General Principles
If children up to the age of six have been properly handled, it is best that the school authorities should focus upon purely intellectual progress (rather than moral), and should rely upon this to produce the further development of character which is still desirable.
The purpose of the teaching should be partly to satisfy the student’s curiosity and partly to give them the skill required to satisfy their curiosity for themselves. Certain fruitful kinds of curiosity must be stimulated by the teacher, but there must never be discouragement of curiosity, including that curiosity which lies outside the school curriculum. Curiosity should be regarded as laudable, and the boy or girl should be told how to satisfy extracurricular curiosity after school hours, by means of books in the library, for example.
Throughout education, from the first day to the last, there should be a sense of intellectual adventure. The world is full of puzzling things which can be understood by sufficient effort. The chief intellectual qualities that are desirable from this stage onwards are as follows: curiosity, open-mindedness, belief that knowledge is possible though hard work, patience, industry, concentration, and exactness.
Knowledge should occasionally be discussed in relation to its utility, however, there is much knowledge which is valuable on its own account, quite apart from its use. Open-mindedness tends to be more common in youth than in later life, and will always exist where desire for knowledge is genuine. Children should be encouraged to regard every question as open, and to be able to express and test any opinion.
Concentration grows naturally as people get older, however they are unlikely to acquire enough concentration without a long period of intellectual education. Perfect concentration should be 1) intense, 2) prolonged and 3) voluntary. Patience and industry give experience of the rewards of persistence.
Exactness, although important, is often exaggerated from a young age in current educational thought. The risk of emphasising exactness over the other qualities is that it gives rise to boredom which is entirely counter-productive. However, exactness is essential to every kind of excellence and this fact can be made obvious to a child by suitable methods. Russell outlines four principal types of accuracy: (1) muscular accuracy, (2) aesthetic accuracy, (3) factual accuracy, and (4) logical accuracy.
Aesthetic accuracy can be taught very effectively by memorising poems, performing songs and dances, and acting. This makes children sensitive to small differences which is essential to accuracy. Drawing is less good at achieving aesthetic accuracy, since it is likely to be judged by its fidelity to the model, not by aesthetic standards.
Factual accuracy, Russell argues, is of less importance at primary school age, and should not be insisted upon. Multiplication tables are a good example of factual accuracy; however, at some later stage, this form of factual accuracy should develop into logical accuracy, for which Mathematics is the natural vehicle. Rules must be learnt, but at some stage the reasons for them must be made clear; if this is not done, Mathematics has little educative value.
The old view of education was that it is right for it to be dull, with stern authority to induce the average student to persist. Yet if you insist upon teaching a child, he will conclude that he is being asked to do something disagreeable to please you, and he will have a psychological resistance. If, on the contrary, you can first stimulate the child's desire to know, and then, as a favour, give him the knowledge he wants, the whole situation is different. Very much less external discipline is required, and attention is secured without difficulty. The broad principle that the impulse to education should come from the pupil can be continued up to any age. The environment should be such as to stimulate the impulse, and to make boredom and isolation the alternative to learning.
If this is possible, the advantages are immense. The teacher appears as the friend of the pupil, not as his enemy. The child learns faster because he is co-operating. He learns with less fatigue, because there is not the constant strain of bringing back a reluctant and bored attention. And his sense of personal initiative is cultivated instead of being diminished. On account of these advantages it seems worthwhile to assume that the pupil can be led to learn by the force of his own desires, without the exercise of compulsion by the teacher.
The teacher, except in very rare cases, should not be either parent. Teaching is work requiring a special type of skill, which can be learnt, but which most parents have not had the opportunity of learning. The earlier the age of the pupil, the greater the pedagogical skill required. The parent, moreover, is likely to be too eager and too much interested in his child's progress. He will be inordinately pleased by the child's cleverness and exasperated by his stupidity. There are the same reasons for not teaching one's own children as have led medical men not to treat their own families.
The school Curriculum before fourteen
Russell considers the age 14 to be that at which specialisation can begin to occur, that is to say, that knowledge acquired prior to this age should be that knowledge which everyone ought to know. That said, it should be an aim of education to discover, before this age, any special aptitudes amongst boys and girls. For this reason it is essential to learn the bare beginnings of subjects which need not be further pursued by all.
By five years, the child should know how to read and write. Beyond this the child should learn some rudiments of drawing, singing and dancing, and the power to concentrate upon some educational occupation in the middle of a number of other children. Nothing with very severe mental undertaking should be commenced before the age of seven. Multiplication tables should be tackled gradually and carefully; arithmetic naturally requires the mastering of some rather tiresome rules and is useful as a natural introduction to accuracy: the answer is either right or wrong, and never “interesting” or “suggestive”. In this sense arithmetic is important in a way that is quite apart from practical utility.
History and Geography can sensibly be started by five years of age. Care should be taken to maintain in our own minds as the educators, the conception of gradual chequered progress, perpetually hampered by the savagery which we inherit from former times, and yet leading towards mastery of ourselves and our environment through knowledge. The division between races, nations and creeds should be treated as follies, distracting us in the battle against Chaos and Old Night. To this end, macro-history, that is to say, the trajectory of the savage man cowering in the cold, to the present day, is rarely taught in schools, and is of immense value to children. Similarly, military conquerors should not be held up to admiration, rather those who did something to dispel darkness, Buddha, Socrates, Galileo and Newton for example.
Literature should include the learning of good literature by heart, which can have a hugely beneficial effect upon the student’s own prose style, and the appreciation of beauty in language, speech and writing. Learning and acting in plays combines both the study of literature, with aesthetic and physical accuracy, as long as those works are of an extremely high quality, such as those of Shakespeare. The educator should do away with frivolous books written only for children. The best books for children are those which happen to suit them, though written for adults.
