Education and Education

Education and Education ¹

BYDR. G. S. KRISHNAYYA, M.A. (MADRAS),

M.A., PH.D., (COLUMBIA)

No matter what the ideals of a particular people have been, the school has always been looked upon as the maker of citizens. History shows that nations have made their education a training for the attainment of the things they valued most. Athens, prizing beauty, symmetry and harmony, both physical and intellectual, sought through her great teachers to cultivate a love of the true, the good and the beautiful. Rome, exalting law, authority and conquest, instructed her youth in oratory, so that they might advocate the claims of law, and skilled them in war, so that they might introduce the Roman Eagle to the uttermost parts of the earth. The education of Monasticism was other-worldly, because the gaze of its adherents was fixed upon the hereafter. Training in arms, loyal and gallant service to the king and devotion to whatever was noble, brave and courteous, comprised the education of the Age of Chivalry, because these were the highest ideals of that period. And in our time the same thing holds true. England needed patriotic sons, valiant heroes, and dependable representatives to help her with her colonial expansion, commerce and administration, and so her outstanding schools set out to give an education which stressed courage, character and love of country. America, after her first struggle for liberty, shared with other countries of the nineteenth century an eager desire for material success, and therefore, the surest means of obtaining that treasure became the object of close study and effective practice.

INDIA'S NEED

But in India, education has not consciously sought to meet the needs of the times, much less to respond to the ideals of the nation–and therefore her citizens are not found in possession of the many qualities which a progressive people should manifest. Our schools have yet to devise a system of training which will aim at correcting inherent and long-standing defects and draws. If it is true, as we have been told ad nauseam, that Indians do not co-operate with each other, that they lack initiative and practical mindedness, that their critical faculty is never exercised, that a sense of responsibility is conspicuous by its absence, that enterprise, originality and independence are unknown–if they do not possess or exhibit these desirable and essential traits, it is evident that in India, the citizen-making institution has not yet been made to function effectively.

THE FAILURE OF THE SCHOOL

The Indian high school has yet to recognise its responsibility for this larger social control. Even when it gives comprehension, insight and perspective, and helps the student to become conscious of his ideals, it does little to relate them to the business of being good citizens. Unrelated to national thought, unresponsive to national needs, uninterested in home and community, our educational system moves on from one decade to another blessing neither him that gives nor him that receives.

The ‘regular’ work of the school centres around knowledge, and comparatively few opportunities are provided for the practice of desirable ideas and attitudes. Education is usually treated as something stored up in text-books, certified by tradition, guaranteed by teachers, meant to be taken by children willy nilly in uniform fashion, in order that they may become good citizens! Or else, it is regarded as a process which can go on only in class rooms, under the supervision of school masters. But if man is to be considered as a whole, his well-being means the well-being of his body, the well-being of his spirit as well as the well-being of his mind. The curriculum in its almost exclusive attention to one aspect has neglected these others.

This comprehensive work therefore at the present time, cannot be carried out in the classroom, much less can it be left to chance. So long as the purpose of the school is supposed to be the teaching of ‘examinable’ subjects prescribed by the ubiquitous syllabus, so long as the mastery of book information takes the place of the building up of the whole aesthetic, intellectual, moral and physical life, so long must most activities calculated to introduce pupils to a world of broadly varied and significant education, be regarded as ‘extra curricular.’ It is this recognition that the school should seek not only to produce citizens who shall have acquired certain skills and abilities, but somehow to educate them so that they may take into life with them strong character, balanced judgment and robust physique, that has brought into existence, what are usually called ‘extra curricular activities.’

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

From the point of view of the development of attitudes, the ‘life’ of the school as distinguished from its courses of study has very large significance. This principle has long been recognised abroad. Indeed, the emphasis upon school life has probably been the chief factor in the unquestioned contribution of the great secondary schools of England, Eton, Harrow, Rugby and Winchester. Such schools have an advantage over most of our high schools, in that the entire life of their students is under institutional control during the years of schooling. Though this advantage cannot be duplicated in day schools, a great deal can be done to overcome this handicap in some measure through the intelligent development of extra-class-room activities, clubs, societies, games, sports, scouting, dramatic performances, school magazines, excursions, student councils, social service leagues and the like. The most valuable lesson, perhaps, which we may learn from English and American schools is their recognition of the value of the more purely social activities as a means of training youth.

