The Social Purposes of Education

K. G. Collier

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315412030
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book, first published in 1959, was written to primarily address teachers and students of education, as well as those with a general interest in the changing practices of schools. Under the terms of the 1944 Education Act, which charged Local Authorities with contributing towards the 'spiritual, moral, mental, and physical development of the community'. The author examines these ideas whilst examining the state of education in the United Kingdom after the 1944 Education Act.

PART ONE
The Challenge of the Present Situation

I
THE CHALLENGE OF AN EVOLVING SOCIETY

The Idea of Challenge and Response

IT is my view that this country is facing a critical period in its history, and that on that account everybody concerned with education has a responsibility for knowing what he is trying to do, in bringing up the next generation, and why he is trying to do it. The country is faced with a very severe challenge, in the shape of various economic, social and moral changes, and its future depends on the response we make to this challenge.

The idea of challenge and response has been made familiar by Toynbee,¹ but it is fundamental to my argument and I must spend a short time clarifying its meaning.

In the first place it can be seen in operation at the level of the individual. Everyone can recall great historical figures who have refused to be defeated by disasters and have risen to greater achievements after disaster than before. President Roosevelt was crippled by polio when he was a young man but reached the White House in spite of it. King Alfred was at one time reduced to the level of a gang-leader before he defeated the Danes and established his power. Beethoven was a professional composer and pianist in his early thirties when he was afflicted with deafness, but his inner acceptance of the resulting deprivation and suffering is considered to have engendered some of his greatest music.²

Similarly, most English readers will be able to recall a football or cricket match where a losing team, meeting at half-time, have made up their minds together to win at all costs; and have won. Such success is often the result of exceptional leadership from a captain or coach.

On a larger scale still we can examine instances of the success or failure of a whole class, or a nation, in meeting a severe challenge. In France in 1789 we might say that the ruling class failed to understand the gravity of the situation with which they were faced or to rise to the emergency as it developed; and they were wiped out. A contrasting example is offered by the Dutch in the last thirty years of the sixteenth century, when they rose against the brutal Spanish rule and after a bloody struggle gained their freedom.

The above accounts of successful and unsuccessful responses say nothing about the quality or character of the appropriate response. In the football match or the liberation of Holland the outstanding need perhaps is for an unconquerable fighting spirit; but it is not enough in itself: the willingness of each individual to fight to the bitter end depends on his sense of the unity of the team and his conviction of their common loyalty to the cause. In France in 1789, however, the qualities required for a successful response were different: a recognition of the right of the poorer classes to a better standard of living and of the middle classes to a greater share in the government of the country, or at the least a capacity to see when the game was up and to give way gracefully. In short, the qualities required in a community faced with a grave emergency depend on the nature of that emergency. In our own case, accordingly, our next step must be to analyse the crisis and understand the nature of the threat.

Five aspects of our position must be examined: our economic situation; the increase in scale of communities and organizations; the changing distribution of power between different social layers; an increasing uncertainty about the purposes of human life and a widening of the horizons of thought among ordinary people.

The Economic Position

Great Britain is a highly industrialized country. This fact carries a number of important implications regarding the population structure.

The following table¹ shows the distribution of man-power among different occupations in 1954:

	Per Cent	Number of Thousands
Primary 4·6%	4·6	1,022	Agriculture and fishing	Producing food
	3·9	865	Mining and quarrying	Winning raw materials and manufacturing them into goods
	6.4	1,438	Building
Secondary	4·4	986	Textiles
51·2%	1·7	376	Gas, water and electricity
	25·7	5,734	Miscellaneous manufactures
	9·1	2,020	Engineering
	7·6	1,692	Transport	Distribution and services
	5·9	1,311	Public administration
Tertiary	12·6	2,802	Distribution
44·2%	18·1	4,037	Other consumer services, medical, entertainment, etc.

We notice that only a minute proportion of the population is concerned with agriculture. It is also significant that the percentage directly engaged in producing goods is very little larger than that concerned in providing amenities, such as entertainment and medical treatment, or distributing goods. This third group of occupations is much larger in comparison with the other two than it was fifty years ago and corresponds to a wider distribution of amenities through the population. Yet it is the industrial producers who must bear the main burden of keeping the country solvent, by exporting a large enough volume of manufactured goods to pay both for the raw materials we have to import to make them, and for the food necessary to maintain our living standards.

The next table² shows the overwhelming extent to which our population live in towns. It can be seen that more than a third are to be found in the great urban agglomerations; only about a fifth live in the countryside.

	Population	Per cent
Seven major conurbations. (The smallest included is Tyneside with 838,000)	18,661,000	36·7
Other towns, including areas of Urban District Councils	21,318,000	42·0
Areas of Rural District Councils	10,806,000	21·3

The third table¹ represents the social stratification of English society.

		Per cent
Class I	Higher administrative, professional and managerial		3·3
Class II	Lesser administrative, professional and managerial	11·2
	Farmers	2·7
	Shopkeepers and small employers	4·9	18·8
Class III	Remaining black-coated workers, including foremen		12·2
	Skilled manual workers and those engaged in personal services		38·7
Class IV	Semi-skilled manual workers	11·2
	Agricultural labourers	4·2	15·4
Class V	Unskilled workers	11·3
	Members of H.M. Forces	0·3	11·6

We observe that two-thirds of the adult population belong to the manual workers, and about 10 per cent to the ‘upper middle’ class. It is of course impossible to draw sharp lines between social classes, since these are judged partly by financial status, partly by educational background, partly by circles of friendship and other intangible factors. In any case people's estimates of their social class vary with the circumstances in which they are asked. For example, Americans who were asked to state whether they belonged to the upper, middle or lower classes gave answers in the following proportions: upper 6 per cent; middle 88 per cent; lower 6 per cent; but when given also the alternative category ‘working class’ they replied: upper 3 per cent; middle 43 per cent; working 51 per cent; lower 1 per cent; other answers 2 per cent.² In this country an investigation obtained the following figures: in the first, upper 2 per cent; middle 48 per cent; working 45 per cent; other answers 5 per cent.¹

These facts are indispensable for an appreciation of our economic position, to which we must now turn our attention. The main considerations may be briefly summed up as follows.

In the world as a whole, population is growing faster than agricultural production. A distinguished economist estimates the former at approximately 1¼ per cent per annum (about 30 millions), and the latter at approximately 0·3 per cent per annum.² As long as these figures remain approximately true they mean a constant pressure on food supplies and a constant threat of famine to many millions of people. It is true that U.S.A. and certain other countries have had large food surpluses in the last few years, but it has to be recognized that the crisis-spots are precisely in those countries that are least able to purchase grain in millions of tons, namely India, China, Burma and other under-developed regions. The technical knowledge for increasing food production is already available; the difficulty lies first in the immense quantities of equipment and fertilizer required; second in the number of technically trained men needed; and third in the fact that no large advance in agricultural production can be achieved except through the conversion of a multitude of illiterate and superstitious peasants to a radically new outlook and way of living. This last is the crucial point; for such wholesale conversion of millions is loaded with incalculable possibilities; nobody knows how it could be done quickly enough to overtake the threat of famine; nobody knows what effect it might have on those people's beliefs, habits or aspirations; nobody can weigh up the ethical rights and wrongs of the proceedings.³ Similar remarks are pertinent on the control of population growth: the contraceptive methods of the We...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part One: The Challenge of the Present Situation
• Part II: The Response: Aims and Resources
• Part III: The Underlying Assumptions
• Part IV: Educational Principles
• List of References
• Index