An introduction to the study of adolescent education

Preface

This small book lays no claim to be a comprehensive work on adolescent education ; many volumes would be required to do full justice to the complexity and importance of the subject dealt with. The object of these few chapters is not to be comprehensive, but rather suggestive.

At the risk of wearisome repetition much stress has been laid on the pathological symptoms of adolescent development, and also on the evil and unnatural tendencies which are so strikingly characteristic of some who have the care of boys or girls in large numbers. Such subjects cannot be ignored in the study of adolescence, and, since in the past they have been so carefully and so unwisely avoided, they can hardly receive at present too much quiet scientific attention.

We are realizing that many school offences are due to the fact that the delinquents have had no share in the making of the laws which they have broken, and have taken no part in the discussion which has preceded their enactment. On a fuller recognition of this psychological fact much of the future evolution of our educational theory depends.

vi

PREFACE

Anger or pity has also in the past led us into errors from which a little calm and reasonable thought would often have saved us. We seem to have been quite satisfied with good intentions, and our religious faith appears to have hindered rather than furthered our educational investigations. We are only just realizing that prevention is man’s work, not God’s alone, and that the sphere of religion is not merely confined to works of rescue.

If we look far into the future there is great cause for hope. As we realize that our children are educated by influences, and not by information, we shall demand a different type of teacher, and there is little doubt that our race possesses qualities capable of producing it. We shall look more and more to the child to guide us in the manner and substance of our teaching, and we shall discover how often the happiness of the adult has been ruined by the teaching of philosophy a few years too soon or a few years too late.

CYRIL BRUYN ANDREWS.

Reform Club,

Chapter I The Science Of Education — Modern Views And Ancient Dogmas

PAGES

Two methods of educational criticism — Education a changing science — Direct and indirect influences on character — State education — The education of the directing classes seldom questioned — The initiation of separate schools for young boys by Arnold — Boarding schools and day schools — The unsuitable preparation for after-life which our wealthier classes receive — The social revolution of to-day — The influences of kindred sciences on educational questions — The necessity for a synthetic view of education— The adult and the adolescent mind — The true relation between psysiological and phychological studies — Monism and dualism in fatigue — Monism and dualism in ethics — Monism and dualism in eugenics — Monism and dualism in intellect and emotion — The individual as a sign of the society - 1-40

Chapter II

The responsibility of the adult — Parents — Head masters — Under masters - - - - - 41-55

Chapter III Immorality And Sexual Perversion In Schools

General reticence on sexual pathology in school life — The question of responsibility — The cramping environment of our boarding schools — The warnings of moralists —

The phenomena of sexual perversions - - 56-78 vu

Vlll

CONTENTS

Chapter IV The Cures Of Immorality And Sexual Pathology

IN SCHOOLS

mi PAGES

Three methods of reform — The conservative method : Supervision, religious dogma, athletics — The rational method : Self-initiation in work and play, sexual instruction, social duties and civil life — Co-education - 79-117

CHAPTER V The definition of self-assertion and discipline — The range of

self-expression — The effects of discipline - 118-135

Chapter VI

The atmosphere of our schools — Examinations — Memory : its use and its abuse — The possibilities of self-assertion in various studies : Classics, mathematics, history and geography, handicraft, drawing, design, piano- playing, natural history, acting — A few conclusions - 136-159

Chapter VII

The trained athlete — Team games — The attempt to manufacture self-expression — Pleasure and self-realization — Laughter — Swimming — The scout movement — Over-fatigue— Chemical activities and personal interest 160-174

Chapter VIII

The improved type of master — The effect of a rational master on the adolescent — Morality and the realization of civic life — Religion ----- 175-185

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS REFERRED TO

Note. — The references are to pages in this work.

Arnold of Rugby : Contributions to Education, pp. 9, 10, 49, 141. Cambridge University Press, 1898.

Board of Education, 1896-97 : Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. i., p. 177.

