Are Scotland's School Problems Ours?

Irish Jesuit Province

Are Scotland's School Problems Ours?Secondary Education: A Report of the Advisory Council on Education in ScotlandReview by: P. C. BarryThe Irish Monthly, Vol. 77, No. 915 (Sep., 1949), pp. 400-406Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20516043 .

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ARE SCOTLAND'S SCHOOL PROBLEMS OURS ?

By P. C. BARRY, S.J.

W x tE are shortly to have a Council for Education in Ireland.

In Scotland such a Council has existed for some time, and it

has issued many interesting documents on educational problems. One such document is its " Report on Secondary Educa tion in Scotland", which, although issued two years ago, is still

timely, and will well repay reading.* It is a volume of approxi mately 200 pages, coverng the whole field of secondary education and

written with a clarity and freshness of style which we scarcely asso

ciate with the work of official commissions. We have no intention here of trying to summarize all its conclusions, much less of trying to assess them critically. We merely wish, first of all, to call atten

lion to the existence of this document and to induce others to peruse it, and secondly, to note a few of the things in it which may be of

particular interest to Irish educationalists.

WHY TEACH CLASSICS AND MAThEMATICS?

Amongst the most interesting sections of the Report are those which discuss the aim and value of teaching the Classics and theoretical Mathematics in the Secondary School. What benefits exactly do pupils derive from the many hours spent translating Eng lish indirect speech into Latin accusatives and infinitives, reading

Qesar's "De Bello Gallico " and Cicero's "De Senectute ", solvina

quadratic equations and demonstrating over again the truth of certain conclusions at which Euclid arrived some two thousand years ago? It is clear that the actual knowledge acquired from these exercises is of little practical utlity in after-life. When these pupils leave school they do not carry on their correspondence with their friends in Ciceronian Latin, and in many cases their mathematical endeavours are limited to long tots and simple multiplication and division. The time given to Classics and Mathematics in the school is, therefore, as a rule justi

*Secondary Education: A Report of the Advisory Council on Education in Scotland. H.M. Stationery Office, 1947, price 3/-.

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SCHOOL PROBLEMS

fied, not on the ground of practical utility, but largely on account

of the unique value of these subjects as "mental disciplines ". Just as the physical exercise of football develops the muscles of the body and the skill and strength thus acquired stands us in good stead in

other spheres of life, so, it is claimed, the mental exercise involved in the study of Latin and Greek and Mathematics develops the powers of the mind and the mental skill so attained is serviceable to us in

can be " transferred " to-other fields of study and even to the world

of affairs. In examining the case for and against Classical and Mathe

matical education this doctrine of the " transfer of training" is a

most important issue. If it is a sound doctrine, Classics and theoretical

Mathematics have a very strong claim in the schools. If it is not

sound, then how justify the amount of time devoted to them?

On this question of the transfer of training, the Scottish Report

makes its own the conclusion of the Spens Report* of a few years

before. " We accept the finding of that Report and of almost all

expert educational opinion that in its familiar form the doctrine (of

transfer of training) remains quite unproved. . . . There is no evidence

that one learns to write English best by reading or writing Latin or

that logical qualities characteristic of mathematical thinking will necessarily transfer themselves and become operative in other spheres of life." The success of Oxford classical scholars and of Cambridge

mathematicians in industry and in the world of affairs has often been

brought forward as a proof of the educational value of these subjects,

but a simpler explanation presents itself. " The immense prestige

of these ancient disciplines has continued to draw to them a very

large proportion of the nation's best brains, and it is fairly obvious

that the admitted success of these men, the grasp, initiative and versa

tility they have shown, may well be attributable not to any esoteric virtues inhering in classical and mathematical training alone, but to their unusually fine natural endowment."

The case for transfer of training is then unproved. But the Council does not entirely deny the possibility. " We do not suggest that in

no circumstances can the effects of training be transferred. Human activity divides itself into certain great fields, and skills or habits of

mind acquired in one part of a field may be transferred to another

*Report of the Consultative Committee on Secondary Education with Special Reference to Grammar Schools and Technical High Schools. H.M. Stationery Office. 1938. Drice 316.

