228 president's address — section j. 



The study of education must go beyond a merely descriptive 

 accouiit of the practice of education as it now exists, and as it 

 has existed in the past. The history of educational theory and of 

 educational practice is of great value, but dees not by itself consti- 

 tute a science cf education. Tradition and individual experience are 

 inadequate foundations for the professional practice of education. 

 li must rest on a basis of scientific knowledge as well. And this 

 .'scientific knowledge can only be constructed as the result of the 

 labours of students of education, each devoting himself to the 

 careful study of specific problems. " There is," says Mr. Burt, 

 ■'in education a vast field for practical research. Unlike other 

 professions, such as medicine or engineering, teaching still relies 

 largely for guidance upon private experience, personal impression, 

 and professional tradition. These resources are supplemented by 

 unsparing devotion, unfailing sympathy, hard work, and common 

 sense. But they are not enough. Admirable as they are. yet of 

 necessity they leave the practice of education at the present day 

 where the practice of medicine was a century ago. They leave it 

 without any scientific foundation. The engineer is regarded as 

 an expe.rt, the physician as a man of science. But those whose 

 business is to care for the mind and build up characters are sub- 

 ject to daily criticism by the public or in the press as though they 

 were themselves amateurs. Knowledge here is in its infancy, and 

 science but a few years old. The real need, therefore, is for 

 research. Only through research can scientific knowledgei take' the 

 place of universal opinion, and only through scientific knowledge 

 can practical efficiency be attained . " ' 



It is, I take it, unnecessary to consider an objection formerly 

 urged against the science of education, on the ground that such a 

 science was in the nature of the case impossible. Such an objec- 

 tion can only have weight with those who are unacquainted with 

 the work done during the past twenty years. Education has 

 become an independent science, proposing its own problems and 

 investigating them by its own appropriate methods. It is no 

 longer to be conceived as merely a body of deductions from other 

 sciences or as a patchwork of portions of these other sciences. 



What then are the fundamental problems of education 1 There 

 are but two. The practice of education concerns itself with the 

 upbringing of the young. The educator seeks so to bring up-thei 

 young as to promote their welfare. He needs to know the nature 

 of this welfare and the means of promoting it. Hence the science 

 of education falls into' two main divisions, the first concerned with 

 the end and aims of upbringing, the second with the means and 

 methods by which this aim may most effectively be achieved. The 

 science of education is in part a science of ends or values, and in 

 part a science of means. For instance, we have to consider whether 

 it is good for some or all pupils to learn a foreign language, and 

 when we have settled that question we have to consider the 



