F. C. S. Schiller. Practical Eugenics.2 3
PRACTICABLE EUGENICS IN EDUCATION.
(Abstract.)
By Dr. F. C. S. Schiller.
The danger to mankind arising from the preservation of the unfit under
social conditions. The self-destructiveness of civilization. Its superiority
dependent on the transmission of accumulated knowledge by education.
The danger of failure in educational systems. Is the education of the rich
necessarily a failure? The middle classes as providers of ability to man
the professions; but the price they have to pay at present is too often racial
extinction. The draining of ability from the lower classes.
The existing educational system and its potential value for eugenics. Its
unintellectual character. The liberal endowment of a “ liberal education.”
Commercialism and the scholarship system. The athletic system, the play
instincts and morai training. Both systems are Darwinian and appeal to
British character.
Suggested improvements: (i) in the athletic system; “fitness,” not a
merely physical ideal; (2) in the scholarship system; “ liberal education ”
to be conceived as intrinsically useful, and not merely a game with intrinsi
cally useless subjects.
Should scholarships be restricted to the needy ? The educational
dangers of this policy. The eugenical value of the existing system.
The possibility of infusing eugenical spirit into athletics. The appeal
of eugenics to the upper classes. A real versus a sham nobility. The
eugenical ideal essentially a matter of sentiment and not necessarily anti democratic.
