Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) by Herbert Spencer (best fiction novels to read TXT) 📕

Approached. All Transitions Are Dangerous; And The   Most Dangerous Is The

Transition From The   Restraint Of    The   Family Circle To The   Non-Restraint

Of The   World. Hence The   Importance Of    Pursuing The   Policy We Advocate;

Which, By Cultivating A Boy's Faculty Of    Self-Restraint, By Continually

Increasing The   Degree In Which He Is Left To His Self-Restraint, And By

So Bringing Him, Step By Step, To A State Of    Unaided Self-Restraint,

Obliterates The   Ordinary Sudden And Hazardous Change From

Externally-Governed Youth To Internally-Governed Maturity. Let The

History Of    Your Domestic Rule Typify, In Little, The   History Of    Our

Political Rule: At The   Outset, Autocratic Control, Where Control Is

Really Needful; By And By An Incipient Constitutionalism, In Which The

Liberty Of    The   Subject Gains Some Express Recognition; Successive

Extensions Of    This Liberty Of    The   Subject; Gradually Ending In Parental

Abdication.

Do Not Regret The   Display Of    Considerable Self-Will On The   Part Of    Your

Children. It Is The   Correlative Of    That Diminished Coerciveness So

Conspicuous In Modern Education. The   Greater Tendency To Assert Freedom

Of Action On The   One Side, Corresponds To The   Smaller Tendency To

Tyrannise On The   Other. They Both Indicate An Approach To The   System Of

Discipline We Contend For, Under Which Children Will Be More And More

Led To Rule Themselves By The   Experience Of    Natural Consequences; And

They Are Both Accompaniments Of    Our More Advanced Social State. The

Independent English Boy Is The   Father Of    The   Independent English Man;

And You Cannot Have The   Last Without The   First. German Teachers Say That

They Had Rather Manage A Dozen German Boys Than One English One. Shall

We, Therefore, Wish That Our Boys Had The   Manageableness Of    German Ones,

And With It The   Submissiveness And Political Serfdom Of    Adult Germans?

Or Shall We Not Rather Tolerate In Our Boys Those Feelings Which Make

Them Free Men, And Modify Our Methods Accordingly?

Lastly, Always Recollect That To Educate Rightly Is Not A Simple And

Easy Thing, But A Complex And Extremely Difficult Thing, The   Hardest

Task Which Devolves On Adult Life. The   Rough-And-Ready Style Of    Domestic

Government Is Indeed Practicable By The   Meanest And Most Uncultivated

Intellects. Slaps And Sharp Words Are Penalties That Suggest Themselves

Alike To The   Least Reclaimed Barbarian And The   Stolidest Peasant. Even

Brutes Can Use This Method Of    Discipline; As You May See In The   Growl

And Half-Bite With Which A Bitch Will Check A Too-Exigeant Puppy. But If

You Would Carry Out With Success A Rational And Civilised System, You

Must Be Prepared For Considerable Mental Exertion--For Some Study, Some

Ingenuity, Some Patience, Some Self-Control. You Will Have Habitually To

Consider What Are The   Results Which In Adult Life Follow Certain Kinds

Of Acts; And You Must Then Devise Methods By Which Parallel Results

Shall Be Entailed On The   Parallel Acts Of    Your Children. It Will Daily

Be Needful To Analyse The   Motives Of    Juvenile Conduct--To Distinguish

Between Acts That Are Really Good And Those Which, Though Simulating

Them, Proceed From Inferior Impulses; While You Will Have To Be Ever On

Your Guard Against The   Cruel Mistake Not Unfrequently Made, Of

Translating Neutral Acts Into Transgressions, Or Ascribing Worse

Feelings Than Were Entertained. You Must More Or Less Modify Your Method

To Suit The   Disposition Of    Each Child; And Must Be Prepared To Make

Further Modifications As Each Child's Disposition Enters On A New Phase.

