Science in Public Affairs 



stress in these examinations upon Latin, Greek 

 and mathematics. The result is that, in the pre- 

 paratory schools, English subjects (the mother 

 tongue, English literature, history and geography) 

 and the beginnings of natural science receive very 

 secondary consideration. But these are among 

 the most essential of studies for boys of from 

 ten to thirteen years of age. Thus we suffer in 

 our higher secondary education from a kind of 

 over-specialisation which is, in point of subjects, 

 almost the converse of that of which Mr. Headlam 

 complained with regard to many of the middle 

 secondary schools. The extent of the mischief 

 is shown in Mr. Gidley Robinson's article on the 

 Preparatory School Curriculum in vol. vi. of 

 " Special Reports on Educational Subjects." l 

 "As it stands, the curriculum deals unwisely by 

 the clever boys and unfairly by the rest. As long 

 as preparatory school training is directed mainly 

 to the effort to teach so many languages at once 

 one of them at least of supreme difficulty so 

 long shall we fail to give young boys anything 

 but a one-sided and inadequate training." He 

 urges the need for " a more reasonable curriculum 

 something richer and less bookish than we now 

 possess, and therefore better suited to the needs 

 of young children : full of stimulus as well as of 

 discipline, and therefore fitted to encourage them 

 with a growing sense of mental power : more 



1 Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1902. Cd. 418. 2s. 4d. Pages 

 61-78. The whole volume is devoted to the description of 

 the work of the preparatory schools. 



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