,,the ,,curse ,,of ,,education          
,publisher's ,announcement  ,a ,,notable
 ,,book   ,,drifting   ,crown #hvo41    
cloth1 #bs4 #f;d4  ,,third ,,edition    
',an able and suggestive book4'--,the   
,spectator4  ',it is a sane1 healthy    
indication of the weak spots in the     
country's armour1 and a practical       
attempt to indicate remedies4'--,the    
,sunday ,special4  ',the author's       
contempt for the time-serving           
politician1 who in this country has1    
unfortunately1 come to count for so much
 in all governments--,tory or           
,liberal--will be shared by the thinking
 portion of his fellow                  
countrymen4'--,the ,financial ,news4    
',by such suggestions the author of     
,drifting does good service to the      
country4'--,the ,outlook4  ,,london3    
,,grant ,,richards #i1 ,henrietta       
,street1 ,w4,c4     ,the ,curse of      
,education  ,,by ,,harold ,e4 ,,gorst   
,london ,grant ,richards #aija          
,,prefatory ,,note   ,in calling this   

little book ',the ,curse of ,education1'
 ,i trust that ,i shall not be          
misunderstood to disparage culture4 ,the
 term 'education' is used1 for want of a
 better word1 to express the            
conventional mode of teaching and       
bringing up children1 and of educating  
youth in this and other civilized       
countries4 ,it is with education        
systems1 with the universal method of   
cramming the mind with facts1 and       
particularly with the manufacture of    
uniformity and mediocrity by subjecting 
every individual to a common process1   
regardless of his natural bent1 that ,i 
have chiefly to find fault4 ,at a moment
 when the country is agitated with      
questions of educational reform1 ,i     
thought it might be useful to draw      
attention to what ,i believe to be a    
fact1 namely1 that the foundations of   
all existing education systems are      
absolutely false in principle2 and that 
teaching itself1 as opposed to natural  
development and self-culture1 is the    

greatest obstacle to human progress that
 social evolution has ever had to       
encounter4  ,,harold ,e4 ,,gorst4       
,,london1   ,april1 #aija4              
,,contents   ,,chapter                  
,,page     ,i4 ,,flourishing            
,,mediocrity                            
#a    ,,ii4 ,,square ,,pegs ,,in ,,round
 ,,holes                                
#h   ,,iii4 ,,the ,,destruction ,,of    
,,genius                                
#ah    ,,iv4 ,,human ,,factories        
#bf     ,v4 ,,the ,,greatest ,,misery   
,,of ,,the ,,greatest ,,number          
#ce    ,,vi4 ,,the ,,output ,,of ,,prigs
                                        
#dd   ,,vii4 ,,boy ,,degeneration       
#ec  ,,viii4 ,,the ,,struggle ,,of ,,the
 ,,educated                             
#fb    ,,ix4 ,,woman',s ,,empire ,,over 
,,man                                   
#fh     ,x4 ,,youth ,,and ,,crime       
#gg    ,,xi4 ,,mental ,,breakdown       
#hf   ,,xii4 ,,evidence ,,of ,,history  
#ib  ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,apotheosis ,,of    

,,cram                                  
#aji   ,,xiv4 ,,the ,,great ,,fallacy   
#aah    ,,xv4 ,,real ,,education        
#abf   ,,xvi4 ,,the ,,open ,,door ,,to  
,,intelligence                          
#ace     ,,the ,,curse ,,of ,,education 
,,chapter ,i  ,,flourishing ,,mediocrity
   ,humanity is rapidly becoming less   
the outcome of a natural process of     
development1 and more and more the      
product of an organized educational     
plan4 ,the average educated man         
possesses no real individuality4 ,he is 
simply a manufactured article bearing   
the stamp of the maker4  ,year by year  
this fact is becoming more emphasized4  
,during the past century almost every   
civilized country applied itself        
feverishly to the invention of a        
national plan of education1 with the    
result that the majority of mankind are 
compelled to swallow a uniform          
prescription of knowledge made up for   
them by the ,state4 ,now there is a     
great outcry that ,england is being left

 behind in this educational race4 ,other
 nations have got more exact systems4   
,where the ,british child is only       
stuffed with six pounds of facts1 the   
,german and ,french schools contrive to 
cram seven pounds into their pupils4    
,consequently1 ,germany and ,france are 
getting ahead of us1 and unless we wish 
to be beaten in the international race1 
it is asserted that we must bring our   
own educational system up to the        
,continental standard4  ,before going   
more deeply into this vital question1 it
 is just as well to consider what these 
education systems have really done for  
mankind4 ,there is a proverb1 as        
excellent as it is ancient1 which says  
that the proof of the pudding is in the 
eating4 ,no doubt learned theoretical   
treatises upon the scope and aim of     
educational methods are capital things  
in their way1 but they tell us nothing  
of the effects of this systematic       
teaching and cramming upon the world at 
large4 ,if we wish to ascertain them1 we

 must turn to life itself1 and judge by 
results4  ,to begin with1 the dearth of 
great men is so remarkable that it      
scarcely needs comment4 ,people are     
constantly expressing the fear that the 
age of intellectual giants has passed   
away altogether4 ,this is particularly  
obvious in political life4 ,since the   
days of ,gladstone and ,disraeli1       
,parliamentary debate has sunk to the   
most hopeless level of mediocrity4 ,the 
traditions of men such as ,pitt1 ,fox1  
,palmerston1 ,peel1 and others1 sound at
 the present day almost like ancient    
mythology4 ,yet the supposed benefits of
 education are not only now free to all1
 but have been compulsorily conferred   
upon most nations4 ,nevertheless1 even  
,prussian pedagogues have never         
succeeded in producing another          
,bismarck2 and ,france has ground away  
at her educational mill for generations 
with the result that the supply of      
,napoleons has distinctly diminished4   
,look at the methods by which our public

 service is recruited4  ,who are the men
 to whom the administration of all      
important departments of ,government is 
entrusted1 and how are they selected8   
,they are simply individuals who have   
succeeded in obtaining most marks in    
public competitive examinations--that is
 to say1 men whose brains have been more
 effectually stuffed with facts and     
mechanical knowledge than were the      
brains of their unsuccessful            
competitors4  ,there is no question1    
when a candidate presents himself for a 
post in the ,diplomatic ,service or in  
one of the ,government offices1 whether 
he possesses tact1 or administrative    
ability1 or knowledge of the world4 ,all
 that is demanded of him is that his    
mind should be crammed with so many     
pounds avoirdupois of ,latin1 ,greek1   
mathematics1 history1 geography1 etc41  
acquired in such a way that he will     
forget1 within a couple of years1 every 
fact that has been pestled into him4    
,for every vacancy in the various       

departments of the ,administration there
 are dozens1 or even scores1 of         
applicants2 and the candidate selected  
for the post is the one whose mind has  
been most successfully subjected to this
 process of over-cramming1 and          
consequently most effectually ruined for
 all the practical purposes of life4    
,now1 to whatever cause it may be       
ascribed1 there can be no doubt that the
 general level throughout the various   
branches of the public service is one of
 mediocrity4 ,we are not surrounded1    
faithful and devoted as our public      
servants are universally admitted to be1
 by administrative geniuses4 ,facts     
point altogether the other way4 ,great  
national catastrophes1 like the blunders
 and miscalculations that have          
characterized the conduct of the war in 
,south ,africa1 have always resulted in 
making the most uncomfortable           
revelations concerning the inefficiency 
of more than one important department of
 ,government4  ,the ,war ,office has    

long since become a public scandal1 and 
if the truth were known about the inner 
domesticity of more than one great      
,administrative office1 the             
susceptibilities of the nation would be 
still further shocked and outraged4     
,fortunately1 however--or it may be     
unfortunately--,government linen is     
usually washed at home2 and it is only  
in times of great emergency that the    
truth leaks out1 to the general         
consternation4  ,when this does happen  
there is a great outcry about the       
inefficiency of this or that branch of  
the public service4 ,the ,government in 
power wait to see if the agitation dies 
a natural death2 and if it is           
successfully kept up1 a sort of pretence
 at reform takes place4 ,there is a     
re-shuffle4 ,fresh names are given to   
old abuses2 incompetent officials       
exchange posts2 and a new building is   
erected at the public expense4 ,then all
 goes on as heretofore4  ,nobody seems  
to think of making an inquiry into the  

constitution of the public service      
itself4 ,but until this is done no real 
reform of any permanent value can       
possibly be effected4 ,it is not the    
nomenclature of appointments1 the       
subdivision of departmental work1 and   
such matters of detail1 that stand in   
need of the reformer4 ,the titles and   
duties of the several officials are of  
secondary importance4 ,it is not in them
 that the evils of bad administration   
are to be located4  ,the fault lies with
 the officials themselves1 who are the  
victims of the stupid system which has  
placed them in the position they occupy4
 ,the education they have received has1 
in the first case1 unfitted them for the
 performance of any but mechanical and  
routine work2 and the strain of a       
competitive examination1 involving the  
most unintellectual and brain-paralyzing
 process of cram1 has probably destroyed
 the faculty of initiative1 which should
 be1 but is not1 a distinguishing       
characteristic of the administrative    

official4  ,herein lies the secret of   
all opposition to progress4 ,it is the  
permanent official who needs reforming4 
,he is the embodiment of routine and    
conservatism1 because he is the         
embodiment of mediocrity4 ,progress     
means ideas1 and mediocrity does not    
deal in them4 ,it has been furnished1   
instead1 by a systematic course of      
instruction1 with a sufficient equipment
 of the ideas of other people to last   
its lifetime4 ,whilst we fill our public
 service with specially prepared        
mediocrity1 the administrative          
departments will remain reactionary4    
,and as long as education is synonymous 
with cramming on an organized plan1 it  
will continue to produce mediocrity4    
,the army affords at the present moment 
an admirable object-lesson in this      
connection4 ,the results of cramming    
young men as a preparation for a        
profession which demands1 more than any 
other1 individual initiative and        
independence1 have become painfully     

apparent upon the field of battle4 ,one 
of our foremost generals has come home  
from the campaign declaring the         
necessity of both officers and men being
 trained to think and act for           
themselves4 ,that is one1 perhaps the   
chief1 of the great lessons which this  
war has taught us4 ,but here1 again1 no 
useful reform can be achieved by        
alterations in the drill-book1 through  
lectures by experienced generals1 or by 
the issue of army orders4 ,it is our    
entire system of education which is     
again at fault4  ,boys are stuffed with 
facts before they go to ,sandhurst1 and 
when they get there they are crammed in 
special subjects4 ,the whole object of  
the process is to enable candidates to  
pass examinations1 and not to produce   
good officers4 ,the effect here is the  
same as elsewhere4 ,a quantity of       
useless and some useful knowledge is    
drilled into the pupil in such a manner 
that the mind retains nothing that has  
been put into it4 ,and1 to make matters 

worse1 all this is done at the expense  
of retarding the proper development of  
faculties which would be of incalculable
 value to the soldier4  ,most of the    
blunders of the war are1 in fact1       
attributable to want of common sense1   
and common sense consists in the        
capacity of an individual to think for  
himself and to exercise his judgment4   
,educational methods which1 in the      
majority of cases1 appear to destroy    
this faculty altogether are clearly     
pernicious4 ,common sense is the most   
valuable gift with which man can be     
endowed4 ,it is the very essence of     
genius1 for it consists in the          
application of intelligence to every    
detail1 and the highest order of        
intellect can accomplish no more than   
that4 ,yet it is the rarest of all      
attributes1 for the very reason that it 
is deliberately destroyed by            
conventional methods of bringing up     
children and instructing youth4         
,therefore1 before we can hope to obtain

 a supply of self-reliant officers and  
men1 we must see some radical change in 
the very principles upon which modern   
methods of education are founded4       
,wherever we go we find this curse of   
mediocrity4 ,in the professions1 at the 
,bar1 in the pulpit1 amongst physicians1
 it is apparent everywhere4 ,there are  
clever men1 of course2 but the very fact
 that their names spring at once        
prominently to mind is in itself a proof
 that ability is exceptional4  ,some    
people1 of course1 accepting the world  
as they find it1 may think it very      
unreasonable to expect able men to be   
plentiful in all walks of life4 ,that   
is1 to my mind1 the chief pathos of the 
situation4 ,it has come to be accepted  
that the world must be filled with a    
great majority of very commonplace      
people1 even amongst the educated       
classes4  ,no doubt it is filled at the 
present moment with a very vast         
preponderance of conventional minds     
manufactured to meet the supposed       

requirements of our complicated         
civilization4 ,but ,i deny that this    
need be the case4 ,on the contrary1 we  
are surrounded on all sides by ability1 
by great possibilities of individual    
development1 even by genius4  ,and our  
education systems are busily engaged in 
the work of destroying this precious    
material1 substituting facts for ideas1 
forcing the mind away from its natural  
bent1 and manufacturing a machine       
instead of a man4     ,,chapter ,,ii    
,,square ,,pegs ,,in ,,round ,,holes    
,perhaps the worst evil from which the  
world suffers in an educational sense is
 the misplaced individual4 ,nothing is  
more tragic1 and yet nothing is more    
common1 than to see men occupying       
positions for which they are unfitted by
 nature and therefore by inclination2   
whilst it is obvious that1 had the      
circumstances of their early training   
been different1 they might have followed
 with success and pleasure a natural    
bent of mind tending in a wholly        

opposite direction4  ,this miscarriage  
of vocation is one of the greatest      
causes of individual misery in this     
world that exists2 but its pernicious   
effects go far beyond mere personal     
unhappiness3 they exercise the most     
baneful influence upon society at large1
 upon the progress of nations1 and upon 
the development of the human race4 ,one 
of the advantages of the division of    
labour which is most emphasized by      
political economists is that it offers a
 fair field for personal adaptation4    
,people select the particular employment
 for which they are most fitted1 and in 
this way everybody in the community is  
engaged in doing the best and most      
useful work of which he is capable4  ,it
 is a fine theory4 ,perhaps in olden    
times1 before the introduction of       
education systems1 it may have worked   
well in regard to most trades and       
industries4 ,a man had then at least    
some opportunity of developing a natural
 bent4 ,he was not taken by the ,state  

almost from infancy1 crammed with       
useless knowledge1 and totally unfitted 
for any employment within his reach4    
,the object was not to educate him above
 his station and then make a clerk of   
him1 or drive him into the lower        
branches of the ,civil ,service4 ,a     
bright youth was apprenticed by his     
father to some trade for which he may   
have shown some predisposition4  ,of    
course1 mistakes were often made through
 the stupidity of parents or from some  
other cause4 ,there are many such       
examples to be met with in the          
biographies of men who attained eminence
 in wholly different callings from those
 into which they were forced in their   
youth4  ,sir ,william ,herschel1 who    
discovered ,uranus1 and who first       
conceived the generally-accepted theory 
as to the cause of sun-spots1 was       
brought up by his father to be a        
musician4 ,in spite of his predilection 
for astronomy1 he continued to earn his 
bread by playing the oboe1 until he was 

promoted from being a performer in the  
,pump ,room at ,bath to the position of 
,astronomer ,royal4  ,faraday was       
apprenticed by his father to a          
bookbinder1 and he remained in this     
distasteful employment until he was     
twenty-two4 ,it was quite by accident   
that somebody more intelligent than     
,michael ,faraday's pastors and masters 
discovered that the youth had a great   
natural love of studying science1 and   
sent him to hear a course of lectures   
delivered by ,sir ,humphry ,davy4 ,this 
led happily to the young bookbinder     
making the acquaintance of the lecturer1
 and eventually obtaining a position as 
assistant in the ,royal ,institution4   
,linnus1 the great naturalist1 had a    
very narrow escape from missing his     
proper vocation4 ,he was sent to a      
grammar-school1 but exhibited no taste  
for books2 therefore his father decided 
to apprentice him to a shoemaker4       
,fortunately1 however1 a discriminating 
physician had observed the boy's love of

 natural history1 and took him into his 
own house to teach him botany and       
physiology4  ,instances of the kind     
might be multiplied4 ,milton himself    
began life as a schoolmaster1 and the   
father of ,turner1 one of the greatest  
landscape painters who ever lived1 did  
his best to turn his brilliant son into 
a barber4 ,the point1 however1 is       
obvious enough without the need of      
further illustration4 ,a few examples   
have been adduced of great geniuses who 
have contrived1 by the accident of      
circumstances or through sheer force of 
character1 to escape from an environment
 which was forced upon them against     
their natural inclination4 ,but it is   
not everybody who is gifted with such   
commanding talent and so much obstinacy 
and perseverance as to be able to       
overcome the artificial obstacles placed
 in the way of his individual           
tendencies2 and now we have1 what       
happily did not exist in the day of     
,herschel1 ,faraday1 ,turner1 ,linnus   

and others--a compulsory education      
system to strangle originality and      
natural development at the earliest     
possible stage4  ,most people would     
probably find it far easier to quote    
instances offhand of friends who had    
missed their proper vocation in life    
than of those who were placed exactly in
 the position best suited to their taste
 and capacity4 ,the failures in life are
 so obviously in excess of those who may
 be said to have succeeded that specific
 illustrations of the fact are hardly   
necessary4  ,one has only to exert      
ordinary powers of observation to       
perceive that the world is not at all   
well ordered in this respect4 ,it has   
already been pointed out that the public
 service and the professions are almost 
entirely filled with what must be called
 mediocrity2 and one of the most potent 
causes of this unhappy state of affairs 
is the exquisite infallibility with     
which a blind system is constantly      
forcing square pegs into round holes4   

,every profession and calling teems with
 examples4 ,there are men1 intended by  
nature to be artists and musicians1     
leading a wretched and unnatural        
existence in many a merchant's office   
because their best faculties were       
undeveloped during the early years of   
schooling4 ,mathematicians1             
philosophers1 even poets1 are tied to   
trade or to some equally unsuitable     
occupation4 ,scores of so-called        
literary men ought to be calculating    
percentages or selling dry goods2 and no
 doubt there are shop-assistants and    
stock-jobbers who might1 if led into the
 path of culture1 have become creditable
 authors and journalists4  ,this is     
neither joke nor satire4 ,it is sober   
earnest1 as many observant readers will 
readily testify4 ,the loss is not only  
to the individual1 it is to society at  
large1 and to the whole world4 ,no one  
will deny the fact2 but to how many will
 it occur that such anomalies cannot be 
the outcome of natural development and  

progress1 but that they must be directly
 or indirectly attributable to some     
artificial cause8  ,it is the great     
difficulty against which all human      
advancement has to contend1 that people 
can rarely be brought to question       
principles which have become a part and 
parcel of their everyday existence4     
,there are plenty of individuals who are
 ready to tinker with existing          
institutions1 and who erroneously       
dignify that process by the name of     
reform4 ,but nothing is more despairing 
than the effort to convince             
conventionally brought up people that   
some cherished convention1 with which   
the world has put up for an indefinite  
period1 is founded upon fallacy1 and    
ought to be cast out root and branch4   
,even in the ,united ,states1 where far 
greater efforts are made to encourage   
individuality in the schools and        
colleges than is the case with the      
countries of the ,old ,world1 people are
 not much better distributed amongst the

 various professions and occupations    
than they are here4 ,i have made        
inquiries amongst ,americans of wide    
experience and observation1 and have    
learnt that nothing is more common in   
the ,states than to find individuals    
brought up to exercise functions for    
which they are wholly unfitted by       
natural capacity and inclination4  ,an  
instance was given me1 by an ,american  
friend1 of a boy who spent all his      
leisure in constructing clever little   
mechanical contrivances1 in running     
miniature locomotives1 and in setting up
 electric appliances of one kind and    
another4 ,one day the youth's father    
came to him and said3 ',i don't know    
what to make of ,b----4 ,could you find 
him a place in a wholesale merchant's   
office8' ,when it was pointed out to the
 parent that his son showed unmistakable
 mechanical genius1 he obstinately      
insisted on getting the boy a situation 
for which he was quite unsuited1 and    
which was highly distasteful to him4  ,i

 quote this instance to show that the   
parent is often as bad an educator as   
the school itself4 ,in this case the    
school would have taken as little notice
 of the boy's natural bent as his       
father4 ,it would1 in all probability1  
never have discovered it at all4 ,but it
 has become so much an accepted axiom   
that children are to be manufactured    
into anything that happens to suit the  
taste or convenience of their guardians1
 that it probably never occurred to the 
parent in question that he was          
committing a cruel and foolish act in   
forcing his son out of the path into    
which the boy's natural instinct was    
guiding him4 ,the youth who might have  
pursued a happy and prosperous career as
 a mechanical engineer is now a         
disappointed man1 struggling on1 with   
little hope of success1 in an occupation
 which does not interest him1 and for   
which he does not possess the slightest 
adaptability4  ,every nation is equally 
at fault in this respect4 ,in ,germany1 

for instance1 the child is quite as much
 a pawn at the disposal of its parent   
and the school system as it is          
elsewhere4 ,i spent a number of years in
 the country1 and enjoyed an intimate   
acquaintance with many ,german families4
 ,nothing has left upon my mind a deeper
 impression than the tragedy ,i         
witnessed of a boy being gradually and  
systematically weaned from the pursuit  
to which he was passionately devoted1   
and forced into a career utterly        
unsympathetic and distasteful to his    
peculiar temperament4  ,the boy was     
simply1 from head to foot1 a musician4  
,he spent every moment he could steal   
from his school studies in playing      
through the difficult scores of         
,wagner's music dramas4 ,his taste1 his 
musical memory1 the enormous natural    
ability which enabled him to surmount   
all technical difficulties with ease1   
were apparent to everybody who knew him4
 ,yet his parents determined from the   
first that he should study law1 and     

enter the legal profession4  ,i have    
never seen anything more painful than   
the deliberate discouragement1 during a 
period extending over several years1 of 
the boy's natural bent1 and the         
application of absolute compulsion to   
force him1 against every natural        
instinct1 to prepare himself for a      
profession repugnant to his             
inclinations1 and for which he was not  
in the smallest degree adapted4  ,out of
 this promising musical material the    
,stadt ,gymnasium manufactured the usual
 piece of intellectual mediocrity4 ,he  
was stuffed with the regulation measure 
of facts1 scraped through the customary 
examination1 and was despatched1 much   
against his will1 to the universities of
 ,jena and ,zrich4 ,when ,i last saw him
 he was a plodding lawyer of the        
conventional type1 doing his duties in a
 listless manner1 with very indifferent 
success1 and quite broken down in       
spirit4 ,the ,gymnasium1 the university1
 and the parental obstinacy had done    

their work very effectually4 ,they had  
succeeded in reducing him to the level  
of a machine1 and in all probability    
,germany lost an excellent musician who 
might have given pleasure to thousands  
of others1 besides enjoying an          
honourable career of useful and         
congenial work4  ,we have seen that     
between the stupidity of the parent and 
the inflexibility of the school system  
children have little chance of          
developing their natural propensities4  
,the results surround us everywhere1 and
 there is no getting away from them4    
,all that the school professes to do is 
to stuff the pupil with a certain       
quantity of facts according to a fixed  
curriculum4 ,it does not pretend to     
exercise any other function4 ,there is  
no effort to differentiate between      
individuals1 or to discover the natural 
bent of each particular child4          
,instruction consists in cramming and   
prescribing by a more or less pernicious
 method--according to the lights of the 

particular school authorities in some   
cases1 and in others according to a hard
 and fast code enforced by the ,state--a
 certain quantity of facts into all     
pupils without distinction4  ,parents1  
on the other hand1 think they have      
fulfilled their duty simply by sending  
their children to school4 ,the only     
thing considered necessary to equip a   
child for the battle of life is to get  
him an education1 and nobody bothers his
 head about the principles or the       
effects of the process4 ,the parent     
leaves everything to the school1        
regardless of the fact that schools do  
not pretend to concern themselves about 
the natural tendencies of their pupils4 
,he is satisfied if his son is receiving
 the same education as his neighbour's1 
and is quite contented to leave the     
question of his future career to be an  
after-consideration4  ,the result upon  
the world in general of this double     
neglect on the part of parents and      
school systems is disastrous in the     

