How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
88/400
- Publication/creation
- London : George Routledge, 1932.
- Physical description
- xiv, 374 pages ; 22 cm
- Contributors
- Wolfe, W. Béran 1900-1935.
- Notes
-
This edition was reprinted in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946 and 1948.
Copy 1 Note: 1937 reprint. X158203
- Attribution and usage
-
Wellcome Collection
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6. That co-education is sometimes undesirable.
7. That the possession of a Training College
certificate fits a person for the task of teaching.
To discuss each of these fallacies in detail would lead
us too far afield in the philosophy of progressive educa¬
tion, and we must confine ourselves to a brief survey of
these unnecessary complications to the perplexities of
the child’s life. One of the chief difficulties of our
entire educational system is a purely philosophical one
originating in the confusion and disorientation of our
age. In former times when a people had a single goal in
life, the matter of education was simple. In feudal days
the goals of education were confined to war and the
monastery, and the educational system was effectively
designed to initiate a child into the technical mysteries
of these ancient callings. During the guild days a child
was educated from his early childhood to take his place
in his father’s guild. All teachers were specialists in their
subjects.
To-day, with thousands of occupations open, and a
complete lack of agreement as to the purposes and
functions of education, both teacher and child find them¬
selves in the artificial quandary of our age. The growth
of technique in all spheres of human life, with the
resultant shortening of working hours, brings us again
to the problem of the use of spare time for which the first
Greek schools—the very word school comes from crx°^V>
the Greek word for leisure—were founded. Our best
education is still our business education, for if there is
any unit goal inherent in our modern education it is the
goal of finding security by amassing riches.
The fallacy of the intelligence test can easily be
demonstrated. If three children who have three distinct
goals and patterns are given an identical intelligence test,
the results will vary widely. A child whose goal is to
return to the comfort of his mother’s home will pass a
very poor intelligence test designed to indicate the degree
of progress made by a courageous child who wishes to