The New Education in Europe

An Account of Recent Fundamental Changes in the Educational Philosophy of Great Britain, France, and Germany

Frederick William Roman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367261160
• eBook ISBN: 9781000020694
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Originally published in 1924, as outlined in the preface, this book is "based on the belief that the only substantial hope of rescue in the present world-crisis and the saving of even civilization itself depend upon the degree to which the creative thought that the coming generations may bring is applied to a continued and purposeful reconstruction of the modes of living. The world is in need, as never before, of stronger and more clearly-conceived ideals of conscious effort in the service of humanity. The salvation of society must be mined out of its own depths. Much of this work must be done by those now at school, and therefore we are at once led to inquire to what extent the present systems of education provide for conditions that are provocative of free and spontaneous thought."

"In each of the several countries with which the present study is concerned there is a considerable body of men and women who have undertaken a serious and thoughtful campaign of education. The pages that follow attempt to give a summary account of the origin and the likelihood of success of these several undertakings."

Part 1
Great Britain and Ireland

Chapter I
Forces That Account for the Recent English Educational Legislation and Its Fate in Application

(a) Complexity of the English School Problem

The activity of any people in the political, religious, industrial, and educational spheres, and the like, can best be explained and understood when scrutinized from two distinct angles: the immediate present and the long past. The educational projects and new school enactments, and their success and failure in practice in the several countries, during and after the War period, will serve as apt cases in point to illustrate how the shifting positions of popular opinion find their equilibrium in the rivalry of an ever-pressing present and a hardened and persistent past.

The student of educational programmes and policies of the last decade for Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States finds much that is similar and common to all of them; nevertheless, it is their immense variations that command his immediate and initial attention. Only after the student commences to regard the projection of new issues and their stabilization, as a result and response to the forces playing in any given field of observation, does he begin to see anew how the contrast and comparison of educational problems among the several countries can be made to produce new values for the present and future generations. An insight into how these events are brought to a focus carries with it a certain knowledge as to how they may be controlled. Herein lies our hope.

After the school statistics, laws, programmes, facts relating to school administration and organization, and the aims of those responsible for the training of youth, have been assembled and classified for two or more nations, the task that appears uppermost lies in getting an explanation that accounts for the differences.

Let us take England¹ as a starting-point for a list of contrasts and comparisons, chosen from many, which may serve to illustrate the points under consideration:

1. Why is it that England is the last among the great nations to attempt National School Legislation?
2. Why does England present the greatest variety of types of education, thereby giving an impression of lack of order?
3. How shall we explain the complete autonomy which is enjoyed by the English Public School, especially in the light of the fact that such freedom could not be tolerated in either France or Germany?
4. Why is religious instruction considered essential in the Government Schools of England, and non-essential in those of France?
5. How shall we account for the moderate enrolment in Continuation Schools in England as compared with the high enrolment in Germany and the almost non-existence of such an enrolment in France?
6. How is it to be explained that school-attendance has been enforced only in comparatively recent years in England, whereas in Germany compulsory attendance is an accomplished fact of long standing, and in France, although the law exists, it is not enforced anywhere?
7. How does the impression arise that the educational system of England lays stress on games; that of France on learning; that of Germany on knowledge—although, apparently, always subordinated to obedience and order?
8. How can we explain the wide divergencies as to values?

Probably no school-system in the world is as difficult to understand as the English. This impression deepens after a long series of interviews with teachers and School Authorities.

This apparent want of organization, and the absence of any large amount of literature discussing the theories of education, strike the foreign student as one of the first traits that should be explained. An English master ventured to offer a suggestion to the writer that maybe helpful: "We English act, and explain afterwards if it seems necessary." Another authority on English schools suggested the idea that it was rather dangerous to have too many theories about things, in view of the every-day experience of life that it was very hard to live up to a theory. Life was made up of compromise and the man who really succeeded was found to be one who had shown his ability to turn his hand to a variety of resources that were not always consistent with one another.¹

There is one sense, however, in which we may say that the English school-system does show a marked unity. In other countries the school-system has been made; in England it has grown. If a student of comparative education expects anything like a clear understanding and appreciation of the present-day school-reform going on in England it is necessary that he become acquainted with the many features of this long-unbroken educational growth. There are certain contrasts in English education to-day that present themselves in a marked degree when one attempts to compare it with French or German education; these contrasts cannot be explained except in the light of this long-uninterrupted period of educational development. An examination of English education shows that it is the product of many divergent enterprises, and each particular form of education retains even to this day, in a very high degree, the ear-marks and spirit of its founders. It is a picture that lacks order. It seems to want system. It has been painted by many artists, and each one has contributed the spirit of his age and of his class to his particular conceptions of the training of youth. The unity lies in the long period of unbroken evolution.

(b) The English Public Schools As a Determining Factor in Shaping the Policy of Educational Life in England

(1) For Whom Were These Schools Originally Intended?

The foreign student of the English school-system will not have gone far in his researches before he will be likely to conclude that, among all the forces that are playing on the educational field in England, the foremost in importance is still the English Public School.¹ This power of the Public School is not wielded because of great numbers; nor would there be unanimity of agreement that it owed its source to its record for intellectual attainments; but it is rather to be explained by what is almost incomprehensible to an American—an- inordinate love and admiration for tradition, and a willingness, even in these days of much talked of democracy, to be counselled and led by an aristocracy.

