NATIONAL NECESSITIES AND EDUCATION. 449 



other branch of practical education which forms the greater part, in 

 practice, of the future of the womanly life. We consider that evi- 

 dence in proof of this belief has already been offered, and we suggest 

 that a girl trained in the manner now described would, in this coun- 

 try, or in any other country into which she might emigrate, be far 

 better fitted for the duties pertaining to any station she might hold, 

 than if she were simply dismissed from school primed with the stand- 

 ards, and standardless. 



Life-learning Texdencies. We contend, secondly, that the ed- 

 ucation of the young of all classes, and of the poorest classes chiefly, 

 should be so framed as to lead to the inducement of making the acqui- 

 sition of knowledge a taste instead of a task, a pursuit instead of a 

 labor. We contend that if the present system is pursued in which 

 children who are not by heredity born to mental occupation, and who 

 are not physically privileged to acquire information, are, by sheer 

 force, driven through the hard and fast lines, fenced out by the books 

 called standards, at a pace that shall make them complete their educa- 

 tion irrespectively of temperament, health, ability, before their thir- 

 teenth or fourteenth year the pressure, amounting in every case to a 

 hardship, will merely have the effect of causing them to cease to learn 

 when the pressure is taken off. We insist upon this, that the system 

 shall be so modified that there shall be no mental pressure at all, but 

 a mixture of mental and physical teaching which shall bring the mind 

 into desire for knowledge after it is freed from the necessities to ac- 

 quire it. 



Aptitude for Productive Ability. A third advancement upon 

 which we lay great stress is, that the educational system shall be of 

 a kind that shall render the body of fitting aptitude for productive 

 ability. We argue that, unless discrimination is used by the teacher 

 for detecting the natural or hereditary capabilities of the scholar, there 

 must be failure in result of the most serious kind ; failure that will 

 tell upon all the productive industries of the country, so that agricult- 

 ure, the various industrial arts, the various labors which call for mus- 

 cular skill, activity, and endurance, will be sacrificed, or largely reduced 

 in effective value. In insisting on this practice of developing produc- 

 tive ability, we are sustained by the belief that nothing could be lost 

 by the effort in the way of actual education. We are of opinion that 

 the time saved by the adoption of varying conditions of school-work 

 would prevent the injuries now incident to the fixed rules under which 

 the educational system is enforced, and in this view we are supported 

 by the opinions of the most practical teachers. 



We maintain that courses of physical training such as we wish to 

 introduce would have a distinct formative effect in mental habits. 

 This is especially seen in the industrial and reformatory institutions 

 where the same principles of mixed physical and mental training have 

 been adopted as prevail in the district half-time schools. A draft 



VOL.. XXL 2& 



