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第7节

a treatise on parents and children(父母与子女专题研究)-第7节


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is; the ones that required special consideration and patient treatment; that 

they vented their irritation on them ruthlessly; nothing being easier than to 

entrap or bewilder such a boy into giving a pretext for punishing him。 



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                        A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN 



               My Scholastic Acquirements 



     The   results;   as   far   as   I   was   concerned;   were   what   might   have   been 

expected。       My      school    made     only    the   thinnest    pretence    of   teaching 

anything but Latin and Greek。              When I went there as a very small boy I 

knew   a   good   deal   of   Latin   grammar   which   I   had   been   taught   in   a   few 

weeks privately by my uncle。              When I had been several years at school 

this   same   uncle   examined   me   and   discovered   that   the   net   result   of   my 

schooling was that I had forgotten what he had taught me; and had learnt 

nothing   else。      To   this   day;   though   I   can   still   decline   a   Latin   noun   and 

repeat   some   of   the   old   paradigms   in   the   old   meaningless   way;   because 

their rhythm sticks to me; I have never yet seen a Latin inscription on a 

tomb that I could translate throughout。               Of Greek I can decipher perhaps 

the   greater   part   of   the   Greek   alphabet。     In   short;   I   am;   as   to   classical 

education;   another   Shakespear。          I   can   read   French   as   easily   as   English; 

and   under   pressure   of   necessity   I   can   turn   to   account   some   scraps   of 

German and a little operatic Italian; but these I was never taught at school。 

Instead;   I    was   taught    lying;   dishonorable      submission      to  tyranny;    dirty 

stories;   a   blasphemous   habit   of   treating   love   and   maternity   as   obscene 

jokes; hopelessness; evasion; derision; cowardice; and all the blackguard's 

shifts by which the coward intimidates other cowards。                    And if I had been 

a boarder at an English public school instead of a day boy at an Irish one; I 

might have had to add to these; deeper shames still。 



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                        A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN 



                   Schoolmasters of Genius 



     And     now;    if  I  have   reduced     the   ghosts    of  my    schoolmasters      to 

melancholy acquiescence in all this (which everybody who has been at an 

ordinary school will recognize as true); I have still to meet the much more 

sincere   protests   of   the   handful   of   people   who   have   a   natural   genius   for 

〃bringing up〃 children。         I shall be asked with kindly scorn whether I have 

heard   of   Froebel   and   Pestalozzi;   whether   I   know   the   work   that   is   being 

done   by   Miss   Mason   and   the   Dottoressa   Montessori   or;   best   of   all   as   I 

think;    the   Eurythmics      School     of   Jacques    Dalcroze      at  Hellerau    near 

Dresden。      Jacques   Dalcroze; like   Plato;  believes in   saturating his   pupils 

with   music。      They   walk   to   music;   play   to   music;   work   to   music;   obey 

drill commands that would bewilder a guardsman to music; think to music; 

live   to   music;   get   so   clearheaded   about   music   that   they   can   move   their 

several   limbs   each   in   a   different   metre   until   they   become   complicated 

living   magazines   of   cross   rhythms;   and;   what   is   more;   make   music   for 

others to do all these things to。          Stranger still; though Jacques Dalcroze; 

like all these great teachers; is the completest of tyrants; knowing what is 

right and that he must and will have the lesson just so or else break his 

heart (not somebody else's; observe); yet his school is so fascinating that 

every woman who sees it exclaims 〃Oh; why was I not taught like this!〃 

and elderly gentlemen excitedly enrol themselves as students and distract 

classes of infants by their desperate endeavors to beat two in a bar with 

one hand and three with the other; and start off on earnest walks round the 

room; taking two steps backward whenever Monsieur Daleroze calls out 

〃Hop!〃      Oh   yes:     I   know   all   about   these   wonderful   schools   that   you 

cannot keep children or even adults out of; and these teachers whom their 

pupils not only obey without coercion; but adore。                And if you will tell me 

roughly how many Masons and Montessoris and Dalcrozes you think you 

can pick up in Europe for salaries of from thirty shillings to five pounds a 

week;   I   will   estimate   your   chances   of   converting   your   millions   of   little 

scholastic     hells   into  little  scholastic    heavens。     If  you   are  a   distressed 

gentlewoman starting to make a living; you can still open a little school; 

and      you     can    easily    buy     a    secondhand        brass    plate    inscribed 



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                        A TREATISE ON PARENTS AND CHILDREN 



PESTALOZZIAN INSTITUTE and nail it to your door; though you have 

no more idea of who Pestalozzi was and what he advocated or how he did 

it than the   manager   of a hotel   which   began   as a   Hydropathic has   of   the 

water cure。      Or you can buy a cheaper plate inscribed KINDERGARTEN; 

and   imagine;   or   leave   others   to   imagine;   that   Froebel   is   the   governing 

genius of your little _creche_。            No doubt the new brass plates are being 

inscribed Montessori Institute; and will be used when the Dotteressa is no 

longer   with   us   by  all   the   Mrs   Pipchins   and   Mrs Wilfers   throughout   this 

unhappy land。 

     I will go further; and admit that the brass plates may not all be frauds。 

I   will   tell  you   that  one    of  my    friends    was   led   to  genuine     love   and 

considerable   knowledge   of   classical   literature   by   an   Irish   schoolmaster 

whom you would call a hedge schoolmaster (he would not be allowed to 

teach anything now) and that it took four years of Harrow to obliterate that 

knowledge and change the love into loathing。 Another friend of mine who 

keeps   a   school   in   the   suburbs;   and   who   deeply   deplores   my   〃prejudice 

against   schoolmasters;〃   has   offered   to   accept   my   challenge   to   tell   his 

pupils   that   they   are   as   free   to   get   up   and   go   out   of   the   school   at   any 

moment as their parents are to get up and go out of a theatre where my 

plays   are   being   performed。       Even   among   my   own   schoolmasters   I   can 

recollect a few whose classes interested me; and whom I should certainly 

have pestered for information and instruction if I could have got into any 

decent human relationship with them; and if they had not been compelled 

by their position to defend themselves as carefully against such advances 

as against furtive attempts to hurt them accidentally in the football field or 

smash   their   hats   with   a   clod   from   behind   a   wall。   But   these   rare   cases 

actually do more harm than good; for they encourage us to pretend that all 

schoolmasters are like that。           Of what use is it to us that there are always 

somewhere   two   or   three   teachers   of   children   whose   specific   genius   for 

their occupation triumphs over our tyrannous system and even finds in it 

its   opportunity?      For    that   matter;   it  is  possible;   if  difficult;   to  find  a 

solicitor;   or   even   a   judge;   who   has   some   notion   of   what   law   means;   a 

doctor with a glimmering of science; an officer who understands duty and 

discipline; and a clergyman with an inkling of religion; though there are 



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nothing   like   enough   of   them   to   go   round。   But   even   the   few   who;   like 

Ibsen's Mrs Solness; have 〃a genius for nursing the souls of little children〃 

are like angels forced to work in prisons instead of in heaven; and even at 

that   they  are   mostly  underpaid   and   despised。       That   friend   of   mine   who 

went   from   the   hedge   schoolmaster   to   Harrow   once   saw   a   schoolmaster 

rush from an elementary school in pursuit of a boy and strike him。                      My 

friend;   not   considering   that   the   unfortunate   man   was   probably   goaded 

beyond endurance; smote the schoolmaster and blackened his eye。                         The 

schoolmaster   appealed   to   the   law;   and   my   friend   found   himself   waiting 

nervously in the   Hammersmith Poli

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