182 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



ability of a general liberal education cannot be disputed, it is 

 very difficult for the lay mind to understand why the engineer, 

 of all persons, should appear to acquiesce in the claim of clas- 

 sical teachers that they have a monopoly in culture — that no 

 education can be liberal unless the greater part of the time avail- 

 able during the years in which most should be done to promote 

 mental development be devoted to the study of the particular 

 subject they profess. The existence of a tendency — not only on 

 the part of engineers but also on that of the general public — 

 to accept the classicists' claim cannot be questioned ; even when 

 the public demands that part of the curriculum of our schools 

 shall be utilitarian, it is conscious the while of a feeling that 

 it is illiberal, if not illegitimate, to do so and only persists in 

 that demand because it realises that life is not long enough 

 for culture to be obtained in the conventional way at the 

 expense of all "utilitarian" knowledge. 



One noticeable feature was the general agreement between 

 those who took part in the discussion and the authors of the 

 various papers that specialisation in education was undesirable 

 before a certain age, which on the average was placed at sixteen. 

 The fact of this agreement on a point which is often disputed 

 was practically the only favourable sign obvious in the chaos 

 of special pleading which marked the Conference in the stages 

 referred to. 



It will be well to consider some of the papers in detail to 



see how far the strong feeling against specialisation and the 



desire for a general liberal education are compatible with 



acquiescence in the position and claims of the classicist. The 



criticisms offered are frankly provocative but it is hoped that 



there is some measure of justification for the attitude they 



represent. 



Dr. Gow's Views 



The first paper, " On Literary Education and Engineering," 

 was read by Dr. Gow, Headmaster of Westminster School, 

 an able exponent of the classical position ; probably owing to 

 the fact that the subject of his thesis was set for him, his 

 essay was over-weighted with platitudes the truth of which 

 nobody could or would care to deny. One has yet to discover 

 the iconoclast bold (or foolish) enough to say that a " literary 

 education up to certain point" is valueless, even to a crossing- 

 sweeper, if the word "value" be given its widest significance; 



