THE APOTHEOSIS OF CRAM
We have reached a point at which it is advisable to take a broad survey
of the direction in which education systems are hurrying the world. Have
these educational methods a definite objective, or is their sole purpose
the production of scholars manufactured _en bloc_?
These are important questions that need careful answering. Upon the face
of it, there is no doubt that in this country, at least, educational
establishments have, up to the present, aimed only at turning out
scholars of certain intellectual types. The result of this process has
been shown in the preceding pages to be sufficiently disastrous in its
effects upon its victims. There are, in fact, few social evils which
cannot be traced, directly or indirectly, to its agency.
But as yet there has been no dominant motive-power, working invisibly
towards a definite end, behind the educational machinery of the country.
A general feeling has been fomented of late, however, that all
education, from the lowest step to the highest, ought to be co-ordinated
and organized into a single piece of State-directed machinery. The
danger of this can only be appreciated by an examination of the effects
already produced by such a system in other countries.
Germany offers in this connection the best possible example. The
interference of the State in educational matters has there been brought
to perfection. Absolute control is exercised by the Government in
everything appertaining to the instruction of youth all over Germany.
The Emperor has become so autocratic in the exercise of this control in
the kingdom of Prussia, that he talks openly about manufacturing this or
that kind of educational article exactly in the manner in which a
manufacturer would discuss putting some commodity upon the market.
There is not the slightest attempt on the part of the Prussian
Government to disguise the political uses to which their supreme
authority in educational matters is put. One of the first acts of the
Emperor William II., on succeeding to the throne, was to issue the most
plain-spoken instructions to the Government of Prussia in reference to
State interference with the schools for political purposes.
'For a long time,' it was declared in the royal decree,[A] 'I have been
occupied with the thought how to make the school useful for the purpose
of counteracting the spread of socialistic and communistic ideas.... The
history of modern times down to the present day must be introduced more
than hitherto into the curriculum, and the pupils must be shown that
the executive power of the State alone can protect for each individual
his family, his freedom, and his rights.'
[A] For information on this and many other points connected with
the subject of education in Prussia, I am indebted to Mr. Michael
E. Sadler's special report to the Board of Education on 'Problems
in Prussian Secondary Education for Boys.'
Later on follows the recommendation that, 'by striking references to
actual facts, it should be made clear even to young people that a
well-ordered constitution under secure monarchical rule is the
indispensable condition for the protection and welfare of each
individual, both as a citizen and as a worker; that, on the other hand,
the doctrines of social democracy are, in point of fact, infeasible; and
that, if they were put into practice, the liberty of each individual
would be subjected to intolerable restraint, even within the very circle
of the home. The ideas of the Socialists are sufficiently defined
through their own writings for it to be possible to depict them in a way
which will shock the feelings and the practical good-sense even of the
young.'
The danger of this direct State control is obvious. It renders all
liberty of thought absolutely impossible. Politics, religion, social
views--all are systematically worked into the curriculum for the object
of stifling independent ideas, criticisms, and whatever else may be of
value to the interests of the community at large, although possibly
highly inconvenient to the established order.
To cram the youth of the nation after this fashion with all the facts
and fancies that may happen to suit the weaknesses of the national
constitution, is exactly the way in which to bring about the decay of
both Government and country. Merely from a political standpoint,
therefore, nothing could be more disastrous to the State than to make
use of its power of educational control in order to stifle opposition
and independent criticism.
It is equally clear that, wherever the Government possesses this power,
it will use it as far as is practicable for the purpose of
self-preservation. Almost for a century the Prussian authorities have
been getting the control of their national schools more and more into
their own hands. They have now succeeded in bringing the application of
the theory of State interference to the high-water mark of
practicability. From the rudiments of the alphabet to the history of
economics, everything in the Prussian curriculum may be suspected of
serving some political purpose. The schoolboy is regarded by the
authorities as a mere pawn, to be moved on the national board in strict
accordance with the political necessities of the hour.
For some years past, the attention of Prussia and of the whole German
Empire has been concentrated upon the commercial rivalry of the
different nations of the world. The chief, if not the sole, educational
aim has been to produce a percentage-calculating machine on a wholesale
plan, equipped with certain devices for the successful carrying on of
trade. The German authorities became impregnated with the belief that
commercial supremacy could best be attained by organizing the whole
nation into a uniform body of workers trained to co-operation.
Everything of late years has been subordinated to this design.
The commercial success of the scheme has been notorious. German
manufacturers have been gaining ground in all parts of the world. The
consular reports at the Foreign Office are filled with pessimistic
warnings about the decline of British trade at various points where it
was once supreme, and with significant statistics that show the rapid
advance of German commercial enterprise.