Tradition is not the only fulcrum which supports the influence of the English Public School. The economic position, the rights of self-administration, and what amounts to almost a monopoly in the assignments of important posts in the Government (all of which will be explained in more detail in succeeding pages), go far in accounting for the exceptional prestige which this type of school enjoys.

Certain facts about the origin and development of this type of institution will elucidate our argument. The nine English Public Schools that are usually cited as holding the first rank were, all but one, founded before 1600.² Time alone, then, has been sufficient to make a long tradition. As to the type of pupil for whom these schools were originally intended we cite the following: "Wykeham, a statesman, a man of the world and a convinced hater of the religious orders, founded Winchester as a school that should prepare students for New College, Oxford. It originally consisted of a warden and 10 fellows, a headmaster and an undermaster, 70 poor scholars, 3 chaplains and 16 choristers. Besides these there might be 10 paying scholars, chosen from among the sons of noble and influential persons, special friends of the College."¹²

As regards Eton, which was established 60 years later: "When King Henry VI desired to establish a foundation which should exceed that of Wykeham, he associated with the school an almshouse for 'twenty-five poor and weakly men.' The association of an almshouse with the school marks the purpose of the school as a charitable endowment for the lower classes of the community."³ That St. Paul's School was not originally meant to be an institution for the sons of the well-to-do· classes is clearly indicated by the original provision that the "number of pupils was fixed at 153; who were to be taught gratis; parents were to provide wax candles in winter, to furnish their children with one penny each for the offering at St. Paul's at the Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28) and to pay an entrance fee of fourpence (equal to about four shillings to-day) for each child. These entrance fees were paid over to a 'poor scholar' who swept the schoolroom every Saturday and 'from time to time' gave the necessary attention to the exceedingly primitive sanitary arrangements."⁴

It seems well not to attach an exaggerated importance to the meaning of the word "poor." Thorough scientific investigations seem to wartant us in thinking of these early schools as being intended not as a rule for "the absolutely poor, the sons of labourers, but the relatively poor, the poor relations of the richer classes, 'the younger -sons of nobility and farmers, the lesser landlords, the prosperous tradesmen', although bright boys who were really poor were sometimes educated free for the professions."⁵

(2) How These Institutions Passed into the Hands of the Upper Classes¹

We have already noted that Winchester, at its first organization, had made provision for a small number of paying pupils. Similarly, Eton provided for twenty paying pupils. The early statutes of Harrow allowed that "the Schoolmaster may receive over and above the youths of the inhabitants in his parish so many foreigners, as the whole may be well taught, and applied, and the place can conveniently contain, and of these foreigners he may take such stipend and wages as he can get."²

For a variety of reasons it is explained how the original recipients were dispossessed in favour of sons of the wealthy. "We shall notice later the increasing division of classes, produced by the religious conflicts and civil wars of the Tudors and Stuarts, and resulting in the monopoly of endowments by the Church. Since the Church embraced the wealthier classes, there would be less likelihood of poverty characterising the parents of the boys who would seek a free education under Church influence, and the middle-class dissenters of the town would avoid such institutions as the public schools whatever their financial qualifications might be. But there were, undoubtedly, many poorer professional men who really needed help in the education of their children, and to whom the Church monopoly can have been no impediment. Why, then, did they gradually cease to take advantage of free scholarships? The answer is, that through maladministration on the part of the schools the scholarships were really no longer free, that to be a scholar was no longer a possible position for a poor man's boy. The public schools, from the middle of the sevententh century onwards, became increasingly close preserves of the aristocracy, offering to a minority a 'free education' of which the freedom from cost was purely illusory, and to all pupils an education that will not bear close examination, simply because their rulers were often dishonest, and because there was no effective outside control to check abuses before they acquired the prestige of custom. For instance, the property with which Eton was endowed rapidly increased in value, while the stipend of the Fellows, paid in money, correspondingly diminished as time went on. The result was that the statutes were openly broken, and the appreciation in values was diverted to what seemed its proper destiny—the pockets of the Provost and Fellows. Thus we read that in the twenty years before 1862 they divided amongst themselves £127,700, gained by the increased increment as leases of valuable land were renewed. They were far, indeed, from the paltry £10 that Wykeham stipulated should be paid them yearly for their sinecure! Similarly, at Winchester, the Warden, by 1636, incurred a rebuke from Laud, the Visitor, for appropriating college-funds, and in 1710 the Sub-Warden and Bursar protest that it is notorious that the collegers (scholars) are so badly provided for as to be at the charge of their friends, and that the Warden took from the college-income for his own use a greater sum than the amount applied to the maintenance of all the seventy scholars put together. At Eton, Maxwell Lyte tells that in 1635 the scholars complain that they are robbed of breakfast, clothing, bedding, and the commonest necessities of life, while the college income is divided among the few. The complaint about breakfast, then a less formal meal than now, and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• PART I GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND
• PART II FRANCE
• PART III GERMANY
• PART IV SOME EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS COMPARED
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX