708 president's address — section j. 



resisted, it will be seen how much of the conventional test book know- 

 ledge may be set aside as inappropriate to the primary course. No 

 raore important call is made upon the judgment of the teacher than 

 that which arises from the necessity for the selection of the material 

 for his lessons; and if that selection is properly made, there can be 

 no ground for the assertion that the curriculum is overloaded. 



THE SCHOOL AGE. 

 These considerations raise the question of the primary school- 

 leaving age. During the early period of compulsoiy education the 

 limit of age was fixed at 13 in some States and li in others. This 

 determination of age limit belongs to a time when it was considered 

 that every child should x'eceive the minimum of education necessary 

 for the most elementary duties of citizenship, and the most mechanical 

 of vocations. In Aui^;tralia compulsory legislation in this direction, 

 notwithstanding seiious defects in one or two States, has fairly fultiiled 

 its purpose within this very limited range. But the demands of the 

 evolving social organism have given a new meaning to the functions 

 of the State in the matter of education. Not the mere minimum 

 education for a rudimentary citizenship, but the preparation of the 

 youth of the nation for the most efficient participation in productive 

 industry, is now being recognised as determining the range of the 

 State's responsibility. In several States of America and Germany this 

 has already led to the extension of the compulsory age from 14 to 16 

 years, while in England the same need is rapidly gaining recognition. 

 The boy cannot secure by the age of 14 the whole of the scholastic 

 outfit necessaiy for his entrance into the skilled occupations. On the 

 other hand, not only are there few boys who can longer defer the 

 earning of money, but there are many occupations which should be 

 taken up not later than the fourteenth year of age in order that the 

 m.anual dexterity and technical skill necessary to the skilled workman 

 may be acquired. The apprenticeship system only imperfectly meets 

 these two claims. The continuation school is supplying in England 

 and Europe the solution of the problem. Granted an organisation of 

 day and evening continuation schools, and adequate provision for 

 secondaiy education in other directions, the extension of the com- 

 pulsory age of school attendance not only becomes practicable but 

 highly desirable. When Australia is prepared for this foi-ward step, 

 provision will doubtless be required to so far limit the hours of boy 

 labour as to admit of a fair division of the working day between 

 attendance at the school classes and attendance at practical trade 

 work. Meanwhile it remains for the elementary school to thoroughly 

 organise its manual training courses so that, to the accompaniment 

 of thinking in the concrete, hand and eye may be made the ready 

 instrument of the brain. 



SECONDARY EDUCATION. 



Reference has already been made to some of the phases of higher 

 education. The period of secondary education is essentially the time 

 for what Walter Pater calls " arranging the littered work-chamber of 

 the mind." So far the pupil has been occupied with the concrete; he 

 has been coming into contact with the facts of sense and feeling; his 



