ENTENTE LITTERAIRE A PLEA FOR COMPARATIVE TREATMENT

SIR, The present moment would surely appear to be an appropriate time for a general revision of teaching aims and practice amongst those of the profession still grappling in schools with the problem of teaching literature '. Perhaps it is inaccurate to speak of literature as being ' taught ', for the best a teacher can hope to accomplish is to teach systematically and thoroughly the principles of literary appreciation and the history of literature, confidently, leaving the rest to the charm and skill of the writers whose works are being studied.

It is particularly the second aspect of this teachingsystematic instruction in the history of literature-which, despite its obvious importance, appears to have been sadly neglected in schools, as all that seems necessary, even at Intermediate B.A. stage, is a very sketchy knowledge of the history of a particular literature, combined with a judicious forecast of possible questions and an average amount of luck.

The limits imposed on such a study by examination requirements are too well known and too much lamented by teachers to need any comment, but it must be clear to all that in literature we possess a most powerful ally in our struggle to bring about in the post-war world that international goodwill which is so singularly lacking in our own generation, and can come about only through an intimate knowledge and appreciation of the genius of countries other than our own. If this ally is neglected, then the road towards mutual understanding will be so much the longer, for the mind and the soul of a people are revealed most deeply and clearly in its best literature.

This teaching to appreciate the works of foreign authors, and through them the spirit of their mother-country, is being carried on to-day with considerable success in schools throughout Britain, but it is not sufficient to know the works of certain foreign authors, to understand through them their particular historical environment, or even to be intimate with the details and background of the various ' periods' of one particular literature. Good as such studies are in themselves, they are infinitely less valuable than a more general view of the foreign literature as a whole and in its historical relationship to our own. The method in use to-day has the advantage of concentrating attention on the high-lights, of giving a clear and vivid impression of one aspect, at one selected time in history, of the génie (there is no other word) of a people. Unfortunately, it focuses but little attention on the wider issue-that of tracing step by step the development of two intensely national literatures both of which, advancing side by side, have been directed, by individuals or by social or political events, into widely differing channels. The student is thus led away from the connexion existing between the two; he fails to grasp the importance of the fact that literature is the recorded reflection of the phases of national development or retrogression, and that the truly great books, as well as being the truest reproduction of the national temperament, are closely related to one other, though they may occur in different literatures and at widely separated moments in history.

For my own part, I will confess that it was several years after matriculating that I began to perceive that France and Germany each possessed a great national literature comparable to our own in its unbroken but ever-changing development. On leaving school, I was intimate with many of the great works of our best writers. I had a fair, if somewhat haphazard idea of the steady growth of English literature, but for me the literature of France began and ended with the Romantic Period, which I was quite unable to bring into line with the history and literature of England at that time.

This segregation of the two literatures did not in the least detract from my appreciation and enjoyment of the artistry of the great writers of each, but I was given little guidance

in linking the two, and the social and political backgrounds had no significant relationship for me.

I do not blame my teachers for this. The limits of the examination syllabus were too wide for them to attempt more than the imparting of a deep love for the two literatures, too narrow to give me that comprehensive view which I believe is a necessity if the nations are to understand and sympathize with the struggles, the failures, and the triumphs of their neighbours.

In this literary insularity there exists a bar to friendship between the nations of Europe. Knowing only our own literature, and perhaps only selected selections of that, it would seem impossible for us to study those markedly national characteristics of mind and spirit which nowhere show so clearly as in the literature of a people. Only if we can obtain a wide view of our own literature and that of our friends, noting the points of comparison or contrast between them along the line of their development, linking the historical backgrounds which produced a certain type of literature in each country, studying the men who have influenced thought and letters-only if we can achieve this in our schools can we hope after the war for a mutual understanding, and for a common tolerance of the other fellow's peculiarities, among the men and women of the New Europe. Such a task is worthy of our best efforts. Its successful achievement will mean the partial destruction of our insular attitude of superiority—a characteristic which is as difficult for the foreigner to appreciate properly as it is for us to understand the apparent paradoxes of our continental neighbours. This will, I think, be the essential contribution of language teachers to the post-war reconstruction of Europe, not the least valuable nor the least appreciated by those who will benefit both spiritually and materially through their labour. D. BARNES.

154 Bispham Road, Blackpool, N.S.

EVACUATION EXPENDITURE SIR,-Just over a year has passed since the Davidson Committee communicated to the local education authorities their report on the problems of adjusting evacuation expenditure between the authorities.

The members of the Davidson Committee recognized that their recommendations might need reconsideration in the light of new developments. The occupation of France saw the beginnings of attacks on the civil population of our great cities which, together with evacuation of coast areas and re-evacuation of children originally received there, has scattered the child population of the country in so haphazard a manner as to warrant the application of a different term from evacuation' as used at the end of 1939 and as understood by the committee. Every one of the classes into which it divided evacuees now overlaps every other, while the effects of child migration on neutral areas can no longer reasonably be glossed over and commended to the benevolent notice of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

་

The adoption of a simple agreed formula between the authorities would eliminate an enormous extra burden of clerical work both for the schools and for the offices of education authorities, could hardly give a less satisfactory final figure of adjustment at the end, and might possibly point the road to be followed in tackling the solution of more far-reaching financial problems after the war.