Modern languages should be taught by native speakers, and should not involve formal instruction, rather conversation, games, and songs, since children learn languages more effectively in a passive than active way.
Mathematics and Sciences should only be begun around the age of 12. This is quite apart from Arithmetic, which should already have been taught by this age. What Russell refers to as Science entails formal teaching - gemoetry, algebra, Physics and Chemistry, which require abstract thinking and for which ability varies greatly. A talent for Mathematics is exceedingly rare, and should only be pursued to the point at which it becomes clear whether a boy or girl has any aptitude for it.
Education in outdoor things should continue through all school years, not just including games, but also knowledge of agricultural processes, familiarity with animals and plants, gardening and so on.Children should know which way the sun goes round, in which direction the wind is blowing and other such primitive and fundamental natural observations.
Last School Years
If specialisation does not occur by the time of the last years of school, that is to say, where there is no definite preference, it will be better to prolong an all-round education. Pupils of above average intelligence should be allowed to specialise earlier whereas pupils of less than average intelligence should not specialise at all.
Russell divides subjects into three broad categories: (1) Classic, (2) Mathematics and Science and (3) Modern Humanities. Subjects of great utilitarian importance should be taught to everybody and these include Physiology and Anatomy and Hygiene, although the child will already have a grounding in these subjects from primary education. Beyond this, every student should understand something about Parliament and the constitution to protect against political propaganda.
More important than the curriculum itself are the methods and spirit of teaching. And in this the main problem is to make the work interesting without making it too easy. Exact and detailed study should be supplemented by books and lectures on general aspects of the studies concerned. Before sitting down to a Greek play, one could have the students read a translation, by Gilbert Murray or some other translator with a poetic gift. Mathematics should be diversified by an occasional lecture on the history of mathematical discovery, and on the influence of this or that piece of mathematics upon science and daily life, with hints of the delightful things to be found in higher mathematics. The school work must seem important to the pupils, and if it does, they will work hard, especially with good teaching and the elimination of fear.
All through education, initiative should come from the pupil as far as possible with intellectual adventure being at the heart of any pedagogical system. A considerable part of the working day should be set apart for voluntary self-directed study, but the pupil should write an account of what he or she is studying, with an abstract of any information acquired. In addition to regular work, boys and girls ought to be encouraged to take an interest in current controversial questions of importance, political, social, and even theological. They should be encouraged to read all sides in such controversies, not only the orthodox side. If any of them have strong feelings on one side or the other, they should be told how to find out facts which support their view, and should be set to debate with those who hold the opposite view.
Education in these later years should continue to build strength in character, especially where living objectively rather than subjectively is concerned. The habit of living in fancies is normal and right in early childhood, because young children have an impotence which is not pathological. But as adult life approaches, there must be a more and more vivid realisation that dreams are only valuable in so far as they can be translated, sooner or later, into fact. Dangerous myths such as one’s own school is the best in the world, one’s country is always right and always victorious and so on are undesirable and can promote laziness and weakness. Fear should be replaced by rational prevision of misfortune. Intellectual controversy is to be cherished in these years as a path to virtue, along with the correct training of passions and instincts. Russell considers this to be in essence the core of the scientific spirit, which in the first place wishes to find out the truth. This requires a preliminary uncertainty and a subsequent decision according to the evidence.
Day Schools and Boarding Schools
The decision of whether to send a boy or girl to a day or boarding school depends a great deal on their individual circumstance and the temperament of the child in question. Considerations of health come first and foremost. One should consider who is more likely to identify a health problem out of an experienced matron and busy parents. Furthermore, Russell argues highly in favour of country life over city life, with urban children suffering from pollution, higher levels of stress and anxiety and isolation from natural processes.
On the other hand, a boarding school can isolate a child from the reality of society in a detrimental fashion. Furthermore, children (especially boys) who differ from the average in their opinions and tastes are likely to suffer seriously at a boarding school, particularly around the age of 12 which is when boys are at a notoriously barbarous and insensitive stage of life, therefore a boarding school would not be appropriate for a sensitive child of exceptional ability; and in some cases, it may be better to not go to school at all. Of course, a good school is better than a bad home, and a good home is better than a bad school. But where both are good, and putting aside financial considerations, each case must be decided on its merits.
The University
Russell’s focus in this work is on the early years of education and so he does not go into great depth on the topic of university. However two most salient points can be noted from this chapter:
The function of the university is twofold: on the one hand, to train men and women for certain professions; on the other hand, to pursue learning and research without regard to immediate utility. Research is at least as important as education since new knowledge is the chief cause of progress, and without it the world would soon become stationary.
Russell argues against university education for the entire population, being largely in favour of early specialisation. University education, he argues, should be the preserve of those who have an exceptional ability in their field study, and is not suited to everyone. Those who do not work whilst attending university, he argues, should not be allowed to continue there.
Conclusion
Knowledge wielded by love is what the educator needs, and what his pupils should acquire. In earlier years, love towards the pupils is the most important kind; in later years, love of the knowledge imparted becomes increasingly necessary. The important knowledge at first is knowledge of physiology, hygiene, and psychology. It is in this early period that we can most hopefully attempt to form character. The crude material of instinct is, in most respects, equally capable of leading to desirable and to undesirable actions. In former times, punishment and fear were the great incentives to what was called virtue. We now know that repression is a bad method, both because it is never really successful, and because it produces mental disorders. By creating the right habits and the right skill, we cause the child's instincts themselves to prompt desirable actions.
The wonderful outcomes that arise from good education include health, freedom, happiness, kindness, and intelligence, but none of this can come about without love. Lack of love prevents knowledge from being applied. Elimination of fear in early childhood is essential to this. Knowledge, Russell argues, is the liberator from the empire of natural forces and destructive passions, and without which, the world of our hopes cannot be built.