Chapter IV: Introduction: By DOROTHEA BEALE

[Subject.]

I have been asked to undertake one section of a book on the education of girls, and to confine myself, as far as possible, to the intellectual aspects of education, leaving to others the task of dealing with the physical and moral aspects. I shall try to keep within the assigned limits--abstain from any systematic treatment of the laws of hygiene, and write no formal treatise on school ethics--but all the intellectual work must of course be conditioned by the necessities of the physical life, and the final cause of all education must be the development of a right character.

[Education of girls in secondary schools.]

I am to treat the subject too with special reference to the large secondary schools which have come into existence during the last fifty years, and in doing so, I must dwell briefly upon the changes which have taken place in the ideals and theories regarding the education of girls, which have found expression in these schools, and in the Women’s Colleges. I shall speak of what has yet to be accomplished, for we are still in a period of transition, and I shall consider by what means we may best realise our ideals.

[Aim of education]

Now in education there is always a twofold object. Bacon tells us the furthest end of knowledge is “the glory of the Creator and the relief of man’s estate”--in other words, the perfection of the individual, and the good of the community. In some periods, indeed in pre-Christian times generally, the latter was emphasised,[1] men were to live for the commonwealth; the individual was regarded as an instrument for accomplishing certain work--he was not thought of as an end in himself. Thus even the most enlightened among ancient writers have spoken of slaves, as if they were mere chattels. Our moral sense is shocked by much that we read in Plato and Aristotle, and still more by what the laws of Rome permitted. Christianity on the other hand taught that the primary relationship of each was to the All-Father, the primary duty of each to realise God’s ideal for His children, to become perfect, and by glorifying human nature to glorify God. This was the first commandment, but the second was implied in the first--self-love was not selfish, the love of God descending from heaven became the enthusiasm of humanity.

[1] Even Milton writes: “I call a complete and generous education
that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously
all the offices to the public and private, of peace and war”.

[as regards the individual,]

“Education,” writes Mr. Ruskin (_Queen’s Gardens_), “is the leading human souls to what is best and making what is best out of them; and these two objects are always attainable together, and by the same means; the training which makes men happiest in themselves, also makes them most serviceable to others.” “The only safe course,” writes Miss Shirreff (_Intellectual Education_), “is to hold up individual perfectness as the aim of education.”

[as regards the commonwealth.]

And so the task of the educator is in the first instance to develop to the highest perfection all the powers of the child, that he may realise the ideal of the All-Father. But the perfection of man “the thinker,” the anthropos, “the upward looker,” can be attained only when as a son he enters into, and co-operates with the Divine purpose in thought and act: therefore to know God and His laws for His children’s education and development, is the beginning and the end. These laws man reads (1) in the world of Nature with which science has to do; (2) in human history and institutions; (3) in the hidden life of the soul--of which philosophy and religion and ethics treat. He has to seek first to know truth, to bring his will into conformity with the Divine thought, and then to utter what is true and right in word and deed; only thus will the kingdom of righteousness be set up, and the perfection of the whole--the well-being of the commonwealth--of “man writ large” be secured. The most civilised nations are devoting their best energies to the work of education, realising that upon this depends their very existence--that it is not by starving the individual life, and merging it in the general, but by developing each to perfection, that the common good will be secured. They trust less to the power of laws and institutions, more to the power of a right education--less to external restraint, more to the wisdom that comes of a wisely directed experience.

[Reforms since 1848.]

These principles have guided the new movement for women’s education, and those who have followed the changes in public opinion, since people have thought more of each individual as an end in himself, are full of confidence and hope. The reformers said: “Let us give to girls an invigorating dietary, physical, intellectual, moral; seclusion from evil is impossible, but we can strengthen the patient to resist it”.

’Tis life, not death for which we pant,
More life and fuller, that we want!

