CONCLUSION--THE PRESENT PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION
The first necessity of the present for teachers and for all concerned
with the upbringing of children is to realise the true meaning of
education--that it is the process by which we lead the child to acquire
and organise experiences that will render future action more efficient;
that by our educational agencies we seek to establish systems of
knowledge that shall hereafter function in the efficient performance of
services of social value; and that the only method which really educates
and can educate is the method which evokes the constructive activity of
reason in the establishment of the various systems of means. Education
does not aim at culture nor at knowledge for its own sake, but at
fitting the individual for social service. Our school system tends ever
to forget this truth. It is in constant danger of losing sight of this
ultimate aim of education by keeping its attention too narrowly fixed on
some nearer and proximate aim. It tends often to lay too much stress on
mere examinations and examination results. It forgets that the only true
test of knowledge gained lies in the pupil's ability to use it
intelligently in the furtherance of some purpose--and of some social
purpose, and that the ultimate test of a system of education is the kind
of social individual it turns out. If our educational system turns out
boys and girls who in after-life become efficient workers, efficient
citizens, and men and women who have learned how to use their leisure
rightly, then it has fulfilled its function. If, on the other hand, it
fails in a large number of cases to attain these three ends or any one
of them, however it may satisfy the other tests applied, it has not
performed its function, is not a system which is "organic" to the
welfare of the State.
The second necessity is to realise the true place of the school as the
formal agent in the education of the child. Mankind by a long and
laborious process has discovered and established many systems of
knowledge. He has created language and invented arts for the realisation
of the many purposes of life. It is the business of the school to impart
this knowledge to the child--to put him in possession at least of some
part of this heritage which has come down to him, and to do so in such a
manner that while acquiring the experience he shall also be trained in
the method of finding and establishing systems of means for himself and
by himself. If, however, we lay the emphasis on the mere imparting of
the garnered experiences of the ages, the danger to be feared is lest
our teaching degenerate into mere dogmatism or mere cram. If, on the
other hand, we lay too much emphasis on the ability to self-find and
self-establish systems, we are in danger of losing sight of the social
purpose of all knowledge--of forgetting that the only justification for
establishing a system of knowledge is that it may efficiently function
in the attainment of some purpose of life.
Of the more important of the practical problems of our own day and
generation the first and most important is to realise that our
educational system as it exists at present is not fitted to produce and
maintain an efficient and sufficient supply of all the social services
which the modern State requires of its adult members, and that we must
consider this question of education as a whole and in all its parts, and
quite clear of mere party interests. Above all, we must get over the
fatal habit of reforming one part of the system and leaving the other
parts alone. The whole problem of education from the Primary School to
the University requires consideration and organisation. We reform now
our Universities, then after a period our Secondary School system, and
so we proceed, advancing here, retrograding there, but of education as
an organically connected whole we have no thought.
But apart from the want of organisation as a whole our educational
system in its parts is at present defective. We require to reconsider
the question of how best to educate the children of the very poor. At
present we fail in a large number of cases to train up the children of
this class to be socially efficient. Economically and morally we fail to
reach any high standard. No doubt the home and social environment is all
against the school influence; but by a more rational system of early
education, by taking more care of the physical development of the child,
and, if need be, for a time, making public provision for the feeding of
the children of the very poor, we might do much to remove this defect.
Above all, we must endeavour to stem the yearly flow of boys and girls
at the conclusion of the Primary School period into mere casual and
unskilled employments, and must endeavour by some means or other to
continue the education of the child for some years further.
Again, we require to make better provision for the technical training of
our workmen. By a system of Evening Continuation Schools having as their
aim the instruction of the youth in the arts underlying or subsidiary to
his particular calling, we might do much to amend this defect. Moreover,
the Evening Continuation Schools might play a much more important part
than they now do in the securing of the future moral and civic
efficiency of the individual and of the nation.
Lastly, and this need is clearly felt by all acquainted with the
subject, we require the development and extension of our Technical
Colleges, in order that we may adequately train those whose duty in
after-life will be the application of advanced scientific knowledge in
the furtherance of the arts and industries of life.
_Printed by_
MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED,
_Edinburgh_