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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/908-h.zip b/908-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c33a39 --- /dev/null +++ b/908-h.zip diff --git a/908-h/908-h.htm b/908-h/908-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9491d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/908-h/908-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4641 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + A Treatise on Parents and Children, by Bernard Shaw + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Treatise on Parents and Children, by +George Bernard Shaw + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Treatise on Parents and Children + +Author: George Bernard Shaw + +Release Date: March 21, 2006 [EBook #908] +Last Updated: December 10, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Burkey, Amy Thomte and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Bernard Shaw + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>PARENTS AND CHILDREN</b></big> </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> The Child is Father to the Man </a><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> What is a Child? </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0004"> The Sin of Nadab and Abihu </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0005"> The Manufacture of Monsters </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0006"> Small and Large Families </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0007"> Children as Nuisances </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0008"> Child Fanciers </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> + Childhood as a State of Sin </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> School + </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> My Scholastic Acquirements </a><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> Schoolmasters of Genius </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0013"> What We Do Not Teach, and Why </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0014"> Taboo in Schools </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0015"> Alleged Novelties in Modern Schools </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0016"> What is to be Done? </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0017"> Children's Rights and Duties </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0018"> Should Children Earn their Living? </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0019"> Children's Happiness </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0020"> The Horror of the Perpetual Holiday </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0021"> University Schoolboyishness </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0022"> The New Laziness </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0023"> The Infinite School Task </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0024"> The Rewards and Risks of Knowledge </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0025"> English Physical Hardihood and Spiritual + Cowardice </a> <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0026"> The Risks of + Ignorance and Weakness </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> The Common + Sense of Toleration </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0028"> The Sin of + Athanasius </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0029"> The Experiment + Experimenting </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0030"> Why We Loathe Learning + and Love Sport </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0031"> Antichrist </a><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0032"> Under the Whip </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0033"> Technical Instruction </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0034"> Docility and Dependence </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0035"> The Abuse of Docility </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0036"> The Schoolboy and the Homeboy </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0037"> The Comings of Age of Children </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0038"> The Conflict of Wills </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0039"> The Demagogue's Opportunity </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0040"> Our Quarrelsomeness </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0041"> We Must Reform Society before we can Reform + Ourselves </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0042"> The Pursuit of Manners + </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0043"> Not too much Wind on the Heath, + Brother </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0044"> Wanted: a Child's Magna + Charta </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0045"> The Pursuit of Learning </a><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0046"> Children and Game: a Proposal </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0047"> The Parents' Intolerable Burden </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0048"> Mobilization </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0049"> + Children's Rights and Parents' Wrongs </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> + How Little We Know About Our Parents </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0051"> + Our Abandoned Mothers </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0052"> Family + Affection </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0053"> The Fate of the Family + </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0054"> Family Mourning </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0055"> Art Teaching </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0056"> + The Impossibility of Secular Education </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0057"> + Natural Selection as a Religion </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0058"> + Moral Instruction Leagues </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0059"> The Bible + </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0060"> Artist Idolatry </a><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0061"> "The Machine" </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0062"> + The Provocation to Anarchism </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0063"> + Imagination </a><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0064"> Government by Bullies + </a><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + PARENTS AND CHILDREN + </h2> + <p> + Trailing Clouds of Glory + </p> + <p> + Childhood is a stage in the process of that continual remanufacture of the + Life Stuff by which the human race is perpetuated. The Life Force either + will not or cannot achieve immortality except in very low organisms: + indeed it is by no means ascertained that even the amoeba is immortal. + Human beings visibly wear out, though they last longer than their friends + the dogs. Turtles, parrots, and elephants are believed to be capable of + outliving the memory of the oldest human inhabitant. But the fact that new + ones are born conclusively proves that they are not immortal. Do away with + death and you do away with the need for birth: in fact if you went on + breeding, you would finally have to kill old people to make room for young + ones. + </p> + <p> + Now death is not necessarily a failure of energy on the part of the Life + Force. People with no imagination try to make things which will last for + ever, and even want to live for ever themselves. But the intelligently + imaginative man knows very well that it is waste of labor to make a + machine that will last ten years, because it will probably be superseded + in half that time by an improved machine answering the same purpose. He + also knows that if some devil were to convince us that our dream of + personal immortality is no dream but a hard fact, such a shriek of despair + would go up from the human race as no other conceivable horror could + provoke. With all our perverse nonsense as to John Smith living for a + thousand million eons and for ever after, we die voluntarily, knowing that + it is time for us to be scrapped, to be remanufactured, to come back, as + Wordsworth divined, trailing ever brightening clouds of glory. We must all + be born again, and yet again and again. We should like to live a little + longer just as we should like 50 pounds: that is, we should take it if we + could get it for nothing; but that sort of idle liking is not will. It is + amazing—considering the way we talk—how little a man will do + to get 50 pounds: all the 50-pound notes I have ever known of have been + more easily earned than a laborious sixpence; but the difficulty of + inducing a man to make any serious effort to obtain 50 pounds is nothing + to the difficulty of inducing him to make a serious effort to keep alive. + The moment he sees death approach, he gets into bed and sends for a + doctor. He knows very well at the back of his conscience that he is rather + a poor job and had better be remanufactured. He knows that his death will + make room for a birth; and he hopes that it will be a birth of something + that he aspired to be and fell short of. He knows that it is through death + and rebirth that this corruptible shall become incorruptible, and this + mortal put on immortality. Practise as you will on his ignorance, his + fears, and his imagination, with bribes of paradises and threats of hells, + there is only one belief that can rob death of its sting and the grave of + its victory; and that is the belief that we can lay down the burden of our + wretched little makeshift individualities for ever at each lift towards + the goal of evolution, which can only be a being that cannot be improved + upon. After all, what man is capable of the insane self-conceit of + believing that an eternity of himself would be tolerable even to himself? + Those who try to believe it postulate that they shall be made perfect + first. But if you make me perfect I shall no longer be myself, nor will it + be possible for me to conceive my present imperfections (and what I cannot + conceive I cannot remember); so that you may just as well give me a new + name and face the fact that I am a new person and that the old Bernard + Shaw is as dead as mutton. Thus, oddly enough, the conventional belief in + the matter comes to this: that if you wish to live for ever you must be + wicked enough to be irretrievably damned, since the saved are no longer + what they were, and in hell alone do people retain their sinful nature: + that is to say, their individuality. And this sort of hell, however + convenient as a means of intimidating persons who have practically no + honor and no conscience, is not a fact. Death is for many of us the gate + of hell; but we are inside on the way out, not outside on the way in. + Therefore let us give up telling one another idle stories, and rejoice in + death as we rejoice in birth; for without death we cannot be born again; + and the man who does not wish to be born again and born better is fit only + to represent the City of London in Parliament, or perhaps the university + of Oxford. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Child is Father to the Man + </h2> + <p> + Is he? Then in the name of common sense why do we always treat children on + the assumption that the man is father to the child? Oh, these fathers! And + we are not content with fathers: we must have godfathers, forgetting that + the child is godfather to the man. Has it ever struck you as curious that + in a country where the first article of belief is that every child is born + with a godfather whom we all call "our father which art in heaven," two + very limited individual mortals should be allowed to appear at its baptism + and explain that they are its godparents, and that they will look after + its salvation until it is no longer a child. I had a godmother who made + herself responsible in this way for me. She presented me with a Bible with + a gilt clasp and edges, larger than the Bibles similarly presented to my + sisters, because my sex entitled me to a heavier article. I must have seen + that lady at least four times in the twenty years following. She never + alluded to my salvation in any way. People occasionally ask me to act as + godfather to their children with a levity which convinces me that they + have not the faintest notion that it involves anything more than calling + the helpless child George Bernard without regard to the possibility that + it may grow up in the liveliest abhorrence of my notions. + </p> + <p> + A person with a turn for logic might argue that if God is the Father of + all men, and if the child is father to the man, it follows that the true + representative of God at the christening is the child itself. But such + posers are unpopular, because they imply that our little customs, or, as + we often call them, our religion, mean something, or must originally have + meant something, and that we understand and believe that something. + </p> + <p> + However, my business is not to make confusion worse confounded, but to + clear it up. Only, it is as well to begin by a sample of current thought + and practice which shews that on the subject of children we are very + deeply confused. On the whole, whatever our theory or no theory may be, + our practice is to treat the child as the property of its immediate + physical parents, and to allow them to do what they like with it as far as + it will let them. It has no rights and no liberties: in short, its + condition is that which adults recognize as the most miserable and + dangerous politically possible for themselves: namely, the condition of + slavery. For its alleviation we trust to the natural affection of the + parties, and to public opinion. A father cannot for his own credit let his + son go in rags. Also, in a very large section of the population, parents + finally become dependent on their children. Thus there are checks on child + slavery which do not exist, or are less powerful, in the case of manual + and industrial slavery. Sensationally bad cases fall into two classes, + which are really the same class: namely, the children whose parents are + excessively addicted to the sensual luxury of petting children, and the + children whose parents are excessively addicted to the sensual luxury of + physically torturing them. There is a Society for the Prevention of + Cruelty to Children which has effectually made an end of our belief that + mothers are any more to be trusted than stepmothers, or fathers than + slave-drivers. And there is a growing body of law designed to prevent + parents from using their children ruthlessly to make money for the + household. Such legislation has always been furiously resisted by the + parents, even when the horrors of factory slavery were at their worst; and + the extension of such legislation at present would be impossible if it + were not that the parents affected by it cannot control a majority of + votes in Parliament. In domestic life a great deal of service is done by + children, the girls acting as nursemaids and general servants, and the + lads as errand boys. In the country both boys and girls do a substantial + share of farm labor. This is why it is necessary to coerce poor parents to + send their children to school, though in the relatively small class which + keeps plenty of servants it is impossible to induce parents to keep their + children at home instead of paying schoolmasters to take them off their + hands. + </p> + <p> + It appears then that the bond of affection between parents and children + does not save children from the slavery that denial of rights involves in + adult political relations. It sometimes intensifies it, sometimes + mitigates it; but on the whole children and parents confront one another + as two classes in which all the political power is on one side; and the + results are not at all unlike what they would be if there were no + immediate consanguinity between them, and one were white and the other + black, or one enfranchised and the other disenfranchised, or one ranked as + gentle and the other simple. Not that Nature counts for nothing in the + case and political rights for everything. But a denial of political + rights, and the resultant delivery of one class into the mastery of + another, affects their relations so extensively and profoundly that it is + impossible to ascertain what the real natural relations of the two classes + are until this political relation is abolished. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + What is a Child? + </h2> + <p> + An experiment. A fresh attempt to produce the just man made perfect: that + is, to make humanity divine. And you will vitiate the experiment if you + make the slightest attempt to abort it into some fancy figure of your own: + for example, your notion of a good man or a womanly woman. If you treat it + as a little wild beast to be tamed, or as a pet to be played with, or even + as a means to save you trouble and to make money for you (and these are + our commonest ways), it may fight its way through in spite of you and save + its soul alive; for all its instincts will resist you, and possibly be + strengthened in the resistance; but if you begin with its own holiest + aspirations, and suborn them for your own purposes, then there is hardly + any limit to the mischief you may do. Swear at a child, throw your boots + at it, send it flying from the room with a cuff or a kick; and the + experience will be as instructive to the child as a difficulty with a + short-tempered dog or a bull. Francis Place tells us that his father + always struck his children when he found one within his reach. The effect + on the young Places seems to have been simply to make them keep out of + their father's way, which was no doubt what he desired, as far as he + desired anything at all. Francis records the habit without bitterness, + having reason to thank his stars that his father respected the inside of + his head whilst cuffing the outside of it; and this made it easy for + Francis to do yeoman's service to his country as that rare and admirable + thing, a Freethinker: the only sort of thinker, I may remark, whose + thoughts, and consequently whose religious convictions, command any + respect. + </p> + <p> + Now Mr Place, senior, would be described by many as a bad father; and I do + not contend that he was a conspicuously good one. But as compared with the + conventional good father who deliberately imposes himself on his son as a + god; who takes advantage of childish credulity and parent worship to + persuade his son that what he approves of is right and what he disapproves + of is wrong; who imposes a corresponding conduct on the child by a system + of prohibitions and penalties, rewards and eulogies, for which he claims + divine sanction: compared to this sort of abortionist and monster maker, I + say, Place appears almost as a Providence. Not that it is possible to live + with children any more than with grown-up people without imposing rules of + conduct on them. There is a point at which every person with human nerves + has to say to a child "Stop that noise." But suppose the child asks why! + There are various answers in use. The simplest: "Because it irritates me," + may fail; for it may strike the child as being rather amusing to irritate + you; also the child, having comparatively no nerves, may be unable to + conceive your meaning vividly enough. In any case it may want to make a + noise more than to spare your feelings. You may therefore have to explain + that the effect of the irritation will be that you will do something + unpleasant if the noise continues. The something unpleasant may be only a + look of suffering to rouse the child's affectionate sympathy (if it has + any), or it may run to forcible expulsion from the room with plenty of + unnecessary violence; but the principle is the same: there are no false + pretences involved: the child learns in a straightforward way that it does + not pay to be inconsiderate. Also, perhaps, that Mamma, who made the child + learn the Sermon on the Mount, is not really a Christian. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Sin of Nadab and Abihu + </h2> + <p> + But there is another sort of answer in wide use which is neither + straightforward, instructive, nor harmless. In its simplest form it + substitutes for "Stop that noise," "Dont be naughty," which means that the + child, instead of annoying you by a perfectly healthy and natural + infantile procedure, is offending God. This is a blasphemous lie; and the + fact that it is on the lips of every nurserymaid does not excuse it in the + least. Dickens tells us of a nurserymaid who elaborated it into "If you do + that, angels wont never love you." I remember a servant who used to tell + me that if I were not good, by which she meant if I did not behave with a + single eye to her personal convenience, the cock would come down the + chimney. Less imaginative but equally dishonest people told me I should go + to hell if I did not make myself agreeable to them. Bodily violence, + provided it be the hasty expression of normal provoked resentment and not + vicious cruelty, cannot harm a child as this sort of pious fraud harms it. + There is a legal limit to physical cruelty; and there are also human + limits to it. There is an active Society which brings to book a good many + parents who starve and torture and overwork their children, and + intimidates a good many more. When parents of this type are caught, they + are treated as criminals; and not infrequently the police have some + trouble to save them from being lynched. The people against whom children + are wholly unprotected are those who devote themselves to the very + mischievous and cruel sort of abortion which is called bringing up a child + in the way it should go. Now nobody knows the way a child should go. All + the ways discovered so far lead to the horrors of our existing + civilizations, described quite justifiably by Ruskin as heaps of agonizing + human maggots, struggling with one another for scraps of food. Pious fraud + is an attempt to pervert that precious and sacred thing the child's + conscience into an instrument of our own convenience, and to use that + wonderful and terrible power called Shame to grind our own axe. It is the + sin of stealing fire from the altar: a sin so impudently practised by + popes, parents, and pedagogues, that one can hardly expect the + nurserymaids to see any harm in stealing a few cinders when they are + worrited. + </p> + <p> + Into the blackest depths of this violation of children's souls one can + hardly bear to look; for here we find pious fraud masking the violation of + the body by obscene cruelty. Any parent or school teacher who takes a + secret and abominable delight in torture is allowed to lay traps into + which every child must fall, and then beat it to his or her heart's + content. A gentleman once wrote to me and said, with an obvious conviction + that he was being most reasonable and high minded, that the only thing he + beat his children for was failure in perfect obedience and perfect + truthfulness. On these attributes, he said, he must insist. As one of them + is not a virtue at all, and the other is the attribute of a god, one can + imagine what the lives of this gentleman's children would have been if it + had been possible for him to live down to his monstrous and foolish + pretensions. And yet he might have written his letter to The Times (he + very nearly did, by the way) without incurring any danger of being removed + to an asylum, or even losing his reputation for taking a very proper view + of his parental duties. And at least it was not a trivial view, nor an ill + meant one. It was much more respectable than the general consensus of + opinion that if a school teacher can devise a question a child cannot + answer, or overhear it calling omega omeega, he or she may beat the child + viciously. Only, the cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral excuse, and a + pretence of reluctance. It must be for the child's good. The assailant + must say "This hurts me more than it hurts you." There must be hypocrisy + as well as cruelty. The injury to the child would be far less if the + voluptuary said frankly "I beat you because I like beating you; and I + shall do it whenever I can contrive an excuse for it." But to represent + this detestable lust to the child as Divine wrath, and the cruelty as the + beneficent act of God, which is exactly what all our floggers do, is to + add to the torture of the body, out of which the flogger at least gets + some pleasure, the maiming and blinding of the child's soul, which can + bring nothing but horror to anyone. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Manufacture of Monsters + </h2> + <p> + This industry is by no means peculiar to China. The Chinese (they say) + make physical monsters. We revile them for it and proceed to make moral + monsters of our own children. The most excusable parents are those who try + to correct their own faults in their offspring. The parent who says to his + child: "I am one of the successes of the Almighty: therefore imitate me in + every particular or I will have the skin off your back" (a quite common + attitude) is a much more absurd figure than the man who, with a pipe in + his mouth, thrashes his boy for smoking. If you must hold yourself up to + your children as an object lesson (which is not at all necessary), hold + yourself up as a warning and not as an example. But you had much better + let the child's character alone. If you once allow yourself to regard a + child as so much material for you to manufacture into any shape that + happens to suit your fancy you are defeating the experiment of the Life + Force. You are assuming that the child does not know its own business, and + that you do. In this you are sure to be wrong: the child feels the drive + of the Life Force (often called the Will of God); and you cannot feel it + for him. Handel's parents no doubt thought they knew better than their + child when they tried to prevent his becoming a musician. They would have + been equally wrong and equally unsuccessful if they had tried to prevent + the child becoming a great rascal had its genius lain in that direction. + Handel would have been Handel, and Napoleon and Peter of Russia <i>them</i>selves + in spite of all the parents in creation, because, as often happens, they + were stronger than their parents. But this does not happen always. Most + children can be, and many are, hopelessly warped and wasted by parents who + are ignorant and silly enough to suppose that they know what a human being + ought to be, and who stick at nothing in their determination to force + their children into their moulds. Every child has a right to its own bent. + It has a right to be a Plymouth Brother though its parents be convinced + atheists. It has a right to dislike its mother or father or sister or + brother or uncle or aunt if they are antipathetic to it. It has a right to + find its own way and go its own way, whether that way seems wise or + foolish to others, exactly as an adult has. It has a right to privacy as + to its own doings and its own affairs as much as if it were its own + father. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Small and Large Families + </h2> + <p> + These rights have now become more important than they used to be, because + the modern practice of limiting families enables them to be more + effectually violated. In a family of ten, eight, six, or even four + children, the rights of the younger ones to a great extent take care of + themselves and of the rights of the elder ones too. Two adult parents, in + spite of a house to keep and an income to earn, can still interfere to a + disastrous extent with the rights and liberties of one child. But by the + time a fourth child has arrived, they are not only outnumbered two to one, + but are getting tired of the thankless and mischievous job of bringing up + their children in the way they think they should go. The old observation + that members of large families get on in the world holds good because in + large families it is impossible for each child to receive what + schoolmasters call "individual attention." The children may receive a good + deal of individual attention from one another in the shape of outspoken + reproach, ruthless ridicule, and violent resistance to their attempts at + aggression; but the parental despots are compelled by the multitude of + their subjects to resort to political rather than personal rule, and to + spread their attempts at moral monster-making over so many children, that + each child has enough freedom, and enough sport in the prophylactic + process of laughing at its elders behind their backs, to escape with much + less damage than the single child. In a large school the system may be + bad; but the personal influence of the head master has to be exerted, when + it is exerted at all, in a public way, because he has little more power of + working on the affections of the individual scholar in the intimate way + that, for example, the mother of a single child can, than the prime + minister has of working on the affections of any individual voter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Children as Nuisances + </h2> + <p> + Experienced parents, when children's rights are preached to them, very + naturally ask whether children are to be allowed to do what they like. The + best reply is to ask whether adults are to be allowed to do what they + like. The two cases are the same. The adult who is nasty is not allowed to + do what he likes: neither can the child who likes to be nasty. There is no + difference in principle between the rights of a child and those of an + adult: the difference in their cases is one of circumstance. An adult is + not supposed to be punished except by process of law; nor, when he is so + punished, is the person whom he has injured allowed to act as judge, jury, + and executioner. It is true that employers do act in this way every day to + their workpeople; but this is not a justified and intended part of the + situation: it is an abuse of Capitalism which nobody defends in principle. + As between child and parent or nurse it is not argued about because it is + inevitable. You cannot hold an impartial judicial inquiry every time a + child misbehaves itself. To allow the child to misbehave without instantly + making it unpleasantly conscious of the fact would be to spoil it. The + adult has therefore to take action of some sort with nothing but his + conscience to shield the child from injustice or unkindness. The action + may be a torrent of scolding culminating in a furious smack causing terror + and pain, or it may be a remonstrance causing remorse, or it may be a + sarcasm causing shame and humiliation, or it may be a sermon causing the + child to believe that it is a little reprobate on the road to hell. The + child has no defence in any case except the kindness and conscience of the + adult; and the adult had better not forget this; for it involves a heavy + responsibility. + </p> + <p> + And now comes our difficulty. The responsibility, being so heavy, cannot + be discharged by persons of feeble character or intelligence. And yet + people of high character and intelligence cannot be plagued with the care + of children. A child is a restless, noisy little animal, with an + insatiable appetite for knowledge, and consequently a maddening + persistence in asking questions. If the child is to remain in the room + with a highly intelligent and sensitive adult, it must be told, and if + necessary forced, to sit still and not speak, which is injurious to its + health, unnatural, unjust, and therefore cruel and selfish beyond + toleration. Consequently the highly intelligent and sensitive adult hands + the child over to a nurserymaid who has no nerves and can therefore stand + more noise, but who has also no scruples, and may therefore be very bad + company for the child. + </p> + <p> + Here we have come to the central fact of the question: a fact nobody + avows, which is yet the true explanation of the monstrous system of child + imprisonment and torture which we disguise under such hypocrisies as + education, training, formation of character and the rest of it. This fact + is simply that a child is a nuisance to a grown-up person. What is more, + the nuisance becomes more and more intolerable as the grown-up person + becomes more cultivated, more sensitive, and more deeply engaged in the + highest methods of adult work. The child at play is noisy and ought to be + noisy: Sir Isaac Newton at work is quiet and ought to be quiet. And the + child should spend most of its time at play, whilst the adult should spend + most of his time at work. I am not now writing on behalf of persons who + coddle themselves into a ridiculous condition of nervous feebleness, and + at last imagine themselves unable to work under conditions of bustle which + to healthy people are cheerful and stimulating. I am sure that if people + had to choose between living where the noise of children never stopped and + where it was never heard, all the goodnatured and sound people would + prefer the incessant noise to the incessant silence. But that choice is + not thrust upon us by the nature of things. There is no reason why + children and adults should not see just as much of one another as is good + for them, no more and no less. Even at present you are not compelled to + choose between sending your child to a boarding school (which means + getting rid of it altogether on more or less hypocritical pretences) and + keeping it continually at home. Most working folk today either send their + children to day schools or turn them out of doors. This solves the problem + for the parents. It does not solve it for the children, any more than the + tethering of a goat in a field or the chasing of an unlicensed dog into + the streets solves it for the goat or the dog; but it shews that in no + class are people willing to endure the society of their children, and + consequently that it is an error to believe that the family provides + children with edifying adult society, or that the family is a social unit. + The family is in that, as in so many other respects, a humbug. Old people + and young people cannot walk at the same pace without distress and final + loss of health to one of the parties. When they are sitting indoors they + cannot endure the same degrees of temperature and the same supplies of + fresh air. Even if the main factors of noise, restlessness, and + inquisitiveness are left out of account, children can stand with + indifference sights, sounds, smells, and disorders that would make an + adult of fifty utterly miserable; whilst on the other hand such adults + find a tranquil happiness in conditions which to children mean unspeakable + boredom. And since our system is nevertheless to pack them all into the + same house and pretend that they are happy, and that this particular sort + of happiness is the foundation of virtue, it is found that in discussing + family life we never speak of actual adults or actual children, or of + realities of any sort, but always of ideals such as The Home, a Mother's + Influence, a Father's Care, Filial Piety, Duty, Affection, Family Life, + etc. etc., which are no doubt very comforting phrases, but which beg the + question of what a home and a mother's influence and a father's care and + so forth really come to in practice. How many hours a week of the time + when his children are out of bed does the ordinary bread-winning father + spend in the company of his children or even in the same building with + them? The home may be a thieves' kitchen, the mother a procuress, the + father a violent drunkard; or the mother and father may be fashionable + people who see their children three or four times a year during the + holidays, and then not oftener than they can help, living meanwhile in + daily and intimate contact with their valets and lady's-maids, whose + influence and care are often dominant in the household. Affection, as + distinguished from simple kindliness, may or may not exist: when it does + it either depends on qualities in the parties that would produce it + equally if they were of no kin to one another, or it is a more or less + morbid survival of the nursing passion; for affection between adults (if + they are really adult in mind and not merely grown-up children) and + creatures so relatively selfish and cruel as children necessarily are + without knowing it or meaning it, cannot be called natural: in fact the + evidence shews that it is easier to love the company of a dog than of a + commonplace child between the ages of six and the beginnings of controlled + maturity; for women who cannot bear to be separated from their pet dogs + send their children to boarding schools cheerfully. They may say and even + believe that in allowing their children to leave home they are sacrificing + themselves for their children's good; but there are very few pet dogs who + would not be the better for a month or two spent elsewhere than in a + lady's lap or roasting on a drawingroom hearthrug. Besides, to allege that + children are better continually away from home is to give up the whole + popular sentimental theory of the family; yet the dogs are kept and the + children are banished. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Child Fanciers + </h2> + <p> + There is, however, a good deal of spurious family affection. There is the + clannishness that will make a dozen brothers and sisters who quarrel + furiously among themselves close up their ranks and make common cause + against a brother-in-law or a sister-in-law. And there is a strong sense + of property in children, which often makes mothers and fathers bitterly + jealous of allowing anyone else to interfere with their children, whom + they may none the less treat very badly. And there is an extremely + dangerous craze for children which leads certain people to establish + orphanages and baby farms and schools, seizing any pretext for filling + their houses with children exactly as some eccentric old ladies and + gentlemen fill theirs with cats. In such places the children are the + victims of all the caprices of doting affection and all the excesses of + lascivious cruelty. Yet the people who have this morbid craze seldom have + any difficulty in finding victims. Parents and guardians are so worried by + children and so anxious to get rid of them that anyone who is willing to + take them off their hands is welcomed and whitewashed. The very people who + read with indignation of Squeers and Creakle in the novels of Dickens are + quite ready to hand over their own children to Squeers and Creakle, and to + pretend that Squeers and Creakle are monsters of the past. But read the + autobiography of Stanley the traveller, or sit in the company of men + talking about their school-days, and you will soon find that fiction, + which must, if it is to be sold and read, stop short of being positively + sickening, dare not tell the whole truth about the people to whom children + are handed over on educational pretexts. Not very long ago a schoolmaster + in Ireland was murdered by his boys; and for reasons which were never made + public it was at first decided not to prosecute the murderers. Yet all + these flogging schoolmasters and orphanage fiends and baby farmers are + "lovers of children." They are really child fanciers (like bird fanciers + or dog fanciers) by irresistible natural predilection, never happy unless + they are surrounded by their victims, and always certain to make their + living by accepting the custody of children, no matter how many + alternative occupations may be available. And bear in mind that they are + only the extreme instances of what is commonly called natural affection, + apparently because it is obviously unnatural. + </p> + <p> + The really natural feeling of adults for children in the long prosaic + intervals between the moments of affectionate impulse is just that feeling + that leads them to avoid their care and constant company as a burden + beyond bearing, and to pretend that the places they send them to are well + conducted, beneficial, and indispensable to the success of the children in + after life. The true cry of the kind mother after her little rosary of + kisses is "Run away, darling." It is nicer than "Hold your noise, you + young devil; or it will be the worse for you"; but fundamentally it means + the same thing: that if you compel an adult and a child to live in one + another's company either the adult or the child will be miserable. There + is nothing whatever unnatural or wrong or shocking in this fact; and there + is no harm in it if only it be sensibly faced and provided for. The + mischief that it does at present is produced by our efforts to ignore it, + or to smother it under a heap of sentimental lies and false pretences. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Childhood as a State of Sin + </h2> + <p> + Unfortunately all this nonsense tends to accumulate as we become more + sympathetic. In many families it is still the custom to treat childhood + frankly as a state of sin, and impudently proclaim the monstrous principle + that little children should be seen and not heard, and to enforce a set of + prison rules designed solely to make cohabitation with children as + convenient as possible for adults without the smallest regard for the + interests, either remote or immediate, of the children. This system tends + to produce a tough, rather brutal, stupid, unscrupulous class, with a + fixed idea that all enjoyment consists in undetected sinning; and in + certain phases of civilization people of this kind are apt to get the + upper hand of more amiable and conscientious races and classes. They have + the ferocity of a chained dog, and are proud of it. But the end of it is + that they are always in chains, even at the height of their military or + political success: they win everything on condition that they are afraid + to enjoy it. Their civilizations rest on intimidation, which is so + necessary to them that when they cannot find anybody brave enough to + intimidate them they intimidate themselves and live in a continual moral + and political panic. In the end they get found out and bullied. But that + is not the point that concerns us here, which is, that they are in some + respects better brought up than the children of sentimental people who are + always anxious and miserable about their duty to their children, and who + end by neither making their children happy nor having a tolerable life for + themselves. A selfish tyrant you know where to have, and he (or she) at + least does not confuse your affections; but a conscientious and kindly + meddler may literally worry you out of your senses. It is fortunate that + only very few parents are capable of doing what they conceive their duty + continuously or even at all, and that still fewer are tough enough to ride + roughshod over their children at home. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + School + </h2> + <p> + But please observe the limitation "at home." What private amateur parental + enterprise cannot do may be done very effectively by organized + professional enterprise in large institutions established for the purpose. + And it is to such professional enterprise that parents hand over their + children when they can afford it. They send their children to school; and + there is, on the whole, nothing on earth intended for innocent people so + horrible as a school. To begin with, it is a prison. But it is in some + respects more cruel than a prison. In a prison, for instance, you are not + forced to read books written by the warders and the governor (who of + course would not be warders and governors if they could write readable + books), and beaten or otherwise tormented if you cannot remember their + utterly unmemorable contents. In the prison you are not forced to sit + listening to turnkeys discoursing without charm or interest on subjects + that they dont understand and dont care about, and are therefore incapable + of making you understand or care about. In a prison they may torture your + body; but they do not torture your brains; and they protect you against + violence and outrage from your fellow prisoners. In a school you have none + of these advantages. With the world's bookshelves loaded with fascinating + and inspired books, the very manna sent down from Heaven to feed your + souls, you are forced to read a hideous imposture called a school book, + written by a man who cannot write: a book from which no human being can + learn anything: a book which, though you may decipher it, you cannot in + any fruitful sense read, though the enforced attempt will make you loathe + the sight of a book all the rest of your life. With millions of acres of + woods and valleys and hills and wind and air and birds and streams and + fishes and all sorts of instructive and healthy things easily accessible, + or with streets and shop windows and crowds and vehicles and all sorts of + city delights at the door, you are forced to sit, not in a room with some + human grace and comfort or furniture and decoration, but in a stalled + pound with a lot of other children, beaten if you talk, beaten if you + move, beaten if you cannot prove by answering idiotic questions that even + when you escaped from the pound and from the eye of your gaoler, you were + still agonizing over his detestable sham books instead of daring to live. + And your childish hatred of your gaoler and flogger is nothing to his + adult hatred of you; for he is a slave forced to endure your society for + his daily bread. You have not even the satisfaction of knowing how you are + torturing him and how he loathes you; and you give yourself unnecessary + pains to annoy him with furtive tricks and spiteful doing of forbidden + things. No wonder he is sometimes provoked to fiendish outbursts of wrath. + No wonder men of downright sense, like Dr Johnson, admit that under such + circumstances children will not learn anything unless they are so cruelly + beaten that they make desperate efforts to memorize words and phrases to + escape flagellation. It is a ghastly business, quite beyond words, this + schooling. + </p> + <p> + And now I hear cries of protest arising all round. First my own + schoolmasters, or their ghosts, asking whether I was cruelly beaten at + school? No; but then I did not learn anything at school. Dr Johnson's + schoolmaster presumably did care enough whether Sam learned anything to + beat him savagely enough to force him to lame his mind—for Johnson's + great mind <i>was</i> lamed—by learning his lessons. None of my + schoolmasters really cared a rap (or perhaps it would be fairer to them to + say that their employers did not care a rap and therefore did not give + them the necessary caning powers) whether I learnt my lessons or not, + provided my father paid my schooling bill, the collection of which was the + real object of the school. Consequently I did not learn my school lessons, + having much more important ones in hand, with the result that I have not + wasted my life trifling with literary fools in taverns as Johnson did when + he should have been shaking England with the thunder of his spirit. My + schooling did me a great deal of harm and no good whatever: it was simply + dragging a child's soul through the dirt; but I escaped Squeers and + Creakle just as I escaped Johnson and Carlyle. And this is what happens to + most of us. We are not effectively coerced to learn: we stave off + punishment as far as we can by lying and trickery and guessing and using + our wits; and when this does not suffice we scribble impositions, or + suffer extra imprisonments—"keeping in" was the phrase in my time—or + let a master strike us with a cane and fall back on our pride at being + able to hear it physically (he not being allowed to hit us too hard) to + outface the dishonor we should have been taught to die rather than endure. + And so idleness and worthlessness on the one hand and a pretence of + coercion on the other became a despicable routine. If my schoolmasters had + been really engaged in educating me instead of painfully earning their + bread by keeping me from annoying my elders they would have turned me out + of the school, telling me that I was thoroughly disloyal to it; that I had + no intention of learning; that I was mocking and distracting the boys who + did wish to learn; that I was a liar and a shirker and a seditious little + nuisance; and that nothing could injure me in character and degrade their + occupation more than allowing me (much less forcing me) to remain in the + school under such conditions. But in order to get expelled, it was + necessary commit a crime of such atrocity that the parents of other boys + would have threatened to remove their sons sooner than allow them to be + schoolfellows with the delinquent. I can remember only one case in which + such a penalty was threatened; and in that case the culprit, a boarder, + had kissed a housemaid, or possibly, being a handsome youth, been kissed + by her. She did not kiss me; and nobody ever dreamt of expelling me. The + truth was, a boy meant just so much a year to the institution. That was + why he was kept there against his will. That was why he was kept there + when his expulsion would have been an unspeakable relief and benefit both + to his teachers and himself. + </p> + <p> + It may be argued that if the uncommercial attitude had been taken, and all + the disloyal wasters and idlers shewn sternly to the door, the school + would not have been emptied, but filled. But so honest an attitude was + impossible. The masters must have hated the school much more than the boys + did. Just as you cannot imprison a man without imprisoning a warder to see + that he does not escape, the warder being tied to the prison as + effectually by the fear of unemployment and starvation as the prisoner is + by the bolts and bars, so these poor schoolmasters, with their small + salaries and large classes, were as much prisoners as we were, and much + more responsible and anxious ones. They could not impose the heroic + attitude on their employers; nor would they have been able to obtain + places as schoolmasters if their habits had been heroic. For the best of + them their employment was provisional: they looked forward to escaping + from it into the pulpit. The ablest and most impatient of them were often + so irritated by the awkward, slow-witted, slovenly boys: that is, the ones + that required special consideration and patient treatment, that they + vented their irritation on them ruthlessly, nothing being easier than to + entrap or bewilder such a boy into giving a pretext for punishing him. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + My Scholastic Acquirements + </h2> + <p> + The results, as far as I was concerned, were what might have been + expected. My school made only the thinnest pretence of teaching anything + but Latin and Greek. When I went there as a very small boy I knew a good + deal of Latin grammar which I had been taught in a few weeks privately by + my uncle. When I had been several years at school this same uncle examined + me and discovered that the net result of my schooling was that I had + forgotten what he had taught me, and had learnt nothing else. To this day, + though I can still decline a Latin noun and repeat some of the old + paradigms in the old meaningless way, because their rhythm sticks to me, I + have never yet seen a Latin inscription on a tomb that I could translate + throughout. Of Greek I can decipher perhaps the greater part of the Greek + alphabet. In short, I am, as to classical education, another Shakespear. I + can read French as easily as English; and under pressure of necessity I + can turn to account some scraps of German and a little operatic Italian; + but these I was never taught at school. Instead, I was taught lying, + dishonorable submission to tyranny, dirty stories, a blasphemous habit of + treating love and maternity as obscene jokes, hopelessness, evasion, + derision, cowardice, and all the blackguard's shifts by which the coward + intimidates other cowards. And if I had been a boarder at an English + public school instead of a day boy at an Irish one, I might have had to + add to these, deeper shames still. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Schoolmasters of Genius + </h2> + <p> + And now, if I have reduced the ghosts of my schoolmasters to melancholy + acquiescence in all this (which everybody who has been at an ordinary + school will recognize as true), I have still to meet the much more sincere + protests of the handful of people who have a natural genius for "bringing + up" children. I shall be asked with kindly scorn whether I have heard of + Froebel and Pestalozzi, whether I know the work that is being done by Miss + Mason and the Dottoressa Montessori or, best of all as I think, the + Eurythmics School of Jacques Dalcroze at Hellerau near Dresden. Jacques + Dalcroze, like Plato, believes in saturating his pupils with music. They + walk to music, play to music, work to music, obey drill commands that + would bewilder a guardsman to music, think to music, live to music, get so + clearheaded about music that they can move their several limbs each in a + different metre until they become complicated living magazines of cross + rhythms, and, what is more, make music for others to do all these things + to. Stranger still, though Jacques Dalcroze, like all these great + teachers, is the completest of tyrants, knowing what is right and that he + must and will have the lesson just so or else break his heart (not + somebody else's, observe), yet his school is so fascinating that every + woman who sees it exclaims "Oh, why was I not taught like this!" and + elderly gentlemen excitedly enrol themselves as students and distract + classes of infants by their desperate endeavors to beat two in a bar with + one hand and three with the other, and start off on earnest walks round + the room, taking two steps backward whenever Monsieur Daleroze calls out + "Hop!" Oh yes: I know all about these wonderful schools that you cannot + keep children or even adults out of, and these teachers whom their pupils + not only obey without coercion, but adore. And if you will tell me roughly + how many Masons and Montessoris and Dalcrozes you think you can pick up in + Europe for salaries of from thirty shillings to five pounds a week, I will + estimate your chances of converting your millions of little scholastic + hells into little scholastic heavens. If you are a distressed gentlewoman + starting to make a living, you can still open a little school; and you can + easily buy a secondhand brass plate inscribed PESTALOZZIAN INSTITUTE and + nail it to your door, though you have no more idea of who Pestalozzi was + and what he advocated or how he did it than the manager of a hotel which + began as a Hydropathic has of the water cure. Or you can buy a cheaper + plate inscribed KINDERGARTEN, and imagine, or leave others to imagine, + that Froebel is the governing genius of your little <i>creche</i>. No + doubt the new brass plates are being inscribed Montessori Institute, and + will be used when the Dotteressa is no longer with us by all the Mrs + Pipchins and Mrs Wilfers throughout this unhappy land. + </p> + <p> + I will go further, and admit that the brass plates may not all be frauds. + I will tell you that one of my friends was led to genuine love and + considerable knowledge of classical literature by an Irish schoolmaster + whom you would call a hedge schoolmaster (he would not be allowed to teach + anything now) and that it took four years of Harrow to obliterate that + knowledge and change the love into loathing. Another friend of mine who + keeps a school in the suburbs, and who deeply deplores my "prejudice + against schoolmasters," has offered to accept my challenge to tell his + pupils that they are as free to get up and go out of the school at any + moment as their parents are to get up and go out of a theatre where my + plays are being performed. Even among my own schoolmasters I can recollect + a few whose classes interested me, and whom I should certainly have + pestered for information and instruction if I could have got into any + decent human relationship with them, and if they had not been compelled by + their position to defend themselves as carefully against such advances as + against furtive attempts to hurt them accidentally in the football field + or smash their hats with a clod from behind a wall. But these rare cases + actually do more harm than good; for they encourage us to pretend that all + schoolmasters are like that. Of what use is it to us that there are always + somewhere two or three teachers of children whose specific genius for + their occupation triumphs over our tyrannous system and even finds in it + its opportunity? For that matter, it is possible, if difficult, to find a + solicitor, or even a judge, who has some notion of what law means, a + doctor with a glimmering of science, an officer who understands duty and + discipline, and a clergyman with an inkling of religion, though there are + nothing like enough of them to go round. But even the few who, like + Ibsen's Mrs Solness, have "a genius for nursing the souls of little + children" are like angels forced to work in prisons instead of in heaven; + and even at that they are mostly underpaid and despised. That friend of + mine who went from the hedge schoolmaster to Harrow once saw a + schoolmaster rush from an elementary school in pursuit of a boy and strike + him. My friend, not considering that the unfortunate man was probably + goaded beyond endurance, smote the schoolmaster and blackened his eye. The + schoolmaster appealed to the law; and my friend found himself waiting + nervously in the Hammersmith Police Court to answer for his breach of the + peace. In his anxiety he asked a police officer what would happen to him. + "What did you do?" said the officer. "I gave a man a black eye" said my + friend. "Six pounds if he was a gentleman: two pounds if he wasnt," said + the constable. "He was a schoolmaster" said my friend. "Two pounds" said + the officer; and two pounds it was. The blood money was paid cheerfully; + and I have ever since advised elementary schoolmasters to qualify + themselves in the art of self-defence, as the British Constitution + expresses our national estimate of them by allowing us to blacken three of + their eyes for the same price as one of an ordinary professional man. How + many Froebels and Pestalozzis and Miss Masons and Doctoress Montessoris + would you be likely to get on these terms even if they occurred much more + frequently in nature than they actually do? + </p> + <p> + No: I cannot be put off by the news that our system would be perfect if it + were worked by angels. I do not admit it even at that, just as I do not + admit that if the sky fell we should all catch larks. But I do not propose + to bother about a supply of specific genius which does not exist, and + which, if it did exist, could operate only by at once recognizing and + establishing the rights of children. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + What We Do Not Teach, and Why + </h2> + <p> + To my mind, a glance at the subjects now taught in schools ought to + convince any reasonable person that the object of the lessons is to keep + children out of mischief, and not to qualify them for their part in life + as responsible citizens of a free State. It is not possible to maintain + freedom in any State, no matter how perfect its original constitution, + unless its publicly active citizens know a good deal of constitutional + history, law, and political science, with its basis of economics. If as + much pains had been taken a century ago to make us all understand + Ricardo's law of rent as to learn our catechisms, the face of the world + would have been changed for the better. But for that very reason the + greatest care is taken to keep such beneficially subversive knowledge from + us, with the result that in public life we are either place-hunters, + anarchists, or sheep shepherded by wolves. + </p> + <p> + But it will be observed that these are highly controversial subjects. Now + no controversial subject can be taught dogmatically. He who knows only the + official side of a controversy knows less than nothing of its nature. The + abler a schoolmaster is, the more dangerous he is to his pupils unless + they have the fullest opportunity of hearing another equally able person + do his utmost to shake his authority and convict him of error. + </p> + <p> + At present such teaching is very unpopular. It does not exist in schools; + but every adult who derives his knowledge of public affairs from the + newspapers can take in, at the cost of an extra halfpenny, two papers of + opposite politics. Yet the ordinary man so dislikes having his mind + unsettled, as he calls it, that he angrily refuses to allow a paper which + dissents from his views to be brought into his house. Even at his club he + resents seeing it, and excludes it if it happens to run counter to the + opinions of all the members. The result is that his opinions are not worth + considering. A churchman who never reads The Freethinker very soon has no + more real religion than the atheist who never reads The Church Times. The + attitude is the same in both cases: they want to hear nothing good of + their enemies; consequently they remain enemies and suffer from bad blood + all their lives; whereas men who know their opponents and understand their + case, quite commonly respect and like them, and always learn something + from them. + </p> + <p> + Here, again, as at so many points, we come up against the abuse of schools + to keep people in ignorance and error, so that they may be incapable of + successful revolt against their industrial slavery. The most important + simple fundamental economic truth to impress on a child in complicated + civilizations like ours is the truth that whoever consumes goods or + services without producing by personal effort the equivalent of what he or + she consumes, inflicts on the community precisely the same injury that a + thief produces, and would, in any honest State, be treated as a thief, + however full his or her pockets might be of money made by other people. + The nation that first teaches its children that truth, instead of flogging + them if they discover it for themselves, may have to fight all the slaves + of all the other nations to begin with; but it will beat them as easily as + an unburdened man with his hands free and with all his energies in full + play can beat an invalid who has to carry another invalid on his back. + </p> + <p> + This, however, is not an evil produced by the denial of children's rights, + nor is it inherent in the nature of schools. I mention it only because it + would be folly to call for a reform of our schools without taking account + of the corrupt resistance which awaits the reformer. + </p> + <p> + A word must also be said about the opposition to reform of the vested + interest of the classical and coercive schoolmaster. He, poor wretch, has + no other means of livelihood; and reform would leave him as a workman is + now left when he is superseded by a machine. He had therefore better do + what he can to get the workman compensated, so as to make the public + familiar with the idea of compensation before his own turn comes. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Taboo in Schools + </h2> + <p> + The suppression of economic knowledge, disastrous as it is, is quite + intelligible, its corrupt motive being as clear as the motive of a burglar + for concealing his jemmy from a policeman. But the other great suppression + in our schools, the suppression of the subject of sex, is a case of taboo. + In mankind, the lower the type, and the less cultivated the mind, the less + courage there is to face important subjects objectively. The ablest and + most highly cultivated people continually discuss religion, politics, and + sex: it is hardly an exaggeration to say that they discuss nothing else + with fully-awakened interest. Commoner and less cultivated people, even + when they form societies for discussion, make a rule that politics and + religion are not to be mentioned, and take it for granted that no decent + person would attempt to discuss sex. The three subjects are feared because + they rouse the crude passions which call for furious gratification in + murder and rapine at worst, and, at best, lead to quarrels and undesirable + states of consciousness. + </p> + <p> + Even when this excuse of bad manners, ill temper, and brutishness (for + that is what it comes to) compels us to accept it from those adults among + whom political and theological discussion does as a matter of fact lead to + the drawing of knives and pistols, and sex discussion leads to obscenity, + it has no application to children except as an imperative reason for + training them to respect other people's opinions, and to insist on respect + for their own in these as in other important matters which are equally + dangerous: for example, money. And in any case there are decisive reasons; + superior, like the reasons for suspending conventional reticences between + doctor and patient, to all considerations of mere decorum, for giving + proper instruction in the facts of sex. Those who object to it (not + counting coarse people who thoughtlessly seize every opportunity of + affecting and parading a fictitious delicacy) are, in effect, advocating + ignorance as a safeguard against precocity. If ignorance were practicable + there would be something to be said for it up to the age at which + ignorance is a danger instead of a safeguard. Even as it is, it seems + undesirable that any special emphasis should be given to the subject, + whether by way of delicacy and poetry or too impressive warning. But the + plain fact is that in refusing to allow the child to be taught by + qualified unrelated elders (the parents shrink from the lesson, even when + they are otherwise qualified, because their own relation to the child + makes the subject impossible between them) we are virtually arranging to + have our children taught by other children in guilty secrets and unclean + jests. And that settles the question for all sensible people. + </p> + <p> + The dogmatic objection, the sheer instinctive taboo which rules the + subject out altogether as indecent, has no age limit. It means that at no + matter what age a woman consents to a proposal of marriage, she should do + so in ignorance of the relation she is undertaking. When this actually + happens (and apparently it does happen oftener than would seem possible) a + horrible fraud is being practiced on both the man and the woman. He is led + to believe that she knows what she is promising, and that he is in no + danger of finding himself bound to a woman to whom he is eugenically + antipathetic. She contemplates nothing but such affectionate relations as + may exist between her and her nearest kinsmen, and has no knowledge of the + condition which, if not foreseen, must come as an amazing revelation and a + dangerous shock, ending possibly in the discovery that the marriage has + been an irreparable mistake. Nothing can justify such a risk. There may be + people incapable of understanding that the right to know all there is to + know about oneself is a natural human right that sweeps away all the + pretences of others to tamper with one's consciousness in order to produce + what they choose to consider a good character. But they must here bow to + the plain mischievousness of entrapping people into contracts on which the + happiness of their whole lives depends without letting them know what they + are undertaking. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Alleged Novelties in Modern Schools + </h2> + <p> + There is just one more nuisance to be disposed of before I come to the + positive side of my case. I mean the person who tells me that my + schooldays belong to a bygone order of educational ideas and institutions, + and that schools are not now a bit like my old school. I reply, with Sir + Walter Raleigh, by calling on my soul to give this statement the lie. Some + years ago I lectured in Oxford on the subject of Education. A friend to + whom I mentioned my intention said, "You know nothing of modern education: + schools are not now what they were when you were a boy." I immediately + procured the time sheets of half a dozen modern schools, and found, as I + expected, that they might all have been my old school: there was no real + difference. I may mention, too, that I have visited modern schools, and + observed that there is a tendency to hang printed pictures in an untidy + and soulless manner on the walls, and occasionally to display on the + mantel-shelf a deplorable glass case containing certain objects which + might possibly, if placed in the hands of the pupils, give them some + practical experience of the weight of a pound and the length of an inch. + And sometimes a scoundrel who has rifled a bird's nest or killed a + harmless snake encourages the children to go and do likewise by putting + his victims into an imitation nest and bottle and exhibiting them as aids + to "Nature study." A suggestion that Nature is worth study would certainly + have staggered my schoolmasters; so perhaps I may admit a gleam of + progress here. But as any child who attempted to handle these dusty + objects would probably be caned, I do not attach any importance to such + modernities in school furniture. The school remains what it was in my + boyhood, because its real object remains what it was. And that object, I + repeat, is to keep the children out of mischief: mischief meaning for the + most part worrying the grown-ups. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + What is to be Done? + </h2> + <p> + The practical question, then, is what to do with the children. Tolerate + them at home we will not. Let them run loose in the streets we dare not + until our streets become safe places for children, which, to our utter + shame, they are not at present, though they can hardly be worse than some + homes and some schools. + </p> + <p> + The grotesque difficulty of making even a beginning was brought home to me + in the little village in Hertfordshire where I write these lines by the + lady of the manor, who asked me very properly what I was going to do for + the village school. I did not know what to reply. As the school kept the + children quiet during my working hours, I did not for the sake of my own + personal convenience want to blow it up with dynamite as I should like to + blow up most schools. So I asked for guidance. "You ought to give a + prize," said the lady. I asked if there was a prize for good conduct. As I + expected, there was: one for the best-behaved boy and another for the + best-behaved girl. On reflection I offered a handsome prize for the + worst-behaved boy and girl on condition that a record should be kept of + their subsequent careers and compared with the records of the + best-behaved, in order to ascertain whether the school criterion of good + conduct was valid out of school. My offer was refused because it would not + have had the effect of encouraging the children to give as little trouble + as possible, which is of course the real object of all conduct prizes in + schools. + </p> + <p> + I must not pretend, then, that I have a system ready to replace all the + other systems. Obstructing the way of the proper organization of + childhood, as of everything else, lies our ridiculous misdistribution of + the national income, with its accompanying class distinctions and + imposition of snobbery on children as a necessary part of their social + training. The result of our economic folly is that we are a nation of + undesirable acquaintances; and the first object of all our institutions + for children is segregation. If, for example, our children were set free + to roam and play about as they pleased, they would have to be policed; and + the first duty of the police in a State like ours would be to see that + every child wore a badge indicating its class in society, and that every + child seen speaking to another child with a lower-class badge, or any + child wearing a higher badge than that allotted to it by, say, the College + of Heralds, should immediately be skinned alive with a birch rod. It might + even be insisted that girls with high-class badges should be attended by + footmen, grooms, or even military escorts. In short, there is hardly any + limit to the follies with which our Commercialism would infect any system + that it would tolerate at all. But something like a change of heart is + still possible; and since all the evils of snobbery and segregation are + rampant in our schools at present we may as well make the best as the + worst of them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0017" id="link2H_4_0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Children's Rights and Duties + </h2> + <p> + Now let us ask what are a child's rights, and what are the rights of + society over the child. Its rights, being clearly those of any other human + being, are summed up in the right to live: that is, to have all the + conclusive arguments that prove that it would be better dead, that it is a + child of wrath, that the population is already excessive, that the pains + of life are greater than its pleasures, that its sacrifice in a hospital + or laboratory experiment might save millions of lives, etc. etc. etc., put + out of the question, and its existence accepted as necessary and sacred, + all theories to the contrary notwithstanding, whether by Calvin or + Schopenhauer or Pasteur or the nearest person with a taste for + infanticide. And this right to live includes, and in fact is, the right to + be what the child likes and can, to do what it likes and can, to make what + it likes and can, to think what it likes and can, to smash what it + dislikes and can, and generally to behave in an altogether unaccountable + manner within the limits imposed by the similar rights of its neighbors. + And the rights of society over it clearly extend to requiring it to + qualify itself to live in society without wasting other peoples time: that + is, it must know the rules of the road, be able to read placards and + proclamations, fill voting papers, compose and send letters and telegrams, + purchase food and clothing and railway tickets for itself, count money and + give and take change, and, generally, know how many beans made five. It + must know some law, were it only a simple set of commandments, some + political economy, agriculture enough to shut the gates of fields with + cattle in them and not to trample on growing crops, sanitation enough not + to defile its haunts, and religion enough to have some idea of why it is + allowed its rights and why it must respect the rights of others. And the + rest of its education must consist of anything else it can pick up; for + beyond this society cannot go with any certainty, and indeed can only go + this far rather apologetically and provisionally, as doing the best it can + on very uncertain ground. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0018" id="link2H_4_0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Should Children Earn their Living? + </h2> + <p> + Now comes the question how far children should be asked to contribute to + the support of the community. In approaching it we must put aside the + considerations that now induce all humane and thoughtful political + students to agitate for the uncompromising abolition of child labor under + our capitalist system. It is not the least of the curses of that system + that it will bequeath to future generations a mass of legislation to + prevent capitalists from "using up nine generations of men in one + generation," as they began by doing until they were restrained by law at + the suggestion of Robert Owen, the founder of English Socialism. Most of + this legislation will become an insufferable restraint upon freedom and + variety of action when Capitalism goes the way of Druidic human sacrifice + (a much less slaughterous institution). There is every reason why a child + should not be allowed to work for commercial profit or for the support of + its parents at the expense of its own future; but there is no reason + whatever why a child should not do some work for its own sake and that of + the community if it can be shewn that both it and the community will be + the better for it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0019" id="link2H_4_0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Children's Happiness + </h2> + <p> + Also it is important to put the happiness of the children rather carefully + in its place, which is really not a front place. The unsympathetic, + selfish, hard people who regard happiness as a very exceptional indulgence + to which children are by no means entitled, though they may be allowed a + very little of it on their birthdays or at Christmas, are sometimes better + parents in effect than those who imagine that children are as capable of + happiness as adults. Adults habitually exaggerate their own capacity in + that direction grossly; yet most adults can stand an allowance of + happiness that would be quite thrown away on children. The secret of being + miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. + The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; + and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive + and active, which is pleasanter than any happiness until you are tired of + it. That is why it is necessary to happiness that one should be tired. + Music after dinner is pleasant: music before breakfast is so unpleasant as + to be clearly unnatural. To people who are not overworked holidays are a + nuisance. To people who are, and who can afford them, they are a + troublesome necessity. A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of + hell. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0020" id="link2H_4_0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Horror of the Perpetual Holiday + </h2> + <p> + It will be said here that, on the contrary, heaven is always conceived as + a perpetual holiday, and that whoever is not born to an independent income + is striving for one or longing for one because it gives holidays for life. + To which I reply, first, that heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a + place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever + ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though plenty of people have + described a day at the seaside; and that the genuine popular verdict on it + is expressed in the proverb "Heaven for holiness and Hell for company." + Second, I point out that the wretched people who have independent incomes + and no useful occupation, do the most amazingly disagreeable and dangerous + things to make themselves tired and hungry in the evening. When they are + not involved in what they call sport, they are doing aimlessly what other + people have to be paid to do: driving horses and motor cars; trying on + dresses and walking up and down to shew them off; and acting as footmen + and housemaids to royal personages. The sole and obvious cause of the + notion that idleness is delightful and that heaven is a place where there + is nothing to be done, is our school system and our industrial system. The + school is a prison in which work is a punishment and a curse. In avowed + prisons, hard labor, the only alleviation of a prisoner's lot, is treated + as an aggravation of his punishment; and everything possible is done to + intensify the prisoner's inculcated and unnatural notion that work is an + evil. In industry we are overworked and underfed prisoners. Under such + absurd circumstances our judgment of things becomes as perverted as our + habits. If we were habitually underworked and overfed, our notion of + heaven would be a place where everybody worked strenuously for twenty-four + hours a day and never got anything to eat. + </p> + <p> + Once realize that a perpetual holiday is beyond human endurance, and that + "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do" and it will be seen + that we have no right to impose a perpetual holiday on children. If we + did, they would soon outdo the Labor Party in their claim for a Right to + Work Bill. + </p> + <p> + In any case no child should be brought up to suppose that its food and + clothes come down from heaven or are miraculously conjured from empty + space by papa. Loathsome as we have made the idea of duty (like the idea + of work) we must habituate children to a sense of repayable obligation to + the community for what they consume and enjoy, and inculcate the repayment + as a point of honor. If we did that today—and nothing but flat + dishonesty prevents us from doing it—we should have no idle rich and + indeed probably no rich, since there is no distinction in being rich if + you have to pay scot and lot in personal effort like the working folk. + Therefore, if for only half an hour a day, a child should do something + serviceable to the community. + </p> + <p> + Productive work for children has the advantage that its discipline is the + discipline of impersonal necessity, not that of wanton personal coercion. + The eagerness of children in our industrial districts to escape from + school to the factory is not caused by lighter tasks or shorter hours in + the factory, nor altogether by the temptation of wages, nor even by the + desire for novelty, but by the dignity of adult work, the exchange of the + factitious personal tyranny of the schoolmaster, from which the grown-ups + are free, for the stern but entirely dignified Laws of Life to which all + flesh is subject. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0021" id="link2H_4_0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + University Schoolboyishness + </h2> + <p> + Older children might do a good deal before beginning their collegiate + education. What is the matter with our universities is that all the + students are schoolboys, whereas it is of the very essence of university + education that they should be men. The function of a university is not to + teach things that can now be taught as well or better by University + Extension lectures or by private tutors or modern correspondence classes + with gramophones. We go to them to be socialized; to acquire the hall mark + of communal training; to become citizens of the world instead of inmates + of the enlarged rabbit hutches we call homes; to learn manners and become + unchallengeable ladies and gentlemen. The social pressure which effects + these changes should be that of persons who have faced the full + responsibilities of adults as working members of the general community, + not that of a barbarous rabble of half emancipated schoolboys and + unemancipable pedants. It is true that in a reasonable state of society + this outside experience would do for us very completely what the + university does now so corruptly that we tolerate its bad manners only + because they are better than no manners at all. But the university will + always exist in some form as a community of persons desirous of pushing + their culture to the highest pitch they are capable of, not as solitary + students reading in seclusion, but as members of a body of individuals all + pursuing culture, talking culture, thinking culture, above all, + criticizing culture. If such persons are to read and talk and criticize to + any purpose, they must know the world outside the university at least as + well as the shopkeeper in the High Street does. And this is just what they + do not know at present. You may say of them, paraphrasing Mr. Kipling, + "What do they know of Plato that only Plato know?" If our universities + would exclude everybody who had not earned a living by his or her own + exertions for at least a couple of years, their effect would be vastly + improved. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0022" id="link2H_4_0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The New Laziness + </h2> + <p> + The child of the future, then, if there is to be any future but one of + decay, will work more or less for its living from an early age; and in + doing so it will not shock anyone, provided there be no longer any reason + to associate the conception of children working for their living with + infants toiling in a factory for ten hours a day or boys drudging from + nine to six under gas lamps in underground city offices. Lads and lasses + in their teens will probably be able to produce as much as the most + expensive person now costs in his own person (it is retinue that eats up + the big income) without working too hard or too long for quite as much + happiness as they can enjoy. The question to be balanced then will be, not + how soon people should be put to work, but how soon they should be + released from any obligation of the kind. A life's work is like a day's + work: it can begin early and leave off early or begin late and leave off + late, or, as with us, begin too early and never leave off at all, + obviously the worst of all possible plans. In any event we must finally + reckon work, not as the curse our schools and prisons and capitalist + profit factories make it seem today, but as a prime necessity of a + tolerable existence. And if we cannot devise fresh wants as fast as we + develop the means of supplying them, there will come a scarcity of the + needed, cut-and-dried, appointed work that is always ready to everybody's + hand. It may have to be shared out among people all of whom want more of + it. And then a new sort of laziness will become the bugbear of society: + the laziness that refuses to face the mental toil and adventure of making + work by inventing new ideas or extending the domain of knowledge, and + insists on a ready-made routine. It may come to forcing people to retire + before they are willing to make way for younger ones: that is, to driving + all persons of a certain age out of industry, leaving them to find + something experimental to occupy them on pain of perpetual holiday. Men + will then try to spend twenty thousand a year for the sake of having to + earn it. Instead of being what we are now, the cheapest and nastiest of + the animals, we shall be the costliest, most fastidious, and best bred. In + short, there is no end to the astonishing things that may happen when the + curse of Adam becomes first a blessing and then an incurable habit. And in + that day we must not grudge children their share of it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Infinite School Task + </h2> + <p> + The question of children's work, however, is only a question of what the + child ought to do for the community. How highly it should qualify itself + is another matter. But most of the difficulty of inducing children to + learn would disappear if our demands became not only definite but finite. + When learning is only an excuse for imprisonment, it is an instrument of + torture which becomes more painful the more progress is made. Thus when + you have forced a child to learn the Church Catechism, a document profound + beyond the comprehension of most adults, you are sometimes at a standstill + for something else to teach; and you therefore keep the wretched child + repeating its catechism again and again until you hit on the plan of + making it learn instalments of Bible verses, preferably from the book of + Numbers. But as it is less trouble to set a lesson that you know yourself, + there is a tendency to keep repeating the already learnt lesson rather + than break new ground. At school I began with a fairly complete knowledge + of Latin grammar in the childish sense of being able to repeat all the + paradigms; and I was kept at this, or rather kept in a class where the + master never asked me to do it because he knew I could, and therefore + devoted himself to trapping the boys who could not, until I finally forgot + most of it. But when progress took place, what did it mean? First it meant + Caesar, with the foreknowledge that to master Caesar meant only being set + at Virgil, with the culminating horror of Greek and Homer in reserve at + the end of that. I preferred Caesar, because his statement that Gaul is + divided into three parts, though neither interesting nor true, was the + only Latin sentence I could translate at sight: therefore the longer we + stuck at Caesar the better I was pleased. Just so do less classically + educated children see nothing in the mastery of addition but the beginning + of subtraction, and so on through multiplication and division and + fractions, with the black cloud of algebra on the horizon. And if a boy + rushes through all that, there is always the calculus to fall back on, + unless indeed you insist on his learning music, and proceed to hit him if + he cannot tell you the year Beethoven was born. + </p> + <p> + A child has a right to finality as regards its compulsory lessons. Also as + regards physical training. At present it is assumed that the schoolmaster + has a right to force every child into an attempt to become Porson and + Bentley, Leibnitz and Newton, all rolled into one. This is the tradition + of the oldest grammar schools. In our times an even more horrible and + cynical claim has been made for the right to drive boys through compulsory + games in the playing fields until they are too much exhausted physically + to do anything but drop off to sleep. This is supposed to protect them + from vice; but as it also protects them from poetry, literature, music, + meditation and prayer, it may be dismissed with the obvious remark that if + boarding schools are places whose keepers are driven to such monstrous + measures lest more abominable things should happen, then the sooner + boarding schools are violently abolished the better. It is true that + society may make physical claims on the child as well as mental ones: the + child must learn to walk, to use a knife and fork, to swim, to ride a + bicycle, to acquire sufficient power of self-defence to make an attack on + it an arduous and uncertain enterprise, perhaps to fly. What as a matter + of common-sense it clearly has not a right to do is to make this an excuse + for keeping the child slaving for ten hours at physical exercises on the + ground that it is not yet as dexterous as Cinquevalli and as strong as + Sandow. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0024" id="link2H_4_0024"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Rewards and Risks of Knowledge + </h2> + <p> + In a word, we have no right to insist on educating a child; for its + education can end only with its life and will not even then be complete. + Compulsory completion of education is the last folly of a rotten and + desperate civilization. It is the rattle in its throat before dissolution. + All we can fairly do is to prescribe certain definite acquirements and + accomplishments as qualifications for certain employments; and to secure + them, not by the ridiculous method of inflicting injuries on the persons + who have not yet mastered them, but by attaching certain privileges (not + pecuniary) to the employments. + </p> + <p> + Most acquirements carry their own privileges with them. Thus a baby has to + be pretty closely guarded and imprisoned because it cannot take care of + itself. It has even to be carried about (the most complete conceivable + infringement of its liberty) until it can walk. But nobody goes on + carrying children after they can walk lest they should walk into mischief, + though Arab boys make their sisters carry them, as our own spoiled + children sometimes make their nurses, out of mere laziness, because + sisters in the East and nurses in the West are kept in servitude. But in a + society of equals (the only reasonable and permanently possible sort of + society) children are in much greater danger of acquiring bandy legs + through being left to walk before they are strong enough than of being + carried when they are well able to walk. Anyhow, freedom of movement in a + nursery is the reward of learning to walk; and in precisely the same way + freedom of movement in a city is the reward of learning how to read public + notices, and to count and use money. The consequences are of course much + larger than the mere ability to read the name of a street or the number of + a railway platform and the destination of a train. When you enable a child + to read these, you also enable it to read this preface, to the utter + destruction, you may quite possibly think, of its morals and docility. You + also expose it to the danger of being run over by taxicabs and trains. The + moral and physical risks of education are enormous: every new power a + child acquires, from speaking, walking, and co-ordinating its vision, to + conquering continents and founding religions, opens up immense new + possibilities of mischief. Teach a child to write and you teach it how to + forge: teach it to speak and you teach it how to lie: teach it to walk and + you teach it how to kick its mother to death. + </p> + <p> + The great problem of slavery for those whose aim is to maintain it is the + problem of reconciling the efficiency of the slave with the helplessness + that keeps him in servitude; and this problem is fortunately not + completely soluble; for it is not in fact found possible for a duke to + treat his solicitor or his doctor as he treats his laborers, though they + are all equally his slaves: the laborer being in fact less dependent on + his favor than the professional man. Hence it is that men come to resent, + of all things, protection, because it so often means restriction of their + liberty lest they should make a bad use of it. If there are dangerous + precipices about, it is much easier and cheaper to forbid people to walk + near the edge than to put up an effective fence: that is why both + legislators and parents and the paid deputies of parents are always + inhibiting and prohibiting and punishing and scolding and laming and + cramping and delaying progress and growth instead of making the dangerous + places as safe as possible and then boldly taking and allowing others to + take the irreducible minimum of risk. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0025" id="link2H_4_0025"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + English Physical Hardihood and Spiritual Cowardice + </h2> + <p> + It is easier to convert most people to the need for allowing their + children to run physical risks than moral ones. I can remember a relative + of mine who, when I was a small child, unused to horses and very much + afraid of them, insisted on putting me on a rather rumbustious pony with + little spurs on my heels (knowing that in my agitation I would use them + unconsciously), and being enormously amused at my terrors. Yet when that + same lady discovered that I had found a copy of The Arabian Nights and was + devouring it with avidity, she was horrified, and hid it away from me lest + it should break my soul as the pony might have broken my neck. This way of + producing hardy bodies and timid souls is so common in country houses that + you may spend hours in them listening to stories of broken collar bones, + broken backs, and broken necks without coming upon a single spiritual + adventure or daring thought. + </p> + <p> + But whether the risks to which liberty exposes us are moral or physical + our right to liberty involves the right to run them. A man who is not free + to risk his neck as an aviator or his soul as a heretic is not free at + all; and the right to liberty begins, not at the age of 21 years but of 21 + seconds. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0026" id="link2H_4_0026"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Risks of Ignorance and Weakness + </h2> + <p> + The difficulty with children is that they need protection from risks they + are too young to understand, and attacks they can neither avoid nor + resist. You may on academic grounds allow a child to snatch glowing coals + from the fire once. You will not do it twice. The risks of liberty we must + let everyone take; but the risks of ignorance and self-helplessness are + another matter. Not only children but adults need protection from them. At + present adults are often exposed to risks outside their knowledge or + beyond their comprehension or powers of resistance or foresight: for + example, we have to look on every day at marriages or financial + speculations that may involve far worse consequences than burnt fingers. + And just as it is part of the business of adults to protect children, to + feed them, clothe them, shelter them, and shift for them in all sorts of + ways until they are able to shift for themselves, it is coming more and + more to be seen that this is true not only of the relation between adults + and children, but between adults and adults. We shall not always look on + indifferently at foolish marriages and financial speculations, nor allow + dead men to control live communities by ridiculous wills and living heirs + to squander and ruin great estates, nor tolerate a hundred other absurd + liberties that we allow today because we are too lazy to find out the + proper way to interfere. But the interference must be regulated by some + theory of the individual's rights. Though the right to live is absolute, + it is not unconditional. If a man is unbearably mischievous, he must be + killed. This is a mere matter of necessity, like the killing of a + man-eating tiger in a nursery, a venomous snake in the garden, or a fox in + the poultry yard. No society could be constructed on the assumption that + such extermination is a violation of the creature's right to live, and + therefore must not be allowed. And then at once arises the danger into + which morality has led us: the danger of persecution. One Christian + spreading his doctrines may seem more mischievous than a dozen thieves: + throw him therefore to the lions. A lying or disobedient child may corrupt + a whole generation and make human Society impossible: therefore thrash the + vice out of him. And so on until our whole system of abortion, + intimidation, tyranny, cruelty and the rest is in full swing again. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Common Sense of Toleration + </h2> + <p> + The real safeguard against this is the dogma of Toleration. I need not + here repeat the compact treatise on it which I prepared for the Joint + Committee on the Censorship of Stage Plays, and prefixed to The Shewing Up + of Blanco Posnet. It must suffice now to say that the present must not + attempt to schoolmaster the future by pretending to know good from evil in + tendency, or protect citizens against shocks to their opinions and + convictions, moral, political or religious: in other words it must not + persecute doctrines of any kind, or what is called bad taste, and must + insist on all persons facing such shocks as they face frosty weather or + any of the other disagreeable, dangerous, or bracing incidents of freedom. + The expediency of Toleration has been forced on us by the fact that + progressive enlightenment depends on a fair hearing for doctrines which at + first appear seditious, blasphemous, and immoral, and which deeply shock + people who never think originally, thought being with them merely a habit + and an echo. The deeper ground for Toleration is the nature of creation, + which, as we now know, proceeds by evolution. Evolution finds its way by + experiment; and this finding of the way varies according to the stage of + development reached, from the blindest groping along the line of least + resistance to intellectual speculation, with its practical sequel of + hypothesis and experimental verification; or to observation, induction, + and deduction; or even into so rapid and intuitive an integration of all + these processes in a single brain that we get the inspired guess of the + man of genius and the desperate resolution of the teacher of new truths + who is first slain as a blasphemous apostate and then worshipped as a + prophet. + </p> + <p> + Here the law for the child is the same as for the adult. The high priest + must not rend his garments and cry "Crucify him" when he is shocked: the + atheist must not clamor for the suppression of Law's Serious Call because + it has for two centuries destroyed the natural happiness of innumerable + unfortunate children by persuading their parents that it is their + religious duty to be miserable. It, and the Sermon on the Mount, and + Machiavelli's Prince, and La Rochefoucauld's maxims, and Hymns Ancient and + Modern, and De Glanville's apologue, and Dr. Watts's rhymes, and + Nietzsche's Gay Science, and Ingersoll's Mistakes of Moses, and the + speeches and pamphlets of the people who want us to make war on Germany, + and the Noodle's Orations and articles of our politicians and journalists, + must all be tolerated not only because any of them may for all we know be + on the right track but because it is in the conflict of opinion that we + win knowledge and wisdom. However terrible the wounds suffered in that + conflict, they are better than the barren peace of death that follows when + all the combatants are slaughtered or bound hand and foot. + </p> + <p> + The difficulty at present is that though this necessity for Toleration is + a law of political science as well established as the law of gravitation, + our rulers are never taught political science: on the contrary, they are + taught in school that the master tolerates nothing that is disagreeable to + him; that ruling is simply being master; and that the master's method is + the method of violent punishment. And our citizens, all school taught, are + walking in the same darkness. As I write these lines the Home Secretary is + explaining that a man who has been imprisoned for blasphemy must not be + released because his remarks were painful to the feelings of his pious + fellow townsmen. Now it happens that this very Home Secretary has driven + many thousands of his fellow citizens almost beside themselves by the + crudity of his notions of government, and his simple inability to + understand why he should not use and make laws to torment and subdue + people who do not happen to agree with him. In a word, he is not a + politician, but a grown-up schoolboy who has at last got a cane in his + hand. And as all the rest of us are in the same condition (except as to + command of the cane) the only objection made to his proceedings takes the + shape of clamorous demands that <i>he</i> should be caned instead of being + allowed to cane other people. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0028" id="link2H_4_0028"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Sin of Athanasius + </h2> + <p> + It seems hopeless. Anarchists are tempted to preach a violent and + implacable resistance to all law as the only remedy; and the result of + that speedily is that people welcome any tyranny that will rescue them + from chaos. But there is really no need to choose between anarchy and + tyranny. A quite reasonable state of things is practicable if we proceed + on human assumptions and not on academic ones. If adults will frankly give + up their claim to know better than children what the purposes of the Life + Force are, and treat the child as an experiment like themselves, and + possibly a more successful one, and at the same time relinquish their + monstrous parental claims to personal private property in children, the + rest must be left to common sense. It is our attitude, our religion, that + is wrong. A good beginning might be made by enacting that any person + dictating a piece of conduct to a child or to anyone else as the will of + God, or as absolutely right, should be dealt with as a blasphemer: as, + indeed, guilty of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. If the + penalty were death, it would rid us at once of that scourge of humanity, + the amateur Pope. As an Irish Protestant, I raise the cry of No Popery + with hereditary zest. We are overrun with Popes. From curates and + governesses, who may claim a sort of professional standing, to parents and + uncles and nurserymaids and school teachers and wiseacres generally, there + are scores of thousands of human insects groping through our darkness by + the feeble phosphorescence of their own tails, yet ready at a moment's + notice to reveal the will of God on every possible subject; to explain how + and why the universe was made (in my youth they added the exact date) and + the circumstances under which it will cease to exist; to lay down precise + rules of right and wrong conduct; to discriminate infallibly between + virtuous and vicious character; and all this with such certainty that they + are prepared to visit all the rigors of the law, and all the ruinous + penalties of social ostracism on people, however harmless their actions + maybe who venture to laugh at their monstrous conceit or to pay their + assumptions the extravagant compliment of criticizing them. As to + children, who shall say what canings and birchings and terrifyings and + threats of hell fire and impositions and humiliations and petty + imprisonings and sendings to bed and standing in corners and the like they + have suffered because their parents and guardians and teachers knew + everything so much better than Socrates or Solon? + </p> + <p> + It is this ignorant uppishness that does the mischief. A stranger on the + planet might expect that its grotesque absurdity would provoke enough + ridicule to cure it; but unfortunately quite the contrary happens. Just as + our ill health delivers us into the hands of medical quacks and creates a + passionate demand for impudent pretences that doctors can cure the + diseases they themselves die of daily, so our ignorance and helplessness + set us clamoring for spiritual and moral quacks who pretend that they can + save our souls from their own damnation. If a doctor were to say to his + patients, "I am familiar with your symptoms, because I have seen other + people in your condition; and I will bring the very little knowledge we + have to your treatment; but except in that very shallow sense I dont know + what is the matter with you; and I cant undertake to cure you," he would + be a lost man professionally; and if a clergyman, on being called on to + award a prize for good conduct in the village school, were to say, "I am + afraid I cannot say who is the best-behaved child, because I really do not + know what good conduct is; but I will gladly take the teacher's word as to + which child has caused least inconvenience," he would probably be + unfrocked, if not excommunicated. And yet no honest and intellectually + capable doctor or parson can say more. Clearly it would not be wise of the + doctor to say it, because optimistic lies have such immense therapeutic + value that a doctor who cannot tell them convincingly has mistaken his + profession. And a clergyman who is not prepared to lay down the law + dogmatically will not be of much use in a village school, though it + behoves him all the more to be very careful what law he lays down. But + unless both the clergyman and the doctor are in the attitude expressed by + these speeches they are not fit for their work. The man who believes that + he has more than a provisional hypothesis to go upon is a born fool. He + may have to act vigorously on it. The world has no use for the Agnostic + who wont believe anything because anything might be false, and wont deny + anything because anything might be true. But there is a wide difference + between saying, "I believe this; and I am going to act on it," or, "I dont + believe it; and I wont act on it," and saying, "It is true; and it is my + duty and yours to act on it," or, "It is false; and it is my duty and + yours to refuse to act on it." The difference is as great as that between + the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed. When you repeat the + Apostles' Creed you affirm that you believe certain things. There you are + clearly within your rights. When you repeat the Athanasian Creed, you + affirm that certain things are so, and that anybody who doubts that they + are so cannot be saved. And this is simply a piece of impudence on your + part, as you know nothing about it except that as good men as you have + never heard of your creed. The apostolic attitude is a desire to convert + others to our beliefs for the sake of sympathy and light: the Athanasian + attitude is a desire to murder people who dont agree with us. I am + sufficient of an Athanasian to advocate a law for the speedy execution of + all Athanasians, because they violate the fundamental proposition of my + creed, which is, I repeat, that all living creatures are experiments. The + precise formula for the Superman, <i>ci-devant</i> The Just Man Made + Perfect, has not yet been discovered. Until it is, every birth is an + experiment in the Great Research which is being conducted by the Life + Force to discover that formula. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0029" id="link2H_4_0029"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Experiment Experimenting + </h2> + <p> + And now all the modern schoolmaster abortionists will rise up beaming, and + say, "We quite agree. We regard every child in our school as a subject for + experiment. We are always experimenting with them. We challenge the + experimental test for our system. We are continually guided by our + experience in our great work of moulding the character of our future + citizens, etc. etc. etc." I am sorry to seem irreconcilable; but it is the + Life Force that has to make the experiment and not the schoolmaster; and + the Life Force for the child's purpose is in the child and not in the + schoolmaster. The schoolmaster is another experiment; and a laboratory in + which all the experiments began experimenting on one another would not + produce intelligible results. I admit, however, that if my schoolmasters + had treated me as an experiment of the Life Force: that is, if they had + set me free to do as I liked subject only to my political rights and + theirs, they could not have watched the experiment very long, because the + first result would have been a rapid movement on my part in the direction + of the door, and my disappearance there-through. + </p> + <p> + It may be worth inquiring where I should have gone to. I should say that + practically every time I should have gone to a much more educational + place. I should have gone into the country, or into the sea, or into the + National Gallery, or to hear a band if there was one, or to any library + where there were no schoolbooks. I should have read very dry and difficult + books: for example, though nothing would have induced me to read the + budget of stupid party lies that served as a text-book of history in + school, I remember reading Robertson's Charles V. and his history of + Scotland from end to end most laboriously. Once, stung by the airs of a + schoolfellow who alleged that he had read Locke On The Human + Understanding, I attempted to read the Bible straight through, and + actually got to the Pauline Epistles before I broke down in disgust at + what seemed to me their inveterate crookedness of mind. If there had been + a school where children were really free, I should have had to be driven + out of it for the sake of my health by the teachers; for the children to + whom a literary education can be of any use are insatiable: they will read + and study far more than is good for them. In fact the real difficulty is + to prevent them from wasting their time by reading for the sake of reading + and studying for the sake of studying, instead of taking some trouble to + find out what they really like and are capable of doing some good at. Some + silly person will probably interrupt me here with the remark that many + children have no appetite for a literary education at all, and would never + open a book if they were not forced to. I have known many such persons who + have been forced to the point of obtaining University degrees. And for all + the effect their literary exercises has left on them they might just as + well have been put on the treadmill. In fact they are actually less + literate than the treadmill would have left them; for they might by chance + have picked up and dipped into a volume of Shakespear or a translation of + Homer if they had not been driven to loathe every famous name in + literature. I should probably know as much Latin as French, if Latin had + not been made the excuse for my school imprisonment and degradation. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0030" id="link2H_4_0030"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Why We Loathe Learning and Love Sport + </h2> + <p> + If we are to discuss the importance of art, learning, and intellectual + culture, the first thing we have to recognize is that we have very little + of them at present; and that this little has not been produced by + compulsory education: nay, that the scarcity is unnatural and has been + produced by the violent exclusion of art and artists from schools. On the + other hand we have quite a considerable degree of bodily culture: indeed + there is a continual outcry against the sacrifice of mental + accomplishments to athletics. In other words a sacrifice of the professed + object of compulsory education to the real object of voluntary education. + It is assumed that this means that people prefer bodily to mental culture; + but may it not mean that they prefer liberty and satisfaction to coercion + and privation. Why is it that people who have been taught Shakespear as a + school subject loathe his plays and cannot by any means be persuaded ever + to open his works after they escape from school, whereas there is still, + 300 years after his death, a wide and steady sale for his works to people + who read his plays as plays, and not as task work? If Shakespear, or for + that matter, Newton and Leibnitz, are allowed to find their readers and + students they will find them. If their works are annotated and paraphrased + by dullards, and the annotations and paraphrases forced on all young + people by imprisonment and flogging and scolding, there will not be a + single man of letters or higher mathematician the more in the country: on + the contrary there will be less, as so many potential lovers of literature + and mathematics will have been incurably prejudiced against them. Everyone + who is conversant with the class in which child imprisonment and + compulsory schooling is carried out to the final extremity of the + university degree knows that its scholastic culture is a sham; that it + knows little about literature or art and a great deal about point-to-point + races; and that the village cobbler, who has never read a page of Plato, + and is admittedly a dangerously ignorant man politically, is nevertheless + a Socrates compared to the classically educated gentlemen who discuss + politics in country houses at election time (and at no other time) after + their day's earnest and skilful shooting. Think of the years and years of + weary torment the women of the piano-possessing class have been forced to + spend over the keyboard, fingering scales. How many of them could be + bribed to attend a pianoforte recital by a great player, though they will + rise from sick beds rather than miss Ascot or Goodwood? + </p> + <p> + Another familiar fact that teaches the same lesson is that many women who + have voluntarily attained a high degree of culture cannot add up their own + housekeeping books, though their education in simple arithmetic was + compulsory, whereas their higher education has been wholly voluntary. + Everywhere we find the same result. The imprisonment, the beating, the + taming and laming, the breaking of young spirits, the arrest of + development, the atrophy of all inhibitive power except the power of fear, + are real: the education is sham. Those who have been taught most know + least. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0031" id="link2H_4_0031"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Antichrist + </h2> + <p> + Among the worst effects of the unnatural segregation of children in + schools and the equally unnatural constant association of them with adults + in the family is the utter defeat of the vital element in Christianity. + Christ stands in the world for that intuition of the highest humanity that + we, being members one of another, must not complain, must not scold, must + not strike, nor revile nor persecute nor revenge nor punish. Now family + life and school life are, as far as the moral training of children is + concerned, nothing but the deliberate inculcation of a routine of + complaint, scolding, punishment, persecution, and revenge as the natural + and only possible way of dealing with evil or inconvenience. "Aint nobody + to be whopped for this here?" exclaimed Sam Weller when he saw his + employer's name written up on a stage coach, and conceived the phenomenon + as an insult which reflected on himself. This exclamation of Sam Weller is + at once the negation of Christianity and the beginning and the end of + current morality; and so it will remain as long as the family and the + school persist as we know them: that is, as long as the rights of children + are so utterly denied that nobody will even take the trouble to ascertain + what they are, and coming of age is like the turning of a convict into the + street after twenty-one years penal servitude. Indeed it is worse; for the + convict may have learnt before his conviction how to live in freedom and + may remember how to set about it, however lamed his powers of freedom may + have become through disuse; but the child knows no other way of life but + the slave's way. Born free, as Rousseau says, he has been laid hands on by + slaves from the moment of his birth and brought up as a slave. How is he, + when he is at last set free, to be anything else than the slave he + actually is, clamoring for war, for the lash, for police, prisons, and + scaffolds in a wild panic of delusion that without these things he is + lost. The grown-up Englishman is to the end of his days a badly brought-up + child, beyond belief quarrelsome, petulant, selfish, destructive, and + cowardly: afraid that the Germans will come and enslave him; that the + burglar will come and rob him; that the bicycle or motor car will run over + him; that the smallpox will attack him; and that the devil will run away + with him and empty him out like a sack of coals on a blazing fire unless + his nurse or his parents or his schoolmaster or his bishop or his judge or + his army or his navy will do something to frighten these bad things away. + And this Englishman, without the moral courage of a louse, will risk his + neck for fun fifty times every winter in the hunting field, and at Badajos + sieges and the like will ram his head into a hole bristling with sword + blades rather than be beaten in the one department in which he has been + brought up to consult his own honor. As a Sportsman (and war is + fundamentally the sport of hunting and fighting the most dangerous of the + beasts of prey) he feels free. He will tell you himself that the true + sportsman is never a snob, a coward, a duffer, a cheat, a thief, or a + liar. Curious, is it not, that he has not the same confidence in other + sorts of man? + </p> + <p> + And even sport is losing its freedom. Soon everybody will be schooled, + mentally and physically, from the cradle to the end of the term of adult + compulsory military service, and finally of compulsory civil service + lasting until the age of superannuation. Always more schooling, more + compulsion. We are to be cured by an excess of the dose that has poisoned + us. Satan is to cast out Satan. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Under the Whip + </h2> + <p> + Clearly this will not do. We must reconcile education with liberty. We + must find out some means of making men workers and, if need be, warriors, + without making them slaves. We must cultivate the noble virtues that have + their root in pride. Now no schoolmaster will teach these any more than a + prison governor will teach his prisoners how to mutiny and escape. + Self-preservation forces him to break the spirit that revolts against him, + and to inculcate submission, even to obscene assault, as a duty. A bishop + once had the hardihood to say that he would rather see England free than + England sober. Nobody has yet dared to say that he would rather see an + England of ignoramuses than an England of cowards and slaves. And if + anyone did, it would be necessary to point out that the antithesis is not + a practical one, as we have got at present an England of ignoramuses who + are also cowards and slaves, and extremely proud of it at that, because in + school they are taught to submit, with what they ridiculously call + Oriental fatalism (as if any Oriental has ever submitted more helplessly + and sheepishly to robbery and oppression than we Occidentals do), to be + driven day after day into compounds and set to the tasks they loathe by + the men they hate and fear, as if this were the inevitable destiny of + mankind. And naturally, when they grow up, they helplessly exchange the + prison of the school for the prison of the mine or the workshop or the + office, and drudge along stupidly and miserably, with just enough + gregarious instinct to turn furiously on any intelligent person who + proposes a change. It would be quite easy to make England a paradise, + according to our present ideas, in a few years. There is no mystery about + it: the way has been pointed out over and over again. The difficulty is + not the way but the will. And we have no will because the first thing done + with us in childhood was to break our will. Can anything be more + disgusting than the spectacle of a nation reading the biography of + Gladstone and gloating over the account of how he was flogged at Eton, two + of his schoolfellows being compelled to hold him down whilst he was + flogged. Not long ago a public body in England had to deal with the case + of a schoolmaster who, conceiving himself insulted by the smoking of a + cigaret against his orders by a pupil eighteen years old, proposed to flog + him publicly as a satisfaction to what he called his honor and authority. + I had intended to give the particulars of this ease, but find the drudgery + of repeating such stuff too sickening, and the effect unjust to a man who + was doing only what others all over the country were doing as part of the + established routine of what is called education. The astounding part of it + was the manner in which the person to whom this outrage on decency seemed + quite proper and natural claimed to be a functionary of high character, + and had his claim allowed. In Japan he would hardly have been allowed the + privilege of committing suicide. What is to be said of a profession in + which such obscenities are made points of honor, or of institutions in + which they are an accepted part of the daily routine? Wholesome people + would not argue about the taste of such nastinesses: they would spit them + out; but we are tainted with flagellomania from our childhood. When will + we realize that the fact that we can become accustomed to anything, + however disgusting at first, makes it necessary for us to examine + carefully everything we have become accustomed to? Before motor cars + became common, necessity had accustomed us to a foulness in our streets + which would have horrified us had the street been our drawing-room carpet. + Before long we shall be as particular about our streets as we now are + about our carpets; and their condition in the nineteenth century will + become as forgotten and incredible as the condition of the corridors of + palaces and the courts of castles was as late as the eighteenth century. + This foulness, we can plead, was imposed on us as a necessity by the use + of horses and of huge retinues; but flogging has never been so imposed: it + has always been a vice, craved for on any pretext by those depraved by it. + Boys were flogged when criminals were hanged, to impress the awful warning + on them. Boys were flogged at boundaries, to impress the boundaries on + their memory. Other methods and other punishments were always available: + the choice of this one betrayed the sensual impulse which makes the + practice an abomination. But when its viciousness made it customary, it + was practised and tolerated on all hands by people who were innocent of + anything worse than stupidity, ill temper, and inability to discover other + methods of maintaining order than those they had always seen practised and + approved of. From children and animals it extended to slaves and + criminals. In the days of Moses it was limited to 39 lashes. In the early + nineteenth century it had become an open madness: soldiers were sentenced + to a thousand lashes for trifling offences, with the result (among others + less mentionable) that the Iron Duke of Wellington complained that it was + impossible to get an order obeyed in the British army except in two or + three crack regiments. Such frantic excesses of this disgusting neurosis + provoked a reaction against it; but the clamor for it by depraved persons + never ceased, and was tolerated by a nation trained to it from childhood + in the schools until last year (1913), when in what must be described as a + paroxysm of sexual excitement provoked by the agitation concerning the + White Slave Traffic (the purely commercial nature of which I was prevented + from exposing on the stage by the Censorship twenty years ago) the + Government yielded to an outcry for flagellation led by the Archbishop of + Canterbury, and passed an Act under which a judge can sentence a man to be + flogged to the utmost extremity with any instrument usable for such a + purpose that he cares to prescribe. Such an Act is not a legislative + phenomenon but a psychopathic one. Its effect on the White Slave Traffic + was, of course, to distract public attention from its real cause and from + the people who really profit by it to imaginary "foreign scoundrels," and + to secure a monopoly of its organization for women. + </p> + <p> + And all this evil is made possible by the schoolmaster with his cane and + birch, by the parents getting rid as best they can of the nuisance of + children making noise and mischief in the house, and by the denial to + children of the elementary rights of human beings. + </p> + <p> + The first man who enslaved and "broke in" an animal with a whip would have + invented the explosion engine instead could he have foreseen the curse he + was laying on his race. For men and women learnt thereby to enslave and + break in their children by the same means. These children, grown up, knew + no other methods of training. Finally the evil that was done for gain by + the greedy was refined on and done for pleasure by the lustful. Flogging + has become a pleasure purchasable in our streets, and inhibition a + grown-up habit that children play at. "Go and see what baby is doing; and + tell him he mustnt" is the last word of the nursery; and the grimmest + aspect of it is that it was first formulated by a comic paper as a capital + joke. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0033" id="link2H_4_0033"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Technical Instruction + </h2> + <p> + Technical instruction tempts to violence (as a short cut) more than + liberal education. The sailor in Mr Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous, + teaching the boy the names of the ship's tackle with a rope's end, does + not disgust us as our schoolmasters do, especially as the boy was a + spoiled boy. But an unspoiled boy would not have needed that drastic + medicine. Technical training may be as tedious as learning to skate or to + play the piano or violin; but it is the price one must pay to achieve + certain desirable results or necessary ends. It is a monstrous thing to + force a child to learn Latin or Greek or mathematics on the ground that + they are an indispensable gymnastic for the mental powers. It would be + monstrous even if it were true; for there is no labor that might not be + imposed on a child or an adult on the same pretext; but as a glance at the + average products of our public school and university education shews that + it is not true, it need not trouble us. But it is a fact that ignorance of + Latin and Greek and mathematics closes certain careers to men (I do not + mean artificial, unnecessary, noxious careers like those of the commercial + schoolmaster). Languages, even dead ones, have their uses; and, as it + seems to many of us, mathematics have their uses. They will always be + learned by people who want to learn them; and people will always want to + learn them as long as they are of any importance in life: indeed the want + will survive their importance: superstition is nowhere stronger than in + the field of obsolete acquirements. And they will never be learnt + fruitfully by people who do not want to learn them either for their own + sake or for use in necessary work. There is no harder schoolmaster than + experience; and yet experience fails to teach where there is no desire to + learn. + </p> + <p> + Still, one must not begin to apply this generalization too early. And this + brings me to an important factor in the case: the factor of evolution. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0034" id="link2H_4_0034"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Docility and Dependence + </h2> + <p> + If anyone, impressed by my view that the rights of a child are precisely + those of an adult, proceeds to treat a child as if it were an adult, he + (or she) will find that though the plan will work much better at some + points than the usual plan, at others it will not work at all; and this + discovery may provoke him to turn back from the whole conception of + children's rights with a jest at the expense of bachelors' and old maids' + children. In dealing with children what is needed is not logic but sense. + There is no logical reason why young persons should be allowed greater + control of their property the day after they are twenty-one than the day + before it. There is no logical reason why I, who strongly object to an + adult standing over a boy of ten with a Latin grammar, and saying, "you + must learn this, whether you want to or not," should nevertheless be quite + prepared to stand over a boy of five with the multiplication table or a + copy book or a code of elementary good manners, and practice on his + docility to make him learn them. And there is no logical reason why I + should do for a child a great many little offices, some of them + troublesome and disagreeable, which I should not do for a boy twice its + age, or support a boy or girl when I would unhesitatingly throw an adult + on his own resources. But there are practical reasons, and sensible + reasons, and affectionate reasons for all these illogicalities. Children + do not want to be treated altogether as adults: such treatment terrifies + them and over-burdens them with responsibility. In truth, very few adults + care to be called on for independence and originality: they also are + bewildered and terrified in the absence of precedents and precepts and + commandments; but modern Democracy allows them a sanctioning and + cancelling power if they are capable of using it, which children are not. + To treat a child wholly as an adult would be to mock and destroy it. + Infantile docility and juvenile dependence are, like death, a product of + Natural Selection; and though there is no viler crime than to abuse them, + yet there is no greater cruelty than to ignore them. I have complained + sufficiently of what I suffered through the process of assault, + imprisonment, and compulsory lessons that taught me nothing, which are + called my schooling. But I could say a good deal also about the things I + was not taught and should have been taught, not to mention the things I + was allowed to do which I should not have been allowed to do. I have no + recollection of being taught to read or write; so I presume I was born + with both faculties; but many people seem to have bitter recollections of + being forced reluctantly to acquire them. And though I have the uttermost + contempt for a teacher so ill mannered and incompetent as to be unable to + make a child learn to read and write without also making it cry, still I + am prepared to admit that I had rather have been compelled to learn to + read and write with tears by an incompetent and ill mannered person than + left in ignorance. Reading, writing, and enough arithmetic to use money + honestly and accurately, together with the rudiments of law and order, + become necessary conditions of a child's liberty before it can appreciate + the importance of its liberty, or foresee that these accomplishments are + worth acquiring. Nature has provided for this by evolving the instinct of + docility. Children are very docile: they have a sound intuition that they + must do what they are told or perish. And adults have an intuition, + equally sound, that they must take advantage of this docility to teach + children how to live properly or the children will not survive. The + difficulty is to know where to stop. To illustrate this, let us consider + the main danger of childish docility and parental officiousness. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0035" id="link2H_4_0035"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Abuse of Docility + </h2> + <p> + Docility may survive as a lazy habit long after it has ceased to be a + beneficial instinct. If you catch a child when it is young enough to be + instinctively docile, and keep it in a condition of unremitted tutelage + under the nurserymaid, the governess, the preparatory school, the + secondary school, and the university, until it is an adult, you will + produce, not a self-reliant, free, fully matured human being, but a + grown-up schoolboy or schoolgirl, capable of nothing in the way of + original or independent action except outbursts of naughtiness in the + women and blackguardism in the men. That is exactly what we get at present + in our rich and consequently governing classes: they pass from juvenility + to senility without ever touching maturity except in body. The classes + which cannot afford this sustained tutelage are notably more self-reliant + and grown-up: an office boy of fifteen is often more of a man than a + university student of twenty. Unfortunately this precocity is disabled by + poverty, ignorance, narrowness, and a hideous power of living without art + or love or beauty and being rather proud of it. The poor never escape from + servitude: their docility is preserved by their slavery. And so all become + the prey of the greedy, the selfish, the domineering, the unscrupulous, + the predatory. If here and there an individual refuses to be docile, ten + docile persons will beat him or lock him up or shoot him or hang him at + the bidding of his oppressors and their own. The crux of the whole + difficulty about parents, schoolmasters, priests, absolute monarchs, and + despots of every sort, is the tendency to abuse natural docility. A nation + should always be healthily rebellious; but the king or prime minister has + yet to be found who will make trouble by cultivating that side of the + national spirit. A child should begin to assert itself early, and shift + for itself more and more not only in washing and dressing itself, but in + opinions and conduct; yet as nothing is so exasperating and so unlovable + as an uppish child, it is useless to expect parents and schoolmasters to + inculcate this uppishness. Such unamiable precepts as Always contradict an + authoritative statement, Always return a blow, Never lose a chance of a + good fight, When you are scolded for a mistake ask the person who scolds + you whether he or she supposes you did it on purpose, and follow the + question with a blow or an insult or some other unmistakable expression of + resentment, Remember that the progress of the world depends on your + knowing better than your elders, are just as important as those of The + Sermon on the Mount; but no one has yet seen them written up in letters of + gold in a schoolroom or nursery. The child is taught to be kind, to be + respectful, to be quiet, not to answer back, to be truthful when its + elders want to find out anything from it, to lie when the truth would + shock or hurt its elders, to be above all things obedient, and to be seen + and not heard. Here we have two sets of precepts, each warranted to spoil + a child hopelessly if the other be omitted. Unfortunately we do not allow + fair play between them. The rebellious, intractable, aggressive, selfish + set provoke a corrective resistance, and do not pretend to high moral or + religious sanctions; and they are never urged by grown-up people on young + people. They are therefore more in danger of neglect or suppression than + the other set, which have all the adults, all the laws, all the religions + on their side. How is the child to be secured its due share of both bodies + of doctrine? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0036" id="link2H_4_0036"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Schoolboy and the Homeboy + </h2> + <p> + In practice what happens is that parents notice that boys brought up at + home become mollycoddles, or prigs, or duffers, unable to take care of + themselves. They see that boys should learn to rough it a little and to + mix with children of their own age. This is natural enough. When you have + preached at and punished a boy until he is a moral cripple, you are as + much hampered by him as by a physical cripple; and as you do not intend to + have him on your hands all your life, and are generally rather impatient + for the day when he will earn his own living and leave you to attend to + yourself, you sooner or later begin to talk to him about the need for + self-reliance, learning to think, and so forth, with the result that your + victim, bewildered by your inconsistency, concludes that there is no use + trying to please you, and falls into an attitude of sulky resentment. + Which is an additional inducement to pack him off to school. + </p> + <p> + In school, he finds himself in a dual world, under two dispensations. + There is the world of the boys, where the point of honor is to be + untameable, always ready to fight, ruthless in taking the conceit out of + anyone who ventures to give himself airs of superior knowledge or taste, + and generally to take Lucifer for one's model. And there is the world of + the masters, the world of discipline, submission, diligence, obedience, + and continual and shameless assumption of moral and intellectual + authority. Thus the schoolboy hears both sides, and is so far better off + than the homebred boy who hears only one. But the two sides are not fairly + presented. They are presented as good and evil, as vice and virtue, as + villainy and heroism. The boy feels mean and cowardly when he obeys, and + selfish and rascally when he disobeys. He looses his moral courage just as + he comes to hate books and languages. In the end, John Ruskin, tied so + close to his mother's apron-string that he did not escape even when he + went to Oxford, and John Stuart Mill, whose father ought to have been + prosecuted for laying his son's childhood waste with lessons, were + superior, as products of training, to our schoolboys. They were very + conspicuously superior in moral courage; and though they did not + distinguish themselves at cricket and football, they had quite as much + physical hardihood as any civilized man needs. But it is to be observed + that Ruskin's parents were wise people who gave John a full share in their + own life, and put up with his presence both at home and abroad when they + must sometimes have been very weary of him; and Mill, as it happens, was + deliberately educated to challenge all the most sacred institutions of his + country. The households they were brought up in were no more average + households than a Montessori school is an average school. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0037" id="link2H_4_0037"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Comings of Age of Children + </h2> + <p> + All this inculcated adult docility, which wrecks every civilization as it + is wrecking ours, is inhuman and unnatural. We must reconsider our + institution of the Coming of Age, which is too late for some purposes, and + too early for others. There should be a series of Coming of Ages for every + individual. The mammals have their first coming of age when they are + weaned; and it is noteworthy that this rather cruel and selfish operation + on the part of the parent has to be performed resolutely, with claws and + teeth; for your little mammal does not want to be weaned, and yields only + to a pretty rough assertion of the right of the parent to be relieved of + the child as soon as the child is old enough to bear the separation. The + same thing occurs with children: they hang on to the mother's apron-string + and the father's coat tails as long as they can, often baffling those + sensitive parents who know that children should think for themselves and + fend for themselves, but are too kind to throw them on their own resources + with the ferocity of the domestic cat. The child should have its first + coming of age when it is weaned, another when it can talk, another when it + can walk, another when it can dress itself without assistance; and when it + can read, write, count money, and pass an examination in going a simple + errand involving a purchase and a journey by rail or other public method + of locomotion, it should have quite a majority. At present the children of + laborers are soon mobile and able to shift for themselves, whereas it is + possible to find grown-up women in the rich classes who are actually + afraid to take a walk in the streets unattended and unprotected. It is + true that this is a superstition from the time when a retinue was part of + the state of persons of quality, and the unattended person was supposed to + be a common person of no quality, earning a living; but this has now + become so absurd that children and young women are no longer told why they + are forbidden to go about alone, and have to be persuaded that the streets + are dangerous places, which of course they are; but people who are not + educated to live dangerously have only half a life, and are more likely to + die miserably after all than those who have taken all the common risks of + freedom from their childhood onward as matters of course. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0038" id="link2H_4_0038"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Conflict of Wills + </h2> + <p> + The world wags in spite of its schools and its families because both + schools and families are mostly very largely anarchic: parents and + schoolmasters are good-natured or weak or lazy; and children are docile + and affectionate and very shortwinded in their fits of naughtiness; and so + most families slummock along and muddle through until the children cease + to be children. In the few cases when the parties are energetic and + determined, the child is crushed or the parent is reduced to a cipher, as + the case may be. When the opposed forces are neither of them strong enough + to annihilate the other, there is serious trouble: that is how we get + those feuds between parent and child which recur to our memory so + ironically when we hear people sentimentalizing about natural affection. + We even get tragedies; for there is nothing so tragic to contemplate or so + devastating to suffer as the oppression of will without conscience; and + the whole tendency of our family and school system is to set the will of + the parent and the school despot above conscience as something that must + be deferred to abjectly and absolutely for its own sake. + </p> + <p> + The strongest, fiercest force in nature is human will. It is the highest + organization we know of the will that has created the whole universe. Now + all honest civilization, religion, law, and convention is an attempt to + keep this force within beneficent bounds. What corrupts civilization, + religion, law, and convention (and they are at present pretty nearly as + corrupt as they dare) is the constant attempts made by the wills of + individuals and classes to thwart the wills and enslave the powers of + other individuals and classes. The powers of the parent and the + schoolmaster, and of their public analogues the lawgiver and the judge, + become instruments of tyranny in the hands of those who are too + narrow-minded to understand law and exercise judgment; and in their hands + (with us they mostly fall into such hands) law becomes tyranny. And what + is a tyrant? Quite simply a person who says to another person, young or + old, "You shall do as I tell you; you shall make what I want; you shall + profess my creed; you shall have no will of your own; and your powers + shall be at the disposal of my will." It has come to this at last: that + the phrase "she has a will of her own," or "he has a will of his own" has + come to denote a person of exceptional obstinacy and self-assertion. And + even persons of good natural disposition, if brought up to expect such + deference, are roused to unreasoning fury, and sometimes to the commission + of atrocious crimes, by the slightest challenge to their authority. Thus a + laborer may be dirty, drunken, untruthful, slothful, untrustworthy in + every way without exhausting the indulgence of the country house. But let + him dare to be "disrespectful" and he is a lost man, though he be the + cleanest, soberest, most diligent, most veracious, most trustworthy man in + the county. Dickens's instinct for detecting social cankers never served + him better than when he shewed us Mrs Heep teaching her son to "be umble," + knowing that if he carried out that precept he might be pretty well + anything else he liked. The maintenance of deference to our wills becomes + a mania which will carry the best of us to any extremity. We will allow a + village of Egyptian fellaheen or Indian tribesmen to live the lowest life + they please among themselves without molestation; but let one of them slay + an Englishman or even strike him on the strongest provocation, and + straightway we go stark mad, burning and destroying, shooting and + shelling, flogging and hanging, if only such survivors as we may leave are + thoroughly cowed in the presence of a man with a white face. In the + committee room of a local council or city corporation, the humblest + employees of the committee find defenders if they complain of harsh + treatment. Gratuities are voted, indulgences and holidays are pleaded for, + delinquencies are excused in the most sentimental manner provided only the + employee, however patent a hypocrite or incorrigible a slacker, is hat in + hand. But let the most obvious measure of justice be demanded by the + secretary of a Trade Union in terms which omit all expressions of + subservience, and it is with the greatest difficulty that the + cooler-headed can defeat angry motions that the letter be thrown into the + waste paper basket and the committee proceed to the next business. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0039" id="link2H_4_0039"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Demagogue's Opportunity + </h2> + <p> + And the employee has in him the same fierce impulse to impose his will + without respect for the will of others. Democracy is in practice nothing + but a device for cajoling from him the vote he refuses to arbitrary + authority. He will not vote for Coriolanus; but when an experienced + demagogue comes along and says, "Sir: <i>you</i> are the dictator: the + voice of the people is the voice of God; and I am only your very humble + servant," he says at once, "All right: tell me what to dictate," and is + presently enslaved more effectually with his own silly consent than + Coriolanus would ever have enslaved him without asking his leave. And the + trick by which the demagogue defeats Coriolanus is played on him in his + turn by <i>his</i> inferiors. Everywhere we see the cunning succeeding in + the world by seeking a rich or powerful master and practising on his lust + for subservience. The political adventurer who gets into parliament by + offering himself to the poor voter, not as his representative but as his + will-less soulless "delegate," is himself the dupe of a clever wife who + repudiates Votes for Women, knowing well that whilst the man is master, + the man's mistress will rule. Uriah Heep may be a crawling creature; but + his crawling takes him upstairs. + </p> + <p> + Thus does the selfishness of the will turn on itself, and obtain by + flattery what it cannot seize by open force. Democracy becomes the latest + trick of tyranny: "womanliness" becomes the latest wile of prostitution. + </p> + <p> + Between parent and child the same conflict wages and the same destruction + of character ensues. Parents set themselves to bend the will of their + children to their own—to break their stubborn spirit, as they call + it—with the ruthlessness of Grand Inquisitors. Cunning, unscrupulous + children learn all the arts of the sneak in circumventing tyranny: + children of better character are cruelly distressed and more or less lamed + for life by it. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0040" id="link2H_4_0040"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Our Quarrelsomeness + </h2> + <p> + As between adults, we find a general quarrelsomeness which makes political + reform as impossible to most Englishmen as to hogs. Certain sections of + the nation get cured of this disability. University men, sailors, and + politicians are comparatively free from it, because the communal life of + the University, the fact that in a ship a man must either learn to + consider others or else go overboard or into irons, and the habit of + working on committees and ceasing to expect more of one's own way than is + included in the greatest common measure of the committee, educate the will + socially. But no one who has ever had to guide a committee of ordinary + private Englishmen through their first attempts at collective action, in + committee or otherwise, can retain any illusions as to the appalling + effects on our national manners and character of the organization of the + home and the school as petty tyrannies, and the absence of all teaching of + self-respect and training in self-assertion. Bullied and ordered about, + the Englishman obeys like a sheep, evades like a knave, or tries to murder + his oppressor. Merely criticized or opposed in committee, or invited to + consider anybody's views but his own, he feels personally insulted and + wants to resign or leave the room unless he is apologized to. And his + panic and bewilderment when he sees that the older hands at the work have + no patience with him and do not intend to treat him as infallible, are + pitiable as far as they are anything but ludicrous. That is what comes of + not being taught to consider other people's wills, and left to submit to + them or to over-ride them as if they were the winds and the weather. Such + a state of mind is incompatible not only with the democratic introduction + of high civilization, but with the comprehension and maintenance of such + civilized institutions as have been introduced by benevolent and + intelligent despots and aristocrats. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0041" id="link2H_4_0041"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + We Must Reform Society before we can Reform Ourselves + </h2> + <p> + When we come to the positive problem of what to do with children if we are + to give up the established plan, we find the difficulties so great that we + begin to understand why so many people who detest the system and look back + with loathing on their own schooldays, must helplessly send their children + to the very schools they themselves were sent to, because there is no + alternative except abandoning the children to undisciplined vagabondism. + Man in society must do as everybody else does in his class: only fools and + romantic novices imagine that freedom is a mere matter of the readiness of + the individual to snap his fingers at convention. It is true that most of + us live in a condition of quite unnecessary inhibition, wearing ugly and + uncomfortable clothes, making ourselves and other people miserable by the + heathen horrors of mourning, staying away from the theatre because we + cannot afford the stalls and are ashamed to go to the pit, and in dozens + of other ways enslaving ourselves when there are comfortable alternatives + open to us without any real drawbacks. The contemplation of these petty + slaveries, and of the triumphant ease with which sensible people throw + them off, creates an impression that if we only take Johnson's advice to + free our minds from cant, we can achieve freedom. But if we all freed our + minds from cant we should find that for the most part we should have to go + on doing the necessary work of the world exactly as we did it before until + we organized new and free methods of doing it. Many people believed in + secondary co-education (boys and girls taught together) before schools + like Bedales were founded: indeed the practice was common enough in + elementary schools and in Scotland; but their belief did not help them + until Bedales and St George's were organized; and there are still not + nearly enough co-educational schools in existence to accommodate all the + children of the parents who believe in co-education up to university age, + even if they could always afford the fees of these exceptional schools. It + may be edifying to tell a duke that our public schools are all wrong in + their constitution and methods, or a costermonger that children should be + treated as in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister instead of as they are treated at + the elementary school at the corner of his street; but what are the duke + and the coster to do? Neither of them has any effective choice in the + matter: their children must either go to the schools that are, or to no + school at all. And as the duke thinks with reason that his son will be a + lout or a milksop or a prig if he does not go to school, and the coster + knows that his son will become an illiterate hooligan if he is left to the + streets, there is no real alternative for either of them. Child life must + be socially organized: no parent, rich or poor, can choose institutions + that do not exist; and the private enterprise of individual school masters + appealing to a group of well-to-do parents, though it may shew what can be + done by enthusiasts with new methods, cannot touch the mass of our + children. For the average parent or child nothing is really available + except the established practice; and this is what makes it so important + that the established practice should be a sound one, and so useless for + clever individuals to disparage it unless they can organize an alternative + practice and make it, too, general. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0042" id="link2H_4_0042"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Pursuit of Manners + </h2> + <p> + If you cross-examine the duke and the coster, you will find that they are + not concerned for the scholastic attainments of their children. Ask the + duke whether he could pass the standard examination of twelve-year-old + children in elementary schools, and he will admit, with an entirely placid + smile, that he would almost certainly be ignominiously plucked. And he is + so little ashamed of or disadvantaged by his condition that he is not + prepared to spend an hour in remedying it. The coster may resent the + inquiry instead of being amused by it; but his answer, if true, will be + the same. What they both want for their children is the communal training, + the apprenticeship to society, the lessons in holding one's own among + people of all sorts with whom one is not, as in the home, on privileged + terms. These can be acquired only by "mixing with the world," no matter + how wicked the world is. No parent cares twopence whether his children can + write Latin hexameters or repeat the dates of the accession of all the + English monarchs since the Conqueror; but all parents are earnestly + anxious about the manners of their children. Better Claude Duval than + Kaspar Hauser. Laborers who are contemptuously anti-clerical in their + opinions will send their daughters to the convent school because the nuns + teach them some sort of gentleness of speech and behavior. And peers who + tell you that our public schools are rotten through and through, and that + our Universities ought to be razed to the foundations, send their sons to + Eton and Oxford, Harrow and Cambridge, not only because there is nothing + else to be done, but because these places, though they turn out + blackguards and ignoramuses and boobies galore, turn them out with the + habits and manners of the society they belong to. Bad as those manners are + in many respects, they are better than no manners at all. And no + individual or family can possibly teach them. They can be acquired only by + living in an organized community in which they are traditional. + </p> + <p> + Thus we see that there are reasons for the segregation of children even in + families where the great reason: namely, that children are nuisances to + adults, does not press very hardly, as, for instance, in the houses of the + very poor, who can send their children to play in the streets, or the + houses of the very rich, which are so large that the children's quarters + can be kept out of the parents' way like the servants' quarters. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0043" id="link2H_4_0043"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Not too much Wind on the Heath, Brother + </h2> + <p> + What, then, is to be done? For the present, unfortunately, little except + propagating the conception of Children's Rights. Only the achievement of + economic equality through Socialism can make it possible to deal + thoroughly with the question from the point of view of the total interest + of the community, which must always consist of grown-up children. Yet + economic equality, like all simple and obvious arrangements, seems + impossible to people brought up as children are now. Still, something can + be done even within class limits. Large communities of children of the + same class are possible today; and voluntary organization of outdoor life + for children has already begun in Boy Scouting and excursions of one kind + or another. The discovery that anything, even school life, is better for + the child than home life, will become an over-ridden hobby; and we shall + presently be told by our faddists that anything, even camp life, is better + than school life. Some blundering beginnings of this are already + perceptible. There is a movement for making our British children into + priggish little barefooted vagabonds, all talking like that born fool + George Borrow, and supposed to be splendidly healthy because they would + die if they slept in rooms with the windows shut, or perhaps even with a + roof over their heads. Still, this is a fairly healthy folly; and it may + do something to establish Mr Harold Cox's claim of a Right to Roam as the + basis of a much needed law compelling proprietors of land to provide + plenty of gates in their fences, and to leave them unlocked when there are + no growing crops to be damaged nor bulls to be encountered, instead of, as + at present, imprisoning the human race in dusty or muddy thoroughfares + between walls of barbed wire. + </p> + <p> + The reaction against vagabondage will come from the children themselves. + For them freedom will not mean the expensive kind of savagery now called + "the simple life." Their natural disgust with the visions of cockney book + fanciers blowing themselves out with "the wind on the heath, brother," and + of anarchists who are either too weak to understand that men are strong + and free in proportion to the social pressure they can stand and the + complexity of the obligations they are prepared to undertake, or too + strong to realize that what is freedom to them may be terror and + bewilderment to others, will drive them back to the home and the school if + these have meanwhile learned the lesson that children are independent + human beings and have rights. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0044" id="link2H_4_0044"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Wanted: a Child's Magna Charta + </h2> + <p> + Whether we shall presently be discussing a Juvenile Magna Charta or + Declaration of Rights by way of including children in the Constitution is + a question on which I leave others to speculate. But if it could once be + established that a child has an adult's Right of Egress from uncomfortable + places and unpleasant company, and there were children's lawyers to sue + pedagogues and others for assault and imprisonment, there would be an + amazing change in the behavior of schoolmasters, the quality of school + books, and the amenities of school life. That Consciousness of Consent + which, even in its present delusive form, has enabled Democracy to oust + tyrannical systems in spite of all its vulgarities and stupidities and + rancors and ineptitudes and ignorances, would operate as powerfully among + children as it does now among grown-ups. No doubt the pedagogue would + promptly turn demagogue, and woo his scholars by all the arts of demagogy; + but none of these arts can easily be so dishonorable or mischievous as the + art of caning. And, after all, if larger liberties are attached to the + acquisition of knowledge, and the child finds that it can no more go to + the seaside without a knowledge of the multiplication and pence tables + than it can be an astronomer without mathematics, it will learn the + multiplication table, which is more than it always does at present, in + spite of all the canings and keepings in. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0045" id="link2H_4_0045"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Pursuit of Learning + </h2> + <p> + When the Pursuit of Learning comes to mean the pursuit of learning by the + child instead of the pursuit of the child by Learning, cane in hand, the + danger will be precocity of the intellect, which is just as undesirable as + precocity of the emotions. We still have a silly habit of talking and + thinking as if intellect were a mechanical process and not a passion; and + in spite of the German tutors who confess openly that three out of every + five of the young men they coach for examinations are lamed for life + thereby; in spite of Dickens and his picture of little Paul Dombey dying + of lessons, we persist in heaping on growing children and adolescent + youths and maidens tasks Pythagoras would have declined out of common + regard for his own health and common modesty as to his own capacity. And + this overwork is not all the effect of compulsion; for the average + schoolmaster does not compel his scholars to learn: he only scolds and + punishes them if they do not, which is quite a different thing, the net + effect being that the school prisoners need not learn unless they like. + Nay, it is sometimes remarked that the school dunce—meaning the one + who does not like—often turns out well afterwards, as if idleness + were a sign of ability and character. A much more sensible explanation is + that the so-called dunces are not exhausted before they begin the serious + business of life. It is said that boys will be boys; and one can only add + one wishes they would. Boys really want to be manly, and are unfortunately + encouraged thoughtlessly in this very dangerous and overstraining + aspiration. All the people who have really worked (Herbert Spencer for + instance) warn us against work as earnestly as some people warn us against + drink. When learning is placed on the voluntary footing of sport, the + teacher will find himself saying every day "Run away and play: you have + worked as much as is good for you." Trying to make children leave school + will be like trying to make them go to bed; and it will be necessary to + surprise them with the idea that teaching is work, and that the teacher is + tired and must go play or rest or eat: possibilities always concealed by + that infamous humbug the current schoolmaster, who achieves a spurious + divinity and a witch doctor's authority by persuading children that he is + not human, just as ladies persuade them that they have no legs. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0046" id="link2H_4_0046"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Children and Game: a Proposal + </h2> + <p> + Of the many wild absurdities of our existing social order perhaps the most + grotesque is the costly and strictly enforced reservation of large tracts + of country as deer forests and breeding grounds for pheasants whilst there + is so little provision of the kind made for children. I have more than + once thought of trying to introduce the shooting of children as a sport, + as the children would then be preserved very carefully for ten months in + the year, thereby reducing their death rate far more than the fusillades + of the sportsmen during the other two would raise it. At present the + killing of a fox except by a pack of foxhounds is regarded with horror; + but you may and do kill children in a hundred and fifty ways provided you + do not shoot them or set a pack of dogs on them. It must be admitted that + the foxes have the best of it; and indeed a glance at our pheasants, our + deer, and our children will convince the most sceptical that the children + have decidedly the worst of it. + </p> + <p> + This much hope, however, can be extracted from the present state of + things. It is so fantastic, so mad, so apparently impossible, that no + scheme of reform need ever henceforth be discredited on the ground that it + is fantastic or mad or apparently impossible. It is the sensible schemes, + unfortunately, that are hopeless in England. Therefore I have great hopes + that my own views, though fundamentally sensible, can be made to appear + fantastic enough to have a chance. + </p> + <p> + First, then, I lay it down as a prime condition of sane society, obvious + as such to anyone but an idiot, that in any decent community, children + should find in every part of their native country, food, clothing, + lodging, instruction, and parental kindness for the asking. For the matter + of that, so should adults; but the two cases differ in that as these + commodities do not grow on the bushes, the adults cannot have them unless + they themselves organize and provide the supply, whereas the children must + have them as if by magic, with nothing to do but rub the lamp, like + Aladdin, and have their needs satisfied. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0047" id="link2H_4_0047"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Parents' Intolerable Burden + </h2> + <p> + There is nothing new in this: it is how children have always had and must + always have their needs satisfied. The parent has to play the part of + Aladdin's djinn; and many a parent has sunk beneath the burden of this + service. All the novelty we need is to organize it so that instead of the + individual child fastening like a parasite on its own particular parents, + the whole body of children should be thrown not only upon the whole body + of parents, but upon the celibates and childless as well, whose present + exemption from a full share in the social burden of children is obviously + unjust and unwholesome. Today it is easy to find a widow who has at great + cost to herself in pain, danger, and disablement, borne six or eight + children. In the same town you will find rich bachelors and old maids, and + married couples with no children or with families voluntarily limited to + two or three. The eight children do not belong to the woman in any real or + legal sense. When she has reared them they pass away from her into the + community as independent persons, marrying strangers, working for + strangers, spending on the community the life that has been built up at + her expense. No more monstrous injustice could be imagined than that the + burden of rearing the children should fall on her alone and not on the + celibates and the selfish as well. + </p> + <p> + This is so far recognized that already the child finds, wherever it goes, + a school for it, and somebody to force it into the school; and more and + more these schools are being driven by the mere logic of facts to provide + the children with meals, with boots, with spectacles, with dentists and + doctors. In fact, when the child's parents are destitute or not to be + found, bread, lodging, and clothing are provided. It is true that they are + provided grudgingly and on conditions infamous enough to draw down + abundant fire from Heaven upon us every day in the shape of crime and + disease and vice; but still the practice of keeping children barely alive + at the charge of the community is established; and there is no need for me + to argue about it. I propose only two extensions of the practice. One is + to provide for all the child's reasonable human wants, on which point, if + you differ from me, I shall take leave to say that you are socially a fool + and personally an inhuman wretch. The other is that these wants should be + supplied in complete freedom from compulsory schooling or compulsory + anything except restraint from crime, though, as they can be supplied only + by social organization, the child must be conscious of and subject to the + conditions of that organization, which may involve such portions of adult + responsibility and duty as a child may be able to bear according to its + age, and which will in any case prevent it from forming the vagabond and + anarchist habit of mind. + </p> + <p> + One more exception might be necessary: compulsory freedom. I am sure that + a child should not be imprisoned in a school. I am not so sure that it + should not sometimes be driven out into the open—imprisoned in the + woods and on the mountains, as it were. For there are frowsty children, + just as there are frowsty adults, who dont want freedom. This morbid + result of over-domestication would, let us hope, soon disappear with its + cause. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0048" id="link2H_4_0048"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Mobilization + </h2> + <p> + Those who see no prospect held out to them by this except a country in + which all the children shall be roaming savages, should consider, first, + whether their condition would be any worse than that of the little caged + savages of today, and second, whether either children or adults are so apt + to run wild that it is necessary to tether them fast to one neighborhood + to prevent a general dissolution of society. My own observation leads me + to believe that we are not half mobilized enough. True, I cannot deny that + we are more mobile than we were. You will still find in the home counties + old men who have never been to London, and who tell you that they once + went to Winchester or St Albans much as if they had been to the South + Pole; but they are not so common as the clerk who has been to Paris or to + Lovely Lucerne, and who "goes away somewhere" when he has a holiday. His + grandfather never had a holiday, and, if he had, would no more have + dreamed of crossing the Channel than of taking a box at the Opera. But + with all allowance for the Polytechnic excursion and the tourist agency, + our inertia is still appalling. I confess to having once spent nine years + in London without putting my nose outside it; and though this was better, + perhaps, than the restless globe-trotting vagabondage of the idle rich, + wandering from hotel to hotel and never really living anywhere, yet I + should no more have done it if I had been properly mobilized in my + childhood than I should have worn the same suit of clothes all that time + (which, by the way, I very nearly did, my professional income not having + as yet begun to sprout). There are masses of people who could afford at + least a trip to Margate, and a good many who could afford a trip round the + world, who are more immovable than Aldgate pump. To others, who would move + if they knew how, travelling is surrounded with imaginary difficulties and + terrors. In short, the difficulty is not to fix people, but to root them + up. We keep repeating the silly proverb that a rolling stone gathers no + moss, as if moss were a desirable parasite. What we mean is that a + vagabond does not prosper. Even this is not true, if prosperity means + enjoyment as well as responsibility and money. The real misery of + vagabondage is the misery of having nothing to do and nowhere to go, the + misery of being derelict of God and Man, the misery of the idle, poor or + rich. And this is one of the miseries of unoccupied childhood. The + unoccupied adult, thus afflicted, tries many distractions which are, to + say the least, unsuited to children. But one of them, the distraction of + seeing the world, is innocent and beneficial. Also it is childish, being a + continuation of what nurses call "taking notice," by which a child becomes + experienced. It is pitiable nowadays to see men and women doing after the + age of 45 all the travelling and sightseeing they should have done before + they were 15. Mere wondering and staring at things is an important part of + a child's education: that is why children can be thoroughly mobilized + without making vagabonds of them. A vagabond is at home nowhere because he + wanders: a child should wander because it ought to be at home everywhere. + And if it has its papers and its passports, and gets what it requires not + by begging and pilfering, but from responsible agents of the community as + of right, and with some formal acknowledgment of the obligations it is + incurring and a knowledge of the fact that these obligations are being + recorded: if, further, certain qualifications are exacted before it is + promoted from permission to go as far as its legs will carry it to using + mechanical aids to locomotion, it can roam without much danger of + gypsification. + </p> + <p> + Under such circumstances the boy or girl could always run away, and never + be lost; and on no other conditions can a child be free without being also + a homeless outcast. + </p> + <p> + Parents could also run away from disagreeable children or drive them out + of doors or even drop their acquaintance, temporarily or permanently, + without inhumanity. Thus both parties would be on their good behavior, and + not, as at present, on their filial or parental behavior, which, like all + unfree behavior, is mostly bad behavior. + </p> + <p> + As to what other results might follow, we had better wait and see; for + nobody now alive can imagine what customs and institutions would grow up + in societies of free children. Child laws and child fashions, child + manners and child morals are now not tolerated; but among free children + there would certainly be surprising developments in this direction. I do + not think there would be any danger of free children behaving as badly as + grown-up people do now because they have never been free. They could + hardly behave worse, anyhow. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0049" id="link2H_4_0049"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Children's Rights and Parents' Wrongs + </h2> + <p> + A very distinguished man once assured a mother of my acquaintance that she + would never know what it meant to be hurt until she was hurt through her + children. Children are extremely cruel without intending it; and in + ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the reason is that they do not conceive + their elders as having any human feelings. Serve the elders right, + perhaps, for posing as superhuman! The penalty of the impostor is not that + he is found out (he very seldom is) but that he is taken for what he + pretends to be, and treated as such. And to be treated as anything but + what you really are may seem pleasant to the imagination when the + treatment is above your merits; but in actual experience it is often quite + the reverse. When I was a very small boy, my romantic imagination, + stimulated by early doses of fiction, led me to brag to a still smaller + boy so outrageously that he, being a simple soul, really believed me to be + an invincible hero. I cannot remember whether this pleased me much; but I + do remember very distinctly that one day this admirer of mine, who had a + pet goat, found the animal in the hands of a larger boy than either of us, + who mocked him and refused to restore the animal to his rightful owner. + Whereupon, naturally, he came weeping to me, and demanded that I should + rescue the goat and annihilate the aggressor. My terror was beyond + description: fortunately for me, it imparted such a ghastliness to my + voice and aspect as I under the eye of my poor little dupe, advanced on + the enemy with that hideous extremity of cowardice which is called the + courage of despair, and said "You let go that goat," that he abandoned his + prey and fled, to my unforgettable, unspeakable relief. I have never since + exaggerated my prowess in bodily combat. + </p> + <p> + Now what happened to me in the adventure of the goat happens very often to + parents, and would happen to schoolmasters if the prison door of the + school did not shut out the trials of life. I remember once, at school, + the resident head master was brought down to earth by the sudden illness + of his wife. In the confusion that ensued it became necessary to leave one + of the schoolrooms without a master. I was in the class that occupied that + schoolroom. To have sent us home would have been to break the fundamental + bargain with our parents by which the school was bound to keep us out of + their way for half the day at all hazards. Therefore an appeal had to be + made to our better feelings: that is, to our common humanity, not to make + a noise. But the head master had never admitted any common humanity with + us. We had been carefully broken in to regard him as a being quite aloof + from and above us: one not subject to error or suffering or death or + illness or mortality. Consequently sympathy was impossible; and if the + unfortunate lady did not perish, it was because, as I now comfort myself + with guessing, she was too much pre-occupied with her own pains, and + possibly making too much noise herself, to be conscious of the pandemonium + downstairs. + </p> + <p> + A great deal of the fiendishness of schoolboys and the cruelty of children + to their elders is produced just in this way. Elders cannot be superhuman + beings and suffering fellow-creatures at the same time. If you pose as a + little god, you must pose for better for worse. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + How Little We Know About Our Parents + </h2> + <p> + The relation between parent and child has cruel moments for the parent + even when money is no object, and the material worries are delegated to + servants and school teachers. The child and the parent are strangers to + one another necessarily, because their ages must differ widely. Read + Goethe's autobiography; and note that though he was happy in his parents + and had exceptional powers of observation, divination, and story-telling, + he knew less about his father and mother than about most of the other + people he mentions. I myself was never on bad terms with my mother: we + lived together until I was forty-two years old, absolutely without the + smallest friction of any kind; yet when her death set me thinking + curiously about our relations, I realized that I knew very little about + her. Introduce me to a strange woman who was a child when I was a child, a + girl when I was a boy, an adolescent when I was an adolescent; and if we + take naturally to one another I will know more of her and she of me at the + end of forty days (I had almost said of forty minutes) than I knew of my + mother at the end of forty years. A contemporary stranger is a novelty and + an enigma, also a possibility; but a mother is like a broomstick or like + the sun in the heavens, it does not matter which as far as one's knowledge + of her is concerned: the broomstick is there and the sun is there; and + whether the child is beaten by it or warmed and enlightened by it, it + accepts it as a fact in nature, and does not conceive it as having had + youth, passions, and weaknesses, or as still growing, yearning, suffering, + and learning. If I meet a widow I may ask her all about her marriage; but + what son ever dreams of asking his mother about her marriage, or could + endure to hear of it without violently breaking off the old sacred + relationship between them, and ceasing to be her child or anything more to + her than the first man in the street might be? + </p> + <p> + Yet though in this sense the child cannot realize its parent's humanity, + the parent can realize the child's; for the parents with their experience + of life have none of the illusions about the child that the child has + about the parents; and the consequence is that the child can hurt its + parents' feelings much more than its parents can hurt the child's, because + the child, even when there has been none of the deliberate hypocrisy by + which children are taken advantage of by their elders, cannot conceive the + parent as a fellow-creature, whilst the parents know very well that the + children are only themselves over again. The child cannot conceive that + its blame or contempt or want of interest could possibly hurt its parent, + and therefore expresses them all with an indifference which has given rise + to the term <i>enfant terrible</i> (a tragic term in spite of the jests + connected with it); whilst the parent can suffer from such slights and + reproaches more from a child than from anyone else, even when the child is + not beloved, because the child is so unmistakably sincere in them. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0051" id="link2H_4_0051"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Our Abandoned Mothers + </h2> + <p> + Take a very common instance of this agonizing incompatibility. A widow + brings up her son to manhood. He meets a strange woman, and goes off with + and marries her, leaving his mother desolate. It does not occur to him + that this is at all hard on her: he does it as a matter of course, and + actually expects his mother to receive, on terms of special affection, the + woman for whom she has been abandoned. If he shewed any sense of what he + was doing, any remorse; if he mingled his tears with hers and asked her + not to think too hardly of him because he had obeyed the inevitable + destiny of a man to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, + she could give him her blessing and accept her bereavement with dignity + and without reproach. But the man never dreams of such considerations. To + him his mother's feeling in the matter, when she betrays it, is + unreasonable, ridiculous, and even odious, as shewing a prejudice against + his adorable bride. + </p> + <p> + I have taken the widow as an extreme and obvious case; but there are many + husbands and wives who are tired of their consorts, or disappointed in + them, or estranged from them by infidelities; and these parents, in losing + a son or a daughter through marriage, may be losing everything they care + for. No parent's love is as innocent as the love of a child: the exclusion + of all conscious sexual feeling from it does not exclude the bitterness, + jealousy, and despair at loss which characterize sexual passion: in fact, + what is called a pure love may easily be more selfish and jealous than a + carnal one. Anyhow, it is plain matter of fact that naively selfish people + sometimes try with fierce jealousy to prevent their children marrying. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0052" id="link2H_4_0052"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Family Affection + </h2> + <p> + Until the family as we know it ceases to exist, nobody will dare to + analyze parental affection as distinguished from that general human + sympathy which has secured to many an orphan fonder care in a stranger's + house than it would have received from its actual parents. Not even + Tolstoy, in The Kreutzer Sonata, has said all that we suspect about it. + When it persists beyond the period at which it ceases to be necessary to + the child's welfare, it is apt to be morbid; and we are probably wrong to + inculcate its deliberate cultivation. The natural course is for the + parents and children to cast off the specific parental and filial relation + when they are no longer necessary to one another. The child does this + readily enough to form fresh ties, closer and more fascinating. Parents + are not always excluded from such compensations: it happens sometimes that + when the children go out at the door the lover comes in at the window. + Indeed it happens now oftener than it used to, because people remain much + longer in the sexual arena. The cultivated Jewess no longer cuts off her + hair at her marriage. The British matron has discarded her cap and her + conscientious ugliness; and a bishop's wife at fifty has more of the air + of a <i>femme galante</i> than an actress had at thirty-five in her + grandmother's time. But as people marry later, the facts of age and time + still inexorably condemn most parents to comparative solitude when their + children marry. This may be a privation and may be a relief: probably in + healthy circumstances it is no worse than a salutary change of habit; but + even at that it is, for the moment at least, a wrench. For though parents + and children sometimes dislike one another, there is an experience of + succor and a habit of dependence and expectation formed in infancy which + naturally attaches a child to its parent or to its nurse (a foster parent) + in a quite peculiar way. A benefit to the child may be a burden to the + parent; but people become attached to their burdens sometimes more than + the burdens are attached to them; and to "suffer little children" has + become an affectionate impulse deep in our nature. + </p> + <p> + Now there is no such impulse to suffer our sisters and brothers, our aunts + and uncles, much less our cousins. If we could choose our relatives, we + might, by selecting congenial ones, mitigate the repulsive effect of the + obligation to like them and to admit them to our intimacy. But to have a + person imposed on us as a brother merely because he happens to have the + same parents is unbearable when, as may easily happen, he is the sort of + person we should carefully avoid if he were anyone else's brother. All + Europe (except Scotland, which has clans instead of families) draws the + line at second cousins. Protestantism draws it still closer by making the + first cousin a marriageable stranger; and the only reason for not drawing + it at sisters and brothers is that the institution of the family compels + us to spend our childhood with them, and thus imposes on us a curious + relation in which familiarity destroys romantic charm, and is yet expected + to create a specially warm affection. Such a relation is dangerously + factitious and unnatural; and the practical moral is that the less said at + home about specific family affection the better. Children, like grown-up + people, get on well enough together if they are not pushed down one + another's throats; and grown-up relatives will get on together in + proportion to their separation and their care not to presume on their + blood relationship. We should let children's feelings take their natural + course without prompting. I have seen a child scolded and called unfeeling + because it did not occur to it to make a theatrical demonstration of + affectionate delight when its mother returned after an absence: a typical + example of the way in which spurious family sentiment is stoked up. We + are, after all, sociable animals; and if we are let alone in the matter of + our affections, and well brought up otherwise, we shall not get on any the + worse with particular people because they happen to be our brothers and + sisters and cousins. The danger lies in assuming that we shall get on any + better. + </p> + <p> + The main point to grasp here is that families are not kept together at + present by family feeling but by human feeling. The family cultivates + sympathy and mutual help and consolation as any other form of kindly + association cultivates them; but the addition of a dictated compulsory + affection as an attribute of near kinship is not only unnecessary, but + positively detrimental; and the alleged tendency of modern social + development to break up the family need alarm nobody. We cannot break up + the facts of kinship nor eradicate its natural emotional consequences. + What we can do and ought to do is to set people free to behave naturally + and to change their behavior as circumstances change. To impose on a + citizen of London the family duties of a Highland cateran in the + eighteenth century is as absurd as to compel him to carry a claymore and + target instead of an umbrella. The civilized man has no special use for + cousins; and he may presently find that he has no special use for brothers + and sisters. The parent seems likely to remain indispensable; but there is + no reason why that natural tie should be made the excuse for unnatural + aggravations of it, as crushing to the parent as they are oppressive to + the child. The mother and father will not always have to shoulder the + burthen of maintenance which should fall on the Atlas shoulders of the + fatherland and motherland. Pending such reforms and emancipations, a + shattering break-up of the parental home must remain one of the normal + incidents of marriage. The parent is left lonely and the child is not. Woe + to the old if they have no impersonal interests, no convictions, no public + causes to advance, no tastes or hobbies! It is well to be a mother but not + to be a mother-in-law; and if men were cut off artificially from + intellectual and public interests as women are, the father-in-law would be + as deplorable a figure in popular tradition as the mother-in-law. + </p> + <p> + It is not to be wondered at that some people hold that blood relationship + should be kept a secret from the persons related, and that the happiest + condition in this respect is that of the foundling who, if he ever meets + his parents or brothers or sisters, passes them by without knowing them. + And for such a view there is this to be said: that our family system does + unquestionably take the natural bond between members of the same family, + which, like all natural bonds, is not too tight to be borne, and + superimposes on it a painful burden of forced, inculcated, suggested, and + altogether unnecessary affection and responsibility which we should do + well to get rid of by making relatives as independent of one another as + possible. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0053" id="link2H_4_0053"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Fate of the Family + </h2> + <p> + The difficulty of inducing people to talk sensibly about the family is the + same as that which I pointed out in a previous volume as confusing + discussions of marriage. Marriage is not a single invariable institution: + it changes from civilization to civilization, from religion to religion, + from civil code to civil code, from frontier to frontier. The family is + still more variable, because the number of persons constituting a family, + unlike the number of persons constituting a marriage, varies from one to + twenty: indeed, when a widower with a family marries a widow with a + family, and the two produce a third family, even that very high number may + be surpassed. And the conditions may vary between opposite extremes: for + example, in a London or Paris slum every child adds to the burden of + poverty and helps to starve the parents and all the other children, + whereas in a settlement of pioneer colonists every child, from the moment + it is big enough to lend a hand to the family industry, is an investment + in which the only danger is that of temporary over-capitalization. Then + there are the variations in family sentiment. Sometimes the family + organization is as frankly political as the organization of an army or an + industry: fathers being no more expected to be sentimental about their + children than colonels about soldiers, or factory owners about their + employees, though the mother may be allowed a little tenderness if her + character is weak. The Roman father was a despot: the Chinese father is an + object of worship: the sentimental modern western father is often a + play-fellow looked to for toys and pocket-money. The farmer sees his + children constantly: the squire sees them only during the holidays, and + not then oftener than he can help: the tram conductor, when employed by a + joint stock company, sometimes never sees them at all. + </p> + <p> + Under such circumstances phrases like The Influence of Home Life, The + Family, The Domestic Hearth, and so on, are no more specific than The + Mammals, or The Man In The Street; and the pious generalizations founded + so glibly on them by our sentimental moralists are unworkable. When + households average twelve persons with the sexes about equally + represented, the results may be fairly good. When they average three the + results may be very bad indeed; and to lump the two together under the + general term The Family is to confuse the question hopelessly. The modern + small family is much too stuffy: children "brought up at home" in it are + unfit for society. But here again circumstances differ. If the parents + live in what is called a garden suburb, where there is a good deal of + social intercourse, and the family, instead of keeping itself to itself, + as the evil old saying is, and glowering at the neighbors over the blinds + of the long street in which nobody knows his neighbor and everyone wishes + to deceive him as to his income and social importance, is in effect broken + up by school life, by out-of-door habits, and by frank neighborly + intercourse through dances and concerts and theatricals and excursions and + the like, families of four may turn out much less barbarous citizens than + families of ten which attain the Boer ideal of being out of sight of one + another's chimney smoke. + </p> + <p> + All one can say is, roughly, that the homelier the home, and the more + familiar the family, the worse for everybody concerned. The family ideal + is a humbug and a nuisance: one might as reasonably talk of the barrack + ideal, or the forecastle ideal, or any other substitution of the machinery + of social organization for the end of it, which must always be the fullest + and most capable life: in short, the most godly life. And this significant + word reminds us that though the popular conception of heaven includes a + Holy Family, it does not attach to that family the notion of a separate + home, or a private nursery or kitchen or mother-in-law, or anything that + constitutes the family as we know it. Even blood relationship is + miraculously abstracted from it; and the Father is the father of all + children, the mother the mother of all mothers and babies, and the Son the + Son of Man and the Savior of his brothers: one whose chief utterance on + the subject of the conventional family was an invitation to all of us to + leave our families and follow him, and to leave the dead to bury the dead, + and not debauch ourselves at that gloomy festival the family funeral, with + its sequel of hideous mourning and grief which is either affected or + morbid. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0054" id="link2H_4_0054"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Family Mourning + </h2> + <p> + I do not know how far this detestable custom of mourning is carried in + France; but judging from the appearance of the French people I should say + that a Frenchwoman goes into mourning for her cousins to the seventeenth + degree. The result is that when I cross the Channel I seem to have reached + a country devastated by war or pestilence. It is really suffering only + from the family. Will anyone pretend that England has not the best of this + striking difference? Yet it is such senseless and unnatural conventions as + this that make us so impatient of what we call family feeling. Even apart + from its insufferable pretensions, the family needs hearty discrediting; + for there is hardly any vulnerable part of it that could not be amputated + with advantage. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0055" id="link2H_4_0055"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Art Teaching + </h2> + <p> + By art teaching I hasten to say that I do not mean giving children lessons + in freehand drawing and perspective. I am simply calling attention to the + fact that fine art is the only teacher except torture. I have already + pointed out that nobody, except under threat of torture, can read a school + book. The reason is that a school book is not a work of art. Similarly, + you cannot listen to a lesson or a sermon unless the teacher or the + preacher is an artist. You cannot read the Bible if you have no sense of + literary art. The reason why the continental European is, to the + Englishman or American, so surprisingly ignorant of the Bible, is that the + authorized English version is a great work of literary art, and the + continental versions are comparatively artless. To read a dull book; to + listen to a tedious play or prosy sermon or lecture; to stare at + uninteresting pictures or ugly buildings: nothing, short of disease, is + more dreadful than this. The violence done to our souls by it leaves + injuries and produces subtle maladies which have never been properly + studied by psycho-pathologists. Yet we are so inured to it in school, + where practically all the teachers are bores trying to do the work of + artists, and all the books artless, that we acquire a truly frightful + power of enduring boredom. We even acquire the notion that fine art is + lascivious and destructive to the character. In church, in the House of + Commons, at public meetings, we sit solemnly listening to bores and + twaddlers because from the time we could walk or speak we have been + snubbed, scolded, bullied, beaten and imprisoned whenever we dared to + resent being bored or twaddled at, or to express our natural impatience + and derision of bores and twaddlers. And when a man arises with a soul of + sufficient native strength to break the bonds of this inculcated reverence + and to expose and deride and tweak the noses of our humbugs and + panjandrums, like Voltaire or Dickens, we are shocked and scandalized, + even when we cannot help laughing. Worse, we dread and persecute those who + can see and declare the truth, because their sincerity and insight + reflects on our delusion and blindness. We are all like Nell Gwynne's + footman, who defended Nell's reputation with his fists, not because he + believed her to be what he called an honest woman, but because he objected + to be scorned as the footman of one who was no better than she should be. + </p> + <p> + This wretched power of allowing ourselves to be bored may seem to give the + fine arts a chance sometimes. People will sit through a performance of + Beethoven's ninth symphony or of Wagner's Ring just as they will sit + through a dull sermon or a front bench politician saying nothing for two + hours whilst his unfortunate country is perishing through the delay of its + business in Parliament. But their endurance is very bad for the ninth + symphony, because they never hiss when it is murdered. I have heard an + Italian conductor (no longer living) take the <i>adagio</i> of that + symphony at a lively <i>allegretto</i>, slowing down for the warmer major + sections into the speed and manner of the heroine's death song in a Verdi + opera; and the listeners, far from relieving my excruciation by rising + with yells of fury and hurling their programs and opera glasses at the + miscreant, behaved just as they do when Richter conducts it. The mass of + imposture that thrives on this combination of ignorance with despairing + endurance is incalculable. Given a public trained from childhood to stand + anything tedious, and so saturated with school discipline that even with + the doors open and no schoolmasters to stop them they will sit there + helplessly until the end of the concert or opera gives them leave to go + home; and you will have in great capitals hundreds of thousands of pounds + spent every night in the season on professedly artistic entertainments + which have no other effect on fine art than to exacerbate the hatred in + which it is already secretly held in England. + </p> + <p> + Fortunately, there are arts that cannot be cut off from the people by bad + performances. We can read books for ourselves; and we can play a good deal + of fine music for ourselves with the help of a pianola. Nothing stands + between us and the actual handwork of the great masters of painting except + distance; and modern photographic methods of reproduction are in some + cases quite and in many nearly as effective in conveying the artist's + message as a modern edition of Shakespear's plays is in conveying the + message that first existed in his handwriting. The reproduction of great + feats of musical execution is already on the way: the phonograph, for all + its wheezing and snarling and braying, is steadily improving in its + manners; and what with this improvement on the one hand, and on the other + that blessed selective faculty which enables us to ignore a good deal of + disagreeable noise if there is a thread of music in the middle of it (few + critics of the phonograph seem to be conscious of the very considerable + mechanical noise set up by choirs and orchestras) we have at last reached + a point at which, for example, a person living in an English village where + the church music is the only music, and that music is made by a few + well-intentioned ladies with the help of a harmonium, can hear masses by + Palestrina very passably executed, and can thereby be led to the discovery + that Jackson in F and Hymns Ancient and Modern are not perhaps the last + word of beauty and propriety in the praise of God. + </p> + <p> + In short, there is a vast body of art now within the reach of everybody. + The difficulty is that this art, which alone can educate us in grace of + body and soul, and which alone can make the history of the past live for + us or the hope of the future shine for us, which alone can give delicacy + and nobility to our crude lusts, which is the appointed vehicle of + inspiration and the method of the communion of saints, is actually branded + as sinful among us because, wherever it arises, there is resistance to + tyranny, breaking of fetters, and the breath of freedom. The attempt to + suppress art is not wholly successful: we might as well try to suppress + oxygen. But it is carried far enough to inflict on huge numbers of people + a most injurious art starvation, and to corrupt a great deal of the art + that is tolerated. You will find in England plenty of rich families with + little more culture than their dogs and horses. And you will find poor + families, cut off by poverty and town life from the contemplation of the + beauty of the earth, with its dresses of leaves, its scarves of cloud, and + its contours of hill and valley, who would positively be happier as hogs, + so little have they cultivated their humanity by the only effective + instrument of culture: art. The dearth is artificially maintained even + when there are the means of satisfying it. Story books are forbidden, + picture post cards are forbidden, theatres are forbidden, operas are + forbidden, circuses are forbidden, sweetmeats are forbidden, pretty colors + are forbidden, all exactly as vice is forbidden. The Creator is explicitly + prayed to, and implicitly convicted of indecency every day. An association + of vice and sin with everything that is delightful and of goodness with + everything that is wretched and detestable is set up. All the most + perilous (and glorious) appetites and propensities are at once inflamed by + starvation and uneducated by art. All the wholesome conditions which art + imposes on appetite are waived: instead of cultivated men and women + restrained by a thousand delicacies, repelled by ugliness, chilled by + vulgarity, horrified by coarseness, deeply and sweetly moved by the graces + that art has revealed to them and nursed in them, we get indiscriminate + rapacity in pursuit of pleasure and a parade of the grossest stimulations + in catering for it. We have a continual clamor for goodness, beauty, + virtue, and sanctity, with such an appalling inability to recognize it or + love it when it arrives that it is more dangerous to be a great prophet or + poet than to promote twenty companies for swindling simple folk out of + their savings. Do not for a moment suppose that uncultivated people are + merely indifferent to high and noble qualities. They hate them + malignantly. At best, such qualities are like rare and beautiful birds: + when they appear the whole country takes down its guns; but the birds + receive the statuary tribute of having their corpses stuffed. + </p> + <p> + And it really all comes from the habit of preventing children from being + troublesome. You are so careful of your boy's morals, knowing how + troublesome they may be, that you keep him away from the Venus of Milo + only to find him in the arms of the scullery maid or someone much worse. + You decide that the Hermes of Praxiteles and Wagner's Tristan are not + suited for young girls; and your daughter marries somebody appallingly + unlike either Hermes or Tristan solely to escape from your parental + protection. You have not stifled a single passion nor averted a single + danger: you have depraved the passions by starving them, and broken down + all the defences which so effectively protect children brought up in + freedom. You have men who imagine themselves to be ministers of religion + openly declaring that when they pass through the streets they have to keep + out in the wheeled traffic to avoid the temptations of the pavement. You + have them organizing hunts of the women who tempt them—poor + creatures whom no artist would touch without a shudder—and wildly + clamoring for more clothes to disguise and conceal the body, and for the + abolition of pictures, statues, theatres, and pretty colors. And + incredible as it seems, these unhappy lunatics are left at large, + unrebuked, even admired and revered, whilst artists have to struggle for + toleration. To them an undraped human body is the most monstrous, the most + blighting, the most obscene, the most unbearable spectacle in the + universe. To an artist it is, at its best, the most admirable spectacle in + nature, and, at its average, an object of indifference. If every rag of + clothing miraculously dropped from the inhabitants of London at noon + tomorrow (say as a preliminary to the Great Judgment), the artistic people + would not turn a hair; but the artless people would go mad and call on the + mountains to hide them. I submit that this indicates a thoroughly healthy + state on the part of the artists, and a thoroughly morbid one on the part + of the artless. And the healthy state is attainable in a cold country like + ours only by familiarity with the undraped figure acquired through + pictures, statues, and theatrical representations in which an illusion of + natural clotheslessness is produced and made poetic. + </p> + <p> + In short, we all grow up stupid and mad to just the extent to which we + have not been artistically educated; and the fact that this taint of + stupidity and madness has to be tolerated because it is general, and is + even boasted of as characteristically English, makes the situation all the + worse. It is becoming exceedingly grave at present, because the last ray + of art is being cut off from our schools by the discontinuance of + religious education. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0056" id="link2H_4_0056"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Impossibility of Secular Education + </h2> + <p> + Now children must be taught some sort of religion. Secular education is an + impossibility. Secular education comes to this: that the only reason for + ceasing to do evil and learning to do well is that if you do not you will + be caned. This is worse than being taught in a church school that if you + become a dissenter you will go to hell; for hell is presented as the + instrument of something eternal, divine, and inevitable: you cannot evade + it the moment the schoolmaster's back is turned. What confuses this issue + and leads even highly intelligent religious persons to advocate secular + education as a means of rescuing children from the strife of rival + proselytizers is the failure to distinguish between the child's personal + subjective need for a religion and its right to an impartially + communicated historical objective knowledge of all the creeds and + Churches. Just as a child, no matter what its race and color may be, + should know that there are black men and brown men and yellow men, and, no + matter what its political convictions may be, that there are Monarchists + and Republicans and Positivists, Socialists and Unsocialists, so it should + know that there are Christians and Mahometans and Buddhists and Shintoists + and so forth, and that they are on the average just as honest and + well-behaved as its own father. For example, it should not be told that + Allah is a false god set up by the Turks and Arabs, who will all be damned + for taking that liberty; but it should be told that many English people + think so, and that many Turks and Arabs think the converse about English + people. It should be taught that Allah is simply the name by which God is + known to Turks and Arabs, who are just as eligible for salvation as any + Christian. Further, that the practical reason why a Turkish child should + pray in a mosque and an English child in a church is that as worship is + organized in Turkey in mosques in the name of Mahomet and in England in + churches in the name of Christ, a Turkish child joining the Church of + England or an English child following Mahomet will find that it has no + place for its worship and no organization of its religion within its + reach. Any other teaching of the history and present facts of religion is + false teaching, and is politically extremely dangerous in an empire in + which a huge majority of the fellow subjects of the governing island do + not profess the religion of that island. + </p> + <p> + But this objectivity, though intellectually honest, tells the child only + what other people believe. What it should itself believe is quite another + matter. The sort of Rationalism which says to a child "You must suspend + your judgment until you are old enough to choose your religion" is + Rationalism gone mad. The child must have a conscience and a code of honor + (which is the essence of religion) even if it be only a provisional one, + to be revised at its confirmation. For confirmation is meant to signalize + a spiritual coming of age, and may be a repudiation. Really active souls + have many confirmations and repudiations as their life deepens and their + knowledge widens. But what is to guide the child before its first + confirmation? Not mere orders, because orders must have a sanction of some + sort or why should the child obey them? If, as a Secularist, you refuse to + teach any sanction, you must say "You will be punished if you disobey." + "Yes," says the child to itself, "if I am found out; but wait until your + back is turned and I will do as I like, and lie about it." There can be no + objective punishment for successful fraud; and as no espionage can cover + the whole range of a child's conduct, the upshot is that the child becomes + a liar and schemer with an atrophied conscience. And a good many of the + orders given to it are not obeyed after all. Thus the Secularist who is + not a fool is forced to appeal to the child's vital impulse towards + perfection, to the divine spark; and no resolution not to call this + impulse an impulse of loyalty to the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, or + obedience to the Will of God, or any other standard theological term, can + alter the fact that the Secularist has stepped outside Secularism and is + educating the child religiously, even if he insists on repudiating that + pious adverb and substituting the word metaphysically. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0057" id="link2H_4_0057"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Natural Selection as a Religion + </h2> + <p> + We must make up our minds to it therefore that whatever measures we may be + forced to take to prevent the recruiting sergeants of the Churches, free + or established, from obtaining an exclusive right of entry to schools, we + shall not be able to exclude religion from them. The most horrible of all + religions: that which teaches us to regard ourselves as the helpless prey + of a series of senseless accidents called Natural Selection, is allowed + and even welcomed in so-called secular schools because it is, in a sense, + the negation of all religion; but for school purposes a religion is a + belief which affects conduct; and no belief affects conduct more radically + and often so disastrously as the belief that the universe is a product of + Natural Selection. What is more, the theory of Natural Selection cannot be + kept out of schools, because many of the natural facts that present the + most plausible appearance of design can be accounted for by Natural + Selection; and it would be so absurd to keep a child in delusive ignorance + of so potent a factor in evolution as to keep it in ignorance of radiation + or capillary attraction. Even if you make a religion of Natural Selection, + and teach the child to regard itself as the irresponsible prey of its + circumstances and appetites (or its heredity as you will perhaps call + them), you will none the less find that its appetites are stimulated by + your encouragement and daunted by your discouragement; that one of its + appetites is an appetite for perfection; that if you discourage this + appetite and encourage the cruder acquisitive appetites the child will + steal and lie and be a nuisance to you; and that if you encourage its + appetite for perfection and teach it to attach a peculiar sacredness to it + and place it before the other appetites, it will be a much nicer child and + you will have a much easier job, at which point you will, in spite of your + pseudoscientific jargon, find yourself back in the old-fashioned religious + teaching as deep as Dr. Watts and in fact fathoms deeper. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0058" id="link2H_4_0058"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Moral Instruction Leagues + </h2> + <p> + And now the voices of our Moral Instruction Leagues will be lifted, asking + whether there is any reason why the appetite for perfection should not be + cultivated in rationally scientific terms instead of being associated with + the story of Jonah and the great fish and the thousand other tales that + grow up round religions. Yes: there are many reasons; and one of them is + that children all like the story of Jonah and the whale (they insist on + its being a whale in spite of demonstrations by Bible smashers without any + sense of humor that Jonah would not have fitted into a whale's gullet—as + if the story would be credible of a whale with an enlarged throat) and + that no child on earth can stand moral instruction books or catechisms or + any other statement of the case for religion in abstract terms. The object + of a moral instruction book is not to be rational, scientific, exact, + proof against controversy, nor even credible: its object is to make + children good; and if it makes them sick instead its place is the + waste-paper basket. + </p> + <p> + Take for an illustration the story of Elisha and the bears. To the authors + of the moral instruction books it is in the last degree reprehensible. It + is obviously not true as a record of fact; and the picture it gives us of + the temper of God (which is what interests an adult reader) is shocking + and blasphemous. But it is a capital story for a child. It interests a + child because it is about bears; and it leaves the child with an + impression that children who poke fun at old gentlemen and make rude + remarks about bald heads are not nice children, which is a highly + desirable impression, and just as much as a child is capable of receiving + from the story. When a story is about God and a child, children take God + for granted and criticize the child. Adults do the opposite, and are + thereby led to talk great nonsense about the bad effect of Bible stories + on infants. + </p> + <p> + But let no one think that a child or anyone else can learn religion from a + teacher or a book or by any academic process whatever. It is only by an + unfettered access to the whole body of Fine Art: that is, to the whole + body of inspired revelation, that we can build up that conception of + divinity to which all virtue is an aspiration. And to hope to find this + body of art purified from all that is obsolete or dangerous or fierce or + lusty, or to pick and choose what will be good for any particular child, + much less for all children, is the shallowest of vanities. Such + schoolmasterly selection is neither possible nor desirable. Ignorance of + evil is not virtue but imbecility: admiring it is like giving a prize for + honesty to a man who has not stolen your watch because he did not know you + had one. Virtue chooses good from evil; and without knowledge there can be + no choice. And even this is a dangerous simplification of what actually + occurs. We are not choosing: we are growing. Were you to cut all of what + you call the evil out of a child, it would drop dead. If you try to + stretch it to full human stature when it is ten years old, you will simply + pull it into two pieces and be hanged. And when you try to do this + morally, which is what parents and schoolmasters are doing every day, you + ought to be hanged; and some day, when we take a sensible view of the + matter, you will be; and serve you right. The child does not stand between + a good and a bad angel: what it has to deal with is a middling angel who, + in normal healthy cases, wants to be a good angel as fast as it can + without killing itself in the process, which is a dangerous one. + </p> + <p> + Therefore there is no question of providing the child with a carefully + regulated access to good art. There is no good art, any more than there is + good anything else in the absolute sense. Art that is too good for the + child will either teach it nothing or drive it mad, as the Bible has + driven many people mad who might have kept their sanity had they been + allowed to read much lower forms of literature. The practical moral is + that we must read whatever stories, see whatever pictures, hear whatever + songs and symphonies, go to whatever plays we like. We shall not like + those which have nothing to say to us; and though everyone has a right to + bias our choice, no one has a right to deprive us of it by keeping us from + any work of art or any work of art from us. + </p> + <p> + I may now say without danger of being misunderstood that the popular + English compromise called Cowper Templeism (unsectarian Bible education) + is not so silly as it looks. It is true that the Bible inculcates half a + dozen religions: some of them barbarous; some cynical and pessimistic; + some amoristic and romantic; some sceptical and challenging; some kindly, + simple, and intuitional; some sophistical and intellectual; none suited to + the character and conditions of western civilization unless it be the + Christianity which was finally suppressed by the Crucifixion, and has + never been put into practice by any State before or since. But the Bible + contains the ancient literature of a very remarkable Oriental race; and + the imposition of this literature, on whatever false pretences, on our + children left them more literate than if they knew no literature at all, + which was the practical alternative. And as our Authorized Version is a + great work of art as well, to know it was better than knowing no art, + which also was the practical alternative. It is at least not a school + book; and it is not a bad story book, horrible as some of the stories are. + Therefore as between the Bible and the blank represented by secular + education, the choice is with the Bible. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0059" id="link2H_4_0059"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Bible + </h2> + <p> + But the Bible is not sufficient. The real Bible of modern Europe is the + whole body of great literature in which the inspiration and revelation of + Hebrew Scripture has been continued to the present day. Nietzsche's Thus + Spake Zoroaster is less comforting to the ill and unhappy than the Psalms; + but it is much truer, subtler, and more edifying. The pleasure we get from + the rhetoric of the book of Job and its tragic picture of a bewildered + soul cannot disguise the ignoble irrelevance of the retort of God with + which it closes, or supply the need of such modern revelations as + Shelley's Prometheus or The Niblung's Ring of Richard Wagner. There is + nothing in the Bible greater in inspiration than Beethoven's ninth + symphony; and the power of modern music to convey that inspiration to a + modern man is far greater than that of Elizabethan English, which is, + except for people steeped in the Bible from childhood like Sir Walter + Scott and Ruskin, a dead language. + </p> + <p> + Besides, many who have no ear for literature or for music are accessible + to architecture, to pictures, to statues, to dresses, and to the arts of + the stage. Every device of art should be brought to bear on the young; so + that they may discover some form of it that delights them naturally; for + there will come to all of them that period between dawning adolescence and + full maturity when the pleasures and emotions of art will have to satisfy + cravings which, if starved or insulted, may become morbid and seek + disgraceful satisfactions, and, if prematurely gratified otherwise than + poetically, may destroy the stamina of the race. And it must be borne in + mind that the most dangerous art for this necessary purpose is the art + that presents itself as religious ecstasy. Young people are ripe for love + long before they are ripe for religion. Only a very foolish person would + substitute the Imitation of Christ for Treasure Island as a present for a + boy or girl, or for Byron's Don Juan as a present for a swain or lass. + Pickwick is the safest saint for us in our nonage. Flaubert's Temptation + of St Anthony is an excellent book for a man of fifty, perhaps the best + within reach as a healthy study of visionary ecstasy; but for the purposes + of a boy of fifteen Ivanhoe and the Templar make a much better saint and + devil. And the boy of fifteen will find this out for himself if he is + allowed to wander in a well-stocked literary garden, and hear bands and + see pictures and spend his pennies on cinematograph shows. His choice may + often be rather disgusting to his elders when they want him to choose the + best before he is ready for it. The greatest Protestant Manifesto ever + written, as far as I know, is Houston Chamberlain's Foundations of the + Nineteenth Century: everybody capable of it should read it. Probably the + History of Maria Monk is at the opposite extreme of merit (this is a + guess: I have never read it); but it is certain that a boy let loose in a + library would go for Maria Monk and have no use whatever for Mr + Chamberlain. I should probably have read Maria Monk myself if I had not + had the Arabian Nights and their like to occupy me better. In art, + children, like adults, will find their level if they are left free to find + it, and not restricted to what adults think good for them. Just at present + our young people are going mad over ragtimes, apparently because + syncopated rhythms are new to them. If they had learnt what can be done + with syncopation from Beethoven's third Leonora overture, they would enjoy + the ragtimes all the more; but they would put them in their proper place + as amusing vulgarities. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0060" id="link2H_4_0060"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Artist Idolatry + </h2> + <p> + But there are more dangerous influences than ragtimes waiting for people + brought up in ignorance of fine art. Nothing is more pitiably ridiculous + than the wild worship of artists by those who have never been seasoned in + youth to the enchantments of art. Tenors and prima donnas, pianists and + violinists, actors and actresses enjoy powers of seduction which in the + middle ages would have exposed them to the risk of being burnt for + sorcery. But as they exercise this power by singing, playing, and acting, + no great harm is done except perhaps to themselves. Far graver are the + powers enjoyed by brilliant persons who are also connoisseurs in art. The + influence they can exercise on young people who have been brought up in + the darkness and wretchedness of a home without art, and in whom a natural + bent towards art has always been baffled and snubbed, is incredible to + those who have not witnessed and understood it. He (or she) who reveals + the world of art to them opens heaven to them. They become satellites, + disciples, worshippers of the apostle. Now the apostle may be a voluptuary + without much conscience. Nature may have given him enough virtue to + suffice in a reasonable environment. But this allowance may not be enough + to defend him against the temptation and demoralization of finding himself + a little god on the strength of what ought to be a quite ordinary culture. + He may find adorers in all directions in our uncultivated society among + people of stronger character than himself, not one of whom, if they had + been artistically educated, would have had anything to learn from him or + regarded him as in any way extraordinary apart from his actual + achievements as an artist. Tartuffe is not always a priest. Indeed he is + not always a rascal: he is often a weak man absurdly credited with + omniscience and perfection, and taking unfair advantages only because they + are offered to him and he is too weak to refuse. Give everyone his + culture, and no one will offer him more than his due. + </p> + <p> + In thus delivering our children from the idolatry of the artist, we shall + not destroy for them the enchantment of art: on the contrary, we shall + teach them to demand art everywhere as a condition attainable by + cultivating the body, mind, and heart. Art, said Morris, is the expression + of pleasure in work. And certainly, when work is made detestable by + slavery, there is no art. It is only when learning is made a slavery by + tyrannical teachers that art becomes loathsome to the pupil. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0061" id="link2H_4_0061"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + "The Machine" + </h2> + <p> + When we set to work at a Constitution to secure freedom for children, we + had better bear in mind that the children may not be at all obliged to us + for our pains. Rousseau said that men are born free; and this saying, in + its proper bearings, was and is a great and true saying; yet let it not + lead us into the error of supposing that all men long for freedom and + embrace it when it is offered to them. On the contrary, it has to be + forced on them; and even then they will give it the slip if it is not + religiously inculcated and strongly safeguarded. + </p> + <p> + Besides, men are born docile, and must in the nature of things remain so + with regard to everything they do not understand. Now political science + and the art of government are among the things they do not understand, and + indeed are not at present allowed to understand. They can be enslaved by a + system, as we are at present, because it happens to be there, and nobody + understands it. An intelligently worked Capitalist system, as Comte saw, + would give us all that most of us are intelligent enough to want. What + makes it produce such unspeakably vile results is that it is an automatic + system which is as little understood by those who profit by it in money as + by those who are starved and degraded by it: our millionaires and + statesmen are manifestly no more "captains of industry" or scientific + politicians than our bookmakers are mathematicians. For some time past a + significant word has been coming into use as a substitute for Destiny, + Fate, and Providence. It is "The Machine": the machine that has no god in + it. Why do governments do nothing in spite of reports of Royal Commissions + that establish the most frightful urgency? Why do our philanthropic + millionaires do nothing, though they are ready to throw bucketfuls of gold + into the streets? The Machine will not let them. Always the Machine. In + short, they dont know how. + </p> + <p> + They try to reform Society as an old lady might try to restore a broken + down locomotive by prodding it with a knitting needle. And this is not at + all because they are born fools, but because they have been educated, not + into manhood and freedom, but into blindness and slavery by their parents + and schoolmasters, themselves the victims of a similar misdirection, and + consequently of The Machine. They do not want liberty. They have not been + educated to want it. They choose slavery and inequality; and all the other + evils are automatically added to them. + </p> + <p> + And yet we must have The Machine. It is only in unskilled hands under + ignorant direction that machinery is dangerous. We can no more govern + modern communities without political machinery than we can feed and clothe + them without industrial machinery. Shatter The Machine, and you get + Anarchy. And yet The Machine works so detestably at present that we have + people who advocate Anarchy and call themselves Anarchists. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0062" id="link2H_4_0062"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + The Provocation to Anarchism + </h2> + <p> + What is valid in Anarchism is that all Governments try to simplify their + task by destroying liberty and glorifying authority in general and their + own deeds in particular. But the difficulty in combining law and order + with free institutions is not a natural one. It is a matter of + inculcation. If people are brought up to be slaves, it is useless and + dangerous to let them loose at the age of twenty-one and say "Now you are + free." No one with the tamed soul and broken spirit of a slave can be + free. It is like saying to a laborer brought up on a family income of + thirteen shillings a week, "Here is one hundred thousand pounds: now you + are wealthy." Nothing can make such a man really wealthy. Freedom and + wealth are difficult and responsible conditions to which men must be + accustomed and socially trained from birth. A nation that is free at + twenty-one is not free at all; just as a man first enriched at fifty + remains poor all his life, even if he does not curtail it by drinking + himself to death in the first wild ecstasy of being able to swallow as + much as he likes for the first time. You cannot govern men brought up as + slaves otherwise than as slaves are governed. You may pile Bills of Right + and Habeas Corpus Acts on Great Charters; promulgate American + Constitutions; burn the chateaux and guillotine the seigneurs; chop off + the heads of kings and queens and set up Democracy on the ruins of + feudalism: the end of it all for us is that already in the twentieth + century there has been as much brute coercion and savage intolerance, as + much flogging and hanging, as much impudent injustice on the bench and + lustful rancor in the pulpit, as much naive resort to torture, + persecution, and suppression of free speech and freedom of the press, as + much war, as much of the vilest excess of mutilation, rapine, and + delirious indiscriminate slaughter of helpless non-combatants, old and + young, as much prostitution of professional talent, literary and + political, in defence of manifest wrong, as much cowardly sycophancy + giving fine names to all this villainy or pretending that it is "greatly + exaggerated," as we can find any record of from the days when the advocacy + of liberty was a capital offence and Democracy was hardly thinkable. + Democracy exhibits the vanity of Louis XIV, the savagery of Peter of + Russia, the nepotism and provinciality of Napoleon, the fickleness of + Catherine II: in short, all the childishnesses of all the despots without + any of the qualities that enabled the greatest of them to fascinate and + dominate their contemporaries. + </p> + <p> + And the flatterers of Democracy are as impudently servile to the + successful, and insolent to common honest folk, as the flatterers of the + monarchs. Democracy in America has led to the withdrawal of ordinary + refined persons from politics; and the same result is coming in England as + fast as we make Democracy as democratic as it is in America. This is true + also of popular religion: it is so horribly irreligious that nobody with + the smallest pretence to culture, or the least inkling of what the great + prophets vainly tried to make the world understand, will have anything to + do with it except for purely secular reasons. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0063" id="link2H_4_0063"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Imagination + </h2> + <p> + Before we can clearly understand how baleful is this condition of + intimidation in which we live, it is necessary to clear up the confusion + made by our use of the word imagination to denote two very different + powers of mind. One is the power to imagine things as they are not: this I + call the romantic imagination. The other is the power to imagine things as + they are without actually sensing them; and this I will call the realistic + imagination. Take for example marriage and war. One man has a vision of + perpetual bliss with a domestic angel at home, and of flashing sabres, + thundering guns, victorious cavalry charges, and routed enemies in the + field. That is romantic imagination; and the mischief it does is + incalculable. It begins in silly and selfish expectations of the + impossible, and ends in spiteful disappointment, sour grievance, cynicism, + and misanthropic resistance to any attempt to better a hopeless world. The + wise man knows that imagination is not only a means of pleasing himself + and beguiling tedious hours with romances and fairy tales and fools' + paradises (a quite defensible and delightful amusement when you know + exactly what you are doing and where fancy ends and facts begin), but also + a means of foreseeing and being prepared for realities as yet + unexperienced, and of testing the possibility and desirability of serious + Utopias. He does not expect his wife to be an angel; nor does he overlook + the facts that war depends on the rousing of all the murderous + blackguardism still latent in mankind; that every victory means a defeat; + that fatigue, hunger, terror, and disease are the raw material which + romancers work up into military glory; and that soldiers for the most part + go to war as children go to school, because they are afraid not to. They + are afraid even to say they are afraid, as such candor is punishable by + death in the military code. + </p> + <p> + A very little realistic imagination gives an ambitious person enormous + power over the multitudinous victims of the romantic imagination. For the + romancer not only pleases himself with fictitious glories: he also + terrifies himself with imaginary dangers. He does not even picture what + these dangers are: he conceives the unknown as always dangerous. When you + say to a realist "You must do this" or "You must not do that," he + instantly asks what will happen to him if he does (or does not, as the + case may be). Failing an unromantic convincing answer, he does just as he + pleases unless he can find for himself a real reason for refraining. In + short, though you can intimidate him, you cannot bluff him. But you can + always bluff the romantic person: indeed his grasp of real considerations + is so feeble that you find it necessary to bluff him even when you have + solid considerations to offer him instead. The campaigns of Napoleon, with + their atmosphere of glory, illustrate this. In the Russian campaign + Napoleon's marshals achieved miracles of bluff, especially Ney, who, with + a handful of men, monstrously outnumbered, repeatedly kept the Russian + troops paralyzed with terror by pure bounce. Napoleon himself, much more a + realist than Ney (that was why he dominated him), would probably have + surrendered; for sometimes the bravest of the brave will achieve successes + never attempted by the cleverest of the clever. Wellington was a completer + realist than Napoleon. It was impossible to persuade Wellington that he + was beaten until he actually was beaten. He was unbluffable; and if + Napoleon had understood the nature of Wellington's strength instead of + returning Wellington's snobbish contempt for him by an academic contempt + for Wellington, he would not have left the attack at Waterloo to Ney and + D'Erlon, who, on that field, did not know when they were beaten, whereas + Wellington knew precisely when he was not beaten. The unbluffable would + have triumphed anyhow, probably, because Napoleon was an academic soldier, + doing the academic thing (the attack in columns and so forth) with + superlative ability and energy; whilst Wellington was an original soldier + who, instead of outdoing the terrible academic columns with still more + terrible and academic columns, outwitted them with the thin red line, not + of heroes, but, as this uncompromising realist never hesitated to testify, + of the scum of the earth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0064" id="link2H_4_0064"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Government by Bullies + </h2> + <p> + These picturesque martial incidents are being reproduced every day in our + ordinary life. We are bluffed by hardy simpletons and headstrong bounders + as the Russians were bluffed by Ney; and our Wellingtons are threadbound + by slave-democracy as Gulliver was threadbound by the Lilliputians. We are + a mass of people living in a submissive routine to which we have been + drilled from our childhood. When you ask us to take the simplest step + outside that routine, we say shyly, "Oh, I really couldnt," or "Oh, I + shouldnt like to," without being able to point out the smallest harm that + could possibly ensue: victims, not of a rational fear of real dangers, but + of pure abstract fear, the quintessence of cowardice, the very negation of + "the fear of God." Dotted about among us are a few spirits relatively free + from this inculcated paralysis, sometimes because they are half-witted, + sometimes because they are unscrupulously selfish, sometimes because they + are realists as to money and unimaginative as to other things, sometimes + even because they are exceptionally able, but always because they are not + afraid of shadows nor oppressed with nightmares. And we see these few + rising as if by magic into power and affluence, and forming, with the + millionaires who have accidentally gained huge riches by the occasional + windfalls of our commerce, the governing class. Now nothing is more + disastrous than a governing class that does not know how to govern. And + how can this rabble of the casual products of luck, cunning, and folly, be + expected to know how to govern? The merely lucky ones and the hereditary + ones do not owe their position to their qualifications at all. As to the + rest, the realism which seems their essential qualification often consists + not only in a lack of romantic imagination, which lack is a merit, but of + the realistic, constructive, Utopian imagination, which lack is a ghastly + defect. Freedom from imaginative illusion is therefore no guarantee + whatever of nobility of character: that is why inculcated submissiveness + makes us slaves to people much worse than ourselves, and why it is so + important that submissiveness should no longer be inculcated. + </p> + <p> + And yet as long as you have the compulsory school as we know it, we shall + have submissiveness inculcated. What is more, until the active hours of + child life are organized separately from the active hours of adult life, + so that adults can enjoy the society of children in reason without being + tormented, disturbed, harried, burdened, and hindered in their work by + them as they would be now if there were no compulsory schools and no + children hypnotized into the belief that they must tamely go to them and + be imprisoned and beaten and over-tasked in them, we shall have schools + under one pretext or another; and we shall have all the evil consequences + and all the social hopelessness that result from turning a nation of + potential freemen and freewomen into a nation of two-legged spoilt + spaniels with everything crushed out of their nature except dread of the + whip. Liberty is the breath of life to nations; and liberty is the one + thing that parents, schoolmasters, and rulers spend their lives in + extirpating for the sake of an immediately quiet and finally disastrous + life. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Notes on this etext: + This text was taken from a printed volume containing the + plays "Misalliance", "The Dark Lady of the Sonnets", + "Fanny's First Play", and the essay "A Treatise on Parents + and Children". + + Notes on the editing: Italicized text is delimited with + underlines ("_"). Punctuation and spelling retained as in + the printed text. Shaw intentionally spelled many words + according to a non-standard system. For example, "don't" is + given as "dont" (without apostrophe), "Dr." is given as "Dr" + (without a period at the end), and "Shakespeare" is given as + "Shakespear" (no "e" at the end). The pound (currency) + symbol has been replaced by the word "pounds". +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Treatise on Parents and Children, by +George Bernard Shaw + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN *** + +***** This file should be named 908-h.htm or 908-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/0/908/ + +Produced by Ron Burkey and Amy Thomte + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Treatise on Parents and Children + +Author: George Bernard Shaw + +Release Date: March 21, 2006 [EBook #908] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Burkey and Amy Thomte + + + + + +A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN + +By Bernard Shaw + + + +CONTENTS + + Parents and Children + Trailing Clouds of Glory + The Child is Father to the Man + What is a Child? + The Sin of Nadab and Abihu + The Manufacture of Monsters + Small and Large Families + Children as Nuisances + Child Fanciers + Childhood as a State of Sin + School + My Scholastic Acquirements + Schoolmasters of Genius + What We Do Not Teach, and Why + Taboo in Schools + Alleged Novelties in Modern Schools + What is to be Done? + Children's Rights and Duties + Should Children Earn their Living? + Children's Happiness + The Horror of the Perpetual Holiday + University Schoolboyishness + The New Laziness + The Infinite School Task + The Rewards and Risks of Knowledge + English Physical Hardihood and Spiritual Cowardice + The Risks of Ignorance and Weakness + The Common Sense of Toleration + The Sin of Athanasius + The Experiment Experimenting + Why We Loathe Learning and Love Sport + Antichrist + Under the Whip + Technical Instruction + Docility and Dependence + The Abuse of Docility + The Schoolboy and the Homeboy + The Comings of Age of Children + The Conflict of Wills + The Demagogue's Opportunity + Our Quarrelsomeness + We Must Reform Society before we can Reform Ourselves + The Pursuit of Manners + Not too much Wind on the Heath, Brother + Wanted: a Child's Magna Charta + The Pursuit of Learning + Children and Game: a Proposal + The Parents' Intolerable Burden + Mobilization + Children's Rights and Parents' Wrongs + How Little We Know About Our Parents + Our Abandoned Mothers + Family Affection + The Fate of the Family + Family Mourning + Art Teaching + The Impossibility of Secular Education + Natural Selection as a Religion + Moral Instruction Leagues + The Bible + Artist Idolatry + "The Machine" + The Provocation to Anarchism + Imagination + Government by Bullies + + + + +PARENTS AND CHILDREN + + + +Trailing Clouds of Glory + +Childhood is a stage in the process of that continual remanufacture of +the Life Stuff by which the human race is perpetuated. The Life Force +either will not or cannot achieve immortality except in very low +organisms: indeed it is by no means ascertained that even the amoeba is +immortal. Human beings visibly wear out, though they last longer than +their friends the dogs. Turtles, parrots, and elephants are believed to +be capable of outliving the memory of the oldest human inhabitant. But +the fact that new ones are born conclusively proves that they are not +immortal. Do away with death and you do away with the need for birth: in +fact if you went on breeding, you would finally have to kill old people +to make room for young ones. + +Now death is not necessarily a failure of energy on the part of the Life +Force. People with no imagination try to make things which will last for +ever, and even want to live for ever themselves. But the intelligently +imaginative man knows very well that it is waste of labor to make a +machine that will last ten years, because it will probably be superseded +in half that time by an improved machine answering the same purpose. +He also knows that if some devil were to convince us that our dream +of personal immortality is no dream but a hard fact, such a shriek of +despair would go up from the human race as no other conceivable horror +could provoke. With all our perverse nonsense as to John Smith living +for a thousand million eons and for ever after, we die voluntarily, +knowing that it is time for us to be scrapped, to be remanufactured, to +come back, as Wordsworth divined, trailing ever brightening clouds of +glory. We must all be born again, and yet again and again. We should +like to live a little longer just as we should like 50 pounds: that is, +we should take it if we could get it for nothing; but that sort of idle +liking is not will. It is amazing--considering the way we talk--how +little a man will do to get 50 pounds: all the 50-pound notes I have +ever known of have been more easily earned than a laborious sixpence; +but the difficulty of inducing a man to make any serious effort to +obtain 50 pounds is nothing to the difficulty of inducing him to make a +serious effort to keep alive. The moment he sees death approach, he gets +into bed and sends for a doctor. He knows very well at the back of +his conscience that he is rather a poor job and had better be +remanufactured. He knows that his death will make room for a birth; and +he hopes that it will be a birth of something that he aspired to be and +fell short of. He knows that it is through death and rebirth that +this corruptible shall become incorruptible, and this mortal put on +immortality. Practise as you will on his ignorance, his fears, and his +imagination, with bribes of paradises and threats of hells, there is +only one belief that can rob death of its sting and the grave of its +victory; and that is the belief that we can lay down the burden of our +wretched little makeshift individualities for ever at each lift towards +the goal of evolution, which can only be a being that cannot be improved +upon. After all, what man is capable of the insane self-conceit of +believing that an eternity of himself would be tolerable even to +himself? Those who try to believe it postulate that they shall be made +perfect first. But if you make me perfect I shall no longer be myself, +nor will it be possible for me to conceive my present imperfections (and +what I cannot conceive I cannot remember); so that you may just as well +give me a new name and face the fact that I am a new person and that +the old Bernard Shaw is as dead as mutton. Thus, oddly enough, the +conventional belief in the matter comes to this: that if you wish to +live for ever you must be wicked enough to be irretrievably damned, +since the saved are no longer what they were, and in hell alone do +people retain their sinful nature: that is to say, their individuality. +And this sort of hell, however convenient as a means of intimidating +persons who have practically no honor and no conscience, is not a fact. +Death is for many of us the gate of hell; but we are inside on the way +out, not outside on the way in. Therefore let us give up telling one +another idle stories, and rejoice in death as we rejoice in birth; for +without death we cannot be born again; and the man who does not wish +to be born again and born better is fit only to represent the City of +London in Parliament, or perhaps the university of Oxford. + + + + +The Child is Father to the Man + +Is he? Then in the name of common sense why do we always treat children +on the assumption that the man is father to the child? Oh, these +fathers! And we are not content with fathers: we must have godfathers, +forgetting that the child is godfather to the man. Has it ever struck +you as curious that in a country where the first article of belief is +that every child is born with a godfather whom we all call "our father +which art in heaven," two very limited individual mortals should +be allowed to appear at its baptism and explain that they are its +godparents, and that they will look after its salvation until it is no +longer a child. I had a godmother who made herself responsible in this +way for me. She presented me with a Bible with a gilt clasp and edges, +larger than the Bibles similarly presented to my sisters, because my sex +entitled me to a heavier article. I must have seen that lady at least +four times in the twenty years following. She never alluded to my +salvation in any way. People occasionally ask me to act as godfather to +their children with a levity which convinces me that they have not the +faintest notion that it involves anything more than calling the helpless +child George Bernard without regard to the possibility that it may grow +up in the liveliest abhorrence of my notions. + +A person with a turn for logic might argue that if God is the Father of +all men, and if the child is father to the man, it follows that the true +representative of God at the christening is the child itself. But such +posers are unpopular, because they imply that our little customs, or, +as we often call them, our religion, mean something, or must originally +have meant something, and that we understand and believe that something. + +However, my business is not to make confusion worse confounded, but to +clear it up. Only, it is as well to begin by a sample of current thought +and practice which shews that on the subject of children we are very +deeply confused. On the whole, whatever our theory or no theory may +be, our practice is to treat the child as the property of its immediate +physical parents, and to allow them to do what they like with it as far +as it will let them. It has no rights and no liberties: in short, its +condition is that which adults recognize as the most miserable and +dangerous politically possible for themselves: namely, the condition of +slavery. For its alleviation we trust to the natural affection of the +parties, and to public opinion. A father cannot for his own credit let +his son go in rags. Also, in a very large section of the population, +parents finally become dependent on their children. Thus there are +checks on child slavery which do not exist, or are less powerful, in the +case of manual and industrial slavery. Sensationally bad cases fall into +two classes, which are really the same class: namely, the children +whose parents are excessively addicted to the sensual luxury of petting +children, and the children whose parents are excessively addicted to the +sensual luxury of physically torturing them. There is a Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children which has effectually made an end of +our belief that mothers are any more to be trusted than stepmothers, or +fathers than slave-drivers. And there is a growing body of law designed +to prevent parents from using their children ruthlessly to make money +for the household. Such legislation has always been furiously resisted +by the parents, even when the horrors of factory slavery were at +their worst; and the extension of such legislation at present would be +impossible if it were not that the parents affected by it cannot control +a majority of votes in Parliament. In domestic life a great deal of +service is done by children, the girls acting as nursemaids and general +servants, and the lads as errand boys. In the country both boys and +girls do a substantial share of farm labor. This is why it is necessary +to coerce poor parents to send their children to school, though in the +relatively small class which keeps plenty of servants it is impossible +to induce parents to keep their children at home instead of paying +schoolmasters to take them off their hands. + +It appears then that the bond of affection between parents and children +does not save children from the slavery that denial of rights involves +in adult political relations. It sometimes intensifies it, sometimes +mitigates it; but on the whole children and parents confront one another +as two classes in which all the political power is on one side; and +the results are not at all unlike what they would be if there were no +immediate consanguinity between them, and one were white and the other +black, or one enfranchised and the other disenfranchised, or one ranked +as gentle and the other simple. Not that Nature counts for nothing in +the case and political rights for everything. But a denial of political +rights, and the resultant delivery of one class into the mastery of +another, affects their relations so extensively and profoundly that it +is impossible to ascertain what the real natural relations of the two +classes are until this political relation is abolished. + + + + +What is a Child? + +An experiment. A fresh attempt to produce the just man made perfect: +that is, to make humanity divine. And you will vitiate the experiment +if you make the slightest attempt to abort it into some fancy figure of +your own: for example, your notion of a good man or a womanly woman. +If you treat it as a little wild beast to be tamed, or as a pet to be +played with, or even as a means to save you trouble and to make money +for you (and these are our commonest ways), it may fight its way through +in spite of you and save its soul alive; for all its instincts will +resist you, and possibly be strengthened in the resistance; but if you +begin with its own holiest aspirations, and suborn them for your own +purposes, then there is hardly any limit to the mischief you may do. +Swear at a child, throw your boots at it, send it flying from the room +with a cuff or a kick; and the experience will be as instructive to the +child as a difficulty with a short-tempered dog or a bull. Francis Place +tells us that his father always struck his children when he found one +within his reach. The effect on the young Places seems to have been +simply to make them keep out of their father's way, which was no doubt +what he desired, as far as he desired anything at all. Francis records +the habit without bitterness, having reason to thank his stars that his +father respected the inside of his head whilst cuffing the outside of +it; and this made it easy for Francis to do yeoman's service to his +country as that rare and admirable thing, a Freethinker: the only +sort of thinker, I may remark, whose thoughts, and consequently whose +religious convictions, command any respect. + +Now Mr Place, senior, would be described by many as a bad father; and +I do not contend that he was a conspicuously good one. But as compared +with the conventional good father who deliberately imposes himself on +his son as a god; who takes advantage of childish credulity and parent +worship to persuade his son that what he approves of is right and what +he disapproves of is wrong; who imposes a corresponding conduct on the +child by a system of prohibitions and penalties, rewards and eulogies, +for which he claims divine sanction: compared to this sort of +abortionist and monster maker, I say, Place appears almost as a +Providence. Not that it is possible to live with children any more than +with grown-up people without imposing rules of conduct on them. There +is a point at which every person with human nerves has to say to a child +"Stop that noise." But suppose the child asks why! There are various +answers in use. The simplest: "Because it irritates me," may fail; for +it may strike the child as being rather amusing to irritate you; also +the child, having comparatively no nerves, may be unable to conceive +your meaning vividly enough. In any case it may want to make a noise +more than to spare your feelings. You may therefore have to explain +that the effect of the irritation will be that you will do something +unpleasant if the noise continues. The something unpleasant may be only +a look of suffering to rouse the child's affectionate sympathy (if it +has any), or it may run to forcible expulsion from the room with plenty +of unnecessary violence; but the principle is the same: there are no +false pretences involved: the child learns in a straightforward way that +it does not pay to be inconsiderate. Also, perhaps, that Mamma, who made +the child learn the Sermon on the Mount, is not really a Christian. + + + + +The Sin of Nadab and Abihu + +But there is another sort of answer in wide use which is neither +straightforward, instructive, nor harmless. In its simplest form it +substitutes for "Stop that noise," "Dont be naughty," which means that +the child, instead of annoying you by a perfectly healthy and natural +infantile procedure, is offending God. This is a blasphemous lie; and +the fact that it is on the lips of every nurserymaid does not excuse it +in the least. Dickens tells us of a nurserymaid who elaborated it into +"If you do that, angels wont never love you." I remember a servant who +used to tell me that if I were not good, by which she meant if I did +not behave with a single eye to her personal convenience, the cock would +come down the chimney. Less imaginative but equally dishonest people +told me I should go to hell if I did not make myself agreeable to them. +Bodily violence, provided it be the hasty expression of normal provoked +resentment and not vicious cruelty, cannot harm a child as this sort of +pious fraud harms it. There is a legal limit to physical cruelty; and +there are also human limits to it. There is an active Society which +brings to book a good many parents who starve and torture and overwork +their children, and intimidates a good many more. When parents of this +type are caught, they are treated as criminals; and not infrequently +the police have some trouble to save them from being lynched. The +people against whom children are wholly unprotected are those who devote +themselves to the very mischievous and cruel sort of abortion which is +called bringing up a child in the way it should go. Now nobody knows +the way a child should go. All the ways discovered so far lead to the +horrors of our existing civilizations, described quite justifiably by +Ruskin as heaps of agonizing human maggots, struggling with one another +for scraps of food. Pious fraud is an attempt to pervert that precious +and sacred thing the child's conscience into an instrument of our own +convenience, and to use that wonderful and terrible power called Shame +to grind our own axe. It is the sin of stealing fire from the altar: a +sin so impudently practised by popes, parents, and pedagogues, that one +can hardly expect the nurserymaids to see any harm in stealing a few +cinders when they are worrited. + +Into the blackest depths of this violation of children's souls one can +hardly bear to look; for here we find pious fraud masking the violation +of the body by obscene cruelty. Any parent or school teacher who takes +a secret and abominable delight in torture is allowed to lay traps into +which every child must fall, and then beat it to his or her heart's +content. A gentleman once wrote to me and said, with an obvious +conviction that he was being most reasonable and high minded, that the +only thing he beat his children for was failure in perfect obedience and +perfect truthfulness. On these attributes, he said, he must insist. As +one of them is not a virtue at all, and the other is the attribute of a +god, one can imagine what the lives of this gentleman's children would +have been if it had been possible for him to live down to his monstrous +and foolish pretensions. And yet he might have written his letter to The +Times (he