666 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the living tongue of scholars? and " people wanted to know Latin, not to write 

 Latin verses in imitation of Vergil, but to speak it or to read the latest work on 

 theology or tactics or geography? 



Vocational Education 



At the Conference of Educational Associations on January 3, 191 7, Mr. J. C. 

 Maxwell Garnett, M.A., Principal of the Municipal School of Technology, 

 Manchester, lectured on " The Vocational Outlook in Education." He opened 

 his lecture with the remark that "Our education prepares most children for 

 vacations and not vocations," and this provided his chief theme. His experience 

 at the Manchester School of Technology forced him to the conclusion that the 

 education of the child in a general way, hitherto adopted, was unsatisfactory ; for, 

 as he said, " if you want a man to be a rower, you would teach him to row " ; and, 

 similarly, if you want to produce a good business man, you must teach him some- 

 thing that he can find useful in his career. The great point at issue is what is the 

 real aim of education, a point on which there is no agreement as yet. In his 

 opinion, education is not an end in itself, and is only useful in so far as it fits the 

 pupil for life and the furtherance of the good of his country. The energies of the 

 greater part of the people of Great Britain after the war will be devoted to recoup- 

 ing its industrial losses, and to this end, those minds found suitable to such 

 labour should be specially trained. It should be the duty of the teachers to find 

 the chief bent of their pupils, what he called their " single wide interest," which 

 should be encouraged and cultivated on special lines, but he denied the accusation 

 that such a system would be over-specialisation. Thus every unit of the com- 

 munity would be an effective unit. He laid down the proposition that no man 

 ought merely to live to work, but that he should be trained in the work which he 

 himself preferred to all others, so that his work should become his pleasure, apart 

 from any pecuniary consideration. He recognised the fact that there existed 

 some very mechanical labour which could fascinate no one ; but this should be 

 reduced to seven hours a day, thus leaving the workman time for other and more 

 congenial employment. Dealing with the Universities, he maintained that they 

 should throw their doors open to all, provided the would-be students showed 

 themselves fitted for such education, and not insist that the secondary schools 

 should be the sole channel of entry into university life ; and further, that if a boy 

 was compelled to earn his living after leaving school, this should not debar him 

 from obtaining university instruction in later years. A useful hint was given in 

 the discussion that followed by a headmaster of an elementary school. He said 

 he was often consulted as to a suitable career for his pupils, but the method of 

 education was such that the pupil had no free time in which to develop his own 

 interests, and in consequence he (the master) knew nothing of his pupils except 

 their success or failure in examinations. 



Port Sunlight and the Housing Problem 



Port Sunlight is the materialised expression of the ideals of Sir William Lever, 

 carried out in the generous spirit of its founder, and its success gives him the 

 right to speak authoritatively on the present question of the shortage of cottages, 

 a problem which has grown infinitely more acute since the outbreak of war. The 

 underlying principles in the laying out of the estate for the benefit of the operatives 

 in his own soap manufactory are that man being individual as well as gregarious 



