THEORIES OF EDUCATION 



The Little Schools of Port-Royal. By H. C. Barnard, M.A., B.Litt., 

 Sometimf senior Hulrne Scholar of Brasenose College, Oxford. 

 Demy 8vo. pp. x+264. With 4 illustrations. Price yj. 6d. net 

 In his Introduction the author claims that the educational work of 

 the Port-Royalists is worthy of study, both for its own sake and for the 

 importance of its subsequent influence in France and elsewhere. At the 

 same time it is true to say that the doctrines and practice of the Little 

 Schools are but little known not only in this country but even in France 

 itself. The reason is not far to seek. Port-Royal's chief importance has 

 been theological and literary and the value of the Port-Royalists' con- 

 tribution to education has been very generally overlooked. Moreover the 

 treatises in which their educational theories are expounded are, for the 

 most part, rare and not easily accessible ; again, these details are, to some 

 extent, scattered throughout " Memoires " and histories and letters where it 

 is not easy to find them and where they are often intermingled with ex- 

 traneous matter of every kind. But, for all this, a sympathetic study of 

 the methods used in the Little Schools cannot fail to be a source of 

 inspiration to teachers of the present day. 



Vives : On Education. A tramlation of the De Tradendis Disciplinis of 

 Juan Luis I ives together with an introduction by Foster IFatson, D.Lit., 

 Professor oj Education in the University College of JVales, Aberystwyth. 

 Crown Svo. pp. clviii-fjzS. With a portrait of Vives. Price 5J. net 



This is the first English translation of Vives' main educational work 

 and though Professor Watson admits that the most likely answer to the 

 question " Was Vives a greater thinker on educational matters than 

 Erasmus ? " would be " We never heard of Vives and we are perfectly 

 familiar with the importance of Erasmus," he claims at the same time that 

 "there is ?i prima facie case for enquiry, whether Vives in his desire for the 

 social good, and all questions bearing upon that standpoint, has not treated 

 the subject of education so fruitfully as to be emphatically the greatest 

 European educational leader of the first half of the sixteenth century." 



" It is a book," says The Athenaeum, " that should be read by every 

 teacher, if only to show how old are most of the modern suggestions for 

 the improvement of education." 



Steps toivards Educational Reform. Some practical suggestions for improving 

 our national system. By C. IF. Bailey, M.A., Headmaster, Holt 

 Secondary School, Liverpool. 



Crown Svo. pp. viii+112. Paper boards. Price u. net 



Aims at showing how mistaken is the view that State organisation and 

 subsidy can be a panacea for all educational ills, that there is a distinct 

 danger in increasing bureaucratic control and that the chief need is more 

 light and life in the schools themselves. 



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