Such were, I believe, the feelings and the thoughts of those who initiated just fifty years ago the great movement, which found its first visible expression in the foundation of Queen’s College by Maurice and Kingsley and Trench and others like-minded and less known. This was soon followed by the opening of Bedford College, 1849, and the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, 1853. Miss Buss and her brothers, in association with Mr. Laing, established the first great High School, and Mrs. Grey and Miss Shirreff carried on the movement in that direction; from the Union founded by them grew up the G.P.D.S. Co., while Miss Davies with far-seeing wisdom won over Cambridge professors (amongst whom I may specially mention Professor Henry Sidgwick and James Stuart) to offer the highest culture to women.

The leaders had to ask and answer many questions. What direction, what shape should the new movement for higher education take? Should there be two sorts of education for girls and boys? The Schools’ Inquiry Commission had shown that a specially feminine education had not produced very successful results, and the leaders said: Let us give to girls the solid teaching in languages and mathematics and science, which are found to strengthen the powers of boys, and prepare them to do good work of many kinds. If it was objected that women were to rule in the home, and men in the larger world, they argued, that for girls as for boys, the right course was to give a liberal education. The boy does not learn in the school the things which will be required in his future business or profession, but he brings to these the cultivated mind, the power of work, the disciplined will.

[Results physical and moral.]

And the world is more and more recognising that the leaders were right, and schools have arisen in all our great towns. Fifty years ago there were dismal prophecies--an outcry that study would ruin health. Now it is a common remark that there is a general improvement in physique. Women too are more conscious of their responsibilities in the life of the family, as well as in that of the country, especially in social and church life. They feel, that though they may have but the “smallest scruple” of excellence, they must render for it “thanks and use”. Besides, another good has been more and more realised; as Mrs. Jameson, in her beautiful lecture,[2] set forth, girls taught on the same lines, and women who can enter into the subjects of study and thought which occupy the minds of their fathers, husbands, sons, have more understanding, more sympathy, more power to make the home what it should be; the only healthy intellectual companionship is communion between active minds, and the highest purposes of marriage are unfulfilled, if either husband or wife lives in a region of thought which the other cannot enter. Besides, those many women who remain unmarried can, if well educated, find in some form of service the satisfaction of their higher nature. Surely women trained in good schools and colleges have as wives and mothers shared the labours and entered more fully as companions into the lives of husbands and children. The names of many will occur to my readers, but one cares not to name the living. We see every year at the Conference of Women Workers, that the seed sown in faith has brought forth fruit; that the whole aspect of the woman’s realm has changed since the days of Evelina and Miss Austen.

[2] “Communion of Labour.”

But none of us may rest in that which has been attained. We ask for the “wages of going on and not to die”. There is earnest endeavour on the part of all engaged in the work of education, which has found expression in such societies as the Parents’ Educational Union, the Child Study Society, and the Teachers’ Guild. Teachers are not content with the school year, but holiday courses are the order of the day, and many are seeking training, and others ask for a year or a term to improve, and books on education are pouring from the press, and some of us, who have gained experience which may be helpful to others, feel bound, though much hindered by the calls of active life, to share those experiences, and say what we can about the ideals, the principles, the methods, which, we trust, have already, in spite of the gloomy portents of years gone by, improved the physical, the intellectual and moral vigour of those who have shared the larger life, entered into the higher intellectual interests, and undergone the strengthening discipline of our large schools.

[Curriculum]

With these preliminary remarks, I enter upon the subject of the curriculum; I have drawn up a table which I shall proceed to discuss. I have classed the subjects of education under five heads, and divided the pupils in a general way also into five classes. But before I deal with the practical, let me speak of the ideal. There is nothing so practical as _ideas_--these are the moving power of all our acts.

If what I have said is true, the subject cannot be treated in reference to girls only; not because I would assimilate the teaching of girls to that of boys, but because the teaching of both should aim at developing to the highest excellence the intellectual powers common to both. The teaching of modern science tells us that both pass through the same lower stages, that they may rise into the higher, and all history tells us that men and women

Rise or sink
Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free.

