Science in Public Affairs 



Since these words were written, the new Regu- 

 lations for Secondary Schools have enjoined a 

 better balance of studies, but practically nothing 

 has been done by the State to secure improve- 

 ment in the staffing of the schools. Some of the 

 county and county borough councils have done 

 much notably those of London, Liverpool, Lanca- 

 shire and Cheshire but the state of things is still 

 so grave that, unless action be quickly taken on 

 a considerable scale, we shall find ourselves with 

 the worst system of middle secondary education 

 of any civilised country. So far, the intellectual 

 defects of the teaching have been balanced by 

 the character-forming influences of our English 

 secondary school life. But this, too, will be 

 threatened, unless there be drawn into the ser- 

 vice of the schools an adequate supply of new 

 masters with the experience and education which 

 the work requires. The essential thing in the 

 school is not the time-table, or the buildings, or 

 the equipment, though all are valuable, but the 

 character, the influence, the intellectual power and 

 the skill of the teacher. It is not enough to put 

 the right subjects into the time-table ; there must 

 be the right man to teach them, and to teach not 

 with accuracy only, but with life, and with the 

 power to make the subject a way of approach to 

 great questions. To do this a man must believe 

 in the value of what he teaches. He must be 

 fresh in his knowledge of it, himself a learner 

 too. It must be part of his own life, and have 

 a message for him and through him for those 



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