December 30, 1920] 



NATURE 



579 



Education at the British Association. 



FOLLOWING the presidential address (see 

 Nature, November 4), itie Education Section 

 opened its proceedings by receiving an interim report of 

 the Committee on Training in Citizenship. The repwrt 

 should prove valuable to all who are interested in the 

 welfare and future of their country. Five hundred 

 extra copies were ordered, and are obtainable by appli- 

 cation to the Assistant Secretary, British Association, 

 Burlington House, W.i. It includes: — (i) A compre- 

 hensive syllabus of instruction in civics ; (2) an analysis 

 of the Scout scheme of training towards citizenship 

 by Lt.-Gen. Sir R. Baden-Powell ; (3) schemes 

 of school management and self-government ; and 

 (4) suggestions for organising regional study, and 

 notes of lessons in regional survey. 



Bishop Welldon, who presented tlic report, said that 

 training in citizenship was the chief educational in- 

 terest of the day, and that he hoped a book would be 

 issued on the lines of the syllabus with the authorita- 

 tive sanction of the British Association itself. 



Sir Napier Shaw, in seconding the adoption of the 

 ref)ort, discussed the conditions that make for good 

 citizenship, and suggested that, in the establishment 

 of good government, only experience could guide the 

 peoples in this matter, and that it is the business of 

 education to enable the rising generation to profit 

 by the experience of the past. 



Mr. J. J. Clarke, of Liverpool, presented a com- 

 prehensive survey of teaching civics to adults. He 

 defined civics as a true conception and a recognition of 

 the incumbent duties which necessarily accompany 

 the association of men passing beyond all question of 

 legal contract, and forming the unseen and unforged 

 links which bind the citizen of this vast Empire to 

 the State. He emphasised the necessity of having 

 teachers practically acquainted with details of their 

 work, and inspired by high ideals and a love of the 

 subject. 



Mr. A. Patterson, of Cavendish House, contended 

 that civics should be treated not as a special subject, 

 not as an additional subject for the curriculum, but 

 incidentally as part of, and as one of the chief 

 objects in, other subjects. He urged that the teacher 

 should be the student of civics, and hand it on trans- 

 formed to the child, adapted to his range of experi- 

 ence and capacity. He thought that various forms 

 of school government, and societies in which the 

 children take an active part, are better than lessons, 

 the children thus learning through their own ex- 

 E perience. 



The papers read before the section dealt mainly 



': with three important aspects lof educational work, 



[viz. : — (i) The relation of schools to life; (2) methods 



i of te.iching, and the appraisement of ability in a Joint 



meeting with the Sub-section Psychology ; and (3) the 



place in a national svstem of education of universities, 



public schools, training colleges, and higher technical 



schools. 



Mr. A. Linecar read a paper advocating the adoption 

 • f a general governing principle guiding all school 



)rk, such as the power of concentration of mind. 

 \il subjects boromc then a means to an end, and not 

 HI end in themselves — the broader the curriculum, the 

 liro.idor fh«» culture; it becomes possible then to culti- 

 v.ite capacity, to appreciate art, literature, beauty. 

 Nature, and nobility without struggling to attain «er- 

 tion.il high efficiency, to give power to be happy, and 

 the posxibilily of a broad, tolerant, healthy, and full 

 mental life. 



Mr. F. M. McTavish dealt with the importance of 



kirntion for the adolescent, and claimed tf»at it wa» 

 NO. 2670, VOL. 106] 



through secondary education our schools are most 

 closely related to life, for it deals with the link between 

 childhood and manhood, and therefore on the grounds 

 of social expediency secondary schools should be free. 

 They oniy can adequately meet the need of a well- 

 marked stage in human growth and development, the 

 adolescent stage. Each and all must pass through it, 

 whether their parents live in palaces or in slums, and 

 therefore the kind of education best suited to it ought 

 to be available for all. 



In a paper on the industrial aspects of life in its 

 relation to schools, Mr. Bray, Assistant Controller of 

 the Training Department in the Ministry of Labour, 

 directed attention to the importance of awakening both 

 employers and trade unions to their responsibilities 

 towards the youthful worker, claiming that up to the 

 age of eighteen these young people should be treated 

 as workers in course of training, and not as workers 

 only. Statistics show that industry as a whole doe,s 

 not yet recognise the new status ot the boy under thie 

 Education .\ct of 19 18; no adequate provision has been 

 made for trade teaching, for physical welfare, or for 

 general training. The question is a vital one : to 

 members of trade unions it affects the well-being of 

 their sons ; to the employers the efficiency of 

 their future workmen. The schools have a double 

 duty : first to educate industry itself by securing a 

 change of attitude towards the juvenile worker 

 through industrial problems in the upper classes of 

 secondary schools, and secondly to assist industry in 

 the selection and training of its entrants. 



An excellent paper by Miss Strudwick reviewed in a 

 very happy form the present position of schools in their 

 relation to life. In it she indicated some of the many 

 causes which jjrevent them from being as effective as 

 they might be, and some of the reforms which are 

 necessary, emphasising the need for cultivating inde- 

 pendence of judgment, an appreciation of good litera- 

 ture, and a profitable use of leisure. Miss Strudwick 

 urged the value of corpor;ite life in schools as a means 

 of developing a sense of responsibility, unselfishness, 

 self-discipline, and freedom of criticism. She sug- 

 gested that co-education was a more natural and 

 wholesome way of beginning life, although there were 

 many difficulties in the way of its being adopted 

 universally. Her plea for a fuller recognition by the 

 nation of the importance of a teacher's work will be 

 endorsed by all sections of the profession — " that right 

 relation between school and life can be attained only 

 when two conditions are fulfilled, when to those who 

 teach their profession is a vocation and the love and 

 confidence of their pupils a reward beyond price, and 

 when those who ^o not teach are ready to accept in 

 their midst those who do, and to make thein feel 

 that, in the best and truest sense, they belong to the 

 world." 



In the discussions that followed the Maharaj Raiia 

 of Jhalawar ;ind Prof. Kilpatrick, of Columbia Uni- 

 versity, took pirt. 



A joint meeting with Section E followed to hear a 

 paper by Prof. J. L. Myres on " The Place of Geo- 

 graphv in a Refr>rmed Classical Course." Prof. Myrcs 

 said that the recent decisions respecting "compulsorv 

 Greek " comprlle<l a drastic revision of classical teach- 

 ing. In place nf Inngu.Tf^e te.nrhing he .idvocated a 

 closer co-ordination between hlstorw literature, and 

 geography, and sugcesled that the Mediferranenn 

 region was exreplionallv suited to supplement, by con- 

 trast, homeland notions of geography; the ancient 

 narrative and description in translations of man's be- 

 haviour under these conditions, and his solutions of 



