XVII TECHNICAL EDUCATION 448 



of a big bucket ; and passing him afterwards 

 through the training college, where his life is 

 devoted to filling the bucket from the pump from 

 morning till night, without time for thought or 

 reflection, is a system which should not continue. 

 Let me assure you that it will not do for us, that 

 you had better give the attempt up than try that 

 system. I remember somewhere reading of an 

 interview between the poet Southey and a good 

 Quaker. Southey was a man of marvellous powers 

 of work. He had a habit of dividing his time 

 into little parts each of which was fiilecl up, and 

 he told the Quaker what he did in this hour and 

 that, and so on through the day until far into the 

 night. The Quaker listened, and at the close said, 

 " Well, but, friend Southey, when dost thee 

 think ? " The system which I am now adverting 

 to is arraigned and condemned by putting that 

 question to it. When does the unhappy pupil 

 teacher, or over- drilled student of a training 

 college, find any time to think ? I am sure if I were 

 in their place I could not. I repeat, that kind of 

 thing will not do for science teachers. For science 

 teachers must have knowledge, and knowledge is 

 not to be acquired on these terms. The power of 

 repetition is, but that is not knowledge. The 

 knowledge which is absolutely requisite in dealing 

 with young children is the knowledge you 

 possess, as you would know your own business, 

 and which you can just turn about as if you 



