736 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



September 1. 1913. 



our masters." The Educational Act of 

 1870, and subsequent measures, were the 

 result. But, as an exposition of a scien- 

 tific policy of education, a beginning 

 was made at the wrong end. 



The field of Secondary Education 

 has meanwhile remained, not indeed an 

 educational waste, but an area into 

 which the educational farmer has, for 

 the past fifty years, been flinging experi- 

 mental seeds in such indiscriminate pro- 

 fusion that they have choked and atro- 

 phied each other in their competitive 

 struggle to attain maturity. No won- 

 der that they have brought forth no edu- 

 cational fruit to perfection. The won- 

 der is that they have, in spite of over- 

 crowding, produced " in spots " such 

 comparatively excellent results as have 

 been achieved. No wonder again that 

 the very projects, noble enough in their 

 conception, which have been made for 

 the educational progress of the poorer 

 classes have not seldom proved an occa- 

 sion of stumbling. The educational 

 ladder which was set up " from the 

 gutter to the University " has hitherto 



been a comparative failure, because the 

 rungs have been insecurely fitted. The 

 obstacles in the way of a promising 

 elementary school boy climbing from 

 the bottom to the top have proved in- 

 superable in ninety-nin^ cases out of a 

 hundred. In other words, most of the 

 scholarships awarded at Oxford and 

 Cambridge, by aid of which alone a 

 student can gain the benefit of a Univer- 

 sity education, are bestowed only on 

 such as can afford a preparatory train- 

 ing at institutions, or with tutors, that 

 demand fees far out of the reach of the 

 poorer classes. It was not surprising to 

 hear recently that out of 287 students 

 holding scholarships at Oxford only 

 three had come from elementary schools. 

 It is not too much to hope, and in- 

 deed to expect, that these and similar 

 inequalities, which at present serve as 

 " the invidious bars of birth," may be 

 broken down by the forthcoming mea- 

 sure, to which many educational re- 

 formers look forward with hope, if not 

 with confidence, as the golden dawn of 

 a new educational era. 



THE NEW EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME IN 



ENGLAND. 



By \V. 11. M. 



Mr. Pease unfolded the new educa- 

 tional programme in England in a sin- 

 gularly clear and informed statement of 

 educational policy. The present Bill 

 is a small one, but he really sketched 

 a svstem of national education reno- 

 vated from top to bottom. The unborn 

 babe is to gain something from schools 

 in rr other-era ft, the infant is to pass 

 at an early age into a new form of 

 nurser)^ school ; childhood gains by the 

 removal of the " Cockerton " restriction 

 on subjects taught as well as by more 

 physical training, school-baths, playmg- 

 fields, and medical treatment. The 

 period of compulsory attendance is to 

 be extended ; and the pathway to higher 

 education is then to be made smooth, 

 partlv by a comDulsorx' provision of 

 suitable schools, but still more by the 

 co-ordination of existing miscellaneous 

 schools, " academies," and polytechnics. 



VSSIXGHAM. 



In the highest stages of all, where uni- 

 versities, training colleges, and Imperial 

 technical institutes hover between the 

 " local " and the " national," Provincial 

 Councils, covering large areas, are to 

 combine delegated powers from local 

 authorities with financial support from 

 the national treasury. From the cradle 

 to the grave, the crooked places of Eng- 

 lish educational highway are made 

 straight, the rough places plain. 



LACK OF TEACHERS AND SPACE. 



The chief cost of Mr. Pease's reforms 

 will be incurred when the Government 

 proceed to make good the approaching 

 dearth of teachers, and the increasing 

 deficiency of buildings. The money 

 saved in recent years by excluding in- 

 fants will reappear in the more costly 

 form of new nursery schools. The grow- 

 ing arrears of school building which 



