256 Fifth Conference 



the field of observation, stunt the general intelligence, 

 and anticipate that inevitable limiting of interests, and 

 that concentration of effort and faculties which is forced 

 upon us in after-life. The bent or bias of the indi- 

 vidual will soon show itself, and can then be guided 

 into the fittest channels. I would urge that special- 

 ized science is out of place in the primary school, 

 and should come in the next stage, the higher-grade 

 school, the organized -science school, the technical 

 school, or in the evening classes, together with such 

 industrial pursuits as dairy-work, agriculture, garden- 

 ing, carpentry, and cookery of a less elementary kind. 



There is, however, one product of primary educa- 

 tion that employers of labour, masters and mistresses, 

 the parents — yes, and the child himself when he 

 grows to manhood — have a right to expect, and that 

 is geiieral i7itelligeiice\ and it is to the newer educa- 

 tional developments, of which Nature-study is but one 

 phase, that expectation turns. 



I would take the boys to see the carpenter at work, 

 to the blacksmith's shop, to the house that is being 

 built, to the boat-builder's yard, to the mill and the 

 quarry, to the limekiln and the tan-yard; and the 

 whole country school to the menagerie on its way 

 through the village. 



Government blue-books are not exciting reading, 

 but for teachers the reports of H.M. inspectors are 

 instructive. They would do well to read Mr. Legard's 

 general report for 1900 (vol. ii, p. 87). In Mr. Fitz- 

 maurice's report for the North Central Division occurs 

 this sentence on " Manual Occupations " — and it ap- 

 plies with greater force to Nature-study: — "Teachers 

 will lecture and lecture, and conscientiously believe 