extreme4 ,in the first place1 it makes  
the life of the misplaced individual a  
burden to himself and to those by whom  
he is surrounded4 ,natural tendencies   
cannot be wholly suppressed1 even by    
education systems2 and the victim's     
existence is not rendered more bearable 
by the reflection that1 but for         
circumstances which he is rarely able to
 analyze1 he might have succeeded in    
some other and more agreeable occupation
 had he only received the necessary     
encouragement in his youth4  ,secondly1 
there is the fact that the progress of  
civilization is enormously retarded by  
its being rarely in the hands of the    
most fit4 ,the most fit are not1 and    
cannot be1 produced under prevailing    
conditions4 ,the whole machinery of     
education is directed towards the       
production of a dead level of           
mediocrity4 ,in many cases--such as1 for
 example1 in ,prussia--this is done by  
design1 and not by accident4            
,instruction is imparted in such a      

manner that no regard is paid to        
individual propensities4 ,all are       
subjected1 more or less1 to the same    
process4 ,they are fitted for nothing in
 particular1 and no trouble is taken to 
ascertain the direction in which an     
individual mind should be developed4    
,the consequence is that1 from one end  
of the civilized world to the other1    
resounds the cry1 ',what shall we do    
with our boys8'  ,and1 lastly1 it       
scarcely requires pointing out that the 
enormous sums of money spent by         
,governments1 by municipalities1 and by 
private persons upon education1 in order
 to produce this lamentable state of    
affairs1 is so much waste and           
extravagance4 ,not only does it bring in
 no practical return1 but it works out  
in a precisely opposite direction4      
,schools and colleges that only serve to
 produce anomalous and unnatural social 
conditions1 that stifle genius and      
talent1 and that cause widespread misery
 among the unsuitably educated1 must be 

reckoned as a national loss4  ,people   
deplore the heavy sums spent on         
armaments and on the maintenance of     
enormous fleets and armies2 but it may  
be doubted if this expenditure is as    
costly in the end as that which goes to 
support a systematic manufacture of the 
unfit1 and to assist in the distribution
 of individuals to stations in the      
social scheme for which they are wholly 
unsuited4     ,,chapter ,,iii  ,,the    
,,destruction ,,of ,,genius   ,most     
people labour under the delusion that   
genius only makes its appearance twice  
or thrice during a generation4 ,it is   
certainly the fact that a ,napoleon1 a  
,shakespeare1 or a ,beethoven1 is only  
born once in a century2 and colossal    
intellects such as these are rightly    
regarded as unnatural phenomena4 ,but   
genius of a less high order is far more 
common than is generally supposed4      
,people are simply blind to it4         
,although it surrounds them on all      
sides1 they fail to recognise it4 ,and  

nearly everybody is busily engaged in   
helping to destroy it1 with a perversity
 that is as unconscious as it is        
criminal4  ,those who have had the      
opportunity of observing the mental     
development of an intelligent child that
 has not been subjected to the ordinary 
processes of teaching1 must have been   
struck with the originality of its mind4
 ,if children are left to themselves1   
they will breed ideas at an astonishing 
rate4 ,give an imaginative child of five
 or six some simple object1 such as a   
button or a piece of tape1 and it will  
weave round it a web of romance that    
would put many a poet or author to      
shame4  ,naturally brought up children  
will chatter fascinating nonsense to the
 very motes that float in a sunbeam2    
they will spin an ,odyssey out of the   
most trivial incident that has chanced  
to impress them4 ,every commonplace     
object will be invested by them with    
mysterious and fantastic attributes4    
,when left to observe facts for         

themselves1 they will develop powers of 
reasoning and logic which no amount of  
cramming and caning would ever succeed  
in driving into them4  ,there are       
probably few parents who have not been  
startled1 at some period or another1 by 
hearing from the lips of a child an     
original reflection that exhibited an   
unexpected degree of mental development4
 ,did it ever occur to them that some   
intellectual process must have been     
going on in the child's mind to produce 
such powers of observation or thought8  
,there is a fallacious notion1 founded  
upon pure want of observation1 that     
human beings are unable to form ideas or
 to think for themselves until they have
 been put through an elaborate course of
 mental gymnastics4 ,a great deal of the
 process misnamed education is directed 
towards this end1 with the result that  
in nine cases out of ten the brain is   
simply paralyzed and rendered incapable 
of performing its proper functions4     
,the fact is1 that people1 whether young

 or old1 cannot be forced to think4 ,it 
is a habit that must come of its own    
accord1 and that can only be stimulated 
by the most delicately-applied          
influences4 ,observant and reflective   
parents1 who have not chosen to leave   
the entire development and upbringing of
 their children in the hands of nurses1 
will have noticed that there is a       
natural tendency on the part of a child1
 if not interfered with1 to think and to
 expand its faculty of imagination4     
,this tendency is not shared to an equal
 extent by all children2 there are1 of  
course1 dissimilarities caused by       
varying degrees of intelligence4 ,but it
 is there1 in however rudimentary and   
undeveloped a stage2 and the more       
backward it appears to be1 the more care
 should be taken not to destroy it or to
 check its natural growth4  ,now1 the   
whole machinery of education is brought 
to bear1 from the moment the child is of
 an age to receive any instruction1 to  
strangle the development of the thinking

 and imaginative faculties4 ,that       
process will be described presently4    
,what ,i wish to point out first is     
that1 long before the school or the     
governess commences this operation1 the 
parents of the child1 or those to whom  
they have delegated the duty of taking  
charge of it during the tenderest and   
most momentous years of its existence1  
are generally engaged in doing          
everything they can to bring about the  
same pernicious result4  ,of course the 
evil is committed in sheer ignorance4   
,but it has been bred for so many       
generations that individual judgment and
 common sense must every day be becoming
 more rare4 ,therefore the evil spreads1
 and people blame the introduction of   
railways and other mechanical           
improvements for the diminishing supply 
of artistic and creative genius1 whilst 
they are in reality themselves busily   
employed in stifling its development4   
,there are two ways in which this       
unhappy result is brought about4 ,in the

 first place1 there is the invariable   
custom of giving young children toys    
which1 far from stimulating the         
imagination1 only serve to impress upon 
their minds the commonplace facts of    
everyday life4 ,it is really1 only in a 
different form1 a part of the process by
 which1 later on1 the education system  
drives out ideas and crams in facts4    
,to take a concrete instance1 a doll is 
the plaything usually given to little   
girls4 ,at first sight nothing can      
appear more charming or instructive than
 the gift to a little girl1 who will one
 day be a wife and a mother1 of the     
miniature representation of a baby4     
,there will be a bath provided1 in which
 she may learn to wash it4 ,everything  
will be complete--soap1 sponge1 loofah1 
puff-box1 and powder4 ,the present will 
be accompanied by a layette1 so that the
 child may learn to dress her infant and
 to change its clothes4 ,hair-brushes   
will teach her to keep the doll's hair  
neat2 and probably a dozen other toilet 

requisites1 of which the masculine mind 
has no notion or is expected to affect  
ignorance1 will be found ready at hand  
to inculcate the lesson of nursery      
routine4  ,in this ingenious way the    
materialistic side of life is           
deliberately forced upon the attention  
of the child4 ,everything is providently
 supplied that would be calculated to   
occupy her attention with commonplace   
facts instead of with fancies4 ,the     
child is not encouraged to make a living
 creature of this inanimate dummy1 to   
tell it stories1 or to exercise her     
imagination in some other way4 ,she is  
provided with a round of prosaic and    
extremely material duties1 and her mind 
is carefully kept within these bounds by
 details of soap and feeding-bottles1   
which do not offer scope for any flight 
of imagination4  ,it would be far better
 to place a bundle of rags in the arms  
of a little girl1 and to tell her to    
imagine it to be a baby4 ,she would1 if 
left to herself1 with no other resource 

than her own invention1 soon learn to   
exercise her dormant powers of          
imagination and originality4  ,with the 
same lack of forethought boys are       
surrounded from earliest infancy with   
objects designed to keep their minds    
within the narrow limits of fact4 ,their
 playthings are ships1 fire-engines1    
miniature railways1 water-pumps1 and    
such-like4 ,the imagination is allowed  
as little play as possible4 ,interest is
 carefully concentrated upon the        
mechanical details of spars1 sails1     
rigging1 watertight compartments1       
wheels1 rods1 cranks1 levers1 and the   
thousand-and-one items which go to make 
up a mechanical contrivance4 ,great care
 is taken in constructing toy models to 
reproduce at least the chief points of  
the original1 in order to give them a   
supposititious educational value4 ,the  
parents then fondly imagine that1 in    
stocking the nursery with these         
abominations1 they are largely assisting
 in the development of the boy's mind4  

,to people who do not understand        
children it is difficult to convey any  
adequate idea of the fatal result       
produced upon the dawning intellect by  
this introduction of materialism into   
the nursery4 ,the imaginative will at   
once say that the contention is too far 
fetched4 ,certainly the pernicious      
effects of such toys as have been       
described are not easily discernible2   
therein lies the insidiousness of this  
retarding process4 ,but to those who    
have watched1 as ,i have done1 the      
natural development of an intelligent   
child's powers of reflection and        
imagination--unchecked by dolls or toy  
locomotives--there will be neither      
absurdity nor exaggeration in what ,i   
have written4  ,toys in themselves are  
harmless and unobjectionable things1    
though every observant person who has   
had much to do with young children will 
readily concede how superfluous they are
 as a means of amusement4 ,the average  
child will treasure up a button or a    

shell long after it has destroyed1 or   
maybe forgotten the existence of1 the   
most elaborate and expensive toy4 ,that 
is a commonplace of the nursery4 ,but it
 does not seem to convey either meaning 
or moral to the majority of parents4    
,the second way in which the thinking   
and imaginative faculties are impeded in
 their development is by the            
discouragement of1 or by the injudicious
 answers given to1 the questions asked  
by children4 ,at a certain age the      
latter become inquisitive about         
everything in the universe4 ,they ply   
their elders with perpetual questioning2
 and it must be acknowledged that many  
of their interrogations are highly      
inconvenient and unanswerable4  ,it is  
very difficult for the average person to
 reply offhand to elementary questions  
such as1 ,why does the sun shine8 ,what 
makes the wind blow8 ,how does a seed   
grow into a tree8 and so forth4 ,few    
people have the patience to answer the  
numerous inquiries of an intelligent    

child2 and sooner than expose their     
ignorance1 parents will generally quench
 this thirst for knowledge at the outset
 by a flat prohibition4 ,the selfish    
desire for peace prompts them to refuse 
the solicited information altogether1   
or1 worse still1 to return answers      
calculated to kill imaginative ideas or 
to impress the child's mind with a bare 
and prosaic materialism4  ,they do not  
stop to think of the immense harm that  
may be done to the child by throwing    
cold water upon its first attempts at   
research4 ,children1 it must be         
remembered1 do not possess the          
perseverance and determination which    
often come to the rescue of original    
genius at a later period4 ,however      
active their minds may be1 they are also
 timid1 and shrink back quickly under   
the influence of unsympathetic          
treatment4  ,the fact should be patent  
to everybody that children strive       
constantly to use the brains with which 
,nature has endowed them4 ,being        

naturally imaginative and original1     
these faculties only need ordinary      
encouragement to develop and flourish4  
,yet the entire method of bringing up   
children1 from the cradle to the school 
bench1 is directed towards stifling all 
originality and substituting for it a   
stock of commonplace ideas and          
conventional knowledge4  ,the process is
 begun at home4 ,it takes its root in   
conventionality1 the curse of all       
individuality and progress4 ,parents1   
brought up to be the slaves of custom1  
carry on the imbecile traditions that   
have been handed down to them from      
former generations1 without stopping to 
consider whether they are rational or   
foolish4 ,it is good enough for the     
majority of people that the imbecile    
things they do were done by their       
forefathers before them2 and no         
tradition is more rigidly followed than 
that which prescribes the manner of     
bringing up children4  ,it would have   
been thought that those who had         

themselves suffered from the effects of 
bad methods would be careful not to     
repeat the mistakes with their own      
children4 ,but that is the worst aspect 
of the evil4 ,its chief operation       
consists in hedging round the           
intelligence with conventionalities to  
such an extent as to exclude vigorous   
and independent thought4 ,the most      
intelligent people often find the utmost
 difficulty in attempting to shake off  
the prejudices inculcated during the    
early years of life4  ,many1 before     
accomplishing this end1 have had to pass
 through a long period of suffering and 
adversity4 ,but the average mind is     
generally a hopeless case4 ,there must  
be strong inward impulses1 or the       
necessary measure of initiative and     
courage will not be forthcoming4        
,everybody who chooses to think for     
himself knows that it is an operation   
which does not usually entail pleasant  
consequences4  ,so much for the part    
played by the parent4 ,the school system

 stands on a different plane altogether1
 and must be considered by itself4 ,for 
parents there is1 as has been pointed   
out1 a certain amount of excuse4 ,for   
the school system there is none4        
,,chapter ,,iv  ,,human ,,factories     
,distinction must be made1 of course1 in
 discussing the effects of teaching     
methods upon children1 between the      
various kinds of schools1 and between   
public instruction and private tuition4 
,it would not be fair to lump them all  
together1 for the evils they produce are
 by no means distributed by them in     
equal proportion4 ,one must             
differentiate4 ,fundamentally1 all      
education is proceeding on a false      
principle4 ,in this respect it is       
necessary to blame education systems1   
institutions1 school teachers1 tutors1  
governesses1 and parents alike2 for all 
are engaged in keeping up an educational
 delusion that is working great harm to 
the world in general4  ,but when we come
 to consider the amount of evil produced

 by each of these factors1 it will be   
seen at once that there is a good deal  
to choose between them4 ,the private    
tutor1 under present methods of         
teaching1 is in a far better position to
 encourage the individual development of
 a child than is the schoolmaster who   
has the care of a class4 ,children can  
contend1 to a certain extent1 against   
the tyranny of the tutor2 they can force
 their own wishes upon his attention    
should they possess the necessary       
strength of character4 ,but the         
strongest must succumb to the school    
system4 ,here there is no latitude to   
particular pupils1 no concession made to
 idiosyncrasies of mind or character4   
,the system must not be relaxed1 and in 
consequence everybody has to be         
subjected to precisely the same course  
of study4  ,children begin to receive   
instruction at a very early age4 ,the   
usual plan is to take a child the moment
 it is able to string enough words      
together to form ideas1 and to subject  

it to a methodical process of teaching4 
,the custom of beginning what is called 
a child's education at a tender age is  
verified by the fact that the ,state now
 compels1 or rather pretends to compel1 
parents to send their children to school
 at the age of five1 whilst large       
numbers of the children of the poor are 
voluntarily sent to school at three     
years of age1 or even younger4 ,it will 
be observed1 therefore1 that the ,state1
 as far as the masses of the people are 
concerned1 takes the child in hand at   
the most impressionable period of its   
existence4  ,the instruction of infants 
is not a very difficult task1 if all    
that is aimed at is to teach them       
certain elementary subjects4 ,at five   
years of age children will generally    
learn with avidity4 ,their minds are    
just sufficiently formed to be          
receptive1 and as all knowledge is a    
blank to them they are ready to learn   
anything1 within the limits of their    
comprehension1 that the teacher may     

choose to put before them4 ,this would  
place upon the latter a very heavy      
responsibility if the matter were left  
entirely to his discretion4 ,but this is
 by no means the case2 the course of    
instruction is fixed beforehand by the  
school managers4 ,it may differ slightly
 in schools of varying types2 but in the
 main it is identical in all the        
essentials4  ,to what extent this       
variation may occur is1 however1        
entirely beside the point4 ,what should 
be noted in this connection is that each
 school1 and for the matter of that     
every private teacher1 has a fixed plan 
of instruction which is more or less    
rigidly enforced4 ,in the case of the   
school1 as has already been stated1 no  
attention whatever is paid to individual
 requirements4 ,all are subjected to    
exactly the same process1 for better or 
for worse4 ,the child1 therefore1 as    
soon as it begins to attend school is   
compelled to learn certain things4  ,the
 stock subjects are reading1 writing1   

and arithmetic4 ,they are necessary     
accomplishments in all stations of life1
 and education without them would be    
practically impossible4 ,i do not       
disparage them in the least4 ,but there 
is a good deal to be said about the     
method of teaching them1 and the grave  
error of making them the principal      
objective of elementary teaching4  ,in  
this connection it is both interesting  
and instructive to note a significant   
alteration in the ,day ,school ,code    
issued by the ,board of ,education4     
,until quite recently reading1 writing1 
and arithmetic were classed under the   
,code as 'obligatory subjects' in infant
 schools4 ,article #ae of the ,code now 
reads3 ',the course of instruction in   
infant schools and classes should1 as a 
rule1 include--,suitable instruction1   
writing1 and numbers1' etc4 ,compare    
this with the same passage contained in 
former ,codes4 ',the subjects of        
instruction1' it runs1 'for which grants
 may be made are the following3 7a7     

,,obligatory ,,subjects--,reading1      
writing1 arithmetic2 hereinafter called 
the elementary subjects1' etc4  ,this   
amendment is a recognition of the fact  
that nothing can be more detrimental to 
education than hard-and-fast rules4 ,it 
is a protest against the general        
assumption that the curricula of schools
 must be of a more or less uniform      
pattern1 and puts an end to the         
absurdity of the central authority      
prescribing subjects to be taught in all
 elementary schools1 regardless of      
varying circumstances or the possibility
 of improved methods of teaching4       
,formerly the pernicious custom existed 
of examining the pupils1 at the annual  
visit of the inspector1 in stereotyped  
subjects4 ,matthew ,arnold1 reporting to
 the ,education ,department in #ahfg1   
observed3 ',the mode of teaching in the 
primary schools has certainly fallen off
 in intelligence1 spirit1 and           
inventiveness during the four or five   
years which have elapsed since my last  

report4 ,it could not well be otherwise4
 ,in a country where everyone is prone  
to rely too much on mechanical          
processes1 and too little on            
intelligence1 a change in the ,education
 ,department's regulations1 which1 by   
making two-thirds of the ,government    
grant depend upon a mechanical          
examination1 inevitably gives a         
mechanical turn to the school teaching1 
a mechanical turn to the inspection1 is1
 and must be1 trying to the intellectual
 life of the school4 ,in the inspection 
the mechanical examination of individual
 scholars in reading a short passage1   
writing a short passage1 and working two
 or three sums1 cannot but take the     
lion's share of room and importance1    
inasmuch as two-thirds of the           
,government grant depend upon it4444 ,in
 the game of mechanical contrivances the
 teachers will in the end beat us2 and  
as it is now found possible1 by         
ingenious preparation1 to get children  
through the ,revised ,code examination  

in reading1 writing1 and ciphering      
without their really knowing how to     
read1 write1 and cipher1 so it will with
 practice no doubt be found possible to 
get the three-fourths of the one-fifth  
of the children over six through the    
examination in grammar1 geography1 and  
history without their really knowing any
 one of these three matters4'           
,throughout the whole of his career as  
an inspector of elementary schools      
,arnold had to reiterate this complaint 
again and again4 ,he saw the incentive  
to cramming provided by the mode of     
distributing the grants1 and he         
perceived the uselessness of the type of
 instruction engendered by it4  ,to-day 
all this has been changed4 ,there is no 
such thing now as a compulsory annual   
examination in the three elementary     
subjects4 ,it has been finally abolished
 by the central authority4 ,the duty of 
the inspectors is no longer to examine  
the children1 but to investigate the    
methods of teaching1 the qualifications 

of the teachers1 and so forth4 ,they    
are1 it is true1 empowered to examine   
children when they think it advisable to
 do so2 but they are directed to use    
this power sparingly1 and in exceptional
 cases4  ,the ,department at ,whitehall 
does not1 unfortunately1 exist for the  
purpose of abolishing education systems4
 ,it has been called into existence for 
the sole purpose of distributing grants 
of public money in aid of elementary    
education and for the support of        
training-colleges for teachers4 ,the    
exercise of this function has           
necessitated the framing of a code of   
regulations to be observed by schools   
wishing to qualify themselves for the   
grant4 ,this code is revised each year1 
and has undergone some remarkable       
changes of late4 ,there is a distinct   
tendency to make it as elastic as       
possible1 with the obvious aim of       
encouraging variety in the schools and  
in the methods of teaching4  ,for an    
example of this tendency one need only  

compare the present conditions attaching
 to the payment of the principal grant  
to infant schools with those that were  
in force a few years ago4 ,the higher   
grant was formerly given if the scholars
 were taught under a certificated       
teacher1 or under a teacher not less    
than eighteen years of age1 approved by 
the inspector1 and in a room properly   
constructed and furnished for the       
instruction of infants4 ,there was also 
a proviso that the infants should be    
taught 'suitably to their age4' ,the new
 code contains the following regulation3
  ',a principal grant of #ags4 or #afs4 
is made to infant schools and classes4  
,the ,board shall decide which1 if      
either1 of these grants shall be paid   
after considering the report and        
recommendation of the inspector upon    
each of the following four points3 7a7  
,the suitability of the instruction to  
the circumstances of the children and   
the neighbourhood2 7b7 the thoroughness 
and intelligence with which the         

instruction is given2 7c7 the           
sufficiency and suitability of the      
staff2 7d7 the discipline and           
organization4'  ,working in this spirit1
 the ,board of ,education is able to    
mitigate some of the evils of a ,state  
system4 ,but it cannot attack them at   
the roots without initiating a complete 
revolution4 ,out and out reforms of this
 kind are only politically practicable  
when they are demanded by the           
irresistible voice of a strong public   
opinion4 ,the public are misled as to   
the true issues by the intrigues of     
political parties4 ,the conflict is     
narrowed down by party politicians1 who 
have particular interests to serve1 to a
 mere squabble about school boards1     
voluntary schools1 local authorities1   
and religious instruction4  ,the        
consequence is that these side issues   
have come to be regarded as the great   
education question of the day4 ,it is   
not easy to stir up any deep feeling    
about the comparative merits of the two 

classes of elementary schools4 ,most    
people do not care a jot whether their  
children go to one or the other4 ,it is 
not the masses who agitate about        
denominational or secular teaching1 but 
those limited classes who have some     
direct interest in matters affecting    
religion4  ,but who would not cast aside
 their lethargy1 if they were made to   
understand that the question to be      
decided is not whether this or that type
 of school should be supported1 but     
whether the present system of education 
should be entirely discarded in favour  
of an altogether new plan8 that behind  
all these petty controversies lie great 
issues1 affecting the fundamental       
principles of education1 which must be  
pushed to the front unless the          
degeneration of the race--an inevitable 
result of the present educational       
method--is to be continued indefinitely8
  ,let people consider for a moment what
 is effected by the present system4 ,the
 child1 as we have seen1 is taken by the

