134 



NATURE 



[October i, 19 14 



are in one, and the same teacher takes charge of both 

 subjects and teaches them as much as possible 

 together. 



Furthermore, in the preparation of an account of 

 an investigation there are practical lessons in English 

 composition ; there is sketching, and also more careful 

 drawing with instruments, and the finding of empirical 

 laws, usihg squared paper. In such a school every 

 subject is being taught through all the other subjects ; 

 every boy is doing the work in which he is greatly 

 interested, and no boy is attending merely and putting 

 in time. Furthermore, out of school-time there might 

 be the usual restrictions as to "bounds," but otherwise 

 I would let a boy do pretty much as he pleased. 

 " Prep." at boarding-schools and home lessons for 

 boys at day schools are to be quite discredited. I 

 would — it may cost a little more money- — allow a 

 boy to work in the workshops or laboratories or 

 library or in his own room or common rooms at 

 anything he pleases in this off-time, and I would give 

 him advice only if he asks for it. If I saw a boy 

 reading a penny dreadful I would not stop him; nor 

 if he were reading Paine's "Age of Reason," or any 

 wretched treatise on psychology or logic. I would 

 in no way discourage a boy from acquiring a greater 

 .and greater fondness for reading, knowing that this 

 is the foundation of future happiness and education, 

 and that no harm which he can get from his reading 

 is of the slightest importance in comparison with the 

 importance of our main object. As he grows up he 

 will become less and less fond of the sixpenny maga- 

 zine. The school can at its best be merely a prepara- 

 tion for the lifelong education of the man. I would 

 not keep the boy at school after sixteen. Let him 

 then go into business, or to a science or technical 

 school, or to the university. 



Unfortunatelv for the present no university will take 

 men without an entrance examination involving other 

 languages than English. This is a great evil, but it 

 is not going to last much longer. In the meantime a 

 competent coach will prepare any student to pass the 

 necessary examinations (say, in Latin and Greek) in 

 three months, even if there is much other work to do. 

 This is not a matter of learning any classics ; it is 

 rather the manufacture of some contempt for the 

 classics, a necessary evil for the present. Indeed, for 

 the present, but let us hope not for long, there are 

 many other necessary evils. We have to find com- 

 petent enthusiastic teachers, we have to persuade 

 governing bodies to pay salaries two or more times as 

 great as at present, we have to make parents see that 

 some mental training and fondness for reading and 

 writing are really of value, and that Tom Sawyerism 

 is only childish. 



The importance of primary education is now well 

 recognised. Rich and aristocratic folk know that they 

 are now in the hands of the common people in a 

 democratic country, and it is important to see that the 

 common people shall be made fit to rule and shall 

 have a real sense of fairness and reasonableness. 

 Above all, if they are to be good citizens we must 

 cultivate their common sense. I think that in the 

 schemes and the administration of primary education 

 by the Boards of England and Scotland it is in a 

 good way ; but there is one great curse upon it, and 

 the enormous sums of money spent upon it are greatly 

 wasted. The local authorities give to every teacher 

 far too much to do, and thev give him only half his 

 proper wages. In a few years the Government of our 

 democratic country will be in the hands of the boys 

 now at school. That they should be good citizens full 

 of common sense is more important than any other 

 thing. If they are without fondness for books, and 

 if they cannot reason, their votes will be at the com- 



NO. 2344, VOL. 94] 



mand of fraudulent or foolish, or perhaps only selfish 

 or self-deceiving speakers. Our Empire was ruled bv 

 George III., and by God's grace we only lost America 

 and piled up the National Debt; but think of an 

 empire ruled by millions of Georges I Teaching the 

 young requires great wisdom and sympathy, and we 

 entrust it to people paid half wages, the "otherwise 

 unemployed." In the secondary schools also we find 

 this penny wise pound foolish policy, and it is par-, 

 ticularly evil in the great technical schools. A city is 

 proud of its magnificent college of science, first be- 

 cause of its architecture; secondly, because of its equip- 

 ment in apparatus, perhaps in steam- and gas-engines 

 and other expensive machinery. And the man in 

 charge of the most important department of that col-, 

 lege receives perhaps 250^. a year. He ought to get at 

 least 600Z. That is the market price of a fit man, and 

 without a fit man the whole money and the time of 

 students are being wasted; the thing is really a fraud, 

 a whited sepulchre, and, of course, the principal is 

 always a classical non-scientific man. Photographs 'of 

 the building and its laboratories are very fine to look 

 at in guide-books of the city, and the managers of the 

 college get public thanks for their services. I know- 

 nearly all the technical and science colleges of Great 

 Britain, and I scarcely ever see any of their com- 

 placent managers, members of their governing bodies, 

 without wishing that I had some of the powers of the 

 familiars of the old Spanish Inquisition. What right 

 have they to undertake duties which require a know- 

 ledge of natural science? 



The latest proposal of our callous copiers of the 

 Germans is to make attendance at evening .classes 

 compulsory up to the age of seventeen. At present 

 working boys attend evening classes voluntarily, 

 although in many cases they are too tired to learn 

 much. Yet many of them do learn. These boys are 

 almost martyrs. They sacrifice so many of their poor 

 pleasures, and indeed duties, that they certainly 

 deserve success in life. But it is not fair to impose 

 these sacrifices upon boys who are, as apprentices, 

 learning the principles underlying their trade, and who 

 are paid only small wages on the understanding that 

 their masters teach these principles. In 1889 I intro- 

 duced a Bill into the Kensington Parliament compel- 

 ling employers to provide such instruction during the 

 working hours. Reforms of all kinds proceed with 

 exasperating slowness, but already many employers 

 are carrying out this idea. 



In some things we reformers have made way. It 

 is now recognised almost everywhere that examina- 

 tions ought to be conducted mainly by the teachers of 

 a student. I have often put the matter in this way : 

 Huxley used to teach about forty students in biology ; 

 we cannot imagine better teaching. But if those 

 students had only wanted to pass the examination of 

 London University it is quite certain that they would 

 have done very much better by attending the class of 

 a cheap crammer. A university consisting of two, 

 three, or more federated colleges is very little better 

 than a mere outside examining body, and this is what 

 London University has always been. I am glad that 

 a change towards something better is now about to 

 take place. A number of separate universities would 

 be better, but in two years or less, probably, the col- 

 leges of London will conduct their own intermediate 

 and degree examinations. One result will be that 

 when a man gets his degree he will not shut up his 

 books for ever. 



I would, however, point out that Old London Uni- 

 versity, which was a mere examining body, served an 

 exceedingly important purpose. This statement may 

 seem curious coming from a person who has always 

 i railed at Lofidon University as a mere examining 



