CONTINUATION DAY SCHOOLS 8i 



when you come to look at it with a critical eye, 

 can anything be more foolish than for a nation to 

 spend millions on the elementary education of its 

 future citizens up to the age of fourteen, and then 

 to allow the boys and girls to leave school and 

 forget much that has been so costly to give ? 



What is the remedy ? In the towns the school- 

 leaving age might wtII be raised. In the country 

 this is more difficult. Lads going in for agriculture 

 should get to work on the land not later than four- 

 teen, but under this system we find that a comparison 

 between English farm lads and Danish farm lads 

 in particular is very unfavourable to the former. 

 Very much the same applies to Germany, Switzer- 

 land and Holland. The explanation is simple 

 enough. Our lads' average of intelligence and 

 efficiency is low because there is nothing in our 

 system to keep the brighter boys in the village 

 and so raise the general rate of efficiency. In the 

 countries mentioned the utmost effort is made, and 

 made successfully, to attach the lads to the soil 

 and to raise the efficiency of all by a carefully 

 designed system of education (itself again part 

 of a rural civilisation of their own) which places 

 them on the first step of the ladder of success. 



If, therefore, we are to retain the intelligent lads 

 on the land we too must provide a carefully worked- 

 out system of continuation instruction which will 

 carry on their education up to the age of sixteen 

 as in Germany and Switzerland, and I think 

 Holland, or even up to the age of eighteen, as in 

 Denmark. This continuation instruction will have 

 to be given in centralised continuation day schools, ^ 



* These centralised schools are at work in Canada and are 

 described in Report No. 4 of the Rural Education Conference. 



