The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State, and Other Essays

Essay Two. State Education: A Help or Hindrance?

Right_051-100.indd 3 5/11/11 3:48 PM ESSAY TWO STATE EDUCATION: A HELP OR HINDRANCE? This article appeared in the Fortnightly Review for July 1.88o. For ten years we have been busy organizing national education. A vigorous use of bricks and mortar is not generally accompanied by a careful examination of first principles/ but now that we have built our buildings and spent our millions of public money, and civilized our children in as speedy a fashion as that in which the great Frank christianized his soldiers, we may perhaps find time to ask a question which is waiting to be discussed by every nation that is free enough to think, whether a state education is or is not favorable to progress?2 It may seem rash at first sight to attack an institution so newly created and so strong in the support which it receives. But there are some persons at all events whom one need not remind, that no external grandeur and in1 Has Mr. Leslie Stephen said somewhere, that it is easier to build churches than to think about what is to be taught inside of them? 2 I ought to say that I have changed my opinions as regards the action of the state since 1.870. I could not have made this change without the assistance of Mr. Herbert Spencer's writings. Right_051-100.indd 4 5/11/11 3:48 PM 54 Auberorz Herbert ESSAY TWO fluence, no hosts of worshipers can turn wrong principles into right principles, or prevent the discovery by those who are determined to see the truth at any cost that the principles are wrong. Sooner or later every institution has to answer the challenge, "Are you founded on justice ? Are you for or against the liberty of men?" And to this challenge the answer must be simple and straightforward ; it must not be in the nature of an outburst of indignation that such a question should be asked; or a mere plea of sentiment; or the putting forward of usefulness of another kind. These questions of justice and liberty stand first; they cannot take second rank behind any other considerations, and if in our hurry we throw them on one side, unconsidered and unanswered, in time they will find their revenge in the imperfections and failure of our work. National education is a measure carried out in the supposed interest of the workmen and the lower middle class, and it is they especially-the men in whose behalf the institution exists-whom I wish to persuade that the inherent evils of the system more than counterbalance the conveniences belonging to it. I would first of all remind them of that principle which many of us have learned to accept, that no man or class accepts the position of receiving favors without learning, in the end, that these favors become disadvantages. The small wealthy class which once ruled this country helped themselves to favors of many kinds. It would be easy to show that all these favors, whether they were laws in protection of corn, or laws favoring the entail of estates, creating sinecures, or limiting political power to them- Right_051-100.indd 5 5/11/11 3:48 PM ESSAY TWO State Education: A Help or Hindrance ? 55 selves, have become in the due course of time unpleasant and dangerous burdens tied round their own necks. Now, is state education of the nature of a political favor? It is necessary, if discussion is in any way to help us, to speak the truth in the plainest fashion, and therefore I have no hesitation in affirming that it is so. Whenever one set of people pay for what they do not use themselves, but what is used by another set of people, their payment is and must be of the nature of a favor, and does and must create a sort of dependence. All those of us who like living surrounded with a slight mental fog, and are not overanxious to see too clearly, may indignantly deny this; but if we honestly care to follow Dr. Johnson's advice, and clear our minds of cant, we shall perceive that the statement is true, and if true, ought to be frankly acknowledged . The one thing to be got rid of at any cost is cant, whether it be employed on behalf of the many or...