386 



NATURE 



[Feb. 27, 1890 



instruction in carpentry. For younger children, however, 

 much might be done in the way of modelHng (or, as it has 

 been called, " applied drawing"), designed to carry on the 

 training of the fingers which are often made so nimble 

 by the paper-cutting and the Kindergarten exercises of 

 the infant school, only afpresent to lose their pliancy and 

 dexterity by want of practice as soon as the child emerges 

 from the fairy-land of the Kindergarten into the dull, 

 prosaic atmosphere of Standard I. 



To introduce this change it will doubtless be necessary 

 to abolish individual examination in the lower standards 

 at least, and assimilate them in this respect to the infant 

 school. Another change will also be necessary, in the 

 mode of interpreting the Education Acts which has 

 hitherto been customary at Whitehall. Up to the present 

 time there has been a tendency in the Government 

 Departments to decline to recognize manual training as 

 a form of instruction contemplated by the Acts, and in 

 the well-known case of the Beethoven Street Board 

 School, the London School Board were surcharged by the 

 auditor with the cost of tools. The School Board failed 

 to carry the question to the law courts, and so for a time 

 the matter rested. Since then, however, the question has 

 entered on a new phase. The Liverpool School Board, 

 wishing to provide manual instruction in its schools, 

 has obtained the opinion of Sir Horace Davey, Q.C., to 

 the effect that such provision clearly comes within the 

 power of School Boards. The Board has consequently 

 taken steps to make the necessary provision, has appointed 

 an instructor, and now only waits to be surcharged in 

 order to carry the whole question to the Queen's Bench. 

 Other School Boards are following suit, so that we must 

 very shortly see the matter settled in one way or 

 another. The legal question is interesting, not only in its 

 bearing on manual training, but on the general powers of 

 School Boards to give a7ty extra instruction they please, 

 provided they comply with all the regulations and re- 

 quirements of the Education Department for the time 

 being. If Sir Horace Davey's opinion is sustained, it 

 carries with it the right of School Boards to provide any 

 form of technical or manual instruction that can be given 

 consistently with the regulations of Whitehall. Up to 

 the present year, as we stated above, the Education De- 

 partment was not altogether favourable to the views of 

 Sir Horace Davey. But it is rumoured that of late the 

 views of the authorities on the subject have undergone a 

 change, and that it is probable that manual instruction 

 may not only be recognized as legal, but actually incor- 

 porated as a grant-earning subject in the forthcoming 

 Code. The rumour, which we sincerely hope is true, is 

 confirmed by the fact that in the Scotch Code just issued 

 a clause is inserted for the first time inviting school 

 managers to submit as a class subject (earning a grant 

 of 2s. or IS. a head) "a course of manual instruction on 

 a graduated system." The Scotch Education Department, 

 therefore, has conceded the whole principle, and though 

 of course Scotland has a separate Act, the admission is 

 full of significance. It would be a trifle too absurd for 

 the English Education Department to refuse to " recognize 

 as educational " a subject which the Scotch Office thinks 

 important enough to be encouraged by a grant. 



In other respects the new Code just issued from Mr. 

 Craik's office is a valuable index, if not of what we shall 



get, yet of what we may justly press for, in the coming 

 English Code. It is, indeed, an enormous advance. 

 Scotch members of Parliament sometimes complain that 

 Scotch business attracts no attention at Westminster. 

 The evil, however, has at least some compensating ad- 

 vantages. Unchallenged — almost unnoticed — the officials 

 at the Scotch Education Office can quietly introduce by a 

 stroke of the pen the reforms in the Code for which we 

 in England have to wait year after year. It may serve 

 a useful purpose if we recount a few of the reforms which 

 Mr. Craik has been able to carry out this year in Scotch 

 education. Of the abolition of fees we say nothing, for 

 that was the result of legislation last session. 



In the first place, individual examination in the ele- 

 mentary subjects, which had already been abolished in 

 the first three standards, is now replaced by collective 

 examination throughout the school. This change gives 

 much greater elasticity and liberty of classification to the 

 teacher, and to a great extent modifies the pressure of 

 the system of payment by results. 



In the next place, the system of class subjects is en- 

 tirely revised. Several alternative courses in elementary 

 science are suggested, including courses of " nature 

 knowledge " in " animals," " vegetables," and " matter," 

 for each of which simple and suitable suggestive syllabuses 

 are laid down. Any other progressive scheme of teach- 

 ing may be submitted to the inspector for approval. 

 ''In elementary science this scheme may be so framed 

 as to lead up to the teaching of scientific specific subjects. 

 It may include the subjects of navigation or the ele- 

 mentary principles of agriculture ; and a course of 

 manual instruction on a graduated system may also be 

 submitted." 



At the same time the regulation requiring either Eng- 

 lish or elementary science to be taken as one of the class 

 subjects is rescinded. It is to be noticed that in Scot- 

 land an attempt was made in the previous Code to 

 encourage science teaching by making it alternative to 

 English as a compulsory class subject. It is somewhat 

 disappointing to be told, as we are in the last Scotch 

 Report, that the change has as yet produced but little 

 increase in science teaching. This fact seems to sup- 

 port the suggestion of the Technical Association that 

 science instruction (which gives more trouble and re- 

 quires more appliances) should be encouraged by a 

 slightly higher scale of grant than that allotted to 

 other class subjects. But it also tends to suggest the 

 possibility that part of the price which Scotland has 

 to pay for the ease with which it can get educational 

 changes carried out is a certain popular indifference to 

 those changes which may go far to make them nugatory. 

 Thus it is quite possible that the Departmental invitation 

 to submit courses of manual instruction may produce far 

 less effect on schools in Scotland than would be produced 

 in England by a favourable decision of the law courts on 

 a hotly disputed case such as that which may come 

 before them in connection with the Liverpool School 

 Board. The steam which has to be got up on this side of 

 the Tweed in order to get a reform permitted will often 

 supply the motive force which will get that reform carried 

 out. The different fate which has attended the Scotch 

 and the English Technical Instruction Acts hitherto is a 

 , case in point. The Scotch Act, passed with ease through 



