TRADITION IN EDUCATION 191 



subject. In the past we have overdone " bookishness," we have 

 overestimated the importance of respect for authority and 

 precedent. It is now our duty to demand that those subjects 

 or rather that that form of discipline shall receive attention, 

 which cultivates resourcefulness, which trains in habits of 

 accuracy and truth, which ensures independence of character, 

 as it is our privilege to urge the recognition of the man of 

 action as being of greater worth to the State than the book-worm. 



Prof. Thompson's Views 



Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, in his essay, dealt with the 

 extent to which mathematical and scientific subjects should 

 share with other subjects of literate education the attention of 

 schoolboys who intend to enter the engineering profession. 

 The subject again was one indicated by the Institute of Civil 

 Engineers but it must be confessed that the title was mis- 

 leading. No attempt was made to define the proportions in 

 which the time available should be allotted to the various 

 subjects of the curriculum but it was argued that it was not 

 so important whether the hours per week given to science 

 should be tew or many as that precision in expression and 

 the faculty of hard thinking should be cultivated. The lack of 

 definite educational aim exhibited by the majority of schools 

 was criticised and a plea entered for a school leaving examina- 

 tion of a general character in place of the numerous special 

 matriculation and preliminary examinations which are now 

 held. Prof. Thompson also laid emphasis on four recom- 

 mendations of the Institute in respect of education preparatory 

 to entrance, viz. that : 



11 1. Specialisation while at school, that is to say, up to about 

 the age of seventeen, is undesirable." 



" 2. A leaving examination for secondary schools, similar in 

 character to those existing in Scotland and Wales, is desirable 

 throughout the United Kingdom. It is desirable to have a 

 standard such that it could be accepted by the Institute as 

 equivalent to the studentship examination and by universities 

 and colleges as equivalent to a matriculation." 



" 3. Instruction in mathematics should be on somewhat 

 modified methods." 



"4. A general knowledge of elementary physics and chem- 



