58o 



NATURE 



[December 30, 1920 



social and moral problems in ancient times compared 

 with ours, would admirably serve as a foundation for 

 a reformed classical education. 



A joint meeting with the Sub-section Psychology was 

 well supported. Prof. T. P. Nunn reviewed the pre- 

 sent trend of thought respecting methods of teaching. 

 He said it was generally recognised now that true 

 learning requires the pupil to be at least an active 

 partner in his own education, and that we have 

 travelled far in this direction of recent years Fixed 

 classes and fixed time-tables could not remain as they 

 are if the individual pupil, with his distinctive powers 

 and needs, was to be the centre of the business. In- 

 spired bv Dr. Montessori's success, courageous 

 pioneers here and abroad are following up this revolu- 

 tionary suggestion with pupils of secondary-school age. 



Prof. G. H. Thompson read a paper in which he 

 discussed the question : Do Binet-Simon tests measure 

 general ability? He combated the conclusion based 

 on the results' obtained that the general ability evalu- 

 ated by the tests was in the nature of a general 

 common factor present in all performances. 



Dr. Kimmins attracted a large audience to hear his 

 paper on dreams of abnormal children — the deaf, blind, 

 and crippled. 



A large gathering assembled on the last mornmg 

 to hear an address by the Right Hon. H. A. L. Fisher 

 on the place of the universities in a national system 

 of education. In Mr. Fisher's unavoidable absence the 

 address was read bv Sir Robert Blair. Mr. Fisher re- 

 ferred to the " general influence which universities exer- 

 cise in promoting a spirit of liberal inquiry as opposed 

 to that rigid and exclusive system of dogma which cen- 

 turies ago was the product of intolerant clericalism, 

 and is now, in modern democratic societies, preached 

 by revolutionary or class-conscious sects." " If it be the 

 cardinal requirement of our modern civilisation that a 

 career should be open to talent, then it follows that 

 universities should play a much larger part in the life 

 of the people than historical accidents have hitJierto 

 assigned to them." He described how this enlarge- 

 ment was going on even before the war, and 

 how greatlv it had been increased as a result 

 of it. In his own opinion the Government 

 scheme of grants, whereby more than 25,000 cx- 

 Service men are now undergoing some form of 

 higher education in our universities and colleges, is 

 destined to exert a permanent influence over the his- 

 tory of university development in these islands. In 

 addition, our universities will be swollen by a further 

 influx of students who otherwise before the war would 

 have gone to Berlin or Vienna. The Education Acts 

 of 1902 and 1918 are providing another source of 

 recruitment through grants for secondary and con- 

 tinuation schools. Mr. Fisher pointed out how the 

 work at the universities was held up for lack of funds, 

 and hoped that private munificence will help to supple- 

 ment and increase the comparatively moderate grant 

 which the State is able to provide. A great addition 

 to the teaching body of this country is imperatively 

 demanded bv the circumstances of the time, and he 

 urged that the quality of the education which is to 

 be given to the rising generations will depend upon 

 the extent to which the universities are enabled to 

 leave their impress upon the teachers of our schools. 



Mr. Frank Fletcher, headmaster of Charterhouse, 

 followed with a paper on " The Public Schools in a 

 National Svstem of Education." Public schools at the 

 present tinie could scarcely be said to form a part of a 

 national system, but Mr. Fletcher argued that the 

 question of this relationship has been raised by the 

 Teachers (Superannuation) Act of 1918. A consider- 

 able number of public schools were unable, out of their 

 own resources, to provide a satisfactory pension 

 NO. 2670, VOL. 106] 



scheme; they would therefore be compelled to seek 

 Government assistance, which would entail conditions 

 linking them up with the national system. He claimed 

 that no reflections of a derogatory character should 

 apply to those who did ask for State assistance, and 

 that those schools standing out should not be excluded 

 from opportunities of rendering services to the State 

 in direct connection with the national system. The 

 form which this service might take J[he said) was tenta- 

 tively put forward by Mr. Fisher : — (1) That the public 

 school should receive boys from county secondary 

 schools the numbers of which were too small to allow of 

 more than one type of education being given, and yet 

 in which might be one or two boys of promise whose 

 bent did not coincide with that of the school; (2) co- 

 operation in the training of teachers and in the inspec- 

 tion of secondary schools. Mr. Fletcher urged the 

 big public schools to accept inspection by the Board of 

 Education rather than that of the universities, so that 

 inspectors of the smaller secondary schools should have 

 experience of the organisations of the larger type. 

 Such service could be rendered without losing that 

 individuality which was the essence of their existence. 

 The inspectorate would then act as a clearing-house 

 of ideas between all types of schools, and each would 

 learn from the other and the Board from both. 



Mr. J. C. Maxwell Garnett described by means of a 

 colour diagram sixteen different types of education, 

 showing their interrelationship, and especially the 

 position of the higher techni,cal schools, in what 

 he hoped would be a national system established in 

 the course of the next ten years. 



Miss VVodehurst (Bristol University) submitted a 

 paper on training colleges in a national system of 

 education, and argued that there was still a need for 

 the two-year-trained teachers as against the three- or 

 four-year university student. She .urged the desira- 

 bility of keeping the entrance to the teaching profes- 

 sion sufficiently wide to admit those who were unable 

 to obtain full-time courses of study, and showed that 

 there were many sound and valuable reasons why the 

 training colleges were better able to provide for 

 the two-year student than the universities, especi- 

 ally for those who would have charge of children 

 under twelve years of age. It is well known that 

 capacity to profit by a training college experience 

 extends far beyond those who can reach matriculation 

 standard. The universities of the future could meet 

 this need only by lowering their standards of entrance, 

 not only for attainment, but also for ability ; hence the 

 use of the non-university college, with a staff of uni- 

 versity-trained specialists and a governing body con- 

 taining university representatives. 



One afternoon was devoted to the question of the 

 supply of teachers. An interesting discussion followed 

 an admirable paper by Mr. Spurley Hey on the present 

 shortage of teachers in elementary schools. The 

 reasons for the shortage Mr. Hey attributed to three 

 causes: — (i) The failure of the Board of Education's 

 policy in throwing over the pupil teachers centresi 

 and depending on the secondary school to supply re- 

 cruits; (2) the failure of the Local Education 

 .\uthority generally to realise the importance of 

 taking steps to maintain an adequate supply of 

 teachers ; (3) the hostile and unsympathetic attitude 

 of the teaching staff towards the L.E.A. in creating 

 a supply. Mr. Hey pointed out how the Board 

 had already taken steps to remedy this serious state of 

 affairs by (i) its pension scheme; (2) additional 

 grants for the payment of better salaries; (3) the es- 

 tablishment of the Burnham Committee; (4) providing 

 avenues of approach to the teaching profession other 

 than through the secondary school ; (5) impressing upon 

 the L.E.A. the need for immediate action towards 



