There are many who under-rate the power of environment But there are
few who deny the value of education. And education is environment. All
education, good or bad, in the home or the school, is environment.
And we all know, though some of us forget, that good education makes us
better and that bad education makes us worse. And we all know, though
some of us forget, that we have to be educated by others, and that
those others are part of our environment. For even in the case of
self-education we must learn from books, which were written by other
men.
And if we take the word education in its widest sense, as meaning all
that we learn, the importance of this part of our environment stares
us in the face. For as we are born not with morals, nor knowledge, nor
capacities, but only with the rudiments of such, it is plain to every
mind that our goodness or badness, our ignorance or knowledge, our
helplessness or power, depends to a very great extent upon the kind of
teaching we get.
The difference between the lout and the man of refinement is generally a
difference of education, of knowledge, and training.
The root cause of most prejudice and malice, of much violence, folly,
and crime, is ignorance. There would be no despised and under-paid poor,
no slums, no landless peasants, no serfs, were it not for the ignorance
of the masses, _and_ the classes. The rich impose upon the poor, and the
poor submit, for the one reason: they do not understand.
If they were taught better they would do better. And the better teaching
would be--improved environment.
It is not enough that people should be "educated," in the narrow sense
of the word. Teaching may do harm, as surely as it may do good. All
depends upon the things that are taught.
Much of the teaching in our Board Schools, our Public Schools, and our
Universities is _bad_.
If teaching is to be "good environment," the teaching must be good.
National or local ideals are part of our environment. We are born into
these ideals as we are born into our climate, and few escape their rule.
The ideals of England are not good. To succeed, to make wealth, to win
applause--these are not high ideals. To buy in the cheapest market and
sell in the dearest; to make England the workshop of the world; to seize
all rich and unprotected lands, and force their inhabitants into the
British Empire--these are not great ideals.
But such national ideals are part of our environment, and tell against,
or for, the development of our noblest human qualities.
A gospel of greed, vanity, and empire does not tend to make a people
modest, nor just, nor kindly. Indeed, it is chiefly because of their
greediness for commerce and wealth, and their ambition for empire,
that the nations to-day are armed and jealous rivals. And it is chiefly
because of their hunger for wealth, and their worship of vain display
and empty honours, that the classes and the masses are hostile and
divided. Ignorance again: they do not understand.
The force of environment, and especially the uses of education,
are stamped upon our proverbs, are bedded deep in universal custom.
"Knowledge is power," "As the twig is bent----" "He who touches pitch
shall be defiled," "Evil communications corrupt good manners." And what
educated parent would allow his children to grow up in ignorance, or
would expose them to the evil influences of impure literature or bad
companions.
Every church and chapel, every school and college, every book
that teaches, every moral lesson, every chaperon and tutor, is an
acknowledgment of the power of environment to wreck or save our young.
In practice we all fear or prize the influences of environment--upon
ourselves, and upon those we love.
It is when we have to deal with the "Bottom Dog" that we ignore the
facts which plead so strongly in his defence.