Thomas Dyke Acland

“ But the parents must forgive me if I make the remark that this is, to a great extent, their own fault; if they will grind down the teacher of their child to the lowest farthing of remuneration, and expect the master to produce a certain show of learning in twelve months, what can be the result but that the master must engage assistants as cheaply as he can, and that he must teach by rote if he is not allowed time for mental training? Do not let me be supposed, however, to speak slightingly of rote and of routine; there is no good education without them: but they are not the whole of education. ”

“ How great are the delights, and how salutary the effect of the boyish ardour for honourable and lovely objects, which good poetry inspires! It is a great mistake to think that education is designed only to make perfect reflecting machines, although it is most true that nothing can be done rightly without reflection; but the feelings are part of our moral nature, intended to give an impulse to action, and they must be cultivated by teaching. ”

“ On the other hand, if the education is likely to be continued beyond 14—say, to 16 or 17—presuming that the Latin is well taught by a good scholar, good enough scholar to select what is most important as a means of discipline, and to pass by what is only required in an University course; in short, able to give a thoroughly English character to the Latin training and to make it interesting—then, in such a case I have no doubt that, to learn even the elements of Latin would be a real saving of time during the years spent at school, a gain of strength and clearness of mind for after life. ”

“ On all the five continents it is the language that grows and conquers, the language of the future, the language of the world. Grimm speaks thus:—' None of the modern languages has, through the very loss and decay of all phonetic laws, and through the dropping of nearly all inflections, acquired greater force and vigour than English, and from the fulness of those vague and indefinite sounds, which may be learned, but can never be taught, it has derived a power of expression such as has never been at the command of any human tongue. ”

“ The great characteristic of literature, as distinguished from scientific or technical writing, is its breadth and largeness, in contrast to all that is narrow and exclusive. Its aim is not so much to convey information as to set the mind of the reader at work for itself in harmony with the great spirits of our race. It awakens power in the mind, and kindles the affections. It carries a man back to the past, and bids him thence gather hope for the future. ”

“ In addressing myself to parents in the middle classes, and, in some degree, to the instructors of their children, I feel sure that this picture of a fine schoolmaster of the old school will not be out of place, and will put more plainly before them than any general descriptions of my own what literature, rightly used in teaching, may do to nourish vitality of mind and strong common sense in the boys they have to prepare for a life of business. ”

“ I should therefore counsel that those young farmers who wish to be agricultural chemists should complete their general education first, strengthen their powers of judgment, gain an acquaintance with the language and common facts of popular science, and, after they have left school, repair to Professor Voelcker at Cirencester, or to some practical School of Chemistry, and devote at least a whole year to the subject. At any rate, they must not trust to a smattering of chemistry picked up at school as of any real use in farming, though it may be very amusing and very instructive in other ways. ”

“ Nor can there be a greater mistake than to suppose that any one will be a worse man of business for cultivating the general powers of his mind and heart. And if, in any case, the highest works of the human mind should fail of their true end, and be degraded by ministering to vulgar display and self-inflation—as in this poor world of ours "noblest things find vilest using"—the blame must be laid, not on the books, but on some defect in the character or moral training of the reader. A healthy literature, well studied, should make a man modest, because it introduces him to real greatness ”

“ Experience would lead me to think that such a building would in the end be found unsuitable except for domestic purposes, and that sooner or later the dining-hall, school-rooms, and dormitories, must rise from the ground.
Whenever any large body of men in the middle ranks are agreed on the course to be pursued, there can be no doubt that they will raise the funds required for this or any other undertaking, of the utility of which they are convinced; but I think it of paramount importance that a public institution for education should have a certain degree of independence. ”

“ It is not by chance that the most maritime people in the world is also in domestic life a model in the distribution and ordering of all which is to be done. In England this praiseworthy peculiarity is in fact grounded alike upon a well understood interest, upon national tradition, and upon religious motives. Nelson's signal, 'England expects every man to do his duty,' is properly a quotation from the English Catechism, 'to do my duty in that state of life unto which it shall please God to call me.' This principle forms the key-note of the English public and domestic life. ”

“ One advantage of a dense population is the manifold division of labour; scientific discoveries are quickly turned to account by ingenious inventors; capital is forthcoming to supply any demand; and new inventions, by means of advertising and agencies, are soon spread over the whole surface of the country. What the farmer wants in his business, is a sound, healthy, and, at the same time, discriminating habit of mind—a habit disposing him to take advantage of all useful inventions, and to reject fanciful schemes ”

“ Does the farmer require a special agricultural education?
He is to live by agriculture; must he not learn the art by which he is to live? We might safely answer on general grounds, "All arts are best learnt by practice; and unless there is some special reason why farming should be taught to schoolboys, this art will follow the rule of others, and be learned by apprenticeship after school." ”

“ For surely it is far better to sink the twentieth or the tithe of capital than to give children an inferior education, by which they will suffer all the best days of their life; the addition of a trifling percentage to what they will receive after their parent's death will be no compensation for such a disadvantage.
If the objects to be aimed at in the education of the middle classes, and the data for the calculation of its expense have been rightly indicated, it remains only to say a few words as to the measures by which such an education can be brought within the reach of farmers generally. ”