Board of Education : Special Reports — Preparatory Schools for Boys, vol. vi., pp. 163, 169, 170.

Baden-Powell, General Sir R. : Scouting for Boys, pp. 23, 67, 127, 170, 171, 172, 173. Pearson, 1911.

Clouston, T. S. : Mental Diseases, pp. 66, 82. Churchill, 1904. Clouston, T. S. : Hygiene of Mind, p. 68. Methuen, 1909.

Dukes, Clement : Health at School, p. 62. Cassell, 1887.

Ellis, Havelock: Studies in the Psychology of Sex, p. 57. Davis, Philadelphia, 1906-1912.

Finlay-Johnson, H. : The Dramatic Method of Teaching, p. 156. Nisbet.

Forel, Auguste : The Sexual Question, pp. 61, 100, 105. Rebman, 1908.

Galton, Francis : Hereditary Genius, p. 24. Macmillan, 1892. George, W. R. : The Junior Republic, p. 98. Appleton, 1912.

Hall, G. Stanley : Adolescence, pp. 25, 68. Appleton, 1905.

Holmes, Edmond : What Is and what Might Be, p. 14. Constable, 1911.

James, William: Talks to Teachers, p. 175. Longmans, 1910. Lyttelton, E. : Training of the Young in the Laws of Sex, p. 180. Longmans, 1910.

Lyttelton, E. : Mothers and Sons, p. 180. Macmillan, 1910. Mercier, Charles : Criminal Responsibility, pp. 58, 59. Oxford University Press, 1905.

IX

X

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS REFERRED TO

Mitchell, A. : Dreaming, Laughing, and Blushing, pp. 121, 165. Green, 1905.

Mosley Commission to United States: Report, pp. Ill, 188, 139, 182. Mosso, A. : Fatigue, pp. 33, 173, 174. Sonnenschein, 1906.

Reid, G. Archdall: Laws of Heredity, p. 34. Methuen, 1910. Richardson, B. W. : Diseases of Modern Life, p. 176.

Romanes, George : Mind, Motion, and Monism, p. 30. Green, 1896. Sadler, M. E. : Moral Instruction and Training in Schools (2 vols.), pp. 63, 98, 112, 182. Longmans, 1909.

Spencer, Herbert : Education, pp. 45, 125. Williams and Norgate. Spiller, Gustav : The Mind of Man, pp. 39, 164. Sonnenschein, 1902.

Welton, J. : The Psychology of Education, pp. 150, 151. Macmillan 1911.

Wilberforce : The Trinity of Evil, p. 67. Hodder and Stoughton. 1886.

AN INTRODUCTION TO

THE STUDY OF ADOLESCENT

EDUCATION

Chapter I The Science Of Education — Modehn Views And

ANCIENT DOGMAS

Two methods of educational criticism — Education a changing science — Direct and indirect influences on character — State education — The education of the directing classes seldom questioned — The initiation of separate schools for young boys by Arnold — Boarding schools and day schools — The unsuitable preparation for after-life which our wealthier classes receive — The social revolution of to-day — The influences of kindred sciences on educational questions — The necessity for a synthetic view of education — The adult and the adolescent mind — The true relation between physiological and psychological studies — Monism and dualism in fatigue — Monism and dualism in ethics — Monism and dualism in eugenics — Monism and dualism in intellect and emotion — The individual as a sign of the society.

Two Methods of Educational Criticism. — The science of education has been constantly before the public in recent years. It has been discussed by those who consider that if a system is old it must also be admirable, and by those who consider that all ancient methods are necessarily bad. Some talk of the adolescent as if he were an overgrown child and nothing more ; others contend that the adolescent has all the vices of the adult, with none of his self-control.

Calm and scientific criticism has been rare. Those who believe in the sanctity of ancient institutions have refrained with an almost religious reverence from inquiry and criticism. To glance beneath the mellowed traditions of our famous schools, and to discover the real atmosphere in which our boys and girls live, would seem to them indecent and almost immoral.