very nearly did, by the way) without incurring any danger of +being removed to an asylum, or even losing his reputation for taking +a very proper view of his parental duties. And at least it was not a +trivial view, nor an ill meant one. It was much more respectable than +the general consensus of opinion that if a school teacher can devise a +question a child cannot answer, or overhear it calling omega omeega, +he or she may beat the child viciously. Only, the cruelty must be +whitewashed by a moral excuse, and a pretence of reluctance. It must be +for the child's good. The assailant must say "This hurts me more than +it hurts you." There must be hypocrisy as well as cruelty. The injury to +the child would be far less if the voluptuary said frankly "I beat you +because I like beating you; and I shall do it whenever I can contrive +an excuse for it." But to represent this detestable lust to the child +as Divine wrath, and the cruelty as the beneficent act of God, which is +exactly what all our floggers do, is to add to the torture of the body, +out of which the flogger at least gets some pleasure, the maiming and +blinding of the child's soul, which can bring nothing but horror to +anyone. + + + + +The Manufacture of Monsters + +This industry is by no means peculiar to China. The Chinese (they say) +make physical monsters. We revile them for it and proceed to make moral +monsters of our own children. The most excusable parents are those who +try to correct their own faults in their offspring. The parent who says +to his child: "I am one of the successes of the Almighty: therefore +imitate me in every particular or I will have the skin off your back" +(a quite common attitude) is a much more absurd figure than the man who, +with a pipe in his mouth, thrashes his boy for smoking. If you must hold +yourself up to your children as an object lesson (which is not at all +necessary), hold yourself up as a warning and not as an example. But +you had much better let the child's character alone. If you once allow +yourself to regard a child as so much material for you to manufacture +into any shape that happens to suit your fancy you are defeating the +experiment of the Life Force. You are assuming that the child does +not know its own business, and that you do. In this you are sure to be +wrong: the child feels the drive of the Life Force (often called the +Will of God); and you cannot feel it for him. Handel's parents no doubt +thought they knew better than their child when they tried to prevent +his becoming a musician. They would have been equally wrong and equally +unsuccessful if they had tried to prevent the child becoming a great +rascal had its genius lain in that direction. Handel would have been +Handel, and Napoleon and Peter of Russia _them_selves in spite of all +the parents in creation, because, as often happens, they were stronger +than their parents. But this does not happen always. Most children +can be, and many are, hopelessly warped and wasted by parents who are +ignorant and silly enough to suppose that they know what a human being +ought to be, and who stick at nothing in their determination to force +their children into their moulds. Every child has a right to its own +bent. It has a right to be a Plymouth Brother though its parents be +convinced atheists. It has a right to dislike its mother or father or +sister or brother or uncle or aunt if they are antipathetic to it. It +has a right to find its own way and go its own way, whether that way +seems wise or foolish to others, exactly as an adult has. It has a right +to privacy as to its own doings and its own affairs as much as if it +were its own father. + + + + +Small and Large Families + +These rights have now become more important than they used to be, +because the modern practice of limiting families enables them to be +more effectually violated. In a family of ten, eight, six, or even four +children, the rights of the younger ones to a great extent take care of +themselves and of the rights of the elder ones too. Two adult parents, +in spite of a house to keep and an income to earn, can still interfere +to a disastrous extent with the rights and liberties of one child. But +by the time a fourth child has arrived, they are not only outnumbered +two to one, but are getting tired of the thankless and mischievous job +of bringing up their children in the way they think they should go. The +old observation that members of large families get on in the world +holds good because in large families it is impossible for each child to +receive what schoolmasters call "individual attention." The children +may receive a good deal of individual attention from one another in the +shape of outspoken reproach, ruthless ridicule, and violent resistance +to their attempts at aggression; but the parental despots are compelled +by the multitude of their subjects to resort to political rather than +personal rule, and to spread their attempts at moral monster-making over +so many children, that each child has enough freedom, and enough sport +in the prophylactic process of laughing at its elders behind their +backs, to escape with much less damage than the single child. In a large +school the system may be bad; but the personal influence of the head +master has to be exerted, when it is exerted at all, in a public way, +because he has little more power of working on the affections of the +individual scholar in the intimate way that, for example, the mother +of a single child can, than the prime minister has of working on the +affections of any individual voter. + + + + +Children as Nuisances + +Experienced parents, when children's rights are preached to them, very +naturally ask whether children are to be allowed to do what they like. +The best reply is to ask whether adults are to be allowed to do what +they like. The two cases are the same. The adult who is nasty is not +allowed to do what he likes: neither can the child who likes to be +nasty. There is no difference in principle between the rights of a +child and those of an adult: the difference in their cases is one of +circumstance. An adult is not supposed to be punished except by process +of law; nor, when he is so punished, is the person whom he has injured +allowed to act as judge, jury, and executioner. It is true that +employers do act in this way every day to their workpeople; but this is +not a justified and intended part of the situation: it is an abuse +of Capitalism which nobody defends in principle. As between child and +parent or nurse it is not argued about because it is inevitable. You +cannot hold an impartial judicial inquiry every time a child misbehaves +itself. To allow the child to misbehave without instantly making it +unpleasantly conscious of the fact would be to spoil it. The adult has +therefore to take action of some sort with nothing but his conscience +to shield the child from injustice or unkindness. The action may be a +torrent of scolding culminating in a furious smack causing terror +and pain, or it may be a remonstrance causing remorse, or it may be a +sarcasm causing shame and humiliation, or it may be a sermon causing the +child to believe that it is a little reprobate on the road to hell. The +child has no defence in any case except the kindness and conscience of +the adult; and the adult had better not forget this; for it involves a +heavy responsibility. + +And now comes our difficulty. The responsibility, being so heavy, cannot +be discharged by persons of feeble character or intelligence. And yet +people of high character and intelligence cannot be plagued with the +care of children. A child is a restless, noisy little animal, with +an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and consequently a maddening +persistence in asking questions. If the child is to remain in the room +with a highly intelligent and sensitive adult, it must be told, and if +necessary forced, to sit still and not speak, which is injurious to +its health, unnatural, unjust, and therefore cruel and selfish beyond +toleration. Consequently the highly intelligent and sensitive adult +hands the child over to a nurserymaid who has no nerves and can +therefore stand more noise, but who has also no scruples, and may +therefore be very bad company for the child. + +Here we have come to the central fact of the question: a fact nobody +avows, which is yet the true explanation of the monstrous system of +child imprisonment and torture which we disguise under such hypocrisies +as education, training, formation of character and the rest of it. This +fact is simply that a child is a nuisance to a grown-up person. What +is more, the nuisance becomes more and more intolerable as the grown-up +person becomes more cultivated, more sensitive, and more deeply engaged +in the highest methods of adult work. The child at play is noisy and +ought to be noisy: Sir Isaac Newton at work is quiet and ought to be +quiet. And the child should spend most of its time at play, whilst the +adult should spend most of his time at work. I am not now writing on +behalf of persons who coddle themselves into a ridiculous condition of +nervous feebleness, and at last imagine themselves unable to work +under conditions of bustle which to healthy people are cheerful and +stimulating. I am sure that if people had to choose between living where +the noise of children never stopped and where it was never heard, all +the goodnatured and sound people would prefer the incessant noise to the +incessant silence. But that choice is not thrust upon us by the nature +of things. There is no reason why children and adults should not see +just as much of one another as is good for them, no more and no less. +Even at present you are not compelled to choose between sending your +child to a boarding school (which means getting rid of it altogether on +more or less hypocritical pretences) and keeping it continually at home. +Most working folk today either send their children to day schools or +turn them out of doors. This solves the problem for the parents. It does +not solve it for the children, any more than the tethering of a goat in +a field or the chasing of an unlicensed dog into the streets solves +it for the goat or the dog; but it shews that in no class are people +willing to endure the society of their children, and consequently +that it is an error to believe that the family provides children with +edifying adult society, or that the family is a social unit. The family +is in that, as in so many other respects, a humbug. Old people and young +people cannot walk at the same pace without distress and final loss of +health to one of the parties. When they are sitting indoors they cannot +endure the same degrees of temperature and the same supplies of +fresh air. Even if the main factors of noise, restlessness, and +inquisitiveness are left out of account, children can stand with +indifference sights, sounds, smells, and disorders that would make an +adult of fifty utterly miserable; whilst on the other hand such +adults find a tranquil happiness in conditions which to children mean +unspeakable boredom. And since our system is nevertheless to pack them +all into the same house and pretend that they are happy, and that this +particular sort of happiness is the foundation of virtue, it is found +that in discussing family life we never speak of actual adults or actual +children, or of realities of any sort, but always of ideals such as +The Home, a Mother's Influence, a Father's Care, Filial Piety, Duty, +Affection, Family Life, etc. etc., which are no doubt very comforting +phrases, but which beg the question of what a home and a mother's +influence and a father's care and so forth really come to in practice. +How many hours a week of the time when his children are out of bed does +the ordinary bread-winning father spend in the company of his children +or even in the same building with them? The home may be a thieves' +kitchen, the mother a procuress, the father a violent drunkard; or the +mother and father may be fashionable people who see their children three +or four times a year during the holidays, and then not oftener than +they can help, living meanwhile in daily and intimate contact with their +valets and lady's-maids, whose influence and care are often dominant in +the household. Affection, as distinguished from simple kindliness, may +or may not exist: when it does it either depends on qualities in the +parties that would produce it equally if they were of no kin to one +another, or it is a more or less morbid survival of the nursing passion; +for affection between adults (if they are really adult in mind and not +merely grown-up children) and creatures so relatively selfish and cruel +as children necessarily are without knowing it or meaning it, cannot be +called natural: in fact the evidence shews that it is easier to love the +company of a dog than of a commonplace child between the ages of six and +the beginnings of controlled maturity; for women who cannot bear to be +separated from their pet dogs send their children to boarding schools +cheerfully. They may say and even believe that in allowing their +children to leave home they are sacrificing themselves for their +children's good; but there are very few pet dogs who would not be +the better for a month or two spent elsewhere than in a lady's lap or +roasting on a drawingroom hearthrug. Besides, to allege that children +are better continually away from home is to give up the whole popular +sentimental theory of the family; yet the dogs are kept and the children +are banished. + + + + +Child Fanciers + +There is, however, a good deal of spurious family affection. There is +the clannishness that will make a dozen brothers and sisters who quarrel +furiously among themselves close up their ranks and make common cause +against a brother-in-law or a sister-in-law. And there is a strong sense +of property in children, which often makes mothers and fathers bitterly +jealous of allowing anyone else to interfere with their children, whom +they may none the less treat very badly. And there is an extremely +dangerous craze for children which leads certain people to establish +orphanages and baby farms and schools, seizing any pretext for filling +their houses with children exactly as some eccentric old ladies and +gentlemen fill theirs with cats. In such places the children are the +victims of all the caprices of doting affection and all the excesses +of lascivious cruelty. Yet the people who have this morbid craze seldom +have any difficulty in finding victims. Parents and guardians are so +worried by children and so anxious to get rid of them that anyone who +is willing to take them off their hands is welcomed and whitewashed. +The very people who read with indignation of Squeers and Creakle in the +novels of Dickens are quite ready to hand over their own children +to Squeers and Creakle, and to pretend that Squeers and Creakle +are monsters of the past. But read the autobiography of Stanley the +traveller, or sit in the company of men talking about their school-days, +and you will soon find that fiction, which must, if it is to be sold and +read, stop short of being positively sickening, dare not tell the whole +truth about the people to whom children are handed over on educational +pretexts. Not very long ago a schoolmaster in Ireland was murdered by +his boys; and for reasons which were never made public it was at +first decided not to prosecute the murderers. Yet all these flogging +schoolmasters and orphanage fiends and baby farmers are "lovers of +children." They are really child fanciers (like bird fanciers or dog +fanciers) by irresistible natural predilection, never happy unless they +are surrounded by their victims, and always certain to make their living +by accepting the custody of children, no matter how many alternative +occupations may be available. And bear in mind that they are only +the extreme instances of what is commonly called natural affection, +apparently because it is obviously unnatural. + +The really natural feeling of adults for children in the long prosaic +intervals between the moments of affectionate impulse is just that +feeling that leads them to avoid their care and constant company as a +burden beyond bearing, and to pretend that the places they send them to +are well conducted, beneficial, and indispensable to the success of the +children in after life. The true cry of the kind mother after her little +rosary of kisses is "Run away, darling." It is nicer than "Hold +your noise, you young devil; or it will be the worse for you"; but +fundamentally it means the same thing: that if you compel an adult and +a child to live in one another's company either the adult or the child +will be miserable. There is nothing whatever unnatural or wrong or +shocking in this fact; and there is no harm in it if only it be sensibly +faced and provided for. The mischief that it does at present is +produced by our efforts to ignore it, or to smother it under a heap of +sentimental lies and false pretences. + + + + +Childhood as a State of Sin + +Unfortunately all this nonsense tends to accumulate as we become more +sympathetic. In many families it is still the custom to treat childhood +frankly as a state of sin, and impudently proclaim the monstrous +principle that little children should be seen and not heard, and to +enforce a set of prison rules designed solely to make cohabitation +with children as convenient as possible for adults without the smallest +regard for the interests, either remote or immediate, of the +children. This system tends to produce a tough, rather brutal, stupid, +unscrupulous class, with a fixed idea that all enjoyment consists in +undetected sinning; and in certain phases of civilization people of this +kind are apt to get the upper hand of more amiable and conscientious +races and classes. They have the ferocity of a chained dog, and are +proud of it. But the end of it is that they are always in chains, +even at the height of their military or political success: they +win everything on condition that they are afraid to enjoy it. Their +civilizations rest on intimidation, which is so necessary to them that +when they cannot find anybody brave enough to intimidate them they +intimidate themselves and live in a continual moral and political panic. +In the end they get found out and bullied. But that is not the point +that concerns us here, which is, that they are in some respects better +brought up than the children of sentimental people who are always +anxious and miserable about their duty to their children, and who end +by neither making their children happy nor having a tolerable life for +themselves. A selfish tyrant you know where to have, and he (or she) at +least does not confuse your affections; but a conscientious and kindly +meddler may literally worry you out of your senses. It is fortunate that +only very few parents are capable of doing what they conceive their duty +continuously or even at all, and that still fewer are tough enough to +ride roughshod over their children at home. + + + + +School + +But please observe the limitation "at home." What private amateur +parental enterprise cannot do may be done very effectively by organized +professional enterprise in large institutions established for the +purpose. And it is to such professional enterprise that parents hand +over their children when they can afford it. They send their children +to school; and there is, on the whole, nothing on earth intended for +innocent people so horrible as a school. To begin with, it is a prison. +But it is in some respects more cruel than a prison. In a prison, for +instance, you are not forced to read books written by the warders and +the governor (who of course would not be warders and governors if they +could write readable books), and beaten or otherwise tormented if you +cannot remember their utterly unmemorable contents. In the prison you +are not forced to sit listening to turnkeys discoursing without charm or +interest on subjects that they dont understand and dont care about, and +are therefore incapable of making you understand or care about. In a +prison they may torture your body; but they do not torture your brains; +and they protect you against violence and outrage from your fellow +prisoners. In a school you have none of these advantages. With the +world's bookshelves loaded with fascinating and inspired books, the very +manna sent down from Heaven to feed your souls, you are forced to read +a hideous imposture called a school book, written by a man who cannot +write: a book from which no human being can learn anything: a book +which, though you may decipher it, you cannot in any fruitful sense +read, though the enforced attempt will make you loathe the sight of +a book all the rest of your life. With millions of acres of woods and +valleys and hills and wind and air and birds and streams and fishes and +all sorts of instructive and healthy things easily accessible, or with +streets and shop windows and crowds and vehicles and all sorts of city +delights at the door, you are forced to sit, not in a room with some +human grace and comfort or furniture and decoration, but in a stalled +pound with a lot of other children, beaten if you talk, beaten if you +move, beaten if you cannot prove by answering idiotic questions that +even when you escaped from the pound and from the eye of your gaoler, +you were still agonizing over his detestable sham books instead of +daring to live. And your childish hatred of your gaoler and flogger is +nothing to his adult hatred of you; for he is a slave forced to endure +your society for his daily bread. You have not even the satisfaction of +knowing how you are torturing him and how he loathes you; and you give +yourself unnecessary pains to annoy him with furtive tricks and spiteful +doing of forbidden things. No wonder he is sometimes provoked to +fiendish outbursts of wrath. No wonder men of downright sense, like Dr +Johnson, admit that under such circumstances children will not learn +anything unless they are so cruelly beaten that they make desperate +efforts to memorize words and phrases to escape flagellation. It is a +ghastly business, quite beyond words, this schooling. + +And now I hear cries of protest arising all round. First my own +schoolmasters, or their ghosts, asking whether I was cruelly beaten at +school? No; but then I did not learn anything at school. Dr Johnson's +schoolmaster presumably did care enough whether Sam learned anything to +beat him savagely enough to force him to lame his mind--for +Johnson's great mind _was_ lamed--by learning his lessons. None of my +schoolmasters really cared a rap (or perhaps it would be fairer to them +to say that their employers did not care a rap and therefore did not +give them the necessary caning powers) whether I learnt my lessons or +not, provided my father paid my schooling bill, the collection of which +was the real object of the school. Consequently I did not learn my +school lessons, having much more important ones in hand, with the result +that I have not wasted my life trifling with literary fools in taverns +as Johnson did when he should have been shaking England with the thunder +of his spirit. My schooling did me a great deal of harm and no good +whatever: it was simply dragging a child's soul through the dirt; but I +escaped Squeers and Creakle just as I escaped Johnson and Carlyle. And +this is what happens to most of us. We are not effectively coerced to +learn: we stave off punishment as far as we can by lying and trickery +and guessing and using our wits; and when this does not suffice we +scribble impositions, or suffer extra imprisonments--"keeping in" was +the phrase in my time--or let a master strike us with a cane and fall +back on our pride at being able to hear it physically (he not being +allowed to hit us too hard) to outface the dishonor we should have been +taught to die rather than endure. And so idleness and worthlessness on +the one hand and a pretence of coercion on the other became a despicable +routine. If my schoolmasters had been really engaged in educating me +instead of painfully earning their bread by keeping me from annoying my +elders they would have turned me out of the school, telling me that I +was thoroughly disloyal to it; that I had no intention of learning; that +I was mocking and distracting the boys who did wish to learn; that I was +a liar and a shirker and a seditious little nuisance; and that nothing +could injure me in character and degrade their occupation more than +allowing me (much less forcing me) to remain in the school under such +conditions. But in order to get expelled, it was necessary commit +a crime of such atrocity that the parents of other boys would +have threatened to remove their sons sooner than allow them to be +schoolfellows with the delinquent. I can remember only one case in which +such a penalty was threatened; and in that case the culprit, a boarder, +had kissed a housemaid, or possibly, being a handsome youth, been kissed +by her. She did not kiss me; and nobody ever dreamt of expelling me. The +truth was, a boy meant just so much a year to the institution. That was +why he was kept there against his will. That was why he was kept there +when his expulsion would have been an unspeakable relief and benefit +both to his teachers and himself. + +It may be argued that if the uncommercial attitude had been taken, +and all the disloyal wasters and idlers shewn sternly to the door, +the school would not have been emptied, but filled. But so honest an +attitude was impossible. The masters must have hated the school much +more than the boys did. Just as you cannot imprison a man without +imprisoning a warder to see that he does not escape, the warder being +tied to the prison as effectually by the fear of unemployment and +starvation as the prisoner is by the bolts and bars, so these poor +schoolmasters, with their small salaries and large classes, were as much +prisoners as we were, and much more responsible and anxious ones. They +could not impose the heroic attitude on their employers; nor would they +have been able to obtain places as schoolmasters if their habits had +been heroic. For the best of them their employment was provisional: they +looked forward to escaping from it into the pulpit. The ablest and most +impatient of them were often so irritated by the awkward, slow-witted, +slovenly boys: that is, the ones that required special consideration and +patient treatment, that they vented their irritation on them ruthlessly, +nothing being easier than to entrap or bewilder such a boy into giving a +pretext for punishing him. + + + + +My Scholastic Acquirements + +The results, as far as I was concerned, were what might have been +expected. My school made only the thinnest pretence of teaching anything +but Latin and Greek. When I went there as a very small boy I knew a good +deal of Latin grammar which I had been taught in a few weeks privately +by my uncle. When I had been several years at school this same uncle +examined me and discovered that the net result of my schooling was that +I had forgotten what he had taught me, and had learnt nothing else. To +this day, though I can still decline a Latin noun and repeat some of the +old paradigms in the old meaningless way, because their rhythm sticks +to me, I have never yet seen a Latin inscription on a tomb that I could +translate throughout. Of Greek I can decipher perhaps the greater +part of the Greek alphabet. In short, I am, as to classical education, +another Shakespear. I can read French as easily as English; and under +pressure of necessity I can turn to account some scraps of German and +a little operatic Italian; but these I was never taught at school. +Instead, I was taught lying, dishonorable submission to tyranny, dirty +stories, a blasphemous habit of treating love and maternity as +obscene jokes, hopelessness, evasion, derision, cowardice, and all the +blackguard's shifts by which the coward intimidates other cowards. And +if I had been a boarder at an English public school instead of a day boy +at an Irish one, I might have had to add to these, deeper shames still. + + + + +Schoolmasters of Genius + +And now, if I have reduced the ghosts of my schoolmasters to melancholy +acquiescence in all this (which everybody who has been at an ordinary +school will recognize as true), I have still to meet the much more +sincere protests of the handful of people who have a natural genius for +"bringing up" children. I shall be asked with kindly scorn whether I +have heard of Froebel and Pestalozzi, whether I know the work that is +being done by Miss Mason and the Dottoressa Montessori or, best of all +as I think, the Eurythmics School of Jacques Dalcroze at Hellerau near +Dresden. Jacques Dalcroze, like Plato, believes in saturating his pupils +with music. They walk to music, play to music, work to music, obey drill +commands that would bewilder a guardsman to music, think to music, +live to music, get so clearheaded about music that they can move their +several limbs each in a different metre until they become complicated +living magazines of cross rhythms, and, what is more, make music +for others to do all these things to. Stranger still, though Jacques +Dalcroze, like all these great teachers, is the completest of tyrants, +knowing what is right and that he must and will have the lesson just so +or else break his heart (not somebody else's, observe), yet his school +is so fascinating that every woman who sees it exclaims "Oh, why was I +not taught like this!" and elderly gentlemen excitedly enrol themselves +as students and distract classes of infants by their desperate endeavors +to beat two in a bar with one hand and three with the other, and start +off on earnest walks round the room, taking two steps backward whenever +Monsieur Daleroze calls out "Hop!" Oh yes: I know all about these +wonderful schools that you cannot keep children or even adults out of, +and these teachers whom their pupils not only obey without coercion, but +adore. And if you will tell me roughly how many Masons and Montessoris +and Dalcrozes you think you can pick up in Europe for salaries of from +thirty shillings to five pounds a week, I will estimate your chances +of converting your millions of little scholastic hells into little +scholastic heavens. If you are a distressed gentlewoman starting to make +a living, you can still open a little school; and you can easily buy a +secondhand brass plate inscribed PESTALOZZIAN INSTITUTE and nail it to +your door, though you have no more idea of who Pestalozzi was and what +he advocated or how he did it than the manager of a hotel which began +as a Hydropathic has of the water cure. Or you can buy a cheaper plate +inscribed KINDERGARTEN, and imagine, or leave others to imagine, that +Froebel is the governing genius of your little _creche_. No doubt the +new brass plates are being inscribed Montessori Institute, and will be +used when the Dotteressa is no longer with us by all the Mrs Pipchins +and Mrs Wilfers throughout this unhappy land. + +I will go further, and admit that the brass plates may not all be +frauds. I will tell you that one of my friends was led to genuine +love and considerable knowledge of classical literature by an Irish +schoolmaster whom you would call a hedge schoolmaster (he would not be +allowed to teach anything now) and that it took four years of Harrow +to obliterate that knowledge and change the love into loathing. Another +friend of mine who keeps a school in the suburbs, and who deeply +deplores my "prejudice against schoolmasters," has offered to accept my +challenge to tell his pupils that they are as free to get up and go out +of the school at any moment as their parents are to get up and go out +of a theatre where my plays are being performed. Even among my own +schoolmasters I can recollect a few whose classes interested me, and +whom I should certainly have pestered for information and instruction +if I could have got into any decent human relationship with them, and +if they had not been compelled by their position to defend themselves as +carefully against such advances as against furtive attempts to hurt them +accidentally in the football field or smash their hats with a clod from +behind a wall. But these rare cases actually do more harm than good; for +they encourage us to pretend that all schoolmasters are like that. +Of what use is it to us that there are always somewhere two or three +teachers of children whose specific genius for their occupation triumphs +over our tyrannous system and even finds in it its opportunity? For that +matter, it is possible, if difficult, to find a solicitor, or even a +judge, who has some notion of what law means, a doctor with a glimmering +of science, an officer who understands duty and discipline, and a +clergyman with an inkling of religion, though there are nothing like +enough of them to go round. But even the few who, like Ibsen's Mrs +Solness, have "a genius for nursing the souls of little children" are +like angels forced to work in prisons instead of in heaven; and even +at that they are mostly underpaid and despised. That friend of mine who +went from the hedge schoolmaster to Harrow once saw a schoolmaster rush +from an elementary school in pursuit of a boy and strike him. My friend, +not considering that the unfortunate man was probably goaded +beyond endurance, smote the schoolmaster and blackened his eye. The +schoolmaster appealed to the law; and my friend found himself waiting +nervously in the Hammersmith Police Court to answer for his breach of +the peace. In his anxiety he asked a police officer what would happen +to him. "What did you do?" said the officer. "I gave a man a black eye" +said my friend. "Six pounds if he was a gentleman: two pounds if he +wasnt," said the constable. "He was a schoolmaster" said my friend. "Two +pounds" said the officer; and two pounds it was. The blood money was +paid cheerfully; and I have ever since advised elementary schoolmasters +to qualify themselves in the art of self-defence, as the British +Constitution expresses our national estimate of them by allowing us to +blacken three of their eyes for the same price as one of an ordinary +professional man. How many Froebels and Pestalozzis and Miss Masons and +Doctoress Montessoris would you be likely to get on these terms even if +they occurred much more frequently in nature than they actually do? + +No: I cannot be put off by the news that our system would be perfect if +it were worked by angels. I do not admit it even at that, just as I do +not admit that if the sky fell we should all catch larks. But I do +not propose to bother about a supply of specific genius which does +not exist, and which, if it did exist, could operate only by at once +recognizing and establishing the rights of children. + + + + +What We Do Not Teach, and Why + +To my mind, a glance at the subjects now taught in schools ought to +convince any reasonable person that the object of the lessons is to keep +children out of mischief, and not to qualify them for their part in life +as responsible citizens of a free State. It is not possible to maintain +freedom in any State, no matter how perfect its original constitution, +unless its publicly active citizens know a good deal of constitutional +history, law, and political science, with its basis of economics. If +as much pains had been taken a century ago to make us all understand +Ricardo's law of rent as to learn our catechisms, the face of the world +would have been changed for the better. But for that very reason the +greatest care is taken to keep such beneficially subversive +knowledge from us, with the result that in public life we are either +place-hunters, anarchists, or sheep shepherded by wolves. + +But it will be observed that these are highly controversial subjects. +Now no controversial subject can be taught dogmatically. He who knows +only the official side of a controversy knows less than nothing of its +nature. The abler a schoolmaster is, the more dangerous he is to his +pupils unless they have the fullest opportunity of hearing another +equally able person do his utmost to shake his authority and convict him +of error. + +At present such teaching is very unpopular. It does not exist in +schools; but every adult who derives his knowledge of public affairs +from the newspapers can take in, at the cost of an extra halfpenny, two +papers of opposite politics. Yet the ordinary man so dislikes having his +mind unsettled, as he calls it, that he angrily refuses to allow a paper +which dissents from his views to be brought into his house. Even at his +club he resents seeing it, and excludes it if it happens to run counter +to the opinions of all the members. The result is that his opinions are +not worth considering. A churchman who never reads The Freethinker very +soon has no more real religion than the atheist who never reads The +Church Times. The attitude is the same in both cases: they want to hear +nothing good of their enemies; consequently they remain enemies and +suffer from bad blood all their lives; whereas men who know their +opponents and understand their case, quite commonly respect and like +them, and always learn something from them. + +Here, again, as at so many points, we come up against the abuse of +schools to keep people in ignorance and error, so that they may be +incapable of successful revolt against their industrial slavery. The +most important simple fundamental economic truth to impress on a +child in complicated civilizations like ours is the truth that whoever +consumes goods or services without producing by personal effort the +equivalent of what he or she consumes, inflicts on the community +precisely the same injury that a thief produces, and would, in any +honest State, be treated as a thief, however full his or her pockets +might be of money made by other people. The nation that first teaches +its children that truth, instead of flogging them if they discover +it for themselves, may have to fight all the slaves of all the other +nations to begin with; but it will beat them as easily as an unburdened +man with his hands free and with all his energies in full play can beat +an invalid who has to carry another invalid on his back. + +This, however, is not an evil produced by the denial of children's +rights, nor is it inherent in the nature of schools. I mention it only +because it would be folly to call for a reform of our schools without +taking account of the corrupt resistance which awaits the reformer. + +A word must also be said about the opposition to reform of the vested +interest of the classical and coercive schoolmaster. He, poor wretch, +has no other means of livelihood; and reform would leave him as a +workman is now left when he is superseded by a machine. He had therefore +better do what he can to get the workman compensated, so as to make the +public familiar with the idea of compensation before his own turn comes. + + + + +Taboo in Schools + +The suppression of economic knowledge, disastrous as it is, is quite +intelligible, its corrupt motive being as clear as the motive of a +burglar for concealing his jemmy from a policeman. But the other great +suppression in our schools, the suppression of the subject of sex, is a +case of taboo. In mankind, the lower the type, and the less cultivated +the mind, the less courage there is to face important subjects +objectively. The ablest and most highly cultivated people continually +discuss religion, politics, and sex: it is hardly an exaggeration to say +that they discuss nothing else with fully-awakened interest. Commoner +and less cultivated people, even when they form societies for +discussion, make a rule that politics and religion are not to be +mentioned, and take it for granted that no decent person would attempt +to discuss sex. The three subjects are feared because they rouse the +crude passions which call for furious gratification in murder and rapine +at worst, and, at best, lead to quarrels and undesirable states of +consciousness. + +Even when this excuse of bad manners, ill temper, and brutishness (for +that is what it comes to) compels us to accept it from those adults +among whom political and theological discussion does as a matter of fact +lead to the drawing of knives and pistols, and sex discussion leads to +obscenity, it has no application to children except as an imperative +reason for training them to respect other people's opinions, and to +insist on respect for their own in these as in other important matters +which are equally dangerous: for example, money. And in any case +there are decisive reasons; superior, like the reasons for +suspending conventional reticences between doctor and patient, to all +considerations of mere decorum, for giving proper instruction in the +facts of sex. Those who object to it (not counting coarse people who +thoughtlessly seize every opportunity of affecting and parading a +fictitious delicacy) are, in effect, advocating ignorance as a safeguard +against precocity. If ignorance were practicable there would be +something to be said for it up to the age at which ignorance is a danger +instead of a safeguard. Even as it is, it seems undesirable that any +special emphasis should be given to the subject, whether by way of +delicacy and poetry or too impressive warning. But the plain fact is +that in refusing to allow the child to be taught by qualified unrelated +elders (the parents shrink from the lesson, even when they are otherwise +qualified, because their own relation to the child makes the subject +impossible between them) we are virtually arranging to have our children +taught by other children in guilty secrets and unclean jests. And that +settles the question for all sensible people. + +The dogmatic objection, the sheer instinctive taboo which rules the +subject out altogether as indecent, has no age limit. It means that +at no matter what age a woman consents to a proposal of marriage, she +should do so in ignorance of the relation she is undertaking. When this +actually happens (and apparently it does happen oftener than would seem +possible) a horrible fraud is being practiced on both the man and the +woman. He is led to believe that she knows what she is promising, and +that he is in no danger of finding himself bound to a woman to whom +he is eugenically antipathetic. She contemplates nothing but such +affectionate relations as may exist between her and her nearest kinsmen, +and has no knowledge of the condition which, if not foreseen, must come +as an amazing revelation and a dangerous shock, ending possibly in the +discovery that the marriage has been an irreparable mistake. Nothing can +justify such a risk. There may be people incapable of understanding that +the right to know all there is to know about oneself is a natural human +right that sweeps away all the pretences of others to tamper with one's +consciousness in order to produce what they choose to consider a good +character. But they must here bow to the plain mischievousness of +entrapping people into contracts on which the happiness of their whole +lives depends without letting them know what they are undertaking. + + + + +Alleged Novelties in Modern Schools + +There is just one more nuisance to be disposed of before I come to +the positive side of my case. I mean the person who tells me that +my schooldays belong to a bygone order of educational ideas and +institutions, and that schools are not now a bit like my old school. +I reply, with Sir Walter Raleigh, by calling on my soul to give this +statement the lie. Some years ago I lectured in Oxford on the subject +of Education. A friend to whom I mentioned my intention said, "You know +nothing of modern education: schools are not now what they were when +you were a boy." I immediately procured the time sheets of half a dozen +modern schools, and found, as I expected, that they might all have been +my old school: there was no real difference. I may mention, too, that +I have visited modern schools, and observed that there is a tendency to +hang printed pictures in an untidy and soulless manner on the walls, +and occasionally to display on the mantel-shelf a deplorable glass case +containing certain objects which might possibly, if placed in the hands +of the pupils, give them some practical experience of the weight of +a pound and the length of an inch. And sometimes a scoundrel who has +rifled a bird's nest or killed a harmless snake encourages the children +to go and do likewise by putting his victims into an imitation nest and +bottle and exhibiting them as aids to "Nature study." A suggestion that +Nature is worth study would certainly have staggered my schoolmasters; +so perhaps I may admit a gleam of progress here. But as any child who +attempted to handle these dusty objects would probably be caned, I do +not attach any importance to such modernities in school furniture. +The school remains what it was in my boyhood, because its real object +remains what it was. And that object, I repeat, is to keep the children +out of mischief: mischief meaning for the most part worrying the +grown-ups. + + + + +What is to be Done? + +The practical question, then, is what to do with the children. Tolerate +them at home we will not. Let them run loose in the streets we dare not +until our streets become safe places for children, which, to our utter +shame, they are not at present, though they can hardly be worse than +some homes and some schools. + +The grotesque difficulty of making even a beginning was brought home to +me in the little village in Hertfordshire where I write these lines by +the lady of the manor, who asked me very properly what I was going to do +for the village school. I did not know what to reply. As the school kept +the children quiet during my working hours, I did not for the sake of +my own personal convenience want to blow it up with dynamite as I should +like to blow up most schools. So I asked for guidance. "You ought to +give a prize," said the lady. I asked if there was a prize for good +conduct. As I expected, there was: one for the best-behaved boy and +another for the best-behaved girl. On reflection I offered a handsome +prize for the worst-behaved boy and girl on condition that a record +should be kept of their subsequent careers and compared with the records +of the best-behaved, in order to ascertain whether the school criterion +of good conduct was valid out of school. My offer was refused because +it would not have had the effect of encouraging the children to give as +little trouble as possible, which is of course the real object of all +conduct prizes in schools. + +I must not pretend, then, that I have a system ready to replace all +the other systems. Obstructing the way of the proper organization of +childhood, as of everything else, lies our ridiculous misdistribution +of the national income, with its accompanying class distinctions and +imposition of snobbery on children as a necessary part of their social +training. The result of our economic folly is that we are a nation of +undesirable acquaintances; and the first object of all our institutions +for children is segregation. If, for example, our children were set free +to roam and play about as they pleased, they would have to be policed; +and the first duty of the police in a State like ours would be to see +that every child wore a badge indicating its class in society, and that +every child seen speaking to another child with a lower-class badge, or +any child wearing a higher badge than that allotted to it by, say, the +College of Heralds, should immediately be skinned alive with a birch +rod. It might even be insisted that girls with high-class badges should +be attended by footmen, grooms, or even military escorts. In short, +there is hardly any limit to the follies with which our Commercialism +would infect any system that it would tolerate at all. But something +like a change of heart is still possible; and since all the evils of +snobbery and segregation are rampant in our schools at present we may as +well make the best as the worst of them. + + + + +Children's Rights and Duties + +Now let us ask what are a child's rights, and what are the rights of +society over the child. Its rights, being clearly those of any other +human being, are summed up in the right to live: that is, to have all +the conclusive arguments that prove that it would be better dead, that +it is a child of wrath, that the population is already excessive, that +the pains of life are greater than its pleasures, that its sacrifice in +a hospital or laboratory experiment might save millions of lives, +etc. etc. etc., put out of the question, and its existence accepted +as necessary and sacred, all theories to the contrary notwithstanding, +whether by Calvin or Schopenhauer or Pasteur or the nearest person with +a taste for infanticide. And this right to live includes, and in fact +is, the right to be what the child likes and can, to do what it likes +and can, to make what it likes and can, to think what it likes and +can, to smash what it dislikes and can, and generally to behave in an +altogether unaccountable manner within the limits imposed by the similar +rights of its neighbors. And the rights of society over it clearly +extend to requiring it to qualify itself to live in society without +wasting other peoples time: that is, it must know the rules of the road, +be able to read placards and proclamations, fill voting papers, compose +and send letters and telegrams, purchase food and clothing and +railway tickets for itself, count money and give and take change, and, +generally, know how many beans made five. It must know some law, were it +only a simple set of commandments, some political economy, agriculture +enough to shut the gates of fields with cattle in them and not to +trample on growing crops, sanitation enough not to defile its haunts, +and religion enough to have some idea of why it is allowed its rights +and why it must respect the rights of others. And the rest of its +education must consist of anything else it can pick up; for beyond this +society cannot go with any certainty, and indeed can only go this far +rather apologetically and provisionally, as doing the best it can on +very uncertain ground. + + + + +Should Children Earn their Living? + +Now comes the question how far children should be asked to contribute +to the support of the community. In approaching it we must put aside +the considerations that now induce all humane and thoughtful political +students to agitate for the uncompromising abolition of child labor +under our capitalist system. It is not the least of the curses of that +system that it will bequeath to future generations a mass of legislation +to prevent capitalists from "using up nine generations of men in one +generation," as they began by doing until they were restrained by law at +the suggestion of Robert Owen, the founder of English Socialism. Most of +this legislation will become an insufferable restraint upon freedom +and variety of action when Capitalism goes the way of Druidic human +sacrifice (a much less slaughterous institution). There is every reason +why a child should not be allowed to work for commercial profit or for +the support of its parents at the expense of its own future; but there +is no reason whatever why a child should not do some work for its own +sake and that of the community if it can be shewn that both it and the +community will be the better for it. + + + + +Children's Happiness + +Also it is important to put the happiness of the children rather +carefully in its place, which is really not a front place. The +unsympathetic, selfish, hard people who regard happiness as a very +exceptional indulgence to which children are by no means entitled, +though they may be allowed a very little of it on their birthdays or at +Christmas, are sometimes better parents in effect than those who imagine +that children are as capable of happiness as adults. Adults habitually +exaggerate their own capacity in that direction grossly; yet most adults +can stand an allowance of happiness that would be quite thrown away on +children. The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother +about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, +because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person +is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active, which is +pleasanter than any happiness until you are tired of it. That is why it +is necessary to happiness that one should be tired. Music after dinner +is pleasant: music before breakfast is so unpleasant as to be clearly +unnatural. To people who are not overworked holidays are a nuisance. +To people who are, and who can afford them, they are a troublesome +necessity. A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell. + + + + +The Horror of the Perpetual Holiday + +It will be said here that, on the contrary, heaven is always conceived +as a perpetual holiday, and that whoever is not born to an independent +income is striving for one or longing for one because it gives holidays +for life. To which I reply, first, that heaven, as conventionally +conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, +that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven, though +plenty of people have described a day at the seaside; and that the +genuine popular verdict on it is expressed in the proverb "Heaven for +holiness and Hell for company." Second, I point out that the wretched +people who have independent incomes and no useful occupation, do the +most amazingly disagreeable and dangerous things to make themselves +tired and hungry in the evening. When they are not involved in what they +call sport, they are doing aimlessly what other people have to be paid +to do: driving horses and motor cars; trying on dresses and walking up +and down to shew them off; and acting as footmen and housemaids to royal +personages. The sole and obvious cause of the notion that idleness is +delightful and that heaven is a place where there is nothing to be done, +is our school system and our industrial system. The school is a prison +in which work is a punishment and a curse. In avowed prisons, hard +labor, the only alleviation of a prisoner's lot, is treated as an +aggravation of his punishment; and everything possible is done to +intensify the prisoner's inculcated and unnatural notion that work is an +evil. In industry we are overworked and underfed prisoners. Under such +absurd circumstances our judgment of things becomes as perverted as our +habits. If we were habitually underworked and overfed, our notion +of heaven would be a place where everybody worked strenuously for +twenty-four hours a day and never got anything to eat. + +Once realize that a perpetual holiday is beyond human endurance, and +that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do" and it will +be seen that we have no right to impose a perpetual holiday on children. +If we did, they would soon outdo the Labor Party in their claim for a +Right to Work Bill. + +In any case no child should be brought up to suppose that its food and +clothes come down from heaven or are miraculously conjured from empty +space by papa. Loathsome as we have made the idea of duty (like the idea +of work) we must habituate children to a sense of repayable obligation +to the community for what they consume and enjoy, and inculcate the +repayment as a point of honor. If we did that today--and nothing but +flat dishonesty prevents us from doing it--we should have no idle rich +and indeed probably no rich, since there is no distinction in being +rich if you have to pay scot and lot in personal effort like the working +folk. Therefore, if for only half an hour a day, a child should do +something serviceable to the community. + +Productive work for children has the advantage that its discipline is +the discipline of impersonal necessity, not that of wanton personal +coercion. The eagerness of children in our industrial districts to +escape from school to the factory is not caused by lighter tasks or +shorter hours in the factory, nor altogether by the temptation of wages, +nor even by the desire for novelty, but by the dignity of adult work, +the exchange of the factitious personal tyranny of the schoolmaster, +from which the grown-ups are free, for the stern but entirely dignified +Laws of Life to which all flesh is subject. + + + + +University Schoolboyishness + +Older children might do a good deal before beginning their collegiate +education. What is the matter with our universities is that all the +students are schoolboys, whereas it is of the very essence of university +education that they should be men. The function of a university is not +to teach things that can now be taught as well or better by University +Extension lectures or by private tutors or modern correspondence classes +with gramophones. We go to them to be socialized; to acquire the hall +mark of communal training; to become citizens of the world instead of +inmates of the enlarged rabbit hutches we call homes; to learn manners +and become unchallengeable ladies and gentlemen. The social pressure +which effects these changes should be that of persons who have faced +the full responsibilities of adults as working members of the general +community, not that of a barbarous rabble of half emancipated schoolboys +and unemancipable pedants. It is true that in a reasonable state of +society this outside experience would do for us very completely what the +university does now so corruptly that we tolerate its bad manners only +because they are better than no manners at all. But the university will +always exist in some form as a community of persons desirous of pushing +their culture to the highest pitch they are capable of, not as solitary +students reading in seclusion, but as members of a body of individuals +all pursuing culture, talking culture, thinking culture, above all, +criticizing culture. If such persons are to read and talk and criticize +to any purpose, they must know the world outside the university at least +as well as the shopkeeper in the High Street does. And this is just +what they do not know at present. You may say of them, paraphrasing +Mr. Kipling, "What do they know of Plato that only Plato know?" If our +universities would exclude everybody who had not earned a living by his +or her own exertions for at least a couple of years, their effect would +be vastly improved. + + + + +The New Laziness + +The child of the future, then, if there is to be any future but one of +decay, will work more or less for its living from an early age; and +in doing so it will not shock anyone, provided there be no longer any +reason to associate the conception of children working for their living +with infants toiling in a factory for ten hours a day or boys drudging +from nine to six under gas lamps in underground city offices. Lads and +lasses in their teens will probably be able to produce as much as the +most expensive person now costs in his own person (it is retinue that +eats up the big income) without working too hard or too long for quite +as much happiness as they can enjoy. The question to be balanced then +will be, not how soon people should be put to work, but how soon they +should be released from any obligation of the kind. A life's work is +like a day's work: it can begin early and leave off early or begin late +and leave off late, or, as with us, begin too early and never leave off +at all, obviously the worst of all possible plans. In any event we +must finally reckon work, not as the curse our schools and prisons and +capitalist profit factories make it seem today, but as a prime necessity +of a tolerable existence. And if we cannot devise fresh wants as fast +as we develop the means of supplying them, there will come a scarcity +of the needed, cut-and-dried, appointed work that is always ready to +everybody's hand. It may have to be shared out among people all of whom +want more of it. And then a new sort of laziness will become the bugbear +of society: the laziness that refuses to face the mental toil and +adventure of making work by inventing new ideas or extending the domain +of knowledge, and insists on a ready-made routine. It may come to +forcing people to retire before they are willing to make way for younger +ones: that is, to driving all persons of a certain age out of industry, +leaving them to find something experimental to occupy them on pain of +perpetual holiday. Men will then try to spend twenty thousand a year +for the sake of having to earn it. Instead of being what we are now, the +cheapest and nastiest of the animals, we shall be the costliest, most +fastidious, and best bred. In short, there is no end to the astonishing +things that may happen when the curse of Adam becomes first a blessing +and then an incurable habit. And in that day we must not grudge children +their share of it. + + + + +The Infinite School Task + +The question of children's work, however, is only a question of what the +child ought to do for the community. How highly it should qualify itself +is another matter. But most of the difficulty of inducing children +to learn would disappear if our demands became not only definite but +finite. When learning is only an excuse for imprisonment, it is an +instrument of torture which becomes more painful the more progress is +made. Thus when you have forced a child to learn the Church Catechism, +a document profound beyond the comprehension of most adults, you are +sometimes at a standstill for something else to teach; and you therefore +keep the wretched child repeating its catechism again and again until +you hit on the plan of making it learn instalments of Bible verses, +preferably from the book of Numbers. But as it is less trouble to set a +lesson that you know yourself, there is a tendency to keep repeating the +already learnt lesson rather than break new ground. At school I began +with a fairly complete knowledge of Latin grammar in the childish sense +of being able to repeat all the paradigms; and I was kept at this, or +rather kept in a class where the master never asked me to do it because +he knew I could, and therefore devoted himself to trapping the boys who +could not, until I finally forgot most of it. But when progress took +place, what did it mean? First it meant Caesar, with the foreknowledge +that to master Caesar meant only being set at Virgil, with the +culminating horror of Greek and Homer in reserve at the end of that. I +preferred Caesar, because his statement that Gaul is divided into three +parts, though neither interesting nor true, was the only Latin sentence +I could translate at sight: therefore the longer we stuck at Caesar the +better I was pleased. Just so do less classically educated children see +nothing in the mastery of addition but the beginning of subtraction, and +so on through multiplication and division and fractions, with the black +cloud of algebra on the horizon. And if a boy rushes through all that, +there is always the calculus to fall back on, unless indeed you insist +on his learning music, and proceed to hit him if he cannot tell you the +year Beethoven was born. + +A child has a right to finality as regards its compulsory lessons. +Also as regards physical training. At present it is assumed that the +schoolmaster has a right to force every child into an attempt to become +Porson and Bentley, Leibnitz and Newton, all rolled into one. This is +the tradition of the oldest grammar schools. In our times an even more +horrible and cynical claim has been made for the right to drive boys +through compulsory games in the playing fields until they are too much +exhausted physically to do anything but drop off to sleep. This is +supposed to protect them from vice; but as it also protects them from +poetry, literature, music, meditation and prayer, it may be dismissed +with the obvious remark that if boarding schools are places whose +keepers are driven to such monstrous measures lest more abominable +things should happen, then the sooner boarding schools are violently +abolished the better. It is true that society may make physical claims +on the child as well as mental ones: the child must learn to walk, to +use a knife and fork, to swim, to ride a bicycle, to acquire sufficient +power of self-defence to make an attack on it an arduous and uncertain +enterprise, perhaps to fly. What as a matter of common-sense it clearly +has not a right to do is to make this an excuse for keeping the child +slaving for ten hours at physical exercises on the ground that it is not +yet as dexterous as Cinquevalli and as strong as Sandow. + + + + +The Rewards and Risks of Knowledge + +In a word, we have no right to insist on educating a child; for its +education can end only with its life and will not even then be complete. +Compulsory completion of education is the last folly of a rotten +and desperate civilization. It is the rattle in its throat before +dissolution. All we can fairly do is to prescribe certain definite +acquirements and accomplishments as qualifications for certain +employments; and to secure them, not by the ridiculous method of +inflicting injuries on the persons who have not yet mastered them, but +by attaching certain privileges (not pecuniary) to the employments. + +Most acquirements carry their own privileges with them. Thus a baby has +to be pretty closely guarded and imprisoned because it cannot take +care of itself. It has even to be carried about (the most complete +conceivable infringement of its liberty) until it can walk. But nobody +goes on carrying children after they can walk lest they should walk into +mischief, though Arab boys make their sisters carry them, as our own +spoiled children sometimes make their nurses, out of mere laziness, +because sisters in the East and nurses in the West are kept in +servitude. But in a society of equals (the only reasonable and +permanently possible sort of society) children are in much greater +danger of acquiring bandy legs through being left to walk before they +are strong enough than of being carried when they are well able to walk. +Anyhow, freedom of movement in a nursery is the reward of learning to +walk; and in precisely the same way freedom of movement in a city is +the reward of learning how to read public notices, and to count and use +money. The consequences are of course much larger than the mere ability +to read the name of a street or the number of a railway platform and the +destination of a train. When you enable a child to read these, you also +enable it to read this preface, to the utter destruction, you may quite +possibly think, of its morals and docility. You also expose it to the +danger of being run over by taxicabs and trains. The moral and physical +risks of education are enormous: every new power a child acquires, +from speaking, walking, and co-ordinating its vision, to conquering +continents and founding religions, opens up immense new possibilities of +mischief. Teach a child to write and you teach it how to forge: teach it +to speak and you teach it how to lie: teach it to walk and you teach it +how to kick its mother to death. + +The great problem of slavery for those whose aim is to maintain it +is the problem of reconciling the efficiency of the slave with +the helplessness that keeps him in servitude; and this problem is +fortunately not completely soluble; for it is not in fact found possible +for a duke to treat his solicitor or his doctor as he treats his +laborers, though they are all equally his slaves: the laborer being in +fact less dependent on his favor than the professional man. Hence it is +that men come to resent, of all things, protection, because it so often +means restriction of their liberty lest they should make a bad use +of it. If there are dangerous precipices about, it is much easier +and cheaper to forbid people to walk near the edge than to put up an +effective fence: that is why both legislators and parents and the paid +deputies of parents are always inhibiting and prohibiting and punishing +and scolding and laming and cramping and delaying progress and growth +instead of making the dangerous places as safe as possible and then +boldly taking and allowing others to take the irreducible minimum of +risk. + + + + +English Physical Hardihood and Spiritual Cowardice + +It is easier to convert most people to the need for allowing their +children to run physical risks than moral ones. I can remember a +relative of mine who, when I was a small child, unused to horses and +very much afraid of them, insisted on putting me on a rather rumbustious +pony with little spurs on my heels (knowing that in my agitation I would +use them unconsciously), and being enormously amused at my terrors. Yet +when that same lady discovered that I had found a copy of The Arabian +Nights and was devouring it with avidity, she was horrified, and hid it +away from me lest it should break my soul as the pony might have broken +my neck. This way of producing hardy bodies and timid souls is so common +in country houses that you may spend hours in them listening to stories +of broken collar bones, broken backs, and broken necks without coming +upon a single spiritual adventure or daring thought. + +But whether the risks to which liberty exposes us are moral or physical +our right to liberty involves the right to run them. A man who is not +free to risk his neck as an aviator or his soul as a heretic is not free +at all; and the right to liberty begins, not at the age of 21 years but +of 21 seconds. + + + + +The Risks of Ignorance and Weakness + +The difficulty with children is that they need protection from risks +they are too young to understand, and attacks they can neither avoid +nor resist. You may on academic grounds allow a child to snatch glowing +coals from the fire once. You will not do it twice. The risks of +liberty we must let everyone take; but the risks of ignorance and +self-helplessness are another matter. Not only children but adults +need protection from them. At present adults are often exposed to risks +outside their knowledge or beyond their comprehension or powers of +resistance or foresight: for example, we have to look on every day +at marriages or financial speculations that may involve far worse +consequences than burnt fingers. And just as it is part of the business +of adults to protect children, to feed them, clothe them, shelter them, +and shift for them in all sorts of ways until they are able to shift for +themselves, it is coming more and more to be seen that this is true not +only of the relation between adults and children, but between adults and +adults. We shall not always look on indifferently at foolish marriages +and financial speculations, nor allow dead men to control live +communities by ridiculous wills and living heirs to squander and ruin +great estates, nor tolerate a hundred other absurd liberties that +we allow today because we are too lazy to find out the proper way to +interfere. But the interference must be regulated by some theory of the +individual's rights. Though the right to live is absolute, it is not +unconditional. If a man is unbearably mischievous, he must be killed. +This is a mere matter of necessity, like the killing of a man-eating +tiger in a nursery, a venomous snake in the garden, or a fox in the +poultry yard. No society could be constructed on the assumption that +such extermination is a violation of the creature's right to live, and +therefore must not be allowed. And then at once arises the danger into +which morality has led us: the danger of persecution. One Christian +spreading his doctrines may seem more mischievous than a dozen thieves: +throw him therefore to the lions. A lying or disobedient child may +corrupt a whole generation and make human Society impossible: therefore +thrash the vice out of him. And so on until our whole system of +abortion, intimidation, tyranny, cruelty and the rest is in full swing +again. + + + + +The Common Sense of Toleration + +The real safeguard against this is the dogma of Toleration. I need not +here repeat the compact treatise on it which I prepared for the Joint +Committee on the Censorship of Stage Plays, and prefixed to The Shewing +Up of Blanco Posnet. It must suffice now to say that the present must +not attempt to schoolmaster the future by pretending to know good from +evil in tendency, or protect citizens against shocks to their opinions +and convictions, moral, political or religious: in other words it must +not persecute doctrines of any kind, or what is called bad taste, +and must insist on all persons facing such shocks as they face frosty +weather or any of the other disagreeable, dangerous, or bracing +incidents of freedom. The expediency of Toleration has been forced on us +by the fact that progressive enlightenment depends on a fair hearing for +doctrines which at first appear seditious, blasphemous, and immoral, and +which deeply shock people who never think originally, thought being with +them merely a habit and an echo. The deeper ground for Toleration is +the nature of creation, which, as we now know, proceeds by evolution. +Evolution finds its way by experiment; and this finding of the way +varies according to the stage of development reached, from the blindest +groping along the line of least resistance to intellectual speculation, +with its practical sequel of hypothesis and experimental verification; +or to observation, induction, and deduction; or even into so rapid and +intuitive an integration of all these processes in a single brain +that we get the inspired guess of the man of genius and the desperate +resolution of the teacher of new truths who is first slain as a +blasphemous apostate and then worshipped as a prophet. + +Here the law for the child is the same as for the adult. The high priest +must not rend his garments and cry "Crucify him" when he is shocked: +the atheist must not clamor for the suppression of Law's Serious Call +because it has for two centuries destroyed the natural happiness of +innumerable unfortunate children by persuading their parents that it is +their religious duty to be miserable. It, and the Sermon on the Mount, +and Machiavelli's Prince, and La Rochefoucauld's maxims, and Hymns +Ancient and Modern, and De Glanville's apologue, and Dr. Watts's rhymes, +and Nietzsche's Gay Science, and Ingersoll's Mistakes of Moses, and the +speeches and pamphlets of the people who want us to make war on +Germany, and the Noodle's Orations and articles of our politicians and +journalists, must all be tolerated not only because any of them may for +all we know be on the right track but because it is in the conflict of +opinion that we win knowledge and wisdom. However terrible the wounds +suffered in that conflict, they are better than the barren peace of +death that follows when all the combatants are slaughtered or bound hand +and foot. + +The difficulty at present is that though this necessity for Toleration +is a law of political science as well established as the law of +gravitation, our rulers are never taught political science: on the +contrary, they are taught in school that the master tolerates nothing +that is disagreeable to him; that ruling is simply being master; and +that the master's method is the method of violent punishment. And our +citizens, all school taught, are walking in the same darkness. As I +write these lines the Home Secretary is explaining that a man who has +been imprisoned for blasphemy must not be released because his remarks +were painful to the feelings of his pious fellow townsmen. Now it +happens that this very Home Secretary has driven many thousands of his +fellow citizens almost beside themselves by the crudity of his notions +of government, and his simple inability to understand why he should +not use and make laws to torment and subdue people who do not happen +to agree with him. In a word, he is not a politician, but a grown-up +schoolboy who has at last got a cane in his hand. And as all the rest of +us are in the same condition (except as to command of the cane) the only +objection made to his proceedings takes the shape of clamorous demands +that _he_ should be caned instead of being allowed to cane other people. + + + + +The Sin of Athanasius + +It seems hopeless. Anarchists are tempted to preach a violent and +implacable resistance to all law as the only remedy; and the result of +that speedily is that people welcome any tyranny that will rescue them +from chaos. But there is really no need to choose between anarchy and +tyranny. A quite reasonable state of things is practicable if we proceed +on human assumptions and not on academic ones. If adults will frankly +give up their claim to know better than children what the purposes +of the Life Force are, and treat the child as an experiment like +themselves, and possibly a more successful one, and at the same time +relinquish their monstrous parental claims to personal private property +in children, the rest must be left to common sense. It is our attitude, +our religion, that is wrong. A good beginning might be made by enacting +that any person dictating a piece of conduct to a child or to anyone +else as the will of God, or as absolutely right, should be dealt with +as a blasphemer: as, indeed, guilty of the unpardonable sin against the +Holy Ghost. If the penalty were death, it would rid us at once of that +scourge of humanity, the amateur Pope. As an Irish Protestant, I raise +the cry of No Popery with hereditary zest. We are overrun with Popes. +From curates and governesses, who may claim a sort of professional +standing, to parents and uncles and nurserymaids and school teachers +and wiseacres generally, there are scores of thousands of human insects +groping through our darkness by the feeble phosphorescence of their own +tails, yet ready at a moment's notice to reveal the will of God on every +possible subject; to explain how and why the universe was made (in my +youth they added the exact date) and the circumstances under which +it will cease to exist; to lay down precise rules of right and wrong +conduct; to discriminate infallibly between virtuous and vicious +character; and all this with such certainty that they are prepared to +visit all the rigors of the law, and all the ruinous penalties of social +ostracism on people, however harmless their actions maybe who venture +to laugh at their monstrous conceit or to pay their assumptions the +extravagant compliment of criticizing them. As to children, who shall +say what canings and birchings and terrifyings and threats of hell fire +and impositions and humiliations and petty imprisonings and sendings +to bed and standing in corners and the like they have suffered because +their parents and guardians and teachers knew everything so much better +than Socrates or Solon? + +It is this ignorant uppishness that does the mischief. A stranger on the +planet might expect that its grotesque absurdity would provoke enough +ridicule to cure it; but unfortunately quite the contrary happens. +Just as our ill health delivers us into the hands of medical quacks and +creates a passionate demand for impudent pretences that doctors can +cure the diseases they themselves die of daily, so our ignorance and +helplessness set us clamoring for spiritual and moral quacks who pretend +that they can save our souls from their own damnation. If a doctor were +to say to his patients, "I am familiar with your symptoms, because I +have seen other people in your condition; and I will bring the very +little knowledge we have to your treatment; but except in that very +shallow sense I dont know what is the matter with you; and I cant +undertake to cure you," he would be a lost man professionally; and if a +clergyman, on being called on to award a prize for good conduct in +the village school, were to say, "I am afraid I cannot say who is the +best-behaved child, because I really do not know what good conduct is; +but I will gladly take the teacher's word as to which child has +caused least inconvenience," he would probably be unfrocked, if not +excommunicated. And yet no honest and intellectually capable doctor or +parson can say more. Clearly it would not be wise of the doctor to say +it, because optimistic lies have such immense therapeutic value that a +doctor who cannot tell them convincingly has mistaken his profession. +And a clergyman who is not prepared to lay down the law dogmatically +will not be of much use in a village school, though it behoves him all +the more to be very careful what law he lays down. But unless both the +clergyman and the doctor are in the attitude expressed by these speeches +they are not fit for their work. The man who believes that he has more +than a provisional hypothesis to go upon is a born fool. He may have +to act vigorously on it. The world has no use for the Agnostic who wont +believe anything because anything might be false, and wont deny anything +because anything might be true. But there is a wide difference between +saying, "I believe this; and I am going to act on it," or, "I dont +believe it; and I wont act on it," and saying, "It is true; and it is +my duty and yours to act on it," or, "It is false; and it is my duty +and yours to refuse to act on it." The difference is as great as that +between the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed. When you repeat +the Apostles' Creed you affirm that you believe certain things. There +you are clearly within your rights. When you repeat the Athanasian +Creed, you affirm that certain things are so, and that anybody who +doubts that they are so cannot be saved. And this is simply a piece of +impudence on your part, as you know nothing about it except that as good +men as you have never heard of your creed. The apostolic attitude is +a desire to convert others to our beliefs for the sake of sympathy and +light: the Athanasian attitude is a desire to murder people who dont +agree with us. I am sufficient of an Athanasian to advocate a law +for the speedy execution of all Athanasians, because they violate the +fundamental proposition of my creed, which is, I repeat, that all +living creatures are experiments. The precise formula for the Superman, +_ci-devant_ The Just Man Made Perfect, has not yet been discovered. +Until it is, every birth is an experiment in the Great Research which is +being conducted by the Life Force to discover that formula. + + + + +The Experiment Experimenting + +And now all the modern schoolmaster abortionists will rise up beaming, +and say, "We quite agree. We regard every child in our school as a +subject for experiment. We are always experimenting with them. We +challenge the experimental test for our system. We are continually +guided by our experience in our great work of moulding the character of +our future citizens, etc. etc. etc." I am sorry to seem irreconcilable; +but it is the Life Force that has to make the experiment and not the +schoolmaster; and the Life Force for the child's purpose is in the child +and not in the schoolmaster. The schoolmaster is another experiment; +and a laboratory in which all the experiments began experimenting on one +another would not produce intelligible results. I admit, however, that +if my schoolmasters had treated me as an experiment of the Life Force: +that is, if they had set me free to do as I liked subject only to my +political rights and theirs, they could not have watched the experiment +very long, because the first result would have been a rapid movement +on my part in the direction of the door, and my disappearance +there-through. + +It may be worth inquiring where I should have gone to. I should say that +practically every time I should have gone to a much more educational +place. I should have gone into the country, or into the sea, or into the +National Gallery, or to hear a band if there was one, or to any library +where there were no schoolbooks. I should have read very dry and +difficult books: for example, though nothing would have induced me +to read the budget of stupid party lies that served as a text-book of +history in school, I remember reading Robertson's Charles V. and his +history of Scotland from end to end most laboriously. Once, stung by the +airs of a schoolfellow who alleged that he had read Locke On The Human +Understanding, I attempted to read the Bible straight through, and +actually got to the Pauline Epistles before I broke down in disgust at +what seemed to me their inveterate crookedness of mind. If there had +been a school where children were really free, I should have had to +be driven out of it for the sake of my health by the teachers; for the +children to whom a literary education can be of any use are insatiable: +they will read and study far more than is good for them. In fact the +real difficulty is to prevent them from wasting their time by reading +for the sake of reading and studying for the sake of studying, instead +of taking some trouble to find out what they really like and are capable +of doing some good at. Some silly person will probably interrupt me +here with the remark that many children have no appetite for a literary +education at all, and would never open a book if they were not forced +to. I have known many such persons who have been forced to the point +of obtaining University degrees. And for all the effect their literary +exercises has left on them they might just as well have been put on the +treadmill. In fact they are actually less literate than the treadmill +would have left them; for they might by chance have picked up and dipped +into a volume of Shakespear or a translation of Homer if they had not +been driven to loathe every famous name in literature. I should probably +know as much Latin as French, if Latin had not been made the excuse for +my school imprisonment and degradation. + + + + +Why We Loathe Learning and Love Sport + +If we are to discuss the importance of art, learning, and intellectual +culture, the first thing we have to recognize is that we have very +little of them at present; and that this little has not been produced by +compulsory education: nay, that the scarcity is unnatural and has been +produced by the violent exclusion of art and artists from schools. On +the other hand we have quite a considerable degree of bodily culture: +indeed there is a continual outcry against the sacrifice of mental +accomplishments to athletics. In other words a sacrifice of the +professed object of compulsory education to the real object of voluntary +education. It is assumed that this means that people prefer bodily +to mental culture; but may it not mean that they prefer liberty and +satisfaction to coercion and privation. Why is it that people who have +been taught Shakespear as a school subject loathe his plays and cannot +by any means be persuaded ever to open his works after they escape from +school, whereas there is still, 300 years after his death, a wide and +steady sale for his works to people who read his plays as plays, and not +as task work? If Shakespear, or for that matter, Newton and Leibnitz, +are allowed to find their readers and students they will find them. +If their works are annotated and paraphrased by dullards, and the +annotations and paraphrases forced on all young people by imprisonment +and flogging and scolding, there will not be a single man of letters or +higher mathematician the more in the country: on the contrary there will +be less, as so many potential lovers of literature and mathematics will +have been incurably prejudiced against them. Everyone who is conversant +with the class in which child imprisonment and compulsory schooling is +carried out to the final extremity of the university degree knows that +its scholastic culture is a sham; that it knows little about literature +or art and a great deal about point-to-point races; and that the +village cobbler, who has never read a page of Plato, and is admittedly +a dangerously ignorant man politically, is nevertheless a Socrates +compared to the classically educated gentlemen who discuss politics in +country houses at election time (and at no other time) after their day's +earnest and skilful shooting. Think of the years and years of weary +torment the women of the piano-possessing class have been forced to +spend over the keyboard, fingering scales. How many of them could be +bribed to attend a pianoforte recital by a great player, though they +will rise from sick beds rather than miss Ascot or Goodwood? + +Another familiar fact that teaches the same lesson is that many women +who have voluntarily attained a high degree of culture cannot add +up their own housekeeping books, though their education in simple +arithmetic was compulsory, whereas their higher education has been +wholly voluntary. Everywhere we find the same result. The imprisonment, +the beating, the taming and laming, the breaking of young spirits, the +arrest of development, the atrophy of all inhibitive power except the +power of fear, are real: the education is sham. Those who have been +taught most know least. + + + + +Antichrist + +Among the worst effects of the unnatural segregation of children in +schools and the equally unnatural constant association of them with +adults in the family is the utter defeat of the vital element in +Christianity. Christ stands in the world for that intuition of the +highest humanity that we, being members one of another, must not +complain, must not scold, must not strike, nor revile nor persecute nor +revenge nor punish. Now family life and school life are, as far as the +moral training of children is concerned, nothing but the deliberate +inculcation of a routine of complaint, scolding, punishment, +persecution, and revenge as the natural and only possible way of dealing +with evil or inconvenience. "Aint nobody to be whopped for this here?" +exclaimed Sam Weller when he saw his employer's name written up on a +stage coach, and conceived the phenomenon as an insult which reflected +on himself. This exclamation of Sam Weller is at once the negation of +Christianity and the beginning and the end of current morality; and so +it will remain as long as the family and the school persist as we know +them: that is, as long as the rights of children are so utterly denied +that nobody will even take the trouble to ascertain what they are, and +coming of age is like the turning of a convict into the street after +twenty-one years penal servitude. Indeed it is worse; for the convict +may have learnt before his conviction how to live in freedom and may +remember how to set about it, however lamed his powers of freedom may +have become through disuse; but the child knows no other way of life but +the slave's way. Born free, as Rousseau says, he has been laid hands on +by slaves from the moment of his birth and brought up as a slave. How is +he, when he is at last set free, to be anything else than the slave he +actually is, clamoring for war, for the lash, for police, prisons, and +scaffolds in a wild panic of delusion that without these things he +is lost. The grown-up Englishman is to the end of his days a badly +brought-up child, beyond belief quarrelsome, petulant, selfish, +destructive, and cowardly: afraid that the Germans will come and enslave +him; that the burglar will come and rob him; that the bicycle or motor +car will run over him; that the smallpox will attack him; and that the +devil will run away with him and empty him out like a sack of coals on a +blazing fire unless his nurse or his parents or his schoolmaster or +his bishop or his judge or his army or his navy will do something to +frighten these bad things away. And this Englishman, without the moral +courage of a louse, will risk his neck for fun fifty times every winter +in the hunting field, and at Badajos sieges and the like will ram his +head into a hole bristling with sword blades rather than be beaten in +the one department in which he has been brought up to consult his own +honor. As a Sportsman (and war is fundamentally the sport of hunting +and fighting the most dangerous of the beasts of prey) he feels free. He +will tell you himself that the true sportsman is never a snob, a coward, +a duffer, a cheat, a thief, or a liar. Curious, is it not, that he has +not the same confidence in other sorts of man? + +And even sport is losing its freedom. Soon everybody will be schooled, +mentally and physically, from the cradle to the end of the term of adult +compulsory military service, and finally of compulsory civil service +lasting until the age of superannuation. Always more schooling, more +compulsion. We are to be cured by an excess of the dose that has +poisoned us. Satan is to cast out Satan. + + + + +Under the Whip + +Clearly this will not do. We must reconcile education with liberty. +We must find out some means of making men workers and, if need be, +warriors, without making them slaves. We must cultivate the noble +virtues that have their root in pride. Now no schoolmaster will teach +these any more than a prison governor will teach his prisoners how to +mutiny and escape. Self-preservation forces him to break the spirit +that revolts against him, and to inculcate submission, even to obscene +assault, as a duty. A bishop once had the hardihood to say that he would +rather see England free than England sober. Nobody has yet dared to say +that he would rather see an England of ignoramuses than an England of +cowards and slaves. And if anyone did, it would be necessary to point +out that the antithesis is not a practical one, as we have got at +present an England of ignoramuses who are also cowards and slaves, and +extremely proud of it at that, because in school they are taught to +submit, with what they ridiculously call Oriental fatalism (as if any +Oriental has ever submitted more helplessly and sheepishly to robbery +and oppression than we Occidentals do), to be driven day after day into +compounds and set to the tasks they loathe by the men they hate and +fear, as if this were the inevitable destiny of mankind. And naturally, +when they grow up, they helplessly exchange the prison of the school for +the prison of the mine or the workshop or the office, and drudge along +stupidly and miserably, with just enough gregarious instinct to turn +furiously on any intelligent person who proposes a change. It would be +quite easy to make England a paradise, according to our present ideas, +in a few years. There is no mystery about it: the way has been pointed +out over and over again. The difficulty is not the way but the will. And +we have no will because the first thing done with us in childhood was to +break our will. Can anything be more disgusting than the spectacle of a +nation reading the biography of Gladstone and gloating over the account +of how he was flogged at Eton, two of his schoolfellows being compelled +to hold him down whilst he was flogged. Not long ago a public body in +England had to deal with the case of a schoolmaster who, conceiving +himself insulted by the smoking of a cigaret against his orders by +a pupil eighteen years old, proposed to flog him publicly as a +satisfaction to what he called his honor and authority. I had intended +to give the particulars of this ease, but find the drudgery of repeating +such stuff too sickening, and the effect unjust to a man who was +doing only what others all over the country were doing as part of the +established routine of what is called education. The astounding part of +it was the manner in which the person to whom this outrage on decency +seemed quite proper and natural claimed to be a functionary of high +character, and had his claim allowed. In Japan he would hardly have been +allowed the privilege of committing suicide. What is to be said of a +profession in which such obscenities are made points of honor, or of +institutions in which they are an accepted part of the daily routine? +Wholesome people would not argue about the taste of such nastinesses: +they would spit them out; but we are tainted with flagellomania from +our childhood. When will we realize that the fact that we can become +accustomed to anything, however disgusting at first, makes it necessary +for us to examine carefully everything we have become accustomed to? +Before motor cars became common, necessity had accustomed us to a +foulness in our streets which would have horrified us had the street +been our drawing-room carpet. Before long we shall be as particular +about our streets as we now are about our carpets; and their condition +in the nineteenth century will become as forgotten and incredible as the +condition of the corridors of palaces and the courts of castles was as +late as the eighteenth century. This foulness, we can plead, was imposed +on us as a necessity by the use of horses and of huge retinues; but +flogging has never been so imposed: it has always been a vice, craved +for on any pretext by those depraved by it. Boys were flogged when +criminals were hanged, to impress the awful warning on them. Boys were +flogged at boundaries, to impress the boundaries on their memory. Other +methods and other punishments were always available: the choice of +this one betrayed the sensual impulse which makes the practice an +abomination. But when its viciousness made it customary, it was +practised and tolerated on all hands by people who were innocent of +anything worse than stupidity, ill temper, and inability to discover +other methods of maintaining order than those they had always seen +practised and approved of. From children and animals it extended to +slaves and criminals. In the days of Moses it was limited to 39 lashes. +In the early nineteenth century it had become an open madness: soldiers +were sentenced to a thousand lashes for trifling offences, with the +result (among others less mentionable) that the Iron Duke of Wellington +complained that it was impossible to get an order obeyed in the British +army except in two or three crack regiments. Such frantic excesses of +this disgusting neurosis provoked a reaction against it; but the clamor +for it by depraved persons never ceased, and was tolerated by a nation +trained to it from childhood in the schools until last year (1913), when +in what must be described as a paroxysm of sexual excitement provoked by +the agitation concerning the White Slave Traffic (the purely commercial +nature of which I was prevented from exposing on the stage by the +Censorship twenty years ago) the Government yielded to an outcry for +flagellation led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and passed an Act +under which a judge can sentence a man to be flogged to the utmost +extremity with any instrument usable for such a purpose that he cares +to prescribe. Such an Act is not a legislative phenomenon but a +psychopathic one. Its effect on the White Slave Traffic was, of course, +to distract public attention from its real cause and from the people who +really profit by it to imaginary "foreign scoundrels," and to secure a +monopoly of its organization for women. + +And all this evil is made possible by the schoolmaster with his cane and +birch, by the parents getting rid as best they can of the nuisance of +children making noise and mischief in the house, and by the denial to +children of the elementary rights of human beings. + +The first man who enslaved and "broke in" an animal with a whip would +have invented the explosion engine instead could he have foreseen the +curse he was laying on his race. For men and women learnt thereby to +enslave and break in their children by the same means. These children, +grown up, knew no other methods of training. Finally the evil that was +done for gain by the greedy was refined on and done for pleasure by the +lustful. Flogging has become a pleasure purchasable in our streets, and +inhibition a grown-up habit that children play at. "Go and see what baby +is doing; and tell him he mustnt" is the last word of the nursery; and +the grimmest aspect of it is that it was first formulated by a comic +paper as a capital joke. + + + + +Technical Instruction + +Technical instruction tempts to violence (as a short cut) more +than liberal education. The sailor in Mr Rudyard Kipling's Captains +Courageous, teaching the boy the names of the ship's tackle with a +rope's end, does not disgust us as our schoolmasters do, especially as +the boy was a spoiled boy. But an unspoiled boy would not have needed +that drastic medicine. Technical training may be as tedious as learning +to skate or to play the piano or violin; but it is the price one must +pay to achieve certain desirable results or necessary ends. It is a +monstrous thing to force a child to learn Latin or Greek or mathematics +on the ground that they are an indispensable gymnastic for the mental +powers. It would be monstrous even if it were true; for there is no +labor that might not be imposed on a child or an adult on the same +pretext; but as a glance at the average products of our public school +and university education shews that it is not true, it need not trouble +us. But it is a fact that ignorance of Latin and Greek and mathematics +closes certain careers to men (I do not mean artificial, unnecessary, +noxious careers like those of the commercial schoolmaster). Languages, +even dead ones, have their uses; and, as it seems to many of us, +mathematics have their uses. They will always be learned by people who +want to learn them; and people will always want to learn them as long as +they are of any importance in life: indeed the want will survive their +importance: superstition is nowhere stronger than in the field of +obsolete acquirements. And they will never be learnt fruitfully by +people who do not want to learn them either for their own sake or for +use in necessary work. There is no harder schoolmaster than experience; +and yet experience fails to teach where there is no desire to learn. + +Still, one must not begin to apply this generalization too early. +And this brings me to an important factor in the case: the factor of +evolution. + + + + +Docility and Dependence + +If anyone, impressed by my view that the rights of a child are precisely +those of an adult, proceeds to treat a child as if it were an adult, he +(or she) will find that though the plan will work much better at some +points than the usual plan, at others it will not work at all; and this +discovery may provoke him to turn back from the whole conception of +children's rights with a jest at the expense of bachelors' and old +maids' children. In dealing with children what is needed is not logic +but sense. There is no logical reason why young persons should be +allowed greater control of their property the day after they are +twenty-one than the day before it. There is no logical reason why I, +who strongly object to an adult standing over a boy of ten with a Latin +grammar, and saying, "you must learn this, whether you want to or not," +should nevertheless be quite prepared to stand over a boy of five with +the multiplication table or a copy book or a code of elementary good +manners, and practice on his docility to make him learn them. And there +is no logical reason why I should do for a child a great many little +offices, some of them troublesome and disagreeable, which I should +not do for a boy twice its age, or support a boy or girl when I would +unhesitatingly throw an adult on his own resources. But there are +practical reasons, and sensible reasons, and affectionate reasons for +all these illogicalities. Children do not want to be treated altogether +as adults: such treatment terrifies them and over-burdens them with +responsibility. In truth, very few adults care to be called on for +independence and originality: they also are bewildered and terrified +in the absence of precedents and precepts and commandments; but modern +Democracy allows them a sanctioning and cancelling power if they are +capable of using it, which children are not. To treat a child wholly +as an adult would be to mock and destroy it. Infantile docility and +juvenile dependence are, like death, a product of Natural Selection; +and though there is no viler crime than to abuse them, yet there is no +greater cruelty than to ignore them. I have complained sufficiently +of what I suffered through the process of assault, imprisonment, +and compulsory lessons that taught me nothing, which are called my +schooling. But I could say a good deal also about the things I was not +taught and should have been taught, not to mention the things I was +allowed to do which I should not have been allowed to do. I have no +recollection of being taught to read or write; so I presume I was born +with both faculties; but many people seem to have bitter recollections +of being forced reluctantly to acquire them. And though I have the +uttermost contempt for a teacher so ill mannered and incompetent as to +be unable to make a child learn to read and write without also making it +cry, still I am prepared to admit that I had rather have been compelled +to learn to read and write with tears by an incompetent and ill mannered +person than left in ignorance. Reading, writing, and enough arithmetic +to use money honestly and accurately, together with the rudiments of law +and order, become necessary conditions of a child's liberty before it +can appreciate the importance of its liberty, or foresee that these +accomplishments are worth acquiring. Nature has provided for this by +evolving the instinct of docility. Children are very docile: they have +a sound intuition that they must do what they are told or perish. And +adults have an intuition, equally sound, that they must take advantage +of this docility to teach children how to live properly or the children +will not survive. The difficulty is to know where to stop. To illustrate +this, let us consider the main danger of childish docility and parental +officiousness. + + + + +The Abuse of Docility + +Docility may survive as a lazy habit long after it has ceased to be a +beneficial instinct. If you catch a child when it is young enough to be +instinctively docile, and keep it in a condition of unremitted tutelage +under the nurserymaid, the governess, the preparatory school, the +secondary school, and the university, until it is an adult, you will +produce, not a self-reliant, free, fully matured human being, but a +grown-up schoolboy or schoolgirl, capable of nothing in the way of +original or independent action except outbursts of naughtiness in the +women and blackguardism in the men. That is exactly what we get at +present in our rich and consequently governing classes: they pass from +juvenility to senility without ever touching maturity except in body. +The classes which cannot afford this sustained tutelage are notably more +self-reliant and grown-up: an office boy of fifteen is often more of a +man than a university student of twenty. Unfortunately this precocity +is disabled by poverty, ignorance, narrowness, and a hideous power of +living without art or love or beauty and being rather proud of it. The +poor never escape from servitude: their docility is preserved by their +slavery. And so all become the prey of the greedy, the selfish, the +domineering, the unscrupulous, the predatory. If here and there an +individual refuses to be docile, ten docile persons will beat him or +lock him up or shoot him or hang him at the bidding of his oppressors +and their own. The crux of the whole difficulty about parents, +schoolmasters, priests, absolute monarchs, and despots of every sort, +is the tendency to abuse natural docility. A nation should always be +healthily rebellious; but the king or prime minister has yet to be found +who will make trouble by cultivating that side of the national spirit. A +child should begin to assert itself early, and shift for itself more +and more not only in washing and dressing itself, but in opinions and +conduct; yet as nothing is so exasperating and so unlovable as an uppish +child, it is useless to expect parents and schoolmasters to inculcate +this uppishness. Such unamiable precepts as Always contradict an +authoritative statement, Always return a blow, Never lose a chance of a +good fight, When you are scolded for a mistake ask the person who scolds +you whether he or she supposes you did it on purpose, and follow the +question with a blow or an insult or some other unmistakable expression +of resentment, Remember that the progress of the world depends on your +knowing better than your elders, are just as important as those of The +Sermon on the Mount; but no one has yet seen them written up in letters +of gold in a schoolroom or nursery. The child is taught to be kind, to +be respectful, to be quiet, not to answer back, to be truthful when its +elders want to find out anything from it, to lie when the truth would +shock or hurt its elders, to be above all things obedient, and to be +seen and not heard. Here we have two sets of precepts, each warranted +to spoil a child hopelessly if the other be omitted. Unfortunately we +do not allow fair play between them. The rebellious, intractable, +aggressive, selfish set provoke a corrective resistance, and do not +pretend to high moral or religious sanctions; and they are never urged +by grown-up people on young people. They are therefore more in danger +of neglect or suppression than the other set, which have all the adults, +all the laws, all the religions on their side. How is the child to be +secured its due share of both bodies of doctrine? + + + + +The Schoolboy and the Homeboy + +In practice what happens is that parents notice that boys brought up at +home become mollycoddles, or prigs, or duffers, unable to take care of +themselves. They see that boys should learn to rough it a little and +to mix with children of their own age. This is natural enough. When you +have preached at and punished a boy until he is a moral cripple, you +are as much hampered by him as by a physical cripple; and as you do not +intend to have him on your hands all your life, and are generally rather +impatient for the day when he will earn his own living and leave you to +attend to yourself, you sooner or later begin to talk to him about the +need for self-reliance, learning to think, and so forth, with the result +that your victim, bewildered by your inconsistency, concludes that there +is no use trying to please you, and falls into an attitude of sulky +resentment. Which is an additional inducement to pack him off to school. + +In school, he finds himself in a dual world, under two dispensations. +There is the world of the boys, where the point of honor is to be +untameable, always ready to fight, ruthless in taking the conceit out of +anyone who ventures to give himself airs of superior knowledge or taste, +and generally to take Lucifer for one's model. And there is the world of +the masters, the world of discipline, submission, diligence, obedience, +and continual and shameless assumption of moral and intellectual +authority. Thus the schoolboy hears both sides, and is so far better +off than the homebred boy who hears only one. But the two sides are +not fairly presented. They are presented as good and evil, as vice and +virtue, as villainy and heroism. The boy feels mean and cowardly when +he obeys, and selfish and rascally when he disobeys. He looses his moral +courage just as he comes to hate books and languages. In the end, John +Ruskin, tied so close to his mother's apron-string that he did not +escape even when he went to Oxford, and John Stuart Mill, whose father +ought to have been prosecuted for laying his son's childhood waste with +lessons, were superior, as products of training, to our schoolboys. They +were very conspicuously superior in moral courage; and though they did +not distinguish themselves at cricket and football, they had quite as +much physical hardihood as any civilized man needs. But it is to be +observed that Ruskin's parents were wise people who gave John a full +share in their own life, and put up with his presence both at home and +abroad when they must sometimes have been very weary of him; and Mill, +as it happens, was deliberately educated to challenge all the most +sacred institutions of his country. The households they were brought +up in were no more average households than a Montessori school is an +average school. + + + + +The Comings of Age of Children + +All this inculcated adult docility, which wrecks every civilization as +it is wrecking ours, is inhuman and unnatural. We must reconsider our +institution of the Coming of Age, which is too late for some purposes, +and too early for others. There should be a series of Coming of Ages for +every individual. The mammals have their first coming of age when they +are weaned; and it is noteworthy that this rather cruel and selfish +operation on the part of the parent has to be performed resolutely, with +claws and teeth; for your little mammal does not want to be weaned, and +yields only to a pretty rough assertion of the right of the parent to +be relieved of the child as soon as the child is old enough to bear the +separation. The same thing occurs with children: they hang on to the +mother's apron-string and the father's coat tails as long as they can, +often baffling those sensitive parents who know that children should +think for themselves and fend for themselves, but are too kind to throw +them on their own resources with the ferocity of the domestic cat. The +child should have its first coming of age when it is weaned, another +when it can talk, another when it can walk, another when it can dress +itself without assistance; and when it can read, write, count money, and +pass an examination in going a simple errand involving a purchase and +a journey by rail or other public method of locomotion, it should have +quite a majority. At present the children of laborers are soon mobile +and able to shift for themselves, whereas it is possible to find +grown-up women in the rich classes who are actually afraid to take a +walk in the streets unattended and unprotected. It is true that this +is a superstition from the time when a retinue was part of the state +of persons of quality, and the unattended person was supposed to be a +common person of no quality, earning a living; but this has now become +so absurd that children and young women are no longer told why they are +forbidden to go about alone, and have to be persuaded that the streets +are dangerous places, which of course they are; but people who are not +educated to live dangerously have only half a life, and are more likely +to die miserably after all than those who have taken all the common +risks of freedom from their childhood onward as matters of course. + + + + +The Conflict of Wills + +The world wags in spite of its schools and its families because both +schools and families are mostly very largely anarchic: parents and +schoolmasters are good-natured or weak or lazy; and children are docile +and affectionate and very shortwinded in their fits of naughtiness; and +so most families slummock along and muddle through until the children +cease to be children. In the few cases when the parties are energetic +and determined, the child is crushed or the parent is reduced to a +cipher, as the case may be. When the opposed forces are neither of them +strong enough to annihilate the other, there is serious trouble: that +is how we get those feuds between parent and child which recur to our +memory so ironically when we hear people sentimentalizing about natural +affection. We even get tragedies; for there is nothing so tragic to +contemplate or so devastating to suffer as the oppression of will +without conscience; and the whole tendency of our family and school +system is to set the will of the parent and the school despot above +conscience as something that must be deferred to abjectly and absolutely +for its own sake. + +The strongest, fiercest force in nature is human will. It is the highest +organization we know of the will that has created the whole universe. +Now all honest civilization, religion, law, and convention is an attempt +to keep this force within beneficent bounds. What corrupts civilization, +religion, law, and convention (and they are at present pretty nearly +as corrupt as they dare) is the constant attempts made by the wills of +individuals and classes to thwart the wills and enslave the powers +of other individuals and classes. The powers of the parent and the +schoolmaster, and of their public analogues the lawgiver and the +judge, become instruments of tyranny in the hands of those who are too +narrow-minded to understand law and exercise judgment; and in their +hands (with us they mostly fall into such hands) law becomes tyranny. +And what is a tyrant? Quite simply a person who says to another person, +young or old, "You shall do as I tell you; you shall make what I want; +you shall profess my creed; you shall have no will of your own; and +your powers shall be at the disposal of my will." It has come to this at +last: that the phrase "she has a will of her own," or "he has a will +of his own" has come to denote a person of exceptional obstinacy and +self-assertion. And even persons of good natural disposition, if +brought up to expect such deference, are roused to unreasoning fury, +and sometimes to the commission of atrocious crimes, by the slightest +challenge to their authority. Thus a laborer may be dirty, drunken, +untruthful, slothful, untrustworthy in every way without exhausting the +indulgence of the country house. But let him dare to be "disrespectful" +and he is a lost man, though he be the cleanest, soberest, most +diligent, most veracious, most trustworthy man in the county. Dickens's +instinct for detecting social cankers never served him better than when +he shewed us Mrs Heep teaching her son to "be umble," knowing that if he +carried out that precept he might be pretty well anything else he liked. +The maintenance of deference to our wills becomes a mania which will +carry the best of us to any extremity. We will allow a village of +Egyptian fellaheen or Indian tribesmen to live the lowest life they +please among themselves without molestation; but let one of them slay +an Englishman or even strike him on the strongest provocation, and +straightway we go stark mad, burning and destroying, shooting and +shelling, flogging and hanging, if only such survivors as we may leave +are thoroughly cowed in the presence of a man with a white face. In +the committee room of a local council or city corporation, the humblest +employees of the committee find defenders if they complain of harsh +treatment. Gratuities are voted, indulgences and holidays are pleaded +for, delinquencies are excused in the most sentimental manner provided +only the employee, however patent a hypocrite or incorrigible a slacker, +is hat in hand. But let the most obvious measure of justice be demanded +by the secretary of a Trade Union in terms which omit all expressions +of subservience, and it is with the greatest difficulty that the +cooler-headed can defeat angry motions that the letter be thrown into +the waste paper basket and the committee proceed to the next business. + + + + +The Demagogue's Opportunity + +And the employee has in him the same fierce impulse to impose his will +without respect for the will of others. Democracy is in practice nothing +but a device for cajoling from him the vote he refuses to arbitrary +authority. He will not vote for Coriolanus; but when an experienced +demagogue comes along and says, "Sir: _you_ are the dictator: the +voice of the people is the voice of God; and I am only your very humble +servant," he says at once, "All right: tell me what to dictate," and +is presently enslaved more effectually with his own silly consent than +Coriolanus would ever have enslaved him without asking his leave. And +the trick by which the demagogue defeats Coriolanus is played on him in +his turn by _his_ inferiors. Everywhere we see the cunning succeeding +in the world by seeking a rich or powerful master and practising on his +lust for subservience. The political adventurer who gets into parliament +by offering himself to the poor voter, not as his representative but as +his will-less soulless "delegate," is himself the dupe of a clever wife +who repudiates Votes for Women, knowing well that whilst the man is +master, the man's mistress will rule. Uriah Heep may be a crawling +creature; but his crawling takes him upstairs. + +Thus does the selfishness of the will turn on itself, and obtain by +flattery what it cannot seize by open force. Democracy becomes the +latest trick of tyranny: "womanliness" becomes the latest wile of +prostitution. + +Between parent and child the same conflict wages and the same +destruction of character ensues. Parents set themselves to bend the will +of their children to their own--to break their stubborn spirit, as +they call it--with the ruthlessness of Grand Inquisitors. Cunning, +unscrupulous children learn all the arts of the sneak in circumventing +tyranny: children of better character are cruelly distressed and more or +less lamed for life by it. + + + + +Our Quarrelsomeness + +As between adults, we find a general quarrelsomeness which makes +political reform as impossible to most Englishmen as to hogs. Certain +sections of the nation get cured of this disability. University men, +sailors, and politicians are comparatively free from it, because the +communal life of the University, the fact that in a ship a man must +either learn to consider others or else go overboard or into irons, and +the habit of working on committees and ceasing to expect more of +one's own way than is included in the greatest common measure of the +committee, educate the will socially. But no one who has ever had to +guide a committee of ordinary private Englishmen through their first +attempts at collective action, in committee or otherwise, can retain +any illusions as to the appalling effects on our national manners +and character of the organization of the home and the school as petty +tyrannies, and the absence of all teaching of self-respect and training +in self-assertion. Bullied and ordered about, the Englishman obeys like +a sheep, evades like a knave, or tries to murder his oppressor. Merely +criticized or opposed in committee, or invited to consider anybody's +views but his own, he feels personally insulted and wants to resign +or leave the room unless he is apologized to. And his panic and +bewilderment when he sees that the older hands at the work have no +patience with him and do not intend to treat him as infallible, are +pitiable as far as they are anything but ludicrous. That is what comes +of not being taught to consider other people's wills, and left to submit +to them or to over-ride them as if they were the winds and the weather. +Such a state of mind is incompatible not only with the democratic +introduction of high civilization, but with the comprehension and +maintenance of such civilized institutions as have been introduced by +benevolent and intelligent despots and aristocrats. + + + + +We Must Reform Society before we can Reform Ourselves + +When we come to the positive problem of what to do with children if we +are to give up the established plan, we find the difficulties so great +that we begin to understand why so many people who detest the system and +look back with loathing on their own schooldays, must helplessly send +their children to the very schools they themselves were sent to, because +there is no alternative except abandoning the children to undisciplined +vagabondism. Man in society must do as everybody else does in his class: +only fools and romantic novices imagine that freedom is a mere matter of +the readiness of the individual to snap his fingers at convention. It +is true that most of us live in a condition of quite unnecessary +inhibition, wearing ugly and uncomfortable clothes, making ourselves and +other people miserable by the heathen horrors of mourning, staying away +from the theatre because we cannot afford the stalls and are ashamed +to go to the pit, and in dozens of other ways enslaving ourselves +when there are comfortable alternatives open to us without any real +drawbacks. The contemplation of these petty slaveries, and of the +triumphant ease with which sensible people throw them off, creates an +impression that if we only take Johnson's advice to free our minds from +cant, we can achieve freedom. But if we all freed our minds from cant +we should find that for the most part we should have to go on doing +the necessary work of the world exactly as we did it before until we +organized new and free methods of doing it. Many people believed in +secondary co-education (boys and girls taught together) before schools +like Bedales were founded: indeed the practice was common enough in +elementary schools and in Scotland; but their belief did not help them +until Bedales and St George's were organized; and there are still not +nearly enough co-educational schools in existence to accommodate all +the children of the parents who believe in co-education up to university +age, even if they could always afford the fees of these exceptional +schools. It may be edifying to tell a duke that our public schools are +all wrong in their constitution and methods, or a costermonger that +children should be treated as in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister instead of as +they are treated at the elementary school at the corner of his street; +but what are the duke and the coster to do? Neither of them has any +effective choice in the matter: their children must either go to the +schools that are, or to no school at all. And as the duke thinks with +reason that his son will be a lout or a milksop or a prig if he does +not go to school, and the coster knows that his son will become an +illiterate hooligan if he is left to the streets, there is no real +alternative for either of them. Child life must be socially organized: +no parent, rich or poor, can choose institutions that do not exist; and +the private enterprise of individual school masters appealing to a +group of well-to-do parents, though it may shew what can be done by +enthusiasts with new methods, cannot touch the mass of our children. +For the average parent or child nothing is really available except the +established practice; and this is what makes it so important that the +established practice should be a sound one, and so useless for clever +individuals to disparage it unless they can organize an alternative +practice and make it, too, general. + + + + +The Pursuit of Manners + +If you cross-examine the duke and the coster, you will find that they +are not concerned for the scholastic attainments of their children. +Ask the duke whether he could pass the standard examination of +twelve-year-old children in elementary schools, and he will admit, +with an entirely placid smile, that he would almost certainly be +ignominiously plucked. And he is so little ashamed of or disadvantaged +by his condition that he is not prepared to spend an hour in remedying +it. The coster may resent the inquiry instead of being amused by it; +but his answer, if true, will be the same. What they both want for their +children is the communal training, the apprenticeship to society, the +lessons in holding one's own among people of all sorts with whom one is +not, as in the home, on privileged terms. These can be acquired only by +"mixing with the world," no matter how wicked the world is. No parent +cares twopence whether his children can write Latin hexameters or +repeat the dates of the accession of all the English monarchs since the +Conqueror; but all parents are earnestly anxious about the manners of +their children. Better Claude Duval than Kaspar Hauser. Laborers who are +contemptuously anti-clerical in their opinions will send their +daughters to the convent school because the nuns teach them some sort +of gentleness of speech and behavior. And peers who tell you that our +public schools are rotten through and through, and that our Universities +ought to be razed to the foundations, send their sons to Eton and +Oxford, Harrow and Cambridge, not only because there is nothing else to +be done, but because these places, though they turn out blackguards +and ignoramuses and boobies galore, turn them out with the habits and +manners of the society they belong to. Bad as those manners are in many +respects, they are better than no manners at all. And no individual or +family can possibly teach them. They can be acquired only by living in +an organized community in which they are traditional. + +Thus we see that there are reasons for the segregation of children even +in families where the great reason: namely, that children are nuisances +to adults, does not press very hardly, as, for instance, in the houses +of the very poor, who can send their children to play in the streets, +or the houses of the very rich, which are so large that the children's +quarters can be kept out of the parents' way like the servants' +quarters. + + + + +Not too much Wind on the Heath, Brother + +What, then, is to be done? For the present, unfortunately, little except +propagating the conception of Children's Rights. Only the achievement +of economic equality through Socialism can make it possible to deal +thoroughly with the question from the point of view of the total +interest of the community, which must always consist of grown-up +children. Yet economic equality, like all simple and obvious +arrangements, seems impossible to people brought up as children are now. +Still, something can be done even within class limits. Large communities +of children of the same class are possible today; and voluntary +organization of outdoor life for children has already begun in Boy +Scouting and excursions of one kind or another. The discovery that +anything, even school life, is better for the child than home life, +will become an over-ridden hobby; and we shall presently be told by our +faddists that anything, even camp life, is better than school life. +Some blundering beginnings of this are already perceptible. There is a +movement for making our British children into priggish little barefooted +vagabonds, all talking like that born fool George Borrow, and supposed +to be splendidly healthy because they would die if they slept in rooms +with the windows shut, or perhaps even with a roof over their heads. +Still, this is a fairly healthy folly; and it may do something to +establish Mr Harold Cox's claim of a Right to Roam as the basis of a +much needed law compelling proprietors of land to provide plenty of +gates in their fences, and to leave them unlocked when there are no +growing crops to be damaged nor bulls to be encountered, instead of, as +at present, imprisoning the human race in dusty or muddy thoroughfares +between walls of barbed wire. + +The reaction against vagabondage will come from the children themselves. +For them freedom will not mean the expensive kind of savagery now called +"the simple life." Their natural disgust with the visions of cockney +book fanciers blowing themselves out with "the wind on the heath, +brother," and of anarchists who are either too weak to understand that +men are strong and free in proportion to the social pressure they +can stand and the complexity of the obligations they are prepared to +undertake, or too strong to realize that what is freedom to them may be +terror and bewilderment to others, will drive them back to the home and +the school if these have meanwhile learned the lesson that children are +independent human beings and have rights. + + + + +Wanted: a Child's Magna Charta + +Whether we shall presently be discussing a Juvenile Magna Charta or +Declaration of Rights by way of including children in the Constitution +is a question on which I leave others to speculate. But if it could +once be established that a child has an adult's Right of Egress from +uncomfortable places and unpleasant company, and there were children's +lawyers to sue pedagogues and others for assault and imprisonment, there +would be an amazing change in the behavior of schoolmasters, the quality +of school books, and the amenities of school life. That Consciousness of +Consent which, even in its present delusive form, has enabled Democracy +to oust tyrannical systems in spite of all its vulgarities and +stupidities and rancors and ineptitudes and ignorances, would operate as +powerfully among children as it does now among grown-ups. No doubt the +pedagogue would promptly turn demagogue, and woo his scholars by all the +arts of demagogy; but none of these arts can easily be so dishonorable +or mischievous as the art of caning. And, after all, if larger liberties +are attached to the acquisition of knowledge, and the child finds +that it can no more go to the seaside without a knowledge of the +multiplication and pence tables than it can be an astronomer without +mathematics, it will learn the multiplication table, which is more than +it always does at present, in spite of all the canings and keepings in. + + + + +The Pursuit of Learning + +When the Pursuit of Learning comes to mean the pursuit of learning by +the child instead of the pursuit of the child by Learning, cane in +hand, the danger will be precocity of the intellect, which is just as +undesirable as precocity of the emotions. We still have a silly habit of +talking and thinking as if intellect were a mechanical process and not a +passion; and in spite of the German tutors who confess openly that three +out of every five of the young men they coach for examinations are lamed +for life thereby; in spite of Dickens and his picture of little Paul +Dombey dying of lessons, we persist in heaping on growing children and +adolescent youths and maidens tasks Pythagoras would have declined out +of common regard for his own health and common modesty as to his own +capacity. And this overwork is not all the effect of compulsion; for +the average schoolmaster does not compel his scholars to learn: he only +scolds and punishes them if they do not, which is quite a different +thing, the net effect being that the school prisoners need not learn +unless they like. Nay, it is sometimes remarked that the school +dunce--meaning the one who does not like--often turns out well +afterwards, as if idleness were a sign of ability and character. A much +more sensible explanation is that the so-called dunces are not exhausted +before they begin the serious business of life. It is said that boys +will be boys; and one can only add one wishes they would. Boys really +want to be manly, and are unfortunately encouraged thoughtlessly in this +very dangerous and overstraining aspiration. All the people who have +really worked (Herbert Spencer for instance) warn us against work as +earnestly as some people warn us against drink. When learning is placed +on the voluntary footing of sport, the teacher will find himself saying +every day "Run away and play: you have worked as much as is good for +you." Trying to make children leave school will be like trying to make +them go to bed; and it will be necessary to surprise them with the idea +that teaching is work, and that the teacher is tired and must go play or +rest or eat: possibilities always concealed by that infamous humbug +the current schoolmaster, who achieves a spurious divinity and a witch +doctor's authority by persuading children that he is not human, just as +ladies persuade them that they have no legs. + + + + +Children and Game: a Proposal + +Of the many wild absurdities of our existing social order perhaps the +most grotesque is the costly and strictly enforced reservation of large +tracts of country as deer forests and breeding grounds for pheasants +whilst there is so little provision of the kind made for children. +I have more than once thought of trying to introduce the shooting +of children as a sport, as the children would then be preserved very +carefully for ten months in the year, thereby reducing their death rate +far more than the fusillades of the sportsmen during the other two would +raise it. At present the killing of a fox except by a pack of foxhounds +is regarded with horror; but you may and do kill children in a hundred +and fifty ways provided you do not shoot them or set a pack of dogs on +them. It must be admitted that the foxes have the best of it; and indeed +a glance at our pheasants, our deer, and our children will convince the +most sceptical that the children have decidedly the worst of it. + +This much hope, however, can be extracted from the present state of +things. It is so fantastic, so mad, so apparently impossible, that no +scheme of reform need ever henceforth be discredited on the ground that +it is fantastic or mad or apparently impossible. It is the sensible +schemes, unfortunately, that are hopeless in England. Therefore I have +great hopes that my own views, though fundamentally sensible, can be +made to appear fantastic enough to have a chance. + +First, then, I lay it down as a prime condition of sane society, obvious +as such to anyone but an idiot, that in any decent community, children +should find in every part of their native country, food, clothing, +lodging, instruction, and parental kindness for the asking. For the +matter of that, so should adults; but the two cases differ in that as +these commodities do not grow on the bushes, the adults cannot have +them unless they themselves organize and provide the supply, whereas the +children must have them as if by magic, with nothing to do but rub the +lamp, like Aladdin, and have their needs satisfied. + + + + +The Parents' Intolerable Burden + +There is nothing new in this: it is how children have always had and +must always have their needs satisfied. The parent has to play the part +of Aladdin's djinn; and many a parent has sunk beneath the burden of +this service. All the novelty we need is to organize it so that instead +of the individual child fastening like a parasite on its own particular +parents, the whole body of children should be thrown not only upon the +whole body of parents, but upon the celibates and childless as well, +whose present exemption from a full share in the social burden of +children is obviously unjust and unwholesome. Today it is easy to find a +widow who has at great cost to herself in pain, danger, and disablement, +borne six or eight children. In the same town you will find rich +bachelors and old maids, and married couples with no children or with +families voluntarily limited to two or three. The eight children do not +belong to the woman in any real or legal sense. When she has reared +them they pass away from her into the community as independent persons, +marrying strangers, working for strangers, spending on the community the +life that has been built up at her expense. No more monstrous injustice +could be imagined than that the burden of rearing the children should +fall on her alone and not on the celibates and the selfish as well. + +This is so far recognized that already the child finds, wherever it +goes, a school for it, and somebody to force it into the school; and +more and more these schools are being driven by the mere logic of facts +to provide the children with meals, with boots, with spectacles, with +dentists and doctors. In fact, when the child's parents are destitute or +not to be found, bread, lodging, and clothing are provided. It is true +that they are provided grudgingly and on conditions infamous enough to +draw down abundant fire from Heaven upon us every day in the shape of +crime and disease and vice; but still the practice of keeping children +barely alive at the charge of the community is established; and there is +no need for me to argue about it. I propose only two extensions of the +practice. One is to provide for all the child's reasonable human wants, +on which point, if you differ from me, I shall take leave to say that +you are socially a fool and personally an inhuman wretch. The other is +that these wants should be supplied in complete freedom from compulsory +schooling or compulsory anything except restraint from crime, though, +as they can be supplied only by social organization, the child must be +conscious of and subject to the conditions of that organization, which +may involve such portions of adult responsibility and duty as a child +may be able to bear according to its age, and which will in any case +prevent it from forming the vagabond and anarchist habit of mind. + +One more exception might be necessary: compulsory freedom. I am sure +that a child should not be imprisoned in a school. I am not so sure that +it should not sometimes be driven out into the open--imprisoned in the +woods and on the mountains, as it were. For there are frowsty children, +just as there are frowsty adults, who dont want freedom. This morbid +result of over-domestication would, let us hope, soon disappear with its +cause. + + + + +Mobilization + +Those who see no prospect held out to them by this except a country in +which all the children shall be roaming savages, should consider, first, +whether their condition would be any worse than that of the little caged +savages of today, and second, whether either children or adults are +so apt to run wild that it is necessary to tether them fast to one +neighborhood to prevent a general dissolution of society. My own +observation leads me to believe that we are not half mobilized enough. +True, I cannot deny that we are more mobile than we were. You will still +find in the home counties old men who have never been to London, and who +tell you that they once went to Winchester or St Albans much as if they +had been to the South Pole; but they are not so common as the clerk who +has been to Paris or to Lovely Lucerne, and who "goes away somewhere" +when he has a holiday. His grandfather never had a holiday, and, if he +had, would no more have dreamed of crossing the Channel than of taking +a box at the Opera. But with all allowance for the Polytechnic excursion +and the tourist agency, our inertia is still appalling. I confess to +having once spent nine years in London without putting my nose +outside it; and though this was better, perhaps, than the restless +globe-trotting vagabondage of the idle rich, wandering from hotel to +hotel and never really living anywhere, yet I should no more have done +it if I had been properly mobilized in my childhood than I should have +worn the same suit of clothes all that time (which, by the way, I very +nearly did, my professional income not having as yet begun to sprout). +There are masses of people who could afford at least a trip to Margate, +and a good many who could afford a trip round the world, who are more +immovable than Aldgate pump. To others, who would move if they knew how, +travelling is surrounded with imaginary difficulties and terrors. In +short, the difficulty is not to fix people, but to root them up. We keep +repeating the silly proverb that a rolling stone gathers no moss, as if +moss were a desirable parasite. What we mean is that a vagabond does not +prosper. Even this is not true, if prosperity means enjoyment as well as +responsibility and money. The real misery of vagabondage is the misery +of having nothing to do and nowhere to go, the misery of being derelict +of God and Man, the misery of the idle, poor or rich. And this is one +of the miseries of unoccupied childhood. The unoccupied adult, thus +afflicted, tries many distractions which are, to say the least, unsuited +to children. But one of them, the distraction of seeing the world, is +innocent and beneficial. Also it is childish, being a continuation of +what nurses call "taking notice," by which a child becomes experienced. +It is pitiable nowadays to see men and women doing after the age of 45 +all the travelling and sightseeing they should have done before they +were 15. Mere wondering and staring at things is an important part of +a child's education: that is why children can be thoroughly mobilized +without making vagabonds of them. A vagabond is at home nowhere because +he wanders: a child should wander because it ought to be at home +everywhere. And if it has its papers and its passports, and gets what +it requires not by begging and pilfering, but from responsible agents +of the community as of right, and with some formal acknowledgment of +the obligations it is incurring and a knowledge of the fact that these +obligations are being recorded: if, further, certain qualifications are +exacted before it is promoted from permission to go as far as its +legs will carry it to using mechanical aids to locomotion, it can roam +without much danger of gypsification. + +Under such circumstances the boy or girl could always run away, and +never be lost; and on no other conditions can a child be free without +being also a homeless outcast. + +Parents could also run away from disagreeable children or drive them out +of doors or even drop their acquaintance, temporarily or permanently, +without inhumanity. Thus both parties would be on their good behavior, +and not, as at present, on their filial or parental behavior, which, +like all unfree behavior, is mostly bad behavior. + +As to what other results might follow, we had better wait and see; for +nobody now alive can imagine what customs and institutions would grow +up in societies of free children. Child laws and child fashions, child +manners and child morals are now not tolerated; but among free children +there would certainly be surprising developments in this direction. I do +not think there would be any danger of free children behaving as badly +as grown-up people do now because they have never been free. They could +hardly behave worse, anyhow. + + + + +Children's Rights and Parents' Wrongs + +A very distinguished man once assured a mother of my acquaintance that +she would never know what it meant to be hurt until she was hurt through +her children. Children are extremely cruel without intending it; and +in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the reason is that they do not +conceive their elders as having any human feelings. Serve the elders +right, perhaps, for posing as superhuman! The penalty of the impostor +is not that he is found out (he very seldom is) but that he is taken +for what he pretends to be, and treated as such. And to be treated as +anything but what you really are may seem pleasant to the imagination +when the treatment is above your merits; but in actual experience it +is often quite the reverse. When I was a very small boy, my romantic +imagination, stimulated by early doses of fiction, led me to brag to a +still smaller boy so outrageously that he, being a simple soul, really +believed me to be an invincible hero. I cannot remember whether this +pleased me much; but I do remember very distinctly that one day this +admirer of mine, who had a pet goat, found the animal in the hands of a +larger boy than either of us, who mocked him and refused to restore the +animal to his rightful owner. Whereupon, naturally, he came weeping +to me, and demanded that I should rescue the goat and annihilate the +aggressor. My terror was beyond description: fortunately for me, it +imparted such a ghastliness to my voice and aspect as I under the eye of +my poor little dupe, advanced on the enemy with that hideous extremity +of cowardice which is called the courage of despair, and said "You let +go that goat," that he abandoned his prey and fled, to my unforgettable, +unspeakable relief. I have never since exaggerated my prowess in bodily +combat. + +Now what happened to me in the adventure of the goat happens very often +to parents, and would happen to schoolmasters if the prison door of the +school did not shut out the trials of life. I remember once, at school, +the resident head master was brought down to earth by the sudden illness +of his wife. In the confusion that ensued it became necessary to +leave one of the schoolrooms without a master. I was in the class that +occupied that schoolroom. To have sent us home would have been to break +the fundamental bargain with our parents by which the school was bound +to keep us out of their way for half the day at all hazards. Therefore +an appeal had to be made to our better feelings: that is, to our common +humanity, not to make a noise. But the head master had never admitted +any common humanity with us. We had been carefully broken in to regard +him as a being quite aloof from and above us: one not subject to error +or suffering or death or illness or mortality. Consequently sympathy was +impossible; and if the unfortunate lady did not perish, it was because, +as I now comfort myself with guessing, she was too much pre-occupied +with her own pains, and possibly making too much noise herself, to be +conscious of the pandemonium downstairs. + +A great deal of the fiendishness of schoolboys and the cruelty of +children to their elders is produced just in this way. Elders cannot be +superhuman beings and suffering fellow-creatures at the same time. If +you pose as a little god, you must pose for better for worse. + + + + +How Little We Know About Our Parents + +The relation between parent and child has cruel moments for the parent +even when money is no object, and the material worries are delegated to +servants and school teachers. The child and the parent are strangers +to one another necessarily, because their ages must differ widely. Read +Goethe's autobiography; and note that though he was happy in his +parents and had exceptional powers of observation, divination, and +story-telling, he knew less about his father and mother than about most +of the other people he mentions. I myself was never on bad terms with +my mother: we lived together until I was forty-two years old, absolutely +without the smallest friction of any kind; yet when her death set me +thinking curiously about our relations, I realized that I knew very +little about her. Introduce me to a strange woman who was a child when +I was a child, a girl when I was a boy, an adolescent when I was an +adolescent; and if we take naturally to one another I will know more of +her and she of me at the end of forty days (I had almost said of +forty minutes) than I knew of my mother at the end of forty years. A +contemporary stranger is a novelty and an enigma, also a possibility; +but a mother is like a broomstick or like the sun in the heavens, it +does not matter which as far as one's knowledge of her is concerned: +the broomstick is there and the sun is there; and whether the child is +beaten by it or warmed and enlightened by it, it accepts it as a fact +in nature, and does not conceive it as having had youth, passions, and +weaknesses, or as still growing, yearning, suffering, and learning. If +I meet a widow I may ask her all about her marriage; but what son ever +dreams of asking his mother about her marriage, or could endure to hear +of it without violently breaking off the old sacred relationship between +them, and ceasing to be her child or anything more to her than the first +man in the street might be? + +Yet though in this sense the child cannot realize its parent's +humanity, the parent can realize the child's; for the parents with their +experience of life have none of the illusions about the child that the +child has about the parents; and the consequence is that the child +can hurt its parents' feelings much more than its parents can hurt +the child's, because the child, even when there has been none of the +deliberate hypocrisy by which children are taken advantage of by their +elders, cannot conceive the parent as a fellow-creature, whilst the +parents know very well that the children are only themselves over again. +The child cannot conceive that its blame or contempt or want of interest +could possibly hurt its parent, and therefore expresses them all with +an indifference which has given rise to the term _enfant terrible_ (a +tragic term in spite of the jests connected with it); whilst the parent +can suffer from such slights and reproaches more from a child than from +anyone else, even when the child is not beloved, because the child is so +unmistakably sincere in them. + + + + +Our Abandoned Mothers + +Take a very common instance of this agonizing incompatibility. A widow +brings up her son to manhood. He meets a strange woman, and goes off +with and marries her, leaving his mother desolate. It does not occur to +him that this is at all hard on her: he does it as a matter of course, +and actually expects his mother to receive, on terms of special +affection, the woman for whom she has been abandoned. If he shewed any +sense of what he was doing, any remorse; if he mingled his tears with +hers and asked her not to think too hardly of him because he had obeyed +the inevitable destiny of a man to leave his father and mother and +cleave to his wife, she could give him her blessing and accept her +bereavement with dignity and without reproach. But the man never dreams +of such considerations. To him his mother's feeling in the matter, when +she betrays it, is unreasonable, ridiculous, and even odious, as shewing +a prejudice against his adorable bride. + +I have taken the widow as an extreme and obvious case; but there are +many husbands and wives who are tired of their consorts, or disappointed +in them, or estranged from them by infidelities; and these parents, in +losing a son or a daughter through marriage, may be losing everything +they care for. No parent's love is as innocent as the love of a child: +the exclusion of all conscious sexual feeling from it does not exclude +the bitterness, jealousy, and despair at loss which characterize sexual +passion: in fact, what is called a pure love may easily be more selfish +and jealous than a carnal one. Anyhow, it is plain matter of fact that +naively selfish people sometimes try with fierce jealousy to prevent +their children marrying. + + + + +Family Affection + +Until the family as we know it ceases to exist, nobody will dare to +analyze parental affection as distinguished from that general human +sympathy which has secured to many an orphan fonder care in a stranger's +house than it would have received from its actual parents. Not even +Tolstoy, in The Kreutzer Sonata, has said all that we suspect about it. +When it persists beyond the period at which it ceases to be necessary to +the child's welfare, it is apt to be morbid; and we are probably wrong +to inculcate its deliberate cultivation. The natural course is for +the parents and children to cast off the specific parental and filial +relation when they are no longer necessary to one another. The +child does this readily enough to form fresh ties, closer and more +fascinating. Parents are not always excluded from such compensations: +it happens sometimes that when the children go out at the door the lover +comes in at the window. Indeed it happens now oftener than it used to, +because people remain much longer in the sexual arena. The cultivated +Jewess no longer cuts off her hair at her marriage. The British matron +has discarded her cap and her conscientious ugliness; and a bishop's +wife at fifty has more of the air of a _femme galante_ than an actress +had at thirty-five in her grandmother's time. But as people marry later, +the facts of age and time still inexorably condemn most parents to +comparative solitude when their children marry. This may be a privation +and may be a relief: probably in healthy circumstances it is no worse +than a salutary change of habit; but even at that it is, for the moment +at least, a wrench. For though parents and children sometimes dislike +one another, there is an experience of succor and a habit of dependence +and expectation formed in infancy which naturally attaches a child to +its parent or to its nurse (a foster parent) in a quite peculiar way. +A benefit to the child may be a burden to the parent; but people become +attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached +to them; and to "suffer little children" has become an affectionate +impulse deep in our nature. + +Now there is no such impulse to suffer our sisters and brothers, +our aunts and uncles, much less our cousins. If we could choose our +relatives, we might, by selecting congenial ones, mitigate the repulsive +effect of the obligation to like them and to admit them to our intimacy. +But to have a person imposed on us as a brother merely because he +happens to have the same parents is unbearable when, as may easily +happen, he is the sort of person we should carefully avoid if he were +anyone else's brother. All Europe (except Scotland, which has clans +instead of families) draws the line at second cousins. Protestantism +draws it still closer by making the first cousin a marriageable +stranger; and the only reason for not drawing it at sisters and brothers +is that the institution of the family compels us to spend our +childhood with them, and thus imposes on us a curious relation in which +familiarity destroys romantic charm, and is yet expected to create a +specially warm affection. Such a relation is dangerously factitious and +unnatural; and the practical moral is that the less said at home about +specific family affection the better. Children, like grown-up people, +get on well enough together if they are not pushed down one another's +throats; and grown-up relatives will get on together in proportion +to their separation and their care not to presume on their blood +relationship. We should let children's feelings take their natural +course without prompting. I have seen a child scolded and called +unfeeling because it did not occur to it to make a theatrical +demonstration of affectionate delight when its mother returned after an +absence: a typical example of the way in which spurious family sentiment +is stoked up. We are, after all, sociable animals; and if we are let +alone in the matter of our affections, and well brought up otherwise, +we shall not get on any the worse with particular people because they +happen to be our brothers and sisters and cousins. The danger lies in +assuming that we shall get on any better. + +The main point to grasp here is that families are not kept together at +present by family feeling but by human feeling. The family cultivates +sympathy and mutual help and consolation as any other form of kindly +association cultivates them; but the addition of a dictated compulsory +affection as an attribute of near kinship is not only unnecessary, +but positively detrimental; and the alleged tendency of modern social +development to break up the family need alarm nobody. We cannot break up +the facts of kinship nor eradicate its natural emotional consequences. +What we can do and ought to do is to set people free to behave naturally +and to change their behavior as circumstances change. To impose on +a citizen of London the family duties of a Highland cateran in the +eighteenth century is as absurd as to compel him to carry a claymore and +target instead of an umbrella. The civilized man has no special use +for cousins; and he may presently find that he has no special use for +brothers and sisters. The parent seems likely to remain indispensable; +but there is no reason why that natural tie should be made the excuse +for unnatural aggravations of it, as crushing to the parent as they are +oppressive to the child. The mother and father will not always have +to shoulder the burthen of maintenance which should fall on the Atlas +shoulders of the fatherland and motherland. Pending such reforms and +emancipations, a shattering break-up of the parental home must remain +one of the normal incidents of marriage. The parent is left lonely and +the child is not. Woe to the old if they have no impersonal interests, +no convictions, no public causes to advance, no tastes or hobbies! It is +well to be a mother but not to be a mother-in-law; and if men were cut +off artificially from intellectual and public interests as women are, +the father-in-law would be as deplorable a figure in popular tradition +as the mother-in-law. + +It is not to be wondered at that some people hold that blood +relationship should be kept a secret from the persons related, and that +the happiest condition in this respect is that of the foundling who, if +he ever meets his parents or brothers or sisters, passes them by without +knowing them. And for such a view there is this to be said: that our +family system does unquestionably take the natural bond between members +of the same family, which, like all natural bonds, is not too tight to +be borne, and superimposes on it a painful burden of forced, inculcated, +suggested, and altogether unnecessary affection and responsibility which +we should do well to get rid of by making relatives as independent of +one another as possible. + + + + +The Fate of the Family + +The difficulty of inducing people to talk sensibly about the family is +the same as that which I pointed out in a previous volume as +confusing discussions of marriage. Marriage is not a single invariable +institution: it changes from civilization to civilization, from religion +to religion, from civil code to civil code, from frontier to frontier. +The family is still more variable, because the number of persons +constituting a family, unlike the number of persons constituting a +marriage, varies from one to twenty: indeed, when a widower with a +family marries a widow with a family, and the two produce a third +family, even that very high number may be surpassed. And the conditions +may vary between opposite extremes: for example, in a London or Paris +slum every child adds to the burden of poverty and helps to starve the +parents and all the other children, whereas in a settlement of pioneer +colonists every child, from the moment it is big enough to lend a hand +to the family industry, is an investment in which the only danger is +that of temporary over-capitalization. Then there are the variations +in family sentiment. Sometimes the family organization is as frankly +political as the organization of an army or an industry: fathers being +no more expected to be sentimental about their children than colonels +about soldiers, or factory owners about their employees, though the +mother may be allowed a little tenderness if her character is weak. The +Roman father was a despot: the Chinese father is an object of worship: +the sentimental modern western father is often a play-fellow looked to +for toys and pocket-money. The farmer sees his children constantly: the +squire sees them only during the holidays, and not then oftener than he +can help: the tram conductor, when employed by a joint stock company, +sometimes never sees them at all. + +Under such circumstances phrases like The Influence of Home Life, The +Family, The Domestic Hearth, and so on, are no more specific than The +Mammals, or The Man In The Street; and the pious generalizations founded +so glibly on them by our sentimental moralists are unworkable. +When households average twelve persons with the sexes about equally +represented, the results may be fairly good. When they average three the +results may be very bad indeed; and to lump the two together under +the general term The Family is to confuse the question hopelessly. The +modern small family is much too stuffy: children "brought up at home" +in it are unfit for society. But here again circumstances differ. If the +parents live in what is called a garden suburb, where there is a good +deal of social intercourse, and the family, instead of keeping itself to +itself, as the evil old saying is, and glowering at the neighbors over +the blinds of the long street in which nobody knows his neighbor and +everyone wishes to deceive him as to his income and social importance, +is in effect broken up by school life, by out-of-door habits, and by +frank neighborly intercourse through dances and concerts and theatricals +and excursions and the like, families of four may turn out much less +barbarous citizens than families of ten which attain the Boer ideal of +being out of sight of one another's chimney smoke. + +All one can say is, roughly, that the homelier the home, and the more +familiar the family, the worse for everybody concerned. The family ideal +is a humbug and a nuisance: one might as reasonably talk of the barrack +ideal, or the forecastle ideal, or any other substitution of the +machinery of social organization for the end of it, which must always +be the fullest and most capable life: in short, the most godly life. And +this significant word reminds us that though the popular conception of +heaven includes a Holy Family, it does not attach to that family +the notion of a separate home, or a private nursery or kitchen or +mother-in-law, or anything that constitutes the family as we know it. +Even blood relationship is miraculously abstracted from it; and the +Father is the father of all children, the mother the mother of all +mothers and babies, and the Son the Son of Man and the Savior of his +brothers: one whose chief utterance on the subject of the conventional +family was an invitation to all of us to leave our families and follow +him, and to leave the dead to bury the dead, and not debauch ourselves +at that gloomy festival the family funeral, with its sequel of hideous +mourning and grief which is either affected or morbid. + + + + +Family Mourning + +I do not know how far this detestable custom of mourning is carried in +France; but judging from the appearance of the French people I should +say that a Frenchwoman goes into mourning for her cousins to the +seventeenth degree. The result is that when I cross the Channel I seem +to have reached a country devastated by war or pestilence. It is really +suffering only from the family. Will anyone pretend that England has +not the best of this striking difference? Yet it is such senseless and +unnatural conventions as this that make us so impatient of what we call +family feeling. Even apart from its insufferable pretensions, the family +needs hearty discrediting; for there is hardly any vulnerable part of it +that could not be amputated with advantage. + + + + +Art Teaching + +By art teaching I hasten to say that I do not mean giving children +lessons in freehand drawing and perspective. I am simply calling +attention to the fact that fine art is the only teacher except torture. +I have already pointed out that nobody, except under threat of torture, +can read a school book. The reason is that a school book is not a work +of art. Similarly, you cannot listen to a lesson or a sermon unless the +teacher or the preacher is an artist. You cannot read the Bible if you +have no sense of literary art. The reason why the continental European +is, to the Englishman or American, so surprisingly ignorant of the +Bible, is that the authorized English version is a great work of +literary art, and the continental versions are comparatively artless. +To read a dull book; to listen to a tedious play or prosy sermon or +lecture; to stare at uninteresting pictures or ugly buildings: nothing, +short of disease, is more dreadful than this. The violence done to our +souls by it leaves injuries and produces subtle maladies which have +never been properly studied by psycho-pathologists. Yet we are so inured +to it in school, where practically all the teachers are bores trying +to do the work of artists, and all the books artless, that we acquire +a truly frightful power of enduring boredom. We even acquire the notion +that fine art is lascivious and destructive to the character. In church, +in the House of Commons, at public meetings, we sit solemnly listening +to bores and twaddlers because from the time we could walk or speak we +have been snubbed, scolded, bullied, beaten and imprisoned whenever we +dared to resent being bored or twaddled at, or to express our natural +impatience and derision of bores and twaddlers. And when a man arises +with a soul of sufficient native strength to break the bonds of this +inculcated reverence and to expose and deride and tweak the noses of our +humbugs and panjandrums, like Voltaire or Dickens, we are shocked and +scandalized, even when we cannot help laughing. Worse, we dread and +persecute those who can see and declare the truth, because their +sincerity and insight reflects on our delusion and blindness. We are +all like Nell Gwynne's footman, who defended Nell's reputation with his +fists, not because he believed her to be what he called an honest woman, +but because he objected to be scorned as the footman of one who was no +better than she should be. + +This wretched power of allowing ourselves to be bored may seem to give +the fine arts a chance sometimes. People will sit through a performance +of Beethoven's ninth symphony or of Wagner's Ring just as they will sit +through a dull sermon or a front bench politician saying nothing for two +hours whilst his unfortunate country is perishing through the delay +of its business in Parliament. But their endurance is very bad for the +ninth symphony, because they never hiss when it is murdered. I have +heard an Italian conductor (no longer living) take the _adagio_ of that +symphony at a lively _allegretto_, slowing down for the warmer major +sections into the speed and manner of the heroine's death song in a +Verdi opera; and the listeners, far from relieving my excruciation by +rising with yells of fury and hurling their programs and opera glasses +at the miscreant, behaved just as they do when Richter conducts it. The +mass of imposture that thrives on this combination of ignorance with +despairing endurance is incalculable. Given a public trained from +childhood to stand anything tedious, and so saturated with school +discipline that even with the doors open and no schoolmasters to stop +them they will sit there helplessly until the end of the concert or +opera gives them leave to go home; and you will have in great capitals +hundreds of thousands of pounds spent every night in the season on +professedly artistic entertainments which have no other effect on fine +art than to exacerbate the hatred in which it is already secretly held +in England. + +Fortunately, there are arts that cannot be cut off from the people by +bad performances. We can read books for ourselves; and we can play +a good deal of fine music for ourselves with the help of a pianola. +Nothing stands between us and the actual handwork of the great masters +of painting except distance; and modern photographic methods of +reproduction are in some cases quite and in many nearly as effective in +conveying the artist's message as a modern edition of Shakespear's plays +is in conveying the message that first existed in his handwriting. The +reproduction of great feats of musical execution is already on the +way: the phonograph, for all its wheezing and snarling and braying, is +steadily improving in its manners; and what with this improvement on the +one hand, and on the other that blessed selective faculty which enables +us to ignore a good deal of disagreeable noise if there is a thread +of music in the middle of it (few critics of the phonograph seem to be +conscious of the very considerable mechanical noise set up by choirs +and orchestras) we have at last reached a point at which, for example, +a person living in an English village where the church music is the only +music, and that music is made by a few well-intentioned ladies with +the help of a harmonium, can hear masses by Palestrina very passably +executed, and can thereby be led to the discovery that Jackson in F and +Hymns Ancient and Modern are not perhaps the last word of beauty and +propriety in the praise of God. + +In short, there is a vast body of art now within the reach of everybody. +The difficulty is that this art, which alone can educate us in grace of +body and soul, and which alone can make the history of the past live for +us or the hope of the future shine for us, which alone can give delicacy +and nobility to our crude lusts, which is the appointed vehicle of +inspiration and the method of the communion of saints, is actually +branded as sinful among us because, wherever it arises, there is +resistance to tyranny, breaking of fetters, and the breath of freedom. +The attempt to suppress art is not wholly successful: we might as well +try to suppress oxygen. But it is carried far enough to inflict on huge +numbers of people a most injurious art starvation, and to corrupt a +great deal of the art that is tolerated. You will find in England plenty +of rich families with little more culture than their dogs and horses. +And you will find poor families, cut off by poverty and town life +from the contemplation of the beauty of the earth, with its dresses of +leaves, its scarves of cloud, and its contours of hill and valley, who +would positively be happier as hogs, so little have they cultivated +their humanity by the only effective instrument of culture: art. The +dearth is artificially maintained even when there are the means of +satisfying it. Story books are forbidden, picture post cards are +forbidden, theatres are forbidden, operas are forbidden, circuses are +forbidden, sweetmeats are forbidden, pretty colors are forbidden, all +exactly as vice is forbidden. The Creator is explicitly prayed to, and +implicitly convicted of indecency every day. An association of vice and +sin with everything that is delightful and of goodness with everything +that is wretched and detestable is set up. All the most perilous (and +glorious) appetites and propensities are at once inflamed by starvation +and uneducated by art. All the wholesome conditions which art imposes on +appetite are waived: instead of cultivated men and women restrained by +a thousand delicacies, repelled by ugliness, chilled by vulgarity, +horrified by coarseness, deeply and sweetly moved by the graces that art +has revealed to them and nursed in them, we get indiscriminate rapacity +in pursuit of pleasure and a parade of the grossest stimulations in +catering for it. We have a continual clamor for goodness, beauty, +virtue, and sanctity, with such an appalling inability to recognize +it or love it when it arrives that it is more dangerous to be a great +prophet or poet than to promote twenty companies for swindling simple +folk out of their savings. Do not for a moment suppose that uncultivated +people are merely indifferent to high and noble qualities. They hate +them malignantly. At best, such qualities are like rare and beautiful +birds: when they appear the whole country takes down its guns; but the +birds receive the statuary tribute of having their corpses stuffed. + +And it really all comes from the habit of preventing children from +being troublesome. You are so careful of your boy's morals, knowing how +troublesome they may be, that you keep him away from the Venus of Milo +only to find him in the arms of the scullery maid or someone much worse. +You decide that the Hermes of Praxiteles and Wagner's Tristan are not +suited for young girls; and your daughter marries somebody appallingly +unlike either Hermes or Tristan solely to escape from your parental +protection. You have not stifled a single passion nor averted a single +danger: you have depraved the passions by starving them, and broken down +all the defences which so effectively protect children brought up in +freedom. You have men who imagine themselves to be ministers