Page 172 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

494 Records of Bahrain

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Tim Second serious deficiency of the Bahrain iehoola is tho abuonco
f,ou) tin c urriculum of any kind of Training of Cbuructcr, as adefinito part
of llu: pupil’s education.

This, again, is a weakness not of your Ilighness's schools alono, hut of
>ciinols all over the Middlo East. Tho common conception of education iu
Ibe Middle East senna to ho that tho duty of a school is to cram temporarily
into Ibo minds of its pupiE just onough book-knowlcdgo to ouablo thorn to
purs some final examination, which will lead, in its turn, to some form of
lucrative employment.
• V. ; • •
This is a very low view of education, and ono which does not exist any­
where in England. Tho duty of a school, in our viow, ia to preparo childron,
not for examinations, but for lifo itself. Lifo ia supposed by uu to bo a sort
of buttle, and our aim ia to equip our children for it with Charactor,
without which we believe that tho hattlo cannot bo fought successfully. In
English schools, therefore, tho instilling of knowlcdgo from books in a inattor
of secondary importance—moat English parents, indeed, consider it to bo a
mailer ol only third importance, ainco what they demand of tho eohools is
health and character lirst, uud book-kuowlcdgo only afterwards.

In nil branches of English lifo chnraotor is moro eatcomed than clover-
uc6?. When, for example, sumo important or responsible post is to bo filled,
these who aro making tho appointment do not consider vory carofully what
examinations tho candidates may havo passed, or what university dogreos
they may have obtained: thoy aro moro concornod to inquire into caoh
imm's personal character, and especially into tho charactor which ho boro
when he was a boy at school; for it is according to character that mou
behave, and not according to oduoation.

Another English belief is that tho formation of a boy’s oharaotor
is practically completed by the timo ho roachos tho ago of 13 or 14—that
ufter that ago character .does not change vory much. Indeed, ono of our
greatest poets, of a hundred years ago, has writlon that “ tho ohild is
father to tho rnau.” What a hoy is at 14, ho will probably bo at 40.
it is for this reason that in England wo oxeroiso eo much caro over tho
education of our younger pupils.

• •• *. But in tho Middlo Eastern Schools tho oaso is dilloront. Thoro, it
seems to have boon forgotton that ouo who is a liar iu his youth will rorauiu
a liar in his ago; that ho who will cheat in tho olussroom when ho is a boy
at school,'will clioat iu tho King’s troasury, or iu tho Customs llouso, whon
he 'isVruun. If this is true, your Highness will readily undorstuud why
tho .English schools attach far more importance to tho formation of
churactor than to tho filling of tho mind with knowlcdgo from books.

Tho qualities which aro perhaps tho most prized in England aro : olean-
lincr,.?, sportsmanship, and manners ; truthfulness and houosty ; loyalty ;
oWdimico and discipline ; courage and oudurooco ; modesty ; fairness and
broadmindedness; kindness, generosity, and uusolfishnoss; indopondouco
und pclf-rclianco; commonsenso; and solf-oontrol. Thoso virtues aro taught
to hoys at school in various ways, but chiofly by prooopt, environment,
example, religion, history, literature, and gamos.
In tho firm bolief that thoro is no hope, aud uo future, for thoso
Arab countries which aro to-day filling tho minds of thoir young pooplo