But it does not follow, because Germany seems to have shot ahead of us
by leaps and bounds of late years, that she has adopted sound means to
accomplish this end. On the contrary, if the expedients by which this
commercial supremacy has been attained are an exaggeration of the worst
evils of education systems, then Germany has started upon a downward
path which must eventually lead her to the brink of ruin.
And this is precisely the case. Cramming has been brought throughout
Germany to the level of a fine art. It is done, I must confess--for I
was myself subjected to the process for some years--more completely and
effectively than in this country. That is to say, the pupil is not
crammed in such an idiotic fashion that he forgets all that has been
stuffed into him immediately he has left school. The drilling, however
wrong it may be in principle, is thorough enough, in all conscience. It
may be, as it is elsewhere, the pestle and mortar system. But at least
the pestle is applied consistently, and each ingredient is perfectly
mixed before the next component is introduced.
If, therefore, the object of education be to produce an article of a
certain type or consistency, then the Prussian school stands far in
advance of our own cramming institutions. It may well be taken in that
case as a model for us to copy.
People should, however, ask themselves these questions: Is it
international commercial rivalry that produces the necessity of a State
system of education to equip the nation for the struggle? Or is it the
State system of education, with its organized attempt to manufacture a
race of traders, which has artificially created the state of commercial
warfare into which we are rapidly drifting?
The answer seems to me to be plain enough.
The individuality of individuals is rapidly disappearing throughout that
part of the world which has chosen to subject itself to uniform
education systems. One Englishman is much like another, in the same way
that Russians, or Germans, or Frenchmen resemble each other. In other
words, the only individuality which education is leaving us is that of
nationality; and the reason of this is because the manners, the customs,
and the school systems of various countries still differ to a certain
extent.
Instead, therefore, of the individual competing against the individual,
we are rapidly approaching the point where the whole strength and
resources of each nation will be employed to co-operate against the rest
of the world. And this is no mere natural outcome of evolution. Germany,
with her extraordinary cuteness and foresight, invented the game for her
own benefit a generation or two ago. She has spent the best part of half
a century equipping herself, hand over fist, for this kind of commercial
contest.
But what is she sacrificing in order to obtain this triumph of the
trader?
There cannot be a question that she is deliberately and systematically
throwing away the most precious of all human possessions--the character
of the individual. At the Berlin Conference on Secondary Education, held
in 1890, Dr. Virchow observed: 'I regret that I cannot bear my testimony
to our having made progress in forming the character of pupils in our
schools. When I look back over the forty years during which I have been
Professor and Examiner--a period during which I have been brought in
contact not only with physicians and scientific investigators, but also
with many other types of men--I cannot say that I have the impression
that we have made material advances in training up men with strength of
character. On the contrary, I fear that we are on a downward path. The
number of "characters" becomes smaller. And this is connected with the
shrinkage in private and individual work done during a lad's school
life. For it is only by means of independent work that the pupil learns
to hold his own against external difficulties, and to find in his own
strength, in his own nature, in his own being, the means of resisting
such difficulties and of prevailing over them.'
The inevitable result of this sacrifice of individuality must be the
intellectual decay of the nation, or at least its degeneration into a
state of hopeless mediocrity. Unless, therefore, Germany can persuade
other countries to adopt similar tactics, and to meet her on the plane
where she has already obtained the start of a generation, she must come
hopelessly to grief in the future.
Unfortunately, there seems every indication that the statesmen who lead
rival nations are only too ready to follow Germany's blind lead. In this
country it is only the blessed ignorance of the people which is holding
back those who are anxious to commit the folly that has put pounds,
shillings, and pence into German pockets, at the cost of taking
originality and character out of German heads.
This educational suicide, it must also be remembered, can only be
committed without serious social disturbance in a despotically-governed
country like the German Empire. In England, with our system of party
government, a complete measure of State control in educational matters
would create a political pandemonium that would be little short of
appalling.
The party struggles of the future would, if this Prussian system were
transplanted here, centre round educational control. The schools would
no longer be regarded as establishments for the instruction of youth;
they would be looked upon simply as the nursery of the future voter. A
Conservative Government would cram everything into the curriculum
calculated to stifle inconveniently progressive ideas, whilst a Radical
Government would try to banish from the schools all established beliefs
and conventions.
Between these opposing stools the manufactured scholar would fall
lamentably to the ground. He would be neither fish, flesh, nor fowl.
There would be a perpetual chopping and changing in the methods of his
education, from which he would not even derive the benefit, so
gratefully acknowledged by Wordsworth, of being neglected by his
teachers.
To talk of beating Germany at her own game is, therefore, the height of
absurdity. Nothing could result from such an endeavour but ruin to the
country. Under our party system it is obvious that it could not be done
with the remotest chance of success. And even if it were possible to
obtain steady uniform State interference, working always towards a
specific end, German methods would only be adopted at the expense of
increasing the pressure of cramming _en bloc_, and thereby multiplying
the evils which have been but faintly depicted in the foregoing pages.