There are also a large number of people appearing to take an interest in education who, though free from the complacent satisfaction which is so fatal to improvement, suffer from other failings which render their investigations equally unprofitable. The scandal-mongers, who delight the sensational cravings of a certain class of reader by weekly accounts of the immorality and evil which infest our large boarding schools, seldom accomplish any real good : the readers and writers of these articles alike display the greatest possible enthusiasm for scandal and the smallest conceivable interest in the science of education. The subject of many of these revelations is often the school or reformatory, but it frequently changes to the asylum or divorce court if the latter are likely to attract more public interest.

Although there has been a tendency lately to a more scientific analysis of adolescent phenomena, educational study is still, to a large extent, the monopoly of the satisfied conservative who denies the necessity of investigation, or of the debauched sensualist, whose last wish would be to cure the evils he delights to reveal. The conservative is often so genuinely disgusted by the evils which are suggested that, even if he were convinced of their almost universal prevalence, he would be incapable of discovering their causes or their effects. The

sensual reveller, although perhaps outwardly a moralist, is at heart secretly convinced that the chief enjoyment of the investigator consists in the revelation of immorality. There is little hope that any improvement will come from either of these groups of educational enthusiasts.

It will be my aim neither to ignore nor to revel in the evils of school life ; I shall endeavour to treat sincerely, and I hope scientifically, some of the most conspicuous evils, and to show a few practical remedies for the vice that exists. A book on adolescence or on education which ignores the immorality of our large boys’ and girls’ schools is certainly incomplete and generally hypocritical ; the unhealthy atmosphere in which many of the adolescent live is only denied by those who have little knowledge of facts or good cause for reticence. Both the gravity and prevalence of moral perversion should be sufficient reasons for its constant and careful study. Few seem to realize that when we turn from immorality in disgust we are doing our best to further its continuance.

It is essential in the study of youthful temptations and adolescent failings that we should keep our minds clear, scientific, and unemotional. The calm and unprejudiced student of adolescence will alone be able to distinguish its inevitable evils from the vices which environment has manufactured, and he only will be able to discover causes and remedies for ever hidden from the disgusted moralist or morbid scandal-monger.

Education a Changing Science. — Education is not a science which admits of unalterable dogmas or sweeping generalizations. The living truth of one generation becomes sterile in the next. The environment of the adult alters ; the surroundings during adolescence should change in sympathy. The finest education of to-day will to-morrow unfit the adolescent for his future life ; and if we allow any rule to guide us in the science of education, it should be a theory of constant change and sympathetic variation. Different from us our descendants must be ; wiser and more learned we hope they may be ; but however profound their theories, and however beneficial their practices, they will never be able to do more than define the method of education most suitable for their particular generation. If we once accept the proposition that education is the art of adapting our children to the life which they are to lead as adults, we must be careful that we are adapting the adolescent, not for the life of yesterday nor for the environment of to-day, but for the ever-widening and larger life which will be his lot to-morrow.

Direct and Indirect Influences on Character. — Many affirm that character is better formed by indirect than by direct influences ; it is the duty of the school, they say, to provide indirect influences ; and if direct teaching is necessary at all, it should be left almost entirely to the home. The believers in indirect teaching have pointed with pride to the splendid results which they attribute to a classical training, and have affirmed that no study, however useful, moulds the adolescent character as finely as the learning of Greek and Latin. For many years these statements have remained unquestioned. To-day we are beginning to challenge the usefulness of a knowledge of Latin and Greek, and we are wondering whether a more direct method of influencing character would not achieve an even better result ; we are doubting whether the subtle training acquired from painful and often vague endeavours to master the intricacies of Greek verbs really helps a boy in the business or pleasure of adult life. Is a man who has acquired an ability to write poor Latin prose a more useful citizen, a better husband, or a wiser father than he who lacks this accomplishment ? Do we observe in the average product of our public schools that fine beauty of thought and eloquence of expression which, we are told, is the indirect result of a classical training ?

