Henry Taylor on education for public life

In the view of many, the problem of preserving a civilized order comes down to one of education. Classical liberals have always emphasized the need for an educated electorate if democracy is to be viable in the long term. More generally, however, a political or opinion-forming élite of some kind is inevitable, regardless of whether the polity is formally democratic or élitist; the real question is the nature of that élite—whether, for example, it is to set about overturning the traditional values of the civilization, or preserving them. And this will depend essentially on how the élite has been educated (though also to some extent on the material self-interest of the élite in question; an élite that finds itself dependent on the state payroll, for example, will presumably tend to favour statist values).

Unfortunately, merely specifying the content of an appropriate élite education offers no assurance that an educational system that adopts such a curriculum will retain it for any significant period. To ensure this, one would have to delve deeper into the political system, asking how a given constitutional order promotes a particular system of education. There seems little point, for example, in establishing an "aristocratic" educational system in a "democratic" political order that is destined to sweep away all aristocratic institutions. Even so, as a first step, one must get an idea of what a reasonable élite educational system should look like, without worrying about how it might be established or perpetuated.

Here Henry Taylor presents some reasonable ideas. Taylor asks what kind of education would be suitable as the basis for a "civil career"—by which he apparently means a career in either politics or public administration. Taylor first refers favourably to Bacon's complaint (in the Advancement of Learning) that Elizabethan colleges failed to produce men familiar with "histories, modern languages, books, and discourses of policy", and observes that this deficiency has not been made up in the several intervening centuries. Then he offers his own suggestions:

. . . At the age of sixteen, or thereabouts, the general education of the boy should be for the most part completed; and whether or not it be completed, at that age, or but little later, the specific should begin.

History, which is first in Lord Bacon's enumeration, is still considered to be the fittest study for statesmen. An extensive knowledge of history will doubtless be of great advantage if other knowledge be not precluded by it; but as regards the public business of these times, it may be questioned whether this branch be not disproportionately esteemed, in comparison with others. A knowledge of particular epochs, connected with peculiarity and revolution in the state of societies, and especially with modern revolutions, is chiefly valuable and indispensable. And all histories in which the lives and actions of men are represented in minute detail will furnish knowledge of human nature and food for reflection. But summary histories, such as those of Hume and Gibbon, though not to be altogether dispensed with, should hardly be read in abundance. They are useful as giving a frame-work of general knowledge, into which particular knowledge may be fitted. But as to other uses, they commonly do but charge the memory with a sequence of events, leaving no lively impressions or portraitures, and consequently teaching little. They treat, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, of what is common, not distinctive—common to all mankind, or to large classes—common to all ages, or at least to long tracts of time; and we gather little more from the names and events of five centuries than what was conveyed to us by those of one. For it is from individualities that we learn; and even the political character of an age will be best taught when it is thrown into the life and character of an individual. Thus, for example, Lord Strafford's despatches and the Clarendon state papers will be studied with more profit to a statesman than any history of the reign of Charles I.; and it is the materials for histories, rather than histories themselves, which, being judiciously selected, should be presented to the perusal of the pupil.

But there are severer studies than these, which are, to say the least, as necessary, and which are more likely to be neglected. A general knowledge of the laws of the land, and of international law, of foreign systems of jurisprudence, and especially a knowledge of the prominent defects of the system at home, should be diligently inculcated; and political economy should be taught with equal care, not less for the indispensable knowledge which it conveys than as a wholesome exercise for the reasoning faculty—employed in this science less loosely than in ethics or history, less abstractedly than in mathematics.

In the further progress of the pupil, it will be well that he should be brought more closely to matters of business, and taught the application of his knowledge. With this view, public documents, which have been printed for Parliament or otherwise, may be made use of. Let a question be selected which has been inquired into by a committee of either House of Parliament; let the minutes of evidence taken before the committee be laid before the pupil without their report; and let him be required to report upon that evidence himself, exhibiting, 1st, The material facts of the case as drawn from the evidence; 2nd, The various views and opinions which have been or might be adopted upon the matter; 3rd, The conclusions of his own judgment, with his reasons; 4th, If he concludes for legislation, a draft of the law by which he would execute his purposes; 5th, A draft of the speech with which he would introduce his proposed law to the notice of the legislature. If the inquiry relate to executive matters rather than legislative, as in the case of any investigation made into the propriety of the dismissal of a public servant, his task will be to state the facts, to point out circumstances of extenuation or aggravation, and to deliver his opinion of the conduct and deserts of all parties concerned.

Concurrently with these exercises, the pupil should be encouraged to frequent juvenile debating societies. If the practice of public speaking be not begun in youth, it will be a matter of serious difficulty afterwards; and failure will then be more disheartening, humiliating, and hurtful. Moreover, it may be observed, that they who have to surmount the nervous embarrassments by which a novice in public speaking is beset, commonly do so by lashing themselves into an excess of fervour and vehemence: vehemence is almost always mistaken for irascibility; and thus the novice, whilst disguising trepidation, is supposed to be betraying ill temper; and has fixed upon him the reputation, which is of all others the most disadvantageous to a statesman at the commencement of his career,—that of being hot-headed and overbearing.

Of debating societies those should be chosen for the pupil from which political topics are excluded; for if he were to take part in political debates, he would be betrayed into a premature adoption and declaration of political sentiments; than which nothing will be more injurious to his character and fortunes in after life. [The Statesman, Chapter I.]

Taylor is here describing some aspects of the education of a class that is destined for political leadership (while omitting other aspects, such as the ethical or religious). An analogous approach might nevertheless be adopted for the ordinary citizens of a republic, whose political role was expected to be limited to voting more or less passively on political questions. In place of training for parliamentary or administrative business in the form of participation in mock debates or commissions, one would have training for the exercise of voting through the study of mock political proposals, in which the future voter would be required to justify his or her position on each proposal, based on the arguments offered by others. (This need not prematurely commit the future citizen to a specific political position, as feared by Taylor, if he is not required to defend his position before his peers, and if the proposals being studied do not involve prominent political questions of the day.)