of religion +openly declaring that when they pass through the streets they have +to keep out in the wheeled traffic to avoid the temptations of the +pavement. You have them organizing hunts of the women who tempt +them--poor creatures whom no artist would touch without a shudder--and +wildly clamoring for more clothes to disguise and conceal the body, and +for the abolition of pictures, statues, theatres, and pretty colors. +And incredible as it seems, these unhappy lunatics are left at large, +unrebuked, even admired and revered, whilst artists have to struggle for +toleration. To them an undraped human body is the most monstrous, the +most blighting, the most obscene, the most unbearable spectacle in the +universe. To an artist it is, at its best, the most admirable spectacle +in nature, and, at its average, an object of indifference. If every rag +of clothing miraculously dropped from the inhabitants of London at noon +tomorrow (say as a preliminary to the Great Judgment), the artistic +people would not turn a hair; but the artless people would go mad and +call on the mountains to hide them. I submit that this indicates a +thoroughly healthy state on the part of the artists, and a thoroughly +morbid one on the part of the artless. And the healthy state is +attainable in a cold country like ours only by familiarity with the +undraped figure acquired through pictures, statues, and theatrical +representations in which an illusion of natural clotheslessness is +produced and made poetic. + +In short, we all grow up stupid and mad to just the extent to which we +have not been artistically educated; and the fact that this taint of +stupidity and madness has to be tolerated because it is general, and is +even boasted of as characteristically English, makes the situation all +the worse. It is becoming exceedingly grave at present, because the last +ray of art is being cut off from our schools by the discontinuance of +religious education. + + + + +The Impossibility of Secular Education + +Now children must be taught some sort of religion. Secular education is +an impossibility. Secular education comes to this: that the only reason +for ceasing to do evil and learning to do well is that if you do not you +will be caned. This is worse than being taught in a church school that +if you become a dissenter you will go to hell; for hell is presented as +the instrument of something eternal, divine, and inevitable: you cannot +evade it the moment the schoolmaster's back is turned. What confuses +this issue and leads even highly intelligent religious persons to +advocate secular education as a means of rescuing children from the +strife of rival proselytizers is the failure to distinguish between +the child's personal subjective need for a religion and its right to +an impartially communicated historical objective knowledge of all the +creeds and Churches. Just as a child, no matter what its race and color +may be, should know that there are black men and brown men and yellow +men, and, no matter what its political convictions may be, that +there are Monarchists and Republicans and Positivists, Socialists and +Unsocialists, so it should know that there are Christians and Mahometans +and Buddhists and Shintoists and so forth, and that they are on the +average just as honest and well-behaved as its own father. For example, +it should not be told that Allah is a false god set up by the Turks and +Arabs, who will all be damned for taking that liberty; but it should be +told that many English people think so, and that many Turks and Arabs +think the converse about English people. It should be taught that Allah +is simply the name by which God is known to Turks and Arabs, who are +just as eligible for salvation as any Christian. Further, that the +practical reason why a Turkish child should pray in a mosque and an +English child in a church is that as worship is organized in Turkey in +mosques in the name of Mahomet and in England in churches in the name +of Christ, a Turkish child joining the Church of England or an English +child following Mahomet will find that it has no place for its worship +and no organization of its religion within its reach. Any other teaching +of the history and present facts of religion is false teaching, and is +politically extremely dangerous in an empire in which a huge majority of +the fellow subjects of the governing island do not profess the religion +of that island. + +But this objectivity, though intellectually honest, tells the child +only what other people believe. What it should itself believe is quite +another matter. The sort of Rationalism which says to a child "You must +suspend your judgment until you are old enough to choose your religion" +is Rationalism gone mad. The child must have a conscience and a code +of honor (which is the essence of religion) even if it be only a +provisional one, to be revised at its confirmation. For confirmation is +meant to signalize a spiritual coming of age, and may be a repudiation. +Really active souls have many confirmations and repudiations as their +life deepens and their knowledge widens. But what is to guide the child +before its first confirmation? Not mere orders, because orders must +have a sanction of some sort or why should the child obey them? If, as a +Secularist, you refuse to teach any sanction, you must say "You will +be punished if you disobey." "Yes," says the child to itself, "if I am +found out; but wait until your back is turned and I will do as I like, +and lie about it." There can be no objective punishment for successful +fraud; and as no espionage can cover the whole range of a child's +conduct, the upshot is that the child becomes a liar and schemer with an +atrophied conscience. And a good many of the orders given to it are not +obeyed after all. Thus the Secularist who is not a fool is forced to +appeal to the child's vital impulse towards perfection, to the divine +spark; and no resolution not to call this impulse an impulse of loyalty +to the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, or obedience to the Will of God, +or any other standard theological term, can alter the fact that the +Secularist has stepped outside Secularism and is educating the child +religiously, even if he insists on repudiating that pious adverb and +substituting the word metaphysically. + + + + +Natural Selection as a Religion + +We must make up our minds to it therefore that whatever measures we may +be forced to take to prevent the recruiting sergeants of the Churches, +free or established, from obtaining an exclusive right of entry to +schools, we shall not be able to exclude religion from them. The most +horrible of all religions: that which teaches us to regard ourselves +as the helpless prey of a series of senseless accidents called Natural +Selection, is allowed and even welcomed in so-called secular schools +because it is, in a sense, the negation of all religion; but for school +purposes a religion is a belief which affects conduct; and no belief +affects conduct more radically and often so disastrously as the belief +that the universe is a product of Natural Selection. What is more, the +theory of Natural Selection cannot be kept out of schools, because +many of the natural facts that present the most plausible appearance +of design can be accounted for by Natural Selection; and it would be so +absurd to keep a child in delusive ignorance of so potent a factor +in evolution as to keep it in ignorance of radiation or capillary +attraction. Even if you make a religion of Natural Selection, and +teach the child to regard itself as the irresponsible prey of its +circumstances and appetites (or its heredity as you will perhaps call +them), you will none the less find that its appetites are stimulated by +your encouragement and daunted by your discouragement; that one of its +appetites is an appetite for perfection; that if you discourage this +appetite and encourage the cruder acquisitive appetites the child will +steal and lie and be a nuisance to you; and that if you encourage its +appetite for perfection and teach it to attach a peculiar sacredness +to it and place it before the other appetites, it will be a much nicer +child and you will have a much easier job, at which point you will, +in spite of your pseudoscientific jargon, find yourself back in the +old-fashioned religious teaching as deep as Dr. Watts and in fact +fathoms deeper. + + + + +Moral Instruction Leagues + +And now the voices of our Moral Instruction Leagues will be lifted, +asking whether there is any reason why the appetite for perfection +should not be cultivated in rationally scientific terms instead of being +associated with the story of Jonah and the great fish and the thousand +other tales that grow up round religions. Yes: there are many reasons; +and one of them is that children all like the story of Jonah and the +whale (they insist on its being a whale in spite of demonstrations by +Bible smashers without any sense of humor that Jonah would not have +fitted into a whale's gullet--as if the story would be credible of a +whale with an enlarged throat) and that no child on earth can stand +moral instruction books or catechisms or any other statement of the case +for religion in abstract terms. The object of a moral instruction book +is not to be rational, scientific, exact, proof against controversy, nor +even credible: its object is to make children good; and if it makes them +sick instead its place is the waste-paper basket. + +Take for an illustration the story of Elisha and the bears. To the +authors of the moral instruction books it is in the last degree +reprehensible. It is obviously not true as a record of fact; and the +picture it gives us of the temper of God (which is what interests an +adult reader) is shocking and blasphemous. But it is a capital story for +a child. It interests a child because it is about bears; and it leaves +the child with an impression that children who poke fun at old gentlemen +and make rude remarks about bald heads are not nice children, which is +a highly desirable impression, and just as much as a child is capable +of receiving from the story. When a story is about God and a child, +children take God for granted and criticize the child. Adults do the +opposite, and are thereby led to talk great nonsense about the bad +effect of Bible stories on infants. + +But let no one think that a child or anyone else can learn religion from +a teacher or a book or by any academic process whatever. It is only +by an unfettered access to the whole body of Fine Art: that is, to the +whole body of inspired revelation, that we can build up that conception +of divinity to which all virtue is an aspiration. And to hope to find +this body of art purified from all that is obsolete or dangerous +or fierce or lusty, or to pick and choose what will be good for any +particular child, much less for all children, is the shallowest +of vanities. Such schoolmasterly selection is neither possible nor +desirable. Ignorance of evil is not virtue but imbecility: admiring +it is like giving a prize for honesty to a man who has not stolen your +watch because he did not know you had one. Virtue chooses good from +evil; and without knowledge there can be no choice. And even this is a +dangerous simplification of what actually occurs. We are not choosing: +we are growing. Were you to cut all of what you call the evil out of +a child, it would drop dead. If you try to stretch it to full human +stature when it is ten years old, you will simply pull it into two +pieces and be hanged. And when you try to do this morally, which is what +parents and schoolmasters are doing every day, you ought to be hanged; +and some day, when we take a sensible view of the matter, you will be; +and serve you right. The child does not stand between a good and a +bad angel: what it has to deal with is a middling angel who, in normal +healthy cases, wants to be a good angel as fast as it can without +killing itself in the process, which is a dangerous one. + +Therefore there is no question of providing the child with a carefully +regulated access to good art. There is no good art, any more than there +is good anything else in the absolute sense. Art that is too good for +the child will either teach it nothing or drive it mad, as the Bible has +driven many people mad who might have kept their sanity had they been +allowed to read much lower forms of literature. The practical moral is +that we must read whatever stories, see whatever pictures, hear whatever +songs and symphonies, go to whatever plays we like. We shall not like +those which have nothing to say to us; and though everyone has a right +to bias our choice, no one has a right to deprive us of it by keeping us +from any work of art or any work of art from us. + +I may now say without danger of being misunderstood that the popular +English compromise called Cowper Templeism (unsectarian Bible education) +is not so silly as it looks. It is true that the Bible inculcates half +a dozen religions: some of them barbarous; some cynical and pessimistic; +some amoristic and romantic; some sceptical and challenging; some +kindly, simple, and intuitional; some sophistical and intellectual; none +suited to the character and conditions of western civilization unless it +be the Christianity which was finally suppressed by the Crucifixion, and +has never been put into practice by any State before or since. But the +Bible contains the ancient literature of a very remarkable Oriental +race; and the imposition of this literature, on whatever false +pretences, on our children left them more literate than if they knew +no literature at all, which was the practical alternative. And as our +Authorized Version is a great work of art as well, to know it was better +than knowing no art, which also was the practical alternative. It is +at least not a school book; and it is not a bad story book, horrible as +some of the stories are. Therefore as between the Bible and the blank +represented by secular education, the choice is with the Bible. + + + + +The Bible + +But the Bible is not sufficient. The real Bible of modern Europe is the +whole body of great literature in which the inspiration and revelation +of Hebrew Scripture has been continued to the present day. Nietzsche's +Thus Spake Zoroaster is less comforting to the ill and unhappy than the +Psalms; but it is much truer, subtler, and more edifying. The pleasure +we get from the rhetoric of the book of Job and its tragic picture of a +bewildered soul cannot disguise the ignoble irrelevance of the retort of +God with which it closes, or supply the need of such modern revelations +as Shelley's Prometheus or The Niblung's Ring of Richard Wagner. There +is nothing in the Bible greater in inspiration than Beethoven's ninth +symphony; and the power of modern music to convey that inspiration to +a modern man is far greater than that of Elizabethan English, which is, +except for people steeped in the Bible from childhood like Sir Walter +Scott and Ruskin, a dead language. + +Besides, many who have no ear for literature or for music are accessible +to architecture, to pictures, to statues, to dresses, and to the arts of +the stage. Every device of art should be brought to bear on the young; +so that they may discover some form of it that delights them naturally; +for there will come to all of them that period between dawning +adolescence and full maturity when the pleasures and emotions of art +will have to satisfy cravings which, if starved or insulted, may become +morbid and seek disgraceful satisfactions, and, if prematurely gratified +otherwise than poetically, may destroy the stamina of the race. And it +must be borne in mind that the most dangerous art for this necessary +purpose is the art that presents itself as religious ecstasy. Young +people are ripe for love long before they are ripe for religion. Only +a very foolish person would substitute the Imitation of Christ for +Treasure Island as a present for a boy or girl, or for Byron's Don Juan +as a present for a swain or lass. Pickwick is the safest saint for us in +our nonage. Flaubert's Temptation of St Anthony is an excellent book +for a man of fifty, perhaps the best within reach as a healthy study of +visionary ecstasy; but for the purposes of a boy of fifteen Ivanhoe and +the Templar make a much better saint and devil. And the boy of +fifteen will find this out for himself if he is allowed to wander in a +well-stocked literary garden, and hear bands and see pictures and spend +his pennies on cinematograph shows. His choice may often be rather +disgusting to his elders when they want him to choose the best before he +is ready for it. The greatest Protestant Manifesto ever written, as +far as I know, is Houston Chamberlain's Foundations of the Nineteenth +Century: everybody capable of it should read it. Probably the History of +Maria Monk is at the opposite extreme of merit (this is a guess: I have +never read it); but it is certain that a boy let loose in a library +would go for Maria Monk and have no use whatever for Mr Chamberlain. I +should probably have read Maria Monk myself if I had not had the Arabian +Nights and their like to occupy me better. In art, children, like +adults, will find their level if they are left free to find it, and not +restricted to what adults think good for them. Just at present our +young people are going mad over ragtimes, apparently because syncopated +rhythms are new to them. If they had learnt what can be done with +syncopation from Beethoven's third Leonora overture, they would enjoy +the ragtimes all the more; but they would put them in their proper place +as amusing vulgarities. + + + + +Artist Idolatry + +But there are more dangerous influences than ragtimes waiting for people +brought up in ignorance of fine art. Nothing is more pitiably ridiculous +than the wild worship of artists by those who have never been seasoned +in youth to the enchantments of art. Tenors and prima donnas, pianists +and violinists, actors and actresses enjoy powers of seduction which in +the middle ages would have exposed them to the risk of being burnt +for sorcery. But as they exercise this power by singing, playing, and +acting, no great harm is done except perhaps to themselves. Far graver +are the powers enjoyed by brilliant persons who are also connoisseurs +in art. The influence they can exercise on young people who have been +brought up in the darkness and wretchedness of a home without art, and +in whom a natural bent towards art has always been baffled and snubbed, +is incredible to those who have not witnessed and understood it. He (or +she) who reveals the world of art to them opens heaven to them. They +become satellites, disciples, worshippers of the apostle. Now the +apostle may be a voluptuary without much conscience. Nature may have +given him enough virtue to suffice in a reasonable environment. But this +allowance may not be enough to defend him against the temptation and +demoralization of finding himself a little god on the strength of +what ought to be a quite ordinary culture. He may find adorers in +all directions in our uncultivated society among people of stronger +character than himself, not one of whom, if they had been artistically +educated, would have had anything to learn from him or regarded him +as in any way extraordinary apart from his actual achievements as an +artist. Tartuffe is not always a priest. Indeed he is not always a +rascal: he is often a weak man absurdly credited with omniscience and +perfection, and taking unfair advantages only because they are offered +to him and he is too weak to refuse. Give everyone his culture, and no +one will offer him more than his due. + +In thus delivering our children from the idolatry of the artist, we +shall not destroy for them the enchantment of art: on the contrary, we +shall teach them to demand art everywhere as a condition attainable +by cultivating the body, mind, and heart. Art, said Morris, is the +expression of pleasure in work. And certainly, when work is made +detestable by slavery, there is no art. It is only when learning is +made a slavery by tyrannical teachers that art becomes loathsome to the +pupil. + + + + +"The Machine" + +When we set to work at a Constitution to secure freedom for children, we +had better bear in mind that the children may not be at all obliged to +us for our pains. Rousseau said that men are born free; and this saying, +in its proper bearings, was and is a great and true saying; yet let it +not lead us into the error of supposing that all men long for freedom +and embrace it when it is offered to them. On the contrary, it has to +be forced on them; and even then they will give it the slip if it is not +religiously inculcated and strongly safeguarded. + +Besides, men are born docile, and must in the nature of things remain so +with regard to everything they do not understand. Now political science +and the art of government are among the things they do not understand, +and indeed are not at present allowed to understand. They can be +enslaved by a system, as we are at present, because it happens to be +there, and nobody understands it. An intelligently worked Capitalist +system, as Comte saw, would give us all that most of us are intelligent +enough to want. What makes it produce such unspeakably vile results is +that it is an automatic system which is as little understood by those +who profit by it in money as by those who are starved and degraded by +it: our millionaires and statesmen are manifestly no more "captains +of industry" or scientific politicians than our bookmakers are +mathematicians. For some time past a significant word has been coming +into use as a substitute for Destiny, Fate, and Providence. It is "The +Machine": the machine that has no god in it. Why do governments do +nothing in spite of reports of Royal Commissions that establish the most +frightful urgency? Why do our philanthropic millionaires do nothing, +though they are ready to throw bucketfuls of gold into the streets? The +Machine will not let them. Always the Machine. In short, they dont know +how. + +They try to reform Society as an old lady might try to restore a broken +down locomotive by prodding it with a knitting needle. And this is not +at all because they are born fools, but because they have been educated, +not into manhood and freedom, but into blindness and slavery by +their parents and schoolmasters, themselves the victims of a similar +misdirection, and consequently of The Machine. They do not want +liberty. They have not been educated to want it. They choose slavery and +inequality; and all the other evils are automatically added to them. + +And yet we must have The Machine. It is only in unskilled hands under +ignorant direction that machinery is dangerous. We can no more govern +modern communities without political machinery than we can feed and +clothe them without industrial machinery. Shatter The Machine, and you +get Anarchy. And yet The Machine works so detestably at present that we +have people who advocate Anarchy and call themselves Anarchists. + + + + +The Provocation to Anarchism + +What is valid in Anarchism is that all Governments try to simplify their +task by destroying liberty and glorifying authority in general and their +own deeds in particular. But the difficulty in combining law and +order with free institutions is not a natural one. It is a matter of +inculcation. If people are brought up to be slaves, it is useless and +dangerous to let them loose at the age of twenty-one and say "Now you +are free." No one with the tamed soul and broken spirit of a slave can +be free. It is like saying to a laborer brought up on a family income of +thirteen shillings a week, "Here is one hundred thousand pounds: now you +are wealthy." Nothing can make such a man really wealthy. Freedom and +wealth are difficult and responsible conditions to which men must be +accustomed and socially trained from birth. A nation that is free at +twenty-one is not free at all; just as a man first enriched at fifty +remains poor all his life, even if he does not curtail it by drinking +himself to death in the first wild ecstasy of being able to swallow as +much as he likes for the first time. You cannot govern men brought up +as slaves otherwise than as slaves are governed. You may pile Bills +of Right and Habeas Corpus Acts on Great Charters; promulgate American +Constitutions; burn the chateaux and guillotine the seigneurs; chop +off the heads of kings and queens and set up Democracy on the ruins of +feudalism: the end of it all for us is that already in the twentieth +century there has been as much brute coercion and savage intolerance, as +much flogging and hanging, as much impudent injustice on the bench +and lustful rancor in the pulpit, as much naive resort to torture, +persecution, and suppression of free speech and freedom of the press, +as much war, as much of the vilest excess of mutilation, rapine, and +delirious indiscriminate slaughter of helpless non-combatants, old +and young, as much prostitution of professional talent, literary and +political, in defence of manifest wrong, as much cowardly sycophancy +giving fine names to all this villainy or pretending that it is "greatly +exaggerated," as we can find any record of from the days when the +advocacy of liberty was a capital offence and Democracy was hardly +thinkable. Democracy exhibits the vanity of Louis XIV, the savagery +of Peter of Russia, the nepotism and provinciality of Napoleon, the +fickleness of Catherine II: in short, all the childishnesses of all the +despots without any of the qualities that enabled the greatest of them +to fascinate and dominate their contemporaries. + +And the flatterers of Democracy are as impudently servile to the +successful, and insolent to common honest folk, as the flatterers of +the monarchs. Democracy in America has led to the withdrawal of ordinary +refined persons from politics; and the same result is coming in England +as fast as we make Democracy as democratic as it is in America. This is +true also of popular religion: it is so horribly irreligious that nobody +with the smallest pretence to culture, or the least inkling of what +the great prophets vainly tried to make the world understand, will have +anything to do with it except for purely secular reasons. + + + + +Imagination + +Before we can clearly understand how baleful is this condition of +intimidation in which we live, it is necessary to clear up the confusion +made by our use of the word imagination to denote two very different +powers of mind. One is the power to imagine things as they are not: +this I call the romantic imagination. The other is the power to imagine +things as they are without actually sensing them; and this I will call +the realistic imagination. Take for example marriage and war. One man +has a vision of perpetual bliss with a domestic angel at home, and of +flashing sabres, thundering guns, victorious cavalry charges, and routed +enemies in the field. That is romantic imagination; and the mischief it +does is incalculable. It begins in silly and selfish expectations of +the impossible, and ends in spiteful disappointment, sour grievance, +cynicism, and misanthropic resistance to any attempt to better a +hopeless world. The wise man knows that imagination is not only a means +of pleasing himself and beguiling tedious hours with romances and fairy +tales and fools' paradises (a quite defensible and delightful amusement +when you know exactly what you are doing and where fancy ends and facts +begin), but also a means of foreseeing and being prepared for realities +as yet unexperienced, and of testing the possibility and desirability of +serious Utopias. He does not expect his wife to be an angel; nor does he +overlook the facts that war depends on the rousing of all the murderous +blackguardism still latent in mankind; that every victory means a +defeat; that fatigue, hunger, terror, and disease are the raw material +which romancers work up into military glory; and that soldiers for the +most part go to war as children go to school, because they are afraid +not to. They are afraid even to say they are afraid, as such candor is +punishable by death in the military code. + +A very little realistic imagination gives an ambitious person enormous +power over the multitudinous victims of the romantic imagination. For +the romancer not only pleases himself with fictitious glories: he also +terrifies himself with imaginary dangers. He does not even picture what +these dangers are: he conceives the unknown as always dangerous. When +you say to a realist "You must do this" or "You must not do that," he +instantly asks what will happen to him if he does (or does not, as the +case may be). Failing an unromantic convincing answer, he does just as +he pleases unless he can find for himself a real reason for refraining. +In short, though you can intimidate him, you cannot bluff him. But +you can always bluff the romantic person: indeed his grasp of real +considerations is so feeble that you find it necessary to bluff him even +when you have solid considerations to offer him instead. The campaigns +of Napoleon, with their atmosphere of glory, illustrate this. In +the Russian campaign Napoleon's marshals achieved miracles of bluff, +especially Ney, who, with a handful of men, monstrously outnumbered, +repeatedly kept the Russian troops paralyzed with terror by pure +bounce. Napoleon himself, much more a realist than Ney (that was why +he dominated him), would probably have surrendered; for sometimes the +bravest of the brave will achieve successes never attempted by the +cleverest of the clever. Wellington was a completer realist than +Napoleon. It was impossible to persuade Wellington that he was beaten +until he actually was beaten. He was unbluffable; and if Napoleon had +understood the nature of Wellington's strength instead of returning +Wellington's snobbish contempt for him by an academic contempt for +Wellington, he would not have left the attack at Waterloo to Ney and +D'Erlon, who, on that field, did not know when they were beaten, whereas +Wellington knew precisely when he was not beaten. The unbluffable +would have triumphed anyhow, probably, because Napoleon was an academic +soldier, doing the academic thing (the attack in columns and so forth) +with superlative ability and energy; whilst Wellington was an original +soldier who, instead of outdoing the terrible academic columns with +still more terrible and academic columns, outwitted them with the thin +red line, not of heroes, but, as this uncompromising realist never +hesitated to testify, of the scum of the earth. + + + + +Government by Bullies + +These picturesque martial incidents are being reproduced every day in +our ordinary life. We are bluffed by hardy simpletons and headstrong +bounders as the Russians were bluffed by Ney; and our Wellingtons +are threadbound by slave-democracy as Gulliver was threadbound by the +Lilliputians. We are a mass of people living in a submissive routine to +which we have been drilled from our childhood. When you ask us to take +the simplest step outside that routine, we say shyly, "Oh, I really +couldnt," or "Oh, I shouldnt like to," without being able to point out +the smallest harm that could possibly ensue: victims, not of a rational +fear of real dangers, but of pure abstract fear, the quintessence of +cowardice, the very negation of "the fear of God." Dotted about among +us are a few spirits relatively free from this inculcated paralysis, +sometimes because they are half-witted, sometimes because they are +unscrupulously selfish, sometimes because they are realists as to money +and unimaginative as to other things, sometimes even because they are +exceptionally able, but always because they are not afraid of shadows +nor oppressed with nightmares. And we see these few rising as if by +magic into power and affluence, and forming, with the millionaires who +have accidentally gained huge riches by the occasional windfalls of our +commerce, the governing class. Now nothing is more disastrous than +a governing class that does not know how to govern. And how can this +rabble of the casual products of luck, cunning, and folly, be expected +to know how to govern? The merely lucky ones and the hereditary ones do +not owe their position to their qualifications at all. As to the rest, +the realism which seems their essential qualification often consists not +only in a lack of romantic imagination, which lack is a merit, but +of the realistic, constructive, Utopian imagination, which lack is +a ghastly defect. Freedom from imaginative illusion is therefore no +guarantee whatever of nobility of character: that is why inculcated +submissiveness makes us slaves to people much worse than ourselves, +and why it is so important that submissiveness should no longer be +inculcated. + +And yet as long as you have the compulsory school as we know it, we +shall have submissiveness inculcated. What is more, until the active +hours of child life are organized separately from the active hours of +adult life, so that adults can enjoy the society of children in reason +without being tormented, disturbed, harried, burdened, and hindered +in their work by them as they would be now if there were no compulsory +schools and no children hypnotized into the belief that they must tamely +go to them and be imprisoned and beaten and over-tasked in them, we +shall have schools under one pretext or another; and we shall have all +the evil consequences and all the social hopelessness that result from +turning a nation of potential freemen and freewomen into a nation of +two-legged spoilt spaniels with everything crushed out of their nature +except dread of the whip. Liberty is the breath of life to nations; and +liberty is the one thing that parents, schoolmasters, and rulers spend +their lives in extirpating for the sake of an immediately quiet and +finally disastrous life. + + +Notes on this etext: + + This text was taken from a printed volume containing the + plays "Misalliance", "The Dark Lady of the Sonnets", + "Fanny's First Play", and the essay "A Treatise on Parents + and Children". + + Notes on the editing: Italicized text is delimited with + underlines ("_"). Punctuation and spelling retained as in + the printed text. Shaw intentionally spelled many words + according to a non-standard system. For example, "don't" is + given as "dont" (without apostrophe), "Dr." is given as "Dr" + (without a period at the end), and "Shakespeare" is given as + "Shakespear" (no "e" at the end). 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN + +BY BERNARD SHAW + + + +CONTENTS + +Parents and Children +Trailing Clouds of Glory +The Child is Father to the Man +What is a Child? +The Sin of Nadab and Abihu +The Manufacture of Monsters +Small and Large Families +Children as Nuisances +Child Fanciers +Childhood as a State of Sin +School +My Scholastic Acquirements +Schoolmasters of Genius +What We Do Not Teach, and Why +Taboo in Schools +Alleged Novelties in Modern Schools +What is to be Done? +Children's Rights and Duties +Should Children Earn their Living? +Children's Happiness +The Horror of the Perpetual Holiday +University Schoolboyishness +The New Laziness +The Infinite School Task +The Rewards and Risks of Knowledge +English Physical Hardihood and Spiritual Cowardice +The Risks of Ignorance and Weakness +The Common Sense of Toleration +The Sin of Athanasius +The Experiment Experimenting +Why We Loathe Learning and Love Sport +Antichrist +Under the Whip +Technical Instruction +Docility and Dependence +The Abuse of Docility +The Schoolboy and the Homeboy +The Comings of Age of Children +The Conflict of Wills +The Demagogue's Opportunity +Our Quarrelsomeness +We Must Reform Society before we can Reform Ourselves +The Pursuit of Manners +Not too much Wind on the Heath, Brother +Wanted: a Child's Magna Charta +The Pursuit of Learning +Children and Game: a Proposal +The Parents' Intolerable Burden +Mobilization +Children's Rights and Parents' Wrongs +How Little We Know About Our Parents +Our Abandoned Mothers +Family Affection +The Fate of the Family +Family Mourning +Art Teaching +The Impossibility of Secular Education +Natural Selection as a Religion +Moral Instruction Leagues +The Bible +Artist Idolatry +"The Machine" +The Provocation to Anarchism +Imagination +Government by Bullies + + + + +PARENTS AND CHILDREN + + +Trailing Clouds of Glory + +Childhood is a stage in the process of that continual remanufacture of +the Life Stuff by which the human race is perpetuated. The Life Force +either will not or cannot achieve immortality except in very low +organisms: indeed it is by no means ascertained that even the amoeba +is immortal. Human beings visibly wear out, though they last longer +than their friends the dogs. Turtles, parrots, and elephants are +believed to be capable of outliving the memory of the oldest human +inhabitant. But the fact that new ones are born conclusively proves +that they are not immortal. Do away with death and you do away with +the need for birth: in fact if you went on breeding, you would +finally have to kill old people to make room for young ones. + +Now death is not necessarily a failure of energy on the part of the +Life Force. People with no imagination try to make things which will +last for ever, and even want to live for ever themselves. But the +intelligently imaginative man knows very well that it is waste of +labor to make a machine that will last ten years, because it will +probably be superseded in half that time by an improved machine +answering the same purpose. He also knows that if some devil were to +convince us that our dream of personal immortality is no dream but a +hard fact, such a shriek of despair would go up from the human race as +no other conceivable horror could provoke. With all our perverse +nonsense as to John Smith living for a thousand million eons and for +ever after, we die voluntarily, knowing that it is time for us to be +scrapped, to be remanufactured, to come back, as Wordsworth divined, +trailing ever brightening clouds of glory. We must all be born again, +and yet again and again. We should like to live a little longer just +as we should like 50 pounds: that is, we should take it if we could +get it for nothing; but that sort of idle liking is not will. It is +amazing--considering the way we talk--how little a man will do to get +50 pounds: all the 50-pound notes I have ever known of have been more +easily earned than a laborious sixpence; but the difficulty of +inducing a man to make any serious effort to obtain 50 pounds is +nothing to the difficulty of inducing him to make a serious effort to +keep alive. The moment he sees death approach, he gets into bed and +sends for a doctor. He knows very well at the back of his conscience +that he is rather a poor job and had better be remanufactured. He +knows that his death will make room for a birth; and he hopes that it +will be a birth of something that he aspired to be and fell short of. +He knows that it is through death and rebirth that this corruptible +shall become incorruptible, and this mortal put on immortality. +Practise as you will on his ignorance, his fears, and his imagination, +with bribes of paradises and threats of hells, there is only one +belief that can rob death of its sting and the grave of its victory; +and that is the belief that we can lay down the burden of our wretched +little makeshift individualities for ever at each lift towards the +goal of evolution, which can only be a being that cannot be improved +upon. After all, what man is capable of the insane self-conceit of +believing that an eternity of himself would be tolerable even to +himself? Those who try to believe it postulate that they shall be +made perfect first. But if you make me perfect I shall no longer be +myself, nor will it be possible for me to conceive my present +imperfections (and what I cannot conceive I cannot remember); so that +you may just as well give me a new name and face the fact that I am a +new person and that the old Bernard Shaw is as dead as mutton. Thus, +oddly enough, the conventional belief in the matter comes to this: +that if you wish to live for ever you must be wicked enough to be +irretrievably damned, since the saved are no longer what they were, +and in hell alone do people retain their sinful nature: that is to +say, their individuality. And this sort of hell, however convenient +as a means of intimidating persons who have practically no honor and +no conscience, is not a fact. Death is for many of us the gate of +hell; but we are inside on the way out, not outside on the way in. +Therefore let us give up telling one another idle stories, and rejoice +in death as we rejoice in birth; for without death we cannot be born +again; and the man who does not wish to be born again and born better +is fit only to represent the City of London in Parliament, or perhaps +the university of Oxford. + + + +The Child is Father to the Man + +Is he? Then in the name of common sense why do we always treat +children on the assumption that the man is father to the child? Oh, +these fathers! And we are not content with fathers: we must have +godfathers, forgetting that the child is godfather to the man. Has it +ever struck you as curious that in a country where the first article +of belief is that every child is born with a godfather whom we all +call "our father which art in heaven," two very limited individual +mortals should be allowed to appear at its baptism and explain that +they are its godparents, and that they will look after its salvation +until it is no longer a child. I had a godmother who made herself +responsible in this way for me. She presented me with a Bible with a +gilt clasp and edges, larger than the Bibles similarly presented to my +sisters, because my sex entitled me to a heavier article. I must have +seen that lady at least four times in the twenty years following. She +never alluded to my salvation in any way. People occasionally ask me +to act as godfather to their children with a levity which convinces me +that they have not the faintest notion that it involves anything more +than calling the helpless child George Bernard without regard to the +possibility that it may grow up in the liveliest abhorrence of my +notions. + +A person with a turn for logic might argue that if God is the Father +of all men, and if the child is father to the man, it follows that the +true representative of God at the christening is the child itself. +But such posers are unpopular, because they imply that our little +customs, or, as we often call them, our religion, mean something, or +must originally have meant something, and that we understand and +believe that something. + +However, my business is not to make confusion worse confounded, but to +clear it up. Only, it is as well to begin by a sample of current +thought and practice which shews that on the subject of children we +are very deeply confused. On the whole, whatever our theory or no +theory may be, our practice is to treat the child as the property of +its immediate physical parents, and to allow them to do what they like +with it as far as it will let them. It has no rights and no +liberties: in short, its condition is that which adults recognize as +the most miserable and dangerous politically possible for themselves: +namely, the condition of slavery. For its alleviation we trust to the +natural affection of the parties, and to public opinion. A father +cannot for his own credit let his son go in rags. Also, in a very +large section of the population, parents finally become dependent on +their children. Thus there are checks on child slavery which do not +exist, or are less powerful, in the case of manual and industrial +slavery. Sensationally bad cases fall into two classes, which are +really the same class: namely, the children whose parents are +excessively addicted to the sensual luxury of petting children, and +the children whose parents are excessively addicted to the sensual +luxury of physically torturing them. There is a Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children which has effectually made an end of +our belief that mothers are any more to be trusted than stepmothers, +or fathers than slave-drivers. And there is a growing body of law +designed to prevent parents from using their children ruthlessly to +make money for the household. Such legislation has always been +furiously resisted by the parents, even when the horrors of factory +slavery were at their worst; and the extension of such legislation at +present would be impossible if it were not that the parents affected +by it cannot control a majority of votes in Parliament. In domestic +life a great deal of service is done by children, the girls acting as +nursemaids and general servants, and the lads as errand boys. In the +country both boys and girls do a substantial share of farm labor. +This is why it is necessary to coerce poor parents to send their +children to school, though in the relatively small class which keeps +plenty of servants it is impossible to induce parents to keep their +children at home instead of paying schoolmasters to take them off +their hands. + +It appears then that the bond of affection between parents and +children does not save children from the slavery that denial of rights +involves in adult political relations. It sometimes intensifies it, +sometimes mitigates it; but on the whole children and parents confront +one another as two classes in which all the political power is on one +side; and the results are not at all unlike what they would be if +there were no immediate consanguinity between them, and one were white +and the other black, or one enfranchised and the other +disenfranchised, or one ranked as gentle and the other simple. Not +that Nature counts for nothing in the case and political rights for +everything. But a denial of political rights, and the resultant +delivery of one class into the mastery of another, affects their +relations so extensively and profoundly that it is impossible to +ascertain what the real natural relations of the two classes are until +this political relation is abolished. + + + +What is a Child? + +An experiment. A fresh attempt to produce the just man made perfect: +that is, to make humanity divine. And you will vitiate the experiment +if you make the slightest attempt to abort it into some fancy figure +of your own: for example, your notion of a good man or a womanly +woman. If you treat it as a little wild beast to be tamed, or as a +pet to be played with, or even as a means to save you trouble and to +make money for you (and these are our commonest ways), it may fight +its way through in spite of you and save its soul alive; for all its +instincts will resist you, and possibly be strengthened in the +resistance; but if you begin with its own holiest aspirations, and +suborn them for your own purposes, then there is hardly any limit to +the mischief you may do. Swear at a child, throw your boots at it, +send it flying from the room with a cuff or a kick; and the experience +will be as instructive to the child as a difficulty with a +short-tempered dog or a bull. Francis Place tells us that his father +always struck his children when he found one within his reach. The +effect on the young Places seems to have been simply to make them keep +out of their father's way, which was no doubt what he desired, as far +as he desired anything at all. Francis records the habit without +bitterness, having reason to thank his stars that his father respected +the inside of his head whilst cuffing the outside of it; and this made +it easy for Francis to do yeoman's service to his country as that rare +and admirable thing, a Freethinker: the only sort of thinker, I may +remark, whose thoughts, and consequently whose religious convictions, +command any respect. + +Now Mr Place, senior, would be described by many as a bad father; and +I do not contend that he was a conspicuously good one. But as +compared with the conventional good father who deliberately imposes +himself on his son as a god; who takes advantage of childish credulity +and parent worship to persuade his son that what he approves of is +right and what he disapproves of is wrong; who imposes a corresponding +conduct on the child by a system of prohibitions and penalties, +rewards and eulogies, for which he claims divine sanction: compared +to this sort of abortionist and monster maker, I say, Place appears +almost as a Providence. Not that it is possible to live with children +any more than with grown-up people without imposing rules of conduct +on them. There is a point at which every person with human nerves has +to say to a child "Stop that noise." But suppose the child asks why! +There are various answers in use. The simplest: "Because it +irritates me," may fail; for it may strike the child as being rather +amusing to irritate you; also the child, having comparatively no +nerves, may be unable to conceive your meaning vividly enough. In any +case it may want to make a noise more than to spare your feelings. +You may therefore have to explain that the effect of the irritation +will be that you will do something unpleasant if the noise continues. +The something unpleasant may be only a look of suffering to rouse the +child's affectionate sympathy (if it has any), or it may run to +forcible expulsion from the room with plenty of unnecessary violence; +but the principle is the same: there are no false pretences involved: +the child learns in a straightforward way that it does not pay to be +inconsiderate. Also, perhaps, that Mamma, who made the child learn +the Sermon on the Mount, is not really a Christian. + + + +The Sin of Nadab and Abihu + +But there is another sort of answer in wide use which is neither +straightforward, instructive, nor harmless. In its simplest form it +substitutes for "Stop that noise," "Dont be naughty," which means that +the child, instead of annoying you by a perfectly healthy and natural +infantile procedure, is offending God. This is a blasphemous lie; and +the fact that it is on the lips of every nurserymaid does not excuse +it in the least. Dickens tells us of a nurserymaid who elaborated it +into "If you do that, angels wont never love you." I remember a +servant who used to tell me that if I were not good, by which she +meant if I did not behave with a single eye to her personal +convenience, the cock would come down the chimney. Less imaginative +but equally dishonest people told me I should go to hell if I did not +make myself agreeable to them. Bodily violence, provided it be the +hasty expression of normal provoked resentment and not vicious +cruelty, cannot harm a child as this sort of pious fraud harms it. +There is a legal limit to physical cruelty; and there are also human +limits to it. There is an active Society which brings to book a good +many parents who starve and torture and overwork their children, and +intimidates a good many more. When parents of this type are caught, +they are treated as criminals; and not infrequently the police have +some trouble to save them from being lynched. The people against whom +children are wholly unprotected are those who devote themselves to the +very mischievous and cruel sort of abortion which is called bringing +up a child in the way it should go. Now nobody knows the way a child +should go. All the ways discovered so far lead to the horrors of our +existing civilizations, described quite justifiably by Ruskin as heaps +of agonizing human maggots, struggling with one another for scraps of +food. Pious fraud is an attempt to pervert that precious and sacred +thing the child's conscience into an instrument of our own +convenience, and to use that wonderful and terrible power called Shame +to grind our own axe. It is the sin of stealing fire from the altar: +a sin so impudently practised by popes, parents, and pedagogues, that +one can hardly expect the nurserymaids to see any harm in stealing a +few cinders when they are worrited. + +Into the blackest depths of this violation of children's souls one can +hardly bear to look; for here we find pious fraud masking the +violation of the body by obscene cruelty. Any parent or school +teacher who takes a secret and abominable delight in torture is +allowed to lay traps into which every child must fall, and then beat +it to his or her heart's content. A gentleman once wrote to me and +said, with an obvious conviction that he was being most reasonable and +high minded, that the only thing he beat his children for was failure +in perfect obedience and perfect truthfulness. On these attributes, +he said, he must insist. As one of them is not a virtue at all, and +the other is the attribute of a god, one can imagine what the lives of +this gentleman's children would have been if it had been possible for +him to live down to his monstrous and foolish pretensions. And yet he +might have written his letter to The Times (he very nearly did, by the +way) without incurring any danger of being removed to an asylum, or +even losing his reputation for taking a very proper view of his +parental duties. And at least it was not a trivial view, nor an ill +meant one. It was much more respectable than the general consensus of +opinion that if a school teacher can devise a question a child cannot +answer, or overhear it calling omega omeega, he or she may beat the +child viciously. Only, the cruelty must be whitewashed by a moral +excuse, and a pretence of reluctance. It must be for the child's +good. The assailant must say "This hurts me more than it hurts you." +There must be hypocrisy as well as cruelty. The injury to the child +would be far less if the voluptuary said frankly "I beat you because I +like beating you; and I shall do it whenever I can contrive an excuse +for it." But to represent this detestable lust to the child as Divine +wrath, and the cruelty as the beneficent act of God, which is exactly +what all our floggers do, is to add to the torture of the body, out of +which the flogger at least gets some pleasure, the maiming and +blinding of the child's soul, which can bring nothing but horror to +anyone. + + + +The Manufacture of Monsters + +This industry is by no means peculiar to China. The Chinese (they +say) make physical monsters. We revile them for it and proceed to +make moral monsters of our own children. The most excusable parents +are those who try to correct their own faults in their offspring. The +parent who says to his child: "I am one of the successes of the +Almighty: therefore imitate me in every particular or I will have the +skin off your back" (a quite common attitude) is a much more absurd +figure than the man who, with a pipe in his mouth, thrashes his boy +for smoking. If you must hold yourself up to your children as an +object lesson (which is not at all necessary), hold yourself up as a +warning and not as an example. But you had much better let the +child's character alone. If you once allow yourself to regard a child +as so much material for you to manufacture into any shape that happens +to suit your fancy you are defeating the experiment of the Life Force. +You are assuming that the child does not know its own business, and +that you do. In this you are sure to be wrong: the child feels the +drive of the Life Force (often called the Will of God); and you cannot +feel it for him. Handel's parents no doubt thought they knew better +than their child when they tried to prevent his becoming a musician. +They would have been equally wrong and equally unsuccessful if they +had tried to prevent the child becoming a great rascal had its genius +lain in that direction. Handel would have been Handel, and Napoleon +and Peter of Russia _them_selves in spite of all the parents in +creation, because, as often happens, they were stronger than their +parents. But this does not happen always. Most children can be, and +many are, hopelessly warped and wasted by parents who are ignorant and +silly enough to suppose that they know what a human being ought to be, +and who stick at nothing in their determination to force their +children into their moulds. Every child has a right to its own bent. +It has a right to be a Plymouth Brother though its parents be +convinced atheists. It has a right to dislike its mother or father or +sister or brother or uncle or aunt if they are antipathetic to it. It +has a right to find its own way and go its own way, whether that way +seems wise or foolish to others, exactly as an adult has. It has a +right to privacy as to its own doings and its own affairs as much as +if it were its own father. + + + +Small and Large Families + +These rights have now become more important than they used to be, +because the modern practice of limiting families enables them to be +more effectually violated. In a family of ten, eight, six, or even +four children, the rights of the younger ones to a great extent take +care of themselves and of the rights of the elder ones too. Two adult +parents, in spite of a house to keep and an income to earn, can still +interfere to a disastrous extent with the rights and liberties of one +child. But by the time a fourth child has arrived, they are not only +outnumbered two to one, but are getting tired of the thankless and +mischievous job of bringing up their children in the way they think +they should go. The old observation that members of large families +get on in the world holds good because in large families it is +impossible for each child to receive what schoolmasters call +"individual attention." The children may receive a good deal of +individual attention from one another in the shape of outspoken +reproach, ruthless ridicule, and violent resistance to their attempts +at aggression; but the parental despots are compelled by the multitude +of their subjects to resort to political rather than personal rule, +and to spread their attempts at moral monster-making over so many +children, that each child has enough freedom, and enough sport in the +prophylactic process of laughing at its elders behind their backs, to +escape with much less damage than the single child. In a large school +the system may be bad; but the personal influence of the head master +has to be exerted, when it is exerted at all, in a public way, because +he has little more power of working on the affections of the +individual scholar in the intimate way that, for example, the mother +of a single child can, than the prime minister has of working on the +affections of any individual voter. + + + +Children as Nuisances + +Experienced parents, when children's rights are preached to them, very +naturally ask whether children are to be allowed to do what they like. +The best reply is to ask whether adults are to be allowed to do what +they like. The two cases are the same. The adult who is nasty is not +allowed to do what he likes: neither can the child who likes to be +nasty. There is no difference in principle between the rights of a +child and those of an adult: the difference in their cases is one of +circumstance. An adult is not supposed to be punished except by +process of law; nor, when he is so punished, is the person whom he has +injured allowed to act as judge, jury, and executioner. It is true +that employers do act in this way every day to their workpeople; but +this is not a justified and intended part of the situation: it is an +abuse of Capitalism which nobody defends in principle. As between +child and parent or nurse it is not argued about because it is +inevitable. You cannot hold an impartial judicial inquiry every time +a child misbehaves itself. To allow the child to misbehave without +instantly making it unpleasantly conscious of the fact would be to +spoil it. The adult has therefore to take action of some sort with +nothing but his conscience to shield the child from injustice or +unkindness. The action may be a torrent of scolding culminating in a +furious smack causing terror and pain, or it may be a remonstrance +causing remorse, or it may be a sarcasm causing shame and humiliation, +or it may be a sermon causing the child to believe that it is a little +reprobate on the road to hell. The child has no defence in any case +except the kindness and conscience of the adult; and the adult had +better not forget this; for it involves a heavy responsibility. + +And now comes our difficulty. The responsibility, being so heavy, +cannot be discharged by persons of feeble character or intelligence. +And yet people of high character and intelligence cannot be plagued +with the care of children. A child is a restless, noisy little +animal, with an insatiable appetite for knowledge, and consequently a +maddening persistence in asking questions. If the child is to remain +in the room with a highly intelligent and sensitive adult, it must be +told, and if necessary forced, to sit still and not speak, which is +injurious to its health, unnatural, unjust, and therefore cruel and +selfish beyond toleration. Consequently the highly intelligent and +sensitive adult hands the child over to a nurserymaid who has no +nerves and can therefore stand more noise, but who has also no +scruples, and may therefore be very bad company for the child. + +Here we have come to the central fact of the question: a fact nobody +avows, which is yet the true explanation of the monstrous system of +child imprisonment and torture which we disguise under such +hypocrisies as education, training, formation of character and the +rest of it. This fact is simply that a child is a nuisance to a +grown-up person. What is more, the nuisance becomes more and more +intolerable as the grown-up person becomes more cultivated, more +sensitive, and more deeply engaged in the highest methods of adult +work. The child at play is noisy and ought to be noisy: Sir Isaac +Newton at work is quiet and ought to be quiet. And the child should +spend most of its time at play, whilst the adult should spend most of +his time at work. I am not now writing on behalf of persons who +coddle themselves into a ridiculous condition of nervous feebleness, +and at last imagine themselves unable to work under conditions of +bustle which to healthy people are cheerful and stimulating. I am +sure that if people had to choose between living where the noise of +children never stopped and where it was never heard, all the +goodnatured and sound people would prefer the incessant noise to the +incessant silence. But that choice is not thrust upon us by the +nature of things. There is no reason why children and adults should +not see just as much of one another as is good for them, no more and +no less. Even at present you are not compelled to choose between +sending your child to a boarding school (which means getting rid of it +altogether on more or less hypocritical pretences) and keeping it +continually at home. Most working folk today either send their +children to day schools or turn them out of doors. This solves the +problem for the parents. It does not solve it for the children, any +more than the tethering of a goat in a field or the chasing of an +unlicensed dog into the streets solves it for the goat or the dog; but +it shews that in no class are people willing to endure the society of +their children, and consequently that it is an error to believe that +the family provides children with edifying adult society, or that the +family is a social unit. The family is in that, as in so many other +respects, a humbug. Old people and young people cannot walk at the +same pace without distress and final loss of health to one of the +parties. When they are sitting indoors they cannot endure the same +degrees of temperature and the same supplies of fresh air. Even if +the main factors of noise, restlessness, and inquisitiveness are left +out of account, children can stand with indifference sights, sounds, +smells, and disorders that would make an adult of fifty utterly +miserable; whilst on the other hand such adults find a tranquil +happiness in conditions which to children mean unspeakable boredom. +And since our system is nevertheless to pack them all into the same +house and pretend that they are happy, and that this particular sort +of happiness is the foundation of virtue, it is found that in +discussing family life we never speak of actual adults or actual +children, or of realities of any sort, but always of ideals such as +The Home, a Mother's Influence, a Father's Care, Filial Piety, Duty, +Affection, Family Life, etc. etc., which are no doubt very comforting +phrases, but which beg the question of what a home and a mother's +influence and a father's care and so forth really come to in practice. +How many hours a week of the time when his children are out of bed +does the ordinary bread-winning father spend in the company of his +children or even in the same building with them? The home may be a +thieves' kitchen, the mother a procuress, the father a violent +drunkard; or the mother and father may be fashionable people who see +their children three or four times a year during the holidays, and +then not oftener than they can help, living meanwhile in daily and +intimate contact with their valets and lady's-maids, whose influence +and care are often dominant in the household. Affection, as +distinguished from simple kindliness, may or may not exist: when it +does it either depends on qualities in the parties that would produce +it equally if they were of no kin to one another, or it is a more or +less morbid survival of the nursing passion; for affection between +adults (if they are really adult in mind and not merely grown-up +children) and creatures so relatively selfish and cruel as children +necessarily are without knowing it or meaning it, cannot be called +natural: in fact the evidence shews that it is easier to love the +company of a dog than of a commonplace child between the ages of six +and the beginnings of controlled maturity; for women who cannot bear +to be separated from their pet dogs send their children to boarding +schools cheerfully. They may say and even believe that in allowing +their children to leave home they are sacrificing themselves for their +children's good; but there are very few pet dogs who would not be the +better for a month or two spent elsewhere than in a lady's lap or +roasting on a drawingroom hearthrug. Besides, to allege that children +are better continually away from home is to give up the whole popular +sentimental theory of the family; yet the dogs are kept and the +children are banished. + + + +Child Fanciers + +There is, however, a good deal of spurious family affection. There is +the clannishness that will make a dozen brothers and sisters who +quarrel furiously among themselves close up their ranks and make +common cause against a brother-in-law or a sister-in-law. And there +is a strong sense of property in children, which often makes mothers +and fathers bitterly jealous of allowing anyone else to interfere with +their children, whom they may none the less treat very badly. And +there is an extremely dangerous craze for children which leads certain +people to establish orphanages and baby farms and schools, seizing any +pretext for filling their houses with children exactly as some +eccentric old ladies and gentlemen fill theirs with cats. In such +places the children are the victims of all the caprices of doting +affection and all the excesses of lascivious cruelty. Yet the people +who have this morbid craze seldom have any difficulty in finding +victims. Parents and guardians are so worried by children and so +anxious to get rid of them that anyone who is willing to take them off +their hands is welcomed and whitewashed. The very people who read +with indignation of Squeers and Creakle in the novels of Dickens are +quite ready to hand over their own children to Squeers and Creakle, +and to pretend that Squeers and Creakle are monsters of the past. But +read the autobiography of Stanley the traveller, or sit in the company +of men talking about their school-days, and you will soon find that +fiction, which must, if it is to be sold and read, stop short of being +positively sickening, dare not tell the whole truth about the people +to whom children are handed over on educational pretexts. Not very +long ago a schoolmaster in Ireland was murdered by his boys; and for +reasons which were never made public it was at first decided not to +prosecute the murderers. Yet all these flogging schoolmasters and +orphanage fiends and baby farmers are "lovers of children." They are +really child fanciers (like bird fanciers or dog fanciers) by +irresistible natural predilection, never happy unless they are +surrounded by their victims, and always certain to make their living +by accepting the custody of children, no matter how many alternative +occupations may be available. And bear in mind that they are only the +extreme instances of what is commonly called natural affection, +apparently because it is obviously unnatural. + +The really natural feeling of adults for children in the long prosaic +intervals between the moments of affectionate impulse is just that +feeling that leads them to avoid their care and constant company as a +burden beyond bearing, and to pretend that the places they send them +to are well conducted, beneficial, and indispensable to the success of +the children in after life. The true cry of the kind mother after her +little rosary of kisses is "Run away, darling." It is nicer than +"Hold your noise, you young devil; or it will be the worse for you"; +but fundamentally it means the same thing: that if you compel an +adult and a child to live in one another's company either the adult or +the child will be miserable. There is nothing whatever unnatural or +wrong or shocking in this fact; and there is no harm in it if only it +be sensibly faced and provided for. The mischief that it does at +present is produced by our efforts to ignore it, or to smother it +under a heap of sentimental lies and false pretences. + + + +Childhood as a State of Sin + +Unfortunately all this nonsense tends to accumulate as we become more +sympathetic. In many families it is still the custom to treat +childhood frankly as a state of sin, and impudently proclaim the +monstrous principle that little children should be seen and not heard, +and to enforce a set of prison rules designed solely to make +cohabitation with children as convenient as possible for adults +without the smallest regard for the interests, either remote or +immediate, of the children. This system tends to produce a tough, +rather brutal, stupid, unscrupulous class, with a fixed idea that all +enjoyment consists in undetected sinning; and in certain phases of +civilization people of this kind are apt to get the upper hand of more +amiable and conscientious races and classes. They have the ferocity +of a chained dog, and are proud of it. But the end of it is that they +are always in chains, even at the height of their military or +political success: they win everything on condition that they are +afraid to enjoy it. Their civilizations rest on intimidation, which +is so necessary to them that when they cannot find anybody brave +enough to intimidate them they intimidate themselves and live in a +continual moral and political panic. In the end they get found out +and bullied. But that is not the point that concerns us here, which +is, that they are in some respects better brought up than the children +of sentimental people who are always anxious and miserable about their +duty to their children, and who end by neither making their children +happy nor having a tolerable life for themselves. A selfish tyrant +you know where to have, and he (or she) at least does not confuse your +affections; but a conscientious and kindly meddler may literally worry +you out of your senses. It is fortunate that only very few parents +are capable of doing what they conceive their duty continuously or +even at all, and that still fewer are tough enough to ride roughshod +over their children at home. + + + +School + +But please observe the limitation "at home." What private amateur +parental enterprise cannot do may be done very effectively by +organized professional enterprise in large institutions established +for the purpose. And it is to such professional enterprise that +parents hand over their children when they can afford it. They send +their children to school; and there is, on the whole, nothing on earth +intended for innocent people so horrible as a school. To begin with, +it is a prison. But it is in some respects more cruel than a prison. +In a prison, for instance, you are not forced to read books written by +the warders and the governor (who of course would not be warders and +governors if they could write readable books), and beaten or otherwise +tormented if you cannot remember their utterly unmemorable contents. +In the prison you are not forced to sit listening to turnkeys +discoursing without charm or interest on subjects that they dont +understand and dont care about, and are therefore incapable of making +you understand or care about. In a prison they may torture your body; +but they do not torture your brains; and they protect you against +violence and outrage from your fellow prisoners. In a school you have +none of these advantages. With the world's bookshelves loaded with +fascinating and inspired books, the very manna sent down from Heaven +to feed your souls, you are forced to read a hideous imposture called +a school book, written by a man who cannot write: a book from which +no human being can learn anything: a book which, though you may +decipher it, you cannot in any fruitful sense read, though the +enforced attempt will make you loathe the sight of a book all the rest +of your life. With millions of acres of woods and valleys and hills +and wind and air and birds and streams and fishes and all sorts of +instructive and healthy things easily accessible, or with streets and +shop windows and crowds and vehicles and all sorts of city delights at +the door, you are forced to sit, not in a room with some human grace +and comfort or furniture and decoration, but in a stalled pound with a +lot of other children, beaten if you talk, beaten if you move, beaten +if you cannot prove by answering idiotic questions that even when you +escaped from the pound and from the eye of your gaoler, you were still +agonizing over his detestable sham books instead of daring to live. +And your childish hatred of your gaoler and flogger is nothing to his +adult hatred of you; for he is a slave forced to endure your society +for his daily bread. You have not even the satisfaction of knowing +how you are torturing him and how he loathes you; and you give +yourself unnecessary pains to annoy him with furtive tricks and +spiteful doing of forbidden things. No wonder he is sometimes +provoked to fiendish outbursts of wrath. No wonder men of downright +sense, like Dr Johnson, admit that under such circumstances children +will not learn anything unless they are so cruelly beaten that they +make desperate efforts to memorize words and phrases to escape +flagellation. It is a ghastly business, quite beyond words, this +schooling. + +And now I hear cries of protest arising all round. First my own +schoolmasters, or their ghosts, asking whether I was cruelly beaten at +school? No; but then I did not learn anything at school. Dr +Johnson's schoolmaster presumably did care enough whether Sam learned +anything to beat him savagely enough to force him to lame his mind +--for Johnson's great mind _was_ lamed--by learning his lessons. None +of my schoolmasters really cared a rap (or perhaps it would be fairer +to them to say that their employers did not care a rap and therefore +did not give them the necessary caning powers) whether I learnt my +lessons or not, provided my father paid my schooling bill, the +collection of which was the real object of the school. Consequently I +did not learn my school lessons, having much more important ones in +hand, with the result that I have not wasted my life trifling with +literary fools in taverns as Johnson did when he should have been +shaking England with the thunder of his spirit. My schooling did me a +great deal of harm and no good whatever: it was simply dragging a +child's soul through the dirt; but I escaped Squeers and Creakle just +as I escaped Johnson and Carlyle. And this is what happens to most of +us. We are not effectively coerced to learn: we stave off punishment +as far as we can by lying and trickery and guessing and using our +wits; and when this does not suffice we scribble impositions, or +suffer extra imprisonments--"keeping in" was the phrase in my time--or +let a master strike us with a cane and fall back on our pride at being +able to hear it physically (he not being allowed to hit us too hard) +to outface the dishonor we should have been taught to die rather than +endure. And so idleness and worthlessness on the one hand and a +pretence of coercion on the other became a despicable routine. If my +schoolmasters had been really engaged in educating me instead of +painfully earning their bread by keeping me from annoying my elders +they would have turned me out of the school, telling me that I was +thoroughly disloyal to it; that I had no intention of learning; that I +was mocking and distracting the boys who did wish to learn; that I was +a liar and a shirker and a seditious little nuisance; and that nothing +could injure me in character and degrade their occupation more than +allowing me (much less forcing me) to remain in the school under such +conditions. But in order to get expelled, it was necessary commit a +crime of such atrocity that the parents of other boys would have +threatened to remove their sons sooner than allow them to be +schoolfellows with the delinquent. I can remember only one case in +which such a penalty was threatened; and in that case the culprit, a +boarder, had kissed a housemaid, or possibly, being a handsome youth, +been kissed by her. She did not kiss me; and nobody ever dreamt of +expelling me. The truth was, a boy meant just so much a year to the +institution. That was why he was kept there against his will. That +was why he was kept there when his expulsion would have been an +unspeakable relief and benefit both to his teachers and himself. + +It may be argued that if the uncommercial attitude had been taken, and +all the disloyal wasters and idlers shewn sternly to the door, the +school would not have been emptied, but filled. But so honest an +attitude was impossible. The masters must have hated the school much +more than the boys did. Just as you cannot imprison a man without +imprisoning a warder to see that he does not escape, the warder being +tied to the prison as effectually by the fear of unemployment and +starvation as the prisoner is by the bolts and bars, so these poor +schoolmasters, with their small salaries and large classes, were as +much prisoners as we were, and much more responsible and anxious ones. +They could not impose the heroic attitude on their employers; nor +would they have been able to obtain places as schoolmasters if their +habits had been heroic. For the best of them their employment was +provisional: they looked forward to escaping from it into the pulpit. +The ablest and most impatient of them were often so irritated by the +awkward, slow-witted, slovenly boys: that is, the ones that required +special consideration and patient treatment, that they vented their +irritation on them ruthlessly, nothing being easier than to entrap or +bewilder such a boy into giving a pretext for punishing him. + + + +My Scholastic Acquirements + +The results, as far as I was concerned, were what might have been +expected. My school made only the thinnest pretence of teaching +anything but Latin and Greek. When I went there as a very small boy I +knew a good deal of Latin grammar which I had been taught in a few +weeks privately by my uncle. When I had been several years at school +this same uncle examined me and discovered that the net result of my +schooling was that I had forgotten what he had taught me, and had +learnt nothing else. To this day, though I can still decline a Latin +noun and repeat some of the old paradigms in the old meaningless way, +because their rhythm sticks to me, I have never yet seen a Latin +inscription on a tomb that I could translate throughout. Of Greek I +can decipher perhaps the greater part of the Greek alphabet. In +short, I am, as to classical education, another Shakespear. I can +read French as easily as English; and under pressure of necessity I +can turn to account some scraps of German and a little operatic +Italian; but these I was never taught at school. Instead, I was +taught lying, dishonorable submission to tyranny, dirty stories, a +blasphemous habit of treating love and maternity as obscene jokes, +hopelessness, evasion, derision, cowardice, and all the blackguard's +shifts by which the coward intimidates other cowards. And if I had +been a boarder at an English public school instead of a day boy at an +Irish one, I might have had to add to these, deeper shames still. + + + +Schoolmasters of Genius + +And now, if I have reduced the ghosts of my schoolmasters to +melancholy acquiescence in all this (which everybody who has been at +an ordinary school will recognize as true), I have still to meet the +much more sincere protests of the handful of people who have a natural +genius for "bringing up" children. I shall be asked with kindly scorn +whether I have heard of Froebel and Pestalozzi, whether I know the +work that is being done by Miss Mason and the Dottoressa Montessori +or, best of all as I think, the Eurythmics School of Jacques Dalcroze +at Hellerau near Dresden. Jacques Dalcroze, like Plato, believes in +saturating his pupils with music. They walk to music, play to music, +work to music, obey drill commands that would bewilder a guardsman to +music, think to music, live to music, get so clearheaded about music +that they can move their several limbs each in a different metre until +they become complicated living magazines of cross rhythms, and, what +is more, make music for others to do all these things to. Stranger +still, though Jacques Dalcroze, like all these great teachers, is the +completest of tyrants, knowing what is right and that he must and will +have the lesson just so or else break his heart (not somebody else's, +observe), yet his school is so fascinating that every woman who sees +it exclaims "Oh, why was I not taught like this!" and elderly +gentlemen excitedly enrol themselves as students and distract classes +of infants by their desperate endeavors to beat two in a bar with one +hand and three with the other, and start off on earnest walks round +the room, taking two steps backward whenever Monsieur Daleroze calls +out "Hop!" Oh yes: I know all about these wonderful schools that you +cannot keep children or even adults out of, and these teachers whom +their pupils not only obey without coercion, but adore. And if you +will tell me roughly how many Masons and Montessoris and Dalcrozes you +think you can pick up in Europe for salaries of from thirty shillings +to five pounds a week, I will estimate your chances of converting your +millions of little scholastic hells into little scholastic heavens. +If you are a distressed gentlewoman starting to make a living, you can +still open a little school; and you can easily buy a secondhand brass +plate inscribed PESTALOZZIAN INSTITUTE and nail it to your door, +though you have no more idea of who Pestalozzi was and what he +advocated or how he did it than the manager of a hotel which began as +a Hydropathic has of the water cure. Or you can buy a cheaper plate +inscribed KINDERGARTEN, and imagine, or leave others to imagine, that +Froebel is the governing genius of your little _creche_. No doubt the +new brass plates are being inscribed Montessori Institute, and will be +used when the Dotteressa is no longer with us by all the Mrs Pipchins +and Mrs Wilfers throughout this unhappy land. + +I will go further, and admit that the brass plates may not all be +frauds. I will tell you that one of my friends was led to genuine +love and considerable knowledge of classical literature by an Irish +schoolmaster whom you would call a hedge schoolmaster (he would not be +allowed to teach anything now) and that it took four years of Harrow +to obliterate that knowledge and change the love into loathing. +Another friend of mine who keeps a school in the suburbs, and who +deeply deplores my "prejudice against schoolmasters," has offered to +accept my challenge to tell his pupils that they are as free to get up +and go out of the school at any moment as their parents are to get up +and go out of a theatre where my plays are being performed. Even +among my own schoolmasters I can recollect a few whose classes +interested me, and whom I should certainly have pestered for +information and instruction if I could have got into any decent human +relationship with them, and if they had not been compelled by their +position to defend themselves as carefully against such advances as +against furtive attempts to hurt them accidentally in the football +field or smash their hats with a clod from behind a wall. But these +rare cases actually do more harm than good; for they encourage us to +pretend that all schoolmasters are like that. Of what use is it to us +that there are always somewhere two or three teachers of children +whose specific genius for their occupation triumphs over our tyrannous +system and even finds in it its opportunity? For that matter, it is +possible, if difficult, to find a solicitor, or even a judge, who has +some notion of what law means, a doctor with a glimmering of science, +an officer who understands duty and discipline, and a clergyman with +an inkling of religion, though there are nothing like enough of them +to go round. But even the few who, like Ibsen's Mrs Solness, have "a +genius for nursing the souls of little children" are like angels +forced to work in prisons instead of in heaven; and even at that they +are mostly underpaid and despised. That friend of mine who went from +the hedge schoolmaster to Harrow once saw a schoolmaster rush from an +elementary school in pursuit of a boy and strike him. My friend, not +considering that the unfortunate man was probably goaded beyond +endurance, smote the schoolmaster and blackened his eye. The +schoolmaster appealed to the law; and my friend found himself waiting +nervously in the Hammersmith Police Court to answer for his breach of +the peace. In his anxiety he asked a police officer what would happen +to him. "What did you do?" said the officer. "I gave a man a black +eye" said my friend. "Six pounds if he was a gentleman: two pounds +if he wasnt," said the constable. "He was a schoolmaster" said my +friend. "Two pounds" said the officer; and two pounds it was. The +blood money was paid cheerfully; and I have ever since advised +elementary schoolmasters to qualify themselves in the art of +self-defence, as the British Constitution expresses our national +estimate of them by allowing us to blacken three of their eyes for the +same price as one of an ordinary professional man. How many Froebels +and Pestalozzis and Miss Masons and Doctoress Montessoris would you be +likely to get on these terms even if they occurred much more +frequently in nature than they actually do? + +No: I cannot be put off by the news that our system would be perfect +if it were worked by angels. I do not admit it even at that, just as +I do not admit that if the sky fell we should all catch