Chapter XXI. Our Japanized Educational System

CHAPTER XXI Our Japanized Educational System The boast of the humanitarian era, extending over the past century or more, is that it has effected a fundamental change in the methods and purposes of education. The favored system is called progressive education. Any exact definition may be challenged, because the advocates of this system have never given an exact definition ; but let it be described in the most amiable terms, open to correction. Say that progressive education seeks to make schooling a pleasurable experience; it forbids positive punishment ; aims at once to encourage selfexpression in the youngest children and social-mindedness in older pupils 5 and that it claims to teach the child to think by experimental projects and by presenting debatable current topics for general discussion, without dogmatic principles. In contrast, the old-fashioned education said there was no royal road to learning. It gave the teacher sufficient authority for any necessary discipline. It imparted positive facts and positive principles. It discouraged immature selfexpression, sought to strengthen character by self-control against the social impulse; and attached personal responsibility to any degree of emancipation from the rule of obedience for children. It taught the child to think by the use of formal logic on impersonal examples; while contemporary issues were kept out of the schoolroom as far as possible.

Which is in reality the most modern type of education? Forty years ago, Lafcadio Hearn described the educational principles and methods of Japan, in contrast to those of the Western world. Traditionally, Hearn said, Western education began in early childhood "with the repressive part of 251 252 THE GOD OF THE MACHINE moral training.... It is important to inculcate the duties of behavior, the 'must' and the 'must not5 o£ individual obligation, as soon as possible. Later on, more liberty is allowed. The well-grown boy is made to understand that his future will depend upon his personal effort and capacity 5 and he is therefore left, in great measure, to take care of himself, being occasionally admonished or warned, as seems needful.... Throughout the whole course of mental and moral training, competition is not only expected but required.... The aim is the cultivation of individual ability and personal character— the creation of an independent and forceful being."

"Japanese education has always been conducted on the reverse plan. Its object has never been to train the individual for independent action, but to train him for co-operative action. ... Constraint among us begins with childhood, and gradually relaxes; constraint in Far Eastern training begins later, and thereafter gradually tightens; and it is not a constraint imposed directly by parents and teachers.... Not merely up to the age of school life, but considerably beyond it, a Japanese child enjoys a degree of liberty far greater than is allowed to Occidental children.... The child is permitted to do as he pleases.... He is guarded but not constrained; admonished, but rarely compelled." If punishment becomes absolutely necessary, "by ancient custom, the entire household, servants and all, intercede for the offender; the little brothers and sisters begging in turn to bear the penalty instead. At school, the discipline begins ... but there is no punishment beyond a public admonition. Whatever restraint exists is chiefly exerted on the child by the common opinion of his class; and a skillful teacher is able to direct that opinion....

The ruling power is always the class sentiment.... In the middle schools, class opinion attains a force to which the teacher himself must bend; as it is quite capable of expelling him for any attempt to over-ride it.... It is always the rule of the many over the one; and the power is formidable." * •JAPAN: An interpretation. By Lafcadio Hearn. Macmillan. (1894.) OUR JAPANIZED EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 253 The further objective is found in the Japanese social ideal. For over a thousand years, at least, the Japanese have been taught the purest altruism, in the communal cult. "The mere idea of the right to do as one pleases could not enter into the Japanese mind No man's time or effort can be considered exclusively his own. His right to live rests solely upon his willingness to serve the community The individual was completely sacrificed to the community.... Every member of a community must carefully watch the conduct of his fellow members." That there might be no possibility of personal initiative or choice, all work was absolutely controlled by guilds j and all goods were allotted by authority, in that the amount and kind of possessions anyone could have was minutely determined. A parent might not even buy an extra paper doll for a child. Any deviation in conduct was instantly and ruthlessly punished. Even the language reflected this altruistic code of ethics, by avoiding the use of personal pronouns, and modifying them to a social meaning.

The result, in adult life, is "the sinister absence of moral freedom—the absence of the right to act according to one's own convictions of justice." Indeed, there can be no concept of justice, if the sole authority is that of the mass, of the collective, of the government in the ultimate resort. And the present behavior of the Japanese in war, including their attitude toward prisoners, is fully consistent with their tradition. Whatever they do to their enemies—and they determine who is an enemy, and begin the attack—is no more than they have imposed on themselves "for the good of society." Since Hearn made these observations, Western education has moved steadily toward the Japanese basis 5 that is its "progressive" tendency. Class activities, group interests, social influences have become predominant. And the prevailing philosophy with which pupils are indoctrinated is that of "instrumentalism," which denies that there can be any universal or permanent moral values or standards. The most striking result in the pupils is precisely that "sinister absence of moral free254 THE GOD OF THE MACHINE dom." Neither evidence nor logic penetrates the fog in which they have been reared. It is difficult to bring one to any conclusion, when detached from the group. They will say, "Well, I just don't think so," as if there could be no facts or connected mental processes, which should lead to one opinion rather than another, or distinguish a conviction from a taste. They have an impression that "everything is different now" from anything that may have been in the past; though they have no idea how or why. Do not two and two make four? Does not a lever operate on exactly the same principle today as it did for Archimedes? They do not quite know. They may say, "Oh, I don't agree with you," but they can give no reason for dissent. They are "not quite convinced," but they can offer no argument in rebuttal. That is to say, when called upon to think, they cannot, because they have been trained to accept the class, the group, or the "social trend," as the sole authority. As far as it can be done, they have been reduced to "ganglions," neural processes in a collective "body," instead of persons.

The Orientalizing of teaching methods in the West has taken effect even in detail. The great use and value of a phonetic alphabet, as distinguished from pictographic writing (hieroglyphs or Chinese characters) is that the pupil is put in possession of the tools very quickly. In English, a child need learn only twenty-six letters, and grasp the principle of their combination, as indicating sounds -, and he knows how to read. The phonetic alphabet is one of the greatest laborsaving devices ever invented. With Chinese characters or any other picture writing, thousands of signs have to be learned 5 scholarship is largely wasted on the mere drudgery of memorization; and further, abstract thought is severely handicapped. Yet it is advocated, as a "modern" method of teaching a child to read, that it shall learn by visual memorizing of words, without learning the alphabet. This method is credited to Bronson Alcott: "There was no primer class, trying painfully to identify A or maybe S. Instead, the little ones were grouped OUR JAPANIZED EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 255 around the schoolmaster, who had a picture in his hand. They looked at the pictures of the animals, and down at the words —dog, cat, cow—until soon they knew which word went with which animal." This is to teach pictograph reading. As far as possible, the advantage of the phonetic alphabet is nullified, including the systematization of knowledge by references under an index. Another "advanced" educational method does not mark examination papers for their accuracy -, instead, grades are given indicating that the child has done well in relation to his capacities. That is, the teacher assumes divine omniscience, and pretends to know the child's innate capacities absolutely, by some supernal means, instead of judging the specific result of a specific examination. The negligent child is advantaged, and the diligent, clever, and conscientious child is deprived of an earned benefit. Aside from that, the intrinsic idea that an answer is either correct or incorrect is obscured; and the task itself is made to appear senseless. So in every way the natural outlet of energy in human beings, which in childhood is properly directed toward the development of intelligence and character, is choked down and subverted: the purpose of study is not to learn things which are true in themselves nor to develop independence through such knowledge, but to please and conform to arbitrary authority.

