Section E. 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



SOME A8PECT8 OF EDUCATION. 



By E. G. Gane, M.A. 



A review of the progress of education in the last twenty-five years 

 Avill lead us, 1 submit, to the conclusion that its advance has not been 

 proportionate to that made in the same time by other branches of 

 •science. Tn one sense it is true that e(hication is the resume of them 

 iill, and may therefore take to itself the credit of all the progress which 

 individual branches have made. In the narrower sense of the term, 

 however, as connoting tlie processes by which the knowledge of estab- 

 lished facts is spread, and the mental development resulting from their 

 discoveiy, education seems hardly to have attained all that miglit have 

 been expected in the direction of organised and definite advance. 

 Were it not that other systems appear to be more efficient than our 

 own, we might rest satisfied with the explanation that its task is the 

 n\ost difficult of all — that of co-ordinating conflicting demands, and 

 reducing them to a reasonable and consistent whole ; comparisons, 

 however, while odious, are often useful, and it seems necessary to seek 

 for other explanations of our defects, if it he arlmitted that defects 

 exist. 



Meanwhile it will be well to bear in mind that all methods are not 

 for all men ; that what suits the needs of the German need not neces- 

 sarily be the ideal of the Anglo-Saxon, and that it is the special destiny 

 of each great nation to work out its own salvation in the evolution of 

 such an educational system as shall be found best suited to its special 

 needs. 



Now the profound discontent often expressed, and more often felt, 

 at our own system, and the reiterated demands for increased national 

 efficiency, can hardly be the outcry of the mere crank. The character 

 of our legislation to-day and of much of our national life points with 

 increasing persistence to the necessity for improved methods and a 

 clearer ideal. That we have not attained these sooner is perhaps our 

 misfortune rather than our fault — for science does not readily admit 

 the existence of "fault" — and as our misfortunes are the product of 

 our national environment, it is here that we must look for causes. 

 These appear to be four in number. 



(1) The difficulties caused by the theological point of view from 

 which education has been regarded. 



(2) The English preference for empirical methods. 

 (."3) Our great national wealth. 



(4) A certain element of national indiscipline. 



It would be improper in this address to raise any of the diffi- 

 cult points involved in so controversial a question as the first of these ; 

 but no member of any scientific association can view with pride the 



