EDUCATION AND IMPERIAL POLICY
By the RIGHT HON. R. B. HALDANE, K.C., M.P.
In a book recently published in Germany, where it has gone through many editions, but which has not attracted in England the attention which it deserves, the author, Dr. Ludwig Gurlitt,[1] discusses with great frankness the contrast between the educational systems of the two countries. He gives the preference in the main to that of England. He is aware of its defects, of its want of science and of system; but he lays stress on a great merit which he considers that our system possesses: it produces character, and a love for the school as a sort of second home of the spirit. He describes the arrangements in the English public schools, under which the boys are encouraged to rule themselves, and the masters to become their friends and advisers rather than their governors. This, he says, produces the true foundation of a love of fatherland, and contributes to make the boy who leaves England remain an Englishman. Character and public spirit are developed, according to this writer, in a fashion which has no parallel in Germany, where the method is pure intellectualism, and the aim standards of mere knowledge. Some of us may think that Dr. Gurlitt is too much in love with certain good features of our English educational methods to appreciate their obvious shortcomings. The power of getting on with men and of ruling them is no doubt of a very high value; but it is not so obvious that we do not in
- ↑ 'Der Deutsche und sein Vaterland. Politisch padagogische Betrachtungen eines Modemen.' Berlin, 1903, 8 auflage.
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