The Schoolmaster: a Commentary upon the Aims and Methods of an Assistant Master in a Public School

Abstract

THIS book is not, and does not profess to be, a manual of pedagogy. The reader in search of help in regard to school organisation, to the allocation of time and subjects, to the methods of teaching generally, the bearing of Herbartian or other philosophical theories on practical problems, or educational politics in any sense, will probably find the book disappointing. The author has little or nothing to say on the relation of Government or public authorities to the school and its teachers, the influence of external examinations, the place of science in the curriculum of a school, the professional training of school masters, or any of the numerous subjects which form the staple of newspaper controversy or Royal Commissioners' reports in relation to school policy and work. His point of view is simply that of a classical master, whose work has been done only with scholars drawn from the upper ranks of society, whose educational ideals have, been formed by Eton traditions and by the requirements of the universities, and who discusses with his readers in an informal and conversational fashion the question how, under the exceptional conditions of a boarding-house at a great public school, the utmost can be done to foster manliness, good scholarship and the characteristics of a Christian gentleman.

The Schoolmaster: a Commentary upon the Aims and Methods of an Assistant Master in a Public School.

By Arthur Christopher Benson, of Eton College. Pp. vi + 173. (London: John Murray, 1902.) Price 5s. net.