Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
Book online «Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗». Author Herbert Spencer
Quite Summarily, According To Personal Predilections. It Is True Also,
That Now And Then, We Hear Revived The Standing Controversy Respecting
The Comparative Merits Of Classics And Mathematics. This Controversy,
However, Is Carried On In An Empirical Manner, With No Reference To An
Ascertained Criterion; And The Question At Issue Is Insignificant When
Compared With The General Question Of Which It Is Part. To Suppose That
Deciding Whether A Mathematical Or A Classical Education Is The Best Is
Deciding What Is The Proper _Curriculum_, Is Much The Same Thing As To
Suppose That The Whole Of Dietetics Lies In Ascertaining Whether Or Not
Bread Is More Nutritive Than Potatoes!
The Question Which We Contend Is Of Such Transcendent Moment, Is, Not
Whether Such Or Such Knowledge Is Of Worth But What Is Its _Relative_
Worth? When They Have Named Certain Advantages Which A Given Course Of
Study Has Secured Them, Persons Are Apt To Assume That They Have
Justified Themselves; Quite Forgetting That The Adequateness Of The
Advantages Is The Point To Be Judged. There Is, Perhaps, Not A Subject
To Which Men Devote Attention That Has Not _Some_ Value. A Year
Diligently Spent In Getting Up Heraldry, Would Very Possibly Give A
Little Further Insight Into Ancient Manners And Morals. Any One Who
Should Learn The Distances Between All The Towns In England, Might, In
The Course Of His Life, Find One Or Two Of The Thousand Facts He Had
Acquired Of Some Slight Service When Arranging A Journey. Gathering
Together All The Small Gossip Of A County, Profitless Occupation As It
Would Be, Might Yet Occasionally Help To Establish Some Useful
Fact--Say, A Good Example Of Hereditary Transmission. But In These
Cases, Every One Would Admit That There Was No Proportion Between The
Required Labour And The Probable Benefit. No One Would Tolerate The
Proposal To Devote Some Years Of A Boy's Time To Getting Such
Information, At The Cost Of Much More Valuable Information Which He
Might Else Have Got. And If Here The Test Of Relative Value Is Appealed
To And Held Conclusive, Then Should It Be Appealed To And Held
Conclusive Throughout. Had We Time To Master All Subjects We Need Not Be
Particular. To Quote The Old Song:--
Could A Man Be Secure
That His Day Would Endure
As Of Old, For A Thousand Long Years,
What Things Might He Know!
What Deeds Might He Do!
And All Without Hurry Or Care.
"But We That Have But Span-Long Lives" Must Ever Bear In Mind Our
Limited Time For Acquisition. And Remembering How Narrowly This Time Is
Limited, Not Only By The Shortness Of Life, But Also Still More By The
Business Of Life, We Ought To Be Especially Solicitous To Employ What
Time We Have To The Greatest Advantage. Before Devoting Years To Some
Subject Which Fashion Or Fancy Suggests, It Is Surely Wise To Weigh
With Great Care The Worth Of The Results, As Compared With The Worth Of
Various Alternative Results Which The Same Years Might Bring If
Otherwise Applied.
In Education, Then, This Is The Question Of Questions, Which It Is High
Time We Discussed In Some Methodic Way. The First In Importance, Though
The Last To Be Considered, Is The Problem--How To Decide Among The
Conflicting Claims Of Various Subjects On Our Attention. Before There
Can Be A Rational _Curriculum_, We Must Settle Which Things It Most
Concerns Us To Know; Or, To Use A Word Of Bacon's, Now Unfortunately
Obsolete--We Must Determine The Relative Values Of Knowledges.