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IRISH MONTHLY

part of the same field, especially if the person concerned is conscious of the common usable elements in the two activities." Thus, for instance, within the field of language-learing transfer may take place: "the study of Latin will aid the study of French, because many French words are derived from Latin words and because many

of the methods used in learning Latin will also be required in learning French." The situation is summed up in a quotation from the Spens Report: "'Transfer of training appears, to put it cautiously, to be much less certain and of much narrower spread than once was

believed." The conclusion from all this is obvious: subjects which cannot

justify their place on the curriculum by the intrinsic worth of their content should not win an entree on the strength of a supposed train ing value. What then of the Classics? The Council accepts as indisputable

the claim " that what Greece and Rome have given to modern civiliza tion is unique and irreplaceable ", and desires "to see a due proportion of our ablest minds turing as they have always done to the classical disciplines." It deplores the extinction of Greek in so many schools that in their day produced fine classical scholars. It concedes to a

classical education carried to university level many of the merits claimed for it, and has no doubts as to the great value of such a

traig for minds of high quality. But this is not where the difficulty lies. The real problem regarding the Classics for the modern educa tionalist is " not how to justify the teaching of the Classics to the

gifted few, but how to defend the inclusion of Latin in the curriculum of the many ordinary boys and girls who will go but a little way and that with difficulty." " Are we justified in devoting to the study of a classical language a fifth of all the time ordinary secondary pupils have available for bookish subjects?" It is a problem which any one who has ever taught Latin to less gifted pupils must, surely, have pondered.

The arguments brought forward by some of the more ardent classicists to justify the present programmes do not convince the Council. They have rested the case for Latin on its value as a formal mental discipline, "'clinging to a doctrine of transfer of training which no longer commends itself to the dispassionate investigator ". They have made claims for Latin as a help to the

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study of English "which are so grossly overstated as to be self discrediting" . "They have catalogued the indisputable rewards of finished classical scholarship and then calmly attached them to that halting and truncated study of Latin with which the schools are all too famliar." The answer is not as easy as all that. The Council

feels " that the case against the widespread teaching of Latin is for

midable and merits a more fundamental reply than is usually forth

coming." If the doctrine of the transfer of training is unproved and the

help Latin affords to the study of English and other languages is fairly

limited, the claims of Latin will have to be established on its intrinsic

worth. The whole problem, therefore, boils down to two questions. "Can we, with a period a day for four years, give pupils of good

average parts a real contact with and interest in Latin literature and

some understanding of classical history and civilization? Are these fruits of Latin study not merely benefits but benefits as least as great as any that could accrue to young people, were the time given to

Latin used in other ways? " Unless we can answer both these ques

tions in the affirmative, the position of Latin in Secondary Schools is very precarious.

A SUGGESTED REFORM

The Council is under no illusions regarding the actual position n Scotland. "No such affirmative answers could honestly be given in support of the kind of Latin course boys and girls are foHowing in

most Scottish schools to-day." However, hope must not be abandoned; something can be done. "If we do not yet despair of Latin for

ordinary boys and girls, it is because we believe that the present dreary programme can be radically changed and that the time is ripe for

doing so." The following suggestions are then made: (1) The study of Latin should normally be confined to the A and B pupils,* the

best third of the school, the reason for this limitation being "not that Latin is wholly worthless for pupils below this level, but simply that there are more valuable ways of using their time ". (2) From

the second year onwards radical alteration is recommended. The aim of the course should now be twofold: "to give the maximum

*The Report divides pupils into five grades, according to ability: A. B. C. D. E.

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IRISH MONTHLY

ability to read and understand Latin, and to present a simple but

connected account of the main course of Greek and Roman history, with some appreciation of what classical civilization achieved and of our debt to it ". (3) In a programme with this aim systematic written

composition, turning sentences or continuous prose into Latin, should be drastically cut down, if not wholly eliminated. The Council believes that the time now devoted to this is ill-spent and yields no sufficient return. (4) Regarding translation from Latin to English, classical teachers are asked to take thought as to how they can ease the burden of the inherent difficulty of the process and increase the pace of reading in Latin. Providing suitable reading material-of moderate difficulty and high intrinsic interest-is admitted to be a problem, but a problem " which has been aggravated by the prim narrowness

of our canon and by a ridiculous preoccupation with prose composi tion ". Why confine our pupils to C(esar, Cicero, and Virgil? "There is a world of material inviting judicious selection (and, if need be, simplification) in Pliny and Seneca, Ovid and Martial, in the Fathers and the Latin Vulgate, in the Hymns, the Chronicles, and Erasmus."