 ,state at an early age and subjected1  
for the most part1 to a careful drilling
 in the three elementary subjects4      
,there is no harm in knowing how to read
 and write2 it is a very necessary      
accomplishment4 ,a little arithmetic is 
also indispensable to the fulfilment of 
many of the commonest duties of everyday
 life4 ,but1 apart from the iniquity of 
cramming or forcing the brain in a      
particular direction1 it must be        
recollected that by imposing certain    
subjects upon the undeveloped mind of a 
child1 others are necessarily excluded4 
,the process therefore1 when rigidly    
carried out1 has very serious and       
far-reaching effects4 ,it prevents the  
development of the mind in any direction
 but that which is being enforced4  ,the
 harm done to the individual child by   
this means is incalculable4 ,on the very
 threshold of the development of its    
faculties according to natural instincts
 this development is violently arrested 
by an artificial operation4 ,nor does   

the evil end here4 ,this interference   
with ,nature is carried on throughout   
the whole school career of the child1   
and the tradition flourishes in a       
modified form in the colleges and       
universities4 ,it is1 in fact1 the vital
 principle of modern education4  ,these 
schools in which the children of the    
people are taught are nothing more than 
factories for turning out a             
uniformly-patterned article4 ,they do   
not succeed in their object of          
conferring what is called an education  
upon their pupils1 but they contrive to 
drive out all original ideas without    
implanting any useful knowledge in their
 place4 ,the general result of this     
wholesale manufacture of dummies will be
 dealt with directly4 ,the intention    
here is merely to point out that the    
practical working of the machinery of   
,state education is to check the natural
 development of the mind1 and to unfit  
those whom it has victimized1 not only  
for one1 but for all occupations that   

demand manual dexterity or practical    
intelligence4     ,,chapter ,v  ,,the   
,,greatest ,,misery ,,of ,,the          
,,greatest ,,number   ,it is now time to
 consider the effect of this system of  
compulsory education upon the masses of 
the people4 ,in the first two chapters  
an attempt was made to sketch some of   
the anomalies brought about by the      
educational methods of our public       
schools and universities1 and by the    
pernicious system of public competitive 
examinations4 ,we will now turn our     
attention exclusively to the masses1 and
 endeavour to see what national         
instruction does for them4  ,the common 
people labour under the delusion that   
children who have passed the standards  
of an elementary school are educated4   
,they have been fitted1 according to the
 popular belief1 for a superior station 
in life4 ,the first ambition of parents 
is1 therefore1 for their child to obtain
 a post suitable to its supposed        
scholarship4  ,of course1 the truth is1 

as we all know1 that the product of the 
public elementary school is utterly     
useless1 and generally wanting in       
intelligence4 ,but these facts are only 
discovered by the victims themselves    
after years of bitter experience4       
,totally unfitted for any station in    
life1 many of them leave school full of 
self-confidence in the belief that their
 superior education will secure them a  
good opening4 ,despising all manual     
labour1 they seek situations as clerks1 
shop-assistants1 and such-like4 ,the    
result is1 of course1 an over-supply of 
candidates for employment of this kind4 
,in consequence1 the girls have to fall 
back upon domestic service2 while the   
boys swell the ranks of unskilled       
labourers and unemployed loafers1 or1   
worse still1 betake themselves to a life
 of dishonesty4  ,nowhere are the evil  
effects of this education system more   
strikingly illustrated than in the      
country districts4 ,the children of     
agricultural labourers and small farmers

 are given instruction which will be of 
no earthly use to them in the occupation
 for which they are naturally fitted4   
,instead of being prepared for country  
pursuits1 they are given an inferior    
type of all-round education which is    
equally useless everywhere4 ,when they  
leave school they can read1 write1 add1 
subtract1 divide1 and multiply--after a 
fashion2 they can mispronounce a few    
,french words1 without being able to    
construct a single grammatical sentence 
or understand a syllable that is said to
 them2 they know enough shorthand to    
write down simple words at one half the 
speed of ordinary handwriting2 and they 
have acquired by rote a few dry facts   
from history and geography1 all of which
 will be totally obliterated from their 
memories within a space of twelve       
months4  ,shorthand is not a very       
promising preparation for the plough2   
and ,french and mathematics are equally 
valueless accomplishments for the       
carting of manure4 ,dairymaids need     

neither history nor geography2 they can 
even do without grammar4 ,consequently  
these unhappy school-children have been 
rendered useless for all the practical  
purposes of the life they ought to lead4
 ,the result is inevitable4 ,there is a 
constant1 never-ceasing exodus from the 
country into the towns4 ,the rural      
school victims are incited to look for  
employment in an altogether different   
sphere from that for which nature       
originally intended them4  ,philosophers
 and politicians crack their heads over 
this mysterious problem of town         
immigration2 but it is really a very    
simple affair4 ,we are pretending to    
educate the rural population by         
conferring upon them the blessings of   
,french and shorthand4 ,the natural     
consequence of our excellent foresight  
in spreading this type of culture       
throughout the land is that there is a  
scarcely remarkable dearth of rural     
labour4 ,farm hands are not quite as    
plentiful as they used to be1 and there 

is some difficulty in getting damsels to
 churn butter4 ,but1 on the other hand1 
we are driving this mob of cultured     
yokels into the towns to crowd out local
 labour1 to starve1 and to fill the     
gaols and workhouses4  ,london has at   
the present moment mainly to thank this 
process of 'education' for the          
overcrowding problem which is becoming  
every day more dangerous and pressing4  
,it is useless to talk of pulling down  
slums and building up model blocks1 or  
of inventing fresh means of             
communication to convey artisans to     
suburban dwellings1 whilst the real     
cause of the evil is left untouched4    
,young men and women will continue to   
pour in from the country districts as   
long as a smattering of geography and   
arithmetic flatters them into the       
delusion that they are educated1 and    
that knowledge of the useless kind that 
has been drummed into them is the       
high-road to fortune4  ,it is1 however1 
of little use to urge overcrowding as a 

ground for reforming educational        
methods4 ,few people are stirred by what
 to them is a purely abstract question4 
,they see nothing to indicate its       
existence1 and they know nothing of its 
evils4 ,they seldom walk down the dreary
 avenues of bricks and mortar which     
contain the houses of the working       
classes2 and if they do1 they scarcely  
realize the fact that inside the humble1
 dingy little dwellings whole families  
are crowded into single rooms1 share    
each other's beds1 and are even thankful
 to find sleeping accommodation upon the
 floor4  ,but everybody appreciates and 
understands the servant question4 ,that 
touches the comfort of the individual   
too nearly to be ignored4 ,the rapid    
extinction of good servants1 the        
insolence and inefficiency of the       
average domestic--these are facts of    
everyday life that will come home to the
 suffering upper and middle classes4 ,it
 is not because they are educated that  
domestic servants have deteriorated1    

however1 but on account of the profound 
state of ignorance in which their       
elementary schooling has left them1     
leading them to the misapprehension     
that1 from the standpoint of culture1   
they are as good as anybody and         
certainly above their menial position4  
,servants have as little need of ,french
 verbs and hieroglyphics as the         
ploughboy or the dairymaid4 ,there are  
many useful things that might be learnt 
by a person who wished to be trained for
 domestic service2 but it is rare enough
 to find a cook that1 amongst other     
items of a liberal education1 has been  
given cooking lessons4 ,in this respect 
education is like food3 what is one     
man's meat is another man's poison4 ,we 
do not wish to teach book-keeping to a  
washerwoman1 or fancy ironing to a      
private secretary4 ,then1 why stuff     
artisans1 domestic servants1 and farm   
labourers with common denominators and  
the rules of syntax8 ,it may be highly  
satisfactory to schoolteachers to       

succeed in making their class read aloud
 passages from ,shakespeare and ,milton 
without dropping more than fifty per    
cent4 of the aspirates1 or              
mispronouncing more than half a dozen   
multi-syllabic words4 ,but1             
unfortunately1 there is no demand for   
parlourmaids who can quote ',hamlet'    
amid the intervals of waiting at table1 
or for page-boys capable of spouting    
',paradise ,lost' for the intellectual  
improvement of the servants' hall4      
,perhaps these instances show as well as
 anything the grotesque absurdity of    
collecting a number of children         
together1 and attempting to teach them  
things that they are not fitted to do1  
whilst no effort is made to cultivate in
 each individual the faculties that are 
really capable of development4 ,it is   
not in the least surprising that        
occupations involving manual labour are 
for the most part filled with           
dissatisfied and incompetent grumblers1 
who have been obligingly provided by a  

,state system of education4  ,but if any
 further illustration be needed of the  
superficiality and harmfulness of the   
education forced upon the masses1 we    
have it glaringly enough in the cheap   
literature of to-day4 ,this stupendous  
mass of bosh could not have been        
produced unless there were a demand for 
it4 ,some people are never tired of     
abusing the millionaires who have made  
their fortunes by providing the         
illiterate nonsense that forms the      
intellectual food of the vast majority  
of the public4 ,it is wholly            
unjustifiable and illogical to blame    
them4 ,they are not founders of new     
schools of thought in the field of      
literature2 they are men of business1   
and do not pretend to be anything worse4
 ,as such1 it is their vocation to find 
out what the public want1 and to supply 
it to them4 ,they have no interest in   
making the million take their literature
 after it has been passed through a     
mincer4 ,they chop up news and hash     

grammar at half price because the       
patrons of cheap papers and periodicals 
like their literature served up in that 
fashion4  ,it is not the millionaire    
trader who is to blame for this state of
 affairs--he merely profits by its      
existence4 ,the real culprit is the     
education system1 which is the universal
 provider of the peculiar type of       
culture that interests itself in the    
number of beef sandwiches that would be 
required to encircle the earth1 or the  
rate at which the population of the     
world would have to increase within a   
given time to enable its inhabitants1 by
 mounting upon each other's heads1 to   
reach the moon4  ,the enormous demand   
for this class of literature is the most
 pregnant evidence of the miserable     
effects of misapplied education and     
defective instruction that could well be
 brought forward4 ,but it is by no means
 confined to the uncultured masses who  
have been driven through the standards  
of an elementary school4 ,thousands who 

have been put through the paces of what 
is called 'higher education' may be seen
 in railway-carriages1 at health        
resorts1 or in the public libraries1    
deeply immersed in cheap-jack           
reading-matter that no self-respecting  
person of moderate intelligence would   
care even to be capable of specifying4  
,this painful sight1 which cannot have  
escaped the notice of the least         
observant1 must surely lead the         
reflective man or woman to doubt the    
value of educational methods that have  
led to no better result4 ,it is         
monstrous to think of years spent in    
grinding out syntax rules1 mathematics1 
,latin1 ,french1 geography1 science1    
history1 composition1 and a dozen other 
branches of knowledge1 in order to      
develop a taste for sensational rags1   
middle-class magazines1 and inferior    
fiction4  ,if the process were coupled  
with no worse consequences than this1   
nobody of the least pretension to       
culture would wish to see it continued  

another day4 ,but we have seen that the 
mischief goes far beyond mere           
superficiality and bad taste4 ,it       
carries its pernicious influence into   
every social problem by which modern    
statesmen are perplexed and harassed4   
,from the housing question to the dearth
 of servants we feel its baneful        
effects4 ,and as if it were not enough  
to have unfitted the masses of the      
people for the occupations best suited  
to the great bulk of them1 to have      
instilled into the minds of             
working-men's children1 by means of     
illiterate ,shakespeare recitations and 
burlesque efforts to grasp geography1 a 
contempt for the skilled labour of the  
artisan--this education process has     
brought about a general deterioration in
 the manners of the lower classes that  
has long been a subject of general      
complaint4  ,nobody wishes to see the   
common people in a constant attitude of 
servility towards the classes above     
them4 ,to thinking people nothing is    

more painful than to observe such signs 
of a want of proper self-respect and    
independence on the part of freeborn men
 and women of whatever standing in the  
social scale4 ,but it is a significant  
fact that educating the masses1 in the  
sense in which that term seems to be    
generally employed1 has had the effect  
of eradicating from them all respect for
 education4 ,the educated man of real   
attainments is not looked up to in the  
smallest degree by the average          
individual of the lower orders4 ,it     
would be useless to quote1 in support of
 a statement made in the presence of    
unexceptional members of the working    
classes1 the opinion of any recognised  
authority4 ,for the matter of that1     
there are many persons of a higher rank 
who are supposed to have enjoyed the    
benefits of a more liberal type of      
education than that afforded by the     
elementary school1 who are equally      
unimpressed by the value of expert      
knowledge4  ,whether it is that         

,state-educated youths think that their 
accomplishments have made them the      
equals of everybody else1 or whether the
 inanity of the system to which they    
have been subjected has given them a    
contempt for learning1 it would be      
difficult to determine4 ,probably both  
misconceptions are evenly distributed   
amongst the victims of the process4 ,but
 the fact that this should be the case  
at all speaks eloquently for the crass  
ignorance which results from the        
confounding1 on the part of so-called   
educationists1 of mere fact-cramming and
 subject-compulsion with the proper     
development of the human faculties4     
,,chapter ,,vi  ,,the ,,output ,,of     
,,prigs   ,having considered the evils  
produced by sham education1 such as is  
compulsorily given to the masses of the 
people1 we can proceed to examine into  
the average results effected by more    
genuine and efficient systems of        
cramming and instruction4 ,it is not in 
the least degree necessary1 for this    

purpose1 to go into minute comparisons  
of the various types of secondary       
schools and colleges that have been     
established in this country4 ,in the    
actual method of teaching there is      
little to choose between them4 ,all have
 practically a common aim1 namely1 the  
preparation of boys and young men for   
examinations4  ,of course1 all boys who 
go to school are not destined for       
professions that necessitate the passing
 of an examination1 competitive or      
otherwise4 ,but that does not disturb   
the school authorities a jot1 or involve
 the slightest relaxation of the school 
system4 ,the boys are crammed just the  
same4 ,whoever wishes to pass through   
the mill must go in like a pig at one   
end and come out as a sausage at the    
other4 ,there is no middle course except
 the private tutor2 and he1 owing to the
 defects of his own early training and  
to the terrific ,conservatism peculiar  
to his profession1 probably knows no    
better process than the familiar routine

 of cram and idea-suppression4  ,the    
whole of school life is a scramble for  
marks4 ,the school managers and masters 
are interested in getting the boys      
stuffed with facts1 dates1 figures1 and 
inflections1 because the prestige of the
 school--and consequently its commercial
 success--is mainly dependent upon the  
creditable placing of pupils in public  
examinations4 ,therefore the boys are   
encouraged1 or rather compelled1 to     
occupy themselves with what will best   
conduce to secure this object1          
regardless of their own wishes or       
obvious inclinations4  ,a boy might     
enter a grammar-school1 or one of the   
great public schools1 teeming to his    
finger-tips with an inborn thirst for   
scientific knowledge2 he might spend all
 his spare moments making crude         
experiments with an air-pump1 or gazing 
at planets through a cheap astronomical 
telescope2 he might fail dismally to    
grasp the rudiments of the ,latin       
grammar1 and be incapable of conjugating

 an irregular verb2 but his nose would  
be kept down to the grindstone of the   
school curriculum all the same1 and not 
the smallest attention paid to his      
obvious bent of mind4  ,he had been     
placed there1 the authorities would say1
 to receive a general education1 and a  
general education he should have4 ,if   
during the process all the scientific   
enthusiasm is ground out of him1 that is
 not the business of the schoolmaster4  
,the boy1 for the ordinary purposes of  
instruction1 is an empty bottle into    
which a certain prescription is to be   
poured4 ,the prescription has been made 
up beforehand1 and cannot be altered4   
,the school undertakes to administer a  
draught1 but it refuses to bother about 
diagnosing each case4 ,there is only one
 method of treatment1 and every patient 
who enters the establishment has to be  
submitted to it4  ,there have been1 of  
course1 enlightened pedagogues4 ,the    
names of ,arnold and ,thring will always
 stand out prominently in the history of

 ,english school life1 and it will be a 
bad day indeed for the youth in our     
public schools when their traditional   
influence shall have been entirely      
obliterated4 ,they grafted upon the     
established methods of teaching a       
liberal and broad-minded effort to bring
 out what was best in each pupil by     
other influences4 ',it is no wisdom1'   
,dr4 ,arnold declared1 'to make boys    
prodigies of information2 but it is our 
wisdom and our duty to cultivate their  
faculties each in its season1 first the 
memory and imagination1 and then the    
judgment2 to furnish them with the      
means1 and to excite the desire of      
improving themselves1 and to wait with  
confidence ,god's blessing on the       
result4'  ,edward ,thring wrote the     
following remarks in his diary3         
',education is not bookworm work1 but   
the giving the subtle power of          
observation1 the faculty of seeing1 the 
eye and mind to catch hidden truths and 
new creative genius4 ,if the cursed     

rule-mongering and technical terms could
 be banished to limbo1 something might  
be done4 ,three parts of teaching and   
learning in ,england is the hiding      
common sense and disguising ignorance   
under phrases4'  ,no stranger anomaly   
can be conceived than that presented by 
the constant effort of these two eminent
 headmasters to undo the evils of a     
universal system of education4 ,it is   
not often that people strive to set     
their house in order after this fashion1
 and all honour is due to them for the  
courageous endeavour4 ,the mistake they 
made was in tinkering with a system     
inherently bad and useless1 instead of  
taking the bold step of abolishing it   
altogether and beginning afresh on new  
and sound principles4  ,the energies of 
schoolmasters of the type of ,thring and
 ,arnold are1 in fact1 concentrated     
mainly upon a constant struggle to      
prevent the ordinary process of school  
instruction from producing prigs4       
,stupid boys are generally rendered more

 stupid by teaching1 for reasons that   
will be analyzed later on4 ,but boys    
whose brains are amenable to academic   
training are liable1 unless the         
environment of the school is peculiarly 
unfavourable to the development of the  
species1 to become priggish4  ,it is the
 purely academic training that produces 
the prig4 ,football1 cricket1 and other 
athletic sports are not favourable to   
his growth2 and he receives equally     
little encouragement from his           
companions4 ,the important point about  
him is that he is not a natural product 
at all1 but the outcome of an artificial
 drilling of the mind4 ,in a word1 he is
 the embodiment of the education system1
 uncorrected by fortuitous influences   
and conditions4 ,everybody knows that   
gracefulness is not acquired by means of
 stilted lessons in deportment1 but that
 it consists of natural muscular        
movement untrammelled by                
self-consciousness or artifice4 ,the    
same law of nature applies to the       

working of the brain4 ,stuffing a boy's 
head with so much knowledge is not      
developing his mind1 and the result must
 necessarily be as artificial as the    
process4 ,the mind becomes incapable of 
thinking individually and naturally2 it 
becomes pedantic and circumscribed1     
powerless to give simple expression to  
simple thoughts2 and the prig is made4  
,it requires a great deal of kicking and
 hustling on the part of the victim's   
schoolfellows to arrest this process1   
and the cure is generally only effected 
outwardly4 ,priggishness cannot be      
eradicated from the system in a moment1 
even by the most heroic measures4 ,its  
excision involves a slow mental process1
 the converse of that which served to   
call it into existence4 ,the prig has to
 divest himself of the false mental     
outlook imposed upon him by his         
education1 and to begin all over again4 
,it is a hard lesson which can only be  
learnt in the school of life1 generally 
after humiliating experience and bitter 

suffering4 ,many never succeed in       
learning it4 ,there must be some        
material to work upon1 and probably     
their individuality1 weak at the        
commencement and therefore doubly in    
need of tender treatment and fostering  
care1 has been hopelessly crushed out of
 existence by the conventional training 
of school and university4  ,under       
present conditions prigs can and do grow
 up everywhere4 ,in some educational    
institutions--notably in great public   
schools like ,eton and ,harrow--they are
 more discouraged than in others2 but   
the cramming system has reached such    
proportions that all schools and        
colleges are affected in a greater or   
less degree4 ,they infect our public    
life1 as we have seen2 largely recruit  
our public service2 and are in evidence 
in the pulpit1 at the schoolmaster's    
desk1 on public platforms1 in the       
lecture-room of the university1 and     
wherever the services of educated men   
are employed4  ,the ideals of men like  

,arnold and ,thring cannot be carried   
out as long as the examination system   
puts a premium upon cramming4 ',i call  
that the best theme1' said ,dr4 ,arnold1
 alluding to original composition1      
'which shows that the boy has read and  
thought for himself2 that the next best1
 which shows that he has read several   
books1 and digested what he has read2   
and that the worst1 which shows that he 
has followed but one book1 and followed 
that without reflection4'  ,there is no 
time nowadays for a boy to read and     
think for himself4 ,besides the         
examinations inside his own school for  
which he has to be prepared1 there are  
scholarships1 university examinations1  
competitive examinations for the civil  
service1 and a host of other            
possibilities of the kind1 all of which 
necessitate the acquisition of an       
enormous number of useless facts in     
every branch of learning4  ,too much    
attention is concentrated on the        
admirable physical product of the       

athletic side of our public school and  
university life4 ,this advantage of the 
,english system of education has been   
dwelt upon to such an extent1 that      
people are apt to overlook the fact     
that1 side by side with these fine      
specimens of healthy and for the most   
part unintellectual manhood1 we are     
manufacturing a purely academic article 
of the least inspired and most          
retrogressive description4  ,if         
somebody1 wishing to make you acquainted
 with a friend1 says to you3 ',i want   
you to meet ,so-and-so2 he was at ,eton 
and ,trinity ,hall1 and came out tenth  
in the mathematical tripos1' you know   
exactly the kind of man to whom you are 
going to be introduced4 ,he will have a 
very proper contempt for made-up ties1  
and will refuse to fasten the bottom    
button of his waistcoat4 ,you know      
beforehand the precise point of view    
that he will take upon every conceivable
 topic1 and the channels in which his   
conversation is certain to flow4  ,his  

entire mental horizon will be bounded by
 academic conventionalities in such a   
cast-iron fashion that it would1 you are
 well aware1 waste your time to attempt 
to extend its boundaries by the fraction
 of an inch4 ,if you say anything       
yourself out of the beaten track1 you   
know that you will be looked down upon  
as a fool or a faddist4 ,the ,eton stamp
 will be upon his dress and manners2 the
 ,cambridge brand seared into every     
crevice of his mind4 ,there will be an  
individuality about him1 but it will be 
an individuality shared in common with  
hundreds of young men of the same       
educational antecedents4  ,that is the  
fault of the system4 ,it takes away1 or 
fails to evoke1 the distinguishing      
traits of each individual1 and          
substitutes a kind of manufactured      
personality according to the particular 
institution1 or type of institution1 in 
which the educational metamorphosis has 
taken place4 ',a mob of boys1' said the 
man who raised ,uppingham from complete 

obscurity to the front rank of public   
schools1 'cannot be educated4' ,it is1  
nevertheless1 the process that is going 
on all over the civilized world4 ,reform
 does not lie alone in making           
instruction itself more effective4 ,as  
long as the principle is retained of    
forcing certain facts and certain       
subjects into the mind of every boy1 the
 country will continue to breed         
conventionality1 to produce a uniform   
type of useless mediocrity1 and to make 
prigs4  ,this is1 unfortunately1 exactly
 what the average educationist aims at4 
,there is no disguise about the belief  
that conventional ideas1 and the        
manufacture of what is called average   
ability1 are the sheet-anchor of the    
,state4 ,and this type of fossilized    
,conservatism seems to grow in          
proportion to the number of schools and 
colleges in the country4                
,lower-middle-class young men1 of no    
intellectual predisposition at all1 are 
being turned out on all sides crammed   

with the narrowest type of educational  
tradition4 ,prigs are produced          
wholesale2 the worst and most odious    
branch of the family being the          
semi-illiterate prig--the man who gets  
drummed out of decent regimental messes1
 the man who wants to go on the stage   
and declaim ,shakespeare through his    
nose1 the man who vulgarizes the public 
service by dropping his h's in the great
 ,government departments1 and others too
 numerous to be specified4  ,everything 
is vulgar that pretends to be what it is
 not4 ,priggishness is an artificial    
mental condition that is far more common
 than people generally suspect4 ,we are 
most of us prigs1 if we only knew it4   
,the man who is unable to get rid of    
conventions and to think for himself is 
a prig4 ,england is peopled with them4  
,we meet them at every turn2 we see them
 driving the country to the dogs by     
sheer inability to grasp its needs2--and
 we send our sons to the schools and    
universities to be manufactured after   

the same pattern4     ,,chapter ,,vii   
,,boy ,,degeneration   ,if some boys    
thrive1 according to ordinary school    
standards1 on the cramming system1 what 
becomes of those to whose nature the    
process is entirely antagonistic8  ,the 
question is best answered by a glance at
 the schools themselves4 ,take one of   
the great public schools1 and it will be
 found that much the same conditions are
 prevalent in every class or form4      
,there is a small percentage of boys at 
the top of each class who are considered
 the most intelligent1 and by whom most 
of the questions asked by the master are
 answered4 ,the remaining majority are  
divided into two sections1 one of which 
consists of what are termed boys of     
average ability1 whilst the other       
contains the lazy element1 the          
refractory boys1 and the dullards4  ,in 
the last chapter we chiefly discussed   
those individuals who may be taken as   
representing the average of the best    
results achieved by higher schools and  

