162 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



JuME 2, 1917. 



strongly marked individual capacity and ability, 

 who are exceedingly good at a variety of subjects. 

 At the bottom are the people who are clearly 

 slow and dull, and find great difficulty in applying 

 themselves intelligently to any subject. Then there 

 is a much larger second class of fair straightforward 

 capacity, not markedly good at any one subject and 

 not markedly feeble; and it is these who are the 

 ■chief problem. The first class need careful special 

 training and higher education, the third class are prob- 

 ably not adapted for any intellectual education at all- 

 The second class are the real difficulty. 



Here it will be instructive to observe that in the 

 West Indies — at least as far as primary education is 

 ■concerned — there is a difference. The third class 

 containing those who cannot profit by intellectual 

 education is much greater than the second class of 

 medium mentalities. There is consequently a much 

 greater waste of educational effort in the West Indies 

 than in other countries like Great Britain, and this 

 fact ought to be recognized and attended to. 



But it is a great mistake to imagine that a dull 

 person is necessarily useless. He is only useless in an 

 intellectual sense. Properly trained in some handicraft 

 he may become a highly useful citizen. And this 

 brings us to consider the difference between educa- 

 tion and mere instruction. The one does not neces- 

 sarily imply the existence of the other, for people can 

 become educated without receiving definite instruc- 

 tion, and people can be definitely instructed without 

 becoming properly educated. The dull people must 

 be instructed in the way to do things without being 

 expected or required to think. 



It is generally recognized that one of the chief 

 educational difficulties is the dearth of jrood teachers. 

 This is because the public do not believe in edu- 

 cation sufficiently, or rather do not understand what it 

 means, to pay teachers properly to make it a career 

 for the best men. What is needed in the teacher is 



■originality and power to inspire, as well as clear intellect 

 and knowledge. Such men cannot be obtained unless 

 the prizes which the profession can offer are as good 

 as in Dther professions. Teachers are notoriously under- 

 paid in the West Indies, both in secondary and primary 



-education. Kefurm is needed in this direction, and if the 



: public levenue will not allow of greater expenditure on 

 education, then the nuinljer of schools or the size of 



'the schools should he reduced by excluding from an 

 intellectual education those people who do not po.ssess 

 fche natural aptitude to benefit by it. 



As to the relative position of literature and 

 .science in education there are very strong views 

 prevalent at present, and most of them are extreme 

 views. It is important to realize that education is not 

 the study of literature or of science but the desired 

 I'esult of such studies. A literary education, which 

 includes the classics, is a study of all that deals with 

 the emotions, hopes, fears and desires of mankind, with 

 the best and loftiest visions of the human soul, with 

 great htiman achievements and self-sacrifice. A .scien- 

 tific education concerns man's material surroundings 

 the study of which, in a general way, is equally 

 essential for producing a well-informed and enlightened 

 citizen. But in teaching science in primary and 

 secondary schools we must not be too disposed to 

 think that scientific facts in themselves are of first 

 importance. Scientific ideas and the cultivation of 

 an orderly habit of mind are the things to be aimed at 

 first. 'J'he accumulation of knowledge and the search 

 after knowledge are more properly confined to higher 

 education and the training of specialists. 



It is frequently held that the study of .science tends 

 to develop a materialistic mind. To rectify this we con- 

 sider more should be done to blend science and the study 

 of art. For instance, it is possible to regard a flower 

 both as an object of scientific interest and as an object 

 of beauty — beauty both in the sense of being wonder- 

 ful and in the sense of beauty of form and colour. 

 The recognition of beauty is stimulating to the imagin- 

 ation, and the development of the imagination inspires 

 a sympathetic and kindly attitude of mi nil. 



The .systematic study of science is far more impor- 

 tant in higher education than it is in primary or 

 secondary education. What is most needed at present 

 is not so much moreiscience in the schools as better 

 methods of detecting real aptitude for science, and 

 better facilities in the universities so that the best 

 abilities and capacities may be set free to pursue 

 their own bent. It is also necessary that remuner- 

 ative appointments should be created for people 

 thus educated. This latter point is one to which 

 much attention is now being given, principally as 

 a result of the war. 



Our chief consideration in this article, how- 

 ever, is general education: and it must be admitted 

 that conditions in the West Indies fall very lar short 

 of the ideal. ( Jeneral education in .these colonies fails 

 in many directions, but the most noticeable one is in 

 connexion with discipline and public opinion. Many 