There is little doubt that the study of Greek and Latin does leave an impression on the mind of the boy, which is carried into adult life, and the training involved may be in many ways beneficial. The question which to-day, however, occupies our minds is not whether the training in a classical education does any good, but whether its beneficial effects are so conspicuous as to justify its general use among the upper classes throughout the country. It is a matter of increasing doubt whether a knowledge of Latin and Greek is of any great assistance to the adult in the wise choice of a profession, or whether the training involved in a mastery of the classics assists pre-eminently in the wise expenditure of an income, be it earned or inherited.

State Education. — The great majority of boys and girls do not come under the influence of a classical training ; it is for the directing classes rather than for the working classes that a training in Latin and Greek is supposed to be beneficial, and even the most ardent upholder of a classical training would hesitate to advocate it in the compulsory schools supported by the Government.

A school under Government control must necessarily tend to change more with the times than one which is independent of State interference. The Government is responsible for the teaching at its elementary schools ; the product of the elementary school, to a large extent, regulates the Government. This interdependence tends to keep both State and school in harmony with each other, and no State school curriculum can owe its existence to mere tradition. State education will always be a matter of political controversy, and will be continually open to the unhampered criticisms of all classes. Since the cost, the sphere of action, and the healthiness of a Government school will always be matters of public interest, the education in a State school can never be very far behind the most modern and sane views on adolescence.

Education of the Directing Classes Seldom Questioned. — Our large preparatory and public schools are, on the contrary, not brought into the glare of political controversy, and much that is bad escapes notice under the soft light of ancient splendour ; much thoughtless eulogy is bestowed, and scientific criticism is discreetly withheld. Few who know their inner life care to subject it to a critical examination. Nothing could differ more from this than the position of the State school, where criticism and investigation are not only possible, but continually encouraged by opposing politicians. It is everybody’s duty, we are constantly assured, to criticize the education of the working classes ; it is difficult to find the people whose duty it is to criticize the school life of our ruling classes.

The feeling of State responsibility is growing rapidly to-day, and the present attention which the Government schools receive will be small compared with the consideration which they will obtain from our descendants ; but there is also another factor which will insure them that wholesome and sane development which only constant criticism can give. They are day schools, and, whatever may be the comparative merits of the day school and the boarding school, the day school is more open to inquiry from without than the boarding school ; parents who, from want of knowledge refrain from criticizing the latter, will always take a lively interest in the former.

It is for these reasons, and not because I consider State education unimportant, that I pass over our elementary schools with comparatively little comment. The large schools to which our wealthier citizens send their children during adolescence are in far greater need of criticism, since, being boarding schools, they are far more potent for good or evil.

^ et, instead of receiving more criticism, they receive less ; whether from cowardice or apathy, there is a conspiracy of silence, and, except for vague stories of scandal, we have no inquiry on the subject.

The education of the directing classes in England continues for about fifteen or twenty years. At three the child requires something more than feeding, and education continues until the adolescent is twentythree or twenty-four. In some cases this period is curtailed, but the development of the University system seems to point to an increased belief in a lengthy educational period.

The years of adolescence are certainly the most important, and, in many respects, the most interesting in the development of the boy or girl. From ten to eighteen the adolescent finds himself possessed of a maximum of potential energy, and, if he is the child of clever parents, this period is often fraught with grave dangers ; he discovers that he is possessed of a strong desire for self-expression and self-realization, and yet he is almost entirely destitute of experience, and the results attending his actions are often completely unknown. It is at this period more than at any other that a wise, far-sighted, and scientific education is most needed, and it is at this period that education has received least attention. The boy of the more intelligent and wealthier classes is in far greater danger during adolescence than his poorer brother, and it would be well if his parents sometimes bestowed a little less thought on the education of the working classes, and remembered the saying that lilies fester worse than weeds.