universities4 ,these form1 however1 only
 a fraction of the scholars who pass    
through such institutions4 ,it still    
remains for us to discover the rle which
 is played by the other four-fifths in  
school-life4 ,according to scholastic   
methods of classification1 the bulk of  
this residue are boys of medium         
intelligence who plod on without        
specially distinguishing themselves1 and
 contrive1 by dint of industry and      
application1 to blunder through the     
ordinary course of study without coming 
to grief4  ,it would be difficult to    
conjure up a more melancholy picture    
than that presented by these plodders1  
whose work is rendered trebly hard by   
being performed against the grain4 ,they
 suffer more under the system than the  
dull1 the lazy1 and the fractious1 who  
escape its worst evils1 either because  
some active power of resistance comes to
 their rescue1 or because the mind      
itself is so formed as to be incapable  
of receiving instruction imparted on the

 cramming principle4  ,but the average  
mediocrity amongst schoolboys are often 
inferior in ability both to those who   
rank above and below them in school     
attainment4 ,they neither profit by the 
teaching process1 nor do they possess   
those qualities that would enable them  
to resist its consequences4 ,thus they  
fall between two stools1 being carried  
out of their natural sphere1 and at the 
same time failing to attain such a      
measure of artificial success as would  
afford them compensation for the injury4
  ,success in life is not an easy thing 
to generalize about4 ,it is1 however1   
important to note as far as possible the
 results brought about by school        
education4 ,the boy who is trained to   
pass examinations has a respectable     
chance of getting into some branch of   
the public service2 and1 as we have     
seen1 it is from amongst his ranks that 
the permanent officials of the various  
departments of ,government are          
recruited4 ,a great number of those who 

distinguish themselves academically also
 pass into the teaching profession2     
though a considerable percentage of     
graduates1 for reasons that will be     
discussed in due course1 drift into the 
ranks of the unemployed4  ,the average  
schoolboy1 who does his work            
mechanically and without enthusiasm1    
probably furnishes the greatest number  
of examples of the misplaced individual4
 ,his application to his studies is not 
natural2 it is enforced by what is      
called school discipline4 ,that is to   
say1 the authorities devise every       
conceivable form of punishment to make a
 constant grind at obligatory subjects  
less disagreeable than the consequences 
of idleness4 ,these are the simple arts 
by means of which unwilling boys are    
driven1 like cattle1 along the highway  
of what is termed1 by an inaccurate     
application of the ,english language1   
knowledge4  ,anybody who has been       
coerced1 and poenaed1 and flogged       
through the curriculum of a public      

school will acknowledge that the        
performance is not an exhilarating one  
for the victim4 ,it is preposterous to  
dignify this nigger-driving by the term 
'education4' ,one might as well talk of 
the ,chinese eagerly embracing          
,christianity1 when1 as a matter of     
fact1 the missionaries have been forced 
upon them1 like their foreign trade1 at 
the point of the bayonet4  ,the wonder  
is that anybody survives the process and
 retains his sanity4 ,that many nervous 
temperaments and highly-gifted minds do 
not survive it is a point of so much    
importance that it will be dealt with   
later on in a separate chapter4 ,what   
needs emphasizing here is that to make  
boys do certain things under compulsion 
is not developing their faculties1 but  
is absolutely preventing their          
development2 and secondly1 that this    
infamous but universal proceeding is    
responsible for a positive degeneration 
amongst those whom it is supposed to    
educate and improve4  ,dr4 ,arnold held 

that a low standard of schoolboy        
morality was inevitable4 ',with regard  
to reforms at ,rugby1' he wrote to a    
friend1 'give me credit1 ,i must beg of 
you1 for a most sincere desire to make  
it a place of ,christian education4 ,at 
the same time1 my object will be1 if    
possible1 to form ,christian men1 for   
,christian boys ,i can scarcely hope to 
make2 ,i mean that1 from the natural    
imperfect state of boyhood1 they are not
 susceptible of ,christian principles in
 their full development upon their      
practice1 and ,i suspect that a low     
standard of morals in many respects must
 be tolerated amongst them1 as it was on
 a larger scale in what ,i consider the 
boyhood of the human race4'  ,in a      
letter to another friend he spoke still 
more strongly on the subject4 ',since ,i
 began this letter1' he wrote1 ',i have 
had some of the troubles of             
school-keeping2 and one of those        
specimens of the evil of boy nature     
which makes me always unwilling to      

undergo the responsibility of advising  
any man to send his son to a public     
school4 ,there has been a system of     
persecution carried on by the bad       
against the good1 and then1 when        
complaint was made to me1 there came    
fresh persecution on that very account1 
and divers instances of boys joining in 
it out of pure cowardice1 both physical 
and moral1 when1 if left to themselves1 
they would rather have shunned it4 ,and 
the exceedingly small number of boys who
 can be relied on for active and steady 
good on these occasions1 and the way in 
which the decent and respectable of     
ordinary life 7,carlyle's ,shams7 are   
sure on these occasions to swim with the
 stream and take part with the evil1    
makes me strongly feel exemplified what 
the ,scriptures say about the strait    
gate and the wide one--a view of human  
nature which1 when looking on human life
 in its full dress of decencies and     
civilizations1 we are apt1 ,i imagine1  
to find it hard to realize4 ,but here1  

in the nakedness of boy nature1 one is  
quite able to understand how there could
 not be found so many as even ten       
righteous in a whole city4'  ,this      
sweeping statement has been quoted      
because it comes with double force from 
an undisputed authority such as the late
 ,dr4 ,arnold4 ,everybody who has had   
experience of school-life knows that the
 average boy spends a great deal of his 
time in cheating the masters1 lying to  
the authorities1 and playing every sort 
and kind of mischievous or disreputable 
prank that comes into his head4 ,but it 
is better to have this fact testified to
 by a man who has been in a position to 
observe large numbers of boys over a    
very extended period4 ,the accusation of
 exaggeration or hasty generalization   
cannot then be well sustained4  ,where1 
however1 ,i venture to differ with ,dr4 
,arnold is in the assumption that this  
low standard of morality must be        
ascribed to boy nature alone4           
,undoubtedly this is the case in part4  

,but there is a far more potent cause   
than natural instinct4 ,it is to be     
found in the system of education which  
not only fails to develop and encourage 
the boy's individual tastes or          
faculties1 but actually forces upon him 
occupations that are1 for the most part1
 absolutely foreign to his nature4 ,this
 is the real key to the vagaries of     
boyhood1 and without such an explanation
 one must hold1 with the great          
headmaster of ,rugby1 that boy nature is
 inherently bad4  ,boys1 like other     
rational beings1 must have their        
interests and amusements4 ,if the       
legitimate and normal ones are          
prohibited1 solace will be sought in    
those which are illegitimate and        
abnormal4 ,by failing to encourage the  
faculties that nature intended a        
particular boy to develop1 a vacuum is  
created4 ,this vacuum must be filled up1
 and it is no earthly use trying to fill
 it up1 against the grain1 with         
mathematical problems or the irregular  

inflections of ,latin verbs4 ,the       
average boy is as little capable of     
taking an absorbing interest in these   
exhilarating features of the school     
curriculum as would be the average      
,hottentot4  ,every healthy boy stores  
up energy4 ,it should be the first      
object of the schoolmaster--if such a   
being ought to have any existence at    
all--to see that this energy is not     
allowed to waste4 ,natural forces of    
this kind do not1 it must be            
recollected1 evaporate4 ,there they are1
 and the laws of nature have decreed    
that they shall be constantly expended  
and renewed4 ,if this or that boy's     
store of energy is not turned into one  
channel1 it will expend itself through  
another4 ,if the schoolmaster were to   
take the trouble to find out the        
particular bent of a pupil1 and were    
then to proceed to foster and educate   
it1 all the energy of the boy would be  
used in this useful and congenial work4 
,but this can never be the case until   

the present methods of instruction have 
been revolutionized4  ,the discipline   
upon which schools pride themselves so  
much is an altogether false and         
pernicious discipline4 ,the only liberty
 which is vouchsafed to schoolboys is   
outside of their work4 ,no doubt it is  
an excellent thing that boys should be  
free to choose the manner in which they 
make use of their leisure hours4 ,there 
would be a great uproar amongst parents 
if their sons were forbidden to join in 
the games they wished to play1 and      
compelled to play those for which they  
had no taste4 ,it would be considered   
monstrous to remove a boy who was a     
capital bowler from the cricket-field1  
and make him go in for fives or         
racquets2 or1 to use an ,eton           
illustration1 to take a 'wet bob' who   
was a promising oarsman and might row in
 the school eight at ,henley1 and turn  
him into the playing-fields to become an
 inferior 'dry bob4'  ,but the same     
arguments that apply to physical        

discipline apply also to mental         
discipline4 ,in the class-room there is 
practically no latitude given to the boy
 at all4 ,in many schools1 it is true1  
there is the choice of a classical or a 
modern side2 but the choice is the      
parents'1 not the boy's4 ,the latter is 
always treated1 in reference to his     
school-work1 as a machine4 ,there is    
simply the offer of a classical         
strait-waistcoat or a modern            
strait-waistcoat2 and the boy is put    
into one or the other according to the  
fancy of a third person4                
,strait-waistcoats have long been       
discarded in lunatic asylums4 ,it has   
been discovered by medical experts that 
anything like coercion is the worst     
possible treatment for the brain4       
,whilst our lunatics1 however1 are      
treated in this humane and rational     
spirit1 the educational expert is busily
 occupied in destroying the delicate    
fabric of the schoolboy brain by the    
very methods that have been discontinued

 in the case of madmen4  ,the school    
curriculum1 or any other arbitrary      
course of study1 is a mental            
strait-waistcoat4 ,it has a more immoral
 and degenerating effect upon the mind  
because it is applied directly4 ,if     
physical restraint acts perniciously    
upon the reasoning powers1 a far greater
 degree of harm must be caused by direct
 mental restraint4 ,yet nobody1 from    
,arnold and ,thring down to the         
professional crammer of to-day1 seems to
 have grasped this simple fact4         
,schoolmasters are like mothers4 ,they  
imagine that because a boy happens to   
have survived their system of teaching  
the latter must necessarily be the one  
perfect method--just as the fond mother1
 whose infant has been enabled by means 
of a phenomenal digestion to outlive a  
particular food1 believes that it is the
 only food upon which babies can        
possibly be brought up4  ,when we come  
to survey impartially the effects of    
this system of education upon boys in   

general1 it must surely be brought home 
to us that something is radically wrong 
somewhere4 ,if a few manage to survive  
the treatment and remain the ten        
righteous individuals1 what is to be    
said of the degeneration of the         
majority8 ,it is surely absurd1 with the
 anomalies and defects of the whole     
method of educating youth staring one in
 the face1 to ascribe it to mere boy    
nature4  ,the truth is that in boyhood  
the natural tendencies incline to push  
their way boisterously to the front4    
,they are constantly trying to find an  
egress4 ,but the parent and the         
pedagogue1 in their blindness1 can only 
see in this law of nature a wicked and  
perverse propensity that must be        
restrained at all hazards by a speedy   
application of the educational          
strait-waistcoat4     ,,chapter ,,viii  
,,the ,,struggle ,,of ,,the ,,educated  
,so far we have chiefly discussed the   
effect produced upon the individual by a
 compulsory course of study4 ,it has    

been seen that he suffers in a number of
 ways1 through being subjected1 from his
 earliest childhood1 to a more or less  
inflexible method of training4 ,all of  
these1 however1 have been directly      
attributable to his education4 ,we may  
now consider1 before pursuing the       
subject any further1 certain            
disabilities that may be traced to the  
same cause1 but which are brought about 
indirectly4  ,it is bad enough1 as most 
of us will have perceived1 to compel a  
boy to learn certain things whether they
 are congenial to him or not4 ,but it is
 preposterous that the same stock of    
knowledge should be forced upon all     
alike4 ,this is1 however1 exactly what  
is being done in every educational      
establishment throughout the ,empire1   
with the most disastrous consequences to
 the victims of the system4  ,let us    
turn once more to the map of life for an
 illustration4  ,the average educated   
man begins to learn his alphabet at the 
age of four or five4 ,during the        

following years he receives the         
necessary grounding to prepare him for  
the lower forms of a public school4 ,at 
eleven1 or thereabouts1 he commences his
 school career4 ,throughout the whole of
 this period he is put through a course 
of study identical in every respect with
 that pursued by his schoolfellows4     
,every boy in the school is crammed with
 the same facts1 and in the same way4   
,the sixth-form boy is exactly like the 
rest of his class1 exactly like the     
sixth-form boy of ten years ago1 and    
probably exactly like the sixth-form boy
 of ten years hence4 ,not only does he  
possess precisely the same knowledge as 
his companions1 hold the same opinions1 
and enjoy the same mental horizon1 but  
he has acquired uniform tastes and      
habits4 ,in other words1 the school has 
stamped upon him a common individuality 
shared by all its pupils4  ,after he has
 left school the same process is carried
 on at the university4 ,here he is      
crammed again with the same facts1 the  

same rules1 and the same ideas1 borrowed
 from the same people1 that are being   
dinned into scores of other young men   
who are working for their degree4       
,having gone conscientiously through    
this routine1 he takes his degree with  
the rest4  ,this aim being accomplished1
 his educational career is over4 ,he has
 graduated2 that is to say1 he has      
obtained a certificate to the effect    
that he has acquired a certain          
regulation stock of knowledge4  ,what   
happens next8  ,the unhappy graduate    
suddenly makes the discovery that his   
university qualification is not the     
ready passport to employment that he had
 fondly imagined it to be4 ,unless he   
has a reasonable chance of a curacy and 
chooses to enter the ,church1 or can    
scrape together a few pupils to coach1  
or has the means to go on reading for   
the ,bar or cramming for the public     
examinations1 his prospects of immediate
 starvation are excessively favourable4 
,it was remarked some years ago by a    

writer who had spent a great deal of    
time in investigating life at common    
lodging-houses in the poorer districts  
of the ,metropolis1 that a startling    
number of university men seemed to drift
 into them4 ,yet these are the men who  
are supposed to have qualified          
themselves most highly for the holding  
of good positions4 ,in some way1        
therefore1 it is clear that this        
academic training has disadvantages     
which serve to handicap its victims     
severely in practical life4 ,it cannot  
be mere accident that those who1        
according to all educational tradition1 
are classed as the most fit for         
responsible employment necessitating    
good mental ability1 actually labour    
under obvious disabilities in this      
connection4  ,nobody can urge that there
 is not enough work of a nature         
demanding high attainments to go round4 
,literature itself offers an enormous   
field for the exhibition of special     
talent2 and there are many other walks  

in life where mental superiority is     
sadly needed1 and which should therefore
 provide ample work and remuneration for
 those who show capability and resource4
 ,but in spite of all these openings    
some of our scholars are driven to eke  
out a miserable pauper's existence in   
the common lodging-house1 or even in    
extreme cases to solicit parish relief4 
,the explanation of this strange anomaly
 lies simply in the fact that the       
educational mill not only manufactures  
dummies1 but makes them all exactly     
alike4 ,in the higher types of schools  
and colleges there is generally a choice
 of three patterns--the classical dummy1
 the modern language dummy1 and the     
scientific dummy4 ,but each pattern is  
very like the other1 for all the        
practical purposes of this life2 that is
 to say1 they are all equally useless   
and equally unfitted for the task of    
moving forward with the times4  ,the    
result of fitting out everybody with a  
common stock of knowledge is to         

institute a disastrous form of          
intellectual competition4 ,thousands of 
young men are being equipped annually by
 our schools and universities for the   
performance of precisely the same       
functions4 ,intelligence brought        
wholesale to the market in this         
stereotyped form is in much the same    
unhappy condition as unskilled labour4  
,there is a supply far in excess of the 
demand1 and consequently employment     
cannot be found for all4  ,perhaps the  
profession of literature and journalism 
affords the aptest illustration of the  
utter folly and uselessness of producing
 these machine-made scholars1 all filled
 chock-full with the same ideas1 facts1 
figures1 and dates4 ,here1 as in reality
 everywhere else1 there is need of      
originality1 intellectual independence1 
insight1 judgment1 and imagination4     
,journalism wants ideas2 facts are amply
 provided by the news agency and the    
reporter4 ,the gates of literature are  
opened wide for striking and vigorous   

thought1 trenchant criticism1 and       
imaginative flights of fancy4  ,what has
 the average academically-trained man to
 offer8 ,he has an assortment of        
second-hand ideas borrowed from ,plato  
and ,socrates1 from ,ovid and ,virgil   
and ,horace2 he can echo ,voltaire1     
,goethe1 ,kant1 ,shakespeare1 ,dante2 he
 can dish up ,aristotle1 ,pythagoras1   
,bacon1 ,galileo1 ,newton1 ,lavoisier1  
,davy1 ,faraday and ,darwin4 ,he can    
borrow illustrations from classical     
mythology2 he knows the ,dynasties of   
ancient ,egypt2 and he is able to       
furnish1 without reference to history1  
the exact date upon which ,king ,john   
signed ,magna ,charta1 and the precise  
number of battles fought in the ,wars of
 the ,roses4  ,such are the literary    
accomplishments of numberless university
 graduates1 and it is small wonder that 
they often lead to the workhouse4 ,the  
demand for the dressed-up ideas of the  
poets1 philosophers1 and scientists of a
 former generation is not great4 ,those 

who like their literature at second hand
 prefer snippets from the ,newgate      
,calendar to the wise saws of ,bacon2   
and they would rather have their blood  
stirred by quotations from ',the ,charge
 of the ,light ,brigade1' or ',pay1 pay1
 pay1' than read a paraphrase of the    
combined wisdom of all the philosophers 
of the nineteenth century4  ,the same   
argument holds good in relation to other
 professions and occupations4 ,the      
university graduate has no practical    
accomplishments4 ,he may be an          
ornamental1 but he is certainly not ipso
 facto a useful1 member of society4 ,the
 only thing for which he is             
pre-eminently fitted is to assist       
others1 by means of extension lectures  
and cramming1 to be his companions in   
misfortune4 ,but this can hardly be     
designated a beneficial sphere of       
activity1 and he is handicapped in all  
he undertakes by the fact that thousands
 of others possess the same educational 
equipment as himself4  ,why should every

 educated man be like the other8 ,there 
is absolutely no reason for it4 ,the    
similarity is purely artificial4 ,nature
 never intended all men to be cast in   
the same mould1 and it is only the      
perversity of man himself that has      
brought the human race down to such a   
level4 ,the stupidity of giving every   
scholar the same mental outfit is so    
self-evident as scarcely to need further
 comment4 ,even following the modern    
plan of stuffing minds instead of       
developing them1 one would have thought 
that common sense would dictate the     
necessity of manufacturing as much      
variety as possible4  ,the whole trend  
of evolution is to differentiate2 and if
 natural laws were not completely       
disregarded by education systems1 the   
absurdity of filling the world with two 
or three human species instead of a     
hundred thousand would never have been  
perpetrated4 ,as long as this arbitrary 
interference with ,nature is continued1 
educated men will not cease to be a drug

 in the market4 ,its immediate effect is
 not to endow the individual with       
special qualities1 but to handicap him  
heavily for the real business of life4  
,competition amongst the 'well-educated'
 is not the result of over-population or
 of a too liberal supply of competent   
men4 ,it is caused by uniformity of     
attainment2 and until this is generally 
realized1 one of the most pressing      
social problems cannot hope to find a   
solution4     ,,chapter ,,ix  ,,woman',s
 ,,empire ,,over ,,man   ,men have      
always been reluctant to acknowledge the
 truth about woman's real position in   
the world4 ,they keep up a beautiful    
kind of masculine myth about the mastery
 of the sterner sex and their mental    
superiority1 and they talk of woman in a
 patronizing way as man's helpmate4     
,there is no doubt--it is a             
physiological fact--that man possesses  
more brain-power or capacity than woman4
 ,but woman has1 on the other hand1 an  
enormous advantage in the use to which  

she has put her mental machinery from   
time immemorial4 ,the truth is that     
women think out things for themselves a 
great deal more than does the average   
man4 ,as1 however1 they concentrate     
their attention for the most part on    
what are called the minor interests of  
life1 whilst men are occupied with      
bigger and more important things1 it has
 come to be accepted that the mind of   
woman is inferior to the mind of man4   
,in one sense this is true4             
,potentially1 woman's mind has not the  
capacity of man's4 ,one has only to look
 for female ,shakespeares1 ,newtons1    
,bismarcks1 ,raphaels1 and ,beethovens1 
to verify the fact beyond dispute4 ,but 
we are dealing here with existing       
circumstances1 not with potentialities4 
,therefore ,i have no hesitation in     
saying that1 as a general rule1 women   
use what brain power they have to much  
better advantage than men2 which amounts
 to a confession that woman1 apart from 
intellectual specialization1 is1 on the 

average1 man's mental superior4  ,this  
is a sweeping statement to make1 but it 
is made only in the interests of truth1 
and it admits of a great deal of        
plausible explanation4  ,man's mental   
training1 as has been fully pointed out1
 consists almost entirely in pouring    
facts into a vacuum created by the      
careful elimination of original thought4
 ,until recently1 women have not been   
subjected to this agreeable process4    
,for a very long time they were not     
educated at all1 and when governesses   
first came into fashion in better class 
families1 the idea was rather to endow  
girls with a few graceful               
accomplishments than to cram them with  
dates and other kinds of mechanical     
knowledge4  ,this tradition is still    
kept up to a certain degree in the      
higher social circles2 but there have   
also sprung up a large number of girls' 
colleges1 in which all the bad points of
 masculine education are carefully      
copied4 ,these colleges are frequented  

by girls of the upper and middle        
classes1 chiefly the latter1 and no     
doubt they are gradually working a      
revolution in feminine character4 ,but  
heredity--especially when it is1 within 
a generation or so1 the heredity of long
 ages--is a very potent factor in the   
formation of both mind and body1 and    
offers a steady resistance to           
innovation4 ,the full effects1          
therefore1 of this educational          
revolution in respect to womankind are  
not yet apparent4  ,the net result of   
this is that the majority of women are  
still addicted to thought4 ,facts have  
not yet entirely taken the place of     
ideas in their minds1 except in extreme 
cases which may be called exceptional1  
although it must be confessed that they 
are becoming every day less rare4 ,they 
think1 no doubt1 for the most part about
 the commonplace incidents of their     
daily life1 and possibly they are given 
too much to morbid introspection4 ,but  
anything that serves to make a human    

being exercise the function for which   
his brain was originally intended should
 be regarded with thankfulness4 ,it is a
 thousand times better for the          
development of the mind to speculate    
about the motives of acquaintances1 or  
to philosophize on the shortcomings of  
the maid-of-all-work1 than to babble off
 the dates of the ,sovereigns from      
,william the ,conqueror1 or to construe 
,horace's ,odes without taking in a     
syllable of their sense4  ,women have   
thus formed a habit of reflection about 
trifles1 which the more gifted amongst  
them extend to weightier topics4 ,and it
 is in this way that they are able to   
gain an ascendancy over man that is the 
more potent because it is unobtrusive4  
,the average woman sees things the      
subtleties of which escape man          
altogether1 and she perceives them      
because her mind has been trained1 by   
natural development1 to observation4    
,the average man1 on the other hand1 is 
the most unobservant creature under the 

sun4 ,he rarely understands even what is
 going on under his nose4 ,it is all    
very well to say that his superior mind 
is wrapt up in percentages1 or absorbed 
in grand schemes for the regeneration of
 mankind4 ,the plain truth is that he   
does not possess the faculty of applying
 his intelligence to everything within  
his range of observation4 ,evolution    
intended him to possess it2 but         
education systems1 which harbour very   
little respect for the laws of ,nature1 
have found ready means to curb the      
propensity or to destroy it altogether4 
,it is small matter for surprise1       
therefore1 that woman should have       
succeeded in subjecting man to an empire
 as autocratic as it is1 to all outward 
appearances1 unsuspected4 ,some people  
maintain that this empire is gained     
solely by physical attraction2 but this 
contention is disproved easily enough4  
,all women do not possess the charm of  
beauty2 yet there is scarcely a woman of
 any nationality1 or belonging to any   

