Romantic Concepts of Education

Even though a focus on the individual, nature and emotions emerged during the Romantic era, some Romantic conceptions of everyday life did not completely change. Particularly, this is seen in concepts of education. A wide variety of Romantics, both first and second generation, demonstrate this. William Godwin, Anna Barbauld, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Blake all wrote either directly or indirectly about how education should work, and in no one unifying way. Some of these writers would almost seem like Enlightenment writers, while some mix the Enlightenment and Romantic ideals and some would be completely Romantic in their views. Although the Romantic movement was a general reaction to the Enlightenment period, the Romantics’ concept of education was not a complete concept and so was not always a contrarian view to Enlightenment ideals.

William Godwin is a prime example of a mixed  Romantic education policy because he wrote so much on politics, history and society. Two works that stand out are his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and Of History and Romance. Godwin was not a poet or author like most other Romantic writers, but he influenced so many Romantic writers that he deserves the most attention in regards to education. Although many abandoned his view, such as Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron, they were not immune to his influence; As Hazlitt sums it up, “No work gave such a blow to the philosophical mind of the country as the celebrated Enquiry” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Perhaps the Romantics inconsistency on views of education is the result of Godwin’s own inconsistent view on the underlying principles of education. In his Enquiry, Godwin both supports Enlightenment views and Romantic views. For example, he writes that “Sound reasoning and truth, when adequately communicated, must always be victorious over error… The vices and moral weakness of man are not invincible; Man is perfectible, or in other words susceptible of perpetual improvement” (91). Here Godwin sums up his view that people are capable of improvement, but only through reason and logic, a very Enlightenment thing to say. The Romantic era was characterized by a rejection of reason and focus on inner psych and emotions, yet Godwin states that the only way people can learn to better themselves is through reason. Yet, he goes on to show that he does not completely support Enlightenment. He writes that “Every man that reads the composition of another suffers the succession of his ideas to be, in a considerable degree, under the direction of his author” (93). As Godwin plainly states, he does not believe that we should learn from each other, which means abandoning the focus on the classics that the Enlightenment cared so much about. From here on out, as Alex’s blog post “Godwin: Rationality Enthusiast” states, Godwin becomes an advocate of reason as being the only thing that can teach people other ways of life, not past traditions, and this showed in his daily life. For example, he was the founder of modern anarchism, and his hatred of politics prompted him to it (Kramnick) because English politics was steeped in deep tradition. Godwin begins his Enquiry with a base in Enlightenment thought by saying we can only learn to change ourselves through reason, yet so radically diverts himself from it that he leaves no room for emotion, a cornerstone of Romanticism. He truly lived according to his principles, which makes his Enquiry an interesting contrast to his Of History.

In his Of History, Godwin advocates for a Romantic study of history, which seems to bring back the emotion which he left out in his Enquiry and goes against an Enlightenment view of history. Godwin believes that when studying history, one should look at the people, and not overarching macro events. He writes that “True history consists in a delineation of consistent, human character, in a display of the manner in which such a character acts under successive circumstances.” Godwin was a Whig, and the Whig conception of history was that of overarching events that lead to perpetual improvement. Godwin takes one of the principles of Whig history, perpetual improvement as showed in his Enquiry, yet is a Romantic in that he believes that we should learn history by focusing on people, not dates. In a way, as the blog post “Godwin's "Of History and Romance"- a throwback to French Enlightenment Philosophy” points out, he reconciles the Enlightenment, which is strongly seen in the French Revolution, and Romantic thought. He does not fully reject one philosophy over the other, which is further evidence for Godwin’s mixed conception of education. Since William Godwin was so influential on all Romantics, both first and second generation, the concepts of education remain a contested issue for the Romantics, and this is most visible in the debate over women’s formal education by Romantics such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Barbauld.

 Women’s formal education was a central issue for the female Romantic writers, but they could not agree on what it should look like. Wollstonecraft and Barbauld agreed that women’s education should be reformed, but how to change and to what they could not come to a shared conclusion. It is easy to understand why there was such a united call for change to women’s education, as the following painting illustrates the state of women’s education. 

Very few girls and young women would learn Latin and the classics like many boys and young men, but would mostly learn how to play the piano, how to be a lady, etc. Their education took placed all under a watchful eye, too, as the painting shows. This meant that acting upon intellectual curiosities was out of the question, as was going off to university. Women’s education was meant to prepare a girl to be a wife, not go into the outside world and make a name for oneself. Wollstonecraft went against the grain of being a lady and reacted in a very unladylike way to the state of women’s education.

