The Press Saturday April 2, 1921. A Class-room Republic.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17109, 2 April 1921, Page 8

The Press Saturday April 2, 1921. A Class-room Republic.

% It via?, happily .said by that felicitous. <p>vfty,thelate SirW. S. Gilbert, that every wTSttie , boy or girl who's bom into thisVWHlkl alive, is either a little Liberal if *,6r else a little Conservative. As things £' arefnowadays the little Conservatives '",*' would perhaps be wiser if they elected *"Vto remain unborn, for change, specious f?t\ly'disguised under the wonder-working rename of "Progress,'/ is in the air, and *■, nothing continueth long, in one stay. V *sT&& lust for novelty is naturally particularly marked in tho educational, which is "progress'.'P'Mijj;'/ with such unbridled celerity. k v Vsliati the day is not far distant when |£seve>y < teaching man and woman will Pl'Set Up.'for a purveyor of now gospels, F each warranted to be tho truth, the >)l whole truth, and ' nothing but the ,hohest men .come by their own. $ I So ( poasibly when 'educational experts *tifaU „out, tjh'e children will get , the f&, chance which has hitherto, so we are U;sjjj&wß» been denied.them, and enter perfect'law of liberty by short '- and strange by-paths, which to and old-fashioned folk appear til -W lead to anarchic license. Well, the 4 ! :Vo*ld/is to the young and the bold, and the old-fashioned and 'jfpjvho/ after "all, are sometimes too much it f> inclined tp believe 'that they can maka l|;oir[elettes without breaking eggs. That emphatically not the belief of Ernest A. Criiddock, M.A., form , - «master, and senior French master at V \the Northern Polytechnio Day SecondHolloway, London, N. No '"ono could poajibly call Mr Craddoclr (v old-fashioned or timid. Liko Napo : &* goon's famous marshal, Mr Craddcck is' , tho bravest of thb brave, and even \ * Time itself is not a bolder innovator. !* He believes that the business of tho "»< teacher is to impart knowledge, to bo ,3' a sort of animated encyclopoedia always on 'tap, and that to create an atmo»r ' * phere in which teaching is possible, 1 .and.in which the appetite for the a<s v of unlimited knowledge will * k develop and thrive, is tho business not - ', of teacher, whoso rolo is" that of !"', servant rather than of master, but of *| ,the pupils themselves. But Mr Crad-. * dock is no mere theorist. Ho is em*Ophatically a man of action, and "tho f,* "art and practic part of life has been »' " ''the mistress of his theoric." Ho ha 9, t*J" 50 he asserts, done this miracle, and > what lie has done ho has embodied in " a book, mercifully brief, and emin- '- startling title of M The Class-Room Re'l "public." What grammarians term tho «'quali- «' fier" is the word to note in this title. 1 Mr Craddock.is not a headmaster, nor r does it appear that the actual head- » master, of his school, liberal in senti- '-' ment as he undoubtedly must be, is himself a" Republican. Mr Craddock's . -Republic is a little Zoar, a tiny city of " *efuge set ini the midst of an untoward

'environment where the old order with its conventional discipline and auto? S cratio authority still maintains itself ' unabashed. The everyday man might 1 b be tempted to suggest that what meak sure of success his experiment has at-

tained ba-j been due to this protective environment. But bolder spirits will ascribe the success to the inherent merit of the experiment itself, and regard it ns won in spite, rather than because, of surroundings which they will not hesitate to stigmatise as unpropitious. Much, no floubt, may be said on both sides, but, after all, the experiment itself is the important thing, and much more "relative" than casual comment, whether friendly or hostile.

And put in a few words the whole story comes to this. Mr Craddock, like many another 'seasoned schoolmaster, was assailed with doubts, which, "like " a deadly swarm of hornets arm'd" kept on recurring jn moments of depression, as to whether ho was gettiiis; returns in any sense commensurate with, "tho treasure of blood and brain" he was expending, and as to whether his pupils were really learning the not over easy art of living a community life and properly developing their souls and characters. Aftpr mature : thought, and much inward debate, he came to tho conclusion 'that for various and very striking reasons, admirably stated' in his little book, none of these highly desirable ends was being attained, afid ■that, indeed, none of them could bo attained unless the old methods of external control were discarded, and the. boys given full opportunity, through genuine self-control, to work out their own salvation by efforts of their own will: And having reached this conclusion, he at once proceeded to carry it out in practice. There were rnany difficulties in his path. Tho school was -a day school. The class he ]/ioposed to experiment with only came to him for twelve periods a week. Its average age was thirteen, and it contained two political reheb with a pronounced antipathy to the restraint imposed by discipline. . 'lt was not without misgivings that Mr Craddfftk took hin courage in both hands, and, taking .idvantage of the electiori of a class cricket committee, asked tho boys to elect at the same time a committee of five, chosen first for their influence over . others, and secondly for their mental attainments. This was done, and Mr Craddock then renounced all his duties (a step which raises certain ethical questions, we may remark in passing) except "those of instructor, informing the newlyelectod committee that it would havo to take over discipline both in and out of the class-room, assign rewards and punishments, set home work, antf, " within limits"—for surprisingly enough even. Mr Craddock does apparently recognise, at leasts in word, tho existence of- "limits" —prescribe what woiic.should be done in class. And for the efficient performance of all these varied duties so abruptly thrust upon .them they were to he responsible not to the master, now by his own renunciation become a care-free imparter of • knowledge, but to the class itself, whose representatives they were. • The plan! appealed to the hoys, and the novel system worked from the start. Tho potential rebels quickly .became actuals rebels, .and were as quickly squashed; punishments soon dwindled to the vanishing point; the boys proved happier, more tractable, and "infinitely" more diligent, and, moreover, they enforcod their new code even .when they went to other and less enlightened masters, and became known throughout the wholo school.for the standard of their conduct. It'all .sounds a little incredible, but full details are given in Mr, Craddock's engaging little book, and given, we'are bound to state, with both candour and modesty.- And the final conclusion he reaches after a two-year trial of 'this strange experiment is tfliat ho had . solved the problem of how best to develop in boys their latent, not infrequently too latent, sense of responsibility-, and so to- prepare t hem adequately for the duties and privileges of adult life. It may be that he has done so, at least for himself. But we should .hesitate to advise 1 teachers in general to adopt his methods. In hands less capable,athey might -well lead to chaos rather than to cosmos. After all, there was only one man wbo could shoot with the bow of Ulysses. ,