station in life1 who does not exercise a
 more or less powerful influence over   
her menkind4  ,husbands are guided by   
their wives1 even in matters of business
 or affecting public interests1 far more
 than they are generally ready to       
acknowledge4 ,staying at a seaside hotel
 some time ago1 ,i made the acquaintance
 of a hard-headed ,lancashire merchant  
who had amassed a comfortable           
independence4 ,in an outburst of        
confidence he told me one day that he   
had never taken a single important step 
in the conduct of his business without  
consulting his wife1 and he also        
acknowledged that he had never had to   
regret asking her advice4  ,the moral of
 this story is the more significant when
 it is recollected that in such a case  
the wife has not had the same           
opportunities as her husband of forming 
a correct judgment4 ,the latter has the 
business details at his finger-ends2 he 
is acquainted with the person or persons
 with whom the dealings are taking      

place2 and he has his experience to fall
 back upon4 ,but somehow or other the   
wife seems to grasp all the points1 and 
to see more clearly into the motives of 
the person concerned4 ',why1' she will  
exclaim to her husband1 'can't you see  
that ,so-and-so is trying to bamboozle  
you8' ,and1 the scales falling from the 
deluded husband's eyes1 he suddenly     
makes the discovery that his wife thinks
 where his own powers of reflection are 
contented to remain dormant4  ,the fact 
is1 that the habit of thinking cannot be
 acquired through exercise in mental    
gymnastics4 ,philosophers1              
mathematicians1 and men of science are  
notoriously up in the clouds1 and       
incapable often to a remarkable degree  
of managing the affairs of everyday life
 with common sense4 ,yet these are the  
individuals who have been subjected to  
the highest form of what is called      
mental training4 ,if fact-cramming and  
mental gymnastics are the best          
developers of the human mind1 these men 

ought to be perfect models of           
intelligence4 ,but will any             
candid-minded person call it the highest
 form of intellectual development to    
have a clear conception of the          
precession of the equinoxes1 or to      
manufacture metaphysical conundrums1    
whilst remaining utterly incapable of   
applying common sense to human affairs  
that demand at least an equal amount of 
attention8  ,it is clear that this type 
of mental training does not teach people
 to think at all1 but has the contrary  
effect of restricting the intelligence  
to an altitude very far beyond the      
ordinary requirements of our social     
existence4 ,man may have a very broad   
horizon2 but the broader it becomes1 the
 further he seems to be transported from
 the capacity to exercise the normal    
functions of the brain4 ,to designate   
this the proper development of the mind 
would be manifestly absurd2 yet many    
people seem contented to regard it as   
such1 and accept the anomaly without    

giving its obvious contradictoriness a  
second thought4  ,of course it is not   
argued that woman's mental training is1 
or has been1 all that can be desired4   
,it is1 in her case1 more the neglect to
 apply severe educational methods1 than 
anything else1 that has permitted the   
negative development of her thinking    
faculties2 and this tends to demonstrate
 all the more conclusively that the real
 use of the brain is practically        
destroyed by conventional modes of      
instruction4  ,women1 left to their own 
devices for countless generations1 have 
acquired a faculty that all the         
education systems in the world have     
failed to pound into the mind of man4   
,it is their superiority in this respect
 that has given them far-reaching empire
 over the opposite sex4 ,that this      
should be generally appreciated is of   
the utmost importance1 because the      
modern metamorphosis of woman1 if       
rightly understood1 is the best         
conceivable object-lesson in the evils  

brought about by the educational methods
 of the present day4 ,it is not that the
 academically-trained woman threatens to
 push man out of his place in the world1
 but that she is herself in danger of   
losing the very weapon that has given   
her so large a share of power and       
influence4  ,a great deal of nonsense   
has been talked and written about the   
spectacled ,girton girl competing with  
men in knowledge1 at the expense of     
forfeiting their admiration and thereby 
losing her vantage-ground4 ,spectacles  
do not enter into the matter at all4 ,as
 has already been pointed out1 physical 
attraction has nothing1 or very little1 
to do with feminine wire-pulling4       
,women derive their real powers from a  
gift of trained observation1 and from   
the subtlety conferred upon them by the 
capacity to apply their intelligence to 
the numerous small matters which go to  
make up the sum of human life4 ,their   
minds will no longer develop these      
powers when they are systematically     

subjected to a process of education     
which has invariably failed to evoke    
them in the opposite sex4 ,and with the 
loss of them1 woman is bound also to    
lose the empire which she has hitherto  
exercised over masculine nature4  ,from 
this point of view alone1 the education 
of women on the modern system is much to
 be deplored4 ,there is no doubt that   
women in general have always exercised  
their predominant influence for the good
 of mankind4 ,striking exceptions might 
easily be adduced from history2 but1 on 
the whole1 it must be acknowledged that 
woman has seldom abused her power4      
,therefore1 anything that is calculated 
to undermine or destroy this favourable 
influence on human affairs cannot be    
regarded as otherwise than pernicious4  
,the more the idea spreads that girls   
must be given the same educational      
equipment as boys1 the more rapid will  
be the degeneration of woman4 ,it is a  
well-known fact in the medical          
profession that weakly boys are often   

unable to withstand the strain of school
 cramming2 therefore girls1 with their  
more delicate organization1 will suffer 
proportionately in a greater degree4    
,physical training1 of course1 obviates 
a great deal of this evil4 ,but the same
 thing is bound to happen in the case of
 girls as has already been experienced  
where boys are concerned2 that is to    
say1 the most promising intellects will 
be sacrificed1 partly through the       
ambition of the school authorities1     
whose principal anxiety is to see their 
pupils distinguish themselves in        
examinations1 and partly owing to the   
fact that exceptional ability so often  
implies a nervous temperament and       
delicate physique4  ,women1 it must be  
acknowledged1 by no means use their     
faculties of thinking and observation to
 the best advantage4 ,the conclusions at
 which they arrive are often far too    
definite1 and have been formed in too   
great haste4 ,so rapid is this operation
 of thought that it often becomes a mere

 intuition4 ,yet the remarkable accuracy
 of a woman's intuitions is evidence    
that there underlies them some          
intellectual process resting on a more  
solid basis than conjecture or          
guesswork4  ,it is the crude and        
untutored stage of development of the   
thinking faculty in woman that causes it
 to work intuitively1 instead of by the 
slower and sounder processes of logic4  
,to neglect a faculty is by no means    
synonymous with developing it4 ,hence   
woman's powers of thought and           
observation are embryonic rather than   
matured4 ,the work they perform is not a
 tithe of what would be accomplished by 
them under the auspices of judicious    
encouragement and skilled training4 ,the
 faculty has neither been destroyed by  
over-cramming nor fostered by           
enlightened treatment4 ,it has simply   
been allowed to lie more or less        
dormant1 according to the natural       
environment of the individual4  ,if man1
 with his superior brain capacity1 were 

encouraged to cultivate the habits of   
observation at present restricted to    
woman1 and to apply his intelligence to 
everything1 instead of to a few selected
 objects1 the ratio of the world's      
progress would be enormously increased4 
,who first started the notion that man  
is being manufactured into a superior   
article1 and that woman cannot do better
 than submit herself with all haste to  
the same process1 ,i do not know4 ,at   
any rate1 it is a disastrous doctrine1  
and the sooner the fallacy of it is     
perceived the more chance there will be 
of saving future generations of women   
from the blunder that is handicapping   
the masculine sex at the present moment4
  ,it would be a grand thing if         
educationists could be persuaded to open
 their eyes to the fact that women1     
having been providentially saved from   
school instruction for past generations1
 have been enabled to preserve mental   
faculties that no amount of cramming and
 corporal punishment has ever succeeded 

in awakening in man4 ,they would then   
cease from their ignorant attempt to    
deprive woman of her intellectual gift1 
and possibly even do something towards  
securing man a little mental room for   
the installation of his own thinking    
faculty4     ,,chapter ,x  ,,youth ,,and
 ,,crime   ,we now come to the          
consideration of an aspect of the       
educational problem that involves       
questions of great difficulty and       
importance4 ,the discussion has hitherto
 been limited to the lesser evils       
attributable to the forcing upon the    
masses of the people a useless and      
unsuitable kind of education4 ,but there
 are far graver possibilities than the  
mere unfitting of large numbers of      
individuals for the occupations their   
natural propensities intended them to   
pursue4  ,people are1 as has been       
pointed out1 driven by the stupidity of 
the teaching system into all kinds of   
uncongenial employment4 ,the suffering  
and waste caused by this constant       

production of the unfit are             
incalculable4 ,it is scarcely to be     
wondered at that some persons have      
formed the ingenious theory that this   
world is hell itself1 and that we are   
now actually undergoing our punishment  
in purgatory4 ,certainly there is some  
ground for the supposition in the fact  
that the lives of so many of us seem to 
have been ordered in direct opposition  
to our individual tastes and wishes4    
,this is bad enough4 ,the question we   
have to face now is whether we have not 
to thank education systems for something
 a great deal worse4 ,mere unhappiness  
is not necessarily soul-destroying4 ,but
 there is only too good reason to       
suppose that the evil effects of the    
mock education provided by the ,state do
 not stop at making its victims unhappy1
 but even go so far as to plunge a      
certain proportion of them into actual  
crime4  ,at the outset it must be       
acknowledged that the allegation is very
 difficult to prove4 ,no satisfactory   

evidence on the point is derivable from 
published statistics4 ,it is quite      
possible to determine by means of the   
latter how many young persons between   
the ages of twelve and twenty-one have  
been convicted of indictable offences   
during the year4 ,but everybody who is  
acquainted with criminology1 or who is  
conversant with the compilation of      
statistical information1 must be well   
aware of the futility of depending upon 
the apparently clear testimony of       
official figures4  ,it would be         
extremely useful to find out whether    
juvenile offenders have increased or    
decreased since the institution of      
compulsory education4 ,statistics       
relating to this subject are procurable1
 but it is impossible to place any      
reliance upon them4  ,in the first      
place1 there is nothing to show the     
cause of any such increase or decrease  
in the offences committed by young      
persons4 ,it may be due to a variety of 
circumstances1 none of which can be     

accurately determined4 ,for instance1 it
 is a well-known fact that youthful     
offenders have of late years been       
treated by magistrates with             
ever-increasing leniency4 ,consequently1
 fewer convictions take place now1 in   
regard to this class of offence1 than   
was the case some years ago4 ,the number
 of the convictions is1 therefore1 no   
guide at all as to the increasing or    
diminishing proportion of youthful      
criminals4  ,then there is the increased
 vigilance of the police1 which leads to
 the more frequent detection of crime2  
whilst1 as a set-off against this1 there
 is the fact that education teaches the 
criminal1 by assisting him to the       
reading of police-court reports and     
sensational storyettes1 to be more wary4
  ,besides these1 there is the important
 consideration that by far the larger   
number of young persons guilty of       
offences of various kinds are not       
prosecuted at all4 ,this is due to two  
causes3 firstly1 to the fact that in the

 majority of cases they are not found   
out2 and secondly1 that many people are 
reluctant to bring youthful offenders   
within the meshes of the criminal law1  
as a conviction1 whether or not it be   
followed by punishment1 generally spells
 ruin to the person who has been found  
guilty4  ,there may be1 and there       
probably are1 many other and even more  
substantial reasons for discrediting    
statistics that are commonplaces to     
experts in crime4 ,but those that have  
been cited1 and which are at once       
suggested by common sense1 fully suffice
 to show the impossibility of arriving  
at satisfactory conclusions on the basis
 of statistical tables published by the 
authorities4  ,the ,blue-book containing
 the latest judicial returns attempts to
 deal with this question of the increase
 or decrease of juvenile crime2 figures 
being only available1 however1 from the 
year #ahic4 ',to answer this question1' 
it is stated1 'it is necessary to       
ascertain the proportion which youthful 

offenders bear to the total number of   
convicted persons4 ,this is given in the
 following table1 where it will be seen 
that the proportion of offenders under  
the age of twenty-one remains almost    
constant3  ',,proportion ,,of ,,youthful
 ,,offenders ,,convicted ,,of           
,,indictable ,,offences ,,to ,,total    
,,number ,,of ,,persons ,,convicted4    
----------------------------------------
-----------------------------      ,age4
        #ahic4    #ahid4    #ahie4      
#ahif4    #ahig4    #ahih4              
----------------------------------------
-----------------------------           
,per cent4,per cent4,per cent4,per      
cent4,per cent4,per cent4    ,under #ab 
#d4f      #d4i      #d4f      #e4f      
#e4f      #e4f    #ab and under #af     
#ae4j     #ae4b     #ac4d     #ad4e     
#ad4j     #ad4e    #af and under #ba    
#ba4b     #bb4j     #ba4h     #ai4g     
#ai4e     #bj4b                         
----------------------------------------
----------------------------- ,total    

under #ba   #dj4h     #db4a     #ci4h   
#ci4h     #ci4a     #dj4c               
----------------------------------------
-----------------------------  ',the    
general result is that the number of    
youthful offenders has diminished with  
the general diminution of crime1 but    
that they still bear almost the same    
ratio as before to the total of         
criminals4'  ,all this is1 as has been  
pointed out1 absolutely misleading4 ,the
 number of persons convicted has nothing
 whatever to do with the increase or    
decrease of crime2 and the proportion of
 youthful offenders to the total number 
of persons convicted is only calculated1
 in view of the great amount of clemency
 shown to young people both by          
magistrates and by the public1 to give  
one a wholly false impression as to the 
prevalence of juvenile crime4  ,it would
 be easy to take the criminal statistics
 of foreign countries1 and to prove from
 them that the education of the masses  
there has brought about an overwhelming 

increase in the proportion of crimes and
 offences committed by young persons    
under the age of twenty-one4  ,in       
,germany1 ,austria1 ,france1 ,russia1   
,italy1 ,holland1 and the ,united       
,states juvenile crime has1 according to
 statistical information1 largely       
increased during the last quarter of a  
century4 ,but1 without making an        
exhaustive inquiry into the alterations 
that may have taken place in the law1   
the relative activity of the police1 and
 a dozen other contingencies1 it would  
not be honest to attempt to draw        
definite conclusions from these figures4
  ,one has1 after all1 in these matters 
to fall back upon logic and common      
sense4 ,there is the solid fact that    
youthful criminals abound in spite of   
education systems1 and although there is
 a considerable leakage in respect to   
school-attendance1 it does not follow   
that juvenile offenders are drawn from  
this truant class to a disproportionate 
extent4 ,it must be remembered1 on the  

contrary1 that a great amount of        
non-attendance at school is due to the  
employment of children--especially in   
rural districts1 where the members of   
,school ,boards are often the very      
people who extract most profit from     
child labour4  ,a prison chaplain of    
great experience1 the ,rev4 ,j4 ,w4     
,horsley1 wrote1 in his interesting work
 on ',prisons and ,prisoners'3 ',while  
covetousness is a factor of crime1 the  
tools education places in the hands make
 crimes of greed more possible1 and     
possible at an earlier age than in past 
generations4 ,this week ,i got the      
,church of ,england ,waifs and ,strays  
,society to take under its care a child 
of ten1 who had written1 filled up1 and 
cashed1 a postal order that it might buy
 more lollipops4 ,increased knowledge1  
especially when not adequately          
accompanied by moral and religious      
education1 will create new tastes1      
desires1 and ambitions1 that make for   
evil as well as for good4 ,let          

instruction abound1 let education in its
 fullest sense more abound1 but let us  
be aware of the increased power for evil
 as well as for good that they produce1 
and at any rate let us not imagine that 
education and crime cannot co-exist4    
,crime is varied1 not abolished1 not    
even most effectually decreased1 by the 
sharpening of wits4'  ,speaking of      
intemperance in relation to crime1 he   
states that3 ',brain-workers provide the
 most hopeless cases of dipsomania4     
,increased brain-power--more brain-work2
 more brain-exhaustion--more nervous    
desire for a stimulant1 more rapid      
succumbing to the alcoholic habit--these
 are the stages that can be noted       
everywhere among those who have had more
 schooling than their fathers4          
,australia consumes more alcohol per    
head than any nation4 ,in ,australia    
primary education is more universal than
 in ,england1 and yet there criminals   
have increased out of all proportion to 
the population4 ,of much crime1 of many 

forms of crime1 it is irrefragably true 
that crime is condensed alcohol1 and it 
is certainly not true that the          
absolutely or comparatively illiterate  
alone comprise those who swell these    
categories4'  ,i have taken pains to    
ascertain the opinions of several of the
 chaplains attached to the great convict
 prisons1 and they are practically      
unanimous in condemning the present     
system of education4  ',it is liable1'  
writes one of these experienced         
clergymen1 'to foster conceit1          
discontent1 a disinclination to submit  
to discipline and authority1 and a      
dangerous phase of ambition1 which are  
fruitful sources of that kind of crime  
which is in these days most             
prevalent4444 ,this superficial         
education causes1 ,i think1 self-deceit 
as well as self-conceit1 and makes young
 people imagine that because1 in        
addition to what they have learnt1 they 
can present a good outward appearance1  
they are qualified to fill any kind of  

appointment with success4  ',i think1   
also1' he goes on to say1 'that it leads
 them in their desire to rise in the    
social scale to attempt by dishonest    
means to live at a higher rate than is  
justifiable1 to gamble and speculate1 in
 order to keep up a false position4 ,i  
have come across those who have fallen  
where this has confessedly been the     
case1 and who have lamented that such   
wrong ideas had been put into their     
heads4 ,young people now look upon many 
honourable and useful employments as    
beneath them1 and there is a general    
rush for those which seem to offer a    
better social position4'  ,the          
conventional belief in the efficacy of  
cramming boys with moral platitudes and 
all kinds of commonplace facts and      
theoretical knowledge is so ingrained   
that there is a natural reluctance to   
ascribe any evil effects to the process 
of education4 ,i am contented1 however1 
to let the facts speak for themselves4  
,it cannot well be disputed that        

unsuitable education1 or sham education1
 or whatever one may like to call it1 is
 the direct cause of widespread         
dissatisfaction amongst the very classes
 from which the majority of criminals   
are recruited4 ,whilst vast numbers of  
people are constantly being unfitted for
 the commonest occupations of life1     
there must result an overcrowding of the
 callings which are considered suitable 
to the dignity of those who have eaten  
the unripe fruit of the elementary tree 
of knowledge4  ,it is self-evident that 
the unsuitably educated have much       
greater incentive to wrong-doing than   
the merely illiterate1 and it is also a 
corroborative fact that by far the      
greater proportion of criminals have    
been taught at least to read and write4 
,given two boys1 one of whom had        
acquired a smattering of facts at school
 and had learnt the ,catechism very     
perfectly by rote1 whilst the other had 
merely been encouraged to apply a little
 common sense to manual labour1 who     

would have any hesitation in pointing   
out the former as the more likely to    
fall into evil ways8  ,therein lies the 
supreme foolishness of modern methods of
 instruction4 ,all the moral aphorisms  
in the world will not help a boy to be  
honest if he is at the same time        
unfitted for his station in life4       
,people do not need moral instruction2  
they acquire all their morality in the  
school of life4 ,it is impossible to    
teach boys and girls theoretically to be
 virtuous4 ,all that can be done is to  
turn them into first-class hypocrites1  
ready to quote texts and to subscribe to
 the ,thirty-,nine ,articles1 whilst    
they are busy breaking the ,ten         
,commandments every day of the week4  ,a
 surprising amount of virtue would come 
into the world of its own accord if a   
little more pains were taken to preserve
 for each individual the environment to 
which he is adapted by nature4 ,this    
life has become such a mockery that     
people talk of heaven as a state in     

which every person will be free to do   
the things he likes best--as if that    
blissful condition were utterly         
unattainable here4  ,whilst such        
anomalies exist as those which curse the
 existence of the majority upon this    
earth1 criminals will continue to be    
produced4 ,and if we concede that these 
anomalies are directly or indirectly    
brought about by false and irrational   
methods of educating the youth of the   
country1 we must also allow that        
education helps to manufacture criminals
 and to encourage crime4     ,,chapter  
,,xi  ,,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 system4 ,the   
inquirer has to depend rather upon the  
logic of philosophical speculation than 
upon the testimony of our available     
statistics1 common sense being generally
 a far more truthful witness than       
figures that can be manipulated to mean 

almost anything4  ,but when we come to  
inquire into the physical evils that are
 produced by cramming and               
injudiciously-applied instruction1 it   
must be acknowledged that the evidence  
as to their existence rests upon a much 
more solid foundation4 ,clever brain    
specialists1 who have made a lifelong   
study of mental diseases and the causes 
of mental breakdown1 are in a position  
to state very definitely1 from actual   
experience1 whether or not the cramming 
system of modern education is productive
 of physical ill on a large scale4  ,we 
all of us know1 probably1 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 breakdown4  
,some are even aware of cases in which  
the unhappy victim of overwork has lost 
his reason altogether1 and has been     
compelled to be placed under restraint4 
,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 subject4
  ,in approaching this question1        
therefore1 ,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 nature4 ,accordingly1 ,i have   
consulted some of the greatest brain    
specialists in this country1 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 them4  ,to take the case of 
healthy children first1 it is           
satisfactory to learn upon high         
authority that they do not suffer much  
physical harm from the effects of       
overwork4 ,what happens in their case is
 that the vigorous and healthy brain    
offers a sound resistance to the        
stuffing process1 and speedily forgets  

what has been forced into it4 ,from an  
educational point of view this is1 of   
course1 very disastrous2 but as far as  
health considerations are concerned it  
affords a certain amount of consolation4
  ,this is to say1 one must bear in     
mind1 that modern methods of education  
are only salutary as long as they fail  
altogether to affect the intelligence4  
,the moment they prove themselves to be 
efficacious they become an immediate    
source of danger4  ,it follows from this
 fact that stupid children are as well  
protected against the evil effects of   
the education system as the healthy     
children4 ,in fact1 to a large extent   
the stupid children are the healthy ones
 by reason of their stupidity4 ,it is1  
however1 a great mistake to suppose that
 a stupid child necessarily implies one 
that is in any sense deficient mentally4
 ,the dull schoolboy often proves in    
after life to be the brilliant man4 ,all
 that his dulness need be taken to      
signify is that his mind is not         

receptive to the subjects which are     
being forced upon it4 ,linnus was very  
stupid at ,latin until an enlightened   
physician1 who was aware of his passion 
for botanical study1 suggested his      
reading ,plinius2 and although he may   
not have imbibed very accurate          
information about natural history from  
that philosopher1 he succeeded in making
 immediate progress in the ,latin       
language4  ,there should be1 under a    
rational system of education1 no such   
thing as a stupid child4 ,what is1 after
 all1 stupidity or dulness in a         
schoolboy8 ,it simply means that the    
boy's faculties are undeveloped1 and    
that no amount of fact-cramming has     
succeeded in developing them4 ,the whole
 mischief lies1 of course1 in the fact  
that the school is not trying to develop
 the boy's own faculties at all1 but    
merely to force him to adapt himself to 
its own curriculum and conventionality4 
,the danger to the brain of the healthy 
or stupid child is not over-development 

but under-development4 ,it is not they  
who suffer in the worst sense from the  
evil effects of over-education1 but the 
gifted children1 as they are called1 or 
those whose quick1 nervous intellects   
are most susceptible to the process of  
receiving any kind of instruction4  ,it 
is the nervous boy or girl who generally
 makes the most promising pupil4 ,a     
natural inclination to study leads      
children of this type to prefer the     
schoolroom to the playground4 ,the boy  
who works hard to get to the top of his 
class1 or to pass an examination1 or to 
obtain a scholarship1 is the one least  
given to games1 and1 in consequence1 the
 weakest physically4  ,these are the    
very children whom the teacher is most  
tempted to encourage to do more work    
than is good for them4 ,the process of  
their mental development is so rapid    
that it needs no stimulation from       
outside4 ,but that is not1              
unfortunately1 the concern of the school
 authorities4 ,the anxiety to produce   

scholars who will distinguish themselves
 in public examinations1 and thereby    
advertise the school1 invariably leads  
the schoolmaster to cram and stuff the  
brains of the brightest and most forward
 boys4  ,there is special danger in     
over-working boys or girls of this type1
 because the brain is not strong enough 
to withstand the pressure4 ,the result  
is never good1 and in extreme cases it  
is as bad as it could possibly be4 ,it  
follows1 in fact1 as a matter of course1
 that the finest and most sensitive     
intellects are the first to succumb to  
the pernicious effects of over-cramming 
the brain4 ,there is a strain that can  
only be endured by second-rate minds1   
and it is not1 therefore1 the           
intellectually fittest who are          
encouraged to survive under the present 
system4  ,what has been stated above    
refers rather to the higher class of    
schools and colleges1 which prepare boys
 for examinations and academic          
distinctions of various kinds1 than to  

the elementary schools to which the     
children of the poor are commandeered4  
,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 passing4  ,i  
refer to the forcing of instruction upon
 under-fed school-children4  ,apart from
 the gross inhumanity of the proceeding1
 there is the indisputable fact that the
 compulsory teaching of children whose  
bodies have not been properly nourished 
tends to weaken the intellect4 ,if these
 children were subjected to a process of
 cramming such as is usual in the higher
 schools1 their minds would undoubtedly 
break down altogether4 ,as it is1 the   
comparatively mild method of the        
elementary school does not effect       
anything worse in such cases than the   
prevention of the development of the    
mind1 which is one degree better than   
complete breakdown or insanity4  ',the  
,school ,board system of cramming with  

smatterings1' wrote one of the greatest 
mental specialists in the world in reply
 to my inquiries1 'instead of teaching  
their victims to think--even if only by 
teaching one subject well--is perhaps   
responsible for some positive mental    
breakdown2 but probably the main harm of
 it is that it stifles and strangles    
proper mental development4'             
',undeveloped mentality1' he says in    
conclusion1 'is perhaps the principal   
fault of our educational system         
7so-called74'  ,another distinguished   
physician writes to me from a lunatic   
asylum3  ',we have had a few cases who  
have broken down1 the results of working
 for scholarships2 also we have had one 
or two cases of ladies who have broken  
down working for higher examinations4   
,dr4 ---- and myself both feel certain  
that there is a good deal to be said    
against the increased pressure put upon 
young adolescents at schools4 ,from my  
own experience ,i know that boys who    
were considered especially clever1 and  

were high up in forms in the public     
school ,i was at1 have most of them now 
dropped back1 and are very mediocre4 ,on
 the other hand1 many who matured slowly
 have continued to advance4 ,this is    
only an observation1 and has many       
exceptions2 but it is an observation    
that1 as time passes1 is more fully     
confirmed4'  ,it is not necessary to add
 anything to these valuable expressions 
of opinion1 proceeding from eminent men 
of wide experience1 who are far more    
capable judges than the layman who has  
no scientific knowledge and a           
necessarily limited range of            
observation4  ,facts speak very         
eloquently for themselves4 ,if brain    
specialists are continually coming      
across cases of mental breakdown        
resulting from cramming or              
over-education1 it is quite clear that a
 system which is productive of such     
evils must be altogether defective in   
principle and wanting in common sense4  
,,chapter ,,xii  ,,evidence ,,of        