In her Vindication of the Rights of Woman , Wollstonecraft posits that women's education should be moved from accomplishment based i.e. learning how to dance, be ladies, play piano, to rational-based i.e. develop the brain, etc. Her thesis is the first way in which she differs from Barbauld. The second way she differs from Barbauld is the way she makes her argument. Wollstonecraft is very masculine in the way she attacks the male establishment, as the following excerpt shows:  “The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers which are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulness are sacrificed to beauty” (373). She is not timid and ladylike in her description of women, but very direct and assertive, which was perceived as masculine. She is also venturing outside the inner sphere, another masculine thing to do, because this metaphor is a commentary on society. She takes a simple metaphor and makes into commentary about how the social structure as a whole is hurting women’s development (Field). This is just one example of her rhetoric of being masculine, something not expected of a woman. Wollstonecraft is quite bold and assertive in her Vindication, which is unsettling to Barbauld.

Barbauld differs from Wollstonecraft in that she wants women’s education to be experiential learning, not of deep analysis as Wollstonecraft proposes, and that women should use feminine qualities in a masculine sense. She asserts her view in the poem “The Rights of Woman.” Barbauld advocates for education through experiences when she writes “Try all that wit and art suggest to bend/ Of thy imperial foe the stubborn knee” (lines 17-18). Barbauld does not support going into a library and poring over books like Wollstonecraft does, but wants women to go out and learn through experiences. Her rhetoric is feminine, but in a masculine way, as the following excerpt shows “Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon’s roar,/ Blushes and fears thy magazine of war” (lines 11-12). Both women want women’s education to change, but they cannot agree on how or to what it should be changed. 

William Blake in his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience gives another concept of education, one that is not completely anti-Enlightenment nor pro-Romantic. The key to understanding his work in Innocence is the illustrative plates that were part of the compilations of poems. Below is an example.

The plates would reinforce meaning to the poems in Innocence, so it is clear from this plate that the poems were concerned with education, even if not explicitly stated. This plate is a perfect representation of childlike innocence, a theme throughout this compilation. Through it Blake states that childlike innocence should be emphasized in education, which is Romantic. This is supported in “The School Boy” when he writes “But to go to school in a summer/ O! it drives all the joy away” (lines 6-7). As this excerpt shows, kids need a break to enjoy the idyllic summer and be kids. Yet, it is interesting that this poem is at the end of the Innocence collection, and even later moved into the Experience collection. Innocence and Experience contrast one another, because the Experience poems are about how the childlike innocence is lost. The movement most likely happened because of the second half of the poem “if buds are nip’d, / And blossoms blown away… How shall the summer arise in joy / Or the summer fruits appear” (lines 21-27). This excerpt shows how overemphasizing childlike innocence can lead to ignorance and mortal danger. The child never learned about agriculture, and so will struggle as an adult. If education is too touchy feely, bad things can happen, which the Experience poems illustrate. It seems that Blake is Romantic in his conception of education in Innocence, but his Experience poems show the dangers of being too Romantic.

            Romantics gave their two cents on everything, including education. Though, the two cents on education seemed very different throughout Romanticism. William Godwin seemed to be a continuation of Enlightenment thought in Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, but then shows a more Romantic side in Of History and Romance. Both Mary Wollstonecraft and Anna Barbauld are in favor of reforming women’s education, but through different methods and ends. William Blake seems to be completely Romantic concerning education in Songs of Innocence, but then hints at the dangers of being overly Romantic in education in Songs of Experience. There is no solid consensus on the concept of education, but there does seem to be a want of balance when these texts are examined as a whole. Both Blake and Godwin seem to advocate a “not too hot, not too cold” approach, and it is easy to infer that Wollstonecraft’s and Barbauld’s positions came to a middle because women are educated in the exact same way as men. There are a lot of theories and opinions on education, and a balance seems to underlie them all.

Works Cited

Field, Corinne. ""Made Women of When They Are Mere Children": Mary Wollstonecraft's Critique of Eighteenth-Century Girlhood." Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 4.2 (2011): 197-222. Print.

Kramnick, Issac. "On Anarchism and the Real World: William Godwin and Radical England." The American Political Science Review 66.1 (1972): 114-28. Print.

Pictures

PBS, 13 Feb. 2007. Web. <http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/stolen/>.

“”University of Georgia English Department Web. <http://www.english.uga.edu/wblake/SONGS/3/3frall.html>.