2. But the time has come for the boy to grow up
little by little, to leave the nursery and tackle his
studies in good earnest. This therefore is the place
to discuss the question as to whether it is better to
have him educated privately at home or hand him
over to some large school and those whom I may
call public instructors.
[2]
The latter course has, I
know, won the approval of most eminent authorities
and of those who have formed the national character
of the most famous states. It would, however, be folly
to shut our eyes to the fact that there are some who
disagree with this preference for public education
owing to a certain prejudice in favour of private
tuition. These persons seem to be guided in the
main by two principles. In the interests of morality
they would avoid the society of a number of human
[p. 41]
beings at an age that is specially liable to acquire
serious faults: I only wish I could deny the truth of
the view that such education has often been the
cause of the most discreditable actions. Secondly
they hold that whoever is to be the boy's teacher, he
will devote his time more generously to one pupil
than if he has to divide it among several.
[3]
The first
reason certainly deserves serious consideration. If
it were proved that schools, while advantageous
to study, are prejudicial to morality, I should give
my vote for virtuous living in preference to even
supreme excellence of speaking. But in my opinion
the two are inseparable. I hold that no one can be
a true orator unless he is also a good man and,
even if he could be, I would not have it so. I will
therefore deal with this point first.
It is held that schools corrupt the morals.
[4]
It is
true that this is sometimes the case. But morals
may be corrupted at home as well. There are
numerous instances of both, as there are also of
the preservation of a good reputation under either
circumstance. The nature of the individual boy
and the care devoted to his education make all the
difference. Given a natural bent toward evil or
negligence in developing and watching over modest
behaviour in early years, privacy will provide equal
opportunity for sin. The teacher employed at
home may be of bad character, and there is just as
much danger in associating with bad slaves as there
is with immodest companions of good birth.
[5]
On the
other hand if the natural bent be towards virtue,
and parents are not afflicted with a blind and torpid
indifference, it is possible to choose a teacher of the
highest character (and those who are wise will make
[p. 43]
this their first object), to adopt a method of education of the strictest kind and at the same time to
attach some respectable man or faithful freedman to
their son as his friend and guardian, that his unfailing companionship may improve the character
even of those who gave rise to apprehension.
[6]
Yet how easy were the remedy for such fears.
Would that we did not too often ruin our children's
character ourselves! We spoil them from the
cradle. That soft upbringing, which we call kindness, saps all the sinews both of mind and body. If
the child crawls on purple, what will he not desire
when he comes to manhood? Before he can talk he
can distinguish scarlet and cries for the very best
brand of purple. We train their palates before we
teach their lips to speak.
[7]
They grow up in litters:
if they set foot to earth, they are supported by the
hands of attendants on either side. We rejoice if
they say something over-free, and words which we
should not tolerate from the lips even of an Alexandrian page are greeted with laughter and a kiss.
We have no right to be surprised. It was we that
taught them:
[8]
they hear us use such words, they see
our mistresses and minions; every dinner party is
loud with foul songs, and things are presented to
their eyes of which we should blush to speak.
Hence springs habit, and habit in time becomes
second nature. The poor children learn these things
before they know them to be wrong. They become
luxurious and effeminate, and far from acquiring
such vices at schools, introduce them themselves.
[9]
I now turn to the objection that one master can
live more attention to one pupil. In the first place
there is nothing to prevent the principle of “one
[p. 45]
teacher, one boy” being combined with school
education. And even if such a combination should
prove impossible, I should still prefer the broad
daylight of a respectable school to the solitude and
obscurity of a private education. For all the best
teachers pride themselves on having a large number
of pupils and think themselves worthy of a bigger
audience.
[10]
On the other hand in the case of inferior teachers a consciousness of their own defects
not seldom reconciles them to being attached to a
single pupil and playing the part—for it amounts to
little more—of a mere paedagogus.
[11]
But let us assume that influence, money or friendship succeed in securing a paragon of learning to
teach the boy at home. Will he be able to devote
the whole day to one pupil? Or can we demand
such continuous attention on the part of the learner?
The mind is as easily tired as the eye, if given no
relaxation. Moreover by far the larger proportion
of the learner's time ought to be devoted to private
study.
[12]
The teacher does not stand over him while
he is writing or thinking or learning by heart. While
he is so occupied the intervention of anyone, be he
who he may, is a hindrance. Further, not all reading requires to be first read aloud or interpreted by
a master. If it did, how would the boy ever become
acquainted with all the authors required of him? A
small time only is required to give purpose and
direction to the day's work, and consequently
individual instruction can be given to more than one
pupil.
[13]
There are moreover a large number of
subjects in which it is desirable that instruction
should be given to all the pupils simultaneously.
I say nothing of the analyses and declamations of
[p. 47]
the professors of rhetoric: in such cases there is no
limit to the number of the audience, as each individual pupil will in any case receive full value.
[14]
The voice of a lecturer is not like a dinner which
will only suffice for a limited number; it is like the
sun which distributes the same quantity of light and
heat to all of us. So too with the teacher of
literature. Whether he speak of style or expound
disputed passages, explain stories or paraphrase
poems, everyone who hears him will profit by his
teaching.
[15]
But, it will be urged, a large class is
unsuitable for the correction of faults or for explanation. It may be inconvenient: one cannot hope for
absolute perfection; but I shall shortly contrast the
inconvenience with the obvious advantages.
