What’s Wrong with the World · Chapter
VI: Authority the Unavoidable explained
Chesterton argues that authority is inescapable in education, rejecting the modern notion that education can be non-coercive.
What happens
Chesterton argues that authority is inescapable in education, rejecting the modern notion that education can be non-coercive. He contends that both traditional and progressive educators impose their will on children, and that the real problem is not authority itself but the abdication of responsibility by moderns who fear affirming truth. He links this to the decay of democracy and the rule of an oligarchy that imposes untested, faddish ideas on the young.
Themes in this chapter
Education and Authority
Central theme: Chesterton insists that all education involves coercion and that modern attempts to avoid authority are illusory and cowardly.
Social Class and Oligarchy
Chesterton links the decay of education to rule by a 'little oligarchy' that imposes untested fads on children, contrasting with a democratic ideal where people govern themselves.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Bernard Shaw
Quoted as hating the idea of forming a child's mind; Chesterton uses this to argue that such a view is impossible and that Shaw shrinks from the responsibility of authority.
- Count Tolstoy
Mentioned as issuing a 'papal encyclical against music,' exemplifying the modern tendency to forbid rather than liberate.
- Socialists
Referenced in the context of a 'Socialist soiree' where a 'meek little madman' asked Chesterton to oppose adventure stories for boys.
- Unknown
The narrator (Chesterton) recounts personal encounters and reflects on the nature of authority and education.
Key passages
“Education is violent; because it is creative. It is creative because it is human. It is as reckless as playing on the fiddle; as dogmatic as drawing a picture; as brutal as building a house.”
Chesterton asserts that education is inherently forceful and assertive, akin to any human creative act, and cannot be gentle or neutral.
This encapsulates his argument that authority is unavoidable in shaping a child's mind.
“The only result of all this pompous and precise distinction between the educator and the instructor is that the instructor pokes where he likes and the educator pulls where he likes. Exactly the same intellectual violence is done to the creature who is poked and pulled.”
Whether one claims to 'draw out' or 'pour in' knowledge, both methods impose the adult's will on the child, making the distinction meaningless.
Chesterton dismisses the progressive vs. traditional dichotomy as a false one.
“I mean the responsibility of affirming the truth of our human tradition and handing it on with a voice of authority, an unshaken voice. That is the one eternal education: to be sure enough that something is true that you dare to tell it to a child.”
True education requires the courage to assert what is known to be true and pass it on confidently to the next generation.
This is Chesterton's positive vision of education as a duty rooted in conviction.