Nor can it be forgotten that the school is the best and most appropriate agency for the promotion and proper regulation of this side of the pupils' life. Thrown together intimately during a large part of their working hours, the pupils most naturally form themselves into groups, and find in extra-class-room activities, wide possibilities for self-expression, self-realization and therefore real education. There is the added advantage of the presence of the teacher's authority which, if extended sympathetically to the social life of the pupils, assures a much better regulation of it than can possibly be secured in any other way. Besides, the social instincts of gregariousness, emulation, and altruism are especially strong during this period. These urges will cause students to form organisations, good or bad in their ultimate effect upon their life and character. And the school cannot escape the responsibility of determining whether the good or the bad effects of this social urge shall prevail.

DESIRABLE RESULTS

Social Efficiency.–The student needs to be able to understand and judge other people and get on with them. Social efficiency is therefore an invaluable aspect of the training for Life. If education is not primarily a matter of lessons and examinations, but of becoming acquainted with, and adjusted to the world of men and affairs, extra-curricular activities have a large part to play in achieving this very desirable educational objective. In the place of the old-time maxims and sermons on good social behaviour, actual practice in right social action is afforded. Unselfish service, co-operation, toleration and true democracy are ideals which are encouraged by being forced to function in actual social situations. The pupil has to exercise them if he is not to lose his place and standing in the different organisations.

Citizenship Training.–There is no better method of training pupils for their rights and responsibilities as citizens. It has been said that "the good citizen is one who has sense enough to judge of public affairs; discernment enough to choose the right officers; self-control enough to accept the decision of the majority; honesty enough to seek the general welfare, rather than his own at the expense of the community; and public spirit enough to face trouble or even danger for the good of the community." Not only do these activities develop the mechanics and devices of government, but they also give opportunities for the development of the true spirit of good citizenship. The pupil learns many civic virtues. He also learns many valuable lessons in the art of ruling and of being ruled. Preparing a student for membership in a democracy by training him in an autocracy or an oligarchy is an incongruity.

Moral Training.–Experience has shown that there is no better way of teaching and applying lessons in ethics than through bringing about the participation of students in extra-curricular activities. Qualities such as justice, honesty, fairplay are put to the test. "Every ounce of moral experience is worth a pound of ethical teaching." Besides, it is necessary that wholesome recreation, within reach of all, should be offered to our pupils under the right kind of supervision and environmental conditions. The inner discipline developed through practice in directing his own affairs will abide with the pupil long after he has ceased to be a school boy.

Proper Use of Leisure.–Too long has the school ignored its responsibility for stimulating interest in avocations. The purpose of education should include the increasing in the pupils of the ability to utilize the common means of enjoyment–music, art, drama, literature and social intercourse, games, picnics, excursions, scouting and other out-of-door pursuits. The problem of adequate and wholesome recreation is solved to a large extent by these activities. Apart from their direct and practical value, they are invaluable for the enlargement and enrichment of personality. ‘Bookworms’ rarely acquire a broad culture.

Development of Leadership.–Another badly neglected duty is the development of leadership. The regular curriculum is incapable of encouraging the qualities which leaders should possess. Every student, who gets the training that is to be obtained through leading his fellows in some school activity, is preparing himself for leading his fellowmen in the social, civic and vocational activities of later life. The least that the school can do to promote leadership is to furnish the necessary opportunities.

CONCLUSION

That the school stands to gain by the introduction of extra-curricular activities and the provision of citizenship-training should be obvious. Participation in the management of the affairs of the school tends to enlist the interest and co-operation of the pupil. This ‘we-feeling’ towards the members of the school–the head-master, the teachers and the fellow pupils–has far-reaching effects. It makes possible and available a public opinion which can enforce conformity to certain accepted and acceptable standards. It makes co-operative effort easy and natural. Self-control and discipline readily become matters of common concern. Such an attitude is an invaluable asset to the school.

Summarising, it may be said that through these activities, intelligently conducted, it is possible to secure the broader social, civic, moral and avocational improvement so essential for a successful well-rounded modern life. The regular work of the school offers comparatively few opportunities for the development of desirable ideals, habits and attitudes. It is therefore necessary that attention be given to nation-building and citizen-making activities outside the curriculum. In countries and schools with well established traditions, many desirable things can be trusted to happen naturally, but in others, such things will largely have to be made to happen. Deliberate and detailed planning will have to take the place of happy blundering. Then and only then will the school have discharged its obligation to this and the succeeding generations, teaching people to practise fairplay, to live co-operatively, to shoulder responsibility, to think clearly and critically, to exercise initiative and independence, to build strong bodies and active minds and to serve their God by serving their fellowmen.

1 A fuller treatment of this subject, and of the ways and means of enabling the school to fulfill the all-important function of educating, will be found in the author's book, Education Out of School–A Handbook of Extra-Curricular Activities, shortly to be issued by the Oxford University Press.