So we ask generally what is the Education of Man? Fröbel has rightly emphasised the last word. It is the development of that which distinguishes man from all the lower forms of life “summed up” in him, that can alone be properly called the Education of Man: other creatures can live, as he does, the nutritive or vegetable life, which goes on of itself--other animals live the conscious life, they see and know, but to man alone it is possible to objectify all things by transcending them, and even that lower self, which is part of his dual nature; he is able to know himself both as “I” and “me”; he brings to sensation the formative power of his own thought, makes, as Kant has said, the universe which he did not create. And so man does not merely perceive, but apperceive, takes into his own being ideas, thoughts; combines, associates these,--and indeed it is difficult to speak of these ideas otherwise than Herbart does, as entities, by which the mind grows, fashioning them to its own uses, as the body does, the food on which it lives. Because he can objectify thus, language is possible. Man gives to thoughts, these “airy nothings, a local habitation and a name”; he is able to plan, to project and therefore to form judgments.

But if he is related to that world to which the senses reach, he is also in relation, through an inward feeling which we call sympathy, with other “subjects,” able to recognise in others that which he knows in himself as mind; if he finds himself so related to the world of sense, that he responds to its touch, much more nearly is he in relation with other personalities; these he knows, before he recognises objective nature; through other minds his own is educated, and so the humanities take the first place; he enters into relations through the _communis sensus_ with a world of thinking beings. These persons communicate thoughts, specially through (_a_) language immediate, and through written language. By written speech the limitations of space and time are abolished, and we are able to speak not only of men, but of man, for not only is his physical life continuous, but his mental and moral life through the ages is one. So from language we pass to (_b_) history and literature and historic act, the record of what men have done and suffered and thought and recorded, not in books only but in all material things; for man the dead live; and as the actors pass from the stage, history, no less than philosophy and science, tends upwards to those higher regions of thought, where we ponder on the (_c_) mysteries of man’s self-conscious life, on his relation to other minds, and to the One whose offspring we are, and in Whom all things live and move and have their being.

The subjects of study then may also be classified under five headings:--

I. The Humanities: which have to do with man, known objectively through word and deed, in language and literature, in history and art; subjectively, as in ethics, religion, philosophy.

II. Mathematics: embracing three divisions relating to space, number, energy in the abstract--these have to do with necessary truth.

III. Science: which rests not on a basis of thought only, but on facts given through sense objectively.

IV. Æsthetics: which may be classed under the three heads, as music, painting and the other arts--considered subjectively.

V. The exercises suitable for the physical development.

It is with the first section that every teacher has to do; though he may be a specialist for science or mathematics or music, he has always to do with man in his manifold relations, he has ever to do with the humanities. It must be the constant study of the teacher to find the best means of developing the powers of thought, of calling forth right motives of action, developing right habits, and so forming noble characters, which is the final cause of all his labours. Ever throughout life he will by study and experience deepen and extend his knowledge, but it is earnestly to be desired that he should have some leisure for definite preparation by the study of education as an art, a science, a philosophy, before entering on his responsible work. In this, as in everything else, only those who have gained the knowledge are really judges of its value. The man who knows no foreign tongue, supposes he understands English, but we know in how poor and faulty a way. A study of the mysteries of our own being, of the fundamental basis of philosophy and psychology, personal knowledge of and sympathy with the great thinkers and philosophers and martyrs of education, must move us to more purposeful and thoughtful and devoted lives, and give us a joy that we cannot feel when we are working blindly and mechanically, without the faith which works by love.

HOURS OF STUDY INCLUDING PREPARATION PER WEEK.