Initiation of Separate Schools fop Young Boys by Arnold. — Until 1837 there were few traces of preparatory schools in England. The boy left home when he was about ten or eleven for the public school, and he spent the whole period of adolescence under its roof. It is chiefly to Dr. Arnold of Bugby that we owe the preparatory schools as they exist to-day.

At Bugby Arnold saw that the evil barriers which existed between masters and boys could not be easily or quickly removed, and, in his opinion, the younger boys suffered most from the evils of public school life : he hoped that in preparatory schools younger boys might have some of the advantages of home life and yet be prepared for the rougher public school life which was to follow. Whether the separation of the preparatory school from the public school has achieved what Dr. Arnold intended is doubtful, and it is certain that in many of our preparatory schools to-day he would have found the evils which he wished to cure accentuated rather than diminished.

When Arnold wrote his treatises on education, the public school system had been even less criticized than it is to-day. The comparative advantages of the day school and boarding school had seldom been scientifically discussed, and the suggestion of co-education as a practical and immediate remedy for the perverted morality of our boarding schools would have surprised even such a broad-minded thinker as Dr. Arnold. While the evils which the head master of Bugby pointed out still exist in many of our large boarding schools, the remedies by which we seek to cure and prevent them are growing daily more numerous and revolutionary.

Immorality, reasoned Arnold, could only be cured by an improved environment ; but by an improved environment he did not imply any drastic change in school conditions, but rather a more wholesome tone of thought brought about by an increased individual control of evil passions. An environment so altered and improved that the boy or girl actually forgot the temptations of moral perversion would have sounded to Arnold a fantastic fairy tale incapable of earthly realization.

Arnold was a confirmed dualist, and his sermons are full of allusions to the eternal struggle between right and wrong, and of devoted prayers for the ultimate triumph of Good. Our present idea that the virtuous boy is not a being who is constantly controlling his evil passions, but is often merely the product of a wholesome environment devoid alike of evil passions and of the power to control them, would have sounded as strange to the head master of Rugby as religious toleration to a Crusader.

Unreal and dualistic as Arnold’s theories may sound to some of us to-day, he will always be respected as one of the great pioneers of education. He saw clearly the evils of his school, he brought them fearlessly to light, and he battled with them bravely. In an age when brutality was respected, he fought against it, and, to some extent, conquered it, and if he did not permanently improve the morality of our schools, he showed us that great improvements were necessary.

Boarding Schools and Day Schools. — Many educational authorities contend that a wholesome environment will never be properly attained in the schools for the directing classes until we substitute day schools for the present large boarding establishments ; but in discussing the comparative value of day schools and boarding schools, we must remember that we are dealing with a question which strikes at the very root of our traditional system of school education in England. At present our great preparatory schools, as well as our large public schools, are situated far from the homes of their pupils, and if the English nation as a whole decides to adopt day schools, a great decentralization of our educational communities will have to take place. The nobility and rich merchants will have to adapt themselves to the idea that there is more than one school in England good enough for their sons, and that boys chosen geographically are as wholesome companions for their children as those chosen for pecuniary or social reasons.

The Bishop of Hereford, speaking on this subject at Croydon, expressed the opinion of a growing minority of educational authorities, when he said that, while recognizing the merits of the English boarding school, he thought that the best education for a boy consisted of a good home, combined with daily attendance at a local school, well organized and of high tone, and that he considered that a great deal of intellectual and moral waste took place in the barrack life of our great schools to-day.

There are many who agree that this waste of intellectual and moral qualities does take place in our boarding schools, but who deny that the remedy is necessarily their abolition. Others, acknowledging the fact that the ideal boarding school is superior to the ideal day school, contend that the evils of our boarding schools are so entwined in the English conception of what a boarding school ought to be, that nothing short of their complete abolition will ever stop the spread of moral perversion.

