On Education – Aldous Huxley

I have recently been re-reading one of my favourite books – Island by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1962. The book is many things: philosophy, suggestions for living, and a story of a doomed utopia with engaging characters.

One of the underlying themes is how we educate our children and ourselves, still very relevant to the world today. I’m going to go ahead and quote sections, because Huxley writes so clearly.

‘We begin,’ said Mr. Menon, ‘by assessing the differences. Precisely who or what, anatomically, biochemically and psychologically, is this child? In the organic hierarchy, which takes precedence – his gut, his muscles, or his nervous system? How near does he stand to the three polar extremes? How harmonious or disharmonious is the mixture of his component elements, physical and mental? How great is his inborn wish to dominate, or to be sociable, or to retreat into his inner world? And how does he do his thinking and perceiving and remembering? Is he a visualizer or a non-visualizer? Does his mind work with images or with words, with both at once, or with neither? How close to the surface is his story-telling faculty? Does he see the world as Wordsworth and Traherne saw it when they were children? And if so, what can be done to prevent the glory and the freshness from fading into the light of common day? Or, in more general terms, how can we educate children on the conceptual level without killing their capacity for intense non-verbal experience? How can we reconcile analysis with vision? And there are dozens of other questions that must be asked and answered.’

Huxley was a man of his times and a product of his upbringing and experiences. So although he had an interest in cultures other than his own, he could not necessarily reflect the broadness of the world. So I would add questions such as ‘What cultures does the child come from? How can we nurture, support and encourage diverse backgrounds?’

When this particular school system has answered the questions, it takes action. ‘When we have the answers, we sort out all the shyest, tensest, most over-responsive and introverted children, and assemble them in a single group. Then, little by little, the group is enlarged. First a few children with tendencies towards indiscriminate sociability are introduced. Then one or two little muscle-men and muscle-women – children with tendencies towards aggressiveness and love of power. It’s the best method, we’ve found, for getting little boys and girls at the three polar extremes to understand and tolerate one another. After a few months of carefully controlled mixing, they’re ready to admit that people with a different kind of hereditary make-up have just as good a right to exist as they have. … Talk about it in animal parables, and even very small children can understand the fact of human diversity and the need for mutual forbearance, mutual forgiveness.’

 This is only one example of Huxley’s suggestions for a better education system. He also talks about channeling anger into constructive or at least non harmful activities such as rock climbing, dancing, or five deep breaths. Having been a teacher myself, I know that some of Huxley’s techniques have been and are being used. Still, it seems to me we could be doing so much more. We speak of lifelong learning, but how many of us really open our mind and hearts to alternate ways of thinking, to compassion, to trying to live together on starship earth, instead of trying to annihilate one another other?

Again, Huxley: ‘A trained mind-body learns more quickly and more thoroughly than an untrained one. It’s also more capable of relating facts to ideas and both of them to its ongoing life.’

I had a conversation recently with a friend about how different many young people are today who go into employment. Some want to be catered to, some are not self-aware enough to realize their own strengths and weaknesses, and some don’t seem to understand ways to work with others.

We start learning the moment we are born. In my experience as a parent, grandparent and teacher I’ve found that children can learn much more than we often give them credit for, given the chance, and presented with things when they are open and interested. I remember when it was a generally accepted fact that you shouldn’t teach children to read before they went to school because they might get bored or they might upset the way the rest of the class was taught. My grandson virtually taught himself to read years before going to school by being exposed to and told about letters and words.

Huxley again (though in this case I think he’s underestimating that age at which a child can begin to learn almost anything): ‘From about five onwards practically any intelligent child can learn practically anything, provided always that you present it to him in the right way. Logic and structure in the form of games and puzzles. … Taught in this way, most children can learn at least three times as much, four times as thoroughly in half the time.’

A true education makes us open to the world, aware and critical, not afraid to question our own and others ways, but also willing to listen carefully to what is being said, and watch what is going on.

Still speaking about education, Mr. Menon, the Under-Secretary of Education in this world Huxley created, says, ‘So you can see it’s very important for any society that values liberty to be able to spot the future somnambulists when they’re young. Once they’ve been spotted, they can be hypnotized and systematically trained not to be hypnotized by the enemies of liberty. And at the same time, of course, you’d be well advised to reorganize your social arrangements so as to make it difficult or impossible for the enemies of liberty to arise or have any influence.’ Hmm. Rather applicable to our world today.

I believe that there are people who do educate their children and themselves in some of these ways. And that they find ‘the road that leads towards happiness from the inside out, through health, through awareness, though a change in one’s attitude toward the world; not towards the mirage of happiness from the outside in, through toys and pills and non-stop distractions.’