190 THE FAMILY AND THE NATION 



From our immediate point of view, the worst result 

 of our educational mistakes consists in overcrowding 

 with unsuitable men those careers which the present 

 type of education is especially designed to serve. The 

 economic balance is upset, and a vast amount of ill- 

 performed, and therefore partially unproductive, labour 

 injures the efficiency of the nation and diminishes its 

 means of subsistence. Such are some of the causes 

 which have given rise to the past want of suitable 

 openings for the children of all classes, and to the 

 consequent striking absence of those children them- 

 selves. 



Another aspect of the same mistaken idea of education 

 is seen in the stress laid on competitive examinations 

 as a means of filling administrative posts, and as a test 

 of fitness for after life. 



Competitive examinations have two obvious effects. 

 They favour the candidates who are best able to afford, 

 and do not realize the harm, of a long and intensive 

 form of early specialized instruction, and they put a 

 heavy premium on those whose mental powers either 

 develop precociously or are forced into a premature 

 awakening. Neither of these results can be welcomed 

 by any one who understands the problems involved in 

 the education and well-ordered development of mind 

 and body. It is probable that the policy of competi- 

 tive examination, when driven to excess, has resulted in 

 closing partially the doors of various honourable pro- 

 fessions to those who, in due course of time, would 

 have been best fitted to excel in them. During the 

 last two centuries, the landed and official classes could 



