194 Third Conference 



returning to something of this " knowingness ", as 

 giving the child the power to see and reason instinc- 

 tively, and then to act on what he has gathered 

 from the things about him. But let us be clear 

 that it is the development of the child's faculties 

 which is to be the object of our teaching. We have 

 been told from time to time that we are pushing it 

 purely from the agricultural point of view — to secure 

 more labour on the land. I have never been disposed 

 to worry much about that kind of criticism ; after the 

 present exhibition I don't think we shall hear of it 

 again. I think, however, speaking as a teacher 

 to teachers, that we ought to recognize a sub- 

 stratum of truth in the attack which many farmers 

 have made upon education generally. It is only a 

 few weeks ago since Mr. Chaplin roundly declared 

 that education simply unfits children for work in the 

 country, and the more education you give them the 

 worse they become. Of course we all indignantly 

 repudiate such a heresy ; but let us face the question 

 calmly, and ask ourselves whether, we won't say 

 education, which is a large and intangible conception, 

 but our particular plan of teaching, has not been such 

 as unfits the child not merely for a country life, but 

 for any other demanding more than copying entries 

 or turning a handle. Let us direct our education 

 away from the formal conventional side of life; no 

 longer blind our children by making them see only 

 through books, but expand and render flexible their 

 minds, so that they will be better labourers in what- 

 ever walk of life they follow. 



We agree, then, that "Nature-study" must stand or 

 fall by its educational value. Well, in the first flush 



