Ilrrieir uf Revieicf, l/S/06. 



Education and Democracy. 



M5 



be addfil to the srhiiol ciirrirulum, that we should 

 lit- ordert-d to keep abreast of the times, and that 

 all this zeal and enthusiasm should be evoked on 

 inadequate salaries, without your trying to make us 

 realise that the responsibility for the good govern- 

 ment of the world rests on the teacher?" I am 

 genuinely sorn-, but it is a fact, and a fart of such 

 yrim seriousness that if it be not taken to heart 

 liy nations as well as li\ teachers, there will be 

 trouble. As many of you will remember, Kidd in 

 his "Social Kvolution "' says that a definite stage in 

 our ci\ilisation is drawing to a close, and that an 

 era of democratic development has begun. There 

 is general agreement even amongst the fearful that 

 the <lemocratic advance cannot now be checked, 

 .and that the statesmen of all countries must reckon 

 with this'new force. If the force be first dealt with 

 in the schools there is no occasion for alarm. The 

 masses of the people, enlightened by education, will 

 Iw as much conceme<l about good government as 

 ever the privileged classes -were in the old davs. 

 Those classes were selfish. If the new masters mani- 

 fest selfishness, too, it will only prove that there is 

 much of a muchness in human nature, with this dif- 

 ference, that their selfishness will relate to the 

 masses of the people. But if the teacher can suc- 

 ceed in convincing the child of the future that un- 

 selfishness is the golden iirincijile he will have gone 

 far to bring in the millennium. I don't want the 

 Director of Education to make the abilitv to do this 

 the condition of promotion in our educational ser- 

 vice. The Christian Church has been proclaiming 

 the doctrine of altruism for nearly two thousand 

 vears, and I do not expect the .State school teacher 

 to do right away what the Church has so far failed 

 lo achieve. 



Froude, in his ■■ Short Studies of Great Subjects," 

 tells us that education has two aspects. It means 

 '■ equipjiing a man to earn his own living," and also 

 "■ the cultivation of a man's reason and his spiritual 

 nature." It " elevates him above the pressure of 

 material interests," and fills hi.s mind " with higher 

 subjects than the occupations of life would provide 

 him with." Thus in effect the historian declares the 

 school to be the training ground for citizenship. If 

 this be so, can the teacher escape the responsibility 

 which attaches to his office? It is a vocation, not a 

 mere occupation. Let the system of education be 

 what it may, the ■' main ingredient in the school 

 atmosphere will always be the teacher." So savs a 

 recent writer in the London Spectator, and I cor- 

 dially agree with him. There is a tendency some- 

 times to magnify the system, but the teacher is far 

 more important. I'ersnnalitv counts for mon- than 

 anything else. 



There may he dnulgery in the life of the teacher ; 

 but is not drudgery well-nigh inseparable from effort 

 of every- kind ? In this connection the beautiful 

 words of the late Bishop of London are ringing in 

 ■my ears. Thev were addressed to teachers. This 



is what he said: — "The ideal of liuman progress 

 floats in some shape or other before many minds. It 

 should be definite and distinct before your minds if 

 vour work is to be done in the spirit of high resolve. 

 Every teacher is engaged in a great process of crea- 

 tion ; he is liberating human character from the 

 inertness which surrounds it, and is striving to call 

 it to a consciousness of true life." 



The essentials in a good teacher are sympathy 

 and sincerity. We are told that children's ears are 

 keen to detect a false note, and that their eyes are 

 sharp to espy an exaggeration. Behind the teacher 

 they seek, unconsciously but surely, the woman or 

 the man. According to Dr. Creighton, we cannot 

 teach what we have not learned. It is admitted to 

 be a universal law- that life begets fife, aiirl heart 

 only speaks to heart. Is there any reason why the 

 work of the teacher should be specially dreary ? I 

 cannot think of the man with the imagination of 

 the Celt so regarding it. What possibilities there are 

 in it; what far-reaching influences! President Gar- 

 field used to say he felt reverence in the presence 

 of children that he never felt in the presence of 

 adults. The reason was that he did not know 

 who might be included amongst the children. Tht ir 

 lives were before them. Men have become great 

 through the influence of teachers, and in a very- true 

 sense such teachers share their immortality. 



But the teacher may be less concerned about pro- 

 ducing great men than turning out good citizens. 

 The latter are the foundation on which everything 

 else stands. Success, as the world counts success, is 

 sometimes failure of a very sad tyqae. The most 

 literary schoolmaster of the day is, I suppose, Mr. 

 Arthur C. Benson, son of the late Archbishop of 

 Canterbury. He has recently published " From a 

 College Winiiow," which, like " The Upton Letters." 

 is a delightful and fascinating volume. This is the 

 wav in which he puts the case: — "I have grown to 

 feel that the ambitions which we preach and the 

 successes for which we are preparing are very often 

 nothing but a missing of the simple road, a troubled 

 wandering among thorny by-paths and dark moun- 

 tain.s. I have grown to believe that the one thing 

 worth aiming at is simplicity of heart and life ; that 

 one's relations with others should be direct and not 

 diplomatic ; that power leaves a bitter taste in the 

 mouth : that meanness and hardness and coldness 

 are the unforgivable sins : that conventionality is 

 the mother of dreariness ; that pleasure exists not in 

 virtue of material i-onditions, but in the joyful 

 heart ; that the world is a very interesting and beau- 

 tiful place ; and that congenial labour is the secret 

 of happiness." This is well put. The simple life, 

 with lofty ideals, should be the message of the 

 teacher. It must be the watchword of the new- 

 democracy. Then we shall know- in the words of 

 the poet Browning — • 



God's in His lieaven: 

 All's right with the world. 



