British education [antikvár]

BRITISH EDUCATION i. THE VARIETY OF FREEDOM hoever essays to describe " British Education " in less than a large volume faces an almost impossible task. The very title demands elucidation, lest it suggest that there is a single form or method of education which can be labelled " British ", and be as readily recognised as the Union Jack. There is no such thing. There are a score of forms and methods each with an equal claim to be called British. And none of them is static ; they are all changing all the time. Yet the title " British Education " is not inaccurate. If a bird's-eye view be taken of the whole of education in Great Britain and comparison made with education in, say, the United States of America or the Soviet Union, it is immediately apparent that " British " education is something not only distinctive but definitely homogeneous. How is this paradox to be explained ? First and foremost, by saying that it reflects accurately the diversity which makes up the unity of the peoples of Britain. The homogeneity of British education as a whole mirrors that undeniable unity of purpose, outlook and interests which makes and keeps the British one people, despite all their differences of race and nationality, and all their religious, political, economic and social stratifications. Its diversity derives in part from those differences, but—again paradoxically— more from attributes common to all the British : notably their passion for the democratic freedoms, their universal spirit of good-natured tolerance, and their equally universal individualism. What characteristics make up this homogeneity ? I should say there are seven main ones. First, the professional freedom of the teacher. The British teacher is master in his own domain ; no outside authority dictates or attempts to dictate to him what or how he shall teach. Second, the autonomy of the individual school (or other educational institution). To every British school belongs the right to organise and conduct its corporate life in its own way. Third, the use of the school as an instrument for the training of character as well as of intellect. Fourth, the comradely relationship between staff and pupils in every kind of educational establishment. Fifth, a somewhat undue reliance (today widely and severely criticised) upon academic instruction in a limited number of subjects, and consequently an undue attachment to formal examinations. Sixth (a corrective of this last), great emphasis upon the development, outside the curriculum, but as an integral part of school life, of informal, semi-educational, semi-recreative 7