208 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



schools, and later on, where necessary, the formation of con- 

 tinuation schools, independent of any existing school. 



The head master of a continuation centre should be highly 

 paid, so that these schools would be regarded as prizes in the 

 teaching profession, and attract good teachers. Further, op- 

 portunity should be taken of the educational reorganization 

 to improve the social status of the teachers — higher salaries 

 will help — but more is needed. Every county should have a 

 system of social gatherings for teachers. These might take 

 place in the summer holidays, and in country houses lent for 

 the purpose. They might last for three or four days, and while 

 chiefly recreational, a few conferences and lectures on educa- 

 tional subjects could be fitted in. 



It is now time to consider what is to be done in the remoter 

 areas lying out of easy reach of the centres. 



{a) Much could be done by conveying pupils in motor- 

 lorries, which presumably will be plentiful after the war. 



{b) By establishing a system of peripatetic teachers, who 

 would take continuation classes wherever ten to twenty pupils 

 could be got together. 



At the outset little should be spent upon buildings. Any 

 existing room, or cheaply erected wooden room, should be 

 used until experience indicates exactly what is wanted. 



There is no getting away from the fact that the provision 

 of properly quaUfied teachers will prove to be the great 

 difficulty — but not an unsurmountable difficulty. The supply 

 will come with the demand just as it did in the early " seven- 

 ties " of the nineteenth century — that other great period of 

 educational change and reorganization. Further, every L.E.A. 

 must concentrate attention on training teachers. 



The next question is that of the curriculum. Here great 

 eliisticity will be needed. The curricula must vary with the 

 varying conditions of surrounding life. In general terms, in 

 rural districts instruction will have to be more general in its 

 character than in the town continuation school ; there will be 

 less opportunity for specialization or for a wide range of 

 vocational work. 



