828 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 



for many years an assistant master in the University College 

 School, complained bitterly of the discouraging outlook for 

 even the ablest assistant master unless he had obtained a first- 

 class degree ; and of this particular master an obituary notice 

 in the Journal of Education said that he would have made 

 an ideal headmaster for the school of the future. Whether 

 this admits or not of remedy, the unsatisfactory result remains 

 that it is of little practical use for an ambitious assistant with 

 a second or third class university degree to make himself 

 master of the theory and practice of his profession, for he can 

 never expect the reversion of the higher offices. Many 

 graduates become schoolmasters because, at the time when 

 they are choosing a means of livehhood, this offers, to begin 

 with, a larger remuneration than almost any other occupation, 

 but if they imagine that their prospects are proportionately 

 bright they soon find how fallacious are their hopes. Pro- 

 motion is possible only to a certain point : beyond this not 

 even Socrates himself could hope to rise. 



(4.) The comparative apathy of teachers towards the 

 scientific principles of their work is largely due to their isolation 

 from one another. It is indeed a relief for the solitary 

 pedagogue to mix with people that are neither pupils nor 

 teachers, and to banish all " shop " from thought and speech. 

 Yet this is carried too far. A man or woman that will never 

 think or talk about professional work when school hours are 

 over is much like the carpenter whom Adam Bede lectures 

 for throwing down his tools at the stroke of the clock. It is 

 true that mere acquaintance with one another in social fellow- 

 ship would bring few advantages save the counteraction of 

 that spirit of rivalry which is induced by the system of 

 competitive examinations. But the present isolation augurs 

 ill for the advance of educational science. No combined 

 effort is made to investigate problems that continually arise, 

 and it is not improbable that many teachers are ignorant even 

 of the nature of these problems. Individual enthusiasts may 

 break new ground from which the world reaps rich and lasting 

 fruit, but the apathy of the many paralyses the energies of 

 the solitary worker. It may be said that all the advances 

 have hitherto been made by isolated schoolmasters and 

 philosophers ; that the work of Pestalozzi and Dr. Arnold is 

 a sufficient vindication of the " single cell " system. But men 

 such as these are rare ; and the chance of some genius arising 

 is too slender a thread for the advance of any science to 

 depend upon. The strands of Lilliputian endeavour by the 



