288 



NATURE 



[June 7, 191 7 



provide for training in anything^ else. This 

 omission can satisfy only those who believe that 

 ability to pass an examination is sufficient 

 evidence of training. External students are 

 required to pass an examination in practical hor- 

 ticulture. The test lasts one day only, whereas 

 not fewer than two days, and preferably three, 

 should be spent by the student in demonstrating- 

 his skill in practical horticulture. Unless the 

 examination is so arranged as to secure that 

 every recipient of the degree has a sound know- 

 ledge of practical horticulture, the establishment 

 of a degree in this subject will do more harm than 

 good. 



CONTINUATIVE EDUCATION IN 

 FRANCE. 



ENGLAND is not the only Allied country that 

 is thinking of putting its educational house 

 in order, even before the end of the war. Our 

 good neighbour France is engaged on a similar 

 project. Thanks to the kindness of M, Maurice 

 Roger, one of the leading specialists on tech- 

 nical education in France, the present writer is 

 able to give a brief account of the French pro- 

 posals, which, in the hght of Mr. Fisher's some- 

 what tantalising treatment of the subject, cannot 

 fail greatly to interest the EngUsh public. 



The Bill before the French Chamber is 

 essentially a consolidating measure, while, at the 

 same time it introduces the principle of compul- 

 sion, the attempt at voluntary continuative educa- 

 tion having failed to produce adequate results. 

 Hitherto commercial and technical education 

 have formed the subject of one law, agricultural 

 of another, and physical training of a third. All 

 three laws have passed one or other of the two 

 Chambers. The new proposals will co-ordinate 

 the three laws in one in order that the education 

 of the future student may be similarly co- 

 ordinated. 



The aim of the education will be alike economic 

 and civic, and the physical education will, in the 

 case of the male student, lead up to- military 

 training. The unskilled, as well as the skilled, 

 employee must attend these schools, which are 

 not to be schools for workmen, but schools 

 where workmen, especially the unskilled, may 

 increase their economic productivity. It is signi- 

 ficant to note that, in spite of the centralising 

 traditions of French education, the classes are 

 to be organised in accordance with local or 

 regional needs, under the guidance of local com- 

 mittees for each commune. When the com- 

 mune is a large town like Paris or Marseilles, 

 the unit chosen seems very suitable, but in the 

 case of the small village it i9> certainly not large 

 enough. Such committees are to be composed 

 of town and district councillors, doctors, official 

 members, representatives of chambers of com- 

 merce and agricultural societies (very strong and 

 influential bodies in certain parts of France), and 

 delegates from associations of employers and 

 trade-unions and various other important local 



NO. 2484, VOL. 99] 



societies. Above them will b^ a county council 

 committee, and at the top a central committee to 

 exercise a general oversight and control. Two 

 stages of study are mapped out ; the first is up 

 to seventeen for boys and sixteen for girls. 



Curiously enough, the recent English Depart- 

 mental Committee on Juvenile Education in 

 relation to Employment after the War also 

 recommended two stages, but the first in . the 

 English proposals extends only to sixteen years 

 of age. In this first period in the French scheme 

 the obligatory subjects are French, history and 

 geography, physical exercises, science applied to 

 agriculture, industry, commerce, and navigation, 

 or domestic economy, comprising practical work 

 in each case. A minimum of fifty hours is 

 assigned to general education, 150 to profes- 

 sional, and 100 to physical, the last being 

 allotted to Sunday. This makes '^00 hours, as 

 against 320 suggested by the English committee, 

 which proposes a minimum of onl-y about fifty 

 hours a week for physical exercises. 



The second stage is from seventeen to twenty 

 years of age for young men and sixteen to 

 eighteen for girls, compared with sixteen to 

 eighteen for English students. French, con- 

 ferences on history, geography, civics, common 

 law, and political economy are assigned a minimum 

 of 100 hours, and the same amount is to be de- 

 voted to gymnastics and the preparation for mili- 

 tary service. For girls the place of the latter is 

 taken by manual work, hygiene, and some notions 

 of medicine and child-rearing. 



Existing technical, commercial, and higher 

 elementary school buildings are to be utilised so 

 far as possible for giving contifiuative education. 

 The more technical subjects will be taught by pro- 

 fessional teachers, but elementary-school teachers 

 will be largely used for the more general parts 

 of the course. To enable them to give the extra 

 time out of school, the ordinary day-school hours 

 will be shortened by half an hour, and the sum- 

 mer holidays increased to two months. If more 

 than 200 teaching hours of continuative education 

 are required of them they are to receive extra 

 pay. It is very significant to note that private 

 schools will be allowed, under certain conditions, 

 to provide continuative education. 



Cloudeslev Brereton. 



NOTES. 



The list of honours conferred on the occasion of the 

 celebration of the King's birthday on June 3 includes 

 the following names of men known in scientific 

 circles : — Baronets : Sir Thomas Elliott, Deputy-Master 

 and Comptroller of the Mint (retiring); Sir Robert 

 Hadfield, F.R.S., past-president of the Iron and Steel 

 Institute and of the Faraday Society; Mr. James Knott, 

 formerly president of the Institute of Marine Engineers ; 

 Sir Philip Magnus, representative in Parliament 

 for the University of London since 1906; the Right 

 Hon. T. W. Russell, Vice-President of the Department 

 of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland; 

 Dr. Frederick Taylor, president of the Royal College 

 of Physicians. Knights : Prof. W. J. Ashley, pro- 

 fessor and dean of the facultv of commerce at Birming- 



