251 



In the memorandum of the County Councils Association, 

 nothing is said about less schooling, but the guiding" principle in 

 all the subjects of the curriculum is to be to let surroundings teach, 

 and thus to put back scientific method into rural education. Geo- 

 graphy and history are to be based on the physical features of, 

 or the events associated with, the neighbourhood. In arithmetic, 

 out-of-door measurement of land, crops, stacks, and cisterns is to 

 be introduced. School-gardening is to be regarded not merely 

 as instruction in the operations of gardening, but as a study of 

 the growth of crops in relation to the soil. Thus although no 

 teaching of agriculture is to be introduced, partly perhaps be- 

 cause the teachers are not qualified to teach it, partly because it 

 would be waste of time to those boys who do not afterwards 

 follow agricultural pursuits, still knowledge of surroundings is 

 being acquired, habits of intelligent observation are being culti- 

 vated, and every subject of the school curriculum is acquiring a 

 reality which no oral teaching could ever give it, and which must 

 render the education a better training for life, whatever the after 

 careers of the lads may be. 



But while agriculture is not taught, it is noticeable that in the 

 study of surroundings such subjects are suggested as will yield 

 knowledge that is useful to the farmer or farmhand. For exam- 

 ple, the boys are to collect the farm and garden weeds, and study 

 their root systems and time of seeding with the view of learning" 

 the reasons for their abundance and the best means of dealing 

 with them. From the point of view of cultivating intelligent ob- 

 servation, such an exercise is as good as one that has no utilita- 

 rian bearing, and it has this additional value, that the boys 

 learn to apply their knowledge to the practical purposes of rural 

 life. 



This idea of purpose is kept prominently in view in all the 

 subjects named in the memorandum. Manual work naturally takes 

 an important place, for it is as necessary to cultivate the habit of 

 manual work in childhood as it is the habit of intelligent 

 observation, and its neglect has been another factor in the 

 preference shown by lads after leaving" school for non-rural 

 employment, and therefore in rural depopulation. But again, the 

 manual work is to have purpose. The woodwork is to be directed 

 to making useful things, the gardening to growing useful vege- 

 tables, and thus, the boys' hearts, as well as their heads and hands, 

 become impressed into their education. 



One omission is noticeable — that the teaching of science finds 

 no place in the suggestions. But to acquire a scientific habit of 

 mind, the study of a science is certainly not necessary, nor even 

 perhaps desirable, for children of twelve and thirteen. It is nature- 

 study rather than the study of a natural science that is advocated, 

 for while the correlation of a number of facts or phenomena of 

 the same kind is likely to weary children, the co-ordination of one 

 fact or phenomenon with others of a different order stimulates 

 their interest and widens their outlook, and permits more readily 

 of application to the purposes of daily life. 