,,history   ,after an exhaustive inquiry
 into the multifarious evils which must 
be laid at the door of education1 it is 
refreshing to turn to history for       
illustrious examples of men who not only
 did not owe their greatness to academic
 training1 but who actually owed it to  
what would nowadays be designated a     
neglected education4  ,the chronicles of
 the past teem with instances of youths 
who have developed into brilliant men1  
in spite of the fact that they had      
either had no schooling at all1 or had  
been considered the dunces of their     
class4 ,it would1 in fact1 be far more  
difficult to supply illustrations of    
great men who have succeeded on account 
of their academic distinction1 than to  
give examples of those who failed to    
distinguish themselves at school1 but   
who nevertheless became famous          
afterwards as men of unusual talent4    
,when ,napoleon ,bonaparte1 at the age  
of fifteen1 left the military college of
 ,brienne1 where he had been a pupil for

 five years and a half1 the inspector of
 military schools gave him the following
 certificate3  ',m4 de ,buonaparte      
7,napoleon71 born ,august #ae1 #agfi2   
height #d feet #aj inches #aj lines2 is 
in the fourth class2 has a good         
constitution1 excellent health1         
character obedient1 upright1 grateful1  
conduct very regular2 has always been   
distinguished by his application to     
mathematics4 ,he knows history and      
geography very passably4 ,he is not well
 up in ornamental studies or in ,latin1 
in which he is only in the fourth class4
 ,he will be an excellent sailor4 ,he   
deserves to be passed on to the military
 school of ,paris4'  ,this was an       
optimistic description of the youthful  
,napoleon's accomplishments1 for he was1
 as a matter of fact1 so backward in    
,latin that his removal to ,paris was   
opposed by the sub-principal of the     
college4 ,according to the testimony of 
his schoolfellow and biographer1 ,m4 de 
,bourrienne1 he exhibited backwardness  

in every branch of education except     
mathematics1 for which he showed a      
distinct natural bent4  ,the only       
professor at ,brienne who took any      
notice of ,napoleon was the mathematical
 master4 ,the others thought him stupid 
because he had no taste for the study of
 languages1 literature1 and the various 
subjects that formed the curriculum of  
the establishment2 and as there seemed  
no chance of his becoming a scholar1    
they took no interest in him4  ',his    
superior intelligence was1 however1     
sufficiently perceptible1' writes ,m4 de
 ,bourrienne1 'even through the reserve 
under which it was veiled4 ,if the monks
 to whom the superintendence of the     
establishment was confided had          
understood the organization of his mind1
 if they had engaged more able          
mathematical professors1 or if we had   
had any incitement to the study of      
chemistry1 natural philosophy1          
astronomy1 etc41 ,i am convinced that   
,bonaparte would have pursued these     

sciences with all the genius and spirit 
of investigation which he displayed in a
 career more brilliant1 it is true1 but 
less useful to mankind4 ,unfortunately1 
the monks did not perceive this1 and    
were too poor to pay for good           
masters4444 ,the often-repeated         
assertion of ,bonaparte having received 
a careful education at ,brienne is      
therefore untrue4'  ,napoleon's military
 bent showed itself whilst he was at the
 ,college of ,brienne4 ,heavy snow fell 
during one winter1 and prevented him    
from taking the solitary walks that were
 his chief recreation4 ,he therefore    
fell back upon the expedient of getting 
his school companions to dig trenches   
and build snow fortifications4 ',this   
being done1' he said1 'we may divide    
ourselves into sections1 form a siege1  
and ,i will undertake to direct the     
attacks4' ,in this way he organized a   
sham war that was carried on with great 
success for a fortnight4  ,this brief   
sketch of ,napoleon ,bonaparte's        

schooldays has been given in order to   
show that the development of his genius 
owed nothing to academic training4      
,without being actually a dunce1 he was 
backward in all the subjects except the 
one in which he took a vivid interest2  
and1 doubtless1 had he cared as little  
for mathematics as for ,latin1 he would 
have left ,brienne with a reputation for
 profound stupidity4  ,the school career
 of his great opponent1 ,wellington1 was
 even less distinguished4 ,tradition has
 handed down to posterity no further    
details regarding his ,eton days beyond 
the record of a fight with ,sydney      
,smith's elder brother ',bobus4'        
,alluding to him as a dull boy1 ,mr4    
,smiles states1 in a footnote1 in his   
book on ',self-,help'3 ',a writer in the
 ,edinburgh ,review 7,july1 #ahei7      
observes that the ,duke's talents seem  
never to have developed themselves until
 some active and practical field for    
their display was placed immediately    
before him4 ,he was long described by   

his ,spartan mother1 who thought him a  
dunce1 as only 'food for powder4' ,he   
gained no sort of distinction1 either at
 ,eton or at the ,french ,military      
,college of ,angiers4 ,it is not        
improbable that a competitive           
examination1 at this day1 might have    
excluded him from the army4'  ,lord     
,clive was a perfectly hopeless youth   
from the schoolmaster's point of view4  
,he loathed work1 and was always up to  
some prank or other4 ,in the vain hope  
of inducing him to learn something1 he  
was sent to four schools in succession2 
but1 with a single exception1 every     
master under whom he was placed declared
 him to be an incorrigible idler4 ,the  
exception was ,dr4 ,eaton of ,lostock1  
who predicted a great career for ,clive1
 provided an opportunity were afforded  
him for the exercise of his talents4    
,at ,market ,drayton he amused himself  
by organizing a band of idle scamps1 who
 went about threatening to smash the    
windows of tradespeople unless they paid

 a fine of apples or pence2 and on one  
occasion he alarmed the inhabitants of  
the town by climbing a church steeple   
and seating himself upon a stone spout  
near the top4  ,a man of the same stamp 
who received the scantiest education was
 ,george ,washington4 ,he is described  
as having been given a common-school    
education1 with a little mathematical   
training1 but no instruction whatever in
 ancient or modern languages4           
,christopher ,columbus1 another         
adventurous spirit1 owed very little to 
his schooling4 ',he soon evinced a      
strong passion for geographical         
knowledge1' writes ,washington ,irving  
in his interesting ,life of the         
explorer1 'and an irresistible          
inclination for the sea4444 ,his father1
 seeing the bent of his mind1           
endeavoured to give him an education    
suitable for maritime life4 ,he sent    
him1 therefore1 to the university of    
,pavia1 where he was instructed in      
geometry1 geography1 astronomy and      

navigation4444 ,he remained but a short 
time at ,pavia1 barely sufficient to    
give him the rudiments of the necessary 
sciences2 the thorough acquaintance with
 them which he displayed in after-life  
must have been the result of diligent   
self-schooling1 and of casual hours of  
study amidst the cares and vicissitudes 
of a rugged and wandering life4'  ,no   
better instance of the advantage of     
natural development and self-culture    
could be afforded than by the career of 
,dr4 ,livingstone4 ,working in a cotton 
factory as a boy of ten1 he studied     
scientific works and books of travel1   
besides the classics1 not only at night1
 but during the hours of labour4        
',looking back now at that life of      
toil1' he wrote afterwards1 ',i cannot  
but feel thankful that it formed such a 
material part of my early education2    
and1 were it possible1 ,i should like to
 begin life over again in the same lowly
 style1 and to pass through the same    
hardy training4'  ,dr4 ,adam ,clarke1   

the celebrated divine1 scholar1 and     
philanthropist1 was a regular dunce in  
his early youth4 ,it was only with      
difficulty1 and an undue proportion of  
whacking1 that the elements of the      
alphabet were driven into his head by an
 impatient teacher--a mode of           
instruction that probably caused him to 
remark1 in after life1 that 'many       
children1 not naturally dull1 have      
become so under the influence of the    
schoolmaster4'  ,it is related of ,dr4  
,clarke that when he reached the middle 
of ',as in prsenti1' in ,lilly's ,latin 
,grammar1 he came to a dead stop and    
could get no further4 ,his              
fellow-pupils1 however1 jeered him to   
such an extent that he determined to go 
on and conquer the difficulty4 ,and this
 resolution seems to have helped him    
considerably1 as1 instead of the grammar
 being forced into him1 he began to     
study and think for himself4            
,nevertheless1 he always found great    
difficulty in learning anything at      

school1 but was passionately devoted to 
reading imaginative books and stories of
 adventure1 such as ',jack the          
,giant-killer1' ',arabian ,nights1'     
',the ,pilgrim's ,progress1' ',sir      
,francis ,drake1' and a host of similar 
works4 ,to these1 in fact1 and not to   
his painfully acquired school education1
 he was wont to attribute the formation 
of his literary taste4  ,disraeli's     
education was by no means thorough4     
,there is no record of his having       
distinguished himself academically in   
the slightest degree4 ,it is related of 
him1 on the contrary1 that he was such a
 duffer at classics as to be incapable  
of grasping the rule that 'ut' should be
 followed by the subjunctive mood4 ,the 
following account of ,disraeli's        
schooldays1 given by one of his         
school-fellows1 is quoted by ,sir       
,william ,fraser3  ',i cannot say that  
,benjamin ,disraeli at this period of   
his life exhibited any unusual zeal for 
classical studies2 and ,i doubt whether 

his attainments in this direction1 when 
he left the school for ,mr4 ,cogan's at 
,walthamstow1 reached higher than the   
usual grind in ,livy and ,csar4 ,but ,i 
well remember that he was the compiler  
and editor of a school newspaper1 which 
made its appearance on ,saturdays1 when 
the gingerbread-seller was also to be   
seen1 and that the right of perusal was 
estimated at the cost of a sheet of     
gingerbread1 the money value of which   
was in those days the third of a penny4'
  ,turning to literary men1 we find an  
imposing array of dunces4 ,i have not   
had time to examine into the school     
experiences of more than a limited      
number of great names4 ,if the reader is
 anxious to pursue the investigation    
further1 he will doubtless find that    
there is scarcely a famous man of       
letters who made his mark at school or  
university4  ,the first person to teach 
,oliver ,goldsmith his letters was a    
woman1 who afterwards became village    
schoolmistress1 named ,elizabeth ,delap4

 ,she did not form a very flattering    
opinion of her young pupil4 ',never was 
so dull a boy1' she was wont to declare2
 'he seemed impenetrably stupid4' ,from 
this kind but undiscriminating teacher  
,oliver gravitated to the village       
school1 where he learnt nothing4 ,thence
 he was sent to ,elphin2 and of this    
period of his school life ,dr4 ,strean  
says3 ',he was considered by his        
contemporaries and school-fellows1 with 
whom ,i have often conversed on the     
subject1 as a stupid heavy blockhead1   
little better than a fool1 whom every   
one made fun of4'  ,goldsmith has       
himself1 in his ',inquiry into the      
,present ,state of ,polite ,learning1'  
recorded some very striking impressions 
as to the value of academic success4 ',a
 lad whose passions are not strong      
enough in youth1' he writes1 'to mislead
 him from that path of science which his
 tutors1 and not his inclination1 have  
chalked out1 by four or five years'     
perseverance1 probably obtains every    

advantage and honour his college can    
bestow4 ,i forget whether the simile has
 been used before1 but ,i would compare 
the man whose youth has been thus passed
 in the tranquillity of dispassionate   
prudence to liquors that never ferment1 
and consequently continue always muddy4 
,passions may raise a commotion in the  
youthful breast1 but they disturb only  
to refine it4 ,however this be1 mean    
talents are often rewarded in colleges  
with an easy subsistence4'  ,another    
'impenetrable dunce1' according to the  
opinion of his tutor1 an eminent ,dublin
 scholar1 was ,richard ,sheridan4 ,he   
was afterwards sent to ,harrow1 where he
 earned for himself a great reputation  
for idleness4 ,dr4 ,parr1 one of the    
under-masters1 wrote to ,sheridan's     
biographer the following expression of  
opinion3  ',there was little in his     
boyhood worth communication4 ,he was    
inferior to many of his schoolfellows in
 the ordinary business of a school1 and 
,i do not remember any one instance in  

which he distinguished himself by ,latin
 or ,english composition1 in prose or   
verse4444 ,he was at the uppermost part 
of the fifth form1 but he never reached 
the sixth1 and1 if ,i mistake not1 he   
had no opportunity of attending the most
 difficult and the most honourable of   
school business1 when the ,greek plays  
were taught--and it was the custom at   
,harrow to teach these at least every   
year4 ,he went through his lessons in   
,horace and ,virgil and ,homer well     
enough for a time4 ,but1 in the absence 
of the upper master1 ,dr4 ,sumner1 it   
once fell in my way to instruct the two 
upper forms1 and upon calling up ,dick  
,sheridan1 ,i found him not only        
slovenly in construing1 but unusually   
defective in his ,greek grammar4444 ,i  
ought to have told you that ,richard1   
when a boy1 was a great reader of       
,english poetry2 but his exercises      
afforded no proof of his proficiency4'  
,the latter statement speaks volumes for
 a method of teaching which failed to   

evoke1 even in such a master of ,english
 literature as ,sheridan eventually     
proved himself to be1 a proper          
development of his greatest talent4 ,no 
doubt the exercises in which so little  
proficiency was shown were compulsorily 
executed against the grain1 being of    
such a pedantic character that no sane  
schoolboy could possibly be found to    
evince the smallest interest in them4   
,dean ,swift and ,sir ,walter ,scott    
were both dull boys4 ,the former says of
 himself that he was 'stopped of his    
degree for dulness and insufficiency4'  
,scott1 in his autobiographical sketch1 
does not make himself out to have been  
the dunce that he really was supposed to
 be at school4 ,if not bright at his    
lessons1 however1 he was certainly      
clever in other ways and capable of     
thinking for himself4 ,an excellent     
illustration of this is contained in the
 story that though ,scott1 as a boy1    
used invariably to go to sleep in church
 in the course of the sermon1 yet1 when 

questioned about the latter afterwards1 
he was generally able to sketch out most
 of the points dwelt upon by the        
preacher--the explanation being1 of     
course1 that1 given the text1 he was    
able to follow the probable train of    
thought inspired by its wording4        
,summing up ,scott's attainments1 a     
biographer gives expression to the      
opinion that he was 'self-educated in   
every branch of knowledge he ever turned
 to account in the works of his genius4'
  ,neither ,burns nor ,carlyle was a    
scholar4 ,the former received a         
grounding in grammar1 reading1 and      
writing4 ,he acquired a little ,french1 
but learnt no ,latin at all4 ,whatever  
he knew he owed to the fact that he     
exercised his own taste for knowledge by
 choosing his own books and devouring   
only what appealed to his mind4         
,carlyle1 like many another famous man  
of letters1 had little ,latin and less  
,greek4 ',in the classical field1' he   
wrote1 ',i am truly as nothing4' ,for   

mathematics he showed a certain amount  
of inclination1 but even in that field  
did not succeed in carrying off any     
prizes4 ,his own opinion of a           
conventional education is very tersely  
rendered by his exclamation3 ',academia6
 ,high ,school instructors of youth6    
,oh1 ye unspeakable6'  ,the poet        
,wordsworth was educated at the grammar 
school at ,hawkshead4 ,he always        
declared that the great merit of the    
school was the liberty allowed to the   
scholars4 ,no attempt was made to cram  
or to produce model pupils4 ,within     
limits they appear1 in fact1 to have    
been allowed to read precisely what they
 pleased4 ,in this way ,wordsworth      
received in every sense of the term a   
liberal education2 and when he went to  
,cambridge1 'he enjoyed even more       
thoroughly than at ,hawkshead whatever  
advantages might be derived from the    
neglect of his teachers4'  ,the poet had
 a great contempt for academical        
training1 and refused to go through the 

usual ,cambridge course4 ,he finally    
graduated as ,b4,a4 without honours1    
afterwards recording his indifference to
 academic distinction in the well-known 
lines3      ,of ,college labours1 of the
 ,lecturer's room1     ,all studded     
round1 as thick as chairs could stand1  
,with loyal students faithful to their  
books1     ,half-and-half idlers1 hardy 
recusants1     ,and honest dunces--of   
important days1     ,examinations1 when 
the man was weighed     ,as in a        
balance6 ,of excessive hopes1           
,tremblings withal and commendable      
fears1     ,small jealousies1 and       
triumphs good or bad--     ,let others  
that know more speak as they know4      
,such glory was but little sought by me1
     ,and little won4  ,more forcibly   
expressed was ,rousseau's derision of   
ordinary educational methods4 ,writing  
in his ',confessions' about the school  
days of his cousin and himself1 he says3
 ',we were sent together to ,bossey1 to 
board with the ,protestant minister     

,lambercier1 in order to learn1 together
 with ,latin1 all the sorry trash which 
is included under the name of           
education4444 ,m4 ,lambercier was a very
 intelligent person who1 without        
neglecting our education1 never imposed 
excessive tasks upon us4 ,the fact that1
 in spite of my dislike to restraint1 ,i
 have never recalled my hours of study  
with any feeling of disgust1 and also   
that1 even if ,i did not learn much from
 him1 ,i learnt without difficulty what 
,i did learn1 and never forgot it1 is   
sufficient proof that his system of     
instruction was a good one4'  ,as far as
 the history of science is concerned1   
there is a long array of self-cultured  
men to whom most of the discoveries that
 have been made are due4 ,in no other   
occupation is the faculty of thinking   
originally and independently more       
essential than in the pursuit of        
scientific knowledge1 and it is         
significant that amongst famous         
scientists more instances are to be     

found of men who owe nothing to school  
instruction or academic training than in
 almost any other walk of life4  ,in    
this connection mention has already been
 made of the famous botanist ,linnus4   
,the whole of his school life was one   
unremitting protest against the usual   
educational methods of endeavouring to  
force the mind away from its natural    
bent4 ,linnus detested metaphysics1     
,latin1 ,greek1 and every subject except
 physics and mathematics1 in which he   
usually outstripped his fellow-pupils4  
,but his nose was kept to the grindstone
 until the authorities informed his     
father that he was not fit for a learned
 education1 and recommended his being   
given some manual employment4 ,thus were
 twelve precious years of the life of   
one of the most gifted men of science1  
save for what he accomplished out of    
school hours1 wasted to no purpose4 ,it 
is not to be wondered at that he spoke  
of one of his masters as 'a passionate  
and morose man1 better calculated for   

extinguishing a youth's talents than for
 improving them4'  ,one of the greatest 
anatomists that ever lived1 ,john       
,hunter1 who numbered ,dr4 ,jenner      
amongst his pupils1 was scarcely        
educated at all for the first twenty    
years of his life4 ,mr4 ,smiles states  
that 'it was with difficulty that he    
acquired the arts of reading and        
writing4' ,originally a carpenter1 he   
became assistant to his brother1 who was
 established in ,london as a surgeon4   
,he acquired all his knowledge of       
anatomy in the dissecting-room1 and owed
 everything he had learnt to his own    
hard work and habit of thinking things  
out for himself4  ',the brilliant ,sir  
,humphry ,davy1' says ,mr4 ,smiles1 'was
 no cleverer than other boys4 ,his      
teacher1 ,dr4 ,cardew1 once said of him1
 ,while he was with me ,i could not     
discern the faculties by which he was so
 much distinguished4 ,indeed1 ,davy     
himself in after life considered it     
fortunate that he had been left to enjoy

 so much idleness at school4'  ,newton  
was always at the bottom of his class1  
until he suddenly took it into his head 
to give a boy1 whom he had already      
thrashed in another sense1 an           
intellectual beating4 ',it is very      
probable1' writes ,sir ,david ,brewster 
in his biography1 'that ,newton's       
idleness arose from the occupation of   
his mind with subjects in which he felt 
a deeper interest4' ,nobody could have  
penned a more incisive indictment       
against the imbecility of an education  
system that forces all boys1            
irrespective of their wishes or talents1
 into a fixed groove4 ,it was ,newton   
who1 in answer to an inquiry as to how  
the principle of gravity was discovered1
 replied3 ',by always thinking of it4'  
,when ,watt1 as a boy1 was engaged in   
investigating the condensation of steam1
 his aunt1 who was sitting with him at  
the tea-table1 exclaimed3  ',james1 ,i  
never saw such an idle boy6 ,take a book
 or employ yourself usefully4 ,for the  

last half hour you have not spoken a    
word1 but taken off the lid of that     
kettle and put it on again1 holding now 
a cup and now a silver spoon over the   
steam1 watching how it rises from the   
spout1 and counting the drops of water4'
  ,in this sympathetic way children are 
usually encouraged to think by their    
elders4 ,watt's faculties were developed
 entirely at home4 ,he was sent to a    
public elementary school in ,scotland2  
but1 fortunately for science1 he was so 
delicate that he was nearly always      
absent through indisposition4 ,a        
visitor1 who found the boy drawing lines
 and circles on the hearth with a piece 
of coloured chalk1 once remonstrated    
with ,mr4 ,james ,watt1 senior1 for     
allowing his son to waste his time at   
home4 ,watt had the good fortune1       
however1 to possess an intelligent      
father1 who encouraged the boy as far as
 it lay in his power4  ,left to his own 
devices1 ,watt not only contrived to    
make himself the foremost engineer of   