Allowing, however, that the atmosphere of our large boarding schools can be greatly improved, they will always be more dangerous establishments than day schools, unless their influence is of the very best. The day school divides the responsibility with the parent, and has only a share in forming the character of the adolescent. If the tone of the day school is corrupt, the boy is only there for a portion of the time, and the contrast with his home surroundings may lead to a disgust for the school atmosphere. If, on the other hand, the environment of the boarding school is evil, the boy is under its influence for twenty-four hours a day, and since there is nothing with which to contrast it, he is far more likely to be absorbed into the general tone of immorality.

To the head master of a large boarding school is entrusted both a task far more difficult, and at the same time far more important, than the task of the master at a day school. It is more difficult because adolescents of one sex herded together within narrow bounds and with few outside interests are peculiarly liable to moral perversion, and it is more important because the atmosphere of the boarding school is the whole world in which the adolescent lives. At the day school the master need not supply the constant change of pursuit which youth demands, since the sane and healthy interests of the outside world are brought daily into the life of the school.

If our decision is in favour of boarding schools for adolescents, let it be only in favour of those where the closest inspection is at all times invited and encouraged ; we must be sure that evenings spent at school with little to do are really healthier than evenings spent at home with much to occupy and interest the attention. Head masters of preparatory schools often discourage parents’ visits for more reasons than those of personal convenience, and it would be well for many parents to consider whether the formal visits which they pay occasionally to their boys’ school are anything more than a mere mockery of school inspection.

Those who decide that the development of all that is best in the adolescent is obtained by the combined influence of home life and a good day school must surely find some pleasure in being able to know by sight the men who are taking constant charge of their children. There are already some more thoughtful parents who are revolting against the present custom of placing their boys and girls at the critical age of adolescence under the complete care of strangers.

Whatever kind of school we prefer we must never forget that the adult is to a great extent the result of adolescent training, and that the bad as well as the good of adult life must be traced to the school. When society is corrupt, when its members are degenerate and weak, we must look at the school life of its citizens if we wish to probe the evil to its source. By a closer study of school life, fearless, sincere, and scientific, we may find the answer to many difficult social problems which baffle us to-day.

The Unsuitable Preparation for After-Life which our Wealthier Classes Beceive. — Mr. Holmes has shown us how dull and unimaginative is the education at our compulsory schools, yet the preparation is not always unsuitable to the dreary routine which is still the lot of many of our working classes. The daily walk to the elementary school has its close parallel in the daily journey to the shop or factory, and the regular routine of the one is in many respects a good preparation for the other. If we look carefully at the resemblance between our Government schools and our large workshops, we shall find that the school adapts the child in many ways to the future life which he is destined to lead.

But among the directing and wealthier classes the case is different : to these we look for initiative ability, originality, imagination, and wide sympathies, and the expensive and prolonged education they receive does little to develop these qualities. The environment of our boarding schools is not one which encourages the qualities most necessary for our governing classes to-day. The large preparatory and public schools in England have few points in common with the free and potent life which will be the future of most of the boys, and unless we believe that a training under one set of conditions adapts boys to a life which is to be led under totally different circumstances, we shall find much to blame and little to praise in the life of most of our large boarding schools.

At the time of their foundation the public schools may have had many things in common with the medieval life of the adult, but their general atmosphere must have become crystallized soon after their foundation, for little of the healthy activity of the outside world invades the large boarding schools to-day. The conditions of life have altered so materially in the last few hundred years that an environment which may have developed the adolescent of the sixteenth century for the life he was to lead is at present far worse than useless.

In the Middle Ages the professions of women were widely different from those of men ; the daily life of the men was to a great extent spent apart from the women. The school, therefore, contained members of one sex only, and this helped rather than hindered In the preparation for adult life. To-day in almost every profession the man and woman work side by side, and if in certain professions women are not the equal of men they are his constant companions as typists and shorthand clerks. Our preparatory and public schools, apparently under the impression that medieval conditions still exist, train our adolescents to associate with one sex only, and make no effort whatever to prepare them to mix with women on the intimate yet sane terms which will afterwards be necessary.