+-------+-----------------+----------------+----------------+--------+
| | Subjects. | A. Under 8 | B. 8 to 12 | Hrs. B |
| | | years. | years. | and C. |
| | | |About 24 hours. | |
| | | | | |
+-------+-----------------+----------------+----------------+--------+
| {| 1. Language. |English reading |Elementary ideas|}=12= |
| {| |and French _v. |of grammar, |} |
| {| |voce_. |French _v. |} |
| {| | |voce_, and read-|} |
| {| | |ing and trans- |} |
| {| | |lation into Eng-|} |
| {| | |lish, learning |} |
| {| | |poetry, dia- |} |
| {| | |logues, etc. |} |
| {| | | |} |
| {| 2. Man {His- |Mythological |Time maps and |} |
| {| ob- {tory. |tales and |epochs in |} |
|I. {| jec- {Litera-|stories from |world’s history.|} |
|=Hu- {| tive-{ture. |history. Learn- |English history |} |
|mani- {| ly. {Art. |ing poetry. |treated bio- |} |
|ties.={| | |graphically. |} |
| {| | |Stories from |} |
| {| | |ancient history.|} |
| {| | |Learning poetry.|} |
| {| | | |} |
| {| | | |} |
| {| | | |} |
| {| | | |} |
| {| | | |} |
| {| | | |} |
| {| 3. Man {Ethics.|Bible stories, |Bible lessons |} |
| {| sub- {Reli- |simple hymns and|selected. Learn-|} |
| {| jec- {gion. |prayers. |ing simple pas- |} |
| {| tive-{Philo- | |sages from New |} |
| {| ly. {sophy. | |Testament, hymns|} |
| {| | |and collects. |} |
| | | | | |
| {| 4. Arithmetic |Arithmetic, |Arithmetic in |}=3 to |
| {| and Algebra. |chiefly with |some cases |}5= |
| {| |concrete |generalised to |} |
| {| |objects. |algebra for |} |
| {| | |older children, |} |
| {| | |for younger |} |
| {| | |still much con- |} |
| {| | |crete. |} |
|II. {| | | |} |
|=Math-{| 5. Geometry. |Simple ideas of |Elementary prac-|} |
|emat- {| |form. |tical geometry. |} |
|ics.= {| | |Many problems. |} |
| {| | |In some cases a |} |
| {| | |beginning of |} |
| {| | |logical demon- |} |
| {| | |strations. |} |
| {| | | | |
| {| 6. {Kinematics. | | | |
| {| {Mixed Mathe-| | | |
| {| {mats., | | | |
| {| {_e.g._, Me- | | | |
| {| {chanics. | | | |
| | | | | |
| {| 7. Natural |Object lessons. |Botany, zoology,|=2 to 4=|
| {| Science. | |astronomy, laws | |
| {| | |of health--in | |
| {| | |succession. | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
|III. {| 8. Physio- |Making map of |Erdkunde, phys- | |
|=Sci- {| graphy. |school and near |iography, | |
|ence.={| |places; modeling|natural phenome-| |
| {| |in clay or sand.|na. | |
| {| | | | |
| {| 9. Molecular | | | |
| {| Science. | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| | | | | |
| {|10. Music. |Sol-fa singing. |Instrumental | |
| {| | |music, singing, | |
| {| | |elocution. | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
|IV. {|11. Drawing, etc.|Drawing with |Drawing and |=7 to 9=|
|=Æs- {| |pencil and |painting. | |
|thet- {| |brush. | | |
|ics.= {| | | | |
| {|12. Plastic Arts,|Modelling in |Various kinds of| |
| {| etc. |clay. Basket |handwork. | |
| {| |making, card- | | |
| {| |board sloyd, | | |
| {| |etc., etc. | | |
| | | | | |
| {|13. Gymnastics, | |Systematic | |
| {| etc. | |drill. | |
| {| | | | |
|V. {| | | | |
|=Ath- {| | | | |
|let- {|14. Games. |Kindergarten |Games. | |
|ics.= {| |games and drill.| | |
| {| | | | |
| {|15. Country | |Field clubs. | |
| {| Excursions. | | | |
+-------+-----------------+----------------+----------------+--------+

