Science in National Education 



thirty years ahead, and keeping the social needs 

 of the future constantly in view. Of everything 

 really efficacious in national education the growth 

 is slow. It is not the machinery that matters so 

 much as the public attitude of mind. And this is 

 the chief thing to influence through education. 



This being said by way of preface, it may be 

 added that our most serious weakness in England 

 is our unreadiness to co-operate scientifically for 

 great social ends and to submit voluntarily to the 

 sacrifice of individual preference which such co- 

 operation necessarily entails. Originality, enter- 

 prise, character, genius, goodwill of these there 

 is much, and our educational freedom has had 

 something to do with fostering all of them, but of 

 scientifically concerted action on voluntary lines 

 for collective social ends, there is comparatively 

 little. The education of the middle ranks of the 

 community is chiefly to blame for this. It is too 

 little touched by the spirit of national organisa- 

 tion. It is too individualistic and sectional in aim. 

 " Getting on " is too much its ideal. There is too 

 little thought in it of " getting things done " for the 

 whole community, and of deliberate preparation 

 for concerted endeavour to secure social organisa- 

 tion on more scientific and less wasteful lines. 

 In no country is more voluntary labour devoted 

 to matters of public concern ; in none is more 

 of it wasted and weakened by duplication and 

 division of effort. In no country is there so much 

 benevolent and self-denying activity in coping with 

 the evil consequences of social dislocation, and 



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