Science in National Education 



in educational writings (Comenius began it and 

 his modern admirers have carried it much further) 

 first, to count up the numerous influences which 

 may train the mind and beneficially affect char- 

 acter, and then to try to squeeze them all into 

 the theory of the day-school curriculum. The 

 result would be, first, congestion of the time- 

 table ; next, a demand for the extension of school 

 activities beyond the capacity of any but quite 

 exceptional teachers, not to speak of the limits of 

 reasonable expenditure ; then would come failure 

 and disappointment through attempting too much ; 

 and, finally, the too ambitious theory of the 

 functions of the school would break down by 

 its own weight. It seems to me that we shall 

 get much more out of the ordinary schools by 

 expecting less of them than current educational 

 theories prescribe. Greater intensity of work 

 within narrower limits, but with more training in 

 the power to think and to find out things, and with 

 less absorption of masses of knowledge, is likely 

 to give better results than are an overloaded 

 curriculum and multiplicity of subjects. The mis- 

 take lies in assuming that the day school can do 

 everything. In point of fact it has but little time 

 at its command ; and it is only concerned with 

 part of a child's daily doings. To put forward 

 exaggerated claims on its behalf is to provoke 

 reaction. The day school can accomplish a great 

 work if it is allowed to concentrate upon what 

 it can do well. But it is only concerned with part 

 of the educational process, and it is an error to 



