Education and Agriculture 



new scheme into the most practical form. 



For instance, to refer again to the experiment 

 I have mentioned, a difficulty arose as to what 

 to do with the small children while the teacher 

 was giving manual instruction to the older ones; 

 one of the local schoolmasters suggested that 

 they should be allowed to stay in the room and 

 watch the elder children, as this would rouse 

 their interest in the work. This certainly com- 

 mends itself to me as a better plan than the other 

 course of appointing a temporary monitress.* 



I cannot leave this subject without saying a 

 word as to the sympathetic attitude of the Board 

 of P2ducation, which, far from blocking the ex- 

 periment, were most encouraging ; in fact they 

 have complained (vide Mr. Runciman's address 

 to the Deputation on Rural Education, Nov. 4. 

 igog) that local authorities so rarely come for- 

 ward with suggested experiments. 



I still come sometimes across the statement 

 that a radical change of attitude is necessary at 

 the Board of Education ; it seems to me that 

 people who say this do not realize how greatly 

 the Board has changed in the last 4 or 5 years. 

 I can only testify that in my personal dealings 

 with the Board I have found a commendable 

 absence of red tape and a keen interest in any 

 suggested experiment for increasing the amount 

 of practical manual instruction. Probably there 



* This is the case of a very small school. 



