The Project Gutenberg EBook of What Is and What Might Be, by Edmond Holmes

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Title: What Is and What Might Be
A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular

Author: Edmond Holmes

Release Date: February 10, 2007 [EBook #20555]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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WHAT IS AND WHAT
MIGHT BE

A STUDY OF EDUCATION IN GENERAL AND
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN PARTICULAR

BY

EDMOND HOLMES

AUTHOR OF
"THE CREED OF CHRIST," "THE CREED OF BUDDHA," "THE SILENCE
OF LOVE," "THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE," ETC.

LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY
1912

First published, May 1911.
Second impression, July 1911.
Third impression, September 1911.
Fourth impression, November 1911.
Fifth impression, January 1912.
Sixth impression, October 1912.

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|Transcriber's note: Obvious printer errors have been corrected. All |
|other inconstancies in spelling or punctuation are as in the original.|
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PREFACE

My aim, in writing this book, is to show that the _externalism_ of
the West, the prevalent tendency to pay undue regard to outward and
visible "results" and to neglect what is inward and vital, is the
source of most of the defects that vitiate Education in this country,
and therefore that the only remedy for those defects is the drastic
one of changing our standard of reality and our conception of the
meaning and value of life. My reason for making a special study of
that branch of education which is known as "Elementary," is that I
happen to have a more intimate knowledge of it than of any other
branch, the inside of an elementary school being so familiar to me
that I can in some degree bring the eye of experience to bear upon
the problems that confront its teachers. I do not for a moment
imagine that the elementary school teacher is more deeply tainted
than his fellows with the virus