The positive fact that the United States public schools are under the political power is not recognized. Because the schools were started with quite separate organizations, by districts having no connection with each other or with any other political agency, empowered to levy a separate tax which could not be expended for any other object than the local school, nobody realized that the primary field of freedom had been invaded to the utmost extent. There can be no greater stretch of arbitrary power than is required to seize children from their parents, teach them whatever the authorities decree they shall be taught, and expropriate from the parents the funds to pay for the procedure. If this principle really is not understood, let any parent holding a positive religious faith consider how 256 THE GOD OF THE MACHINE it would seem to him if his children were taken by force and taught an opposite creed. Would he not recognize tyranny naked? But it is objected, religion is not taught in the schools at all. That does not alter the principle involved 5 though it did obscure the issue in the beginning. The majority of parents were quite willing to pay a school tax, and glad to send their children to school. They tried to keep the teaching strictly secular. Further, when school districts were mostly small, and schoolboards composed of local residents known to everybody, it was quite possible for the parents to know just what was being taught j and to have their wishes consulted in the engagement or retention of teachers and the choice of textbooks. The intrinsic nature of the power authorized was so little realized that this was called "free education," the most absolute contradiction of facts by terminology of which the language is capable. Everything about such schools is compulsory, not free; and the true nature of the institution has developed so fully along its own lines with the passage of time that parents are now helpless when it is admitted by a schoolboard that a small number of teachers are mentally unbalanced. The parents must still deliver their children into the power of those teachers, on penalty of a fine. The teachers have "security of tenure." They can't be discharged.

One of the early "cases" by which "security of tenure" was made to seem plausible for teachers indicates the utter confusion of thought on the subject, arising from failure to recognize the political power in operation. A teacher in California, of excellent character and teaching ability, was dismissed by a corrupt school board for no good reason. The case was taken into court. The teacher was reinstated, on the proper grounds that she had a contract for the term and had not defaulted on it. This was thought a sufficient reason for urging measures by which a teacher must be considered as engaged indefinitely, for that is the only meaning "of security of tenure" -y though this is absolutely irrelevant to the original OUR JAPANIZED EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 257 issue (enforcement of contract), and nullifies the contractual right of the employer. That is to say, because the teacher had suffered an injustice which the law was competent to remedy and did remedy, it was proposed and subsequently carried into effect that parents must suffer the same injustice without remedy.

Again, the famous Scopes case, the "monkey" trial in Dayton, Tennessee, was discussed with equal heat and ignorance on both sides. The state passed a law that no instructor in the public schools could impart to his pupils the Darwinian theory of evolution, under penalty. A teacher contravened the law, and was prosecuted. Of course the law was absolutely improper 3 but it was attacked on the ground that the Darwinian theory of evolution is true, and that the Tennesseeans were uninformed yokels. But what if Darwinian evolution had been generally taught in the public schools of Tennessee, and a parent hack tried to withhold his school taxes and refused to send his children to school because he did not want them taught that theory; how many of the ardent champions of Mr. Scopes would have defended such a parent? It is safe to say, not one. All they wanted was that the state should prescribe that their own particular scientific doctrine must be taught, rather than an unorthodox creed. They were not in the least concerned with freedom of thought, speech, or person. They had no conception of personal rights or just authority. They did not ask whether a teacher could have a peculiar moral prerogative to teach his pupils what their parents did not want them to be taught.

In short, they did not question the political control of education 5 they only wanted to use it themselves. They did not inquire whether such political control is not, by its nature, bound to legislate against statements of both facts and opinion, in prescribing a school curriculum, in the long run. The most exact and demonstrable scientific knowledge will certainly be objectionable to political authority at some point, because it 258 THE GOD OF THE MACHINE will expose the folly of such authority, and its vicious effects. Nobody would be permitted to show the nonsensical absurdity of "dialectical materialism" in Russia, by logical examination. Nobody is permitted to discuss biology impartially in Germany. And if the political authority is deemed competent to control education, that must be the outcome in any country. Educational texts are necessarily selective, in subject matter, language, and point of view. Where teaching is conducted by private schools, there will be a considerable variation in different schools j the parents must judge what they want their children taught, by the curriculum offered. Then each must strive for objective truth5 and as there is no public authority to control opinion, adults must be supposed to exercise the final judgment on what they learned in school, after they have graduated. Nowhere will there be any inducement to teach the "supremacy of the state" as a compulsory philosophy.

