Chapter I: Front Matter

THE CURSE OF EDUCATION

=Publisher's Announcement=

A NOTABLE BOOK

DRIFTING

Crown 8vo., cloth, 2s. 6d.

THIRD EDITION

'An able and suggestive book.'--_The Spectator._

'It is a sane, healthy indication of the weak spots in the country's armour, and a practical attempt to indicate remedies.'--_The Sunday Special._

'The author's contempt for the time-serving politician, who in this country has, unfortunately, come to count for so much in all governments--Tory or Liberal--will be shared by the thinking portion of his fellow countrymen.'--_The Financial News._

'By such suggestions the author of "Drifting" does good service to the country.'--_The Outlook._

LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS 9, Henrietta Street, W.C.

The Curse of Education

BY HAROLD E. GORST

London Grant Richards 1901

PREFATORY NOTE

In calling this little book 'The Curse of Education,' I trust that I shall not be misunderstood to disparage culture. The term 'education' is used, for want of a better word, to express the conventional mode of teaching and bringing up children, and of educating youth in this and other civilized countries. It is with education systems, with the universal method of cramming the mind with facts, and particularly with the manufacture of uniformity and mediocrity by subjecting every individual to a common process, regardless of his natural bent, that I have chiefly to find fault. At a moment when the country is agitated with questions of educational reform, I thought it might be useful to draw attention to what I believe to be a fact, namely, that the foundations of all existing education systems are absolutely false in principle; and that teaching itself, as opposed to natural development and self-culture, is the greatest obstacle to human progress that social evolution has ever had to encounter.

HAROLD E. GORST.

LONDON,
_April, 1901._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. FLOURISHING MEDIOCRITY 1

II. SQUARE PEGS IN ROUND HOLES 8

III. THE DESTRUCTION OF GENIUS 18

IV. HUMAN FACTORIES 26

V. THE GREATEST MISERY OF THE GREATEST NUMBER 35

VI. THE OUTPUT OF PRIGS 44

VII. BOY DEGENERATION 53

VIII. THE STRUGGLE OF THE EDUCATED 62

IX. WOMAN'S EMPIRE OVER MAN 68

X. YOUTH AND CRIME 77

XI. MENTAL BREAKDOWN 86

XII. EVIDENCE OF HISTORY 92

XIII. THE APOTHEOSIS OF CRAM 109

XIV. THE GREAT FALLACY 118

XV. REAL EDUCATION 126

XVI. THE OPEN DOOR TO INTELLIGENCE 135

THE CURSE OF EDUCATION