NA TURE 



4«7 



THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1916. 



THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION. 

 nPHE speech of Lord Haldane in the House 

 ^ of Lords on July i^, on the training of the 

 nation and the necessity of preparing for the 

 future, is a timely contribution to the momentous 

 discussion of the question of the educational 

 position of Great Britain, and especially of that 

 portion of it identified with England. Our only 

 regret is that while Lord Haldane was a member 

 of the Government he did not see that decided 

 steps were taken to remedy the defects to which 

 he refers, and thus give us the strength needed 

 to compete successfully in the rivalry of nations. 

 When he was president of the British Science 

 Guild he took an active part in asserting the 

 claims of science and scientific education to fuller 

 recognition by the State, and we looked naturally 

 to the realisation of these aims when he was in 

 office. Statesmen have yet to learn that it is 

 their duty to lead the people, instead of waiting 

 for a mandate from them. If industrialists have 

 failed to take the fullest advantage of scientific 

 knowledge and research, the omission is due 

 largely to the indifferent attitude shown by the 

 Government until recently towards these factors 

 of modern progress. 



Whilst giving due credit to the iccults of the 

 Education Act of 1902, particularly in respect of 

 its effect in improving the supply of secondary 

 education, in breathing new life into the numerous 

 endowed schools of the country. Lord Haldane is 

 careful to point out that, despite the improvement 

 which has been achieved, this feature of our edu- 

 cational system remains our weak spot. So long 

 as the possibilities of secondary education continue 

 to be, to so large an extent, undeveloped and 

 unorganised, as regards number, accessibility, 

 staff, and equipment, so long as most of the 

 pupils in secondary schools do not remain after 

 they are about fifteen years of age, the possibility 

 of efficient and abundant university education re- 

 mains an unrealised dream. 



It is. Lord Haldane says, an appalling reflection 

 that in this country go per cent, of our young 

 people get no further education after the age of 

 fourteen, not to speak of the many thousands 

 -who cease school attendance at a much earlier 

 age, and he further states that between the ages 

 of sixteen and twenty-five much more than five 

 and a quarter millions get no further education 

 at all. The number of students who enter the 

 universities of England and Wales in each year 

 is 18,000 from a population of 38 millions, whilst 

 in Scotland, out of a population of four and three- 

 NO. 2438, VOL. 97] 



quarter millions, the number who enter the uni- 

 versities annually is 7770. If, therefore, there 

 was the same proportion of students to population 

 entering the universities of England and Wales 

 as in Scotland the number would be upwards of 

 57,000. 



It may well be asked what chance have we 

 against other nations which go on a different plan 

 and thereby, to put the question on no higher 

 plane, have the knowledge and the power to 

 stimulate industrial capacity and activity. " What 

 does education mean but the training of the whole 

 nature in the widest and most comprehensive 

 sense, so that the youth of the nation may be 

 able when the time comes to turn, it might be to 

 science, it might be to the humanities, or to any 

 of the thousand and one subjects which are covered 

 by the field of knowledge of the twentieth cen- 

 tury?" It is an absurd travesty of the situation, 

 in the controversy now going on as to the respec- 

 tive share of science and the humanities, especi- 

 ally the classics, in the sphere of education, to 

 accuse the advocates of science of claiming that 

 science shall have the dominating influence to the 

 exclusion of the humanities. They plead that 

 science and scientific training shall, having regard 

 to the great advance in the knowledge of natural 

 phenomena and of the constitution and potentiali- 

 ties of matter which has now been gained, and 

 the great part which these discoveries now play 

 in human activities and as contributories to human 

 well-being, be accorded their due place in the 

 scheme of education from the lowest to the 

 highest grades and be accepted as an essential 

 factor in the equipment of every educated man. 



In defence of the attitude of scientific men on 

 this question, we cannot do better than cite the 

 words of Huxley, where he says : — 



Do not expect me to depreciate the earnest 

 and enlightened pursuit of classical learning. I 

 have not the least desire to speak ill of such 

 occupations nor any sympathy with those who 

 run them down. . . . Classical history is a great 

 section of the palaeontology of man, and I have 

 the same double respect for it as for other kinds 

 of palaeontology — that is to say, a respect for the 

 facts which it establishes as for all facts, and a 

 still greater respect for it as a preparation for 

 the discovery of a law of progress. 



In addressing the students of the South London 

 Working Men's College in 1868 he laments 

 that— 



Literature is not upon the college programme, 

 but I hope some day to see it there. For literature 

 is the greatest of all sources of refined pleasure, 

 and one of the greatest uses of a liberal educa- 

 tion is to enable us to enjoy that pleasure. Edu- 

 cation is the instruction of the intellect in the 



