CHAPTER X

THE CURRICULUM 154

Standard in Secondary Schools set by public examinations--Elementary Schools less limited with regard to subjects--A complete curriculum in the nature of things--Education still at sea--Children have inherent claims--Law of supply and demand--Human nature a composite whole--The educational rights of man--We may not pick and choose--Shelley offers a key--Mistakes _v._ howlers--Knowledge should be consecutive, intelligent, complete--Hours of work, not number of subjects, bring fatigue--Short hours--No preparation.

SECTION I: THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD 158

Knowledge of God indispensable--Mothers communicate it best--Relation to God a first-born affinity--“Kiddies” not expected to understand--School education begins at six--_No conscious mental effort_ should be required earlier--Dr. Johnson on “telling again”--Two aspects of Religion--Attitude of Will towards God--Gradual perception of God--Goethe on repose of soul--Children must have passive as well as active principle--New Testament teaching must be grounded on Old--Sceptical children--Must not be evaded or answered finally--A thoughtful commentator necessary--Method of lessons, six to twelve, twelve to fifteen, fifteen to eighteen--Aids of modern scholarship--Dogmatic teaching comes by inference--Very little hortatory teaching desirable--Synthetic study of life and teaching of Christ, a necessity--“Authentic comment” essayed in verse--Catechism--Prayer Book--Church History.

SECTION II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 169

(_a_) _History_: Montaigne on history--The League of Nations and its parallels--_Henry VIII_ on precedent--Dangers of indifference to history--Rational patriotism depends upon knowledge of history--History must give more than impressions and opinions--P.U.S. method multiplies time--Concentrated attention given to the right books--Condition, a _single_ reading--Attention a natural function--Teacher’s interest an incentive--Teacher who “makes allowance” for wandering, hinders--Narration in the history lesson--Distinction between word memory and mind memory--English history for children of six to nine--Of nine to twelve--French history--Ancient history--For children of twelve to fifteen--Indian history--European history--History for pupils of fifteen to eighteen--Literature--A mental pageant of history--Gives weight to decisions, consideration to action, stability to conduct--Labour unrest--Infinite educability of all classes--Equal opportunity should be afforded--But uneasiness apt to follow--Knowledge brings its own satisfaction--Education merely a means of getting on, or, of progress towards high thinking and plain living.

II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 180

(_b_) _Literature_: Literature in Form I--Classics, not written down--In Form II--Children show originality in “mere narration”--Just as Scott, Shakespeare, Homer--Children all sit down to the same feast--Each gets according to his needs and powers--Reading for Forms III and IV--Abridged editions undesirable--Children take pleasure in the “dry” parts--Must have a sense of wide spaces for the imagination to wander in--Judgment turns over the folios of the mind--Statesmanship, formed upon wide reading--Reading for Forms V and VI (fifteen to eighteen).

II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 185

(_c_) _Morals and Economics_: _Citizenship_: Form I--Tales--Fables--Hears of great citizens--Form II--The inspiration of citizenship--Plutarch--Present day citizenship--Problems of good and evil--Plutarch does not label actions--Children weary of the doctored tale--The human story always interesting--Jacob--The good, which is all virtuous, palls--Children must see life whole--Must be protected from grossness by literary medium--Learn the science of proportion--Difficulty of choosing books--Chastely taught children watch their thoughts--Expurgated editions--Processes of nature must not be associated with impurity--Games--Offences bred in the mind--Mind must be continually and wholesomely occupied--A sound body and a sound mind--_Ourselves, our Souls and Bodies_--An ordered presentation of the possibilities and powers of human nature.

II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 190

(_d_) _Composition_: Oral, from six to seven--Dangers of teaching composition--The art of “telling”--Power of composition innate--Oral and written from nine to twelve--Integral part of education in every subject--From twelve to fifteen--An inevitable consequence of free and exact use of books--Verse--Scansion--Rhythm--Accent--Subject must be one of keen interest--From fifteen to eighteen, some definite teaching--Suggestions or corrections--Education bears on the issues and interests of everyday life.

II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 209

(_e_) _Languages_: English--Grammar--Begin with sentence--Difficulty of abstract knowledge--French--Narration from the beginning--Italian--German--Latin.

II: THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN 213

(_f_) _Art_: Art is of the spirit--Reverent knowledge of pictures themselves--Method--No talk of schools of painting or style--Picture tells its own tale--Drawing--Original illustrations--Figures--Objects--Colour--Field studies--Architecture--Clay-modelling--Artistic handicrafts--Musical Appreciation.

SECTION III: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE 218

(_a_) _Science_: Huxley--“Common information”--Books should be literary in character--French approach to science--Principles underlying science meet for literary treatment--Details of application too technical for school work--Universal principles must be linked with common incidents--Verbiage that darkens counsel--Out-of-door work--Natural history, botany, astronomy, physiology, hygiene, general science--A due combination of field work with literary comments--Fatal divorce between science and the “humanities”--Nature Note Books--Science not a utilitarian subject.

_Geography_: Suffers from utilitarian spirit--Mystery and beauty gone--Modern geography, concerned with man’s profit--A map should unfold a panorama of delight--Map work--Children read and picture descriptions--Knowledge of England, a key to the world--Naval history--Empire geography--Current geography--Countries of Europe--Romance of natural features, peoples, history, industries--Generalisations, not geography--Children must see with the mind’s eye--Two ways of teaching geography--Inferential method--But general principles open to modification--No local colour and personal interests--No imaginative conception--Panoramic method--Gives colour, detail, proportion, principles--Pictures not of much use--Except those constructed by the imagination from written descriptions--Survey of Asia--Africa--America--Physical geography--Geography in connection with history--Practical geography.

III: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE 230

(_b_) _Mathematics_: Reasoning powers do not wait upon our training--Beauty and truth of Mathematics--A sense of limitation wholesome--We should hear _sursum corda_ in natural law--Mind invigorated by hard exercise--Mathematics easy to examine upon--Dangers of education directed not to awaken awe but to secure exactness--Which does not serve in other departments of life--Work upon special lines qualifies for work on those only--Mathematics to be studied for their own sake--Not as they make for general intelligence and grasp of mind--Genius has her rights--Tendency to sacrifice the “humanities” to Mathematics--Mathematics depend upon the teacher--Few subjects worse taught--A necessary part of education.

III: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE 233

(_c_) _Physical Development, Handicrafts._ No special methods for these.