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Essay on History of the Philosophy of Education
Bertrand Russell Philosophy of Education and his Beacon Hill School:
Russell believed that knowledge is in itself both liberating and a safeguard against fear. A lively interest in outward things a central theme also of his Conquest of Happiness is a powerful help to courageous and joyous living. Russell also advises on how to promote truthfulness and generosity: not by relying on punishment of their opposites since what might on the face of things seem to be, say, lying might in fact be the exercise of imagination but by encouraging the positive traits when they appear. It was in this regard, as he later recognized, that he might have been too optimistic about the psychology of the young. His experience as a schoolmaster soon taught him that children are capable of wickedness, and that if wickedness is left unpunished it can, as in Lord of the Flies, grow monstrous.
But even in these early views Russell was not wedded to laissez-faire principles, especially not in connection with study. He believed that the acquisition of habits of self-discipline and concentration would prove liberating in the long run, and although he argued that the attention of children should be engaged by attracting rather than coercing them to their schoolwork, he was not against applying their noses to the grindstone when necessary. Children should be able to read by the age of 5, he said, and should make an early start on a couple of languages. The rudiments of mathematics need drilling, and it should be given. Poetry and plays can be enjoyed at primary school age, but real appreciation of literature only comes later. Classics, history, and science come later still; by this stage the pupil, after having tried these subjects, should choose whichever seems most interesting, and follow it up for himself or herself. (Alan Wood, 1958, pp 76)................