Still I do not wish a boy to be sent where he will
be neglected. But a good teacher will not burden
himself with a larger number of pupils than he can
manage, and it is further of the very first importance that he should be on friendly and intimate
terms with us and make his teaching not a duty
but a labour of love. Then there will never be
any question of being swamped by the number of
our fellow-learners.
[16]
Moreover any teacher who has
the least tincture of literary culture will devote
special attention to any boy who shows signs of
industry and talent; for such a pupil will redound
to his own credit. But even if large schools are to
be avoided, a proposition from which I must dissent
if the size be due to the excellence of the teacher,
it does not follow that all schools are to be avoided.
It is one thing to avoid them, another to select the
best.
[17]
Having refuted these objections, let me now
[p. 49]
explain my own views.
[18]
It is above all things necessary that our future orator, who will have to live
in the utmost publicity and in the broad daylight of
public life, should become accustomed from his
childhood to move in society without fear and
habituated to a life far removed from that of the
pale student, the solitary and recluse. His mind
requires constant stimulus and excitement, whereas
retirement such as has just been mentioned induces
languor and the mind becomes mildewed like things
that are left in the dark, or else flies to the opposite
extreme and becomes puffed up with empty conceit;
for he who has no standard of comparison by which
to judge his own powers will necessarily rate them
too high.
[19]
Again when the fruits of his study have
to be displayed to the public gaze, our recluse is
blinded by the sun's glare, and finds everything new
and unfamiliar, for though he has learnt what is required to be done in public, his learning is but the
theory of a hermit.
[20]
I say nothing of friendships
which endure unbroken to old age having acquired
the binding force of a sacred duty: for initiation
in the same studies has all the sanctity of initiation
in the same mysteries of religion. And where shall
he acquire that instinct which we call common
feeling, if he secludes himself from that intercourse
which is natural not merely to mankind but even to
dumb animals?
[21]
Further, at home he can only learn
what is taught to himself, while at school he will
learn what is taught others as well. He will hear
many merits praised and many faults corrected every
day: he will derive equal profit from hearing the
indolence of a comrade rebuked or his industry
commended.
[22]
Such praise will incite him to
[p. 51]
emulation, he will think it a disgrace to be outdone by
his contemporaries and a distinction to surpass his
seniors. All such incentives provide a valuable
stimulus, and though ambition may be a fault in
itself, it is often the mother of virtues.
[23]
I remember
that my own masters had a practice which was not
without advantages. Having distributed the boys
in classes, they made the order in which they were
to speak depend on their ability, so that the boy
who had made most progress in his studies had the
privilege of declaiming first.
[24]
The performances
on these occasions were criticised. To win commendation was a tremendous honour, but the prize
most eagerly coveted was to be the leader of the
class. Such a position was not permanent. Once a
month the defeated competitors were given a fresh
opportunity of competing for the prize. Consequently success did not lead the victor to relax his
efforts, while the vexation caused by defeat served
as an incentive to wipe out the disgrace.
[25]
I will
venture to assert that to the best of my memory
this practice did more to kindle our oratorical ambitions than all the exhortations of our instructors,
the watchfulness of our paedagogi and the prayers of
our parents.
[26]
Further while emulation promotes
progress in the more advanced pupils, beginners who
are still of tender years derive greater pleasure from
imitating their comrades than their masters, just
because it is easier. For children still in the elementary stages of education can scarce dare hope to
reach that complete eloquence which they understand to be their goal: their ambition will not soar
so high, but they will imitate the vine which has to
grasp the lower branches of the tree on which it is
[p. 53]
trained before it can reach the topmost boughs.
[27]
So
true is this that it is the master's duty as well, if he
is engaged on the task of training unformed minds
and prefers practical utility to a more ambitious
programme, not to burden his pupils at once with
tasks to which their strength is unequal, but to curb
his energies and refrain from talking over the heads
of his audience.
[28]
Vessels with narrow mouths will
not receive liquids if too much be poured into them
at a time, but are easily filled if the liquid is admitted in a gentle stream or, it may be, drop by
drop; similarly you must consider how much a
child's mind is capable of receiving: the things
which are beyond their grasp will not enter their
minds, which have not opened out sufficiently to
take them in.
[29]
It is a good thing therefore that a
boy should have companions whom he will desire
first to imitate and then to surpass: thus he will be
led to aspire to higher achievement. I would add
that the instructors themselves cannot develop the
same intelligence and energy before a single listener
as they can when inspired by the presence of a
numerous audience.
[30]
For eloquence depends in the main on the state
of the mind, which must be moved, conceive images
and adapt itself to suit the nature of the subject
which is the theme of speech. Further the loftier
and the more elevated the mind, the more powerful
will be the forces which move it: consequently
praise gives it growth and effort increase, and the
thought that it is doing something great fills it with
joy.
[31]
The duty of stooping to expend that power of
speaking which has been acquired at the cost of such
effort upon an audience of one gives rise to a silent
[p. 55]
feeling of disdain, and the teacher is ashamed to
raise his voice above the ordinary conversational
level. Imagine the air of a declaimer, or the voice
of an orator, his gait, his delivery, the movements of
his body, the emotions of his mind, and, to go no
further, the fatigue of his exertions, all for the sake
of one listener! Would he not seem little less than
a lunatic? No, there would be no such thing as
eloquence, if we spoke only with one person at
a time.
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