ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 289 



1913. 



30 years ago, a competent observer would have hesitated 

 to claim for education the dignity of being even the be- 

 ginnings of a science, but to-day he would speak with the 

 voice of hopefulness. Science now seemed to have claimed 

 for itself the field of education, and was using therein with 

 success the instruments of observation and experiment. 

 The practical man was looking forward to a greater degree 

 of certainty in co-ordinating the work of the schoolroom 

 with that of everyday life, and hoped the day was close 

 at hand when Bernard Shaw's epigram, "My education 

 was interrupted by my schooling, " would cease to be ap- 

 plicable. The educationalist, seeing the transformation 

 that had taken place in the world as a result of science, 

 was hopeful that the same means would produce no less 

 brilliant transformations in his own particular depart- 

 ment. The age of mere speculation was passing away, 

 and the time was close at hand when vague impressions 

 would be replaced by the emphatic utterances of positive 

 science. On the one hand they saw a keen interest in 

 the raw material of education. A class of men, not teach- 

 ers, but mostly doctors, were establishing a separate de- 

 partment of work, and were tabulating the results of 

 thousands of experiments in well-defined directions. On 

 the other hand, the practical men were more or less dis- 

 satisfied with the present conditions of working. Between 

 the two stood the child, the object of the experiment 

 and the one to be taught. It must be recognised at the 

 outset that the function of the experimenter was subject 

 to much limitation, but this would not prevent him from 

 taking a permanent place in solving problems which often 

 blocked the road to reform. The movement that was 

 known as experimental pedagogy had its commencement 

 towards the close of last centurv in what was known as 

 child-study. As chemistry had its origin in alchemy, 

 and astronomy in astrology, so the new science of educa- 

 tion had begun in simple experiments. One of the results 

 of the movement had been the advent of the medical officer 

 in the school, and another had been the introduction of 

 humane methods of treating defectives. Another signi- 

 ficant feature was the abandonment of the old method of 

 repression, and everywhere spontaneity was encouraged. 

 There was no worse sign in a child than the attitude of 

 doing nothing at all, and there was no worse sign in the 

 teacher than the neglect to develop the child's powers of 

 self-activity and originality. The author then dealt at 

 some length with the various means by which the physical 

 and mental qualities of children were studied, and the 