+-------+-----------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+
| | Subjects. | C. 12 to 16 | D. 16 to 18 | E. Over 18 |
| | | years. | years. | years. |
| | | About 30 | About 36 | |
| | | hours. | hours. | |
+-------+-----------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+
| {| 1. Language. |Grammar; in- |French, Ger- |An additional |
| {| |creasing at- |man or Latin.|language, |
| {| |tention to |In some cases|Greek or |
| {| |philology; |one other |Italian. |
| {| |French, with |language. | |
| {| |German, or | | |
| {| |Latin. | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| 2. Man {His- |English his- |English con- |Ancient clas- |
| {| ob- {tory. |tory in |stitutional |sics in the |
|I. {| jec- {Litera-|periods and |history. Spe-|original or |
|=Hu- {| tive-{ture. |corresponding|cial period |translations. |
|mani- {| ly. {Art. |literary |of English. |Foreign clas- |
|ties.={| |periods with |Also of an- |sics and view |
| {| |special |cient or mod-|of European |
| {| |books. Out- |ern. Diffi- |literature. |
| {| |lines of |cult books in| |
| {| |general his- |English. | |
| {| |tory, ancient| | |
| {| |and modern, | | |
| {| |with time | | |
| {| |maps. | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| 3. Man {Ethics.|A gospel. In-|St. John or |Fundamental |
| {| sub- {Reli- |struction in |epistles. |ideas of phi- |
| {| jec- {gion. |the prayer- |Doctrinal |losophy. |
| {| tive-{Philo- |book, etc. |teaching. |Christian dog-|
| {| ly. {sophy. | | |matics and |
| {| | | |ethics. |
| | | | | |
| {| 4. Arithmetic |Arithmetic |Advanced pure| |
| {| and Algebra. |and algebra |and mixed | |
| {| |to quadrat- |mathematics. | |
| {| |ics. | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
|II. {| | | | |
|=Math-{| 5. Geometry. |Euclid I. and| | |
|emat- {| |II., or | | |
|ics.= {| |equivalent. | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| 6. {Kinematics. |Elementary | | |
| {| {Mixed Mathe-|mixed | | |
| {| {mats., |mathematics. | | |
| {| {_e.g._, Me- | | | |
| {| {chanics. | | | |
| | | | | |
| {| 7. Natural |Botany, |Physiology | |
| {| Science. |zoology, |and one or | |
| {| |astronomy, |more branches| |
| {| |laws of |of physical | |
| {| |health--in |science. | |
| {| |succession. | | |
| {| | | | |
|III. {| 8. Physio- |Erdkunde, | | |
|=Sci- {| graphy. |physiography | | |
|ence.={| |or natural | | |
| {| |phenomena. | | |
| {| | | | |
| {| 9. Molecular |Chemistry, | | |
| {| Science. |heat, light, | | |
| {| |electricity--| | |
| {| |in succes- | | |
| {| |sion. | | |
| | | | | |
| {|10. Music. |Instrumental |} | |
| {| |music, sing- |} | |
| {| |ing, elocu- |} | |
| {| |tion. |} | |
| {| | |} | |
|IV. {|11. Drawing, etc.|Drawing and |} | |
|=Æs- {| |painting. |}Some one | |
|thet- {| | |}branch. | |
|ics.= {| | |} | |
| {|12. Plastic Arts,|Various kinds|} | |
| {| etc. |of handwork. |} | |
| {| | |} | |
| {| | |} | |
| {| | |} | |
| | | | | |
| {|13. Gymnastics, |Systematic | | |
| {| etc. |drill. | | |
| {| | | | |
|V. {| | | | |
|=Ath- {| | | | |
|let- {|14. Games. |Games. | | |
|ics.= {| | | | |
| {| | | | |
| {|15. Country |Field clubs. | | |
| {| Excursions. | | | |
+-------+-----------------+-------------+-------------+--------------+

I have mentioned at the close of the introduction some books not too large or difficult which will be helpful to those who desire to begin the serious study of the subjects included under the general heading of pedagogy.

