786 PROCEEDIXGS OF SECTION J. 



parents to visit the school and witness a demonstration of his methods. 

 This might be followed hj a consultation as to the best mode in which 

 school and home can collaborate. The question of home lessons, 

 regnilaritj and punctuality of attendance, and many other such 

 matters could be considered. In many cases within my own observa- 

 tion the school has reacted for good upon the home, but by some such 

 means as I have suggested the effect could be deepened and extended. 

 It may be objected that in bringing the public into closer intercourse 

 with the school we run a risk of their unduly interfering with the 

 teacher; indeed, many teachers on account of that objection have 

 kept the people at arm's length from the school. With a reasonable 

 degree of tact, however, the risk would be small, and it might well be 

 incurred for the sake of the prospective benefits to be gained. 



Any active help which people render to their school deepens their 

 interest in it. Of this we have of late years had some striking 

 examples in New South Wales. On the promulgation of the new 

 syllabus in 1904 it was found that certain materials and appliances 

 would be required beyond those which were supplied by the Govern^ 

 inent. The teacher wanted tools for gardening and for manual train- 

 ing, paints and brushes for art work, books for supplementary reading 

 and the school library, sets of weights and measures, sand trays, and 

 so on. Finding that the periodical school concert, which had long 

 been the means of raising funds, was luiequal to the new demand, he 

 called the pai-ents and citizens together, explained the situation to 

 them, and asked them to devise ways and means of improving the 

 school equipment. In that way originated many of the Parents' and 

 Citizens' Associations which have been springing up throughout New 

 South Wales. Some of these hold regular meetings, and besides pro- 

 viding funds and organising picnics have undertaken direct educa- 

 tional work, such as the holding of debates or arranging for courses 

 of lectures on hygiene and other subjects for the benefit of children 

 and adults alike. In this way the school becomes a centre of intellec- 

 tual life and combined educational effort. 



By the means I have indicated, and in other ways, the public 

 may be brought to enter more freely into the education movement, 

 to rally round their school and take a pride in it, to> understand more 

 fully its aims and methods, and to perform their part in the great 

 work of education. Until they do so, a great auxiliary educational 

 force remains unutilised. We look at education too much from above, 

 and are in danger of forgetting that the regeneration of society, which 

 is the purpose of education, can only be accomplished through con- 

 tinual improvement in the social units, that, to borrow a term from 

 physical science, the process is molecular. We need better organisa- 

 tion, more thorough training of teachers, an improvement in the 

 matter and method of instruction, but we must have also the head 

 and heart of the people on our side. Our difficulties are great; on 

 the one hand those who administer our educational systems cannot 

 obtain sufficient funds for carrying out their well-planned measures, 

 and on the other hand the work that they actually perform is rendered 

 more or less ineffective by the inertia or the passive resistance of the 

 people. Let us strike the rock of the public mind with the rod of 