(5) There should be regular teaching of Greek and Roman history, and discussion 'of classical topics in class. (6) Reading in the original should be supplemented by wide and wisely directed study of the

Classics in English. Finally, the Council does not profess that the scheme it outlines

will meet with perfect success. But it does claim that " it could not

fail so dismally as the present system does with the thousands of

boys and girls who devote four or five years to the almost unrelieved

linguistic study of Latin " and then leave school " with virtually no

knowledge of Roman history or life, bored with the endless round

of proses and unseens and determined never to open a Latin book

again." It should be noted, too, that all that has been said is apropos of pupils of ordinary ability. On the training appropriate for those

who have greater gifts and intend to carry classical studies to a high

level, the Council does not feel it necessary to speak at length. " As

in other subjects, the traditional way suits them much better than

their less gifted fellows ", though even in their case, " the present classical course is open to the double objection that it neglects ancient history and much overdoes the practice of prose com

position."

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SCHOOL PROBLEMS

So much for the Classics. As regards Mathematics, we do not propose to enter into any details here. The Council's conclusions are in accord with their views on transfer of training. The principal complaints are that Mathematics as taught at present are too formal and academic, too divorced from practice, too preoccupied with "the inner ordering of mathematical truth as against the application of it to the real world." Consequently, there is agreement that school

Mathematics in Scotland need an overhaul. Special provision for the weak C, D and E pupils is called for. " Little Mathematics can

be required of these pupils beyond simple, everyday arithmetic, easy mensuration, and the veriest elements of graphical work-with the immediate usefulness of what is being done evident at all times."

THE TEACHING oF ENGLISH

The Classics and Mathematics raise many problems. But "no

problem within the whole range of the secondary curriculum is com parable in urgency and importance to that of securing a good standard in the understanding and use of English ". " To fail in Mathematics

or Latin is to leave boys and girls deficient in these subjects, but to

fail in English is to leave them fundamentally uneducated." Yet the Council is by no means satisfied with the state of affairs in Scotland.

"The experience of two generations has revealed what an immense undertaking it is to produce a fully literate and articulate population."

The volume of complaint shows that full success has not yet been achieved. " The business man grumbles about boys and girls whose

ignorance of spelling and punctuation is matched only by their in ability to express themselves clearly in speech or writing, while the universities complain of scientific and technical students whose work is crippled by inadequate powers of expression, and even the Arts

student is reproached with lacking that command of simple, lucid English which might be expected from the chosen few." Consequently, the attack on semi-literacy must be pressed home: " more must be

done if a barely literate populace, debased by vulgarisms and cor

rupted by Hollywood, is to be transformed into an educated people." It is worth noting that the need for much greater attention to oral

English is stressed; Belloc's dictum is recalled: the ability to read aloud intelligently at sight is as good a single test as any, that the

possessor of it is a well-educated man. Again, as in the case of Latin

and Mathematics, a plea is made for special attention to the English 405



IRISH MONTHLY

training of the D and E pupils. Teaching English to these " will tax the skill of the best teacher, but it is splendidly worth while ... it

may well prove the nobler achievement after all to have led even a few dull children into the humblest forecourt of the palace of mind and imagation."

THE POSITION IN IRELAND

There are many other thought-provoking things in this Report to which we would like to call attention were it not that space forbids, e.g., the Aim of Secondary Education; Examinations; Modem Lan guages; Music, Art and Crafts; Technical Education in Secondary Schools; the Inspectorate, etc. We picked out a few topics for more detailed treatment because we think that similar problems with regard to them exist here in Ireland. The questions that Scotland has asked

herself, we can ask ourselves too. Do thousands of our secondary

pupils, too, leave school " bored with the endless round of proses

and unseens and determined never to open a Latin book again"? Is

our case for Latin based on its value as a mental discipline, and if so, is this a sound basis? What is the exact aim of our present Latin

programmes, especially in the case of the less brilliant pupils? Should all our secondary pupils study Latin? Briefly, is the time given to Latin as taught at present, with so much emphasis on the linguistic side, paying dividends and paying them to all pupils? Or is there reason for adopting in Ireland, too, some of the suggestions of the Scottish Report? Again, are the Mathematics we teach to C and D and E pupils too weighed down with algebra and geometry and

mathematical theory and not sufficiently concerned with real life? Lastly, are we satisfied that our secondary schools are producing " a fully literate and articulate population "? Or is it true, as we hear

occasionally, that we are rapidly becoming bilingually illiterate? The Scottish Council calls producing a population that is fully articulate

in English " an imense undertaking "; we wonder what they would

call the task of Irish schools which have to make their pupils articulate

in two languages! We recommend this report to all who are interested in Secondary

Education-unless they are patient people who prefer to save their three shillings and await an even better report on all these problems

which we hope the Irish Educational Council will produce some time in the future.

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Are Scotland's School Problems Ours?