To This End, A Measure Of Value Is The First Requisite. And Happily,
Respecting The True Measure Of Value, As Expressed In General Terms,
There Can Be No Dispute. Every One In Contending For The Worth Of Any
Particular Order Of Information, Does So By Showing Its Bearing Upon
Some Part Of Life. In Reply To The Question--"Of What Use Is It?" The
Mathematician, Linguist, Naturalist, Or Philosopher, Explains The Way In
Which His Learning Beneficially Influences Action--Saves From Evil Or
Secures Good--Conduces To Happiness. When The Teacher Of Writing Has
Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 8Pointed Out How Great An Aid Writing Is To Success In Business--That Is,
To The Obtainment Of Sustenance--That Is, To Satisfactory Living; He Is
Held To Have Proved His Case. And When The Collector Of Dead Facts (Say
A Numismatist) Fails To Make Clear Any Appreciable Effects Which These
Facts Can Produce On Human Welfare, He Is Obliged To Admit That They Are
Comparatively Valueless. All Then, Either Directly Or By Implication,
Appeal To This As The Ultimate Test.
How To Live?--That Is The Essential Question For Us. Not How To Live In
The Mere Material Sense Only, But In The Widest Sense. The General
Problem Which Comprehends Every Special Problem Is--The Right Ruling Of
Conduct In All Directions Under All Circumstances. In What Way To Treat
The Body; In What Way To Treat The Mind; In What Way To Manage Our
Affairs; In What Way To Bring Up A Family; In What Way To Behave As A
Citizen; In What Way To Utilise Those Sources Of Happiness Which Nature
Supplies--How To Use All Our Faculties To The Greatest Advantage Of
Ourselves And Others--How To Live Completely? And This Being The Great
Thing Needful For Us To Learn, Is, By Consequence, The Great Thing Which
Education Has To Teach. To Prepare Us For Complete Living Is The
Function Which Education Has To Discharge; And The Only Rational Mode
Of Judging Of An Educational Course Is, To Judge In What Degree It
Discharges Such Function.
This Test, Never Used In Its Entirety, But Rarely Even Partially Used,
And Used Then In A Vague, Half Conscious Way, Has To Be Applied
Consciously, Methodically, And Throughout All Cases. It Behoves Us To
Set Before Ourselves, And Ever To Keep Clearly In View, Complete Living
As The End To Be Achieved; So That In Bringing Up Our Children We May
Choose Subjects And Methods Of Instruction, With Deliberate Reference To
This End. Not Only Ought We To Cease From The Mere Unthinking Adoption
Of The Current Fashion In Education, Which Has No Better Warrant Than
Any Other Fashion; But We Must Also Rise Above That Rude, Empirical
Style Of Judging Displayed By Those More Intelligent People Who Do
Bestow Some Care In Overseeing The Cultivation Of Their Children's
Minds. It Must Not Suffice Simply To _Think_ That Such Or Such
Information Will Be Useful In After Life, Or That This Kind Of Knowledge
Is Of More Practical Value Than That; But We Must Seek Out Some Process
Of Estimating Their Respective Values, So That As Far As Possible We May
Positively _Know_ Which Are Most Deserving Of Attention.
Doubtless The Task Is Difficult--Perhaps Never To Be More Than
Approximately Achieved. But, Considering The Vastness Of The Interests
At Stake, Its Difficulty Is No Reason For Pusillanimously Passing It By;
But Rather For Devoting Every Energy To Its Mastery. And If We Only
Proceed Systematically, We May Very Soon Get At Results Of No Small
Moment.
Our First Step Must Obviously Be To Classify, In The Order Of Their
Importance, The Leading Kinds Of Activity Which Constitute Human Life.
They May Be Naturally Arranged Into:--1. Those Activities Which Directly
Minister To Self-Preservation; 2. Those Activities Which, By Securing
The Necessaries Of Life, Indirectly Minister To Self-Preservation; 3.
Those Activities Which Have For Their End The Rearing And Discipline Of
Offspring; 4. Those Activities Which Are Involved In The Maintenance Of
Proper Social And Political Relations; 5. Those Miscellaneous Activities
Which Fill Up The Leisure Part Of Life, Devoted To The Gratification Of
The Tastes And Feelings.
