696 TRAlTItAL KHL^CATION. , 



imposed by city life and the ])r(>vision of cheap amusement, 

 cease to develop robust physical activities in the open air, the 

 school is called U])on to pr.)\ide systematic physical training. 

 As the industrial ^vorksh()p and the commercial house become 

 more scientific and specialised, anrl as the present system of ap- 

 prenticeshij) fails to give the orounding and training necessary 

 to the efficient and satisfied worker, so the obligation to make 

 good the want is i)laced upon the educational system of the 

 nation. This demand for xocational education is a rational one, 

 considered in the light of modern industrial and commercial 

 conditions ; it has lieen felt and met by other countries, resulting 

 in a quicker output and a l)etter service, both without deteriora- 

 tion in quality. 



What appears to Ije irrational, is the popular demand that 

 vocational education should be ])rovided in the ordinary or prim- 

 ary school. It has been pointed out that the primary school can 

 give a general training for life as a whole, but that it cannot 

 do so for the business side of life, exce])t in a very limited and 

 restricted sense.* Even if the ])rimarv school teacher was a 

 master in some craft, or an expert in some branch of btisiness, 

 he could not find the time, either on his own part, or on the part 

 of his pupils, to impart his vocational knowledge. It is essen- 

 tial that the child's mind should re-act intelligently to external 

 mental stimuli, so that the child may be fit as a member of the 

 general commtmity. He is there to see that that vital interaction 

 between the mind and its world, which is education, takes place ; 

 and he does so b\ gradually widening the child's world, liere 

 .softening one stimulus, there strenthening another, leading him 

 to increase his perceptive ])owers. To efi:'ect this he has to teach 

 his ])upils certain in'strumental subjects, namely, reading, writing, 

 arithmetic and drawine. Super-imposed upon these, for the 

 reasons already gi\ en, Biblical and moral knowledge and personal 

 hygiene, with physical exercises for the body. Together with 

 these, some cultural subjects are necessary, such as history, with 

 geography, singing, a little general science, some manual train- 

 ing, or hand work in wood or in metal, parallelled for girls by 

 lessons in cookery ( in order to balance the effect of the other 

 necessarily bookish subjects), and possibly, later on, an intro- 

 duction to literature. Add to it all the necessity for dual lan- 

 guage provisions, and it will be clear that both pupils and teachers, 

 in the ordinary or primary schools, are very busy persons indeed. 

 But, it may be urged, it is possible to give these subjects a more 

 vocational basis than is already done during the ordinary primary 

 school years. I do not think so. To take reading for example ; 

 this subject is an "instrument " for inculcating the proper use 

 of language ; for this purpose a large amount of reading aloud 

 must be done; the subject-matter must be within the grasp of 

 the pupils, and just sufficiently beyond their experience to be 



=♦ Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, in his Preface : " The Trades School in the 

 Transvaal. " ' 



