'652 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 



sympathy, a freshnet's of spirit, a strong- (if often superficial) senti- 

 ment in favor of culture, which are, not without some reas<on, held 

 to compensate for the absence of any acquired fitness for educa- 

 tional work. But on the whole the system is a great mistake. This 

 is why a writer in the " Cyclopaedia of Education " can remark 

 that " teaching in secondary schools is rather looked iipon as an 

 avdcation than as a profession." Professor Laurie (of Edinburgh), 

 in his "Lifeof C(mienius," breaks out into the exclamation: — '"How 

 are the best traditions of educational theory and practice to be 

 preserved and handed down if those who are to instruct the youth 

 of the country are to be sent forth to their work from our univer- 

 sities with minds absolutely vacant as to the principles and history 

 of their profession — if they haA^e never been taught to ask them- 

 selves the questions, 'What am I going to do?' 'Why?' and 

 ' How ? '" 



Let us by all means continue to secure for our secondary schools 

 as large a pro.Dortion of university men as possible. Let us add to 

 this a universal demand for professional training, received partly 

 in the atmosphere of the univeisity, partly in practical work under 

 our most cultured and experienced teachers. We shall then 

 imjDrove our educational methods by placing them on a scientific 

 basis ; we shall justify our .teaching institutions in the eyes of the 

 community, which now with too much justice discounts the labors 

 of educationists ; and we shall raise the calling of a teacher to a 

 nobler position as a learned and scientific profession. " Experi- 

 ence," we are told, "keeps a dear school." How long will critics 

 be able to add, " and schoolmasters will learn by no other " ? 



o-^Ji-o- 



2.— PUBLIC INSTRUCTION AND PUBLIC DEFENCE. 



Bij JOHN SHIRLEY, B.Sc, In.yjector of Schools, QHcenslaiid. 

 Drill, in Queensland, is a compvilsory subject in all elementary 

 schools. Introduced by the State Education Act of 1875, its aim 

 at that date was merely to act as an uid to discipline, and its other 

 Tises were to a certain extent ignored. The text book selected — 

 Norman's " Schoolmasters' Drill Assistant" — was not in accord with 

 the maniuil used by the military forces in Queensland, ai,d the so- 

 called "extension motions" were almost useless as a means of 

 physical training. There was no provision in the regulations pub- 

 lished with the Act of 1875 for the formation of cadet corj^s. or for 

 anything higher than squad drill, at d it depended on the efi^orts of 

 individual teachers whether the hiyher forms of military drill were 

 attempted or not. The need for physical training was recognised 



