EDUCATION n 



To this there is but one answer : create the right 

 conditions of country hfe, and guide the inchnation 

 of the rising generation to a career on the land by 

 means of suitable education. 



As a nation we have never yet asked ourselves 

 this serious question : Is our present system of 

 education producing the type of citizen we stand 

 most in need of ? An authoritative answer to that 

 question is to be found in the report of the Poor 

 Law Commission. From the evidence given before 

 them the members of this Commission came to the 

 conclusion that although the majority of the citizens 

 of any country must earn their livelihood by the 

 work of their hands, our present system of education 

 is " producing petty clerks rather than workers." 



The aim of education should be to turn out men 

 and women who can think correctly. And as the 

 majority of people must live by the work of their 

 hands, they must be taught to use their hands 

 intelhgently. This means that in the first place 

 manual instruction should be developed in all our 

 elementary schools. That form of education alone 

 can be full and generous which develops the manual 

 as well as the mental side. And as the mental 

 activities of a child can often only be stirred by 

 means of manual instruction " through the hand, 

 to the eye, to the brain," it follows that the develop- 

 ment of manual instruction in our elementary 

 schools, so far from being injurious to the literary 

 side, will actually benefit it. Here practical experi- 

 ence supplies the proof, for in those elementary 

 schools where the manual method has been adopted 

 and where most time is given to manual instruction 

 the standard of book work is above the average. I 

 hope I shall not be taken as intending to disparage 



