444 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 



out ; draining, ditching, brushing, and laying a hedge, 

 thatching, etc., are nowadays usually in the hands of quite 

 old men, and no successors are in sight In many 

 counties attempts are being made to teach these arts 

 by means of classes, but from all we have seen this 

 seems to be a wrong method of going to work. The 

 farmer ought to be the teacher, either with his own 

 hands or by ensuring that some of the lads are set 

 to work with the skilled leader. In many cases the 

 master ought to be taught to dispense with the craft 

 rather than the men to practise it. For example, 

 sheep-shearers are scarce in many districts, but, instead 

 of instructing men in the use of the shears, it would be 

 wiser to show the master the advantages of a machine. 

 Similarly Dutch barns are more economical than the 

 best of thatchers. The technical education of the 

 labourer can best be left to the farmer, and it is mostly 

 nonsense to complain that it is our system of elemen- 

 tary education that is driving the men off the land. 

 In a sense all kinds of formal education tend to unfit 

 the pupil for practical life. The education monger 

 regards education as a kind of marshal's baton to be 

 put in the boy's brain, he wants to set him on the first 

 step of the ladder that will lead him into Parliament, 

 and to this end he does not mind wasting the general 

 material that has no capacity for rising in this special 

 way. So our boys cannot apply their brains to their 

 fingers and our girls cannot cook or keep house, but 

 we have an unlimited supply of clerks and typewriters 

 for the service of the climber for whom the system is 

 designed. But the town suffers equally with the 

 country from the education which is based not on the 

 work that lies round about, but on the off chance of 

 making a career. Even a career generally turns out 

 no great thing, the career of a minor functionary 



