132 



NATURE 



[October i, 1914 



for statistics. He learns the value of a bit of work 

 done in a clean honest way, and when he gets some 

 more experience he glows with the feeling that he has 

 really added to the knowledge of the world. He is a 

 discoverer, and he feels the emotion of Cortez ! It is 

 marvellous the alteration which has occurred in the 

 mental attitude of the common average boy. Instead 

 of feeling that he is a degraded slave he feels the 

 emotion of his childhood returning to him. He once 

 made the great discovery at the age of six that the 

 back garden was inhabited by fairies and lions and 

 Indians and pirates. He was the Caliph Haroun 

 Alraschid for a while. And now, after a wretched life 

 at Latin and Euclid, a new revelation is vouchsafed 

 to him, and as he gathers years he finds that nature 

 is placidly willing to let him steal her secrets little by 

 little, one by one, secrets that are gradually changing 

 men from the bewilderment and spirit possession of 

 the Middle Ages; so that at length he enters into 

 complete communion with nature and rollicks with 

 her, and quarrels with her, and loves her more and 

 more until he dies. And his reasoning power has 

 been growing all the time, so that more and more he 

 understands complex things, for, after an experimental 

 study of story-books, he probably entered the kingdom 

 of Shakespeare at the age of fourteen. Things re- 

 quiring memory can be learnt only in early life — 

 weights and measures, the multiplication table, 

 languages. He knows games involving spelling. But, 

 over and above all these, he has from infancy repeated 

 all sorts of poetry long before he could enjoy much 

 more of it than the jingle of its rhyme. 



Education consi*s in the development of a man 

 from his earliest day, and does not cease until he dies. 

 Any thoughtful man must see that there is no science 

 so important as that of education, the preparation of 

 children of this generation to be the citizens, the rulers 

 of the country, in the next generation. The whole 

 future of our Empire depends upon the education of 

 the children. By the study of this science we hope to 

 improve teaching so as to make future citizens not 

 only to have more knowledge and more skill, but to 

 make them wiser than the people of the present or the 

 past. 



Early training determines what later training ought 

 to be. Let us consider what the earlv training of a 

 boy ought to be. In his very early days nature has 

 provided that his education shall proceed very rapidly 

 by observation and experiment, and the only teaching 

 heeded is through careful nursing and affection. He 

 teaches himself, and he loves to learn. He ought to 

 get toys not too realistic, for he loves to weave 

 romance round his toys, but still things to observe 

 and experiment with. He has most complex problems 

 in physical science when he is only a few weeks old, 

 the solution of which involves much labour, but it is 

 pleasant labour and he is happy. And he will remain 

 sweet-tempered and happy and unspoilt if there is real 

 affection from his teachers. If, however, somebody 

 teases him by playing practical jokes, or if a selfish 

 mother who was unreasonably kind to him yesterday 

 is unreasonably unkind to him to-day, he gets, because 

 of his reasoning power, a sense of injustice. Man, 

 woman, or child with a sense of injustice may be said 

 to be possessed of a devil. During the first six years 

 of a child's life the creation of its power to reason is 

 more wonderful than anything else, and this reason- 

 ing power comes altogether by observation and experi- 

 ment. An affectionate parent easily finds methods of 

 helping nature in this process. The unspoilt boy of 

 six years seems to forget nothing that he hears ; he 

 has gathered a most wonderful vocabulary ; he knows 

 endless nursery rhymes and simple poetry; he is as 

 active and adventurous as a kitten, and everything he 

 does is cultivating his senses. This is the time when 



NO. 2344, VOL. 94] 



he fills the smallest playground (which to grown-ups 

 seems bare and desolate) with giants and fairies and 

 Indians and pirates, with forests and mountains and 

 rivers and oceans. His imagination is so extra- 

 ordinary that the most uncouth creation of his own 

 gives him exquisite pleasure. Why do I dwell upon 

 this stage of a boy's development? Because it has 

 been so perfect. Nature has learnt to do this to chil- 

 dren during perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, 

 and it has been the most important time of a boy's 

 life, the time when, if parents will only give the boy 

 their love and greatly let him alone otherwise, he 

 develops mentally more than during all the rest of his 

 life. Speaking broadly, he has done nothing in all 

 this time except what nature and affection made 

 pleasant to him. I have studied the science of educa- 

 tion and practised the art of teaching all my life, and 

 I say that all our failures are due to our neglect of 

 nature's methods, and our schools destroy the good 

 effects which nature has produced. 



As a rule I do not like to be told that certain sub- 

 jects must be compulsory, but surely every child of 

 eleven must have some such qualifications as these : 

 (i) The power to speak and read and write in his own 

 language. (2) To be able to do easy computation. 

 (3) To have an exact knowledge of the simplest prin- 

 ciples of natural science from his own observation and 

 experiment. I think that every observer must acknow- 

 ledge that these powers are possible for almost every 

 boy of eleven. Some of us have for many j'ears been 

 endeavouring to show how the child of six may acquire 

 these powers by the age of eleven if nature's methods 

 — that is, kindergarten methods- — are followed. For 

 example, he plays at keeping shop, selling or buying 

 things by weight and measure, and paying or receiv- 

 ing actual money and giving change. He weighs and 

 measures with greater and greater accuracy as he 

 makes experiments in mechanics and heat and chem- 

 istry. Every boy is fond of stories, and if treated 

 reasonably is easily induced to learn to read. Reading 

 aloud is easily made a pleasure and a habit, and so 

 the boy learns to speak properly. Any boy whatever 

 will become fond ot reading if the people about him 

 are fond of reading : I state this as a fact which I 

 have investigated. A boy who is fond of reading gets 

 later on to know the value of books and the use of 

 books, and he will go on educating himself until he 

 dies. Any attempt at coercion, unless it is the very 

 gentle coercion of a person whom he loves, is fatal ; 

 even coaxing is not always good. He assimilates 

 knowledge from everything which he does, and there- 

 fore he ought to be induced to do things which^not 

 only keep him healthy, but which give him knowledge 

 and teach him to reason. Do 3'ou jjemember how 

 angry Lanfranc of Bee was at the idea that any pupil 

 could be forced to learn ; he said " it turned men into 

 beasts." I speak to you who love children, who love 

 young people, who know that there is scarcely one 

 child in a hundred, even among rather spoilt children, 

 who does not love to do his duty. 



Under the best and most loving of teachers a lonely 

 child has enormous disadvantages, but these can gener- 

 ally be remedied. The usual mistake is to send it to 

 a iarge school. If it is merely a day school there is 

 no great harm. But no child under thirteen ought to 

 be sent to a boarding school unless it is a small school 

 and the master and his wife have a love of sympathy 

 for other people's children. There are such people in 

 the world, God bless them ! but they are not numerous. 

 They are so few that we must return to nature as the 

 best of teachers. The time is coming when a child's 

 own father and mother will have much more know- 

 ledge and wisdom than they have now, and they will 

 refuse to give up to others the doine of their highest 

 duties. It is at present not sufficiently recognised that 