his time1 but he also developed his     
talents in many other directions4 ,sir  
,walter ,scott says of him that 'his    
talents and fancy overflowed on every   
subject4' ,and ,m4 ,arago1 the ,french  
scientist1 in his memoir of ,watt1      
expresses the view that the latter1 in  
spite of his excellent memory1 'might1  
nevertheless1 not have peculiarly       
distinguished himself among the youthful
 prodigies of ordinary schools4 ,he     
could never have learned his lessons    
like a parrot1 for he experienced a     
necessity of carefully elaborating the  
intellectual elements presented to his  
attention1 and ,nature had peculiarly   
endowed him with the faculty of         
meditation4'  ,this is only a roundabout
 way of saying that the conventional    
process of cramming would have destroyed
 the fine intellectual faculties        
possessed by ,watt4 ,but if in his case1
 why not in that of another8 ,that is   
the strange thing about the light shed  
upon educational problems by cases like 

that of ,watt1 ,newton1 and other men of
 commanding genius4 ,people only        
perceive in it a half-truth4 ,they think
 that it is only in these exceptional   
instances that the mind is incapable of 
being developed by ordinary             
rough-and-ready methods4  ,upon what    
grounds is such an absurd deduction     
founded8 ,it is true that individuals   
differ widely as to the capabilities of 
their mental machinery2 but it does not 
follow that the intellectual fibre of   
one person is more delicate than that of
 another4  ,the difference is not       
mental1 but physical4 ,it is because a  
boy is healthy1 and not because his     
intellectual fibre is coarse1 that he is
 better able to withstand the strain of 
an educational training than a weaker   
and more nervous boy4  ,until the       
discovery is made that all minds are    
sensitive1 when they have been actually 
reached1 people will go on ignorantly   
destroying the finer faculties under the
 impression that genius or talent is a  

very rare thing1 and can always shift   
for itself4  ,yet1 as ,i have attempted 
to show1 the evidence of history points 
conclusively to the fact that the       
contrary is the case4  ,is it really    
supposed that the great names that have 
been handed down to posterity represent 
all the genius to which the world has   
given birth8  ,the idea is preposterous4
  ,for every man of genius or talent who
 has been permitted to survive1         
education systems have killed a hundred4
  ,if it had not been for ,dr4          
,rothmann1 there would probably have    
been no ,linnus to revolutionize the    
system of botanical classification4 ,had
 tyrannical parents and schoolmasters   
compelled ,watt and ,newton to give up  
mechanics and scientific study for a    
thorough cramming in ,latin grammar and 
,greek roots1 we might to-day be without
 a steam-engine or a theory of the law  
of gravitation4 ,even the genius of     
,napoleon and ,wellington might easily  
have been crushed under the auspices of 

a modern competitive examination4       
,would stupid ,oliver ,goldsmith have   
written his immortal ',vicar of         
,wakefield' and ',she ,stoops to        
,conquer1' or would idle ,sheridan have 
penned the exquisite comedies that have 
not to this day been approached by any  
subsequent writer1 if their idleness and
 stupidity had been submitted to the    
test of an enforced academic training   
for classical or mathematical honours8  
,surely the evidence of history points  
to only one conclusion--namely1 that all
 the genius in the world cannot survive 
the hopeless imbecility of educational  
methods1 except by successfully dodging 
them through stupidity and idleness1    
whilst the faculties develop themselves 
at stolen intervals4     ,,chapter      
,,xiii  ,,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 world4 ,have these        
educational methods a definite          

objective1 or is their sole purpose the 
production of scholars manufactured en  
bloc8  ,these are important questions   
that need careful answering4 ,upon the  
face of it1 there is no doubt that in   
this country1 at least1 educational     
establishments have1 up to the present1 
aimed only at turning out scholars of   
certain intellectual types4 ,the result 
of this process has been shown in the   
preceding pages to be sufficiently      
disastrous in its effects upon its      
victims4 ,there are1 in fact1 few social
 evils which cannot be traced1 directly 
or indirectly1 to its agency4  ,but as  
yet there has been no dominant          
motive-power1 working invisibly towards 
a definite end1 behind the educational  
machinery of the country4  ,a general   
feeling has been fomented of late1      
however1 that all education1 from the   
lowest step to the highest1 ought to be 
co-ordinated and organized into a single
 piece of ,state-directed machinery4    
,the danger of this can only be         

appreciated by an examination of the    
effects already produced by such a      
system in other countries4  ,germany    
offers in this connection the best      
possible example4 ,the interference of  
the ,state in educational matters has   
there been brought to perfection4       
,absolute control is exercised by the   
,government in everything appertaining  
to the instruction of youth all over    
,germany4 ,the ,emperor has become so   
autocratic in the exercise of this      
control in the kingdom of ,prussia1 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 market4  ,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 put4 ,one of the first acts of the  
,emperor ,william ,,ii41 on succeeding  
to the throne1 was to issue the most    

plain-spoken instructions to the        
,government of ,prussia in reference to 
,state interference with the schools for
 political purposes4  ',for a long      
time1' it was declared in the royal     
decree1,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 ideas4444 ,the history of   
modern times down to the present day    
must be introduced more than hitherto   
into the curriculum1 and the pupils must
 be shown that the executive power of   
the ,state alone can protect for each   
individual his family1 his freedom1 and 
his rights4'      ,a ,for information on
 this and many other points connected   
with     the subject of education in    
,prussia1 ,i am indebted to ,mr4        
,michael     ,e4 ,sadler's special      
report to the ,board of ,education on   
',problems     in ,prussian ,secondary  
,education for ,boys4'  ,later on       
follows the recommendation that1 'by    

striking references to actual facts1 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          
individual1 both as a citizen and as a  
worker2 that1 on the other hand1 the    
doctrines of social democracy are1 in   
point of fact1 infeasible2 and that1 if 
they were put into practice1 the liberty
 of each individual would be subjected  
to intolerable restraint1 even within   
the very circle of the home4 ,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    
young4'  ,the danger of this direct     
,state control is obvious4 ,it renders  
all liberty of thought absolutely       
impossible4 ,politics1 religion1 social 
views--all are systematically worked    
into the curriculum for the object of   

stifling independent ideas1 criticisms1 
and whatever else may be of value to the
 interests of the community at large1   
although possibly highly inconvenient to
 the established order4  ,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 constitution1 is exactly the   
way in which to bring about the decay of
 both ,government and country4 ,merely  
from a political standpoint1 therefore1 
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 criticism4   
,it is equally clear that1 wherever the 
,government possesses this power1 it    
will use it as far as is practicable for
 the purpose of self-preservation4      
,almost for a century the ,prussian     
authorities have been getting the       
control of their national schools more  
and more into their own hands4 ,they    
have now succeeded in bringing the      

application of the theory of ,state     
interference to the high-water mark of  
practicability4 ,from the rudiments of  
the alphabet to the history of          
economics1 everything in the ,prussian  
curriculum may be suspected of serving  
some political purpose4 ,the schoolboy  
is regarded by the authorities as a mere
 pawn1 to be moved on the national board
 in strict accordance with the political
 necessities of the hour4  ,for some    
years past1 the attention of ,prussia   
and of the whole ,german ,empire has    
been concentrated upon the commercial   
rivalry of the different nations of the 
world4 ,the chief1 if not the sole1     
educational aim has been to produce a   
percentage-calculating machine on a     
wholesale plan1 equipped with certain   
devices for the successful carrying on  
of trade4 ,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-operation4 ,everything of late    
years has been subordinated to this     
design4  ,the commercial success of the 
scheme has been notorious4 ,german      
manufacturers have been gaining ground  
in all parts of the world4 ,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 supreme1 and  
with significant statistics that show   
the rapid advance of ,german commercial 
enterprise4  ,but it does not follow1   
because ,germany seems to have shot     
ahead of us by leaps and bounds of late 
years1 that she has adopted sound means 
to accomplish this end4 ,on the         
contrary1 if the expedients by which    
this commercial supremacy has been      
attained are an exaggeration of the     
worst evils of education systems1 then  
,germany has started upon a downward    
path which must eventually lead her to  
the brink of ruin4  ,and this is        
precisely the case4 ,cramming has been  

brought throughout ,germany to the level
 of a fine art4 ,it is done1 ,i must    
confess--for ,i was myself subjected to 
the process for some years--more        
completely and effectively than in this 
country4 ,that is to say1 the pupil is  
not crammed in such an idiotic fashion  
that he forgets all that has been       
stuffed into him immediately he has left
 school4 ,the drilling1 however wrong it
 may be in principle1 is thorough       
enough1 in all conscience4 ,it may be1  
as it is elsewhere1 the pestle and      
mortar system4 ,but at least the pestle 
is applied consistently1 and each       
ingredient is perfectly mixed before the
 next component is introduced4  ,if1    
therefore1 the object of education be to
 produce an article of a certain type or
 consistency1 then the ,prussian school 
stands far in advance of our own        
cramming institutions4 ,it may well be  
taken in that case as a model for us to 
copy4  ,people should1 however1 ask     
themselves these questions3 ,is it      

international commercial rivalry that   
produces the necessity of a ,state      
system of education to equip the nation 
for the struggle8 ,or is it the ,state  
system of education1 with its organized 
attempt to manufacture a race of        
traders1 which has artificially created 
the state of commercial warfare into    
which we are rapidly drifting8  ,the    
answer seems to me to be plain enough4  
,the individuality of individuals is    
rapidly disappearing throughout that    
part of the world which has chosen to   
subject itself to uniform education     
systems4 ,one ,englishman is much like  
another1 in the same way that ,russians1
 or ,germans1 or ,frenchmen resemble    
each other4 ,in other words1 the only   
individuality which education is leaving
 us is that of nationality2 and the     
reason of this is because the manners1  
the customs1 and the school systems of  
various countries still differ to a     
certain extent4  ,instead1 therefore1 of
 the individual competing against the   

individual1 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 world4 ,and this is no mere      
natural outcome of evolution4 ,germany1 
with her extraordinary cuteness and     
foresight1 invented the game for her own
 benefit a generation or two ago4 ,she  
has spent the best part of half a       
century equipping herself1 hand over    
fist1 for this kind of commercial       
contest4  ,but what is she sacrificing  
in order to obtain this triumph of the  
trader8  ,there cannot be a question    
that she is deliberately and            
systematically throwing away the most   
precious of all human possessions--the  
character of the individual4 ,at the    
,berlin ,conference on ,secondary       
,education1 held in #ahij1 ,dr4 ,virchow
 observed3 ',i regret that ,i cannot    
bear my testimony to our having made    
progress in forming the character of    
pupils in our schools4 ,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 investigators1
 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 character4 ,on the contrary1
 ,i fear that we are on a downward path4
 ,the number of characters becomes      
smaller4 ,and this is connected with the
 shrinkage in private and individual    
work done during a lad's school life4   
,for it is only by means of independent 
work that the pupil learns to hold his  
own against external difficulties1 and  
to find in his own strength1 in his own 
nature1 in his own being1 the means of  
resisting such difficulties and of      
prevailing over them4'  ,the inevitable 
result of this sacrifice of             
individuality must be the intellectual  
decay of the nation1 or at least its    

degeneration into a state of hopeless   
mediocrity4 ,unless1 therefore1 ,germany
 can persuade other countries to adopt  
similar tactics1 and to meet her on the 
plane where she has already obtained the
 start of a generation1 she must come   
hopelessly to grief in the future4      
,unfortunately1 there seems every       
indication that the statesmen who lead  
rival nations are only too ready to     
follow ,germany's blind lead4 ,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 pounds1 shillings1   
and pence into ,german pockets1 at the  
cost of taking originality and character
 out of ,german heads4  ,this           
educational suicide1 it must also be    
remembered1 can only be committed       
without serious social disturbance in a 
despotically-governed country like the  
,german ,empire4 ,in ,england1 with our 
system of party government1 a complete  
measure of ,state control in educational

 matters would create a political       
pandemonium that would be little short  
of appalling4  ,the party struggles of  
the future would1 if this ,prussian     
system were transplanted here1 centre   
round educational control4 ,the schools 
would no longer be regarded as          
establishments for the instruction of   
youth2 they would be looked upon simply 
as the nursery of the future voter4 ,a  
,conservative ,government would cram    
everything into the curriculum          
calculated to stifle inconveniently     
progressive ideas1 whilst a ,radical    
,government would try to banish from the
 schools all established beliefs and    
conventions4  ,between these opposing   
stools the manufactured scholar would   
fall lamentably to the ground4 ,he would
 be neither fish1 flesh1 nor fowl4      
,there would be a perpetual chopping and
 changing in the methods of his         
education1 from which he would not even 
derive the benefit1 so gratefully       
acknowledged by ,wordsworth1 of being   

neglected by his teachers4  ,to talk of 
beating ,germany at her own game is1    
therefore1 the height of absurdity4     
,nothing could result from such an      
endeavour but ruin to the country4      
,under our party system it is obvious   
that it could not be done with the      
remotest chance of success4 ,and even if
 it were possible to obtain steady      
uniform ,state interference1 working    
always towards a specific end1 ,german  
methods would only be adopted at the    
expense of increasing the pressure of   
cramming en bloc1 and thereby           
multiplying the evils which have been   
but faintly depicted in the foregoing   
pages4     ,,chapter ,,xiv  ,,the       
,,great ,,fallacy   ,that the world is  
badly ordered for humanity is a         
self-evident truth of which the         
observant scarcely need reminding4 ,it  
is equally obvious1 from the exquisite  
order and symmetry of animal and        
vegetable life1 that ,providence is not 
to blame for the colossal mess into     

which civilization has managed to lead  
the majority of mankind4  ,man is       
himself responsible for the present     
state of human affairs2 and although    
great things have been undeniably       
accomplished during the progress of the 
nations1 the magnificent achievements of
 exceptional individuals pale beside the
 stupendous blundering of the many4  ,it
 must surely be clear to everybody that 
there has been some evil influence at   
work to arrest the fair promise and     
development of the human race4 ,the     
splendid march of intellectual progress 
from the dark ages to the brilliant dawn
 of the nineteenth century1 with its    
glittering array of master minds and its
 titanic roll of genius1 has been       
suddenly brought to a dead halt4 ,here  
and there1 during the past generation1  
great figures have struggled up on to   
the world's stage and grappled with the 
ebb-tide4 ,but the majestic stream of   
mediocrity has swept away their dykes1  
and obliterated their landmarks with its

 increasing volume4  ,the remarkable    
fact can hardly have escaped attention  
that the more humanity attempts to equip
 itself for the serious business of     
life1 by forcing itself into an         
educational strait-waistcoat1 the more  
rapid becomes the disappearance of      
character and genius1 and even of       
ordinary talent4 ,everybody is getting  
ground down to a level4 ,it is scarcely 
possible to point to a single civilized 
man and say3 ',there is somebody in whom
 every faculty has been developed and   
natural talent perfected to its utmost  
capability4' ,the most that can be said 
of the individual is3 ',there goes a    
,cambridge man or a grammar-school man1 
and when you have knocked all the       
nonsense out of him you'll find he's not
 a bad fellow at bottom4'  ,we are not  
what we have made ourselves1 but what we
 have chosen to allow others to make us4
 ,whatever may once have been the       
nursery of the human race1 it is now to 
a great extent the school4 ,some        

part--it generally is the best part--of 
education takes place outside the       
class-room2 but it must be remembered   
that the atmosphere of home is generally
 impregnated with the conventional      
traditions of the school and of the     
university4  ,the evil influence that is
 so obviously undermining social and    
national life must1 therefore1 first be 
sought in the principles upon which     
education systems have been founded4    
,nothing is more astonishing than to    
reflect upon the unintelligent grounds  
on which people base their adherence to 
the principles of modern education4     
,they are unable1 in the first place1 to
 get over the fact that their           
forefathers were brought up in the same 
fashion before them4 ,it is a sheer     
impossibility for most people to        
question anything that has been going on
 for any length of time unchecked4  ,the
 undisputed possession of a custom for  
so many years converts it into the legal
 property of the nation1 whence it      

derives a sacred character1 and nobody  
dreams of meddling with it4 ,any abuses 
it may bring in its train are then      
conveniently ascribed to the perversity 
of ,providence4 ,the cherished          
convention is never questioned4 ,that is
 the remarkable thing about it4 ,people 
can be brought to understand1 by means  
of a flourish of dazzling prospectuses  
and newspaper advertisements1 that a    
bicycle is an improvement on a          
bone-shaker1 or that pneumatic tyres are
 more comfortable on rough roads than   
iron-rimmed wheels4 ,but that appears to
 be the set limit of their              
comprehension4  ,they are capable of    
being made to grasp1 after nearly       
exhausting the resources of a wealthy   
syndicate1 something that obviously     
affects their material comfort4 ,but    
progress in ideas1 or anything in the   
shape of moral revolution1 has to       
undergo a thousand-fold more tortuous   
process before it can be made to filter 
through a convention4 ,the academic     

product is1 it must be remembered1 a    
bundle of conventions4 ,if the article  
has been properly manufactured1 and     
bears the hall-mark of the maker and the
 stamp of the country of its origin1    
there is nothing else there for the     
truth to filter into4 ,it simply drops  
through and vapourizes without          
disturbing anything4  ,conventionality  
is therefore an insuperable obstacle1 as
 far as the majority of minds are       
concerned1 to the discovery that the    
established principles of education are 
absolutely false4 ,these principles will
 never be questioned4 ,it is good enough
 for the average man that his           
fellow-creatures have been contented    
with them since time immemorial1 and    
that they are diligently practised in   
the schools and colleges whose names    
have been household words for           
generations past4  ,next to this        
antiquated conservatism of the least    
intelligent and most dispiriting type1  
comes the false shame that the majority 

of people exhibit when caught displaying
 ignorance of any of the facts which    
cramming systems have pronounced to be  
indispensable to a general education4   
,probably more real culture is nipped in
 the bud by the ridiculous assumption   
that everybody must be a walking        
encyclopdia1 than by all the ,philistine
 conventions and stupidities put        
together4  ,in the course of a recent   
conversation with an exceptionally      
brilliant woman of my acquaintance1 it  
transpired that she believed ,winchester
 and ,cambridge to be in the same       
county4 ,this lack of geographical      
knowledge did not appear1 however1 to   
have impaired her intellectual          
faculties4 ,there are many persons who  
can accurately locate any town in       
,england1 and yet are vastly inferior in
 mental capacity to the lady who thought
 that ,cambridge was in ,hampshire4     
,why should an individual know more than
 it is useful and convenient for him to 
know8 ,for the student of foreign       

politics it is essential to be aware of 
the geographical difference between     
,tokio and ,peking2 but of what earthly 
use would this knowledge be to a man who
 devoted the whole of his life to       
inquiring into the domestic routine of  
the extinct dodo1 or to the improvement 
of agriculture by the application of    
scientific manures8  ,life is short1 and
 it is only possible within the limits  
of the brief span allotted to us upon   
earth to acquire a certain number of    
facts4 ,it is monstrously absurd to     
sacrifice our best years in stuffing so 
many facts into the brain1 in order to  
avoid being laughed at by a few         
thin-minded pedants as an ignoramus4    
,some consolation1 at least1 might      
surely be derived from the reflection   
that many of the greatest geniuses whom 
the world has produced were profoundly  
ignorant as to ninety per cent4 of the  
things which are considered to be       
indispensable knowledge at the present  
day4  ,nobody can hope to read all the  

books that are popularly supposed to    
have been digested by the well-educated 
man4 ,it would be impossible to get     
through a tithe of them4 ,yet how many  
people there are who will sooner tell a 
deliberate lie1 than acknowledge having 
omitted to read some classic that       
happens to be mentioned in the course of
 conversation6 ,and this is simply due  
to the infatuated belief that culture   
consists in stuffing one's self with the
 ideas of other people4 ,a man whose    
brain was teeming with his own thoughts 
and creations1 but who had neglected to 
stock it with the hundred thousand      
conventional facts culled from the      
hundred best books selected for him by  
other people1 would be looked upon as an
 uneducated boor by cultured pedants of 
the conventional type4  ,it will be     
seen1 therefore1 that this false shame1 
inspired by an unwholesome terror of    
public ridicule1 plays a very important 
part in tying people to the             
apron-strings of education1 and warping 

their judgment4  ,but there is also a   
third factor which must be taken        
seriously into account4 ,this is the    
widespread credulousness not only as to 
the efficacy1 but as to the             
indispensability1 of the ordinary       
methods of instruction as mental        
training4 ,people have actually come to 
believe that no one can think without   
being taught to do so by means of all   
kinds of mathematical and classical     
gymnastics4  ,whence comes this         
monstrous notion ,i do not pretend to be
 capable of explaining--,i merely note  
its universal existence4 ,probably no   
doctrine is more deeply ingrained in the
 mind of the average person4 ,there does
 not seem to be any logic or sense in   
it2 but somebody with a huge sense of   
humour must have once started the       
craze--much in the way that a practical 
joker will stare intently at nothing in 
a ,london street until he has collected 
a large and inquisitive crowd1 and will 
then steal quietly away1 leaving        

everybody looking vacuously at the same 
spot4  ,in the whole history of         
education there is no greater absurdity 
than the notion that a boy can be taught
 to think by training his mind backwards
 and forwards in the conjugation of     
irregular verbs and the vagaries of     
,latin or ,greek inflections4 ,exercises
 of this ingeniously ridiculous kind    
only serve to empty the brain of ideas1 
and to make room for the reception of   
facts crammed in on the wholesale       
system4 ,it is an accepted fact1        
however1 that the brain1 in order to    
pursue its normal functions1 must first 
be subjected to a course of training in 
abstract subjects as far removed as     
possible from all human interest2 that  
common sense1 in other words1 is a      
product of ,greek roots and algebraical 
formul--not of the natural application  
of the thinking faculties to the        
ordinary circumstances of everyday life4
  ,the hopeless imbecility of this tenet
 of faith is only equalled by the depth 

to which it has taken root in the       
popular mind4 ,the wonderful thing is   
that the total failure of the plan has  
not long ago convinced everybody of its 
uselessness4 ,but that is at once the   
mischief and the charm of the           
convention3 no amount of practical      
demonstration will prejudice anybody    
against it4  ,in this way the great     
fallacy of education has been allowed to
 grow up and to spread its false and    
obnoxious principles like a network over
 the whole civilized world4 ,with all   
the baneful effects produced by these   
fallacious dogmas staring them in the   
face1 people do not seem to have been   
capable of tumbling to the fact that the
 origin of the social evils which       
surround them lies in the very calf of  
gold that they and their forefathers    
have set up and worshipped4  ,even the  
reformers of education appear to have   
deceived themselves4 ,many of           
them--,arnold and ,thring conspicuous   
amongst their number--have tried to     

abolish this abuse or to remedy that    
defect2 but not one has gone to the root
 of the evil1 and has boldly stated that
 the whole system of education is based 
upon totally erroneous                  
principles--designed1 not to encourage  
progress and generate ideas1 but to     
stifle development1 and to place an     
insurmountable obstacle in the path of  
the evolution of humanity4  ,the world  
has acquiesced in the deceit1 and so the
 great fallacy has grown up unchecked1  
and1 like a rolling stone1 gathered moss
 from generation to generation1 until   
its hideous proportions seem to have    
embraced the universe1 and to have shut 
out every particle of light from the    
vision of unhappy1 convention-haunted   
mankind4     ,,chapter ,,xv  ,,real     
,,education   ,there is no such thing in
 existence as a system of genuine       
education4 ,a large number of           
institutions exist1 as we have seen1 for
 the purpose of manufacturing and       
cramming1 after an approved plan1 the   

youth of the upper and middle classes1  
and there is a well-organized system of 
sham education spread throughout the    
country under the title of 'public      
elementary schools4' ,that is the sum of
 modern educational effort4  ,the word  
'education1' when used in the sense that
 is commonly applied to it1 could not be
 satisfactorily and adequately defined  
in less than a post octavo pamphlet4 ,it
 signifies an enormous number of things1
 from pot-hooks to trigonometry4 ,it    
means history1 geography1 physics1      
chemistry1 natural history1 mineralogy1 
,latin1 ,greek1 ,french1 arithmetic1    
algebra1 ,euclid1 and goodness knows how
 many more things1 jammed in at so much 
a pound4 ,it means taking a child1      
shaking everything out of its head1 and 
then stuffing every nook and corner with
 facts it will never be able to         
remember1 and with dates for which it   
cannot have any use4 ,it means risking  
the mental shipwreck of the clever      
child1 and making the stupid more dense4

