SECONDARY EDUCATION. 831 



(c.) But, while teachers themselves can do something, the 

 Universities could, if they would, do more. The curriculum 

 of secondary schools is chiefly regulated by university exami- 

 nations, and those students who profit by university instruction 

 embody the results of the system. The universities therefore 

 have more than a theoretical interest in secondary education. 

 INot only so, the functions of a university — to provide the 

 highest culture in all branches of learning, and to guide the 

 currents of intellectual life in the community — are incomplete 

 without some attempt to propagate the principles on which 

 its own and all other teaching must depend. " If the school- 

 master," says Mr, Fitch, in winged Avords, "is to become 

 something more than a mere jjedant : to know the rules and 

 formulse of his art, and at the same time to estimate them at 

 their true value, it is to his university that he ought to look 

 for guidance ; and it is from his university that he should 

 seek in due Itime the attestation of his qualifications as a 

 teacher ; because this is the authority which can testify that 

 he is not merely a teacher, but a teacher and something else." 

 Therefore the intervention of the university to equip teachers 

 for their profession is no usurpation : it is a loyal recognition 

 of responsibility. What, then, can the universities of Australia 

 do in the special direction of raising the standard of secondary 

 education ? (i.) In the first place, each professorial board 

 should include a chair of the history, theory, and practice of 

 education. This is no novel suggestion. Several German 

 universities have for many years included a faculty of 

 Pedagogy ; there ai'e in Scotland already two professors of 

 this subject (at Glasgow and St. Andrew's respectively) ; and 

 in America within the last twelve years (according to Professor 

 Laurie) seven or eight chairs of education have been estabhshed. 

 In England no such course has yet been adopted by either 

 the old or the new univei'sities even by way of experiment. 

 The university of Cambridge, it is true, provided lectures in 

 1879 by Mr. Quick, Mr. James Ward, and Mr. Fitch, but 

 this was a solitary experiment on a small scale, and the 

 Teachers' Training Syndicate, constituted for the purpose, 

 gave no more signs of life when these courses came to an end. 

 On the other hand, the Royal College of Preceptors has 

 maintained a professorship of the science and art of Education 

 since 1873. W^hat work, then, could such a professor 

 accomphsh in our colonial universities? For one thing, 

 the influence of such a colleague would be felt at once by the 

 professorial board, and in the courses of study prescribed, as 