That These Stand In Something Like Their True Order Of Subordination, It
Needs No Long Consideration To Show. The Actions And Precautions By
Which, From Moment To Moment, We Secure Personal Safety, Must Clearly
Take Precedence Of All Others. Could There Be A Man, Ignorant As An
Infant Of Surrounding Objects And Movements, Or How To Guide Himself
Among Them, He Would Pretty Certainly Lose His Life The First Time He
Went Into The Street; Notwithstanding Any Amount Of Learning He Might
Have On Other Matters. And As Entire Ignorance In All Other Directions
Would Be Less Promptly Fatal Than Entire Ignorance In This Direction, It
Must Be Admitted That Knowledge Immediately Conducive To
Self-Preservation Is Of Primary Importance.
That Next After Direct Self-Preservation Comes The Indirect
Self-Preservation Which Consists In Acquiring The Means Of Living, None
Will Question. That A Man's Industrial Functions Must Be Considered
Before His Parental Ones, Is Manifest From The Fact That, Speaking
Generally, The Discharge Of The Parental Functions Is Made Possible Only
By The Previous Discharge Of The Industrial Ones. The Power Of
Self-Maintenance Necessarily Preceding The Power Of Maintaining
Offspring, It Follows That Knowledge Needful For Self-Maintenance Has
Stronger Claims Than Knowledge Needful For Family Welfare--Is Second In
Value To None Save Knowledge Needful For Immediate Self-Preservation.
As The Family Comes Before The State In Order Of Time--As The Bringing
Up Of Children Is Possible Before The State Exists, Or When It Has
Ceased To Be, Whereas The State Is Rendered Possible Only By The
Bringing Up Of Children; It Follows That The Duties Of The Parent Demand
Closer Attention Than Those Of The Citizen. Or, To Use A Further
Argument--Since The Goodness Of A Society Ultimately Depends On The
Nature Of Its Citizens; And Since The Nature Of Its Citizens Is More
Modifiable By Early Training Than By Anything Else; We Must Conclude
That The Welfare Of The Family Underlies The Welfare Of Society. And
Hence Knowledge Directly Conducing To The First, Must Take Precedence Of
Knowledge Directly Conducing To The Last.
Those Various Forms Of Pleasurable Occupation Which Fill Up The Leisure
Left By Graver Occupations--The Enjoyments Of Music, Poetry, Painting,
Etc.--Manifestly Imply A Pre-Existing Society. Not Only Is A
Considerable Development Of Them Impossible Without A Long-Established
Social Union; But Their Very Subject-Matter Consists In Great Part Of
Social Sentiments And Sympathies. Not Only Does Society Supply The
Conditions To Their Growth; But Also The Ideas And Sentiments They
Express. And, Consequently, That Part Of Human Conduct Which Constitutes
Good Citizenship, Is Of More Moment Than That Which Goes Out In
Accomplishments Or Exercise Of The Tastes; And, In Education,
Preparation For The One Must Rank Before Preparation For The Other.
Part 1 Chapter 1 (What Knowledge Is Of Most Worth?) Pg 9
Such Then, We Repeat, Is Something Like The Rational Order Of
Subordination:--That Education Which Prepares For Direct
Self-Preservation; That Which Prepares For Indirect Self-Preservation;
That Which Prepares For Parenthood; That Which Prepares For Citizenship;
That Which Prepares For The Miscellaneous Refinements Of Life. We Do Not
Mean To Say That These Divisions Are Definitely Separable. We Do Not
Deny That They Are Intricately Entangled With Each Other, In Such Way
That There Can Be No Training For Any That Is Not In Some Measure A
Training For All. Nor Do We Question That Of Each Division There Are
Portions More Important Than Certain Portions Of The Preceding
Divisions: That, For Instance, A Man Of Much Skill In Business But
Little Other Faculty, May Fall Further Below The Standard Of Complete
Living Than One Of But Moderate Ability In Money-Getting But Great
Judgment As A Parent; Or That Exhaustive Information Bearing On Right
Social Action, Joined With Entire Want Of General Culture In Literature
And The Fine Arts, Is Less Desirable
Comments (0)