 ,and it means popping the individual   
into a mould1 and dishing him up as a   
dummy4  ,what it does not mean1 is      
developing the faculties of each        
individual4  ,there is1 in fact1 a wide 
difference between what education is and
 what it should be4 ,if every school and
 college throughout the country were    
closed to-morrow1 it would probably     
effect some negative good within an     
appreciable measure of time1 and it     
would certainly abolish much positive   
harm that is being unceasingly produced 
by the present methods of instruction4  
,if no effort be made to develop the    
faculties of each individual1 then it is
 better to leave them alone to develop  
on their own account4 ,but nothing can  
be more pernicious than to take the     
youth of the nation wholesale1 and to   
destroy most of the good that is latent 
in them1 in order to manufacture them   
into something which ,nature never      
intended them to be4  ,this is not      
education1 but fabrication4 ,it is      

destruction1 not development4 ,real     
education would consist in assisting    
every individual to develop the         
faculties with which ,nature had endowed
 him1 and to train to their highest     
capacity any special talents that might 
reveal themselves during the process4   
,above all things1 real education would 
encourage the utilization of the brain  
for purposes of thought and reflection1 
instead of trying to make it a warehouse
 for storing van-loads of useless       
knowledge4  ,it is absurd to assume that
 this simple educational aim is beyond  
the reach of humanity4 ,that its        
introduction into the practical affairs 
of life would cause a stupendous        
revolution cannot be denied4 ,but it    
does not follow1 on that account1 that  
it should be conveniently consigned1    
like many another pressing reform1 to   
the pigeon-hole of the impossible4  ,the
 main thing that is required to carry   
out the true principle of education is  
more individual common sense and less   

,state interference4 ,the mischievous   
enactment that children should commence 
any process of instruction at the tender
 age of five should be at once struck   
off the statute-book4 ,no doubt         
something would have to be done to      
remove young children of the poorest    
class1 in large towns at least1 from the
 influence of sordid homes for a certain
 period of the day4 ,it does not follow1
 however1 that they should be subjected 
to the routine of an elementary school  
and crammed with superficial and        
unsuitable knowledge4  ,children want   
room to think2 their minds have to grow 
up as well as their bodies4 ,mental     
nourishment is quite as necessary as    
physical nourishment2 but it is         
nonsensical to apply them both in the   
same fashion4 ,the mind has to be fed in
 a totally different manner to the body4
 ,the former is a delicate operation1   
that requires far more care and common  
sense than is necessary for the boiling 
of milk or the preparation of an infant 

food4  ,the child's mind is not a blank1
 upon which anything may be written at  
will2 it is scored invisibly with       
heredity and individual tendencies4 ,the
 function of the parent is to see that  
nothing is done to destroy this delicate
 fabric1 and to watch carefully for     
revelations of natural bent and         
character1 in order to encourage and    
develop them4  ,anything in the shape of
 actual teaching or instruction ought to
 be rigorously avoided4 ,facts should be
 regarded as poisons1 to be used        
sparingly and with discrimination4      
,every time that a fact is imparted an  
idea is driven out4 ,that should be     
carefully borne in mind4 ,the operation 
of the simplest fact upon the           
intelligence is highly complex4 ,it is  
not only a thing to imprint upon the    
memory1 but it is also a means of       
diverting thought into the channels of  
the commonplace4 ,every fact closes up  
an avenue of the imagination4  ,to take 
an illustration1 let us suppose someone 

to impart to a little child the         
information that it is a physiological  
impossibility for angels to have wings  
as well as arms4 ,this prosaic piece of 
intelligence would1 in one moment1      
annihilate most of the romance of       
childhood4 ,it would be a blow from     
which the imagination might never       
recover4 ,the child would1 by a rapid   
process of thought1 lose all faith in   
fairyland1 and in the thousand and one  
fancies of the youthful brain that are  
the mainspring of the development of the
 imagination4  ,why is it that          
ninety-nine persons out of a hundred    
lose this faculty in the earliest period
 of their childhood8 ,it is simply      
because their bringing-up has consisted 
in a persistent inoculation with the    
material facts of life1 and a           
correspondingly persistent elimination  
of all imaginative ideas4 ',don't let   
the children believe such rubbish6' is a
 constant ejaculation of the            
mechanical-minded person who does not   

permit himself to suffer any illusions1 
and who has long since 'done with       
romance and all that kind of twaddle4'  
,at any cost the imagination of the     
child should be encouraged and          
developed4 ,it is the richest vein in   
the whole mental machinery of man1 the  
faculty within which genius most        
frequently lurks1 and where it can be   
most easily and permanently destroyed4  
,grown-up people should remember that an
 indiscreet answer to a childish        
question1 or a snub administered to an  
inquiring mind1 is often sufficient to  
check thought4 ,it should be mainly the 
care of the parent to encourage the     
imagination in young children1          
recollecting that up to a certain age   
its development depends upon all the    
absurdities and fantastic notions of    
childhood which the average adult is so 
fond of repressing4  ,by the exercise of
 prudence and some show of sympathy1 it 
would then be possible to bring a child 
up to the age of seven or eight without 

damaging its mind or destroying its     
faculties4 ,from that point onwards the 
child's education ought to depend upon  
the individual himself4 ,there should be
 no such thing as instruction1 in the   
sense which implies the cramming of the 
brain with information1 or such mental  
gymnastics as conjugating irregular     
verbs and hunting for the least common  
multiple4  ,the position of teacher and 
pupil would have to be practically      
reversed4 ,the pupil would lead1 and the
 teacher follow4 ,in fact1 the latter   
should become an adviser rather than    
instructor1 the child selecting those   
studies1 or those arts or crafts1 which 
are to be made the principal objective  
of its education1 whilst to the mentor  
would fall the rle of encouraging and   
assisting the course of study or        
practice at a morally safe distance4    
,boys and girls would then not learn1   
but investigate4 ,the process of        
learning should be got rid of           
altogether1 being a clumsy1 dronish way 

of acquiring knowledge1 and one that    
tends to keep the brain in a perpetual  
state of dependence4  ,ignorance1 one   
ought to remember1 is a valuable        
incentive to investigation4 ,young      
people should be left as much as        
possible to find things out for         
themselves4 ,education should resemble a
 person groping forward in the dark2 and
 only so much light ought to be let in  
upon the process as seems desirable in  
each individual case4 ,in that way1 at  
least1 the pupil would learn to think   
for himself2 and even if little more    
were accomplished than this1 it would be
 of ten thousand times greater value to 
the individual1 and to the community at 
large1 than the acquisition of a large  
stock of facts at the price of losing   
all power of reflection and initiative4 
,let me give an illustration of what ,i 
will call the opposing methods of       
education4  ,we will suppose1 for the   
sake of argument1 that the only         
available book for the instruction of a 

class of boys was that excellent but    
abstruse work known as ',bradshaw's     
,railway ,guide4' ,the modern           
schoolmaster would draw up an exhaustive
 and complicated scheme4 ,so much time  
would be devoted to parsing every       
sentence through the book4 ,the figures 
would be added up1 and subtracted1 and  
divided4 ,he would concoct neat little  
mathematical problems3 ,if the #aa4dj   
express from ,paddington travelled to   
,swindon at fifty miles an hour and     
broke down half-way1 at what o'clock    
would the #ab4ae parliamentary train    
overtake it8 and so forth4 ,but--most   
valuable exercise of all--long tables of
 trains would be learnt off by heart1   
with the names of stopping places and   
the prices of the first-class tickets4  
,a genuine educationist would set to    
work in a much simpler fashion4 ,he     
would tell the boys to look out a good  
train from ,birmingham to ,newcastle4   
,each boy would be free to tackle the   
problem in his own fashion1 and the     

task--if successfully                   
accomplished--would do much towards     
developing the thinking faculties4  ,in 
any system of real education it would be
 impossible for the schoolmaster to     
dictate the subjects to which the pupil 
should give his attention1 and it would 
be equally impossible for the parent to 
say ',i intend my son to enter          
such-and-such a profession4' ,nobody can
 settle beforehand what talents the     
child is to develop4 ,that is a private 
matter in which no third person has any 
right to interfere between the child    
itself and ,nature4  ,modern education  
consists entirely of interference4      
,there is1 in the first place1 the      
interference of the parent1 who insists 
upon an artistic boy becoming a banker1 
puts an incipient tradesman into the    
army1 or tries to make a scholar out of 
a mechanic4 ,then there comes the       
interference of the schoolmaster1 who   
has his favourite recipe of ,latin      
verses1 quadratic equations1 and what   

not1 to stuff into every head he can get
 hold of for a few terms4 ,lastly       
appears the ,government1 which declares 
that nobody shall enter the army1 or    
navy1 or civil service1 without devoting
 his best years to being crammed in such
 a scandalous fashion1 that it is a     
toss-up whether he breaks down          
altogether under the ordeal1 or simply  
forgets1 a few months after the         
consummation of the process1 all that   
has been pitchforked into his brain4    
,when a baby is brought into the world  
the parents spend the first year of its 
life in wondering and speculating about 
its future4 ,will it be a great author1 
or a ,bishop1 or a ,lord ,chancellor8   
,if its mouth twitches when anyone slams
 a door1 or it gurgles happily when a   
note is struck on the piano1 they       
declare it has genius for music2 and if 
it amuses itself later on by crude      
efforts to draw distorted figures with  
distorted faces and distorted arms and  
legs1 they jump to the conclusion that  

they have produced an infant ,correggio4
  ,why does all this anxiety about the  
child's individuality disappear the     
moment its intelligence begins to dawn8 
,one must suppose1 at any rate1 that it 
does1 because the parent immediately    
sets about getting all the originality  
knocked out of his offspring1 and does  
not grudge the payment of heavy fees to 
secure this object4  ,the dreams about  
the ,lord ,chancellorship1 or the gold  
medal at the musical academy1 vanish as 
if by magic4 ,there is no more talk     
about bishoprics or artistic fame4 ,the 
parents settle down to the conventional 
task of having the child fitted for     
something it has no desire to be2 and   
the notion that the particular faculties
 they observed--or thought they         
observed--during its early infancy      
should or could be developed never      
appears to enter their heads for a      
moment4  ,some children develop later   
than others2 but with proper care and   
encouragement it would be possible not  

to lead1 but to follow1 each child to   
its own bent4 ,the child must show the  
way--that is the essence of real        
education1 and it involves a complete   
upheaval of the principles upon which   
systems of instruction are at present   
founded4  ,there is only one way in     
which people are now able to obtain a   
genuine education1 and it goes by the   
name--applied with more or less         
contempt--of self-culture4 ,the process 
consists simply in the individual       
choosing his own subjects and studying  
them as best he can4 ,no doubt the      
method could be immensely extended and  
improved1 for the self-cultured man has 
no mentor to guide him when he is in    
perplexity1 and would profit by         
experienced advice4  ,but even were this
 not the case1 it would be far better to
 abolish schools and universities and to
 let everybody shift for himself1 than  
to insist upon subjecting the youth of  
the nation to a system that ingeniously 
manufactures failures for every walk in 

life1 and accomplishes practically      
nothing else4     ,,chapter ,,xvi  ,,the
 ,,open ,,door ,,to ,,intelligence   ,it
 has been the chief aim in these pages1 
not to elaborate a scheme of education  
on new principles1 but to point out the 
utter folly of persisting with a system 
that has worked a vast amount of evil1  
and cannot be proved to have achieved   
any real good4  ,our great men have not 
been the product of a school curriculum1
 or of an academic training4 ,in no     
single instance1 as far as can be       
ascertained1 has nobility of character1 
or the possession of genius1 or         
soundness of judgment1 or even beauty of
 diction in literature1 been            
attributable to the grind in grammatical
 rules1 the fact-cramming1 and the      
mental gymnastics which go to make up   
what is called 'a liberal education4'   
,in science1 where the highest          
intellectual qualities are brought into 
play1 most of the great discoverers have
 owed their entire scientific knowledge 

to self-taught methods of investigation4
 ,and it is the same thing in every     
field of research where the thinking    
faculties must reach the supreme limit  
of development--namely1 that nothing is 
traceable to academic learning1 and that
 everything is owing to the mental      
initiative which is produced solely by  
self-inculcated habits of reflection4   
,to give education systems the credit1  
or even a share in the credit1 of all   
the splendid achievements in politics1  
science1 art1 and literature is sheer   
intellectual laziness4 ,it is the curse 
of the age that few people will trouble 
to question the existing order of       
things1 and that nobody--except those   
who make the manufacture of opinions    
their profession--can be found to       
express an independent opinion on any   
subject under the sun4  ,that is one    
reason why newspapers exist in their    
present form4 ,the leading article is   
primarily the invention of the stupid1  
conventional1 well-educated man whose   

profound knowledge of dates and         
irregular verbs has1 unfortunately1 had 
the effect of preventing him from       
forming his own judgment on public      
affairs4 ,the ,press1 which must have   
been originally established1 like the   
famous ,peking ,gazette1 for the        
dissemination of news1 has long ago     
discovered that people prefer to obtain 
their opinions ready-made4  ,the wise   
argument we hear being urged in a       
railway-carriage or at a dinner-table is
 merely an intellectual reach-me-down   
purchased at a book-stall for the modest
 price of one penny4 ,if there were only
 one newspaper1 and consequently only   
one leading article on a particular     
topic1 political discussion would die a 
natural death4  ,the political opinion  
to which the majestic alderman or the   
classically-trained savant gives such   
profound utterance is the opinion1 not  
of himself1 but of some poor devil who  
knows nothing of the blessings of a     
university education1 but who writes in 

a garret1 or in a dingy office off      
,fleet ,street1 to earn his bread and   
cheese4  ,its value or political insight
 need not be disparaged on that account4
 ,i would trust it a thousand times     
rather than ,i would trust the          
opinion--if such a thing should have any
 existence--of the average educated man 
whose brains have been jellified at     
school or college4 ,the point is not the
 value of the humble scribe's opinion1  
however1 but the fact that a man1 of    
what would be called inferior           
educational attainments1 has to be      
engaged to do mental work that cannot be
 performed by the brains of people who  
have enjoyed all the advantages that a  
first-rate education is supposed to     
confer4  ,the vote of the working-man is
 scarcely more unintelligently applied  
at election times than the vote of the  
educated man4 ,on the contrary1 the     
former may be said to think             
independently1 or at least to use an    
independent instinct1 whilst the latter 

is contented to believe in the iniquity 
of one party or the virtue of another1  
according to the opinion of the man in  
the garret4 ,the working man wants beer1
 and he knows it4 ,the ,china question1 
the war in ,south ,africa1 the housing  
of the working classes1 the great       
education controversy--everything is    
beer to him4 ,it is the ,government who 
cheapen beer1 or who regulate the       
percentage of arsenic to be used in     
brewing1 that command his support--not  
,ministers who promise to maintain      
,british supremacy in the ,far ,east1 or
 who put forward an attractive programme
 of domestic legislation4  ,the natural 
consequence of this wholesale production
 of dummy members of society is that the
 strings of government are really pulled
 by the intelligent few4 ,whatever the  
external constitution of ,great ,britain
 may be1 the real power does not lie    
with ,parliament or with the ,executive1
 but is invariably wielded by one or    
more men of commanding ability4         

,nominally1 the administration is in the
 hands of the social aristocracy1 that  
is to say1 of a few peer families and   
their innumerable relations4 ,whichever 
of the two great parties in the ,state  
may happen to be in power1 the          
,government is invariably exploited by  
members of the peer class1 who          
practically divide the spoils of office 
amongst themselves and their immediate  
entourage4  ,although1 however1 the     
,english nobility manage to usurp all   
the offices of ,state1 and to secure all
 the plums for themselves1 it is not    
they who really govern the country4 ,no 
doubt the landed aristocracy are        
politically the most fit to govern4     
,they have no commercial or industrial  
interests that may bring corrupt and    
undesirable influences into public life4
 ,but they are unfitted for the position
 they ought to occupy by a system of    
education that manufactures mediocrity1 
and stifles the very qualities of       
imaginativeness and initiative which are

 indispensable to sound statesmanship4  
,what is the inevitable result8  ,the   
self-made man1 with all his splendid    
intellectual faculties developed1 with  
his independence of judgment1 and his   
acquired habit of thinking for himself  
instead of leaning on precedent and     
borrowed wisdom1 rides the dummy        
,government class with whip and spur4   
,he lays on the lash here and digs in   
the rowels there1 goading on his steed  
in any direction that chances to suit   
his purpose4 ,he naturally places       
personal ambition in front of national  
expediency1 because his political career
 is necessarily a constant fight against
 odds4 ,either he must rise superior to 
the peer combination1 as ,disraeli      
succeeded in doing after a struggle     
unparalleled in the annals of political 
history1 or he will be crushed by it4   
,but the necessities of his position    
render the self-made man a particularly 
undesirable element in the              
administration of public affairs4       

,during the course of his successful    
upward struggle he has1 in nine cases   
out of ten1 entangled himself in        
commercial or industrial interests from 
which it is difficult or impossible for 
him to dissociate himself4 ,by this     
means1 and through the necessarily      
adventurous character of his political  
career1 he can scarcely avoid becoming1 
however undeserved the imputation may   
be1 an object of suspicion4 ,and when   
once distrust of this kind has been     
allowed to permeate through our public  
life1 the degeneration of parliamentary 
government must follow4  ,disraeli spent
 the greater part of his political life 
in manoeuvring for the premiership4     
,when his object had been successfully  
attained1 all his great qualities were  
turned to the advantage of the ,state4  
,but up to that point he was compelled1 
in order to survive in his colossal     
struggle against the aristocratic       
element in politics1 to play for his own
 hand4  ,that must always be the case   

with the self-made man4 ,his first      
objective must be his own               
self-preservation1 and if he wishes to  
gain power he is bound to exploit the   
political situation1 regardless of the  
best interests of the country1 because  
every man's hand is against him until   
the summit of his ambition has been     
reached4  ,schools and colleges in which
 the mind is crammed instead of being   
developed cannot produce statesmen4     
,they can manufacture in unlimited      
quantities the type of well-intentioned1
 honourable mediocrity with which our   
public service is stocked4 ,but as long 
as this process is continued1 the real  
power in the administration of the      
affairs of the ,empire will remain      
virtually in the hands of a few able    
individuals of the wrong calibre4 ,there
 will be a dummy ,prime ,minister1 and a
 dummy ,cabinet2 but the wires will be  
worked by the self-made man who must    
place himself first and his country     
second1 with consequences usually       

disastrous to the national welfare4     
,there is no intended disparagement of  
the self-made man4 ,he is1 and always   
has been1 the best intellectual product 
of the age4 ,the greatest statesmen1    
philosophers1 scientists1 writers1 and  
other men of genius have been self-made 
or self-cultured4 ,but it does not      
follow because great statesmen have been
 self-made men1 that it is for the good 
of the country that its rulers should be
 drawn from that class4 ,as has already 
been pointed out1 the self-made man     
usually creates far more mischief in the
 course of his upward political         
struggle1 than is compensated for       
afterwards when he has secured his      
position and can turn his talents to the
 account of his country1 instead of for 
the purpose of securing his own personal
 advancement4  ,there is1 it must be    
remembered1 a national emergency for    
which we have to prepare4 ,our extended 
,imperial obligations1 and the sharp    
commercial competition which has caused 

some of the great ,powers to sacrifice  
individuality wholesale in order to     
mobilize an army of traders1 make it    
imperative that measures should be taken
 to preserve the ,anglo-,saxon race4    
,the thing to avoid at this moment is   
imitation of tactics that will send     
every nation adopting them backward in  
evolution4 ,to secure a temporary       
commercial triumph at the enormous      
sacrifice of the natural development of 
the individual1 would be a fatal and    
short-sighted policy that could only end
 in national ruin4 ,we have not yet     
reached the worst depths of the         
education fallacy1 but we are           
complacently drifting in that direction4
  ,state interference in educational    
matters may be an excellent thing when  
the whole energies of the central       
authorities happen to be exerted in     
mitigation of the evils of the national 
system4 ,but it must be borne in mind   
that political parties and the heads of 
departments are constantly changing in  

this country4 ,the reformer of to-day   
may to-morrow be superseded by a        
retrogressive-minded mediocrity2 and    
there would be no guarantee that the    
beneficial influence of the one would   
not be annihilated afterwards by the    
pernicious intermeddling of the other4  
,instead of casting about for means of  
securing a ,state monopoly of the       
ruinous type of education supplied by   
our schools and colleges1 it would be   
more conducive to the salvation of the  
country if the whole energies of the    
nation were directed towards            
revolutionizing the system of           
instruction itself4  ,if schoolmasters  
can accomplish nothing better than the  
manufacture of set types of humanity1   
the progress of mankind would be        
promoted more rapidly without their     
assistance4  ,what is1 after all1 the   
main object of education8  ,it is to    
assist everybody to develop his         
faculties and talents1 so that he may be
 fitted for the position in life which  

,nature intended him to occupy4  ,nobody
 can assert for an instant that the     
conventional methods of instructing     
youth either achieve1 or even appear to 
aim at achieving1 this end4 ,the school 
does not pretend to discover or to      
encourage individual talents4 ,it offers
 to pound so much ,latin grammar1       
mathematics1 history1 geography1 etc41  
into each pupil1 and to turn him out at 
the end of the process with exactly the 
same mental equipment as that acquired  
by the rest of his school-fellows4  ,the
 principal aim of this book has been to 
draw attention to the incongruities and 
evils brought about by this sham and    
worthless system of education4 ,that the
 world contains many illustrious        
examples of culture and genius is no    
proof that the slightest benefit has    
been derived by anybody from parsing    
,ovid or cramming facts and dates4 ',the
 best part of every man's education1'   
said ,sir ,walter ,scott1 'is that which
 he gives to himself'2 and it might be  

added1 with literal truth1 that it is   
the only part which is of the slightest 
service in developing the mind with     
which he has been naturally endowed4    
,all that ,i have presumed to advocate  
is that the door should be left open to 
intelligence4  ,the education systems of
 the present day are particularly       
felicitous in keeping it firmly closed4 
,it is only by dodging the schoolmaster 
and the coach that youthful talent      
stands a chance of being brought to     
maturity4 ,the greatest achievements are
 not the work of senior wranglers and   
,balliol scholars3 they have been       
accomplished by class-room dunces1 like 
,clive and ,wellington2 by school       
idlers1 such as ,napoleon1 ,disraeli1   
,swift1 and ,newton2 or by self-taught  
men like ,stephenson1 ,john ,hunter1    
,livingstone1 and ,herschel4  ,it cannot
 be doubted that the institution of a   
rational method of developing the mind  
of the individual would sweep away all  
these anomalies4 ,there are thousands of

 men in responsible positions who would 
willingly exchange their entire stock of
 classical or mathematical knowledge for
 a modicum of common sense and judgment4
 ,if everybody were encouraged to think 
for himself1 the ,empire would have no  
lack of good servants to carry on the   
traditions of the past2 and the dummy   
unit of administration would give place 
to a self-reliant man1 capable of moving
 with the times1 and of serving the     
public interest according to its wants1 
instead of clinging merely to routine   
and precedent4  ,nearly all the misery  
suffered by humanity has been produced  
by artificial means4 ,providence did not
 intend this world to be a place of     
purgatory for the majority of mankind4  
,we are what we have made ourselves1 and
 not what evolution intended us to be4  
,it is in our power to mitigate much of 
the evil we have ignorantly manufactured
 for our own discomfiture1 if we only   
attack it at the roots4 ,and the        
greatest curse humanity has laid upon   

itself is that arbitrary interference   
with the natural development of the mind
 which is misnamed 'education4'  ,,the  
,,end   ,,billing ,,and ,,sons1 ,,ltd41 
,,printers1 ,,guildford