第17章 通学制の学校と寄宿制の学校 - 専門の職業訓練の開始時期
以上の寄宿制(全寮制)の学校に対する賛否両論の考察のうちで,本質的で変更不可能なものは二つしかなく,また,この二つは,相互に対立している。一方の側には,田園と空気と広々とした場所という長所(benefit 利益)がある。他方の側には,家族の愛情と,家族内の責任を知ることから得られる教育(という長所)がある。田舎に住んでいる親の場合には,寄宿制の学校を支持する別な論拠がある。即ち,自宅の近くに本当によい通学制の学校が見つかりそうにないということである。こういう対立する考慮点がある以上,一般的な結論を出すことが可能だとは思われない。子供が丈夫で活発なため,健康のことはあまり心配しなくてもよい場合には,寄宿制の学校を支持する一つの論拠がその効力を失う。一方,子供たちが両親を非常に深く愛している場合には,通学制の学校を支持する一つの論拠がその効力を失う。なぜなら,家族への愛情を生き生きと保つためには,休日だけで十分であろうし,学期中は愛情過多になるのをきちんと防いでくれるだろうからである。並みはずれた才能のある,感受性豊かな子供は,寄宿制の学校へ行かないほうがよい。また,極端に才能があり感受性が豊かな場合は,まったく学校へは行かないほうがよい。もちろん,良い学校は悪い家庭よりも優っているし,良い家庭は悪い学校よりも優っている。しかし,学校も家庭も,共によい場合は,事例ごとに,その都度,それぞれの長所に基づいて決定しなければならない。 これまで,私は,(通学制か寄宿制か)どちらか一方を選択できる裕福な親の立場から書いてきた。しかし社会的な立場に立って,この問題を政治的に考察するときには,別に考慮すべき点が検討対象に入ってくる。一方には,寄宿制の学枚の費用の問題があり,他方には,子供が家から離れていれば住居の問題が簡単になるという事情がある。私は,少数の稀な場合は別として,誰でもみな18歳になるまで学校教育を受けるべきであり,専門の職業訓練は十八歳以後に始めればよい,と強く信じている。この問題(通学制が良いか,寄宿制が良いか)については,賛否両方の主張を大量にすることができるけれども,大半の賃金労働者の息子や娘の場合は,今後も長期にわたって,この問題は経済的な考慮によって,通学制の学校のほうがよいというふうに結論が出されることだろう。この決定は誤りだとする明確な根拠がない以上,たとえその決定が教育的な根拠に基づくものでないとしても,受け入れてもよいだろう。 |
Pt. 3: Intellectual education - Chap.17 Day schools and boarding schoolsHowever, the savagery of boys is not incurable, and is, in fact, much less than it was. Tom Brown's School Days gives a black picture, which would be exaggerated if applied to the public schools of our own day. It would be still less applicable to boys who had had the kind of early training which we considered in previous chapters. I think also that co-education--which is possible at a boarding school, as Bedales shows--is likely to have a civilizing effect upon boys. I am chary of admitting native differences between the sexes, but I think that girls are less prone than boys to punish oddity by serious physical cruelty. At present, however, there are very few boarding schools to which I should venture to send a boy if he were above the average in intelligence, morals, or sensitiveness, or if he were not conservative in politics and orthodox in theology. For such boys, I am convinced that the existing public school system is bad. And among such boys are included almost all who have any exceptional merit.Of the above considerations, both for and against boarding schools, there are only two that are essential and unalterable, and these two are on opposite sides. On the one side there is the benefit of the country and air and space ; on the other, the family affections and the education derived from knowledge of family responsibilities. In the case of parents who live in the country, there is a different argument in favour of boarding schools, namely, the improbability of a really good day school in their neighbourhood. I do not think it is possible, in view of these conflicting considerations, to arrive at any general conclusion. Where children are so strong and vigorous that considerations of health need not be taken very seriously, one argument for boarding schools fails. Where they are very devoted to their parents, one argument for day schools fails since the holidays will suffice to keep family affection alive, and term-time may just prevent it from becoming excessive. A sensitive child of exceptional ability had better not go to boarding school, and in extreme cases had better not go to school at all. Of course, a good school is better than a bad home, and a good home is better than a bad school. But where both are good, each case must be decided on its merits. So far, I have written from the standpoint of a well-to-do parent, to whom individual choice is possible. When the matter is considered politically, from the point of view of the community, other considerations enter in. We have on the one hand the expense of boarding schools, on the other the simplification of the housing problem if children are away from home. I hold strongly that, apart from a few rare cases, everyone ought to have a scholastic education up to the age of eighteen, and exclusively vocational training should only begin after that age. Although much might be urged both ways on our present topic, the financial consideration will, for a long time to come, decide the question, in the case of most wage-earner's sons and daughters, in favour of day schools. Since there is no clear ground for thinking this decision wrong, we may accept it, in spite of the fact that it is not made on educational grounds. |
(掲載日:2015.07.28/更新日: )