by the Revd. George Harris (later president of Amherst College)
Savagery is uniformity. The principal distinctions are sex, age, size
and strength. Savages...think alike or not at all, and converse
therefore in monosyllables. There is scarcely any variety, only a horde
of men, women and children. The next higher stage, which is called
barbarism, is marked by increased variety of functions. There is some
division of labor, some interchange of thought, better leadership, more
intellectual and aesthetic cultivation. The highest stage, which is
called civilization, shows the greatest degree of specialization.
Distinct functions become more numerous. Mechanical, commercial,
educational, scientific, political and artistic occupations multiply.
The rudimentary societies are characterized by the likeness of
equality; the developed societies are marked by the unlikeness of
inequality or variety. As we go down, monotony; as we go up, variety.
As we go down, persons are more alike; as we go up, persons are more
unlike, it certainly seems...as though [the] approach to equality is
decline towards the conditions of savagery, and as though variety is an
advance towards higher civilization...
Education is already so generally provided in America and other
countries, that, without forecasting imaginary conditions, there is no
difficulty in seeing how much equality is given by that
opportunity...The same amount of time is given to all; the same courses
are prescribed for all; the same teachers are appointed to all.
The opportunity is not merely open; it is forced upon all. Even
under a socialistic program it is difficult to imagine any arrangement
for providing the education which all are supposed to need more nearly
equal than the existing system of public schools. Even Mr Bellamy [a
prominent totalitarian socialist of the day] finds schools in the year
2000 A.D. modeled after those of the nineteenth-century. All things are
changed except the schools...Behind fifty desks exactly alike fifty
boys and girls are seated to recite a lesson prescribed to all...But
the algebra is not an opportunity for the boy who has no turn for
mathematics...Indeed, the more nearly equal the opportunity outwardly,
the more unequal it is really. When the same instruction for the same
number of hours a day by the same teachers is provided for fifty boys
and girls, the majority have almost no opportunity at all. The bright
scholars are held back...the dull scholars are unable to keep
up...average scholars are discouraged because the brighter pupils
accomplish their tasks so easily.