THE AIM OF THE SECONDARY SCHOOL
We have seen that on its intellectual side the Primary School has two
main functions to perform in the education of the child. In the first
place, the school must endeavour to secure that the elementary arts of
reading, writing, and arithmetic are well organised and well established
in the mind of the child. The more effectively the language and number
systems are organised and established the more efficiently will they
function in the performance of future action. Moreover, it is only when
they have become so organised as to function automatically that they
reach their highest efficiency as instruments for the further extension
of knowledge or of practice.
In the second place, the Primary School must train the pupil to the use
of these systems as instruments for the realisation of other and
concrete ends or interests. _E.g._, the number system may be used in the
furtherance of the measuring interest, the weighing interest, and so on.
The two dangers we have to avoid are on the one hand the barren
formalism of treating the acquisition of these arts as ends in
themselves, and on the other of supposing that the real interests can be
intelligently understood merely through the instrumentality of the
elementary arts and that they do not require independent treatment of
themselves.
If the child is destined to go no farther than the Elementary School
stage, then at least the concluding year of the school should be mainly
devoted to training him to the use of the primary instrumental arts in
the establishment of systems of knowledge necessary for the realisation
of the simpler practical ends of life.
If, however, the child is selected for a course of higher education, the
educative process becomes different in nature. In the first-named case
we are content to give the child practice in the application of an
already established system to concrete problems. In the second case we
endeavour, using the elementary systems as means, to establish other
systems of knowledge as means to the attainment of still further ends.
We may, _e.g._, on the basis of the vernacular language build up a
foreign language system as a means either to commercial intercourse or
to literary culture. In short, the aim of the Secondary School is, using
the elementary systems as the basal means, to organise and establish
other systems of means for the attainment of the more complex interests
of after-life, practical and theoretical. The object of establishing a
system of knowledge is not to pass examinations,--this is the
schoolmaster's error,--but to render future action more efficient, to
further in after-life some complex interest of a practical or
theoretical nature. To the few, indeed, the establishment and
systematisation of knowledge may be an end in itself. To the many, the
systematisation and establishment is and ought to be undertaken as a
means to the more efficient furtherance of some practical end. Further,
the only justification for the seeking of knowledge for its own sake is
that thereby it may be better understood, better established and better
systematised, and so become better fitted to make practice more
efficient.
Hence the question as regards secondary education resolves itself into
the question as to the nature of the systems of knowledge which we
should endeavour to establish systematically in the mind of the child,
and before we can answer this question we must know the length of time
which the child can afford to spend at the Higher School and his
possible vocation in after-life. For if education is the process by
which the child is led to acquire and organise experiences so as to
render future action more efficient, we must know something of the
nature of this action, something of the nature of the future social
services for which his education is to train him, and the school period
must be of sufficient length to enable the required systems to be
established permanently and thoroughly.
Neglect of these two obvious considerations has led in the past and even
in the present leads to two errors in our organisation of the means of
secondary education. In the first place, until quite recently, we have
been too much inclined to the opinion that secondary education was all
of one type, and even where this error has been recognised, as in
Germany, the tendency still exists to emphasise unduly the particular
type of education which has as its main ingredients the ancient
classical languages. We spend years in the attempt to reconstruct and
establish in the mind of the youth a knowledge of these language
systems, and in a large number of cases we fail to attain adequately
even this end. We build up laboriously systems of means which in
after-life function _directly_ in the attainment of no end, and as a
consequence, in many cases, the dissolution of the system is as rapid as
its acquisition was slow. At the time of the Renascence and when first
introduced into the curriculum of the Secondary School, these languages,
and especially Latin, did then possess a high functional value, since
they were the indispensable means to the furtherance of knowledge and to
social intercourse. To-day they possess little functional value, and
their claim for admission into the school curriculum is chiefly based
upon their so-called training and disciplinary values.
Let us consider this for a moment: in the reconstruction of, say, the
Latin language, the pupil is being trained in the reconstruction and
re-establishment of a language system whose methods and rules of
construction are much more complex and intricate than those of any
living language, and whose forms are so designed as to bring out
exactly varied shades of meaning. Hence, in its acquisition the pupil
receives practice in the exact discrimination of the meaning of words,
and in their accurate placing and reconstruction within the
sentence--the unit of expression--in order to bring out the exact
interpretation of the thought or statement of fact intended by the
writer.
Further, we may train the pupil during the school period to self-apply
the language system in the further interpretation of relatively unknown
passages. In short, we can train him in the processes of language
construction and of language application. Moreover, in considering this
question, we must take into account that during the school period the
main interest must necessarily be directed to the acquisition and
establishment of the system itself, that little attention can be
directed towards the content for its own sake, and that the
establishment of the system so that it shall function automatically in
the interpretation of the content is a stage which is attained in
comparatively few cases, and then only after many years of study.
If we then take into account, and we must take into account, the fact
that the chief value of the ancient languages as Secondary School
subjects lies in their use as training and disciplinary
instruments--that in after-life they function directly in the attainment
of no practical end, and only indirectly in so far as the habits
acquired of the exact weighing of the meaning of words and of the
accurate placing of words are carried over for the attainment of
practical ends in which these qualities of exact interpretation and
exact expression of language are the chief requisites--we shall
understand that while they may be of value in securing the efficient
after-performance of certain social services, they play but a small part
in the furthering of any service which requires an exact knowledge of
the qualities of things and an accurate knowledge of the laws governing
the operations of nature.
