TRADITION IN EDUCATION 209 



proceed along the lines which appeal most strongly to him — 

 in most cases, probably, specialised engineering work — but the 

 desire to learn something new should be potent enough to 

 maintain most if not all of the kinds of work quoted in a state 

 of active being, the order indicated not being like the laws of 

 the Medes and Persians. Although the scheme on which the 

 writer relies for these details has been established only two 

 years, its progress has been rapid enough to justify the 

 prophecy that ten years will see his ideals realised and many 

 of the developments proposed firmly established on a sound 

 working basis. 



If the case for the desirability of establishing and extending 

 schemes of manual work in schools have been improved in any 

 way by this essay, the claims of the new education will be 

 strengthened and the publication of details warranted. 



It is maintained that such curricula as have been outlined 

 afford the basis of a sound liberal education and that at seventeen 

 or perhaps earlier a boy who had been to a school where such 

 curricula were imposed would be fit for further and complete 

 specialisation, whether it were for the profession of engineer, 

 for that of man of letters, for a commercial career or for a trade. 

 It should be added that, in the writer's experience, very few 

 boys are quite destitute of fingers ; consequently, he believes 

 that there are very few who will not derive benefit from manual 

 training. It is only fitting to conclude with a quotation from 

 one to whom he owes all that is of worth in his outlook on 

 educational affairs, Prof. Armstrong. In his paper on The 

 Workshop in the School, 1 this writer says: "I want to see the 

 workshop method introduced — i.e. specific tasks set in the form 

 of problems which each child is to work out experimentally, the 

 teacher merely acting as foreman. When experimental work is 

 done in this way, it tends to develop habits of independence, 

 children become observant and thoughtful, their imagination is 

 called into play ; if properly led, they become honest workers : 

 instead of becoming parrots, they learn to think for themselves. 

 You cannot give the training in any other way, as you have to 

 develop the practical side of the child to do all this." 



1 The Teaching of Scientific Method (Macmillan). 



H 