But every politically controlled educational system will inculcate the doctrine of state supremacy sooner or later, whether as the divine right of kings, or the "will of the people" in "democracy." Once that doctrine has been accepted, it becomes an almost superhuman task to break the stranglehold of the political power over the life of the citizen. It has had his body, property, and mind in its clutches from infancy. An octopus would sooner release its prey. A tax-supported, compulsory educational system is the complete model of the totalitarian state. The extent of the power exercised, and its final implications are not yet recognized in the United States, because parents are allowed to send their children to private schools, or to educate them at home—although they must still pay the school tax. But when that permission is granted, and the educational standard is prescribed, it is revocable 5 it is no longer a right, but a permission. In Russia, in Germany, it is no longer permitted.

Undoubtedly the good people will ask, out of artless perplexity and a short memory, how are children to be educated OUR JAPANIZED EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 259 if there are no tax-supported compulsory public schools? The answer is, by private schools. Anyone who wished could open a school, to which parents could send their children on payment of the necessary fees, which would naturally vary a good deal. Primer education could be given at home, as it generally was in the United States up to fifty years ago 5 most children could read, write, and perform simple addition before they started school. The standard of education in New England was much higher a hundred and fifty years ago than it is now. Nine-tenths of the useful knowledge the average person possesses is certainly acquired out of school. Who taught the population of the United States to drive motor cars? It was not done in school, and could not have been. The practical skill by which the average man gets a living is not learned in school. There is no reason to suppose that children would remain untaught. Before the Civil War, some of the Southern states passed laws making it a crime to teach a slave to read or write. Then the desire to learn, and the readiness to impart knowledge, are so spontaneous and universal that they can be restrained only by legal penalties, even when the social gulf is that between master and bondsman.

But would not some children remain illiterate? They might, as some do now, and as they did in the past. The United States has had one president who did not learn to read and write until after he was not only a grown man, but married and earning his own living. The truth is that in a free country any person who remains illiterate might as well be left soj although simple literacy is not a sufficient education in itself, but the elementary key to an indispensable part of education in civilization. But that further education in civilization cannot be obtained at all under full political control of the schools. It is possible only to a certain frame of mind in which knowledge is pursued voluntarily 5 and this is true even in technical education when it may be presumed that exactly the same technology is taught. A prominent geologist, whose work has been largely in the world's oil-fields, was struck by the fact that THE GOD OF THE MACHINE "only Americans find oil," * abroad as at home. Why should that be, he asked himself j for he met geologists of equally high natural ability and technical equipment among other nationalities 5 and they didn't strike oil even when they were walking over it, so to speak. He was forced to the conclusion that "oil must be sought first of all in our minds. Where oil really is, in the final analysis, is in our own heads." It is in "the state of mind of the social order"—the free mind. The free mind has persisted in the United States, in spite of the steady intrusion of the political power into the primary field of freedom in education, because choice and personal effort were still the governing factors in getting an advanced education, whether classical or technical $ the student whose parents could not easily afford to send him to college had to make a serious decision and effort on his own account, and pursue such studies as he had selected on his own initiative. And when he got through school he had to take his chance of making a living as best he could, probably getting a varied experience of using both his hands and his head, with no ineradicable class distinction to cut off his speculative intelligence from practical application.

That also may be completely changed before long. The final step toward making American education wholly Japanese has been suggested; it is to select the most promising pupils in the public schools, pay their way through the various colleges or universities with Federal funds, and route them into military and bureaucratic positions. The Germans are notably literate j and they had very fine technical schools. Their literacy enabled them to read "Mein Kampf," and their technology enabled them to build up a war machine which must destroy them. That is what education under the political power must do, once it has obtained full control. It routes human energy into the dead-end political channels. The most vindictive resentment may be expected from the *OIL IN THE EARTH. By Wallace E. Pratt. University of Kansas Press.

OUR JAPANIZED EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 261 pedagogic profession for any suggestion that they should be dislodged from their dictatorial position 5 it will be expressed mainly in epithets, such as "reactionary," at the mildest. Nevertheless, the question to put to any teacher moved to such indignation, is: Do you think nobody would willingly entrust his children to you to pay you for teaching them? Why do you have to extort your fees and collect your pupils by compulsion?