THE BORDERLAND OF SCHOOL AND COLLEGE. 



By C. D. Hope, M.A. 



Few would be found so rash as to maintain that the borderland 

 of school and college had ever been clearly defined in South Africa. 

 In fact the proposition might very well be extended to older 

 countries ; for English universities have not yet acted fully on the 

 advice of Matthew Arnold, who told them that they should de- 

 finitely abandon every kind of study which could be successfully 

 pursued in the senior forms of public schools. It is, therefore, in 

 no way discreditable for a new country to admit that this realm 

 of educational activity is still debateable ground. Perhaps, indeed, 

 the expression " debateable ground " is misleading. There is no 

 real debate between the schoolmaster and the college professor as 

 to the standard of attainments which should be exacted from the 

 student on passing from the lower stage to the higher ; both are 

 agreed that the requirements should be more exacting and the 

 age should be more advanced than at present. But both school- 

 master and college professor have to deal with a public opinion 

 utterly unenlightened upon this subject and entirely convinced that 

 its retrogressive ideas are founded upon the most complete know- 

 ledge and experience. 



It cannot be claimed on either side that the boundary has ever 

 been adjusted in accordance with fixed and immutable principles. 

 The history of most colleges throughout the world has begun with 

 a period in which school work had to be undertaken, for the 

 simple reason that schools were not yet sufficiently advanced to 

 perform their proper functions. For instance the earlv statutes of 

 one of the Oxford colleges reveal a time when students, who arose 

 at five in the morning and retired to rest at eight o'clock at night, 

 were liable, if their conduct was unsatisfactory, to be chastised by 

 the Dean with a birch rod. Some of us can remember a period 

 when colleges in the Cape Colony contained many matriculation 

 classes, of which the senior class consisted of candidates for the 

 examination of the current year, while the junior classes were 

 composed of students whose chief duty was to swell the numbers 

 of their college and so to augment the claim of the institution for 

 the Government grant in aid of higher education. 



Under these primitive conditions there was no clear distinction 

 possible between a schoolboy and an undergraduate except such 

 as could be enforced by the test of examinations. The clever boy 

 passed his matriculation earlier, entered the senior classes where 

 more competent teaching was given and delighted his parents by 

 reaching the goal of a B.A. degree, while his more backward con- 

 temporaries were still struggling with the routine of school lessons. 

 Who then could maintain that an age limit was desirable? The 

 work of school and university was extended along one uniform 



