MENTAL BREAKDOWN
It was frankly stated in the last chapter that there is no concrete
evidence of a reliable nature as to the immoral effects of our education
system. The inquirer has to depend rather upon the logic of
philosophical speculation than upon the testimony of our available
statistics, common sense being generally a far more truthful witness
than figures that can be manipulated to mean almost anything.
But when we come to inquire into the physical evils that are produced by
cramming and injudiciously-applied instruction, it must be acknowledged
that the evidence as to their existence rests upon a much more solid
foundation. Clever brain specialists, who have made a lifelong study of
mental diseases and the causes of mental breakdown, are in a position to
state very definitely, from actual experience, whether or not the
cramming system of modern education is productive of physical ill on a
large scale.
We all of us know, probably, of some isolated instances here and there
where the severe strain of cramming for a competitive examination has
resulted in loss of health and physical breakdown. Some are even aware
of cases in which the unhappy victim of overwork has lost his reason
altogether, and has been compelled to be placed under restraint. But it
is only the physician who has made a special study of mental diseases
that is in a position to form wide and accurate generalizations on the
subject.
In approaching this question, therefore, I have realized the importance
of obtaining the opinions of experts who are alone qualified to express
a well-balanced judgment upon a matter demanding knowledge and
opportunities of observation of a very special nature. Accordingly, I
have consulted some of the greatest brain specialists in this country,
and the brief remarks that I am enabled to make on the subject of
educational cramming and mental breakdown are chiefly based upon the
valuable hints for which I am indebted to them.
To take the case of healthy children first, it is satisfactory to learn
upon high authority that they do not suffer much physical harm from the
effects of overwork. What happens in their case is that the vigorous and
healthy brain offers a sound resistance to the stuffing process, and
speedily forgets what has been forced into it. From an educational point
of view this is, of course, very disastrous; but as far as health
considerations are concerned it affords a certain amount of consolation.
This is to say, one must bear in mind, that modern methods of education
are only salutary as long as they fail altogether to affect the
intelligence. The moment they prove themselves to be efficacious they
become an immediate source of danger.
It follows from this fact that stupid children are as well protected
against the evil effects of the education system as the healthy
children. In fact, to a large extent the stupid children are the healthy
ones by reason of their stupidity. It is, however, a great mistake to
suppose that a stupid child necessarily implies one that is in any sense
deficient mentally. The dull schoolboy often proves in after life to be
the brilliant man. All that his dulness need be taken to signify is that
his mind is not receptive to the subjects which are being forced upon
it. Linnaeus was very stupid at Latin until an enlightened physician, who
was aware of his passion for botanical study, suggested his reading
Plinius; and although he may not have imbibed very accurate information
about natural history from that philosopher, he succeeded in making
immediate progress in the Latin language.
There should be, under a rational system of education, no such thing as
a stupid child. What is, after all, stupidity or dulness in a schoolboy?
It simply means that the boy's faculties are undeveloped, and that no
amount of fact-cramming has succeeded in developing them. The whole
mischief lies, of course, in the fact that the school is not trying to
develop the boy's own faculties at all, but merely to force him to adapt
himself to its own curriculum and conventionality.
The danger to the brain of the healthy or stupid child is not
over-development but under-development. It is not they who suffer in the
worst sense from the evil effects of over-education, but the gifted
children, as they are called, or those whose quick, nervous intellects
are most susceptible to the process of receiving any kind of
instruction.
It is the nervous boy or girl who generally makes the most promising
pupil. A natural inclination to study leads children of this type to
prefer the schoolroom to the playground. The boy who works hard to get
to the top of his class, or to pass an examination, or to obtain a
scholarship, is the one least given to games, and, in consequence, the
weakest physically.
These are the very children whom the teacher is most tempted to
encourage to do more work than is good for them. The process of their
mental development is so rapid that it needs no stimulation from
outside. But that is not, unfortunately, the concern of the school
authorities. The anxiety to produce scholars who will distinguish
themselves in public examinations, and thereby advertise the school,
invariably leads the schoolmaster to cram and stuff the brains of the
brightest and most forward boys.
There is special danger in over-working boys or girls of this type,
because the brain is not strong enough to withstand the pressure. The
result is never good, and in extreme cases it is as bad as it could
possibly be. It follows, in fact, as a matter of course, that the finest
and most sensitive intellects are the first to succumb to the pernicious
effects of over-cramming the brain. There is a strain that can only be
endured by second-rate minds, and it is not, therefore, the
intellectually fittest who are encouraged to survive under the present
system.
What has been stated above refers rather to the higher class of schools
and colleges, which prepare boys for examinations and academic
distinctions of various kinds, than to the elementary schools to which
the children of the poor are commandeered. In the latter establishments
a special barbarity takes place which has been so widely discussed in
Parliament and in the newspapers that I will do no more here than allude
to it in passing.
I refer to the forcing of instruction upon under-fed school-children.
Apart from the gross inhumanity of the proceeding, there is the
indisputable fact that the compulsory teaching of children whose bodies
have not been properly nourished tends to weaken the intellect. If these
children were subjected to a process of cramming such as is usual in the
higher schools, their minds would undoubtedly break down altogether. As
it is, the comparatively mild method of the elementary school does not
effect anything worse in such cases than the prevention of the
development of the mind, which is one degree better than complete
breakdown or insanity.
'The School Board system of cramming with smatterings,' wrote one of the
greatest mental specialists in the world in reply to my inquiries,
'instead of teaching their victims to think--even if only by teaching
one subject well--is perhaps responsible for some positive mental
breakdown; but probably the main harm of it is that it stifles and
strangles proper mental development.' 'Undeveloped mentality,' he says
in conclusion, 'is perhaps the principal fault of our educational system
(so-called).'
Another distinguished physician writes to me from a lunatic asylum:
'We have had a few cases who have broken down, the results of working
for scholarships; also we have had one or two cases of ladies who have
broken down working for higher examinations. Dr. ---- and myself both
feel certain that there is a good deal to be said against the increased
pressure put upon young adolescents at schools. From my own experience I
know that boys who were considered especially clever, and were high up
in forms in the public school I was at, have most of them now dropped
back, and are very mediocre. On the other hand, many who matured slowly
have continued to advance. This is only an observation, and has many
exceptions; but it is an observation that, as time passes, is more fully
confirmed.'
It is not necessary to add anything to these valuable expressions of
opinion, proceeding from eminent men of wide experience, who are far
more capable judges than the layman who has no scientific knowledge and
a necessarily limited range of observation.
Facts speak very eloquently for themselves. If brain specialists are
continually coming across cases of mental breakdown resulting from
cramming or over-education, it is quite clear that a system which is
productive of such evils must be altogether defective in principle and
wanting in common sense.