[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
very possibility of difference ceases to be accepted. Now the ideas
excluded under our system of universal compulsory State instruction are
necessarily those the absence of which produce the "Modern Mind" as readily
as the absence of certain elements in food scrofula.
Here is an example: the attitude of the "Modern Mind" to illiteracy. The
chief subjects of elementary instruction are reading and writing. Therefore
a weakness or incapacity in these two departments becomes the test of
inferiority. One nation may build, sing, paint, fight, better than another;
but if it has a larger proportion unable to read, it is branded as the
lesser of the two. A Spaniard of Estremadura may carve stone images as
living as those of the thirteenth century, but if he cannot read, the
"Modern Mind" puts him far below the loafer picking out racing tips in his
paper. In the same connection we all know how the restriction of writing to
a comparatively small class in the past is put forward as an example of our
progress. That writing was then an art, that its materials were expensive,
that to draw up a letter in, say, the eleventh century needed as much
special training and expense as it does today to engrave a brass tablet--
all that is missed. The "Modern Mind" notes that there was less writing,
and is satisfied that such a lack was inexcusable.
And here let us note in passing a practical effect of Universal Compulsory
Instruction which is at first not logically apparent but the reason of
which can be discovered; I mean its fostering of that illusion of
"Progress" which is so intimate a part of the "Modern Mind." The elementary
school does, in practice, make the less intelligent believe that they are
better than their fathers and better off as well; materially in advance of
them and morally in advance of them. It might be thought that this folly of
vain glory was but an accident of our time. The stupid opinion of our time
is all for "Progress" as an inevitable succession from worse to better--
Wednesday better than Tuesday, and Tuesday, than Monday. This illusion,
bred of Pride and Ignorance, appears (it may be said) in our official
instruction, because it happens to be the fashion. Let the mood change, let
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
SURVIVALS AND NEW ARRIVALS 83
some succession of catastrophes awaken in men a sense of decline, and
vulgar opinion will renounce the illusion of Progress, will praise the past
at the expense of the present, and the new mood will reflect itself in all
institutions, including that of the educational bureau.
This is an error. Compulsory Universal Instruction will always make for the
illusion of Progress, because it must justify itself by affirming
improvement. It would stultify itself if it did not regard itself as a
progressive good, and a proof of continued advance from a time in which it
was unknown.
Universal Compulsory Instruction contains also on its compulsory side, as
well as in the matter of its universality, a force making for the creation
of the "Modern Mind." Compulsion, long continued, breeds acceptance; and
the acceptance without question of such authority as it meets--especially
that of print--"blind faith" we have said, "divorced from reason" is a very
mark of the "Modern Mind."
This atmosphere of compulsion pervades the whole affair. It is not the
presence of compulsion affirmed in the laws (upon which Elementary State
Instruction is based today) which counts here, it is the daily practice of
it by millions--by all. The Parent does not choose his child's instructor
nor the nature of his teaching, both are imposed by the Civil Authority.
The child goes daily to and from that institution, has its whole life
colored by it, knows that its attendance is not an order of its parents but
a public command enforced by the Police.
All teaching is dogmatic. Dogma, indeed, means only "a thing taught," and
teaching not dogmatic would cease to be teaching and would become
discussion and doubt. But this new sort of teaching by force has an added
effect, beyond that found in any other kind of teaching. It is at once
teaching and law, and those subjected to it are inoculated from its
earliest years with a paralysis in the faculty of distinction--of clarity
in thought through analysis. Look around you and note the incapacity for
strict argument, the impatience with exact definition, the aversion to
controversy (mother of all truth) and the facility in mere affirmation.
Herein lies their root.
The second great new instrument nourishing the "Modern Mind" is the popular
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]