Your Faith Will Often Be Taxed To Maintain The   Requisite Perseverance In

A Course Which Seems To Produce Little Or No Effect. Especially If You

Are Dealing With Children Who Have Been Wrongly Treated, You Must Be

Prepared For A Lengthened Trial Of    Patience Before Succeeding With

Better Methods; Since That Which Is Not Easy Even Where A Right State Of

Feeling Has Been Established From The   Beginning, Becomes Doubly

Difficult When A Wrong State Of    Feeling Has To Be Set Right. Not Only

Will You Have Constantly To Analyse The   Motives Of    Your Children, But

You Will Have To Analyse Your Own Motives--To Discriminate Between Those

Internal Suggestions Springing From A True Parental Solicitude And Those

Which Spring From Your Own Selfishness, Your Love Of    Ease, Your Lust Of

Dominion. And Then, More Trying Still, You Will Have Not Only To Detect,

But To Curb These Baser Impulses. In Brief, You Will Have To Carry On

Your Own Higher Education At The   Same Time That You Are Educating Your

Children. Intellectually You Must Cultivate To Good Purpose That Most

Complex Of    Subjects--Human Nature And Its Laws, As Exhibited In Your

Children, In Yourself, And In The   World. Morally, You Must Keep In

Constant Exercise Your Higher Feelings, And Restrain Your Lower. It Is A

Truth Yet Remaining To Be Recognised, That The   Last Stage In The   Mental

Development Of    Each Man And Woman Is To Be Reached Only Through A Proper

Discharge Of    The   Parental Duties. And When This Truth Is Recognised, It

Will Be Seen How Admirable Is The   Arrangement Through Which Human Beings

Are Led By Their Strongest Affections To Subject Themselves To A

Discipline That They Would Else Elude.

While Some Will Regard This Conception Of    Education As It Should Be With

Doubt And Discouragement, Others Will, We Think, Perceive In The   Exalted

Ideal Which It Involves, Evidence Of    Its Truth. That It Cannot Be

Realised By The   Impulsive, The   Unsympathetic, And The   Short-Sighted,

But Demands The   Higher Attributes Of    Human Nature, They Will See To Be

Evidence Of    Its Fitness For The   More Advanced States Of    Humanity. Though

It Calls For Much Labour And Self-Sacrifice, They Will See That It

Promises An Abundant Return Of    Happiness, Immediate And Remote. They

Will See That While In Its Injurious Effects On Both Parent And Child A

Bad System Is Twice Cursed, A Good System Is Twice Blessed--It Blesses

Him That Trains And Him That's Trained.

[1] Of    This Nature Is The   Plea Put In By Some For The   Rough Treatment

Experienced By Boys At Our Public Schools; Where, As It Is Said, They

Are Introduced To A Miniature World Whose Hardships Prepare Them For

Those Of    The   Real World. It Must Be Admitted That The   Plea Has Some

Force; But It Is A Very Insufficient Plea. For Whereas Domestic And

School Discipline, Though They Should Not Be Much Better Than The

Discipline Of    Adult Life, Should Be Somewhat Better; The   Discipline

Which Boys Meet With At Eton, Winchester, Harrow, Etc., Is Worse Than

That Of    Adult Life--More Unjust And Cruel. Instead Of    Being An Aid To

Human Progress, Which All Culture Should Be, The   Culture Of    Our Public

Schools, By Accustoming Boys To A Despotic Form Of    Government And An

Intercourse Regulated By Brute Force, Tends To Fit Them For A Lower

State Of    Society Than That Which Exists. And Chiefly Recruited As Our

Legislature Is From Among Those Who Are Brought Up At Such Schools, This

Barbarising Influence Becomes A Hindrance To National Progress.

Equally At The   Squire's Table After The   Withdrawal Of    The   Ladies, At The

