September i6, 19 15] 



NATURE 



7Z 



is mainly due. And intellectual curiosity is an impor- 

 tant adjunct to the mental processes involved in under- 

 standing the world we live in, a valuable aid in the 

 formation of a good judgment, and a great assist- 

 ance in practical life. Intellectual curiosity and 

 aesthetic sensibility are, moreover, the mainsprings of 

 culture — that is, of some of the highest pleasures we 

 can enjoy. 



You will doubtless agree with this, and will agree, 

 further, that without intellectual curiosity no amount 

 of accumulated information can be properly assimi- 

 lated, or will produce either culture or knowledge of 

 permanent value. In its absence the pupil may pass 

 through school and college with little advantage apart 

 from discipline, beyond the acquisition of elementary 

 skill in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and if he 

 has a good memory a barren knowledge of some 

 facts. You will probably add that it is one of the 

 most important functions of the teacher to endeavour 

 to produce this intellectual curiosity when absent or in 

 abeyance, and that the zeal of the professional educa- 

 tor in this direction is a strong reason for enthusiastic 

 belief in school education. It would be, I grant, if 

 we could hope that the teacher's success would always 

 be equal to his zeal; but notoriously this is far from 

 being the case, and the failure is by no means always 

 due to want of intelligence in the pupil any more than 

 it is due to want of capacity in the teacher. In many 

 cases, in all classes of society, the spark of intellectual 

 curiosity — the response in the pupil's mind to educa- 

 tional stimulus — cannot be fanned into flame through 

 book-learning alone, and yet may be there all the time 

 ready to burst forth when it comes into contact with 

 the needs of actual life and work. It may even be 

 there, and fail to respond to imposed lessons, while 

 it would blaze up if the pupil could by any means 

 be induced to desire to learn before he is taught. It 

 is partly because it is so important, if and when 

 the desire to learn comes, that the boy or girl, man 

 or woman, should be armed with the instruments 

 which may give them independent means of acquiring 

 the knowledge they desire, so far as this can be 

 acquired through books, that we compel parents to 

 send their children to school. No doubt, however, 

 an even more important reason is our now almost 

 universal use of reading and writing as a means of 

 communicating with each other. The more wide- 

 spread these arts are, the harder it is for anyone who 

 has not acquired them to keep abreast of his fellows. 

 But even now it would, of course, not be impossible, 

 and the ;ise of such phrases as compulsory education, 

 in which education merely means the reverse of illiter- 

 acy, tends, I think, in itself to obscure the apprehen- 

 sion of what education really is, and to reduce the 

 general sense of responsibility for it, and particularly 

 that of parents. 



Many years ago, before the days of compulsory 

 education, or at least before it had time to produce 

 any effect, I knew a man in the south of England 

 who had had no school education, or practically none. 

 I believe he could read a little with effort, but he 

 could neither write nor keep accounts, so I was told. 

 His wife did these things for him when they were 

 necessary. He was, however, a good farmer, farmed 

 a considerable amount of land, and acted as manager 

 or agent under the landlord for a large estate. He 

 knew his business thoroughly, had the power of 

 managing men, and was much respected. It is im- 

 possible not to regard such a man as a more valuable 

 member of the community, and a better-educated man 

 in some respects, than many of those who climb the 

 educational ladder to become clerks in an office. But, 

 of course, such a man must have regretted that he had 

 not had opportunities of schooling in his early youth — 

 that he had not acquired the art of writing while he 

 NO. 2394, VOL. 96] 



still had leisure. The want of the three R's must 

 have been a serious handicap, only overcome by 

 unusual ability. And, in fact, no one now doubts 

 that it is almost as important to acquire these elemen- 

 tary arts as to learn to speak or walk. It is with the 

 question of carrying school education further that 

 doubt arises whether it is really the best education 

 for everybody, and whether we ought to regard the 

 person whose scholastic education has been longest, 

 or who has succeeded best in examinations, as there- 

 fore necessarily the best educated. 



I do not mean in saying this to set the practical 

 man above the man of learning. Of course we want 

 both, and we should like our schools to help to develop 

 both. The value to the world of good scientific and 

 literary work is enormous. And so far as science is 

 concerned the British Association exists to bring home 

 to the general public its value and interest, and conse- 

 quently the importance of men who can advance it. 

 Nor do I mean in what I have said to suggest any 

 divorce between practice and learning. The business 

 of most of us is practical, but what is to be desired is 

 that everyone capable of it should combine practical 

 ability — whether in manual work, or in organisation 

 or administration, or in any other line — with a desire 

 to learn ; and that not only in relation to his work 

 in life, but in a wider sphere. And, of course, we must 

 wish that the means to satisfy this desire should be 

 within everyone's reach. My point, therefore, is not 

 that learning is not valuable, but that it is of little 

 value unless it meets a desire In the learner's mind. 

 And here the parents come in. The required attitude 

 of mind Is much more likely to be inspired by parents 

 who possess it, than it is by the school. Or let us 

 say that those children are most likely to grow up 

 with it whose parents combine with the school to 

 stimulate it. Unfortunately the result of compulsory 

 primary education has not been to promote any sense 

 of responsibility In parents as regards this; at least 

 that is my belief. And I may, I think, appeal to 

 Scottish experience in support of it. 



The institution of parish schools is, as is well 

 known, ofder In Scotland than in England. They date 

 there from the Reformation, and were part of the 

 ecclesiastical organisation initiated by John Knox. 

 In the scheme drawn up by him and his colleagues 

 education had a great place. The parish schools. 

 In which Biblical instruction was foremost, were put 

 In charge of the Church and long needed Its efforts 

 for their maintenance. Starting in this way the zeal 

 for school education had become traditional. All 

 respectable parents aimed at giving their children 

 the best education they could. There was a strongly 

 rooted sense of duty in the matter, and this from a 

 double motive. They sent their children to school 

 not only to help them to get on in the world, but 

 because of the traditional association of knowledge 

 and religion. Observe the educational value of this 

 second motive. I am not looking at it from the reli- 

 gious point of view — that is not my business to-day. 

 But as an instrument of culture the value of a desire 

 for learning, based on something other than its rela- 

 tion to worldly success, is obviously great. It may 

 be that the school education actually prevailing in 

 Scotland is better now than that of fifty years ago, 

 that the examination of the school Inspector is more 

 searching, if less stimulating, than was that of the 

 Presbytery, that the average or backward child Is less 

 sacrificed to the clever one than used to be the ca<;e, 

 and that general intelligence is more developed. But 

 the parents, who felt their children's schooling to be 

 their private concern, valued it more, took more 

 personal interest In it, and felt more personal responsi- 

 bility for their children's progress than parents can 

 do now. .'\nd it is a serious question whether the 



