's Minds As They Do Their Bodies, In The Prevailing
Fashion. As The Orinoco Indian Puts On Paint Before Leaving His Hut, Not
With A View To Any Direct Benefit, But Because He Would Be Ashamed To Be
Seen Without It; So, A Boy's Drilling In Latin And Greek Is Insisted On,
Not Because Of Their Intrinsic Value, But That He May Not Be Disgraced
By Being Found Ignorant Of Them--That He May Have "The Education Of A
Gentleman"--The Badge Marking A Certain Social Position, And Bringing A
Consequent Respect.
This Parallel Is Still More Clearly Displayed In The Case Of The Other
Sex. In The Treatment Of Both Mind And Body, The Decorative Element Has
Continued To Predominate In A Greater Degree Among Women Than Among Men.
Originally, Personal Adornment Occupied The Attention Of Both Sexes
Equally. In These Latter Days Of Civilisation, However, We See That In
The Dress Of Men The Regard For Appearance Has In A Considerable Degree
Yielded To The Regard For Comfort; While In Their Education The Useful
Has Of Late Been Trenching On The Ornamental. In Neither Direction Has
This Change Gone So Far With Women. The Wearing Of Earrings,
Finger-Rings, Bracelets; The Elaborate Dressings Of The Hair; The Still
Occasional Use Of Paint; The Immense Labour Bestowed In Making
Habiliments Sufficiently Attractive; And The Great Discomfort That Will
Be Submitted To For The Sake Of Conformity; Show How Greatly, In The
Attiring Of Women, The Desire Of Approbation Overrides The Desire For
Warmth And Convenience. And Similarly In Their Education, The Immense
Preponderance Of "Accomplishments" Proves How Here, Too, Use Is
Subordinated To Display. Dancing, Deportment, The Piano, Singing,
Drawing--What A Large Space Do These Occupy! If You Ask Why Italian And
German Are Learnt, You Will Find That, Under All The Sham Reasons Given,
The Real Reason Is, That A Knowledge Of Those Tongues Is Thought
Ladylike. It Is Not That The Books Written In Them May Be Utilised,
Which They Scarcely Ever Are; But That Italian And German Songs May Be
Sung, And That The Extent Of Attainment May Bring Whispered Admiration.
The Births, Deaths, And Marriages Of Kings, And Other Like Historic
Trivialities, Are Committed To Memory, Not Because Of Any Direct
Benefits That Can Possibly Result From Knowing Them: But Because Society
Considers Them Parts Of A Good Education--Because The Absence Of Such
Knowledge May Bring The Contempt Of Others. When We Have Named Reading,
Writing, Spelling, Grammar, Arithmetic, And Sewing, We Have Named About
All The Things A Girl Is Taught With A View To Their Actual Uses In
Life; And Even Some Of These Have More Reference To The Good Opinion Of
Others Than To Immediate Personal Welfare.
Thoroughly To Realise The Truth That With The Mind As With The Body The
Ornamental Precedes The Useful, It Is Requisite To Glance At Its
Rationale. This Lies In The Fact That, From The Far Past Down Even To
The Present, Social Needs Have Subordinated Individual Needs, And That
The Chief Social Need Has Been The Control Of Individuals. It Is Not, As
We Commonly Suppose, That There Are No Governments But Those Of
Monarchs, And Parliaments, And Constituted Authorities. These
Acknowledged Governments Are Supplemented By Other Unacknowledged Ones,
That Grow Up In All Circles, In Which Every Man Or Woman Strives To Be
King Or Queen Or Lesser Dignitary. To Get Above Some And Be Reverenced
By Them, And To Propitiate Those Who Are Above Us, Is The Universal
Struggle In Which The Chief Energies Of Life Are Expended. By The
Accumulation Of Wealth, By Style Of Living, By Beauty Of Dress, By
Display Of Knowledge Or Intellect, Each Tries To Subjugate Others; And
So Aids In Weaving That Ramified Network Of Restraints By Which Society
Is Kept In Order. It Is Not The Savage Chief Only, Who, In Formidable
War-Paint, With Scalps At His Belt, Aims To Strike Awe Into His
Inferiors; It Is Not Only The Belle Who, By Elaborate Toilet, Polished
Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 7Manners, And Numerous Accomplishments, Strives To "Make Conquests;" But
The Scholar, The Historian, The Philosopher, Use Their Acquirements To
The Same End. We Are None Of Us Content With Quietly Unfolding Our Own
Individualities To The Full In All Directions; But Have A Restless
Craving To Impress Our Individualities Upon Others, And In Some Way
Subordinate Them. And This It Is Which Determines The Character Of Our
Education. Not What Knowledge Is Of Most Real Worth, Is The
Consideration; But What Will Bring Most Applause, Honour, Respect--What
Will Most Conduce To Social Position And Influence--What Will Be Most
Imposing. As, Throughout Life, Not What We Are, But What We Shall Be
Thought, Is The Question; So In Education, The Question Is, Not The
Intrinsic Value Of Knowledge, So Much As Its Extrinsic Effects On
Others. And This Being Our Dominant Idea, Direct Utility Is Scarcely
More Regarded Than By The Barbarian When Filing His Teeth And Staining
His Nails.
If There Requires Further Evidence Of The Rude, Undeveloped Character Of
Our Education, We Have It In The Fact That The Comparative Worths Of
Different Kinds Of Knowledge Have Been As Yet Scarcely Even
Discussed--Much Less Discussed In A Methodic Way With Definite Results.
Not Only Is It That No Standard Of Relative Values Has Yet Been Agreed
Upon; But The Existence Of Any Such Standard Has Not Been Conceived In A
Clear Manner. And Not Only Is It That The Existence Of Such A Standard
Has Not Been Clearly Conceived; But The Need For It Seems To Have Been
Scarcely Even Felt. Men Read Books On This Topic, And Attend Lectures On
That; Decide That Their Children Shall Be Instructed In These Branches
Of Knowledge, And Shall Not Be Instructed In Those; And All Under The
Guidance Of Mere Custom, Or Liking, Or Prejudice; Without Ever
Considering The Enormous Importance Of Determining In Some Rational Way
What Things Are Really Most Worth Learning. It Is True That In All
Circles We Hear Occasional Remarks On The Importance Of This Or The
Other Order Of Information. But Whether The Degree Of Its Importance
Justifies The Expenditure Of The Time Needed To Acquire It; And Whether
There Are Not Things Of More Importance To Which Such Time Might Be
Better Devoted; Are Queries Which, If Raised
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