Reviciv of Recieu-s, 1/9/13. 



EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS. 



n t> ^ 



to take up residence in the two universi- 

 '- ties.. 



'■' But this is not all. The universities 

 'have set up the fetish of external exami- 

 nations, before which not only ado- 

 lescents, but babes of 10-14 have been 

 forced to fall down and worship. The 

 public schools of all grades and types 

 have during the last half-century 

 adopted from the universities this idola- 

 trous worship, and have offered the en- 

 ticement of scholarships by competitive 

 examination to mere children, who begin 

 to prepare for them soon after they are 

 in their teens. i\nd yet biologists are 

 in practical agreement that such com- 

 petitions involve a premature strain 

 which results in permanent mental in- 

 jury and physical atrophy in after life, 



" The pressure of these competitive 

 examinations," wrote Matthew Arnold 

 forty years ago " is to offer a premium 

 for the violation of Nature's elementary 

 laws, and to sacrifice, as in the poor 

 geese fatted for Strasbourg pies, the due 

 development of all the organs of life 

 to the premature hypertrophy of one." 



But the mania for such tests of effi- 

 ciency does not end with the children, 

 though in that stage it is seen in its most 

 pernicious aspect. The ludicrous com- 

 plexity and multiplicity of examinations 

 in Great Britain have also made us a 

 laughing-stock among the nations of 

 Europe. 



Out of this educational chaos it is 

 hoped and believed that Lord Haldane's 

 new Bill will provide some means of 

 escape, and will bring a simple central 

 light out of Cimmerian darkness. 



Another anomaly in the British edu- 

 cational system is that there exists no 

 organic or even indirect connection be- 

 tween the highest seats of learning and 

 the highest scientific training for busi- 

 ness life. 



This has been largely clue to two 

 causes : — 



(i) The predominance assigned both 

 at Oxford and Cambridge, but particu- 

 larly at Oxford, to the pursuit of the 

 two dead languages, by the allocation 

 of two-thirds of their prizes to pro- 

 ficiency in those studies ; 



(2) Class-])rejudice against embark- 

 ing in any form of trade. 



Happily the second of these causes is 

 rapidly clisappearing under the com- 

 bined influence of a plutocracy founded 

 on commercial success, and of the pres- 

 sure of the motive — il faitt vivre. Never- 

 theless, a University whose stalwart sons- 

 claim that she should resist social and 

 educational reform and should continue 

 to " whisper from her towers the last en- 

 chantment of the Middle Ages " is an 

 institution which does not easily lend 

 herself to the needs of a progressive and 

 industrial age. And yet fifty years ago 

 Herbert Spencer declared: — 



That which our .sohools (and TJniversitios?) 

 leave almost entirely out wc thus find to be 

 that whieh most nearly concerns the business 

 of life. Our industries would cease, were it 

 not for the information which men begin to 

 acquire as best they may. after their educa- 

 tion is said to be finished. 



On which pronouncement a modern 

 American thinker makes the following 

 reflection : — 



It is a matter of commonplace knowledge 

 that Spencer's prophecy has come true, and 

 that England is reaping in vanishing mar- 

 ket.s and a decay of commercial prestige the 

 fruits of her neglect of .scientific instruc- 

 tion. Yet even now she only hesitatingly 

 acknowledges that the causes "of her indus- 

 trial decline must be laid at the door of her 

 short-sighted educational policy. 



It would exceed the limits of this 

 paper to dwell on many other anomalies 

 in an educational system which nothing 

 less powerful than the arm of the State 

 can sweep away. But one thing is cer- 

 tain. Any future essays in educational 

 reform must begin from the top and not 

 from the bottom. And it will surely 

 be a safe venture to prophesy that such 

 a policy will dictate the scope of the 

 forthcoming Bill. 



It was perhaps inevitable that when, 

 in the middle of the last century, an at- 

 tack was made on " the empire of ignor- 

 ance " among the poorer classes, the as- 

 sault should begin from below. In 

 1847 it was discovered that half the 

 adult population of England could 

 neither read nor write. Twenty years 

 afterwards Lord Beaconsfield "dished 

 tlie Whigs " by " lowering the franchise 

 to the man instead of raising the man 

 to the franchise." It thus became a mat- 

 ter of immediate and imperative neces- 

 sity that we should proceed to "educate 



