46 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



And the following papers on prehistoric anthropology may 

 also be recorded : 



In the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (as above) : " Early 

 Fijians," by A. M. Hocurt. In Man : " An Irish Decorated Socketed 

 Axe," by Sir W. Ridgeway (November) ; and " A Piece of Carved Chalk 

 from Suffolk," by J. Reid Moir (December). And in Spolia Zeylanica 

 (vol. xi, pt. 41, October 1919), " Outlines of the Stone Ages of Ceylon," by 

 E. J. Wayland. 



EDUCATION". By A. E. Heath, M.A.. University, Manchester. 



The problem of the relation between educational theory and 

 cognate sciences is raised in several recent publications. The 

 issue as a whole is complex ; but the matter discussed seems 

 to fall into separate sections. 



(i) First of all, it is becoming increasingly clear that there 

 are two distinct purposes for which the special sciences can be 

 pressed into the service of education. They may be used to 

 improve the means for attaining previously decided ends ; or 

 they may be used to provide a solid basis for criticism of the 

 ends proposed. In his Inaugural Address to the newly con- 

 stituted Educational Section of the British Psychological 

 Society, Prof. T. P. Nunn expresses this as follows : " Education 

 is a biological function more ancient even than man, for it is 

 found in a rudimentary form among animals. ... In relation 

 to that great vital function, the psychologist must always be 

 contented with the position of a critic, whose primarj^ business 

 is not to determine the aims of education, but to ensure efficiency 

 and economy in the means by which those aims are pursued. 

 He is concerned with the aims of education only in a secondary 

 way, in so far as his criticism of traditional procedure may lead 

 to what is, in effect, a revaluation of accepted ideals " {Brit. 

 Journ. of Psy., 1920, 10, 2 and 3, pp. 169-76). These remarks 

 clearly apply also to any of the sciences cognate to education. 

 They may, however, be supplemented by Dr. R. R. Rusk's 

 statement that it is for experimental education to decide whether 

 the aims proposed are compatible with the child's nature {Intro- 

 duction to Experimental Education, Longmans, 191 2 ed., p. 8). 



(2) Let us, then, accept the view that the end of education 

 is, as Prof. James Ward put it long ago, a wider " social and 

 ethical problem " {Journ. of Ed., Nov. 1890) ; and let us 

 therefore confine ourselves to the application of the special 

 sciences to educational method. In this restricted field a steady 

 drift of opinion is apparent towards the view that education 

 is an autonomous study, with its own special difficulties and 

 subject-matter, and not a mere dumping-ground for other 

 sciences. The concepts necessary for its ordering should there- 

 fore be developed in the field of education itself : they cannot, 



