MATHEMATICS IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS 



By CHARLES GODFREY, M.A. 



Headmaster of the Royal Naval College, Osborne 



Aristocratic education is a form of education designed to meet 

 the needs of the ablest boys ; it is the system on which a good 

 proportion of present-day teachers were trained : the method 

 adopted was that of wholesome neglect, a very good method 

 when the subject is a clever boy and the teacher a real master. 

 Those of us who were pupils of Mr. R. Levett at Birmingham, 

 for example, appreciate the self-restraint with which he taught 

 his scholarship boys and the independence fostered by his policy. 



The aristocratic theory of education has determined the 

 choice of subject-matter in teaching mathematics in schools 

 and in this particular we are beginning to depart from the 

 theory nowadays. In the past — the not distant past — the as- 

 sumption was made tacitly that mathematics could appeal 

 only to the few ; that the average boy was essentially stupid 

 and more or less a hopeless problem. This entirely false 

 assumption arose from the aristocratic theory : the course 

 was designed for the best boys, with the object of turning out 

 mathematical scholars ; in this it was bound to be successful, 

 as the number of scholarships available was predetermined : 

 whether or no it was equally successful in turning out mathe- 

 maticians is another question. What it failed to do was to 

 train up a generation of men capable of thinking in a mathe- 

 matical way and of understanding the way in which mathematics 

 enter into modern life. 



It is not surprising that these objects were not attained. 

 In geometry the matter and methods of instruction were purely 

 Greek. Now the material side of Greek civilisation was based 

 not on mathematics but on slavery. Greek civilisation depended 

 on forced labour ; our civilisation depends on the forces of 

 nature, which need more refined methods of subjugation. 

 When we speak of Hellas, we have in mind the cultured few ; 

 to them mathematics meant a good deal but solely as an 



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