In the second place, neglect of the fact that the aim of education is to
establish systems of means for the efficient after-performance of
actions has led us to neglect the fact that in the acquisition and
establishment of systems of knowledge we require to limit the scope of
our aims and to carry on the process of education during a period
sufficiently extended to admit of the stable establishment of the
systems. If, _e.g._, we attempt to establish too many systems, then as a
result we often stably establish none, with the further result that
after the school period has passed the knowledge gained soon disappears.
If, again, we attempt in too limited a time to establish an elaborate
and complex system of knowledge, as _e.g._ that of the Latin language,
then we never reach the stage when it can be self-applied intelligently
in the furtherance of any end. Hence, if a boy leaves the Elementary
School and enters upon a High School course with the intention of
leaving at the age of fifteen or sixteen and entering upon some
employment, the systems of knowledge which can be established during the
school period must be different from those of the boy whose education is
intended to be extended until twenty-one. If, then, a national system of
education is to make adequate provision for the efficient
after-performance of the various social services which the nation
requires at the hands of its adult members; if, in short, it is to be
organic to the life of the State as a whole, then there must be not one
type of higher education but several; for it is to her Higher Schools
that a nation must principally look for the preparation of citizens who
in after-life will discharge the more important services of the
community. This truth has already been realised in other countries,
notably Germany. We are only beginning to realise it, and to take
measures to carry it into practice.
Moreover, in a national system of education we shall need not one system
of advancing means but several; not merely an educational ladder that
may carry the boy to the University, but also educational steps by which
the individual may mount to the Technical or the Commercial or the Art
College.
Hence our aims in the higher education of the youth, and as a
consequence the nature of the systems of knowledge which we should
endeavour to organise and to establish in their minds, will vary in
accordance with the nature of the service which in adult life the boy is
likely to perform. Now, these services may be divided into four main
classes.
In the first place, every nation requires an army of efficient
industrial workers. Partly, in some cases, owing to the decline of the
apprenticeship system, partly owing to the fact that where apprentices
are still employed no systematic measures are taken to instruct the
youth in the principles underlying his particular art, it is becoming
increasingly necessary that the school should supply and supplement the
knowledge required for the efficient after-performance of the industrial
and technical arts. Hence one kind of Higher School urgently required is
the Trade or Technical School. In a large number of cases this need
could be supplied by Evening Continuation Schools. At present, however,
our Evening Schools are too predominantly commercial and literary, and
do not make adequate provision for the trade and technical needs of the
community. Further, we must endeavour to secure that the boy or girl
enters the Evening Continuation School as soon after he leaves the
Elementary School as possible. For in many cases at the present time the
boy after leaving the Primary School loafs at night about the streets,
and in a short time through disuse forgets much of what he learned at
school, and often in addition acquires habits which tend to unfit him
for any future strenuous effort. When, therefore, he feels the need for
more knowledge in order to advance in his trade, the Evening School has
too frequently to begin by doing over again the work of the Elementary
School before it can enter upon the work of establishing the higher
system of knowledge.
In the second place, a nation such as ours requires a trained body of
servants for the efficient carrying on of her commerce. Preparation for
the simpler forms of service could be furnished by the commercial
classes of the Evening Continuation Schools. For preparation for the
higher services, we require a type of school which beginning after the
Elementary School stage has been completed, carries on the boy's
education until the fifteenth or sixteenth year, whose chief aim should
be to lay a sound basis in the acquisition and organisation of one or
two modern languages and in the acquirement of the arts instrumental for
the carrying on of commercial transactions. Further means of advance in
these studies should be provided by the day or evening Commercial
College.
In the third place, every modern nation requires a trained body of
scientific workers for the after carrying on of her industrial and
technical arts. Hence we need a type of school which by making the
physical sciences their chief object of study prepare the way for the
future training of the student in the application of scientific
knowledge to the furtherance of the industrial and technical arts.
Lastly, we require a type of secondary education which shall prepare the
boy for the efficient discharge of the duties which the State requires
at the hands of her physicians, her theologians, her jurists.
Thus, since all education is the acquisition of experiences that will
render future action more efficient, the nature of the secondary
education given must depend on the nature of the services to which the
systems of knowledge are the means. A classical education may be a good
preparation for the after-discharge of the duties of the theologian or
the jurist; it certainly will not do much for the efficient discharge of
the duties of the mechanical engineer and the practical chemist.
But one error must be avoided. Whilst the various types of Secondary
School must fashion their curricula according to the nature of the
services for which they prepare, we must not forget that the school has
other duties to perform than the mere preparation for the social
services by which a man hereafter earns his living. It must in every
case endeavour to organise and establish those systems of means
necessary for the after-discharge of the civic duties of life and
instrumental for the right use of leisure.
Practically we need three types of Higher School--one in which modern
languages form the basal subjects of the curriculum; one in which the
physical sciences are the main systems organised and established; one in
which the classical languages form the main staple of education.