THE PLACE OP RESEARCH IN EDUCATION. 351 



named a ' liberal educationl which it never will be so long 

 as we worship the old-world classical fetish, and allow our 

 schools to be controlled by those who reverence this alone, 

 having never been instructed in a wider faith." 



And what are schools such as this to do ? Should they 

 not also teach in the same spirit? As the Secondary 

 Education Commissioners point out: Education must ever 

 become more practical — a means of forming men (and they 

 should have added, and women) not simply to enjoy life but 

 to accomplish something in the life they enjoy. 



To this end, every school, I believe, whether in this 

 metropolis or elsewhere, must work out its own salvation ; 

 and we must not look for payment on results, or countenance 

 examinations which reduce all to one dead level. 



When Professor Ayrton and I were appointed the first 

 professors of the City and Guilds of London Institute— he 

 having cut his educational teeth in the service of the 

 Japanese and I having been largely made in Germany — 

 we found ourselves in complete agreement that we would 

 have nothing: to do with teaching for examinations. Those 

 who afterwards became our colleagues in the establishment 

 of the Finsbury Technical College, my friends Mr. (now 

 Sir Philip). Magnus and Professor Perry fully shared this 

 view, and we all saw that a big problem in education lay 

 before us which we could only work out if we had complete 

 libertv of action, and the Committees we had to do with 

 never for one moment questioned this — all honour to them. 

 I am proud tcsay that the programmes of the Guilds' Colleges 

 have never been disfigured by references to examinations 

 as objects to be kept in view by students, and I venture to 

 think that when the time comes to consider without pre- 

 judice the services which the City Guilds have rendered to 

 the cause of education, it will be admitted that they, more 

 than any other body, have shown true appreciation of 

 English needs. It is worth while noting that although it 

 has never been a coaching college, the Finsbury Technical 

 College has always been overfull, which disposes of the 

 assertion that the bait of an examination must necessarily be 

 held out as an attraction. 



25 



