ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 62, 4 June 1927, Page 21 (Supplement)

ENGLISH PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The following article is specially written for THE SUN by Mr. H. J. Richards , a Neio Zealander who has since the war been on the staff of Clifton College. THE people of England never seem to weary of criticising their public schools, and yet these schools are more crowded and popular to-day than ever. On the whole, this criticism does good: it helps to prune away the dead wood. It also indicates that the people are

keenly interested. It might be amusing, but would not be very profitable, to relate in detail a few of the criticisms, some good and some fatuous, chat have been put forward during the last decade. But for people who are really interested in education it will be much more helpful, even if it is much harder, to consider what are ;;he strong points that make a public school education so popular with the people of EnglandIt will probably be urged at once that many parents support these schools because they feel that it gives

a certain cachet to their sons’ education. That may be true of some; but it would be insulting to the intelligence of the English people to maintain that this is the chief or indeed an important factor in keeping up the popularity of the schools over a period of years. This type of education has something much more real to offer than cheap gilding. Before going further, it will be well, perhaps, to explain what is meant by a public school. In New Zealand the public school is the school maintained by the State for the free education of all who do not desire or are not able to afford any other means of education. In England the public school is independent of Government control, and is maintained by fees and private endowment. And herein lies a great source of strength. Each school is more or less free to develop along its own lines, and greater scope can be given to the growth of individuality. This does not mean stagnation —a school cannot afford to stagnate; it must be brimful of life, else the public will not support it for long. Stagnation is far more likely to set in under a system such as that of France, when,the French Minister of Education was able to say at a given

tour of the clock that all the children of France would be learning arithmetic or doing their drill. It is not within the scope of this column to discuss adequately the effect of departmental control on education. It may. up to a point, produce efficiency; but there is a danger of its having a deadening effect. It is at any rate arguable that the English system of the control of State schools by local bodies is preferable to a system where education is almost absolutely under the management of one central body. But to return to the public schools of England. It is often urged that

they turn out boys too much of one type- If to try in common to turn boys into good citizens means that they are too much of one type, then the criticism is a fair one. But the means adopted in different schools to make a boy a good citizen do, in fact, vary, while it is also a fact that on the whole the public school master holds up to the boy a high standard of ideals. For instance, take the cadet corps. The ordinary boy, and, in fact, the ordinary man, dislikes military training; yet the majority of boys in public schools voluntarily go through military training at their own expense because they are taught that it is a social duty to do so. Again, many public school boys sacrifice part of their holidays to help in scout camps or boys’ summer camps, while most schools have a club (generally not heard of by the public) in which they meet and exchange ideas with boys who are less fortunately situated than themselves. It.is not urged that every public school boy thus learns the lesson of social service. Very far from it, alas! But the ideal is kept constantly before them, however imperfectly it may be attained. But at the present time perhaps the most valuable lesson that they learn is to accept responsibility. In their various ways the schools teach boys from the very beginning to accept positions of trust. No matter who he is, the boy with any character finds himself very soon put into more and more responsible positions. The result is that when he reaches manhood he has some knowledge of how to deal with men firmly and sympathetically. “The proper study of mankind is man.” And the big business firms of England are honouring the public schools by taking their boys, either fresh from school or after a Univer-

sity course, to absorb them into their businesses. One of the biggest firms of chocolate-makers every year takes a certain number of young men whose education so far may have been based on the study of classics or history or any of the arts. The great oil firms are constantly asking for boys to get ready for responsible positions at home and abroad. The writer knows of a clever young classical scholar from Cambridge who has gone into shipbuilding yards at West Hartlepool- He won't design ships, but the men in those yards will work better if they are controlled and influenced by his strong yet kindly character. The public schools, of course, supply large numbers of men to the professions; but it is a more striking tribute to their worth that the big businesses are looking to them more and more. And w'hat of the intellect? They say often that the public schools care more for athletics. This is not fair. British men and women in every walk of life love games of all kinds, whether it is stump cricket in the dark alley of a London slum or polo in India. Is it to be expected that boys at school shall not love their games? Of course, it is sometimes overdone. But very often the parents are more at fault than the schoolmaster, when they take more interest in the athletic progress than in the intellectual development of their sons. Schoolmasters not infrequently have to bear an unjust burden of odium for objecting to too many games and to the harmful publicity that some parents love to give them. Boys themselves are great hero-worshippers, and the fine athlete will always be admired. But the things of the mind do count. The modern English schoolboy is not averse to work and he is probably readier to take an interest in literature, art, and music than the New' Zealand boy who is attracted more into the open-air by reason of his sunnier climate. A word about the organisation of games. It is often justly objected that games are over-organised, and overorganisation undoubtedly tends to make games dull or mechanical- But the schools cannot always help themselves: they may not have ample playing-fields, and where exercise must be found for a large number of boarders it sometimes happens that careful organisation is quite necessary. Every boy must have his chance of exercise two or three times a week. And what of the boys themselves? They are probably more ingenuous, more ignorant, of the ways of the world. and more diffident than boys of the same age in the Dominions. On the other hand, they are, generally speaking, industrious and have a keen sense of responsibility; and they have perseverance and enterprise. This last virtue is not alw'ays fully appreciated. probably because its fruits are slow in ripening. The schools cast the bread on the W’aters. and the nation finds it after many days. Properly to appreciate this, a man should spend 12 months in a housemaster's study. Here he will meet Cabinet Ministers and eminent lawyers, bishops and dons from the universities, captains of industry and men from the factories- But. above all, he will meet generals and subalterns from the frontiers of India, tea planters from Ceylon, engineers from Nairobi, and civil administrators from Nigeria. One man has just come back from building gold dredges in Siberia. Another has been selling bellows (the best in the world) in the Argentine, while another has a couple of months’ furlough before setting out to start a Shell agency in Jerusalem. Yes, the collection is a varied one, and the institution that draws them all back like a magnet after many years is no mean institution.