498 



NA TURE 



[September 24, 1903 



clearly indicate, a direct reference to the special wants 

 and wishes of those in the district around it. I think 

 I am not wrong in claiming for this departure on the 

 part of its promoters that it is' to be a new fact in the 

 educational history of our country . . . this school is 

 not merely a copy — still less is it intended to be a rival 

 of other educational agencies and institutions, whether 

 they be of an elementary or of a higher or secondary 

 type ... it is an intelligent effort and a new attempt 

 to solve a difficult problem, and one which never was 

 more difficult than it is to-day, as to whether you can, 

 in regard to any given population, living under certain 

 given conditions, which perhaps cannot in the district 

 be much altered, give education and ameliorate for 

 them those conditions, and if so, what kind of educa- 

 tion will best do it ... in this matter the promoters 

 have set themselves not to consider codes or grants or 

 examination successes." 



In view of the fact that the Sutherland Technical 

 School is entirely due to private enterprise, and is 

 therefore in the same position as regards support from 

 public sources as Lady Warwick's school in Essex, it 

 will be of importance to those interested in this phase 

 of recent educational development to give another 

 extract from Lord Balfour's speech : — 



" This school is an experiment, a highly desirable 

 and promising experiment, but not one on which any 

 local authority could itself venture. Nor could the 

 Education Department do it, much as we approve of 

 the proposal. It is work for private initiative, for 

 private enterprise, and for individual enthusiasm. 

 May I just say in passing that if we remodel our 

 educational system, as I for one sincerely hope we 

 shall do, that we bring it up to date, and that we make 

 it more complete than it is at present, let us' leave some 

 place for free individual action. Boards, committees 

 and departments are all very well in their way, but 

 they are apt to be regulative rather than initiative, 

 critical rather than constructive. Many advances in 

 education must start outside the established system. 

 Do not let us keep private institutions out of that 

 system. Widen your local powers if you like. Let 

 them take advantage of and help those Institutions 

 outside their own system which are well managed. In 

 the present instance, as I understand, the local 

 authority — the technical committee of the county— has 

 promised a considerable measure of support, and 

 under the freer conditions of State recognition that 

 have obtained in recent years-, we do not anticipate 

 there will be any difficulty in our helping them. What 

 the exact measure of that support may be, and on what 

 conditions it Is given, It is difficult to say until the 

 plan of the school work becomes more defined; but I 

 can give you this assurance with every intention of 

 seeing it carried out, that the progress of the school 

 will be watched with interest and sympathy by the 

 officials of my department, and that as large a measure 

 of support will be accorded it as the conditions laid 

 down by Parliament for supporting education will 

 allow." 



In moving a vote of thanks to Lord Balfour, the 

 Duchess of Sutherland, In the course of an admirable 

 speech, made some remarks so thoroughly in harmony 

 with the views of the advocates of the newer education 

 that they may appropriately be transferred to these 

 columns :■ — 



'' It has been suggested that in Scotland the old 

 system of what is called classical education is sufficient 

 to meet all requirements ; that the secondary depart- 

 ments of the primary schools are fairly equipped, and 

 that If a boy wishes to pursue so-called technical studies 

 he might be awarded a sum of money to enable him 

 to go into large cities and there pursue them. It has 

 even been suggested that essentially a rural agri- 

 cultural school must in its alms' be opposed to mental 



NO. 1769, VOL. 68] 



culture. Such ideas are fallacies. I am afraid that the 

 studies of the immortal wonders of the classics and of 

 what are so strangely called the deal languages have 

 too often proved a dead study to the student. A mere 

 mechanical acquisition of knowledge leads us nowhere. 

 How would Aristophanes, author of the " Birds " and 

 the " Clouds," how would Heslod, the poet of the 

 husbandman, how would Theocritus and Virgil, 

 singers of pastoral delights, turn in their graves if 

 they could know that only their dog-eared books spoke 

 their music to our children, and that the chords from 

 which that music sprang were unassayed, unloved, 

 even unnoticed by the scholars of to-day. Not, in- 

 deed, that the children will not notice, and that they 

 cannot love, but the present time education has, until 

 ver^- recently, driven them away from the region of 

 growth to the region of the cut and dried. They live 

 In this Inspiring country at an age when the swelling 

 of the grain on the hillside, the habits of the birds, 

 the marvellous nature of a handful of earth, might 

 rouse a passionate interest and quicken every faculty 

 of observation. In a school such as this we would 

 draw culture from its source until the youth, who for 

 himself has seen and understood, should turn away 

 from the intoxication of his own experiments to the 

 books of those who long ago saw and understood, 

 and there find a background for his own ideas and an 

 echo to his conclusions. I deny . . . that there is any 

 divorce between these imaginations and the practical 

 conditions of to-day. . . . This is a scientific age ; that 

 Is why we need the scientific schools. Every hour 

 fresh marvels of the mysterious nature which sur- 

 rounds us are being by science revealed." 



The Duke of Portland, in seconding the vote of 

 thanks, dwelt forcibly upon the point that the new 

 school would not In any way compete with or overlap 

 the work of existing Institutions. A vote of thanks to 

 the donors of the building fund, the Duke of Suther- 

 land and Mr. Andrew Carnegie, was proposed by Mr. 

 R. B. Haldane, M.P., and seconded by Sheriff Guthrie, 

 who in the course of his speech pointed out the 

 immense amount of harm that had been done to the 

 cause of education in this country by certain classes 

 of writers and speakers whose sole function had been 

 to act the part of destructive critics without making 

 any constructive contributions of any kind. Mr. 

 Carnegie replied on behalf of the donors. 



The school thus launched is intended to accommo- 

 date forty residential pupils- and a limited number of 

 day pupils from the immediate neighbourhood. The 

 building will contain fifty-six rooms, of which fourteen 

 are to be used as class-rooms, laboratories, and work- 

 shops. The cost of erection and equipment Is estim- 

 ated at 16,000?., of which 8000Z. have been contributed 

 by the Duke of Sutherland and 8000/. by Mr. Carnegie. 

 The Duke of Portland and many others interested In 

 the district have also given substantial aid. Forty 

 bursaries of 30?. each have been given by the Duchess 

 of Sutherland, Mrs. Carnegie, and many other 

 generous friends of the movement. The site of the 

 school has been given by the Duke of Sutherland. 

 The educational experiment which the enlightened zeal 

 of the Duchess of Sutherland has now set going in 

 the extreme north merits the warmest sympathy of our 

 readers and of all who have the cause of scientific 

 education at heart. The undertaking Is unquestion- 

 ably a bold one, and If, as Lord Balfour intimates. It 

 Is to be left solely to private enterprise In this country 

 to Initiate this kind of work, it is a matter of con- 

 gratulation that we have among us such enthusiasts 

 as the noble sisters whose names will always be associ- 

 ated with the cause of scientific education in rural 

 districts. The school at Golspie will be unique of its 

 kind in the north of Scotland. The Highlander by 

 temperament and the surroundings of his birth, by 



