No
Limit To Pain For Those Who Allow It
One of the most telling accounts of schooling ever
penned comes directly from the lips of
a legendary power broker, Colonel Edward Mandel House, one of these
grand shadowy figures in American
history. House had a great deal to do with America's entry into WWI as a deliberate project to seize German
markets in
chemicals, armor plate and shipping, an aspect of our bellicosity rarely mentioned in scholastic
histories. When peace came,
House's behind-the-scenes maneuvering in the League of Nations
contributed to repudiation of the organization. His management of President
Wilson led to persistent stories
that Wilson was little more than a puppet of the Colonel.
In his memoirs, The Intimate Papers of
Colonel House, we get a glimpse of elite
American schooling in the 1870s. House's early years were school-free.
He grew up after the Civil War,
near Houston, Texas:
My brother James, six
years older than I, was the leader.. ..We all had guns and pistols... there were no childish games excepting
those connected with war. [House was nine at the time.] In the evening around the fireside there were told
tales of daring deeds that we
strove to emulate.... I cannot remember the time when I began to ride
and to shoot.... I had many narrow
escapes. Twice I came near killing one of my playmates in the reckless use of firearms. They were our toys and
death our playmate.
At the age of
fourteen House was sent to school in Virginia. The cruelty of the other
boys made an indelible impression
on his character, as you can sift from this account:
I made up my mind at the second attempt
to haze me that I would not permit it. I not only had a pistol but a large knife, and with these I held the
larger, rougher boys at bay. There
was no limit to the lengths they would go in hazing those who would
allow it. One form I recall was
that of going through the pretense of hanging. They would tie a boy's
hands behind him and string him up
by the neck over a limb until he grew purple in the face. None of it, however, fell to me. What
was done to those who permitted it is almost beyond belief. At the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven
at the age of seventeen,
during the Hayes-Tilden campaign of 1876, House
began to "hang around" political offices instead of "attending to studies." He
came to be recognized and was given small privileges. When the election had to be ultimately settled by an
Electoral Commission he was
allowed to "slip in and out of hearings at will." House
again:
All this was
educational in its way, though not the education I was placed in Hopkins Grammar School to get, and it is no
wonder that I lagged at the end of my class. I had no interest in desk tasks, but I read much and was learning in
a larger and more interesting
school.
House's story was
written over and over in the short, glorious history of American education before schooling took over.
Young Americans were allowed close to the
mechanism of things. This rough and tumble practice kept social class
elastic and American achievement
in every practical field superb.
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