Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Religious Foundations of Primary Education: A Lecture Delivered in the Town Hall, Manchester, Dec; 7, 1876, Under the Auspices of the Manchester Church Committee
Without further introduction, therefore, I will pass at once to the subject upon which I propose to speak to you to-night. At the very outset it is necessary that we should have a definition as to what we mean by education. For it seems to me that many people might be found in substantial agreement who are now found in opposition camps, if Cnly they would define what they mean when they speak of education. All who are familiar with the subject know well that in judging of the efficiency of a school there are two distinct heads under which the teacher's skill has to be judged, and con cerning which there are separate reports. Her Majesty's Inspector deals with the instruction given in the school, and with the discipline of the school; and it not infrequently happens that while the teaching in the school is good, the discipline is bad; while, on the other hand, there are some schools in which the discipline is good, but the instruction given is far from being what it ought to be. We may see, therefore, from this that there are these two points with respect to education given in all schools which must be kept separate in our minds there are these two elements which have to be distinguished when we are discussing what education should be. It seems to me that the whole question of what is meant by instruction, and what is included under discipline, must be accepted as parts of the great subject of education. If we limit our view to what instruction can accomplish, without taking into account discipline and the motives by which it is to be secured, we shall have a very inadequate notion of education. I will try to make clear what I mean by an illus tration. I will tell you what happened when I was a boy, with respect to a matter which was at the time notorious. There was a cricket club in the town in which I lived, and in that cricket club there was a very distinguished member. He lwas the most wonderful bowler that perhaps any cricket club in England ever possessed. He had the great skill of being able to take one stump out of the ground three times out of four consecutively for as long as -he chose to continue the attempt. This man was the honour, and glory, and pride of the cricket club, and he used for a long time to bring victories to the club of which he was a member. But it so happened that he was not a man of high character, of good moral character, and after a time he took to drinking. His fellow-players were unwilling to turn him out of the club, and so lose the benefit of his great skill; but during every cricket match they had to set a policeman to watch him, to prevent him from drinking more than he should do. This precaution was found to succeed only for a time; for, becoming very dis solute, he went a step further, and 'sold' the matches - that is to say, he accepted money, took a bribe from the other side to bowl badly, and so lost the victory to his own club. It seems to me this case exactly illustrates what we mean by education. What we want is not simply that a man shall be a learned man, in the sense that the man I have mentioned was a good bowler, but that he should also have such discipline over himself, be so able to control himself, that he should not need a policeman to look after him to see that he behaved himself properly. Education, to be complete, should make a man not only a good cricket player, but also a good moral man; or, in other words, the intellectual education given at school should not be looked upon as something separate and distinct by itself; but that, to be really valuable, it must include that moral power which enables a man who possesses literary talents to put those talents to the highest and best possible use. We must therefore accept the idea of education in this broad and comprehensive sense.
