TRADITION IN EDUCATION 203 



schemes ; the process was everything, the result nothing. It 

 is desirable, however, that the teacher responsible for the work 

 should evolve a scheme— suited to the environment — which 

 takes due account of the " expressional " idea, while mindful 

 of the " technical " principle. As Mr. P. B. Ballard points out 

 in his essay Handwork as an Educational Medium, it is 

 desirable that a course should be systematic but it is essential 

 that it be expressional. Above all, latitude must be given : 

 there must be no attempt to impose uniformity on all schools, 

 for only by freedom can those evils be eliminated which arise 

 from the domination of an antiquated syllabus. 



An attempt at compromise will be evident in the scheme 

 outlined below, consequently its efficacy must not be judged 

 by visible "results," by completed "models" — although there 

 is no lack of these — so much as by the frame of mind it 

 engenders. 



In the case under consideration there is no formal 

 " course " in wood, metal and clay, through the stereotyped set 

 exercises of which every wretched boy must be pushed at the 

 rate of " x" per term: instead an attempt is made to provide 

 occupations of interest, while keeping in view, in a general 

 comprehensive manner, the aims which have been indicated 

 as desirable. Stress is laid on the fact that to direct attention 

 to superficial details obscures principles and leads merely to 

 confusion. Since opinion alters, the formulation of a rigid cast- 

 iron scheme is ridiculous ; it would but nullify the conditioning 

 aims. It must be understood that the appended outline is but 

 the momentary crystallisation of a transitional stage in a 

 constantly developing conception. 



The youngest boys attending the workshop are on the 

 average eleven years of age. They are started on carton work 

 and clay modelling concurrently. The materials are soft and 

 easily worked so that manipulation does not call for that degree 

 of physical strength which is necessary for much of the work 

 at a later stage. It is easy to suggest a well-graduated series 

 of cardboard models, which are progressively more and more 

 complex and therefore require increasing skill in manipulation 

 of tools as well as of material and, at the same time, afford 

 a convenient basis for much arithmetic and geometry : there 

 is also plenty of scope for originality of treatment and resource- 

 fulness. Adherence to one formal sequence is — as has been 



