EDUCATION 



2802 



EDUCATION 



ately applied to political ends. The 

 rulers there determined to western- 

 ise the country, and by intelligent 

 and purposeful manipulation of the 

 educational system accomplished 

 their end in a single generation. 



As was to be expected from the 

 English spirit, education has not 

 developed in this way in Great 

 Britain. Many attempts have been 

 made to dominate education for 

 sectional ends, mainly religious, 

 but the spirit of compromise won at 

 last, and the existence of the con- 

 science clause which provides that 

 no pupil shall be taught religious 

 doctrines to which his parents 

 object, or suffer because he is 

 withdrawn from such instruction, 

 is a clear proof that even ecclesias- 

 ! tical zeal has not been able to ob- 

 ' tain complete control of the 

 i schools. 



Schools and Propaganda 

 It would be impossible to use 

 the English schools after the 

 German fashion for purposes of 

 propaganda hi the interests of a 

 ruling class. Hitherto the main 

 demand for propagandist oppor- 

 tunities has come from honest 

 enthusiasts who have some social 

 panacea, and know that an entry 

 into the schools is the best way 

 possible of bringing influence to 

 bear in favour of their nostrums. 

 Prohibitionists, esperantists, advo- 

 cates of the metric system, anti- 

 vaccinators, anti - vivisectionists, 

 and other particular theorists have 

 sought to gain admission to the 

 schools. No doubt with increasing 

 intercommunication between the 

 home and the school there will in 

 the future be a wider use of educa- 

 tional organization for purposes of 

 social and ethical propaganda, 

 but no propaganda will be toler- 

 ated that does not command very 

 wide popular support. 



Many people, however, regard 

 with uneasiness the growing cen- 

 tralisation of the educational 

 administration of England. The 

 intense individualism of the Eng- 

 lishman makes him inclined to 

 resent any interference with what 

 he regards as peculiarly his own, 

 and under this head his children 

 hold a prominent place. The 

 nation, however, has got beyond 

 the stage at which one is inclined 

 to claim that, with regard to the 

 education of one's children, one 

 ought to be allowed "to do what 

 one will with one's own." It has 

 learnt that for the best working of 

 national education there must be a 

 certain amount of central control. 

 But English people seem to want 

 this control kept within narrow 

 limits. They have watched with 

 uneasiness the history of state 

 interference in education. 



Since the first government grant 

 in 1833 the state has been gradu- 

 ally gathering under its control 

 th3 educational system. At first 

 it confined its authority to the 

 elementary schools, but by the 

 power of the purse it has been able 

 to bring the secondary schools 

 more and more under its control, 

 and now by an extension of the 

 grant system the universities 

 themselves are coming within the 

 range of state authority. There has 

 not, however, been any attempt to 

 influence unduly the schools, the 

 colleges, or the universities of the 

 country. Indeed, the Board of Edu- 

 cation is showing itself particularly 

 anxious that the local authorities 

 should share the burden of ad- 

 ministration, and recent changes 

 in the distribution of financial 

 burdens between central and local 

 authorities make it much easier for 

 central and local authorities to 

 work harmoniously together. 



In England the educational ex- 

 pert and the educational adminis- 

 trator have in the past been 

 brought far too little together. The 

 Education Act of 1918 marks an 

 important advance in this matter. 

 For the first time there was a minis- 

 ter of education who was really in 

 intelligent sympathy with educa- 

 tional principles and methods, and 

 the Act benefits accordingly. It 

 has the great merit of making pro- 

 vision for the adolescent period, the 

 period of most importance in the 

 development of the individual, 

 but a period that had not been 

 specially considered in previous 

 educational legislation. In this 

 and in other points the Act recog- 

 nizes fully the need to take account 

 of the results of those who are 

 engaged in educational research. 

 Progress of Scientific Method 



Hitherto education has been car- 

 ried on on a basis of generalised 

 opinion rather than of established 

 principles. Not merely administra- 

 tors but professional teachers them- 

 selves have been content to accept 

 traditional opinions and methods. 

 There has been no satisfactory 

 means of comparing the advan- 

 tages of the different educational 

 schemes suggested from time to 

 time. In short, there has been no 

 science of education. Whether such 

 a science can ever be developed 

 is a point in dispute. 



Although it can never become 

 an exact science, education is be- 

 coming more scientific in its 

 methods. It is perhaps impos- 

 sible ever to establish a real 

 objective standard in education 

 that might do something like what 

 the thermometer or the barometer 

 does for other sciences ; but we are 

 on the way towards it. Statistical 



and experimental methods are being 

 widely developed in education, and 

 educational results now published 

 are no longer mere subjects of logi- 

 cal debate, but are at once tested by 

 repeating the experiments or obser- 

 vations on which they are based. 



In this sifting process much help 

 may be looked for from the scien- 

 tific methods used by Prof. Karl 

 Pearson, Prof. Spearman, and 

 others. Although the results of 

 these mathematical investigations 

 may be over-valued, there can be 

 no doubt that they provide an in- 

 strument that will be of the first 

 importance in making real educa- 

 tional progress possible. 



Development of Child-Study 

 A contrast to this over-exactness 

 of mathematical formulae is pro- 

 vided by what is called child-study ; 

 with the result that we have a very 

 happy combination of the abstract 

 and the concrete. Such investiga- 

 tions as Prof. Binet carried on to 

 determine scales of intelligence are 

 examples of child-study scientifi- 

 cally conducted. The correlation of 

 bodily with mental age is a helpful 

 concept, and promises to be of 

 great value. It provides what is 

 practically an objective standard 

 in determining the normal, the sub- 

 normal, and the supernormal child. 

 The nature of the defective child is 

 becoming much clearer, thanks to 

 the tests developed from the Binet 

 scheme. The treatment of super- 

 normal children is only now re- 

 ceiving serious attention from edu- 

 cational authorities, and a pro- 

 found modification of class organi- 

 zation is likely to follow. At this 

 point the social changes coming 

 into educational organization call 

 for mention. The correlation of 

 scientific testing of individual pupils 

 with the social school organization 

 implicit in such a scheme as is 

 worked out at Gary, in Indiana, 

 cannot but lead to fundamental 

 changes. We are indeed on the 

 brink of a real, but not a sudden, 

 revolution in education. 



Biblogravhy. Essays on Educa- 

 tional Reformers, R. H. Quick, 

 1868 ; Teaching and Organisation, 

 ed. P. A. Barnett, 1897 ; Common 

 Sense in Education, P. A. Barnett, 

 1899 ; Education : intellectual, 

 moral, and physical, Herbert Spen- 

 cer, repr. 1903 ; The Educative Pro- 

 cess, W. C. Bagley, 1905 ; A Text- 

 book in the History of Education, 

 P. Monroe, 1905 ; Sonnenschein's 

 Cyclopaedia of Education, ed. A. E. 

 Fietoher, revised M. E. John, 1 906 ; 

 The School and Society, J. Dewey, 

 1910 ; Cyclopedia of Education, ed. 

 P. Monroe, 1911-13 ; The Evolution 

 of Educational Theory, John Adams, 

 1912; A Text Book in the Principles 

 of Education,. E. N. Henderson, 

 1911 ; Principles of Education, F. E. 