The formula I had in mind, which might perhaps at least form a basis for discussion, and the application of which would deal with most heads of expenditure, can be expressed very briefly as an amount to be contributed to, or withdrawn from, a central pool, governed by the following formula:

K 4

Σ Α6.41 ΣΑ 6.39

A6.39 A6.41 16.397

K is the annual agreed capitation grant, payable by one

(Continued on page 194)

ARNOLD

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LIFE AND PROGRESS HISTORIES By M. W. KEATINGE, D. G. PERRY, and R. M. S. PASLEY. An admirable feature of this well-known series is the large number of extracts from contemporary authors and documents included

in each book. The text is not however overloaded with unimportant military and diplomatic details, and is continuously interesting.

I. ANCIENT HISTORY to A.D. 476. 2s. gd. II. THE MIDDLE AGES IN ENGLAND TO 1485. 3s.

III. ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS AND STUARTS, 1485-1688. 3s. 3d.; also available: 1485-1714.

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1815-1936. Book V, 4s.

1783-1936. Book Va, 4s. 6d.

"This is a well-written book and deals with the structure of modern history in a manner rather different from that of the conventional text-book. The book . . . should prove to be a very useful text-book in the treatment of modern history."-London Schoolmaster. The illustrations and maps have been carefully selected to illustrate the text, and at the end of each chapter will be found a number of questions and exercises of School Certificate type.

A. is the quarterly figure (for the quarter ending June 30, 1941) of the numbers on the books of all elementary schools in Authority 'A'. A6.39 is the corresponding figure for the last normal quarter before the war, the quarter ending June 30, 1939. The range of the is the full number of education authorities for England and Wales. Σ Α6.41 As will be seen, the factor takes into consideraΣ A6.39 tion the change in total school population since June, 1939. The areas for whom the first expression, namely Σ Α6.41 A6.30, is greater than the second will naturally be ΣΑ 6.30 contributors to the central pool; those in the opposite case will receive from it.

All the figures needed-apart from the capitation figure which will in any case have to be agreed upon under any scheme are immediately available from the ordinary school returns, and the amount of each authority's contribution to, or withdrawal from, the central pool would be a matter of a few hours' work for one official at the education office and would involve no extra clerical work whatever from the schools.

mittees is to meet the recreational needs of adolescent youth. Generally their activities are directed to the provision of games and club equipment, by means of grants from central funds, either for existing clubs or by opening Youth Centres.

After a Youth Leaders' training course recently held at Cambridge, the Central Council of Recreative Physical Training agreed to bring rambling as a means of recreation, which could be usefully included in youth centre activities, to the notice of those attending the course. Now the Ramblers' Association of Great Britain has promised to advise (on request) those interested in the formation of rambling groups. Its fifteen district Ramblers' Federations and club officials however, with their wide local knowledge, are quite willing and able to give further assistance, such as providing leaders for pioneer rambles, advising as to routes, transport, &c.

One County Committee has already invited the Ramblers' Association to nominate representatives to join it, and Federations may have been approached direct. Such representation would naturally help both the Youth Committee and the Federation. With the approach of spring and lengthening days rambling will become possible to many who have had to discontinue temporarily, and it will be a real service if encouragement can be given toward a greater knowledge and love of the countryside in the best of all ways, by walking in it, among those for whom the Youth Committee are working.

Hollybank, Row of Trees, Alderley Edge, Manchester.

A. W. HEWITT.

FRANCE THE NEW EDUCATION

N several previous articles I have sketched plans of that the Government, bent on collaboration with Germany, was even prepared to discipline French children along German lines. Education was recast. History was retaught along nationalistic lines far removed from the truth. Children were not taught to think but only to believe. Vocational education was given pride of place and intellectualism was frowned upon. In other words the Vichy Government was trying to manufacture a standard child knowing only how to obey.

But the system has broken down, and the latest newspapers received from France are full of complaints. It appears that nationalism for the French child means little more than indulging in puerile displays of patriotism. Time is spent in waving flags, singing nationalistic songs, indulging in constant displays coloured with layer upon layer of French flags. Sports meetings, even minor local ones, are accompanied by flag waving and singing.

As might be expected many leaders of French thought are very much worried, and the Catholics not least of all. German culture and education are a poor recommendation to the Catholic Church. Its leaders know the new style which is a threat to religion and, in Germany, sowed the seeds of paganism.

The Croix, Catholic daily paper, recently appealed to youth to prepare itself to build a France based on Christianity. The writer asks the children to be ready for whatever may happen and to trust in God. "If you want a France... rebuilt on Christianity," says the writer, "if you want the national revolution to accomplish something, to follow its human and civilizing mission in the world, then have for your watchword Always Ready', be French, and go about your tasks with a good heart, a free

heart, and a generous heart directed by the Divine Law": This is very different from the order to obey rapped out by the nationalists.

Le Temps is worried also about the trend in education and the regimenting of the young. Monsieur Lamirand, in an outspoken article, asks that the children should not be dressed in uniforms and moulded into one pattern. "France is a hierarchy," he writes, "which leaves a large place for individual initiative. We do not want our country to become a servile imitation of foreign discipline. French temperament does not lend itself to one unique levelling. France is composed of many different elements whose actions can be of real value only if left at liberty." Teachers He asks for guidance but not for control. should be given more freedom. Education should follow lines similar to those before the war.

To this outcry there came an immediate reaction. This appeal for liberty showed that France was not yet prepared to accept National Socialism. So the Right called for more planning. Writing in the Petit Journal, Monsieur de la Rocque asked French youth to accept sacrifices for the country. Youth must not be allowed liberty. "It would be a criminal fault not to constrain the youth of the country and to show them the part they must play in the shaping of the country," he writes. 'If we do not, then youth itself will not forgive us later on. History will condemn us for all time."

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