A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye." — Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 1922. 



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Education and the Nation. 



ON Sunday, November 27, Mr, Fisher, Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Education, speaking 

 in Whitefield's Mission, London, on " Our 

 Schools," said : 



" Education is a great unifying influence, not 

 aly between classes, but also between nations. The 

 . stranging influences between man and man are not 

 rooted in the externals of situation or wealth, but 

 are founded in diff"erences of intellectual acquisi- 

 tion and of intellectual and moral outlook. There 

 still persists the delusion that the education of the 

 poor must be difi'erent, not only in amoimt, but also 

 in quality, from the education which is at the service 

 of the more affluent members of the nation. But 

 the poor, e\en more than the rich, stand in need of 

 the best possible education, since they lack the home 

 advantages of the wealthy. Indeed, in the crowded 

 areas of the cities the school plays an even greater 

 part than the home in the formation of the national 

 mind. The elementary school may not give all the 

 NO. 2723, VOL. 109] 



results we are entitled to expect, though there has 

 been great progress made in the last generation 

 through the development of a spirit of humanism 

 in the schools. Tt will not become fruitful in result 

 until something is done to provide education for the 

 vital period of adolescence." 



This was the spirit that animated Mr. Fisher in 

 the drafting of the measure which culminated in 

 the Education Act of 1918, and served to mark the 

 public appreciation of the benefits of eciucation and 

 the great progress made since the Education Act of 

 1902. Mr. Fisher stated that day continuation 

 schools were provided for in the Education Act 

 of 1918, but, owing to financial circumstances, at 

 the present time they could not develop the system 

 adequately. He added that the children of the 

 nation needed more schools, more books, and better 

 teachers, and if the nation was in earnest they would 

 assuredly get them in time. Yet the Board of 

 Education has continually thwarted the progressive 

 efforts of the more enterprising local authorities 

 in the provision of new schools ; it hampers the 

 provision of Central Schools in London even where 

 such provision can be made by the reorganisation 

 of existing elementary schools, and it checks the 

 development of schools where physically defective 

 children can receive remedial treatment. 



There has arisen — and it is an extremely hopeful 

 sign of the public interest in the value of education 

 — a strong demand for the advantages of higher 

 education, and thousands of children in all parts 

 of the country are eager for admission to secondary 

 schools ; but the Board ofi"ers no encouragement to 

 that end ; in fact, it has sanctioned the raising of 

 the fees in such schools, thereby preventing the 

 poorer children from taking advantage of them, and 