In the table (p. 10) I have arranged courses of study and grouped pupils according to age, but only for those called B and C have I attempted to give the time each week, which might be allowed on an average for serious study. I think the Bs generally and the Cs almost always should follow a fixed course, though some variation should be permitted to the Cs. The Ds and Es should take special directions, dropping some subjects and giving much time to others. Under the head of B, I have given what is perhaps the nearest approach to the normal type in my own school. Those who do not learn music, can of course take an extra language, or otherwise cultivate a special subject; those who are but slightly pervious to mathematical ideas are allowed to drop Euclid, after having done enough to profit by the wholesome discipline of writing out propositions say up to Euclid I. 26. These may perhaps add another musical instrument or some manual work.

The principle I would insist on is that our curriculum should, to use a sensible figure, be pyramidal, having a broad base and narrowing; the total cubic content might be the same each year, but in proportion as the subjects taken were fewer, there would be greater depth. Thus the Cs would specialise to a slight extent, the Ds should do so still more, and the Es have found out their vocation, so that for these last no time-table can be given.

[Silence.]

In drawing up a time-table I have given only the general lines, and assigned an average time for each section; the case of every individual must be separately considered, and there should always remain some hours of leisure--in the highest classes I have arranged for school work about eight hours out of the twenty-four. If we give four hours to meals and outdoor exercise, and eight to sleep, we have a margin of four hours--a considerable amount of time, if multiplied by six; part of this may be given to general reading, part to social and family life, but for the growing and developing mind there must be time for solitude, for entering into the secret chamber, and listening for the voice heard only in the stillness. We read much in praise of “Eyes” and much in dis-praise of “No-eyes,” but there are times when great thinkers are blind to outward things, and deaf to earthly voices; it is at such times there rise before the mind’s eye ideals which fashion the whole life. I am sure that in these days the young lose much for want of more quiet on Sundays. There may have been over strictness in the past--there is now a surprising ignorance of the Bible and the grounds of faith. The silence rules of a good school tend to produce a spirit of repose, and a library where no speaking is allowed is a help. Rules which hinder idle talk in the bedrooms are a great boon to those who find the value of quiet at the beginning and end of the day, and I earnestly hope that the excitement of the playground may never supersede the country rambles which have been fruitful of spiritual health to many of us.

In considering how I shall best make this small volume of use to teachers in high schools, I propose to adopt the following plan. First to treat of a few general matters which belong to organisation and the methods of management--_e.g._, distribution and economy of time, corrections, marks, etc.

Then to deal with the subjects of the curriculum in order, in a series of papers by myself and my colleagues.

In Part I. I have written first of language generally, embracing reading, speaking, grammar, composition, foreign tongues. It will be clear to all that I could not possibly, in the few pages assigned to each subject, treat the matter exhaustively, but I hope I may strike out some lines of thought which will be helpful, and the lists of books may assist teachers in their studies. In most subjects I have been able to get a few papers from members of my staff, past and present. Under the head of Language I have one from Mr. Rouse, a most able teacher, who had many years’ experience with our elder pupils, specially those reading for classical honours in the University of London.

In History and Literature I have papers by Miss A. Andrews, Miss Hanbidge and Miss Lumby, the very successful teachers who take these subjects in the London and Higher Cambridge class; there is also a paper on Economics by Miss Bridges.

In Part III. I have papers by four specially able and experienced teachers--Miss de Brereton Evans, D.Sc. Lond., Miss Reid, B.Sc. Lond., Miss Leonard, B.Sc. Lond., and Miss Laurie.

In Part IV. I have a number of short papers by members of our teaching staff.