SECONDARY EDUCATION. 825 



stances must of necessity be almost consecutive ; hence the 

 usual arrangement is to teach for three hours in the morning-, 

 and two to two and a half in the afternoon, the home work 

 for the evening being supposed to occupy two or two and a 

 half hours. In many respects this type is the ideal to which 

 English educationists are aspiring, but we may not conclude 

 from this that education in Australia is more advanced than 

 in England. It is possible that we have the "form" with- 

 out the " power " of education ; that it is with us not a hving 

 organism, but a mere machine. Indeed we may rightly check 

 our growing complacency by the question, What have we 

 that we have not received 't How far have our ideals been 

 heightened or our methods improved by our own reflection 

 or practical sagacity i We have but entered into the labours 

 of our predecessors : what are we doing to develop our 

 inheritance ? 



2. The defects of the present system of secondary education 

 require ampler treatment. 



( J .) Secondary education is chiefly empirical, few teachers 

 having any scientific knowledge of the theory of education. 

 It is on this point that professional teachers in England are 

 now focussing their attention, and in the higher value attached 

 to the training of secondary teachers lies the great hope of 

 future advance. A useful parallel is supphed by the profession 

 of medicine. The science of healing the body is not of 

 higher importance than that of training the mind and character, 

 yet the entrance to the one profession is rightly guarded, 

 while the other is a veritable cave of Adullum, to which 

 " everyone that is in distress, everyone that is in debt, and 

 everyone that is discontented " gather themselves. Since, 

 therefore, it has been found practicable to enforce a preliminary 

 scientific and technical training upon all intending physicians, 

 surely it is at least as feasible to insist, in the case of a teacher, 

 upon a preparatory course of study and practical work. As 

 a matter of fact, how do secondary teachers now fit themselves 

 for their work? An increasing proportion enter on this with 

 a university degree: so far so good. But whether they are 

 graduates or not, their professional training begins with the 

 practice of their profession! They have to begin experi- 

 menting in the practical subjects of discipline and form- 

 management. This of course must be gone through in any 

 case, just as no one ever learns to swim by theory before 

 plunging into the water. But the man who starts with a 

 knowledge of the laws of mental phenomena has an immense 