“ I fear that some persons are of opinion that they ought not to pay much more than this, and therefore they must suppose that the education is to be given for nothing, or for the profit which the master can make out of his housekeeping. But dismissing this view of the question, let us take the case of a school of 40 or 50 boys, including day boys, and see how education is to be paid for. Is it reasonable to expect a man of education with a family of his own to undertake the anxious life of a schoolmaster at his own risk for less than a clear income of 200l. ”

“ Self-reliance is another habit to be acquired in very early years. I have heard it quoted as the saying of one of the best and most disinterested educators [5] in England, "that the secret of education consists in putting children into a difficulty and leaving them to find their own way out of it."
Practical habits in the business of life depend, in a great measure, on a certain quickness of perception and fertility of resource. It is therefore of great importance to call out the inventive powers and to encourage the activity given by nature to the young. ”

“ It is needless, however, here to speak of the training of a female teacher, which is only a continuation of nursery discipline, though often most valuable to young boys; nor to discuss the question in what cases it is desirable that the farmer's son should be educated by the teacher of the village school; suffice it to say that happy are those boys whose parents are wise enough to think more, during the early days of youthful simplicity, of the qualifications of the teacher, than of their own dignity. ”

“ I have taken great pains to inquire into the opinions of intelligent men in the middle ranks, and into the experience of practical teachers on this subject, and I come to the conclusion, that while on the one hand, an exclusively classical education would not be tolerated, on the other, the sense of the importance of some knowledge of the elements of our language is on the increase, the only question being, whether this is best attained by learning French or Latin. ”

“ Poetry and criticism are by no means the universal concern of the world, but only the affair of idle men who write in their closets and of idle men who read there All the advantages, I can think of, accruing from a genius for poetry, are the agreeable power of self-amusement when a man is idle or alone, the privilege of being admitted into the best company, and the freedom of saying as many careless things as other people, without being so severely remarked on. ”

“ But a moment's attention to what agriculture involves will settle the question. Agriculture is the art of producing human food from a limited extent of land, in the greatest abundance and in the shortest space of time consistent with a profit to the producer. The production of food, in some form, is as old as the human race; in savage life it is obtained by hunting ”

“ If you wish a son to think for himself, and to think charitably when he is old, let him learn from his parent's and master's example to believe something, and to act upon it; he will be in a better position to judge of the truth of his early convictions when he grows up, if he put them to the test of practice in youth. ”

“ I more than doubt the value of such chemistry as can be learned at school being of any value to the farmer as a practical guide in his business. The reason is, that the properties of the constituent parts of matter are so complicated that they cannot be presented in their practical application with the same simplicity as mechanical laws; they are not, therefore, so suitable a means of education. ”

“ Parents like to see some visible sign of their progress. The master who watches the opening of the mind knows that they are often making most progress when no great results are perceptible. We all know that in building a house a great part of the work is done underground. When the foundations are brought up to the level of the soil, a superficial observer might suppose that very little had been done; and yet in reality great progress towards building the house would have been made. Just so in education; a great deal may be silently going on which is not seen aboveground ”

“ To give the middle-class boy this long preparatory discipline would be to misapply his time; it would prevent him from receiving the training and gaining the information which will be called into play by his business as soon as he leaves school, and, what is more important, would increase the difficulty of giving him, before it is too late, a taste for reading, of a pure and elevating character, such as may serve to raise him above the depressing influences of the market. ”

“ My farming friends may rest assured that the economy of labour has not made more advance within the last twenty years in the art of growing turnips than it has in the art of teaching children to read and to count. At the same time either a natural gift or some special information and training is required for teaching young children well. Without, however, depreciating the more intellectual methods, I venture still to think the old-fashioned Multiplication Table, which must be learned sooner or later, is very good discipline, and the sooner it is learnt the better. ”

“ The object of the education of the farmer should be to give him the moral and intellectual habits required by practical men in general, rather than the special knowledge of Agriculture. But, although the knowledge of technical details may be postponed, his mental training should be considered with reference to one marked distinction:—the business of the statesman and the divine is with Persons; the business of the farmer and the commercial man is with Things. ”

“ Of the value of Music as a means of education, I have a very strong conviction. By music I mean here vocal music, taught with a thorough knowledge of the scale, the intervals, keys, clefs, and chords, and with a view to singing standard music in parts. A naturally fine voice is a great gift, but a rare and sometimes a dangerous one; few persons engaged in trade or agriculture can have time for its cultivation with a view to solo performance ”

“ One great use of the imagination in youth is to excite an interest in persons and things which do not centre in self. It may suffice to say, without dilating further on this subject, that an interest in the feelings of mankind at large may be awakened by poetry; in the good and great men of other times, by history and biography; and in the productions and scenery of other lands, by geography and travels. All these subjects may be comprised for our present purpose under the general term Literature. ”

“ Before I go on to speak of the school itself I may refer to the remark of several schoolmasters, that the great difficulty they have to contend with is the habits the boys bring from home; undisciplined wills and untrained attention, producing a state of mind which is entirely the reverse of teachable. The master is expected to take boys in this state for a year, to give them what is called a finishing, after a year's running wild in the country—a very common but most unwise way of interrupting education. ”