The Curse of Education

akespeare, or a Beethoven, is only born once in a century; and colossal intellects such as these are rightly regarded as unnatural phenomena. But genius of a l

helping to destroy it, with a perversity

must have been struck with the originality of its mind. If children are left to themselves, they will breed ideas at an astonishing rate. Give an imaginative chil

al incident that has chanced to impress them. Every commonplace object will be invested by them with mysterious and fantastic attributes. When left to obs

must have been going on in the child's mind to produce such powers of observation or thought? There is a fallacious notion, founded upon pure want of observation, that human beings are unable to form ideas or to think for themselves until they have been put t

evelopment and upbringing of their children in the hands of nurses, will have noticed that there is a natural tendency on the part of a child, if not interfered with, to think and to expand its faculty of imagination. This tendency is not shared to an equal extent by all c

at process will be described presently. What I wish to point out first is that, long before the school or the governess commences this operation, the parents of the child, or those to whom they have

t every day be becoming more rare. Therefore the evil spreads, and people blame the introduction of railways and other mechanical improvements

ldren toys which, far from stimulating the imagination, only serve to impress upon their minds the commonplace facts of everyday life. I

aby. There will be a bath provided, in which she may learn to wash it. Everything will be complete-soap, sponge, loofah, puff-box, and powder. The present will be accompanied by a layette, so that the child may learn to dress her infant and to change its clo

onplace facts instead of with fancies. The child is not encouraged to make a living creature of this inanimate dummy, to tell it stories, or to exercise her imagination in some other way. She is provide

her to imagine it to be a baby. She would, if left to herself, with no other resource than

le play as possible. Interest is carefully concentrated upon the mechanical details of spars, sails, rigging, watertight compartments, wheels, rods, cranks, levers, and the thousand-and-one items which go to make up a mechanical contrivance. Great care is taken in constructin

e say that the contention is too far fetched. Certainly the pernicious effects of such toys as have been described are not easily discernible; therein lies the insidiousness of this retarding process. But to those who have

erfluous they are as a means of amusement. The average child will treasure up a button or a shell long after it has destroyed, or maybe forgotten the existence o

us answers given to, the questions asked by children. At a certain age the latter become inquisitive about everything in the universe. They ply

atience to answer the numerous inquiries of an intelligent child; and sooner than expose their ignorance, parents will generally quench this thirst for knowledge at the outset by a flat prohibition. The selfish de

ildren, it must be remembered, do not possess the perseverance and determination which often come to the rescue of original genius at a la

ve and original, these faculties only need ordinary encouragement to develop and flourish. Yet the entire method of bringing up children, from the cra

traditions that have been handed down to them from former generations, without stopping to consider whether they are rational or foolish. It is good enough for the majority of peopl

ut that is the worst aspect of the evil. Its chief operation consists in hedging round the intelligence with conventionalities to such an extent as to exclude vigorous

erally a hopeless case. There must be strong inward impulses, or the necessary measure of initiative and courage will not be forthc

plane altogether, and must be considered by itself. For parents there is, as has