Farmers' Market-Ordinary, And At The   Village Ale-House, The   Topic Which,

After The   Political Question Of    The   Day, Excites The   Most General

Interest, Is The   Management Of    Animals. Riding Home From Hunting, The

Conversation Usually Gravitates Towards Horse-Breeding, And Pedigrees,

And Comments On This Or That "Good Point;" While A Day On The   Moors Is

Very Unlikely To End Without Something Being Said On The   Treatment Of

Dogs. When Crossing The   Fields Together From Church, The   Tenants Of

Adjacent Farms Are Apt To Pass From Criticisms On The   Sermon To

Criticisms On The   Weather, The   Crops, And The   Stock; And Thence To Slide

Into Discussions On The   Various Kinds Of    Fodder And Their Feeding

Qualities. Hodge And Giles, After Comparing Notes Over Their Respective

Pig-Styes, Show By Their Remarks That They Have Been Observant Of    Their

Masters' Beasts And Sheep; And Of    The   Effects Produced On Them By This

Or That Kind Of    Treatment. Nor Is It Only Among The   Rural Population

That The   Regulations Of    The   Kennel, The   Stable, The   Cow-Shed, And The

Sheep-Pen, Are Favourite Subjects. In Towns, Too, The   Numerous Artisans

Who Keep Dogs, The   Young Men Who Are Rich Enough To Now And Then Indulge

Their Sporting Tendencies, And Their More Staid Seniors Who Talk Over

Agricultural Progress Or Read Mr. Mechi's Annual Reports And Mr. Caird's

Letters To The   _Times_, Form, When Added Together, A Large Portion Of

The Inhabitants. Take The   Adult Males Throughout The   Kingdom, And A

Great Majority Will Be Found To Show Some Interest In The   Breeding,

Rearing, Or Training Of    Animals, Of    One Kind Or Other.

But, During After-Dinner Conversations, Or At Other Times Of    Like

Intercourse, Who Hears Anything Said About The   Rearing Of    Children? When

The Country Gentleman Has Paid His Daily Visit To The   Stable, And

Personally Inspected The   Condition And Treatment Of    His Horses; When He

Has Glanced At His Minor Live Stock, And Given Directions About Them;

How Often Does He Go Up To The   Nursery And Examine Into Its Dietary, Its

Hours, Its Ventilation? On His Library-Shelves May Be Found White's

_Farriery_, Stephens's _Book Of    The   Farm_, Nimrod _On The   Condition Of

Hunters_; And With The   Contents Of    These He Is More Or Less Familiar;

But How Many Books Has He Read On The   Management Of    Infancy And

Childhood? The   Fattening Properties Of    Oil-Cake, The   Relative Values Of

Hay And Chopped Straw, The   Dangers Of    Unlimited Clover, Are Points On

Which Every Landlord, Farmer, And Peasant Has Some Knowledge; But What

Percentage Of    Them Inquire Whether The   Food They Give Their Children Is

Adapted To The   Constitutional Needs Of    Growing Boys And Girls? Perhaps

The Business-Interests Of    These Classes Will Be Assigned As Accounting

For This Anomaly. The   Explanation Is Inadequate, However; Seeing That

The Same Contrast Holds Among Other Classes. Of    A Score Of    Townspeople,

Few, If Any, Would Prove Ignorant Of    The   Fact That It Is Undesirable To

Work A Horse Soon After It Has Eaten; And Yet, Of    This Same Score,

Supposing Them All To Be Fathers, Probably Not One Would Be Found Who

Had Considered Whether The   Time Elapsing Between His Children's Dinner

And Their Resumption Of    Lessons Was Sufficient. Indeed, On

Cross-Examination, Nearly Every Man Would Disclose The   Latent Opinion

That The   Regimen Of    The   Nursery Was No Concern Of    His. "Oh, I Leave All

Those Things To The   Women," Would Probably Be The   Reply. And In Most

Cases The   Tone Of    This Reply Would Convey The   Implication, That Such

Cares Are Not Consistent With Masculine Dignity.

Regarded From Any But A Conventional Point Of    View, The   Fact Seems

Strange That While The   Raising Of    First-Rate Bullocks Is An Occupation

On Which Educated Men Willingly Bestow Much Time And Thought, The

Bringing Up Of    Fine Human Beings Is An Occupation Tacitly Voted Unworthy

Of Their Attention. Mammas Who Have Been Taught Little But Languages,

Music, And Accomplishments, Aided By Nurses Full Of    Antiquated

Prejudices, Are Held Competent Regulators Of    The   Food, Clothing, And

Exercise Of    Children. Meanwhile The   Fathers Read Books And Periodicals,

Attend Agricultural Meetings, Try Experiments, And Engage In

Discussions, All With The   View Of    Discovering How To Fatten Prize Pigs!

We See Infinite Pains Taken To Produce A Racer That Shall Win The   Derby:

None To Produce A Modern Athlete. Had Gulliver Narrated Of    The   Laputans

That The   Men Vied With Each Other In Learning How Best To