larks. But I +do not propose to bother about a supply of specific genius which does +not exist, and which, if it did exist, could operate only by at once +recognizing and establishing the rights of children. + + + +What We Do Not Teach, and Why + +To my mind, a glance at the subjects now taught in schools ought to +convince any reasonable person that the object of the lessons is to +keep children out of mischief, and not to qualify them for their part +in life as responsible citizens of a free State. It is not possible +to maintain freedom in any State, no matter how perfect its original +constitution, unless its publicly active citizens know a good deal of +constitutional history, law, and political science, with its basis of +economics. If as much pains had been taken a century ago to make us +all understand Ricardo's law of rent as to learn our catechisms, the +face of the world would have been changed for the better. But for +that very reason the greatest care is taken to keep such beneficially +subversive knowledge from us, with the result that in public life we +are either place-hunters, anarchists, or sheep shepherded by wolves. + +But it will be observed that these are highly controversial subjects. +Now no controversial subject can be taught dogmatically. He who knows +only the official side of a controversy knows less than nothing of its +nature. The abler a schoolmaster is, the more dangerous he is to his +pupils unless they have the fullest opportunity of hearing another +equally able person do his utmost to shake his authority and convict +him of error. + +At present such teaching is very unpopular. It does not exist in +schools; but every adult who derives his knowledge of public affairs +from the newspapers can take in, at the cost of an extra halfpenny, +two papers of opposite politics. Yet the ordinary man so dislikes +having his mind unsettled, as he calls it, that he angrily refuses to +allow a paper which dissents from his views to be brought into his +house. Even at his club he resents seeing it, and excludes it if it +happens to run counter to the opinions of all the members. The result +is that his opinions are not worth considering. A churchman who never +reads The Freethinker very soon has no more real religion than the +atheist who never reads The Church Times. The attitude is the same in +both cases: they want to hear nothing good of their enemies; +consequently they remain enemies and suffer from bad blood all their +lives; whereas men who know their opponents and understand their case, +quite commonly respect and like them, and always learn something from +them. + +Here, again, as at so many points, we come up against the abuse of +schools to keep people in ignorance and error, so that they may be +incapable of successful revolt against their industrial slavery. The +most important simple fundamental economic truth to impress on a child +in complicated civilizations like ours is the truth that whoever +consumes goods or services without producing by personal effort the +equivalent of what he or she consumes, inflicts on the community +precisely the same injury that a thief produces, and would, in any +honest State, be treated as a thief, however full his or her pockets +might be of money made by other people. The nation that first teaches +its children that truth, instead of flogging them if they discover it +for themselves, may have to fight all the slaves of all the other +nations to begin with; but it will beat them as easily as an +unburdened man with his hands free and with all his energies in full +play can beat an invalid who has to carry another invalid on his back. + +This, however, is not an evil produced by the denial of children's +rights, nor is it inherent in the nature of schools. I mention it +only because it would be folly to call for a reform of our schools +without taking account of the corrupt resistance which awaits the +reformer. + +A word must also be said about the opposition to reform of the vested +interest of the classical and coercive schoolmaster. He, poor wretch, +has no other means of livelihood; and reform would leave him as a +workman is now left when he is superseded by a machine. He had +therefore better do what he can to get the workman compensated, so as +to make the public familiar with the idea of compensation before his +own turn comes. + + + +Taboo in Schools + +The suppression of economic knowledge, disastrous as it is, is quite +intelligible, its corrupt motive being as clear as the motive of a +burglar for concealing his jemmy from a policeman. But the other +great suppression in our schools, the suppression of the subject of +sex, is a case of taboo. In mankind, the lower the type, and the less +cultivated the mind, the less courage there is to face important +subjects objectively. The ablest and most highly cultivated people +continually discuss religion, politics, and sex: it is hardly an +exaggeration to say that they discuss nothing else with fully-awakened +interest. Commoner and less cultivated people, even when they form +societies for discussion, make a rule that politics and religion are +not to be mentioned, and take it for granted that no decent person +would attempt to discuss sex. The three subjects are feared because +they rouse the crude passions which call for furious gratification in +murder and rapine at worst, and, at best, lead to quarrels and +undesirable states of consciousness. + +Even when this excuse of bad manners, ill temper, and brutishness (for +that is what it comes to) compels us to accept it from those adults +among whom political and theological discussion does as a matter of +fact lead to the drawing of knives and pistols, and sex discussion +leads to obscenity, it has no application to children except as an +imperative reason for training them to respect other people's +opinions, and to insist on respect for their own in these as in other +important matters which are equally dangerous: for example, money. +And in any case there are decisive reasons; superior, like the reasons +for suspending conventional reticences between doctor and patient, to +all considerations of mere decorum, for giving proper instruction in +the facts of sex. Those who object to it (not counting coarse people +who thoughtlessly seize every opportunity of affecting and parading a +fictitious delicacy) are, in effect, advocating ignorance as a +safeguard against precocity. If ignorance were practicable there +would be something to be said for it up to the age at which ignorance +is a danger instead of a safeguard. Even as it is, it seems +undesirable that any special emphasis should be given to the subject, +whether by way of delicacy and poetry or too impressive warning. But +the plain fact is that in refusing to allow the child to be taught by +qualified unrelated elders (the parents shrink from the lesson, even +when they are otherwise qualified, because their own relation to the +child makes the subject impossible between them) we are virtually +arranging to have our children taught by other children in guilty +secrets and unclean jests. And that settles the question for all +sensible people. + +The dogmatic objection, the sheer instinctive taboo which rules the +subject out altogether as indecent, has no age limit. It means that +at no matter what age a woman consents to a proposal of marriage, she +should do so in ignorance of the relation she is undertaking. When +this actually happens (and apparently it does happen oftener than +would seem possible) a horrible fraud is being practiced on both the +man and the woman. He is led to believe that she knows what she is +promising, and that he is in no danger of finding himself bound to a +woman to whom he is eugenically antipathetic. She contemplates +nothing but such affectionate relations as may exist between her and +her nearest kinsmen, and has no knowledge of the condition which, if +not foreseen, must come as an amazing revelation and a dangerous +shock, ending possibly in the discovery that the marriage has been an +irreparable mistake. Nothing can justify such a risk. There may be +people incapable of understanding that the right to know all there is +to know about oneself is a natural human right that sweeps away all +the pretences of others to tamper with one's consciousness in order to +produce what they choose to consider a good character. But they must +here bow to the plain mischievousness of entrapping people into +contracts on which the happiness of their whole lives depends without +letting them know what they are undertaking. + + + +Alleged Novelties in Modern Schools + +There is just one more nuisance to be disposed of before I come to the +positive side of my case. I mean the person who tells me that my +schooldays belong to a bygone order of educational ideas and +institutions, and that schools are not now a bit like my old school. +I reply, with Sir Walter Raleigh, by calling on my soul to give this +statement the lie. Some years ago I lectured in Oxford on the subject +of Education. A friend to whom I mentioned my intention said, "You +know nothing of modern education: schools are not now what they were +when you were a boy." I immediately procured the time sheets of half +a dozen modern schools, and found, as I expected, that they might all +have been my old school: there was no real difference. I may +mention, too, that I have visited modern schools, and observed that +there is a tendency to hang printed pictures in an untidy and soulless +manner on the walls, and occasionally to display on the mantel-shelf a +deplorable glass case containing certain objects which might possibly, +if placed in the hands of the pupils, give them some practical +experience of the weight of a pound and the length of an inch. And +sometimes a scoundrel who has rifled a bird's nest or killed a +harmless snake encourages the children to go and do likewise by +putting his victims into an imitation nest and bottle and exhibiting +them as aids to "Nature study." A suggestion that Nature is worth +study would certainly have staggered my schoolmasters; so perhaps I +may admit a gleam of progress here. But as any child who attempted to +handle these dusty objects would probably be caned, I do not attach +any importance to such modernities in school furniture. The school +remains what it was in my boyhood, because its real object remains +what it was. And that object, I repeat, is to keep the children out +of mischief: mischief meaning for the most part worrying the +grown-ups. + + + +What is to be Done? + +The practical question, then, is what to do with the children. +Tolerate them at home we will not. Let them run loose in the streets +we dare not until our streets become safe places for children, which, +to our utter shame, they are not at present, though they can hardly be +worse than some homes and some schools. + +The grotesque difficulty of making even a beginning was brought home +to me in the little village in Hertfordshire where I write these lines +by the lady of the manor, who asked me very properly what I was going +to do for the village school. I did not know what to reply. As the +school kept the children quiet during my working hours, I did not for +the sake of my own personal convenmence want to blow it up with +dynamite as I should like to blow up most schools. So I asked for +guidance. "You ought to give a prize," said the lady. I asked if +there was a prize for good conduct. As I expected, there was: one +for the best-behaved boy and another for the best-behaved girl. On +reflection I offered a handsome prize for the worst-behaved boy and +girl on condition that a record should be kept of their subsequent +careers and compared with the records of the best-behaved, in order to +ascertain whether the school criterion of good conduct was valid out +of school. My offer was refused because it would not have had the +effect of encouraging the children to give as little trouble as +possible, which is of course the real object of all conduct prizes in +schools. + +I must not pretend, then, that I have a system ready to replace all +the other systems. Obstructing the way of the proper organization of +childhood, as of everything else, lies our ridiculous misdistribution +of the national income, with its accompanying class distinctions and +imposition of snobbery on children as a necessary part of their social +training. The result of our economic folly is that we are a nation of +undesirable acquaintances; and the first object of all our +institutions for children is segregation. If, for example, our +children were set free to roam and play about as they pleased, they +would have to be policed; and the first duty of the police in a State +like ours would be to see that every child wore a badge indicating its +class in society, and that every child seen speaking to another child +with a lower-class badge, or any child wearing a higher badge than +that allotted to it by, say, the College of Heralds, should +immediately be skinned alive with a birch rod. It might even be +insisted that girls with high-class badges should be attended by +footmen, grooms, or even military escorts. In short, there is hardly +any limit to the follies with which our Commercialism would infect any +system that it would tolerate at all. But something like a change of +heart is still possible; and since all the evils of snobbery and +segregation are rampant in our schools at present we may as well make +the best as the worst of them. + + + +Children's Rights and Duties + +Now let us ask what are a child's rights, and what are the rights of +society over the child. Its rights, being clearly those of any other +human being, are summed up in the right to live: that is, to have all +the conclusive arguments that prove that it would be better dead, that +it is a child of wrath, that the population is already excessive, that +the pains of life are greater than its pleasures, that its sacrifice +in a hospital or laboratory experiment might save millions of lives, +etc. etc. etc., put out of the question, and its existence accepted as +necessary and sacred, all theories to the contrary notwithstanding, +whether by Calvin or Schopenhauer or Pasteur or the nearest person +with a taste for infanticide. And this right to live includes, and in +fact is, the right to be what the child likes and can, to do what it +likes and can, to make what it likes and can, to think what it likes +and can, to smash what it dislikes and can, and generally to behave in +an altogether unaccountable manner within the limits imposed by the +similar rights of its neighbors. And the rights of society over it +clearly extend to requiring it to qualify itself to live in society +without wasting other peoples time: that is, it must know the rules +of the road, be able to read placards and proclamations, fill voting +papers, compose and send letters and telegrams, purchase food and +clothing and railway tickets for itself, count money and give and take +change, and, generally, know how many beans made five. It must know +some law, were it only a simple set of commandments, some political +economy, agriculture enough to shut the gates of fields with cattle in +them and not to trample on growing crops, sanitation enough not to +defile its haunts, and religion enough to have some idea of why it is +allowed its rights and why it must respect the rights of others. And +the rest of its education must consist of anything else it can pick +up; for beyond this society cannot go with any certainty, and indeed +can only go this far rather apologetically and provisionally, as doing +the best it can on very uncertain ground. + + + +Should Children Earn their Living? + +Now comes the question how far children should be asked to contribute +to the support of the community. In approaching it we must put aside +the considerations that now induce all humane and thoughtful political +students to agitate for the uncompromising abolition of child labor +under our capitalist system. It is not the least of the curses of +that system that it will bequeath to future generations a mass of +legislation to prevent capitalists from "using up nine generations of +men in one generation," as they began by doing until they were +restrained by law at the suggestion of Robert Owen, the founder of +English Socialism. Most of this legislation will become an +insufferable restraint upon freedom and variety of action when +Capitalism goes the way of Druidic human sacrifice (a much less +slaughterous institution). There is every reason why a child should +not be allowed to work for commercial profit or for the support of its +parents at the expense of its own future; but there is no reason +whatever why a child should not do some work for its own sake and that +of the community if it can be shewn that both it and the community +will be the better for it. + + + +Children's Happiness + +Also it is important to put the happiness of the children rather +carefully in its place, which is really not a front place. The +unsympathetic, selfish, hard people who regard happiness as a very +exceptional indulgence to which children are by no means entitled, +though they may be allowed a very little of it on their birthdays or +at Christmas, are sometimes better parents in effect than those who +imagine that children are as capable of happiness as adults. Adults +habitually exaggerate their own capacity in that direction grossly; +yet most adults can stand an allowance of happiness that would be +quite thrown away on children. The secret of being miserable is to +have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure +for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation; and the +pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and +active, which is pleasanter than any happiness until you are tired of +it. That is why it is necessary to happiness that one should be +tired. Music after dinner is pleasant: music before breakfast is so +unpleasant as to be clearly unnatural. To people who are not +overworked holidays are a nuisance. To people who are, and who can +afford them, they are a troublesome necessity. A perpetual holiday is +a good working definition of hell. + + + +The Horror of the Perpetual Holiday + +It will be said here that, on the contrary, heaven is always conceived +as a perpetual holiday, and that whoever is not born to an independent +income is striving for one or longing for one because it gives +holidays for life. To which I reply, first, that heaven, as +conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so +miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in +heaven, though plenty of people have described a day at the seaside; +and that the genuine popular verdict on it is expressed in the proverb +"Heaven for holiness and Hell for company." Second, I point out that +the wretched people who have independent incomes and no useful +occupation, do the most amazingly disagreeable and dangerous things to +make themselves tired and hungry in the evening. When they are not +involved in what they call sport, they are doing aimlessly what other +people have to be paid to do: driving horses and motor cars; trying +on dresses and walking up and down to shew them off; and acting as +footmen and housemaids to royal personages. The sole and obvious +cause of the notion that idleness is delightful and that heaven is a +place where there is nothing to be done, is our school system and our +industrial system. The school is a prison in which work is a +punishment and a curse. In avowed prisons, hard labor, the only +alleviation of a prisoner's lot, is treated as an aggravation of his +punishment; and everything possible is done to intensify the +prisoner's inculcated and unnatural notion that work is an evil. In +industry we are overworked and underfed prisoners. Under such absurd +circumstances our judgment of things becomes as perverted as our +habits. If we were habitually underworked and overfed, our notion of +heaven would be a place where everybody worked strenuously for +twenty-four hours a day and never got anything to eat. + +Once realize that a perpetual holiday is beyond human endurance, and +that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do" and it +will be seen that we have no right to impose a perpetual holiday on +children. If we did, they would soon outdo the Labor Party in their +claim for a Right to Work Bill. + +In any case no child should be brought up to suppose that its food and +clothes come down from heaven or are miraculously conjured from empty +space by papa. Loathsome as we have made the idea of duty (like the +idea of work) we must habituate children to a sense of repayable +obligation to the community for what they consume and enjoy, and +inculcate the repayment as a point of honor. If we did that +today--and nothing but flat dishonesty prevents us from doing it--we +should have no idle rich and indeed probably no rich, since there is +no distinction in being rich if you have to pay scot and lot in +personal effort like the working folk. Therefore, if for only half an +hour a day, a child should do something serviceable to the community. + +Productive work for children has the advantage that its discipline is +the discipline of impersonal necessity, not that of wanton personal +coercion. The eagerness of children in our industrial districts to +escape from school to the factory is not caused by lighter tasks or +shorter hours in the factory, nor altogether by the temptation of +wages, nor even by the desire for novelty, but by the dignity of adult +work, the exchange of the factitious personal tyranny of the +schoolmaster, from which the grown-ups are free, for the stern but +entirely dignified Laws of Life to which all flesh is subject. + + + +University Schoolboyishness + +Older children might do a good deal before beginning their collegiate +education. What is the matter with our universities is that all the +students are schoolboys, whereas it is of the very essence of +university education that they should be men. The function of a +university is not to teach things that can now be taught as well or +better by University Extension lectures or by private tutors or modern +correspondence classes with gramophones. We go to them to be +socialized; to acquire the hall mark of communal training; to become +citizens of the world instead of inmates of the enlarged rabbit +hutches we call homes; to learn manners and become unchallengeable +ladies and gentlemen. The social pressure which effects these changes +should be that of persons who have faced the full responsibilities of +adults as working members of the general community, not that of a +barbarous rabble of half emancipated schoolboys and unemancipable +pedants. It is true that in a reasonable state of society this +outside experience would do for us very completely what the university +does now so corruptly that we tolerate its bad manners only because +they are better than no manners at all. But the university will +always exist in some form as a community of persons desirous of +pushing their culture to the highest pitch they are capable of, not as +solitary students reading in seclusion, but as members of a body of +individuals all pursuing culture, talking culture, thinking culture, +above all, criticizing culture. If such persons are to read and talk +and criticize to any purpose, they must know the world outside the +university at least as well as the shopkeeper in the High Street does. +And this is just what they do not know at present. You may say of +them, paraphrasing Mr. Kipling, "What do they know of Plato that only +Plato know?" If our universities would exclude everybody who had not +earned a living by his or her own exertions for at least a couple of +years, their effect would be vastly improved. + + + +The New Laziness + +The child of the future, then, if there is to be any future but one of +decay, will work more or less for its living from an early age; and in +doing so it will not shock anyone, provided there be no longer any +reason to associate the conception of children working for their +living with infants toiling in a factory for ten hours a day or boys +drudging from nine to six under gas lamps in underground city offices. +Lads and lasses in their teens will probably be able to produce as +much as the most expensive person now costs in his own person (it is +retinue that eats up the big income) without working too hard or too +long for quite as much happiness as they can enjoy. The question to +be balanced then will be, not how soon people should be put to work, +but how soon they should be released from any obligation of the kind. +A life's work is like a day's work: it can begin early and leave off +early or begin late and leave off late, or, as with us, begin too +early and never leave off at all, obviously the worst of all possible +plans. In any event we must finally reckon work, not as the curse our +schools and prisons and capitalist profit factories make it seem +today, but as a prime necessity of a tolerable existence. And if we +cannot devise fresh wants as fast as we develop the means of supplying +them, there will come a scarcity of the needed, cut-and-dried, +appointed work that is always ready to everybody's hand. It may have +to be shared out among people all of whom want more of it. And then a +new sort of laziness will become the bugbear of society: the laziness +that refuses to face the mental toil and adventure of making work by +inventing new ideas or extending the domain of knowledge, and insists +on a ready-made routine. It may come to forcing people to retire +before they are willing to make way for younger ones: that is, to +driving all persons of a certain age out of industry, leaving them to +find something experimental to occupy them on pain of perpetual +holiday. Men will then try to spend twenty thousand a year for the +sake of having to earn it. Instead of being what we are now, the +cheapest and nastiest of the animals, we shall be the costliest, most +fastidious, and best bred. In short, there is no end to the +astonishing things that may happen when the curse of Adam becomes +first a blessing and then an incurable habit. And in that day we must +not grudge children their share of it. + + + +The Infinite School Task + +The question of children's work, however, is only a question of what +the child ought to do for the community. How highly it should qualify +itself is another matter. But most of the difficulty of inducing +children to learn would disappear if our demands became not only +definite but finite. When learning is only an excuse for +imprisonment, it is an instrument of torture which becomes more +painful the more progress is made. Thus when you have forced a child +to learn the Church Catechism, a document profound beyond the +comprehension of most adults, you are sometimes at a standstill for +something else to teach; and you therefore keep the wretched child +repeating its catechism again and again until you hit on the plan of +making it learn instalments of Bible verses, preferably from the book +of Numbers. But as it is less trouble to set a lesson that you know +yourself, there is a tendency to keep repeating the already learnt +lesson rather than break new ground. At school I began with a fairly +complete knowledge of Latin grammar in the childish sense of being +able to repeat all the paradigms; and I was kept at this, or rather +kept in a class where the master never asked me to do it because he +knew I could, and therefore devoted himself to trapping the boys who +could not, until I finally forgot most of it. But when progress took +place, what did it mean? First it meant Caesar, with the +foreknowledge that to master Caesar meant only being set at Virgil, +with the culminating horror of Greek and Homer in reserve at the end +of that. I preferred Caesar, because his statement that Gaul is +divided into three parts, though neither interesting nor true, was the +only Latin sentence I could translate at sight: therefore the longer +we stuck at Caesar the better I was pleased. Just so do less +classically educated children see nothing in the mastery of addition +but the beginning of subtraction, and so on through multiplication and +division and fractions, with the black cloud of algebra on the +horizon. And if a boy rushes through all that, there is always the +calculus to fall back on, unless indeed you insist on his learning +music, and proceed to hit him if he cannot tell you the year Beethoven +was born. + +A child has a right to finality as regards its compulsory lessons. +Also as regards physical training. At present it is assumed that the +schoolmaster has a right to force every child into an attempt to +become Porson and Bentley, Leibnitz and Newton, all rolled into one. +This is the tradition of the oldest grammar schools. In our times an +even more horrible and cynical claim has been made for the right to +drive boys through compulsory games in the playing fields until they +are too much exhausted physically to do anything but drop off to +sleep. This is supposed to protect them from vice; but as it also +protects them from poetry, literature, music, meditation and prayer, +it may be dismissed with the obvious remark that if boarding schools +are places whose keepers are driven to such monstrous measures lest +more abominable things should happen, then the sooner boarding schools +are violently abolished the better. It is true that society may make +physical claims on the child as well as mental ones: the child must +learn to walk, to use a knife and fork, to swim, to ride a bicycle, to +acquire sufficient power of self-defence to make an attack on it an +arduous and uncertain enterprise, perhaps to fly. What as a matter of +common-sense it clearly has not a right to do is to make this an +excuse for keeping the child slaving for ten hours at physical +exercises on the ground that it is not yet as dexterous as Cinquevalli +and as strong as Sandow. + + + +The Rewards and Risks of Knowledge + +In a word, we have no right to insist on educating a child; for its +education can end only with its life and will not even then be +complete. Compulsory completion of education is the last folly of a +rotten and desperate civilization. It is the rattle in its throat +before dissolution. All we can fairly do is to prescribe certain +definite acquirements and accomplishments as qualifications for +certain employments; and to secure them, not by the ridiculous method +of inflicting injuries on the persons who have not yet mastered them, +but by attaching certain privileges (not pecuniary) to the +employments. + +Most acquirements carry their own privileges with them. Thus a baby +has to be pretty closely guarded and imprisoned because it cannot take +care of itself. It has even to be carried about (the most complete +conceivable infringement of its liberty) until it can walk. But +nobody goes on carrying children after they can walk lest they should +walk into mischief, though Arab boys make their sisters carry them, as +our own spoiled children sometimes make their nurses, out of mere +laziness, because sisters in the East and nurses in the West are kept +in servitude. But in a society of equals (the only reasonable and +permanently possible sort of society) children are in much greater +danger of acquiring bandy legs through being left to walk before they +are strong enough than of being carried when they are well able to +walk. Anyhow, freedom of movement in a nursery is the reward of +learning to walk; and in precisely the same way freedom of movement in +a city is the reward of learning how to read public notices, and to +count and use money. The consequences are of course much larger than +the mere ability to read the name of a street or the number of a +railway platform and the destination of a train. When you enable a +child to read these, you also enable it to read this preface, to the +utter destruction, you may quite possibly think, of its morals and +docility. You also expose it to the danger of being run over by +taxicabs and trains. The moral and physical risks of education are +enormous: every new power a child acquires, from speaking, walking, +and co-ordinating its vision, to conquering continents and founding +religions, opens up immense new possibilities of mischief. Teach a +child to write and you teach it how to forge: teach it to speak and +you teach it how to lie: teach it to walk and you teach it how to +kick its mother to death. + +The great problem of slavery for those whose aim is to maintain it is +the problem of reconciling the efficiency of the slave with the +helplessness that keeps him in servitude; and this problem is +fortunately not completely soluble; for it is not in fact found +possible for a duke to treat his solicitor or his doctor as he treats +his laborers, though they are all equally his slaves: the laborer +being in fact less dependent on his favor than the professional man. +Hence it is that men come to resent, of all things, protection, +because it so often means restriction of their liberty lest they +should make a bad use of it. If there are dangerous precipices about, +it is much easier and cheaper to forbid people to walk near the edge +than to put up an effective fence: that is why both legislators and +parents and the paid deputies of parents are always inhibiting and +prohibiting and punishing and scolding and laming and cramping and +delaying progress and growth instead of making the dangerous places as +safe as possible and then boldly taking and allowing others to take +the irreducible minimum of risk. + + + +English Physical Hardihood and Spiritual Cowardice + +It is easier to convert most people to the need for allowing their +children to run physical risks than moral ones. I can remember a +relative of mine who, when I was a small child, unused to horses and +very much afraid of them, insisted on putting me on a rather +rumbustious pony with little spurs on my heels (knowing that in my +agitation I would use them unconsciously), and being enormously amused +at my terrors. Yet when that same lady discovered that I had found a +copy of The Arabian Nights and was devouring it with avidity, she was +horrified, and hid it away from me lest it should break my soul as the +pony might have broken my neck. This way of producing hardy bodies +and timid souls is so common in country houses that you may spend +hours in them listening to stories of broken collar bones, broken +backs, and broken necks without coming upon a single spiritual +adventure or daring thought. + +But whether the risks to which liberty exposes us are moral or +physical our right to liberty involves the right to run them. A man +who is not free to risk his neck as an aviator or his soul as a +heretic is not free at all; and the right to liberty begins, not at +the age of 21 years but of 21 seconds. + + + +The Risks of Ignorance and Weakness + +The difficulty with children is that they need protection from risks +they are too young to understand, and attacks they can neither avoid +nor resist. You may on academic grounds allow a child to snatch +glowing coals from the fire once. You will not do it twice. The +risks of liberty we must let everyone take; but the risks of ignorance +and self-helplessness are another matter. Not only children but +adults need protection from them. At present adults are often exposed +to risks outside their knowledge or beyond their comprehension or +powers of resistance or foresight: for example, we have to look on +every day at marriages or financial speculations that may involve far +worse consequences than burnt fingers. And just as it is part of the +business of adults to protect children, to feed them, clothe them, +shelter them, and shift for them in all sorts of ways until they are +able to shift for themselves, it is coming more and more to be seen +that this is true not only of the relation between adults and +children, but between adults and adults. We shall not always look on +indifferently at foolish marriages and financial speculations, nor +allow dead men to control live communities by ridiculous wills and +living heirs to squander and ruin great estates, nor tolerate a +hundred other absurd liberties that we allow today because we are too +lazy to find out the proper way to interfere. But the interference +must be regulated by some theory of the individual's rights. Though +the right to live is absolute, it is not unconditional. If a man is +unbearably mischievous, he must be killed. This is a mere matter of +necessity, like the killing of a man-eating tiger in a nursery, a +venomous snake in the garden, or a fox in the poultry yard. No +society could be constructed on the assumption that such extermination +is a violation of the creature's right to live, and therefore must not +be allowed. And then at once arises the danger into which morality +has led us: the danger of persecution. One Christian spreading his +doctrines may seem more mischievous than a dozen thieves: throw him +therefore to the lions. A lying or disobedient child may corrupt a +whole generation and make human Society impossible: therefore thrash +the vice out of him. And so on until our whole system of abortion, +intimidation, tyranny, cruelty and the rest is in full swing again. + + + +The Common Sense of Toleration + +The real safeguard against this is the dogma of Toleration. I need +not here repeat the compact treatise on it which I prepared for the +Joint Committee on the Censorship of Stage Plays, and prefixed to The +Shewing Up of Blanco Posnet. It must suffice now to say that the +present must not attempt to schoolmaster the future by pretending to +know good from evil in tendency, or protect citizens against shocks to +their opinions and convictions, moral, political or religious: in +other words it must not persecute doctrines of any kind, or what is +called bad taste, and must insist on all persons facing such shocks as +they face frosty weather or any of the other disagreeable, dangerous, +or bracing incidents of freedom. The expediency of Toleration has +been forced on us by the fact that progressive enlightenment depends +on a fair hearing for doctrines which at first appear seditious, +blasphemous, and immoral, and which deeply shock people who never +think originally, thought being with them merely a habit and an echo. +The deeper ground for Toleration is the nature of creation, which, as +we now know, proceeds by evolution. Evolution finds its way by +experiment; and this finding of the way varies according to the stage +of development reached, from the blindest groping along the line of +least resistance to intellectual speculation, with its practical +sequel of hypothesis and experimental verification; or to observation, +induction, and deduction; or even into so rapid and intuitive an +integration of all these processes in a single brain that we get the +inspired guess of the man of genius and the desperate resolution of +the teacher of new truths who is first slain as a blasphemous apostate +and then worshipped as a prophet. + +Here the law for the child is the same as for the adult. The high +priest must not rend his garments and cry "Crucify him" when he is +shocked: the atheist must not clamor for the suppression of Law's +Serious Call because it has for two centuries destroyed the natural +happiness of innumerable unfortunate children by persuading their +parents that it is their religious duty to be miserable. It, and the +Sermon on the Mount, and Machiavelli's Prince, and La Rochefoucauld's +maxims, and Hymns Ancient and Modern, and De Glanville's apologue, and +Dr. Watts's rhymes, and Nietzsche's Gay Science, and Ingersoll's +Mistakes of Moses, and the speeches and pamphlets of the people who +want us to make war on Germany, and the Noodle's Orations and articles +of our politicians and journalists, must all be tolerated not only +because any of them may for all we know be on the right track but +because it is in the conflict of opinion that we win knowledge and +wisdom. However terrible the wounds suffered in that conflict, they +are better than the barren peace of death that follows when all the +combatants are slaughtered or bound hand and foot. + +The difficulty at present is that though this necessity for Toleration +is a law of political science as well established as the law of +gravitation, our rulers are never taught political science: on the +contrary, they are taught in school that the master tolerates nothing +that is disagreeable to him; that ruling is simply being master; and +that the master's method is the method of violent punishment. And our +citizens, all school taught, are walking in the same darkness. As I +write these lines the Home Secretary is explaining that a man who has +been imprisoned for blasphemy must not be released because his remarks +were painful to the feelings of his pious fellow townsmen. Now it +happens that this very Home Secretary has driven many thousands of his +fellow citizens almost beside themselves by the crudity of his notions +of government, and his simple inability to understand why he should +not use and make laws to torment and subdue people who do not happen +to agree with him. In a word, he is not a politician, but a grown-up +schoolboy who has at last got a cane in his hand. And as all the rest +of us are in the same condition (except as to command of the cane) the +only objection made to his proceedings takes the shape of clamorous +demands that _he_ should be caned instead of being allowed to cane +other people. + + + +The Sin of Athanasius + +It seems hopeless. Anarchists are tempted to preach a violent and +implacable resistance to all law as the only remedy; and the result of +that speedily is that people welcome any tyranny that will rescue them +from chaos. But there is really no need to choose between anarchy and +tyranny. A quite reasonable state of things is practicable if we +proceed on human assumptions and not on academic ones. If adults will +frankly give up their claim to know better than children what the +purposes of the Life Force are, and treat the child as an experiment +like themselves, and possibly a more successful one, and at the same +time relinquish their monstrous parental claims to personal private +property in children, the rest must be left to common sense. It is +our attitude, our religion, that is wrong. A good beginning might be +made by enacting that any person dictating a piece of conduct to a +child or to anyone else as the will of God, or as absolutely right, +should be dealt with as a blasphemer: as, indeed, guilty of the +unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. If the penalty were death, +it would rid us at once of that scourge of humanity, the amateur Pope. +As an Irish Protestant, I raise the cry of No Popery with hereditary +zest. We are overrun with Popes. From curates and governesses, who +may claim a sort of professional standing, to parents and uncles and +nurserymaids and school teachers and wiseacres generally, there are +scores of thousands of human insects groping through our darkness by +the feeble phosphorescence of their own tails, yet ready at a moment's +notice to reveal the will of God on every possible subject; to explain +how and why the universe was made (in my youth they added the exact +date) and the circumstances under which it will cease to exist; to lay +down precise rules of right and wrong conduct; to discriminate +infallibly between virtuous and vicious character; and all this with +such certainty that they are prepared to visit all the rigors of the +law, and all the ruinous penalties of social ostracism on people, +however harmless their actions maybe who venture to laugh at their +monstrous conceit or to pay their assumptions the extravagant +compliment of criticizing them. As to children, who shall say what +canings and birchings and terrifyings and threats of hell fire and +impositions and humiliations and petty imprisonings and sendings to +bed and standing in corners and the like they have suffered because +their parents and guardians and teachers knew everything so much +better than Socrates or Solon? + +It is this ignorant uppishness that does the mischief. A stranger on +the planet might expect that its grotesque absurdity would provoke +enough ridicule to cure it; but unfortunately quite the contrary +happens. Just as our ill health delivers us into the hands of medical +quacks and creates a passionate demand for impudent pretences that +doctors can cure the diseases they themselves die of daily, so our +ignorance and helplessness set us clamoring for spiritual and moral +quacks who pretend that they can save our souls from their own +damnation. If a doctor were to say to his patients, "I am familiar +with your symptoms, because I have seen other people in your +condition; and I will bring the very little knowledge we have to your +treatment; but except in that very shallow sense I dont know what is +the matter with you; and I cant undertake to cure you," he would be a +lost man professionally; and if a clergyman, on being called on to +award a prize for good conduct in the village school, were to say, "I +am afraid I cannot say who is the best-behaved child, because I really +do not know what good conduct is; but I will gladly take the teacher's +word as to which child has caused least inconvenience," he would +probably be unfrocked, if not excommunicated. And yet no honest and +intellectually capable doctor or parson can say more. Clearly it +would not be wise of the doctor to say it, because optimistic lies +have such immense therapeutic value that a doctor who cannot tell them +convincingly has mistaken his profession. And a clergyman who is not +prepared to lay down the law dogmatically will not be of much use in a +village school, though it behoves him all the more to be very careful +what law he lays down. But unless both the clergyman and the doctor +are in the attitude expressed by these speeches they are not fit for +their work. The man who believes that he has more than a provisional +hypothesis to go upon is a born fool. He may have to act vigorously +on it. The world has no use for the Agnostic who wont believe +anything because anything might be false, and wont deny anything +because anything might be true. But there is a wide difference +between saying, "I believe this; and I am going to act on it," or, "I +dont believe it; and I wont act on it," and saying, "It is true; and +it is my duty and yours to act on it," or, "It is false; and it is my +duty and yours to refuse to act on it." The difference is as great as +that between the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed. When you +repeat the Apostles' Creed you affirm that you believe certain things. +There you are clearly within your rights. When you repeat the +Athanasian Creed, you affirm that certain things are so, and that +anybody who doubts that they are so cannot be saved. And this is +simply a piece of impudence on your part, as you know nothing about it +except that as good men as you have never heard of your creed. The +apostolic attitude is a desire to convert others to our beliefs for +the sake of sympathy and light: the Athanasian attitude is a desire +to murder people who dont agree with us. I am sufficient of an +Athanasian to advocate a law for the speedy execution of all +Athanasians, because they violate the fundamental proposition of my +creed, which is, I repeat, that all living creatures are experiments. +The precise formula for the Superman, _ci-devant_ The Just Man Made +Perfect, has not yet been discovered. Until it is, every birth is an +experiment in the Great Research which is being conducted by the Life +Force to discover that formula. + + + +The Experiment Experimenting + +And now all the modern schoolmaster abortionists will rise up beaming, +and say, "We quite agree. We regard every child in our school as a +subject for experiment. We are always experimenting with them. We +challenge the experimental test for our system. We are continually +guided by our experience in our great work of moulding the character +of our future citizens, etc. etc. etc." I am sorry to seem +irreconcilable; but it is the Life Force that has to make the +experiment and not the schoolmaster; and the Life Force for the +child's purpose is in the child and not in the schoolmaster. The +schoolmaster is another experiment; and a laboratory in which all the +experiments began experimenting on one another would not produce +intelligible results. I admit, however, that if my schoolmasters had +treated me as an experiment of the Life Force: that is, if they had +set me free to do as I liked subject only to my political rights and +theirs, they could not have watched the experiment very long, because +the first result would have been a rapid movement on my part in the +direction of the door, and my disappearance there-through. + +It may be worth inquiring where I should have gone to. I should say +that practically every time I should have gone to a much more +educational place. I should have gone into the country, or into the +sea, or into the National Gallery, or to hear a band if there was one, +or to any library where there were no schoolbooks. I should have read +very dry and difficult books: for example, though nothing would have +induced me to read the budget of stupid party lies that served as a +text-book of history in school, I remember reading Robertson's Charles +V. and his history of Scotland from end to end most laboriously. +Once, stung by the airs of a schoolfellow who alleged that he had read +Locke On The Human Understanding, I attempted to read the Bible +straight through, and actually got to the Pauline Epistles before I +broke down in disgust at what seemed to me their inveterate +crookedness of mind. If there had been a school where children were +really free, I should have had to be driven out of it for the sake of +my health by the teachers; for the children to whom a literary +education can be of any use are insatiable: they will read and study +far more than is good for them. In fact the real difficulty is to +prevent them from wasting their time by reading for the sake of +reading and studying for the sake of studying, instead of taking some +trouble to find out what they really like and are capable of doing +some good at. Some silly person will probably interrupt me here with +the remark that many children have no appetite for a literary +education at all, and would never open a book if they were not forced +to. I have known many such persons who have been forced to the point +of obtaining University degrees. And for all the effect their +literary exercises has left on them they might just as well have been +put on the treadmill. In fact they are actually less literate than +the treadmill would have left them; for they might by chance have +picked up and dipped into a volume of Shakespear or a translation of +Homer if they had not been driven to loathe every famous name in +literature. I should probably know as much Latin as French, if Latin +had not been made the excuse for my school imprisonment and +degradation. + + + +Why We Loathe Learning and Love Sport + +If we are to discuss the importance of art, learning, and intellectual +culture, the first thing we have to recognize is that we have very +little of them at present; and that this little has not been produced +by compulsory education: nay, that the scarcity is unnatural and has +been produced by the violent exclusion of art and artists from +schools. On the other hand we have quite a considerable degree of +bodily culture: indeed there is a continual outcry against the +sacrifice of mental accomplishments to athletics. In other words a +sacrifice of the professed object of compulsory education to the real +object of voluntary education. It is assumed that this means that +people prefer bodily to mental culture; but may it not mean that they +prefer liberty and satisfaction to coercion and privation. Why is it +that people who have been taught Shakespear as a school subject loathe +his plays and cannot by any means be persuaded ever to open his works +after they escape from school, whereas there is still, 300 years after +his death, a wide and steady sale for his works to people who read his +plays as plays, and not as task work? If Shakespear, or for that +matter, Newton and Leibnitz, are allowed to find their readers and +students they will find them. If their works are annotated and +paraphrased by dullards, and the annotations and paraphrases forced on +all young people by imprisonment and flogging and scolding, there will +not be a single man of letters or higher mathematician the more in the +country: on the contrary there will be less, as so many potential +lovers of literature and mathematics will have been incurably +prejudiced against them. Everyone who is conversant with the class in +which child imprisonment and compulsory schooling is carried out to +the final extremity of the university degree knows that its scholastic +culture is a sham; that it knows little about literature or art and a +great deal about point-to-point races; and that the village cobbler, +who has never read a page of Plato, and is admittedly a dangerously +ignorant man politically, is nevertheless a Socrates compared to the +classically educated gentlemen who discuss politics in country houses +at election time (and at no other time) after their day's earnest and +skilful shooting. Think of the years and years of weary torment the +women of the piano-possessing class have been forced to spend over the +keyboard, fingering scales. How many of them could be bribed to +attend a pianoforte recital by a great player, though they will rise +from sick beds rather than miss Ascot or Goodwood? + +Another familiar fact that teaches the same lesson is that many women +who have voluntarily attained a high degree of culture cannot add up +their own housekeeping books, though their education in simple +arithmetic was compulsory, whereas their higher education has been +wholly voluntary. Everywhere we find the same result. The +imprisonment, the beating, the taming and laming, the breaking of +young spirits, the arrest of development, the atrophy of all +inhibitive power except the power of fear, are real: the education is +sham. Those who have been taught most know least. + + + +Antichrist + +Among the worst effects of the unnatural segregation of children in +schools and the equally unnatural constant association of them with +adults in the family is the utter defeat of the vital element in +Christianity. Christ stands in the world for that intuition of the +highest humanity that we, being members one of another, must not +complain, must not scold, must not strike, nor revile nor persecute +nor revenge nor punish. Now family life and school life are, as far +as the moral training of children is concerned, nothing but the +deliberate inculcation of a routine of complaint, scolding, +punishment, persecution, and revenge as the natural and only possible +way of dealing with evil or inconvenience. "Aint nobody to be whopped +for this here?" exclaimed Sam Weller when he saw his employer's name +written up on a stage coach, and conceived the phenomenon as an insult +which reflected on himself. This exclamation of Sam Weller is at once +the negation of Christianity and the beginning and the end of current +morality; and so it will remain as long as the family and the school +persist as we know them: that is, as long as the rights of children +are so utterly denied that nobody will even take the trouble to +ascertain what they are, and coming of age is like the turning of a +convict into the street after twenty-one years penal servitude. +Indeed it is worse; for the convict may have learnt before his +conviction how to live in freedom and may remember how to set about +it, however lamed his powers of freedom may have become through +disuse; but the child knows no other way of life but the slave's way. +Born free, as Rousseau says, he has been laid hands on by slaves from +the moment of his birth and brought up as a slave. How is he, when he +is at last set free, to be anything else than the slave he actually +is, clamoring for war, for the lash, for police, prisons, and +scaffolds in a wild panic of delusion that without these things he is +lost. The grown-up Englishman is to the end of his days a badly +brought-up child, beyond belief quarrelsome, petulant, selfish, +destructive, and cowardly: afraid that the Germans will come and +enslave him; that the burglar will come and rob him; that the bicycle +or motor car will run over him; that the smallpox will attack him; and +that the devil will run away with him and empty him out like a sack of +coals on a blazing fire unless his nurse or his parents or his +schoolmaster or his bishop or his judge or his army or his navy will +do something to frighten these bad things away. And this Englishman, +without the moral courage of a louse, will risk his neck for fun fifty +times every winter in the hunting field, and at Badajos sieges and the +like will ram his head into a hole bristling with sword blades rather +than be beaten in the one department in which he has been brought up +to consult his own honor. As a Sportsman (and war is fundamentally +the sport of hunting and fighting the most dangerous of the beasts of +prey) he feels free. He will tell you himself that the true sportsman +is never a snob, a coward, a duffer, a cheat, a thief, or a liar. +Curious, is it not, that he has not the same confidence in other sorts +of man? + +And even sport is losing its freedom. Soon everybody will be +schooled, mentally and physically, from the cradle to the end of the +term of adult compulsory military service, and finally of compulsory +civil service lasting until the age of superannuation. Always more +schooling, more compulsion. We are to be cured by an excess of the +dose that has poisoned us. Satan is to cast out Satan. + + + +Under the Whip + +Clearly this will not do. We must reconcile education with liberty. +We must find out some means of making men workers and, if need be, +warriors, without making them slaves. We must cultivate the noble +virtues that have their root in pride. Now no schoolmaster will teach +these any more than a prison governor will teach his prisoners how to +mutiny and escape. Self-preservation forces him to break the spirit +that revolts against him, and to inculcate submission, even to obscene +assault, as a duty. A bishop once had the hardihood to say that he +would rather see England free than England sober. Nobody has yet +dared to say that he would rather see an England of ignoramuses than +an England of cowards and slaves. And if anyone did, it would be +necessary to point out that the antithesis is not a practical one, as +we have got at present an England of ignoramuses who are also cowards +and slaves, and extremely proud of it at that, because in school they +are taught to submit, with what they ridiculously call Oriental +fatalism (as if any Oriental has ever submitted more helplessly and +sheepishly to robbery and oppression than we Occidentals do), to be +driven day after day into compounds and set to the tasks they loathe +by the men they hate and fear, as if this were the inevitable destiny +of mankind. And naturally, when they grow up, they helplessly +exchange the prison of the school for the prison of the mine or the +workshop or the office, and drudge along stupidly and miserably, with +just enough gregarious instinct to turn furiously on any intelligent +person who proposes a change. It would be quite easy to make England +a paradise, according to our present ideas, in a few years. There is +no mystery about it: the way has been pointed out over and over +again. The difficulty is not the way but the will. And we have no +will because the first thing done with us in childhood was to break +our will. Can anything be more disgusting than the spectacle of a +nation reading the biography of Gladstone and gloating over the +account of how he was flogged at Eton, two of his schoolfellows being +compelled to hold him down whilst he was flogged. Not long ago a +public body in England had to deal with the case of a schoolmaster +who, conceiving himself insulted by the smoking of a cigaret against +his orders by a pupil eighteen years old, proposed to flog him +publicly as a satisfaction to what he called his honor and authority. +I had intended to give the particulars of this ease, but find the +drudgery of repeating such stuff too sickening, and the effect unjust +to a man who was doing only what others all over the country were +doing as part of the established routine of what is called education. +The astounding part of it was the manner in which the person to whom +this outrage on decency seemed quite proper and natural claimed to be +a functionary of high character, and had his claim allowed. In Japan +he would hardly have been allowed the privilege of committing suicide. +What is to be said of a profession in which such obscenities are made +points of honor, or of institutions in which they are an accepted part +of the daily routine? Wholesome people would not argue about the +taste of such nastinesses: they would spit them out; but we are +tainted with flagellomania from our childhood. When will we realize +that the fact that we can become accustomed to anything, however +disgusting at first, makes it necessary for us to examine carefully +everything we have become accustomed to? Before motor cars became +common, necessity had accustomed us to a foulness in our streets which +would have horrified us had the street been our drawing-room carpet. +Before long we shall be as particular about our streets as we now are +about our carpets; and their condition in the nineteenth century will +become as forgotten and incredible as the condition of the corridors +of palaces and the courts of castles was as late as the eighteenth +century. This foulness, we can plead, was imposed on us as a +necessity by the use of horses and of huge retinues; but flogging has +never been so imposed: it has always been a vice, craved for on any +pretext by those depraved by it. Boys were flogged when criminals +were hanged, to impress the awful warning on them. Boys were flogged +at boundaries, to impress the boundaries on their memory. Other +methods and other punishments were always available: the choice of +this one betrayed the sensual impulse which makes the practice an +abomination. But when its viciousness made it customary, it was +practised and tolerated on all hands by people who were innocent of +anything worse than stupidity, ill temper, and inability to discover +other methods of maintaining order than those they had always seen +practised and approved of. From children and animals it extended to +slaves and criminals. In the days of Moses it was limited to 39 +lashes. In the early nineteenth century it had become an open +madness: soldiers were sentenced to a thousand lashes for trifling +offences, with the result (among others less mentionable) that the +Iron Duke of Wellington complained that it was impossible to get an +order obeyed in the British army except in two or three crack +regiments. Such frantic excesses of this disgusting neurosis provoked +a reaction against it; but the clamor for it by depraved persons never +ceased, and was tolerated by a nation trained to it from childhood in +the schools until last year (1913), when in what must be described as +a paroxysm of sexual excitement provoked by the agitation concerning +the White Slave Traffic (the purely commercial nature of which I was +prevented from exposing on the stage by the Censorship twenty years +ago) the Government yielded to an outcry for flagellation led by the +Archbishop of Canterbury, and passed an Act under which a judge can +sentence a man to be flogged to the utmost extremity with any +instrument usable for such a purpose that he cares to prescribe. Such +an Act is not a legislative phenomenon but a psychopathic one. Its +effect on the White Slave Traffic was, of course, to distract public +attention from its real cause and from the people who really profit by +it to imaginary "foreign scoundrels," and to secure a monopoly of its +organization for women. + +And all this evil is made possible by the schoolmaster with his cane +and birch, by the parents getting rid as best they can of the nuisance +of children making noise and mischief in the house, and by the denial +to children of the elementary rights of human beings. + +The first man who enslaved and "broke in" an animal with a whip would +have invented the explosion engine instead could he have foreseen the +curse he was laying on his race. For men and women learnt thereby to +enslave and break in their children by the same means. These +children, grown up, knew no other methods of training. Finally the +evil that was done for gain by the greedy was refined on and done for +pleasure by the lustful. Flogging has become a pleasure purchasable +in our streets, and inhibition a grown-up habit that children play at. +"Go and see what baby is doing; and tell him he mustnt" is the last +word of the nursery; and the grimmest aspect of it is that it was +first formulated by a comic paper as a capital joke. + + + +Technical Instruction + +Technical instruction tempts to violence (as a short cut) more than +liberal education. The sailor in Mr Rudyard Kipling's Captains +Courageous, teaching the boy the names of the ship's tackle with a +rope's end, does not disgust us as our schoolmasters do, especially as +the boy was a spoiled boy. But an unspoiled boy would not have needed +that drastic medicine. Technical training may be as tedious as +learning to skate or to play the piano or violin; but it is the price +one must pay to achieve certain desirable results or necessary ends. +It is a monstrous thing to force a child to learn Latin or Greek or +mathematics on the ground that they are an indispensable gymnastic for +the mental powers. It would be monstrous even if it were true; for +there is no labor that might not be imposed on a child or an adult on +the same pretext; but as a glance at the average products of our +public school and university education shews that it is not true, it +need not trouble us. But it is a fact that ignorance of Latin and +Greek and mathematics closes certain careers to men (I do not mean +artificial, unnecessary, noxious careers like those of the commercial +schoolmaster). Languages, even dead ones, have their uses; and, as it +seems to many of us, mathematics have their uses. They will always be +learned by people who want to learn them; and people will always want +to learn them as long as they are of any importance in life: indeed +the want will survive their importance: superstition is nowhere +stronger than in the field of obsolete acquirements. And they will +never be learnt fruitfully by people who do not want to learn them +either for their own sake or for use in necessary work. There is no +harder schoolmaster than experience; and yet experience fails to teach +where there is no desire to learn. + +Still, one must not begin to apply this generalization too early. And +this brings me to an important factor in the case: the factor of +evolution. + + + +Docility and Dependence + +If anyone, impressed by my view that the rights of a child are +precisely those of an adult, proceeds to treat a child as if it were +an adult, he (or she) will find that though the plan will work much +better at some points than the usual plan, at others it will not work +at all; and this discovery may provoke him to turn back from the whole +conception of children's rights with a jest at the expense of +bachelors' and old maids' children. In dealing with children what is +needed is not logic but sense. There is no logical reason why young +persons should be allowed greater control of their property the day +after they are twenty-one than the day before it. There is no logical +reason why I, who strongly object to an adult standing over a boy of +ten with a Latin grammar, and saying, "you must learn this, whether +you want to or not," should nevertheless be quite prepared to stand +over a boy of five with the multiplication table or a copy book or a +code of elementary good manners, and practice on his docility to make +him learn them. And there is no logical reason why I should do for a +child a great many little offices, some of them troublesome and +disagreeable, which I should not do for a boy twice its age, or +support a boy or girl when I would unhesitatingly throw an adult on +his own resources. But there are practical reasons, and sensible +reasons, and affectionate reasons for all these illogicalities. +Children do not want to be treated altogether as adults: such +treatment terrifies them and over-burdens them with responsibility. +In truth, very few adults care to be called on for independence and +originality: they also are bewildered and terrified in the absence of +precedents and precepts and commandments; but modern Democracy allows +them a sanctioning and cancelling power if they are capable of using +it, which children are not. To treat a child wholly as an adult would +be to mock and destroy it. Infantile docility and juvenile dependence +are, like death, a product of Natural Selection; and though there is +no viler crime than to abuse them, yet there is no greater cruelty +than to ignore them. I have complained sufficiently of what I +suffered through the process of assault, imprisonment, and compulsory +lessons that taught me nothing, which are called my schooling. But I +could say a good deal also about the things I was not taught and +should have been taught, not to mention the things I was allowed to do +which I should not have been allowed to do. I have no recollection of +being taught to read or write; so I presume I was born with both +faculties; but many people seem to have bitter recollections of being +forced reluctantly to acquire them. And though I have the uttermost +contempt for a teacher so ill mannered and incompetent as to be unable +to make a child learn to read and write without also making it cry, +still I am prepared to admit that I had rather have been compelled to +learn to read and write with tears by an incompetent and ill mannered +person than left in ignorance. Reading, writing, and enough +arithmetic to use money honestly and accurately, together with the +rudiments of law and order, become necessary conditions of a child's +liberty before it can appreciate the importance of its liberty, or +foresee that these accomplishments are worth acquiring. Nature has +provided for this by evolving the instinct of docility. Children are +very docile: they have a sound intuition that they must do what they +are told or perish. And adults have an intuition, equally sound, that +they must take advantage of this docility to teach children how to +live properly or the children will not survive. The difficulty is to +know where to stop. To illustrate this, let us consider the main +danger of childish docility and parental officiousness. + + + +The Abuse of Docility + +Docility may survive as a lazy habit long after it has ceased to be a +beneficial instinct. If you catch a child when it is young enough to +be instinctively docile, and keep it in a condition of unremitted +tutelage under the nurserymaid, the governess, the preparatory school, +the secondary school, and the university, until it is an adult, you +will produce, not a self-reliant, free, fully matured human being, but +a grown-up schoolboy or schoolgirl, capable of nothing in the way of +original or independent action except outbursts of naughtiness in the +women and blackguardism in the men. That is exactly what we get at +present in our rich and consequently governing classes: they pass +from juvenility to senility without ever touching maturity except in +body. The classes which cannot afford this sustained tutelage are +notably more self-reliant and grown-up: an office boy of fifteen is +often more of a man than a university student of twenty. +Unfortunately this precocity is disabled by poverty, ignorance, +narrowness, and a hideous power of living without art or love or +beauty and being rather proud of it. The poor never escape from +servitude: their docility is preserved by their slavery. And so all +become the prey of the greedy, the selfish, the domineering, the +unscrupulous, the predatory. If here and there an individual refuses +to be docile, ten docile persons will beat him or lock him up or shoot +him or hang him at the bidding of his oppressors and their own. The +crux of the whole difficulty about parents, schoolmasters, priests, +absolute monarchs, and despots of every sort, is the tendency to abuse +natural docility. A nation should always be healthily rebellious; but +the king or prime minister has yet to be found who will make trouble +by cultivating that side of the national spirit. A child should begin +to assert itself early, and shift for itself more and more not only in +washing and dressing itself, but in opinions and conduct; yet as +nothing is so exasperating and so unlovable as an uppish child, it is +useless to expect parents and schoolmasters to inculcate this +uppishness. Such unamiable precepts as Always contradict an +authoritative statement, Always return a blow, Never lose a chance of +a good fight, When you are scolded for a mistake ask the person who +scolds you whether he or she supposes you did it on purpose, and +follow the question with a blow or an insult or some other +unmistakable expression of resentment, Remember that the progress of +the world depends on your knowing better than your elders, are just as +important as those of The Sermon on the Mount; but no one has yet seen +them written up in letters of gold in a schoolroom or nursery. The +child is taught to be kind, to be respectful, to be quiet, not to +answer back, to be truthful when its elders want to find out anything +from it, to lie when the truth would shock or hurt its elders, to be +above all things obedient, and to be seen and not heard. Here we have +two sets of precepts, each warranted to spoil a child hopelessly if +the other be omitted. Unfortunately we do not allow fair play between +them. The rebellious, intractable, aggressive, selfish set provoke a +corrective resistance, and do not pretend to high moral or religious +sanctions; and they are never urged by grown-up people on young +people. They are therefore more in danger of neglect or suppression +than the other set, which have all the adults, all the laws, all the +religions on their side. How is the child to be secured its due share +of both bodies of doctrine? + + + +The Schoolboy and the Homeboy + +In practice what happens is that parents notice that boys brought up +at home become mollycoddles, or prigs, or duffers, unable to take care +of themselves. They see that boys should learn to rough it a little +and to mix with children of their own age. This is natural enough. +When you have preached at and punished a boy until he is a moral +cripple, you are as much hampered by him as by a physical cripple; and +as you do not intend to have him on your hands all your life, and are +generally rather impatient for the day when he will earn his own +living and leave you to attend to yourself, you sooner or later begin +to talk to him about the need for self-reliance, learning to think, +and so forth, with the result that your victim, bewildered by your +inconsistency, concludes that there is no use trying to please you, +and falls into an attitude of sulky resentment. Which is an +additional inducement to pack him off to school. + +In school, he finds himself in a dual world, under two dispensations. +There is the world of the boys, where the point of honor is to be +untameable, always ready to fight, ruthless in taking the conceit out +of anyone who ventures to give himself airs of superior knowledge or +taste, and generally to take Lucifer for one's model. And there is +the world of the masters, the world of discipline, submission, +diligence, obedience, and continual and shameless assumption of moral +and intellectual authority. Thus the schoolboy hears both sides, and +is so far better off than the homebred boy who hears only one. But +the two sides are not fairly presented. They are presented as good +and evil, as vice and virtue, as villainy and heroism. The boy feels +mean and cowardly when he obeys, and selfish and rascally when he +disobeys. He looses his moral courage just as he comes to hate books +and languages. In the end, John Ruskin, tied so close to his mother's +apron-string that he did not escape even when he went to Oxford, and +John Stuart Mill, whose father ought to have been prosecuted for +laying his son's childhood waste with lessons, were superior, as +products of training, to our schoolboys. They were very conspicuously +superior in moral courage; and though they did not distinguish +themselves at cricket and football, they had quite as much physical +hardihood as any civilized man needs. But it is to be observed that +Ruskin's parents were wise people who gave John a full share in their +own life, and put up with his presence both at home and abroad when +they must sometimes have been very weary of him; and Mill, as it +happens, was deliberately educated to challenge all the most sacred +institutions of his country. The households they were brought up in +were no more average households than a Montessori school is an average +school. + + + +The Comings of Age of Children + +All this inculcated adult docility, which wrecks every civilization as +it is wrecking ours, is inhuman and unnatural. We must reconsider our +institution of the Coming of Age, which is too late for some purposes, +and too early for others. There should be a series of Coming of Ages +for every individual. The mammals have their first coming of age when +they are weaned; and it is noteworthy that this rather cruel and +selfish operation on the part of the parent has to be performed +resolutely, with claws and teeth; for your little mammal does not want +to be weaned, and yields only to a pretty rough assertion of the right +of the parent to be relieved of the child as soon as the child is old +enough to bear the separation. The same thing occurs with children: +they hang on to the mother's apron-string and the father's coat tails +as long as they can, often baffling those sensitive parents who know +that children should think for themselves and fend for themselves, but +are too kind to throw them on their own resources with the ferocity of +the domestic cat. The child should have its first coming of age when +it is weaned, another when it can talk, another when it can walk, +another when it can dress itself without assistance; and when it can +read, write, count money, and pass an examination in going a simple +errand involving a purchase and a journey by rail or other public +method of locomotion, it should have quite a majority. At present the +children of laborers are soon mobile and able to shift for themselves, +whereas it is possible to find grown-up women in the rich classes who +are actually afraid to take a walk in the streets unattended and +unprotected. It is true that this is a superstition from the time +when a retinue was part of the state of persons of quality, and the +unattended person was supposed to be a common person of no quality, +earning a living; but this has now become so absurd that children and +young women are no longer told why they are forbidden to go about +alone, and have to be persuaded that the streets are dangerous places, +which of course they are; but people who are not educated to live +dangerously have only half a life, and are more likely to die +miserably after all than those who have taken all the common risks of +freedom from their childhood onward as matters of course. + + + +The Conflict of Wills + +The world wags in spite of its schools and its families because both +schools and families are mostly very largely anarchic: parents and +schoolmasters are good-natured or weak or lazy; and children are +docile and affectionate and very shortwinded in their fits of +naughtiness; and so most families slummock along and muddle through +until the children cease to be children. In the few cases when the +parties are energetic and determined, the child is crushed or the +parent is reduced to a cipher, as the case may be. When the opposed +forces are neither of them strong enough to annihilate the other, +there is serious trouble: that is how we get those feuds between +parent and child which recur to our memory so ironically when we hear +people sentimentalizing about natural affection. We even get +tragedies; for there is nothing so tragic to contemplate or so +devastating to suffer as the oppression of will without conscience; +and the whole tendency of our family and school system is to set the +will of the parent and the school despot above conscience as something +that must be deferred to abjectly and absolutely for its own sake. + +The strongest, fiercest force in nature is human will. It is the +highest organization we know of the will that has created the whole +universe. Now all honest civilization, religion, law, and convention +is an attempt to keep this force within beneficent bounds. What +corrupts civilization, religion, law, and convention (and they are at +present pretty nearly as corrupt as they dare) is the constant +attempts made by the wills of individuals and classes to thwart the +wills and enslave the powers of other individuals and classes. The +powers of the parent and the schoolmaster, and of their public +analogues the lawgiver and the judge, become instruments of tyranny in +the hands of those who are too narrow-minded to understand law and +exercise judgment; and in their hands (with us they mostly fall into +such hands) law becomes tyranny. And what is a tyrant? Quite simply +a person who says to another person, young or old, "You shall do as I +tell you; you shall make what I want; you shall profess my creed; you +shall have no will of your own; and your powers shall be at the +disposal of my will." It has come to this at last: that the phrase +"she has a will of her own," or "he has a will of his own" has come to +denote a person of exceptional obstinacy and self-assertion. And even +persons of good natural disposition, if brought up to expect such +deference, are roused to unreasoning fury, and sometimes to the +commission of atrocious crimes, by the slightest challenge to their +authority. Thus a laborer may be dirty, drunken, untruthful, +slothful, untrustworthy in every way without exhausting the indulgence +of the country house. But let him dare to be "disrespectful" and he +is a lost man, though he be the cleanest, soberest, most diligent, +most veracious, most trustworthy man in the county. Dickens's +instinct for detecting social cankers never served him better than +when he shewed us Mrs Heep teaching her son to "be umble," knowing +that if he carried out that precept he might be pretty well anything +else he liked. The maintenance of deference to our wills becomes a +mania which will carry the best of us to any extremity. We will allow +a village of Egyptian fellaheen or Indian tribesmen to live the lowest +life they please among themselves without molestation; but let one of +them slay an Englishman or even strike him on the strongest +provocation, and straightway we go stark mad, burning and destroying, +shooting and shelling, flogging and hanging, if only such survivors as +we may leave are thoroughly cowed in the presence of a man with a +white face. In the committee room of a local council or city +corporation, the humblest employees of the committee find defenders if +they complain of harsh treatment. Gratuities are voted, indulgences +and holidays are pleaded for, delinquencies are excused in the most +sentimental manner provided only the employee, however patent a +hypocrite or incorrigible a slacker, is hat in hand. But let the most +obvious measure of justice be demanded by the secretary of a Trade +Union in terms which omit all expressions of subservience, and it is +with the greatest difficulty that the cooler-headed can defeat angry +motions that the letter be thrown into the waste paper basket and the +committee proceed to the next business. + + + +The Demagogue's Opportunity + +And the employee has in him the same fierce impulse to impose his will +without respect for the will of others. Democracy is in practice +nothing but a device for cajoling from him the vote he refuses to +arbitrary authority. He will not vote for Coriolanus; but when an +experienced demagogue comes along and says, "Sir: _you_ are the +dictator: the voice of the people is the voice of God; and I am only +your very humble servant," he says at once, "All right: tell me what +to dictate," and is presently enslaved more effectually with his own +silly consent than Coriolanus would ever have enslaved him without +asking his leave. And the trick by which the demagogue defeats +Coriolanus is played on him in his turn by _his_ inferiors. +Everywhere we see the cunning succeeding in the world by seeking a +rich or powerful master and practising on his lust for subservience. +The political adventurer who gets into parliament by offering himself +to the poor voter, not as his representative but as his will-less +soulless "delegate," is himself the dupe of a clever wife who +repudiates Votes for Women, knowing well that whilst the man is +master, the man's mistress will rule. Uriah Heep may be a crawling +creature; but his crawling takes him upstairs. + +Thus does the selfishness of the will turn on itself, and obtain by +flattery what it cannot seize by open force. Democracy becomes the +latest trick of tyranny: "womanliness" becomes the latest wile of +prostitution. + +Between parent and child the same conflict wages and the same +destruction of character ensues. Parents set themselves to bend the +will of their children to their own--to break their stubborn spirit, +as they call it--with the ruthlessness of Grand Inquisitors. Cunning, +unscrupulous children learn all the arts of the sneak in circumventing +tyranny: children of better character are cruelly distressed and more +or less lamed for life by it. + + + +Our Quarrelsomeness + +As between adults, we find a general quarrelsomeness which makes +political reform as impossible to most Englishmen as to hogs. Certain +sections of the nation get cured of this disability. University men, +sailors, and politicians are comparatively free from it, because the +communal life of the University, the fact that in a ship a man must +either learn to consider others or else go overboard or into irons, +and the habit of working on committees and ceasing to expect more of +one's own way than is included in the greatest common measure of the +committee, educate the will socially. But no one who has ever had to +guide a committee of ordinary private Englishmen through their first +attempts at collective action, in committee or otherwise, can retain +any illusions as to the appalling effects on our national manners and +character of the organization of the home and the school as petty +tyrannies, and the absence of all teaching of self-respect and +training in self-assertion. Bullied and ordered about, the Englishman +obeys like a sheep, evades like a knave, or tries to murder his +oppressor. Merely criticized or opposed in committee, or invited to +consider anybody's views but his own, he feels personally