August i6, 191 7] 



NATURE 



487 



real improvement in the health of young children may 

 asonably be looked for. 



The second proposal involves as its consequence the 

 abolition of what is known as the half-time system. 

 The system has been condemned by every educationist 

 and every social reformer. It is bad for the physique 

 of the children, it is injurious to the intellectual pros- 

 pects of the half-timer, and it has been shown not only 

 that the work upon which the children are engaged is 

 not such as to develop the higher forms of industrial 

 activity, but also that when the half-time system is 

 once admitted in the textile industry it spreads to other 

 forms of employment as well. 



The third measure for improving elernentary-school 

 education is the further regulation of the employment 

 of children during the period of daily elementarA-school 

 life. The Gpvernment desires a full period of school 

 life, unimpaired by the competing claims of employ- 

 ment, for all children of the working population. At 

 the present moment the effect of our elementar\-schooI 

 education is greatly harmed by the work which is 

 imposed on children out of school hours. They are 

 liable to be employed for three hours before the school 

 opens and for some hours after the school closes, and 

 the general opinion of inspectors is that of all reforms 

 affecting elementary education there is none more vital 

 than the enforcement of strict limitation of the em- 

 ployment of children in their school-going days. The 

 Bill proposes that no child under twelve shall be em- 

 ployed for profit, and here the Bill has been anticipated 

 by by-laws passed in some large municipalities. No 

 child under fourteen shall be employed on any day on 

 which he is required to attend school before the close 

 of school hours or after 8 p.m. on that day, or on other 

 days before 8 a.m. or after 8 p.m. The Bill provides 

 that the local education authorities, if satisfied on the 

 report of the school medical officer or otherwise that 

 the child is being employed in such a way as to be 

 prejudicial to health or education, may forbid or regu- 

 late that employment. If the local education authority 

 should decide that it would be wise to continue the 

 elementary education in the elementary- schools either 

 of the boys or the girls in their area or of boys or gTrls 

 following particular occupations in that area up to the 

 age of fifteen they shall be empowered to do so. 



The most novel provision in the Bill is that, with 

 certain exceptions, every young person no longer under 

 any obligation to attend a public elementary school 

 shall attend such continuation school as the local edu- 

 cation authority of the area 'in which he resides may 

 require for a period of 320 hours in the year, or the 

 equivalent of eight hours a week for forty weeks. The 

 main exceptions are the following : — Attendance at 

 schools will not be required in the case of a young person 

 who has received to the satisfaction of the Board suit- 

 able full-time instruction up to the age of sixteen, or 

 • has passed the matriculation examination of a univer- 

 sit>- of the United Kingdom or an examination recog- 

 nised as an equivalent to that, or is shown to be un- 

 suitable or deficient for part-time instruction. In other 

 words, every young person who has not received a full- 

 time education up to the age of sixteen shall receive a 

 part-time education up to the age of eighteen, either in 

 schools provided by the local education authority or in 

 schools under their direction, such as the schools estab- 

 lished by manufacturers in their works. The Bill pro- 

 vides that part-time instruction shall be given by day; 

 it must be taken out of the employers' time, and 

 I provision is made to ensure that the young person who 

 I '^ required to attend continuation classes shall not be 

 I worked unduly long hours during the days on which 

 j the classes are held, and that he or she shall be given 

 . a reasonable inter\-al for food, rest, and washing be- 

 ! tween work and school. The classes are not to be held 

 I on Sunday or any holiday or half-holiday which a young 

 XO. 2494, VOL. 99] 



person is accustomed to enjoy. TTie proposal comes to 

 this, that' any young person who has to undergo full 

 time for instruction will be liberated from industrial 

 toil for three half-days a week during forty weeks— two 

 half-days to be spent in school, while one will be a 

 half-holiday. 



The Bill rightly attaches great importance to physical 

 education. Physical training is already an element, 

 perhaps not a sufficient element, in our elementar}'- 

 school curriculum," and grants have recently been sanc- 

 tioned for organisers of physical training iji public 

 elementan.- schools. The present Bill gives physical 

 training a place in continuation schools. Ever\' boy 

 and girl in those schools will receive physical training. 

 1 1 goes even further. It empowers tha local education 

 authority to establish nurser\- schools for young chil- 

 dren, to maintain playing-fields, school baths, or school 

 game centres, and equipment for physical training, and 

 it extends the powers and duties with regard to medi- 

 cal inspection now possessed by the local education 

 authorities in the case of elemeritar)' schools and 

 secondary' schools provided by them, and continuation 

 schools under their control. 



In commending the Bill to the consideration of the 

 House, Mr. Fisher said : — '" We have reached a point in 

 our history when we must take long views. We are a 

 comparatively small country-, and we have incurred the- 

 hostilit}' of a nation with a larger population, with a 

 greater extent of concentrated territory, and with a 

 more powerful organisation of its resources. We 

 cannot flatter oui selves with the comfortable opinion 

 — I wish we could — that after this war the fierce rivalr\' 

 of Germany will disappear and hostile feeling alto- 

 gether die down, and this in itself constitutes onfe 

 reason for giving the youth of our country the best 

 preparation which ingenuity can suggest. There is 

 another reason. We are extending the franchise. We 

 are- making a greater demand than ever before on the 

 civic spirit of the ordinary man and woman at a time 

 when the problems of national life and of world policy, 

 as to which this House will - be called on to decide, 

 have become exceedingly complex and difficult. How 

 can we expect an intelligent response to the demands 

 which the community proposes to make on the con- 

 structive judgment of its men and women unless we 

 are prepared to make some further sacrifices in order 

 to form and fashion the mind of the young? 



" We assume that education is one of the good things 

 of life, which should be more widely shared than has 

 hitherto been the case amongst the children and young 

 persons of the country. We assume that education 

 should be the education of the whole man, spiritually, 

 intellectually, and physically ; and it is not beyond the 

 resources of civilisation to devise a scheme of educa- 

 tion, possessing certain common qualities, but admit- 

 ting at the same time large variation, from which the 

 whole population of the country, male and female, mav 

 derive benefit. We^ assume that the principles upon 

 which well-to-do parents proceed in the education of 

 their families are valid mutatis mutandis for the fami- 

 lies of the poor, and that the State has need to secure 

 for its juvenile population conditions under which' 

 mind, body, and character may be harmoniously de- 

 veloped. We feel also that, in existing circumstances, 

 the life of the rising generation can only be protected 

 against the injurious effects of industrial pressure by 

 a further measure of State compulsion. But we argue 

 that the compulsion proposed in this Bill will be no 

 sterilising restriction of wholesome liberty, but the 

 essential condition of a large and more enlightened 

 freedom. It will tend to stimulate the civic spirit, 

 promote general culture and technical knowledge, and 

 diffuse a steadier judgment and a better-informed 

 opinion ihrough the whole body of the communitv." 



