Q2: Précis and title (freedom in education)

Understanding the topic

This passage is an argument with a clear position, which makes it easier to compress than a descriptive one, but it carries a trap: the author spends his first sentences describing views he goes on to reject.

The passage, as printed

On the question of freedom in education there are at present three main schools of thought, deriving partly from differences as to ends and partly from differences in psychological theory. There are those who say that children should be completely free, however bad they may be; there are those who say they should be completely subject to authority, however good they may be; and there are those who say they should be free, but in spite of freedom they should be always good. This last party is larger than it has any logical right to be; children, like adults, will not all be virtuous if they are all free. The belief that liberty will ensure moral perfection is a relic of Rousseauism, and would not survive a study of animals and babies. Those who hold this belief think that education should have no positive purpose, but should merely offer an environment suitable for spontaneous development. I cannot agree with this school, which seems to me too individualistic, and unduly indifferent to the importance of knowledge. We live in communities which require co-operation, and it would be utopian to expect all the necessary co-operation to result from spontaneous impulse. The existence of a large population on a limited area is only possible owing to science and technique; education must, therefore, hand on the necessary minimum of these. The educators who allow most freedom are men whose success depends upon a degree of benevolence, self-control, and trained intelligence which can hardly be generated where every impulse is left unchecked; their merits, therefore, are not likely to be perpetuated if their methods are undiluted. Education, viewed from a social standpoint, must be something more positive than a mere opportunity for growth. It must, of course, provide this, but it must also provide a mental and moral equipment which children cannot acquire entirely for themselves.

Suggested title

Freedom and Purpose in Education

Model précis

Opinion on freedom in education divides three ways: that children should be wholly free, that they should be wholly subject to authority, or that they should be free and nevertheless turn out good. The third view is the most popular and the least defensible, since freedom no more guarantees virtue in children than it does in adults, and the belief that it does is a survival of Rousseau's thinking that observation does not support. Those who hold it treat education as having no positive aim beyond providing conditions for natural growth. That is too individualistic and takes too little account of knowledge. Communities depend on cooperation, which cannot be expected to arise spontaneously, and dense populations survive only through science and technique, so education must transmit at least a minimum of both. Even the teachers who allow the most freedom owe their success to benevolence, self-control and trained intelligence, qualities unlikely to develop where every impulse goes unchecked, so their methods cannot reproduce themselves. Education must therefore offer more than an opportunity for growth: it must supply the mental and moral equipment children cannot acquire alone.

(180 words from a passage of roughly 330.)

How this précis was built

The trap is the opening. Three positions are described, and a careless summary reports all three as though the author holds them. He holds none of them, and the précis has to make that clear while still recording that the three views exist.

The second decision is what to do with the author's own voice. "I cannot agree with this school" becomes an impersonal statement of the objection, because a précis reports the argument rather than performing it. The reasoning stays; the first person goes.

The full method is taught in the CSS Essay & Précis Masterclass. If you write good essays but lose marks here, this explains why: why good essay writers lose marks in précis.