insulted and +wants to resign or leave the room unless he is apologized to. And his +panic and bewilderment when he sees that the older hands at the work +have no patience with him and do not intend to treat him as +infallible, are pitiable as far as they are anything but ludicrous. +That is what comes of not being taught to consider other people's +wills, and left to submit to them or to over-ride them as if they were +the winds and the weather. Such a state of mind is incompatible not +only with the democratic introduction of high civilization, but with +the comprehension and maintenance of such civilized institutions as +have been introduced by benevolent and intelligent despots and +aristocrats. + + + +We Must Reform Society before we can Reform Ourselves + +When we come to the positive problem of what to do with children if we +are to give up the established plan, we find the difficulties so great +that we begin to understand why so many people who detest the system +and look back with loathing on their own schooldays, must helplessly +send their children to the very schools they themselves were sent to, +because there is no alternative except abandoning the children to +undisciplined vagabondism. Man in society must do as everybody else +does in his class: only fools and romantic novices imagine that +freedom is a mere matter of the readiness of the individual to snap +his fingers at convention. It is true that most of us live in a +condition of quite unnecessary inhibition, wearing ugly and +uncomfortable clothes, making ourselves and other people miserable by +the heathen horrors of mourning, staying away from the theatre because +we cannot afford the stalls and are ashamed to go to the pit, and in +dozens of other ways enslaving ourselves when there are comfortable +alternatives open to us without any real drawbacks. The contemplation +of these petty slaveries, and of the triumphant ease with which +sensible people throw them off, creates an impression that if we only +take Johnson's advice to free our minds from cant, we can achieve +freedom. But if we all freed our minds from cant we should find that +for the most part we should have to go on doing the necessary work of +the world exactly as we did it before until we organized new and free +methods of doing it. Many people believed in secondary co-education +(boys and girls taught together) before schools like Bedales were +founded: indeed the practice was common enough in elementary schools +and in Scotland; but their belief did not help them until Bedales and +St George's were organized; and there are still not nearly enough +co-educational schools in existence to accommodate all the children of +the parents who believe in co-education up to university age, even if +they could always afford the fees of these exceptional schools. It +may be edifying to tell a duke that our public schools are all wrong +in their constitution and methods, or a costermonger that children +should be treated as in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister instead of as they +are treated at the elementary school at the corner of his street; but +what are the duke and the coster to do? Neither of them has any +effective choice in the matter: their children must either go to the +schools that are, or to no school at all. And as the duke thinks with +reason that his son will be a lout or a milksop or a prig if he does +not go to school, and the coster knows that his son will become an +illiterate hooligan if he is left to the streets, there is no real +alternative for either of them. Child life must be socially +organized: no parent, rich or poor, can choose institutions that do +not exist; and the private enterprise of individual school masters +appealing to a group of well-to-do parents, though it may shew what +can be done by enthusiasts with new methods, cannot touch the mass of +our children. For the average parent or child nothing is really +available except the established practice; and this is what makes it +so important that the established practice should be a sound one, and +so useless for clever individuals to disparage it unless they can +organize an alternative practice and make it, too, general. + + + +The Pursuit of Manners + +If you cross-examine the duke and the coster, you will find that they +are not concerned for the scholastic attainments of their children. +Ask the duke whether he could pass the standard examination of +twelve-year-old children in elementary schools, and he will admit, +with an entirely placid smile, that he would almost certainly be +ignominiously plucked. And he is so little ashamed of or +disadvantaged by his condition that he is not prepared to spend an +hour in remedying it. The coster may resent the inquiry instead of +being amused by it; but his answer, if true, will be the same. What +they both want for their children is the communal training, the +apprenticeship to society, the lessons in holding one's own among +people of all sorts with whom one is not, as in the home, on +privileged terms. These can be acquired only by "mixing with the +world," no matter how wicked the world is. No parent cares twopence +whether his children can write Latin hexameters or repeat the dates of +the accession of all the English monarchs since the Conqueror; but all +parents are earnestly anxious about the manners of their children. +Better Claude Duval than Kaspar Hauser. Laborers who are +contemptuously anti-clerical in their opinions will send their +daughters to the convent school because the nuns teach them some sort +of gentleness of speech and behavior. And peers who tell you that our +public schools are rotten through and through, and that our +Universities ought to be razed to the foundations, send their sons to +Eton and Oxford, Harrow and Cambridge, not only because there is +nothing else to be done, but because these places, though they turn +out blackguards and ignoramuses and boobies galore, turn them out with +the habits and manners of the society they belong to. Bad as those +manners are in many respects, they are better than no manners at all. +And no individual or family can possibly teach them. They can be +acquired only by living in an organized community in which they are +traditional. + +Thus we see that there are reasons for the segregation of children +even in families where the great reason: namely, that children are +nuisances to adults, does not press very hardly, as, for instance, in +the houses of the very poor, who can send their children to play in +the streets, or the houses of the very rich, which are so large that +the children's quarters can be kept out of the parents' way like the +servants' quarters. + + + +Not too much Wind on the Heath, Brother + +What, then, is to be done? For the present, unfortunately, little +except propagating the conception of Children's Rights. Only the +achievement of economic equality through Socialism can make it +possible to deal thoroughly with the question from the point of view +of the total interest of the community, which must always consist of +grown-up children. Yet economic equality, like all simple and obvious +arrangements, seems impossible to people brought up as children are +now. Still, something can be done even within class limits. Large +communities of children of the same class are possible today; and +voluntary organization of outdoor life for children has already begun +in Boy Scouting and excursions of one kind or another. The discovery +that anything, even school life, is better for the child than home +life, will become an over-ridden hobby; and we shall presently be told +by our faddists that anything, even camp life, is better than school +life. Some blundering beginnings of this are already perceptible. +There is a movement for making our British children into priggish +little barefooted vagabonds, all talking like that born fool George +Borrow, and supposed to be splendidly healthy because they would die +if they slept in rooms with the windows shut, or perhaps even with a +roof over their heads. Still, this is a fairly healthy folly; and it +may do something to establish Mr Harold Cox's claim of a Right to Roam +as the basis of a much needed law compelling proprietors of land to +provide plenty of gates in their fences, and to leave them unlocked +when there are no growing crops to be damaged nor bulls to be +encountered, instead of, as at present, imprisoning the human race in +dusty or muddy thoroughfares between walls of barbed wire. + +The reaction against vagabondage will come from the children +themselves. For them freedom will not mean the expensive kind of +savagery now called "the simple life." Their natural disgust with the +visions of cockney book fanciers blowing themselves out with "the wind +on the heath, brother," and of anarchists who are either too weak to +understand that men are strong and free in proportion to the social +pressure they can stand and the complexity of the obligations they are +prepared to undertake, or too strong to realize that what is freedom +to them may be terror and bewilderment to others, will drive them back +to the home and the school if these have meanwhile learned the lesson +that children are independent human beings and have rights. + + + +Wanted: a Child's Magna Charta + +Whether we shall presently be discussing a Juvenile Magna Charta or +Declaration of Rights by way of including children in the Constitution +is a question on which I leave others to speculate. But if it could +once be established that a child has an adult's Right of Egress from +uncomfortable places and unpleasant company, and there were children's +lawyers to sue pedagogues and others for assault and imprisonment, +there would be an amazing change in the behavior of schoolmasters, the +quality of school books, and the amenities of school life. That +Consciousness of Consent which, even in its present delusive form, has +enabled Democracy to oust tyrannical systems in spite of all its +vulgarities and stupidities and rancors and ineptitudes and +ignorances, would operate as powerfully among children as it does now +among grown-ups. No doubt the pedagogue would promptly turn +demagogue, and woo his scholars by all the arts of demagogy; but none +of these arts can easily be so dishonorable or mischievous as the art +of caning. And, after all, if larger liberties are attached to the +acquisition of knowledge, and the child finds that it can no more go +to the seaside without a knowledge of the multiplication and pence +tables than it can be an astronomer without mathematics, it will learn +the multiplication table, which is more than it always does at +present, in spite of all the canings and keepings in. + + + +The Pursuit of Learning + +When the Pursuit of Learning comes to mean the pursuit of learning by +the child instead of the pursuit of the child by Learning, cane in +hand, the danger will be precocity of the intellect, which is just as +undesirable as precocity of the emotions. We still have a silly habit +of talking and thinking as if intellect were a mechanical process and +not a passion; and in spite of the German tutors who confess openly +that three out of every five of the young men they coach for +examinations are lamed for life thereby; in spite of Dickens and his +picture of little Paul Dombey dying of lessons, we persist in heaping +on growing children and adolescent youths and maidens tasks Pythagoras +would have declined out of common regard for his own health and common +modesty as to his own capacity. And this overwork is not all the +effect of compulsion; for the average schoolmaster does not compel his +scholars to learn: he only scolds and punishes them if they do not, +which is quite a different thing, the net effect being that the school +prisoners need not learn unless they like. Nay, it is sometimes +remarked that the school dunce--meaning the one who does not +like--often turns out well afterwards, as if idleness were a sign of +ability and character. A much more sensible explanation is that the +so-called dunces are not exhausted before they begin the serious +business of life. It is said that boys will be boys; and one can only +add one wishes they would. Boys really want to be manly, and are +unfortunately encouraged thoughtlessly in this very dangerous and +overstraining aspiration. All the people who have really worked +(Herbert Spencer for instance) warn us against work as earnestly as +some people warn us against drink. When learning is placed on the +voluntary footing of sport, the teacher will find himself saying every +day "Run away and play: you have worked as much as is good for you." +Trying to make children leave school will be like trying to make them +go to bed; and it will be necessary to surprise them with the idea +that teaching is work, and that the teacher is tired and must go play +or rest or eat: possibilities always concealed by that infamous +humbug the current schoolmaster, who achieves a spurious divinity and +a witch doctor's authority by persuading children that he is not +human, just as ladies persuade them that they have no legs. + + + +Children and Game: a Proposal + +Of the many wild absurdities of our existing social order perhaps the +most grotesque is the costly and strictly enforced reservation of +large tracts of country as deer forests and breeding grounds for +pheasants whilst there is so little provision of the kind made for +children. I have more than once thought of trying to introduce the +shooting of children as a sport, as the children would then be +preserved very carefully for ten months in the year, thereby reducing +their death rate far more than the fusillades of the sportsmen during +the other two would raise it. At present the killing of a fox except +by a pack of foxhounds is regarded with horror; but you may and do +kill children in a hundred and fifty ways provided you do not shoot +them or set a pack of dogs on them. It must be admitted that the +foxes have the best of it; and indeed a glance at our pheasants, our +deer, and our children will convince the most sceptical that the +children have decidedly the worst of it. + +This much hope, however, can be extracted from the present state of +things. It is so fantastic, so mad, so apparently impossible, that no +scheme of reform need ever henceforth be discredited on the ground +that it is fantastic or mad or apparently impossible. It is the +sensible schemes, unfortunately, that are hopeless in England. +Therefore I have great hopes that my own views, though fundamentally +sensible, can be made to appear fantastic enough to have a chance. + +First, then, I lay it down as a prime condition of sane society, +obvious as such to anyone but an idiot, that in any decent community, +children should find in every part of their native country, food, +clothing, lodging, instruction, and parental kindness for the asking. +For the matter of that, so should adults; but the two cases differ in +that as these commodities do not grow on the bushes, the adults cannot +have them unless they themselves organize and provide the supply, +whereas the children must have them as if by magic, with nothing to do +but rub the lamp, like Aladdin, and have their needs satisfied. + + + +The Parents' Intolerable Burden + +There is nothing new in this: it is how children have always had and +must always have their needs satisfied. The parent has to play the +part of Aladdin's djinn; and many a parent has sunk beneath the burden +of this service. All the novelty we need is to organize it so that +instead of the individual child fastening like a parasite on its own +particular parents, the whole body of children should be thrown not +only upon the whole body of parents, but upon the celibates and +childless as well, whose present exemption from a full share in the +social burden of children is obviously unjust and unwholesome. Today +it is easy to find a widow who has at great cost to herself in pain, +danger, and disablement, borne six or eight children. In the same +town you will find rich bachelors and old maids, and married couples +with no children or with families voluntarily limited to two or three. +The eight children do not belong to the woman in any real or legal +sense. When she has reared them they pass away from her into the +community as independent persons, marrying strangers, working for +strangers, spending on the community the life that has been built up +at her expense. No more monstrous injustice could be imagined than +that the burden of rearing the children should fall on her alone and +not on the celibates and the selfish as well. + +This is so far recognized that already the child finds, wherever it +goes, a school for it, and somebody to force it into the school; and +more and more these schools are being driven by the mere logic of +facts to provide the children with meals, with boots, with spectacles, +with dentists and doctors. In fact, when the child's parents are +destitute or not to be found, bread, lodging, and clothing are +provided. It is true that they are provided grudgingly and on +conditions infamous enough to draw down abundant fire from Heaven upon +us every day in the shape of crime and disease and vice; but still the +practice of keeping children barely alive at the charge of the +community is established; and there is no need for me to argue about +it. I propose only two extensions of the practice. One is to provide +for all the child's reasonable human wants, on which point, if you +differ from me, I shall take leave to say that you are socially a fool +and personally an inhuman wretch. The other is that these wants +should be supplied in complete freedom from compulsory schooling or +compulsory anything except restraint from crime, though, as they can +be supplied only by social organization, the child must be conscious +of and subject to the conditions of that organization, which may +involve such portions of adult responsibility and duty as a child may +be able to bear according to its age, and which will in any case +prevent it from forming the vagabond and anarchist habit of mind. + +One more exception might be necessary: compulsory freedom. I am sure +that a child should not be imprisoned in a school. I am not so sure +that it should not sometimes be driven out into the open--imprisoned +in the woods and on the mountains, as it were. For there are frowsty +children, just as there are frowsty adults, who dont want freedom. +This morbid result of over-domestication would, let us hope, soon +disappear with its cause. + + + +Mobilization + +Those who see no prospect held out to them by this except a country in +which all the children shall be roaming savages, should consider, +first, whether their condition would be any worse than that of the +little caged savages of today, and second, whether either children or +adults are so apt to run wild that it is necessary to tether them fast +to one neighborhood to prevent a general dissolution of society. My +own observation leads me to believe that we are not half mobilized +enough. True, I cannot deny that we are more mobile than we were. +You will still find in the home counties old men who have never been +to London, and who tell you that they once went to Winchester or St +Albans much as if they had been to the South Pole; but they are not so +common as the clerk who has been to Paris or to Lovely Lucerne, and +who "goes away somewhere" when he has a holiday. His grandfather +never had a holiday, and, if he had, would no more have dreamed of +crossing the Channel than of taking a box at the Opera. But with all +allowance for the Polytechnic excursion and the tourist agency, our +inertia is still appalling. I confess to having once spent nine years +in London without putting my nose outside it; and though this was +better, perhaps, than the restless globe-trotting vagabondage of the +idle rich, wandering from hotel to hotel and never really living +anywhere, yet I should no more have done it if I had been properly +mobilized in my childhood than I should have worn the same suit of +clothes all that time (which, by the way, I very nearly did, my +professional income not having as yet begun to sprout). There are +masses of people who could afford at least a trip to Margate, and a +good many who could afford a trip round the world, who are more +immovable than Aldgate pump. To others, who would move if they knew +how, travelling is surrounded with imaginary difficulties and terrors. +In short, the difficulty is not to fix people, but to root them up. +We keep repeating the silly proverb that a rolling stone gathers no +moss, as if moss were a desirable parasite. What we mean is that a +vagabond does not prosper. Even this is not true, if prosperity means +enjoyment as well as responsibility and money. The real misery of +vagabondage is the misery of having nothing to do and nowhere to go, +the misery of being derelict of God and Man, the misery of the idle, +poor or rich. And this is one of the miseries of unoccupied +childhood. The unoccupied adult, thus afflicted, tries many +distractions which are, to say the least, unsuited to children. But +one of them, the distraction of seeing the world, is innocent and +beneficial. Also it is childish, being a continuation of what nurses +call "taking notice," by which a child becomes experienced. It is +pitiable nowadays to see men and women doing after the age of 45 all +the travelling and sightseeing they should have done before they were +15. Mere wondering and staring at things is an important part of a +child's education: that is why children can be thoroughly mobilized +without making vagabonds of them. A vagabond is at home nowhere +because he wanders: a child should wander because it ought to be at +home everywhere. And if it has its papers and its passports, and gets +what it requires not by begging and pilfering, but from responsible +agents of the community as of right, and with some formal +acknowledgment of the obligations it is incurring and a knowledge of +the fact that these obligations are being recorded: if, further, +certain qualifications are exacted before it is promoted from +permission to go as far as its legs will carry it to using mechanical +aids to locomotion, it can roam without much danger of gypsification. + +Under such circumstances the boy or girl could always run away, and +never be lost; and on no other conditions can a child be free without +being also a homeless outcast. + +Parents could also run away from disagreeable children or drive them +out of doors or even drop their acquaintance, temporarily or +permanently, without inhumanity. Thus both parties would be on their +good behavior, and not, as at present, on their filial or parental +behavior, which, like all unfree behavior, is mostly bad behavior. + +As to what other results might follow, we had better wait and see; for +nobody now alive can imagine what customs and institutions would grow +up in societies of free children. Child laws and child fashions, +child manners and child morals are now not tolerated; but among free +children there would certainly be surprising developments in this +direction. I do not think there would be any danger of free children +behaving as badly as grown-up people do now because they have never +been free. They could hardly behave worse, anyhow. + + + +Children's Rights and Parents' Wrongs + +A very distinguished man once assured a mother of my acquaintance that +she would never know what it meant to be hurt until she was hurt +through her children. Children are extremely cruel without intending +it; and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the reason is that they +do not conceive their elders as having any human feelings. Serve the +elders right, perhaps, for posing as superhuman! The penalty of the +impostor is not that he is found out (he very seldom is) but that he +is taken for what he pretends to be, and treated as such. And to be +treated as anything but what you really are may seem pleasant to the +imagination when the treatment is above your merits; but in actual +experience it is often quite the reverse. When I was a very small +boy, my romantic imagination, stimulated by early doses of fiction, +led me to brag to a still smaller boy so outrageously that he, being a +simple soul, really believed me to be an invincible hero. I cannot +remember whether this pleased me much; but I do remember very +distinctly that one day this admirer of mine, who had a pet goat, +found the animal in the hands of a larger boy than either of us, who +mocked him and refused to restore the animal to his rightful owner. +Whereupon, naturally, he came weeping to me, and demanded that I +should rescue the goat and annihilate the aggressor. My terror was +beyond description: fortunately for me, it imparted such a +ghastliness to my voice and aspect as I under the eye of my poor +little dupe, advanced on the enemy with that hideous extremity of +cowardice which is called the courage of despair, and said "You let go +that goat," that he abandoned his prey and fled, to my unforgettable, +unspeakable relief. I have never since exaggerated my prowess in +bodily combat. + +Now what happened to me in the adventure of the goat happens very +often to parents, and would happen to schoolmasters if the prison door +of the school did not shut out the trials of life. I remember once, +at school, the resident head master was brought down to earth by the +sudden illness of his wife. In the confusion that ensued it became +necessary to leave one of the schoolrooms without a master. I was in +the class that occupied that schoolroom. To have sent us home would +have been to break the fundamental bargain with our parents by which +the school was bound to keep us out of their way for half the day at +all hazards. Therefore an appeal had to be made to our better +feelings: that is, to our common humanity, not to make a noise. But +the head master had never admitted any common humanity with us. We +had been carefully broken in to regard him as a being quite aloof from +and above us: one not subject to error or suffering or death or +illness or mortality. Consequently sympathy was impossible; and if +the unfortunate lady did not perish, it was because, as I now comfort +myself with guessing, she was too much pre-occupied with her own +pains, and possibly making too much noise herself, to be conscious of +the pandemonium downstairs. + +A great deal of the fiendishness of schoolboys and the cruelty of +children to their elders is produced just in this way. Elders cannot +be superhuman beings and suffering fellow-creatures at the same time. +If you pose as a little god, you must pose for better for worse. + + + +How Little We Know About Our Parents + +The relation between parent and child has cruel moments for the parent +even when money is no object, and the material worries are delegated +to servants and school teachers. The child and the parent are +strangers to one another necessarily, because their ages must differ +widely. Read Goethe's autobiography; and note that though he was +happy in his parents and had exceptional powers of observation, +divination, and story-telling, he knew less about his father and +mother than about most of the other people he mentions. I myself was +never on bad terms with my mother: we lived together until I was +forty-two years old, absolutely without the smallest friction of any +kind; yet when her death set me thinking curiously about our +relations, I realized that I knew very little about her. Introduce me +to a strange woman who was a child when I was a child, a girl when I +was a boy, an adolescent when I was an adolescent; and if we take +naturally to one another I will know more of her and she of me at the +end of forty days (I had almost said of forty minutes) than I knew of +my mother at the end of forty years. A contemporary stranger is a +novelty and an enigma, also a possibility; but a mother is like a +broomstick or like the sun in the heavens, it does not matter which as +far as one's knowledge of her is concerned: the broomstick is there +and the sun is there; and whether the child is beaten by it or warmed +and enlightened by it, it accepts it as a fact in nature, and does not +conceive it as having had youth, passions, and weaknesses, or as still +growing, yearning, suffering, and learning. If I meet a widow I may +ask her all about her marriage; but what son ever dreams of asking his +mother about her marriage, or could endure to hear of it without +violently breaking off the old sacred relationship between them, and +ceasing to be her child or anything more to her than the first man in +the street might be? + +Yet though in this sense the child cannot realize its parent's +humanity, the parent can realize the child's; for the parents with +their experience of life have none of the illusions about the child +that the child has about the parents; and the consequence is that the +child can hurt its parents' feelings much more than its parents can +hurt the child's, because the child, even when there has been none of +the deliberate hypocrisy by which children are taken advantage of by +their elders, cannot conceive the parent as a fellow-creature, whilst +the parents know very well that the children are only themselves over +again. The child cannot conceive that its blame or contempt or want +of interest could possibly hurt its parent, and therefore expresses +them all with an indifference which has given rise to the term _enfant +terrible_ (a tragic term in spite of the jests connected with it); +whilst the parent can suffer from such slights and reproaches more +from a child than from anyone else, even when the child is not +beloved, because the child is so unmistakably sincere in them. + + + +Our Abandoned Mothers + +Take a very common instance of this agonizing incompatibility. A +widow brings up her son to manhood. He meets a strange woman, and +goes off with and marries her, leaving his mother desolate. It does +not occur to him that this is at all hard on her: he does it as a +matter of course, and actually expects his mother to receive, on terms +of special affection, the woman for whom she has been abandoned. If +he shewed any sense of what he was doing, any remorse; if he mingled +his tears with hers and asked her not to think too hardly of him +because he had obeyed the inevitable destiny of a man to leave his +father and mother and cleave to his wife, she could give him her +blessing and accept her bereavement with dignity and without reproach. +But the man never dreams of such considerations. To him his mother's +feeling in the matter, when she betrays it, is unreasonable, +ridiculous, and even odious, as shewing a prejudice against his +adorable bride. + +I have taken the widow as an extreme and obvious case; but there are +many husbands and wives who are tired of their consorts, or +disappointed in them, or estranged from them by infidelities; and +these parents, in losing a son or a daughter through marriage, may be +losing everything they care for. No parent's love is as innocent as +the love of a child: the exclusion of all conscious sexual feeling +from it does not exclude the bitterness, jealousy, and despair at loss +which characterize sexual passion: in fact, what is called a pure +love may easily be more selfish and jealous than a carnal one. +Anyhow, it is plain matter of fact that naively selfish people +sometimes try with fierce jealousy to prevent their children marrying. + + + +Family Affection + +Until the family as we know it ceases to exist, nobody will dare to +analyze parental affection as distinguished from that general human +sympathy which has secured to many an orphan fonder care in a +stranger's house than it would have received from its actual parents. +Not even Tolstoy, in The Kreutzer Sonata, has said all that we suspect +about it. When it persists beyond the period at which it ceases to be +necessary to the child's welfare, it is apt to be morbid; and we are +probably wrong to inculcate its deliberate cultivation. The natural +course is for the parents and children to cast off the specific +parental and filial relation when they are no longer necessary to one +another. The child does this readily enough to form fresh ties, +closer and more fascinating. Parents are not always excluded from +such compensations: it happens sometimes that when the children go +out at the door the lover comes in at the window. Indeed it happens +now oftener than it used to, because people remain much longer in the +sexual arena. The cultivated Jewess no longer cuts off her hair at +her marriage. The British matron has discarded her cap and her +conscientious ugliness; and a bishop's wife at fifty has more of the +air of a _femme galante_ than an actress had at thirty-five in her +grandmother's time. But as people marry later, the facts of age and +time still inexorably condemn most parents to comparative solitude +when their children marry. This may be a privation and may be a +relief: probably in healthy circumstances it is no worse than a +salutary change of habit; but even at that it is, for the moment at +least, a wrench. For though parents and children sometimes dislike +one another, there is an experience of succor and a habit of +dependence and expectation formed in infancy which naturally attaches +a child to its parent or to its nurse (a foster parent) in a quite +peculiar way. A benefit to the child may be a burden to the parent; +but people become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the +burdens are attached to them; and to "suffer little children" has +become an affectionate impulse deep in our nature. + +Now there is no such impulse to suffer our sisters and brothers, our +aunts and uncles, much less our cousins. If we could choose our +relatives, we might, by selecting congenial ones, mitigate the +repulsive effect of the obligation to like them and to admit them to +our intimacy. But to have a person imposed on us as a brother merely +because he happens to have the same parents is unbearable when, as may +easily happen, he is the sort of person we should carefully avoid if +he were anyone else's brother. All Europe (except Scotland, which has +clans instead of families) draws the line at second cousins. +Protestantism draws it still closer by making the first cousin a +marriageable stranger; and the only reason for not drawing it at +sisters and brothers is that the institution of the family compels us +to spend our childhood with them, and thus imposes on us a curious +relation in which familiarity destroys romantic charm, and is yet +expected to create a specially warm affection. Such a relation is +dangerously factitious and unnatural; and the practical moral is that +the less said at home about specific family affection the better. +Children, like grown-up people, get on well enough together if they +are not pushed down one another's throats; and grown-up relatives will +get on together in proportion to their separation and their care not +to presume on their blood relationship. We should let children's +feelings take their natural course without prompting. I have seen a +child scolded and called unfeeling because it did not occur to it to +make a theatrical demonstration of affectionate delight when its +mother returned after an absence: a typical example of the way in +which spurious family sentiment is stoked up. We are, after all, +sociable animals; and if we are let alone in the matter of our +affections, and well brought up otherwise, we shall not get on any the +worse with particular people because they happen to be our brothers +and sisters and cousins. The danger lies in assuming that we shall +get on any better. + +The main point to grasp here is that families are not kept together at +present by family feeling but by human feeling. The family cultivates +sympathy and mutual help and consolation as any other form of kindly +association cultivates them; but the addition of a dictated compulsory +affection as an attribute of near kinship is not only unnecessary, but +positively detrimental; and the alleged tendency of modern social +development to break up the family need alarm nobody. We cannot break +up the facts of kinship nor eradicate its natural emotional +consequences. What we can do and ought to do is to set people free to +behave naturally and to change their behavior as circumstances change. +To impose on a citizen of London the family duties of a Highland +cateran in the eighteenth century is as absurd as to compel him to +carry a claymore and target instead of an umbrella. The civilized man +has no special use for cousins; and he may presently find that he has +no special use for brothers and sisters. The parent seems likely to +remain indispensable; but there is no reason why that natural tie +should be made the excuse for unnatural aggravations of it, as +crushing to the parent as they are oppressive to the child. The +mother and father will not always have to shoulder the burthen of +maintenance which should fall on the Atlas shoulders of the fatherland +and motherland. Pending such reforms and emancipations, a shattering +break-up of the parental home must remain one of the normal incidents +of marriage. The parent is left lonely and the child is not. Woe to +the old if they have no impersonal interests, no convictions, no +public causes to advance, no tastes or hobbies! It is well to be a +mother but not to be a mother-in-law; and if men were cut off +artificially from intellectual and public interests as women are, the +father-in-law would be as deplorable a figure in popular tradition as +the mother-in-law. + +It is not to be wondered at that some people hold that blood +relationship should be kept a secret from the persons related, and +that the happiest condition in this respect is that of the foundling +who, if he ever meets his parents or brothers or sisters, passes them +by without knowing them. And for such a view there is this to be +said: that our family system does unquestionably take the natural +bond between members of the same family, which, like all natural +bonds, is not too tight to be borne, and superimposes on it a painful +burden of forced, inculcated, suggested, and altogether unnecessary +affection and responsibility which we should do well to get rid of by +making relatives as independent of one another as possible. + + + +The Fate of the Family + +The difficulty of inducing people to talk sensibly about the family is +the same as that which I pointed out in a previous volume as confusing +discussions of marriage. Marriage is not a single invariable +institution: it changes from civilization to civilization, from +religion to religion, from civil code to civil code, from frontier to +frontier. The family is still more variable, because the number of +persons constituting a family, unlike the number of persons +constituting a marriage, varies from one to twenty: indeed, when a +widower with a family marries a widow with a family, and the two +produce a third family, even that very high number may be surpassed. +And the conditions may vary between opposite extremes: for example, +in a London or Paris slum every child adds to the burden of poverty +and helps to starve the parents and all the other children, whereas in +a settlement of pioneer colonists every child, from the moment it is +big enough to lend a hand to the family industry, is an investment in +which the only danger is that of temporary over-capitalization. Then +there are the variations in family sentiment. Sometimes the family +organization is as frankly political as the organization of an army or +an industry: fathers being no more expected to be sentimental about +their children than colonels about soldiers, or factory owners about +their employees, though the mother may be allowed a little tenderness +if her character is weak. The Roman father was a despot: the Chinese +father is an object of worship: the sentimental modern western father +is often a play-fellow looked to for toys and pocket-money. The +farmer sees his children constantly: the squire sees them only during +the holidays, and not then oftener than he can help: the tram +conductor, when employed by a joint stock company, sometimes never +sees them at all. + +Under such circumstances phrases like The Influence of Home Life, The +Family, The Domestic Hearth, and so on, are no more specific than The +Mammals, or The Man In The Street; and the pious generalizations +founded so glibly on them by our sentimental moralists are unworkable. +When households average twelve persons with the sexes about equally +represented, the results may be fairly good. When they average three +the results may be very bad indeed; and to lump the two together under +the general term The Family is to confuse the question hopelessly. +The modern small family is much too stuffy: children "brought up at +home" in it are unfit for society. But here again circumstances +differ. If the parents live in what is called a garden suburb, where +there is a good deal of social intercourse, and the family, instead of +keeping itself to itself, as the evil old saying is, and glowering at +the neighbors over the blinds of the long street in which nobody knows +his neighbor and everyone wishes to deceive him as to his income and +social importance, is in effect broken up by school life, by +out-of-door habits, and by frank neighborly intercourse through dances +and concerts and theatricals and excursions and the like, families of +four may turn out much less barbarous citizens than families of ten +which attain the Boer ideal of being out of sight of one another's +chimney smoke. + +All one can say is, roughly, that the homelier the home, and the more +familiar the family, the worse for everybody concerned. The family +ideal is a humbug and a nuisance: one might as reasonably talk of the +barrack ideal, or the forecastle ideal, or any other substitution of +the machinery of social organization for the end of it, which must +always be the fullest and most capable life: in short, the most godly +life. And this significant word reminds us that though the popular +conception of heaven includes a Holy Family, it does not attach to +that family the notion of a separate home, or a private nursery or +kitchen or mother-in-law, or anything that constitutes the family as +we know it. Even blood relationship is miraculously abstracted from +it; and the Father is the father of all children, the mother the +mother of all mothers and babies, and the Son the Son of Man and the +Savior of his brothers: one whose chief utterance on the subject of +the conventional family was an invitation to all of us to leave our +families and follow him, and to leave the dead to bury the dead, and +not debauch ourselves at that gloomy festival the family funeral, with +its sequel of hideous mourning and grief which is either affected or +morbid. + + + +Family Mourning + +I do not know how far this detestable custom of mourning is carried in +France; but judging from the appearance of the French people I should +say that a Frenchwoman goes into mourning for her cousins to the +seventeenth degree. The result is that when I cross the Channel I +seem to have reached a country devastated by war or pestilence. It is +really suffering only from the family. Will anyone pretend that +England has not the best of this striking difference? Yet it is such +senseless and unnatural conventions as this that make us so impatient +of what we call family feeling. Even apart from its insufferable +pretensions, the family needs hearty discrediting; for there is hardly +any vulnerable part of it that could not be amputated with advantage. + + + +Art Teaching + +By art teaching I hasten to say that I do not mean giving children +lessons in freehand drawing and perspective. I am simply calling +attention to the fact that fine art is the only teacher except +torture. I have already pointed out that nobody, except under threat +of torture, can read a school book. The reason is that a school book +is not a work of art. Similarly, you cannot listen to a lesson or a +sermon unless the teacher or the preacher is an artist. You cannot +read the Bible if you have no sense of literary art. The reason why +the continental European is, to the Englishman or American, so +surprisingly ignorant of the Bible, is that the authorized English +version is a great work of literary art, and the continental versions +are comparatively artless. To read a dull book; to listen to a +tedious play or prosy sermon or lecture; to stare at uninteresting +pictures or ugly buildings: nothing, short of disease, is more +dreadful than this. The violence done to our souls by it leaves +injuries and produces subtle maladies which have never been properly +studied by psycho-pathologists. Yet we are so inured to it in school, +where practically all the teachers are bores trying to do the work of +artists, and all the books artless, that we acquire a truly frightful +power of enduring boredom. We even acquire the notion that fine art +is lascivious and destructive to the character. In church, in the +House of Commons, at public meetings, we sit solemnly listening to +bores and twaddlers because from the time we could walk or speak we +have been snubbed, scolded, bullied, beaten and imprisoned whenever we +dared to resent being bored or twaddled at, or to express our natural +impatience and derision of bores and twaddlers. And when a man arises +with a soul of sufficient native strength to break the bonds of this +inculcated reverence and to expose and deride and tweak the noses of +our humbugs and panjandrums, like Voltaire or Dickens, we are shocked +and scandalized, even when we cannot help laughing. Worse, we dread +and persecute those who can see and declare the truth, because their +sincerity and insight reflects on our delusion and blindness. We are +all like Nell Gwynne's footman, who defended Nell's reputation with +his fists, not because he believed her to be what he called an honest +woman, but because he objected to be scorned as the footman of one who +was no better than she should be. + +This wretched power of allowing ourselves to be bored may seem to give +the fine arts a chance sometimes. People will sit through a +performance of Beethoven's ninth symphony or of Wagner's Ring just as +they will sit through a dull sermon or a front bench politician saying +nothing for two hours whilst his unfortunate country is perishing +through the delay of its business in Parliament. But their endurance +is very bad for the ninth symphony, because they never hiss when it is +murdered. I have heard an Italian conductor (no longer living) take +the _adagio_ of that symphony at a lively _allegretto_, slowing down +for the warmer major sections into the speed and manner of the +heroine's death song in a Verdi opera; and the listeners, far from +relieving my excruciation by rising with yells of fury and hurling +their programs and opera glasses at the miscreant, behaved just as +they do when Richter conducts it. The mass of imposture that thrives +on this combination of ignorance with despairing endurance is +incalculable. Given a public trained from childhood to stand anything +tedious, and so saturated with school discipline that even with the +doors open and no schoolmasters to stop them they will sit there +helplessly until the end of the concert or opera gives them leave to +go home; and you will have in great capitals hundreds of thousands of +pounds spent every night in the season on professedly artistic +entertainments which have no other effect on fine art than to +exacerbate the hatred in which it is already secretly held in England. + +Fortunately, there are arts that cannot be cut off from the people by +bad performances. We can read books for ourselves; and we can play a +good deal of fine music for ourselves with the help of a pianola. +Nothing stands between us and the actual handwork of the great masters +of painting except distance; and modern photographic methods of +reproduction are in some cases quite and in many nearly as effective +in conveying the artist's message as a modern edition of Shakespear's +plays is in conveying the message that first existed in his +handwriting. The reproduction of great feats of musical execution is +already on the way: the phonograph, for all its wheezing and snarling +and braying, is steadily improving in its manners; and what with this +improvement on the one hand, and on the other that blessed selective +faculty which enables us to ignore a good deal of disagreeable noise +if there is a thread of music in the middle of it (few critics of the +phonograph seem to be conscious of the very considerable mechanical +noise set up by choirs and orchestras) we have at last reached a point +at which, for example, a person living in an English village where the +church music is the only music, and that music is made by a few +well-intentioned ladies with the help of a harmonium, can hear masses +by Palestrina very passably executed, and can thereby be led to the +discovery that Jackson in F and Hymns Ancient and Modern are not +perhaps the last word of beauty and propriety in the praise of God. + +In short, there is a vast body of art now within the reach of +everybody. The difficulty is that this art, which alone can educate +us in grace of body and soul, and which alone can make the history of +the past live for us or the hope of the future shine for us, which +alone can give delicacy and nobility to our crude lusts, which is the +appointed vehicle of inspiration and the method of the communion of +saints, is actually branded as sinful among us because, wherever it +arises, there is resistance to tyranny, breaking of fetters, and the +breath of freedom. The attempt to suppress art is not wholly +successful: we might as well try to suppress oxygen. But it is +carried far enough to inflict on huge numbers of people a most +injurious art starvation, and to corrupt a great deal of the art that +is tolerated. You will find in England plenty of rich families with +little more culture than their dogs and horses. And you will find +poor families, cut off by poverty and town life from the contemplation +of the beauty of the earth, with its dresses of leaves, its scarves of +cloud, and its contours of hill and valley, who would positively be +happier as hogs, so little have they cultivated their humanity by the +only effective instrument of culture: art. The dearth is +artificially maintained even when there are the means of satisfying +it. Story books are forbidden, picture post cards are forbidden, +theatres are forbidden, operas are forbidden, circuses are forbidden, +sweetmeats are forbidden, pretty colors are forbidden, all exactly as +vice is forbidden. The Creator is explicitly prayed to, and +implicitly convicted of indecency every day. An association of vice +and sin with everything that is delightful and of goodness with +everything that is wretched and detestable is set up. All the most +perilous (and glorious) appetites and propensities are at once +inflamed by starvation and uneducated by art. All the wholesome +conditions which art imposes on appetite are waived: instead of +cultivated men and women restrained by a thousand delicacies, repelled +by ugliness, chilled by vulgarity, horrified by coarseness, deeply and +sweetly moved by the graces that art has revealed to them and nursed +in them, we get indiscrimmate rapacity in pursuit of pleasure and a +parade of the grossest stimulations in catering for it. We have a +continual clamor for goodness, beauty, virtue, and sanctity, with such +an appalling inability to recognize it or love it when it arrives that +it is more dangerous to be a great prophet or poet than to promote +twenty companies for swindling simple folk out of their savings. Do +not for a moment suppose that uncultivated people are merely +indifferent to high and noble qualities. They hate them malignantly. +At best, such qualities are like rare and beautiful birds: when they +appear the whole country takes down its guns; but the birds receive +the statuary tribute of having their corpses stuffed. + +And it really all comes from the habit of preventing children from +being troublesome. You are so careful of your boy's morals, knowing +how troublesome they may be, that you keep him away from the Venus of +Milo only to find him in the arms of the scullery maid or someone much +worse. You decide that the Hermes of Praxiteles and Wagner's Tristan +are not suited for young girls; and your daughter marries somebody +appallingly unlike either Hermes or Tristan solely to escape from your +parental protection. You have not stifled a single passion nor +averted a single danger: you have depraved the passions by starving +them, and broken down all the defences which so effectively protect +children brought up in freedom. You have men who imagine themselves +to be ministers of religion openly declaring that when they pass +through the streets they have to keep out in the wheeled traffic to +avoid the temptations of the pavement. You have them organizing hunts +of the women who tempt them--poor creatures whom no artist would touch +without a shudder--and wildly clamoring for more clothes to disguise +and conceal the body, and for the abolition of pictures, statues, +theatres, and pretty colors. And incredible as it seems, these +unhappy lunatics are left at large, unrebuked, even admired and +revered, whilst artists have to struggle for toleration. To them an +undraped human body is the most monstrous, the most blighting, the +most obscene, the most unbearable spectacle in the universe. To an +artist it is, at its best, the most admirable spectacle in nature, +and, at its average, an object of indifference. If every rag of +clothing miraculously dropped from the inhabitants of London at noon +tomorrow (say as a preliminary to the Great Judgment), the artistic +people would not turn a hair; but the artless people would go mad and +call on the mountains to hide them. I submit that this indicates a +thoroughly healthy state on the part of the artists, and a thoroughly +morbid one on the part of the artless. And the healthy state is +attainable in a cold country like ours only by familiarity with the +undraped figure acquired through pictures, statues, and theatrical +representations in which an illusion of natural clotheslessness is +produced and made poetic. + +In short, we all grow up stupid and mad to just the extent to which we +have not been artistically educated; and the fact that this taint of +stupidity and madness has to be tolerated because it is general, and +is even boasted of as characteristically English, makes the situation +all the worse. It is becoming exceedingly grave at present, because +the last ray of art is being cut off from our schools by the +discontinuance of religious education. + + + +The Impossibility of Secular Education + +Now children must be taught some sort of religion. Secular education +is an impossibility. Secular education comes to this: that the only +reason for ceasing to do evil and learning to do well is that if you +do not you will be caned. This is worse than being taught in a church +school that if you become a dissenter you will go to hell; for hell is +presented as the instrument of something eternal, divine, and +inevitable: you cannot evade it the moment the schoolmaster's back is +turned. What confuses this issue and leads even highly intelligent +religious persons to advocate secular education as a means of rescuing +children from the strife of rival proselytizers is the failure to +distinguish between the child's personal subjective need for a +religion and its right to an impartially communicated historical +objective knowledge of all the creeds and Churches. Just as a child, +no matter what its race and color may be, should know that there are +black men and brown men and yellow men, and, no matter what its +political convictions may be, that there are Monarchists and +Republicans and Positivists, Socialists and Unsocialists, so it should +know that there are Christians and Mahometans and Buddhists and +Shintoists and so forth, and that they are on the average just as +honest and well-behaved as its own father. For example, it should not +be told that Allah is a false god set up by the Turks and Arabs, who +will all be damned for taking that liberty; but it should be told that +many English people think so, and that many Turks and Arabs think the +converse about English people. It should be taught that Allah is +simply the name by which God is known to Turks and Arabs, who are just +as eligible for salvation as any Christian. Further, that the +practical reason why a Turkish child should pray in a mosque and an +English child in a church is that as worship is organized in Turkey in +mosques in the name of Mahomet and in England in churches in the name +of Christ, a Turkish child joining the Church of England or an English +child following Mahomet will find that it has no place for its worship +and no organization of its religion within its reach. Any other +teaching of the history and present facts of religion is false +teaching, and is politically extremely dangerous in an empire in which +a huge majority of the fellow subjects of the governing island do not +profess the religion of that island. + +But this objectivity, though intellectually honest, tells the child +only what other people believe. What it should itself believe is +quite another matter. The sort of Rationalism which says to a child +"You must suspend your judgment until you are old enough to choose +your religion" is Rationalism gone mad. The child must have a +conscience and a code of honor (which is the essence of religion) even +if it be only a provisional one, to be revised at its confirmation. +For confirmation is meant to signalize a spiritual coming of age, and +may be a repudiation. Really active souls have many confirmations and +repudiations as their life deepens and their knowledge widens. But +what is to guide the child before its first confirmation? Not mere +orders, because orders must have a sanction of some sort or why should +the child obey them? If, as a Secularist, you refuse to teach any +sanction, you must say "You will be punished if you disobey." "Yes," +says the child to itself, "if I am found out; but wait until your back +is turned and I will do as I like, and lie about it." There can be no +objective punishment for successful fraud; and as no espionage can +cover the whole range of a child's conduct, the upshot is that the +child becomes a liar and schemer with an atrophied conscience. And a +good many of the orders given to it are not obeyed after all. Thus +the Secularist who is not a fool is forced to appeal to the child's +vital impulse towards perfection, to the divine spark; and no +resolution not to call this impulse an impulse of loyalty to the +Fellowship of the Holy Ghost, or obedience to the Will of God, or any +other standard theological term, can alter the fact that the +Secularist has stepped outside Secularism and is educating the child +religiously, even if he insists on repudiating that pious adverb and +substituting the word metaphysically. + + + +Natural Selection as a Religion + +We must make up our minds to it therefore that whatever measures we +may be forced to take to prevent the recruiting sergeants of the +Churches, free or established, from obtaining an exclusive right of +entry to schools, we shall not be able to exclude religion from them. +The most horrible of all religions: that which teaches us to regard +ourselves as the helpless prey of a series of senseless accidents +called Natural Selection, is allowed and even welcomed in so-called +secular schools because it is, in a sense, the negation of all +religion; but for school purposes a religion is a belief which affects +conduct; and no belief affects conduct more radically and often so +disastrously as the belief that the universe is a product of Natural +Selection. What is more, the theory of Natural Selection cannot be +kept out of schools, because many of the natural facts that present +the most plausible appearance of design can be accounted for by +Natural Selection; and it would be so absurd to keep a child in +delusive ignorance of so potent a factor in evolution as to keep it in +ignorance of radiation or capillary attraction. Even if you make a +religion of Natural Selection, and teach the child to regard itself as +the irresponsible prey of its circumstances and appetites (or its +heredity as you will perhaps call them), you will none the less find +that its appetites are stimulated by your encouragement and daunted by +your discouragement; that one of its appetites is an appetite for +perfection; that if you discourage this appetite and encourage the +cruder acquisitive appetites the child will steal and lie and be a +nuisance to you; and that if you encourage its appetite for perfection +and teach it to attach a peculiar sacredness to it and place it before +the other appetites, it will be a much nicer child and you will have a +much easier job, at which point you will, in spite of your +pseudoscientific jargon, find yourself back in the old-fashioned +religious teaching as deep as Dr. Watts and in fact fathoms deeper. + + + +Moral Instruction Leagues + +And now the voices of our Moral Instruction Leagues will be lifted, +asking whether there is any reason why the appetite for perfection +should not be cultivated in rationally scientific terms instead of +being associated with the story of Jonah and the great fish and the +thousand other tales that grow up round religions. Yes: there are +many reasons; and one of them is that children all like the story of +Jonah and the whale (they insist on its being a whale in spite of +demonstrations by Bible smashers without any sense of humor that Jonah +would not have fitted into a whale's gullet--as if the story would be +credible of a whale with an enlarged throat) and that no child on +earth can stand moral instruction books or catechisms or any other +statement of the case for religion in abstract terms. The object of a +moral instruction book is not to be rational, scientific, exact, proof +against controversy, nor even credible: its object is to make +children good; and if it makes them sick instead its place is the +waste-paper basket. + +Take for an illustration the story of Elisha and the bears. To the +authors of the moral instruction books it is in the last degree +reprehensible. It is obviously not true as a record of fact; and the +picture it gives us of the temper of God (which is what interests an +adult reader) is shocking and blasphemous. But it is a capital story +for a child. It interests a child because it is about bears; and it +leaves the child with an impression that children who poke fun at old +gentlemen and make rude remarks about bald heads are not nice +children, which is a highly desirable impression, and just as much as +a child is capable of receiving from the story. When a story is about +God and a child, children take God for granted and criticize the +child. Adults do the opposite, and are thereby led to talk great +nonsense about the bad effect of Bible stories on infants. + +But let no one think that a child or anyone else can learn religion +from a teacher or a book or by any academic process whatever. It is +only by an unfettered access to the whole body of Fine Art: that is, +to the whole body of inspired revelation, that we can build up that +conception of divinity to which all virtue is an aspiration. And to +hope to find this body of art purified from all that is obsolete or +dangerous or fierce or lusty, or to pick and choose what will be good +for any particular child, much less for all children, is the +shallowest of vanities. Such schoolmasterly selection is neither +possible nor desirable. Ignorance of evil is not virtue but +imbecility: admiring it is like giving a prize for honesty to a man +who has not stolen your watch because he did not know you had one. +Virtue chooses good from evil; and without knowledge there can be no +choice. And even this is a dangerous simplification of what actually +occurs. We are not choosing: we are growing. Were you to cut all of +what you call the evil out of a child, it would drop dead. If you try +to stretch it to full human stature when it is ten years old, you will +simply pull it into two pieces and be hanged. And when you try to do +this morally, which is what parents and schoolmasters are doing every +day, you ought to be hanged; and some day, when we take a sensible +view of the matter, you will be; and serve you right. The child does +not stand between a good and a bad angel: what it has to deal with is +a middling angel who, in normal healthy cases, wants to be a good +angel as fast as it can without killing itself in the process, which +is a dangerous one. + +Therefore there is no question of providing the child with a carefully +regulated access to good art. There is no good art, any more than +there is good anything else in the absolute sense. Art that is too +good for the child will either teach it nothing or drive it mad, as +the Bible has driven many people mad who might have kept their sanity +had they been allowed to read much lower forms of literature. The +practical moral is that we must read whatever stories, see whatever +pictures, hear whatever songs and symphonies, go to whatever plays we +like. We shall not like those which have nothing to say to us; and +though everyone has a right to bias our choice, no one has a right to +deprive us of it by keeping us from any work of art or any work of art +from us. + +I may now say without danger of being misunderstood that the popular +English compromise called Cowper Templeism (unsectarian Bible +education) is not so silly as it looks. It is true that the Bible +inculcates half a dozen religions: some of them barbarous; some +cynical and pessimistic; some amoristic and romantic; some sceptical +and challenging; some kindly, simple, and intuitional; some +sophistical and intellectual; none suited to the character and +conditions of western civilization unless it be the Christianity which +was finally suppressed by the Crucifixion, and has never been put into +practice by any State before or since. But the Bible contains the +ancient literature of a very remarkable Oriental race; and the +imposition of this literature, on whatever false pretences, on our +children left them more literate than if they knew no literature at +all, which was the practical alternative. And as our Authorized +Version is a great work of art as well, to know it was better than +knowing no art, which also was the practical alternative. It is at +least not a school book; and it is not a bad story book, horrible as +some of the stories are. Therefore as between the Bible and the blank +represented by secular education, the choice is with the Bible. + + + +The Bible + +But the Bible is not sufficient. The real Bible of modern Europe is +the whole body of great literature in which the inspiration and +revelation of Hebrew Scripture has been continued to the present day. +Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zoroaster is less comforting to the ill and +unhappy than the Psalms; but it is much truer, subtler, and more +edifying. The pleasure we get from the rhetoric of the book of Job +and its tragic picture of a bewildered soul cannot disguise the +ignoble irrelevance of the retort of God with which it closes, or +supply the need of such modern revelations as Shelley's Prometheus or +The Niblung's Ring of Richard Wagner. There is nothing in the Bible +greater in inspiration than Beethoven's ninth symphony; and the power +of modern music to convey that inspiration to a modern man is far +greater than that of Elizabethan English, which is, except for people +steeped in the Bible from childhood like Sir Walter Scott and Ruskin, +a dead language. + +Besides, many who have no ear for literature or for music are +accessible to architecture, to pictures, to statues, to dresses, and +to the arts of the stage. Every device of art should be brought to +bear on the young; so that they may discover some form of it that +delights them naturally; for there will come to all of them that +period between dawning adolescence and full maturity when the +pleasures and emotions of art will have to satisfy cravings which, if +starved or insulted, may become morbid and seek disgraceful +satisfactions, and, if prematurely gratified otherwise than +poetically, may destroy the stamina of the race. And it must be borne +in mind that the most dangerous art for this necessary purpose is the +art that presents itself as religious ecstasy. Young people are ripe +for love long before they are ripe for religion. Only a very foolish +person would substitute the Imitation of Christ for Treasure Island as +a present for a boy or girl, or for Byron's Don Juan as a present for +a swain or lass. Pickwick is the safest saint for us in our nonage. +Flaubert's Temptation of St Anthony is an excellent book for a man of +fifty, perhaps the best within reach as a healthy study of visionary +ecstasy; but for the purposes of a boy of fifteen Ivanhoe and the +Templar make a much better saint and devil. And the boy of fifteen +will find this out for himself if he is allowed to wander in a +well-stocked literary garden, and hear bands and see pictures and +spend his pennies on cinematograph shows. His choice may often be +rather disgusting to his elders when they want him to choose the best +before he is ready for it. The greatest Protestant Manifesto ever +written, as far as I know, is Houston Chamberlain's Foundations of the +Nineteenth Century: everybody capable of it should read it. Probably +the History of Maria Monk is at the opposite extreme of merit (this is +a guess: I have never read it); but it is certain that a boy let +loose in a library would go for Maria Monk and have no use whatever +for Mr Chamberlain. I should probably have read Maria Monk myself if +I had not had the Arabian Nights and their like to occupy me better. +In art, children, like adults, will find their level if they are left +free to find it, and not restricted to what adults think good for +them. Just at present our young people are going mad over ragtimes, +apparently because syncopated rhythms are new to them. If they had +learnt what can be done with syncopation from Beethoven's third +Leonora overture, they would enjoy the ragtimes all the more; but they +would put them in their proper place as amusing vulgarities. + + + +Artist Idolatry + +But there are more dangerous influences than ragtimes waiting for +people brought up in ignorance of fine art. Nothing is more pitiably +ridiculous than the wild worship of artists by those who have never +been seasoned in youth to the enchantments of art. Tenors and prima +donnas, pianists and violinists, actors and actresses enjoy powers of +seduction which in the middle ages would have exposed them to the risk +of being burnt for sorcery. But as they exercise this power by +singing, playing, and acting, no great harm is done except perhaps to +themselves. Far graver are the powers enjoyed by brilliant persons +who are also connoisseurs in art. The influence they can exercise on +young people who have been brought up in the darkness and wretchedness +of a home without art, and in whom a natural bent towards art has +always been baffled and snubbed, is incredible to those who have not +witnessed and understood it. He (or she) who reveals the world of art +to them opens heaven to them. They become satellites, disciples, +worshippers of the apostle. Now the apostle may be a voluptuary +without much conscience. Nature may have given him enough virtue to +suffice in a reasonable environment. But this allowance may not be +enough to defend him against the temptation and demoralization of +finding himself a little god on the strength of what ought to be a +quite ordinary culture. He may find adorers in all directions in our +uncultivated society among people of stronger character than himself, +not one of whom, if they had been artistically educated, would have +had anything to learn from him or regarded him as in any way +extraordinary apart from his actual achievements as an artist. +Tartuffe is not always a priest. Indeed he is not always a rascal: +he is often a weak man absurdly credited with omniscience and +perfection, and taking unfair advantages only because they are offered +to him and he is too weak to refuse. Give everyone his culture, and +no one will offer him more than his due. + +In thus delivering our children from the idolatry of the artist, we +shall not destroy for them the enchantment of art: on the contrary, +we shall teach them to demand art everywhere as a condition attainable +by cultivating the body, mind, and heart. Art, said Morris, is the +expression of pleasure in work. And certainly, when work is made +detestable by slavery, there is no art. It is only when learning is +made a slavery by tyrannical teachers that art becomes loathsome to +the pupil. + + + +"The Machine" + +When we set to work at a Constitution to secure freedom for children, +we had better bear in mind that the children may not be at all obliged +to us for our pains. Rousseau said that men are born free; and this +saying, in its proper bearings, was and is a great and true saying; +yet let it not lead us into the error of supposing that all men long +for freedom and embrace it when it is offered to them. On the +contrary, it has to be forced on them; and even then they will give it +the slip if it is not religiously inculcated and strongly safeguarded. + +Besides, men are born docile, and must in the nature of things remain +so with regard to everything they do not understand. Now political +science and the art of govemment are among the things they do not +understand, and indeed are not at present allowed to understand. They +can be enslaved by a system, as we are at present, because it happens +to be there, and nobody understands it. An intelligently worked +Capitalist system, as Comte saw, would give us all that most of us are +intelligent enough to want. What makes it produce such unspeakably +vile results is that it is an automatic system which is as little +understood by those who profit by it in money as by those who are +starved and degraded by it: our millionaires and statesmen are +manifestly no more "captains of industry" or scientific politicians +than our bookmakers are mathematicians. For some time past a +significant word has been coming into use as a substitute for Destiny, +Fate, and Providence. It is "The Machine": the machine that has no +god in it. Why do governments do nothing in spite of reports of Royal +Commissions that establish the most frightful urgency? Why do our +philanthropic millionaires do nothing, though they are ready to throw +bucketfuls of gold into the streets? The Machine will not let them. +Always the Machine. In short, they dont know how. + +They try to reform Society as an old lady might try to restore a +broken down locomotive by prodding it with a knitting needle. And +this is not at all because they are born fools, but because they have +been educated, not into manhood and freedom, but into blindness and +slavery by their parents and schoolmasters, themselves the victims of +a similar misdirection, and consequently of The Machine. They do not +want liberty. They have not been educated to want it. They choose +slavery and inequality; and all the other evils are automatically +added to them. + +And yet we must have The Machine. It is only in unskilled hands under +ignorant direction that machinery is dangerous. We can no more govern +modern communities without political machinery than we can feed and +clothe them without industrial machinery. Shatter The Machine, and +you get Anarchy. And yet The Machine works so detestably at present +that we have people who advocate Anarchy and call themselves +Anarchists. + + + +The Provocation to Anarchism + +What is valid in Anarchism is that all Governments try to simplify +their task by destroying liberty and glorifying authority in general +and their own deeds in particular. But the difficulty in combining +law and order with free institutions is not a natural one. It is a +matter of inculcation. If people are brought up to be slaves, it is +useless and dangerous to let them loose at the age of twenty-one and +say "Now you are free." No one with the tamed soul and broken spirit +of a slave can be free. It is like saying to a laborer brought up on +a family income of thirteen shillings a week, "Here is one hundred +thousand pounds: now you are wealthy." Nothing can make such a man +really wealthy. Freedom and wealth are difficult and responsible +conditions to which men must be accustomed and socially trained from +birth. A nation that is free at twenty-one is not free at all; just +as a man first enriched at fifty remains poor all his life, even if he +does not curtail it by drinking himself to death in the first wild +ecstasy of being able to swallow as much as he likes for the first +time. You cannot govern men brought up as slaves otherwise than as +slaves are governed. You may pile Bills of Right and Habeas Corpus +Acts on Great Charters; promulgate American Constitutions; burn the +chateaux and guillotine the seigneurs; chop off the heads of kings and +queens and set up Democracy on the ruins of feudalism: the end of it +all for us is that already in the twentieth century there has been as +much brute coercion and savage intolerance, as much flogging and +hanging, as much impudent injustice on the bench and lustful rancor in +the pulpit, as much naive resort to torture, persecution, and +suppression of free speech and freedom of the press, as much war, as +much of the vilest excess of mutilation, rapine, and delirious +indiscriminate slaughter of helpless non-combatants, old and young, as +much prostitution of professional talent, literary and political, in +defence of manifest wrong, as much cowardly sycophancy giving fine +names to all this villainy or pretending that it is "greatly +exaggerated," as we can find any record of from the days when the +advocacy of liberty was a capital offence and Democracy was hardly +thinkable. Democracy exhibits the vanity of Louis XIV, the savagery +of Peter of Russia, the nepotism and provinciality of Napoleon, the +fickleness of Catherine II: in short, all the childishnesses of all +the despots without any of the qualities that enabled the greatest of +them to fascinate and dominate their contemporaries. + +And the flatterers of Democracy are as impudently servile to the +successful, and insolent to common honest folk, as the flatterers of +the monarchs. Democracy in America has led to the withdrawal of +ordinary refined persons from politics; and the same result is coming +in England as fast as we make Democracy as democratic as it is in +America. This is true also of popular religion: it is so horribly +irreligious that nobody with the smallest pretence to culture, or the +least inkling of what the great prophets vainly tried to make the +world understand, will have anything to do with it except for purely +secular reasons. + + + +Imagination + +Before we can clearly understand how baleful is this condition of +intimidation in which we live, it is necessary to clear up the +confusion made by our use of the word imagination to denote two very +different powers of mind. One is the power to imagine things as they +are not: this I call the romantic imagination. The other is the +power to imagine things as they are without actually sensing them; and +this I will call the realistic imagination. Take for example marriage +and war. One man has a vision of perpetual bliss with a domestic +angel at home, and of flashing sabres, thundering guns, victorious +cavalry charges, and routed enemies in the field. That is romantic +imagination; and the mischief it does is incalculable. It begins in +silly and selfish expectations of the impossible, and ends in spiteful +disappointment, sour grievance, cynicism, and misanthropic resistance +to any attempt to better a hopeless world. The wise man knows that +imagination is not only a means of pleasing himself and beguiling +tedious hours with romances and fairy tales and fools' paradises (a +quite defensible and delightful amusement when you know exactly what +you are doing and where fancy ends and facts begin), but also a means +of foreseeing and being prepared for realities as yet unexperienced, +and of testing the possibility and desirability of serious Utopias. +He does not expect his wife to be an angel; nor does he overlook the +facts that war depends on the rousing of all the murderous +blackguardism still latent in mankind; that every victory means a +defeat; that fatigue, hunger, terror, and disease are the raw material +which romancers work up into military glory; and that soldiers for the +most part go to war as children go to school, because they are afraid +not to. They are afraid even to say they are afraid, as such candor +is punishable by death in the military code. + +A very little realistic imagination gives an ambitious person enormous +power over the multitudinous victims of the romantic imagination. For +the romancer not only pleases himself with fictitious glories: he +also terrifies himself with imaginary dangers. He does not even +picture what these dangers are: he conceives the unknown as always +dangerous. When you say to a realist "You must do this" or "You must +not do that," he instantly asks what will happen to him if he does (or +does not, as the case may be). Failing an unromantic convincing +answer, he does just as he pleases unless he can find for himself a +real reason for refraining. In short, though you can intimidate him, +you cannot bluff him. But you can always bluff the romantic person: +indeed his grasp of real considerations is so feeble that you find it +necessary to bluff him even when you have solid considerations to +offer him instead. The campaigns of Napoleon, with their atmosphere +of glory, illustrate this. In the Russian campaign Napoleon's +marshals achieved miracles of bluff, especially Ney, who, with a +handful of men, monstrously outnumbered, repeatedly kept the Russian +troops paralyzed with terror by pure bounce. Napoleon himself, much +more a realist than Ney (that was why he dominated him), would +probably have surrendered; for sometimes the bravest of the brave will +achieve successes never attempted by the cleverest of the clever. +Wellington was a completer realist than Napoleon. It was impossible +to persuade Wellington that he was beaten until he actually was +beaten. He was unbluffable; and if Napoleon had understood the nature +of Wellington's strength instead of returning Wellington's snobbish +contempt for him by an academic contempt for Wellington, he would not +have left the attack at Waterloo to Ney and D'Erlon, who, on that +field, did not know when they were beaten, whereas Wellington knew +precisely when he was not beaten. The unbluffable would have +triumphed anyhow, probably, because Napoleon was an academic soldier, +doing the academic thing (the attack in columns and so forth) with +superlative ability and energy; whilst Wellington was an original +soldier who, instead of outdoing the terrible academic columns with +still more terrible and academic columns, outwitted them with the thin +red line, not of heroes, but, as this uncompromising realist never +hesitated to testify, of the scum of the earth. + + + +Government by Bullies + +These picturesque martial incidents are being reproduced every day in +our ordinary life. We are bluffed by hardy simpletons and headstrong +bounders as the Russians were bluffed by Ney; and our Wellingtons are +threadbound by slave-democracy as Gulliver was threadbound by the +Lilliputians. We are a mass of people living in a submissive routine +to which we have been drilled from our childhood. When you ask us to +take the simplest step outside that routine, we say shyly, "Oh, I +really couldnt," or "Oh, I shouldnt like to," without being able to +point out the smallest harm that could possibly ensue: victims, not +of a rational fear of real dangers, but of pure abstract fear, the +quintessence of cowardice, the very negation of "the fear of God." +Dotted about among us are a few spirits relatively free from this +inculcated paralysis, sometimes because they are half-witted, +sometimes because they are unscrupulously selfish, sometimes because +they are realists as to money and unimaginative as to other things, +sometimes even because they are exceptionally able, but always because +they are not afraid of shadows nor oppressed with nightmares. And we +see these few rising as if by magic into power and affluence, and +forming, with the millionaires who have accidentally gained huge +riches by the occasional windfalls of our commerce, the governing +class. Now nothing is more disastrous than a governing class that +does not know how to govern. And how can this rabble of the casual +products of luck, cunning, and folly, be expected to know how to +govern? The merely lucky ones and the hereditary ones do not owe +their position to their qualifications at all. As to the rest, the +realism which seems their essential qualification often consists not +only in a lack of romantic imagination, which lack is a merit, but of +the realistic, constructive, Utopian imagination, which lack is a +ghastly defect. Freedom from imaginative illusion is therefore no +guarantee whatever of nobility of character: that is why inculcated +submissiveness makes us slaves to people much worse than ourselves, +and why it is so important that submissiveness should no longer be +inculcated. + +And yet as long as you have the compulsory school as we know it, we +shall have submissiveness inculcated. What is more, until the active +hours of child life are organized separately from the active hours of +adult life, so that adults can enjoy the society of children in reason +without being tormented, disturbed, harried, burdened, and hindered in +their work by them as they would be now if there were no compulsory +schools and no children hypnotized into the belief that they must +tamely go to them and be imprisoned and beaten and over-tasked in +them, we shall have schools under one pretext or another; and we shall +have all the evil consequences and all the social hopelessness that +result from turning a nation of potential freemen and freewomen into a +nation of two-legged spoilt spaniels with everything crushed out of +their nature except dread of the whip. Liberty is the breath of life +to nations; and liberty is the one thing that parents, schoolmasters, +and rulers spend their lives in extirpating for the sake of an +immediately quiet and finally disastrous life. + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of A Treatise on Parents and Children + + + + +This text was taken from a printed volume containing the plays +"Misalliance", "The Dark Lady of the Sonnets", "Fanny's First Play", +and the essay "A Treatise on Parents and Children". + +Notes on the editing: Italicized text is delimited with underlines +("_"). Punctuation and spelling retained as in the printed text. +Shaw intentionally spelled many words according to a non-standard +system. For example, "don't" is given as "dont" (without apostrophe), +"Dr." is given as "Dr" (without a period at the end), and +"Shakespeare" is given as "Shakespear" (no "e" at the end). 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