December 25, 1902J 



NA TURE 



177 



frequently the basis for a demand for a revision of the cur- 

 ricula of some of the schools in the district. Thus, in many 

 of the administrative counties, we still have too many 

 schools which devote a large amount of time to the study of 

 classics, not because most of their pupils are best fitted 

 for life by such study, but mainly because the school 

 prepares each year a boy or two for Oxford or Cambridge. 

 Wise county councils will probably decide to limit the 

 number of classical schools within their counties, sending, 

 by means of scholarships, the best boys capable and de- 

 sirous of receiving a good classical education to one or 

 more selected schools in the district. The remaining 

 county grammar schools will, it may be hoped, be 

 modernised and adapted to the needs of the bulk of the 

 pupils attending them. In many, a strong agricultural 

 side should be developed ; in some, a good modern 

 education should be given. 



It will be asked, "What is here meant by a good 

 modern education?'' In the opinion of the writer, this 

 should include English — taught much more thoroughly 

 than is usually the case in grammar schools, where 

 classics absorb the lion's share of the pupil's time — and 

 mathematics, based on practical measurements and in- 

 cluding a knowledge of geometry gained by methods more 

 suitable for boys and girls than those set forth in Euclid's 

 elements. German, taught by colloquial methods, should 

 be a compulsory subject because the study of its gram- 

 matical peculiarities forms a mental training as useful as 

 can be given through the medium of Latin or Greek, and 

 because it is becoming increasingly difficult for one who 

 does not know this language to follow the latest develop- 

 ments in either industry or commerce. French should 

 also be taught where possible, but in cases where only 

 one language can be learned, it should be German. 

 Drawing would naturally form part of the course, and 

 some suitable form of manual training, such as modelling 

 or woodwork, should be introduced. 



Above all, it is to be hoped that local authorities will 

 discourage the pseudo-classical schools which have sprung 

 up in the last two decades owing to the desire of some 

 ancient grammar schools to meet the demand for the 

 teaching of modern subjects while still devoting some 

 portion of the school time to Latin. The result is — what 

 might be expected — that neither Latin nor modern sub- 

 jects are mastered ; the pupil has a smattering of too 

 many things. 



Although a diminution in the amount of classical 

 teaching is here advocated, it must not be supposed that 

 the value of sound classical training is underestimated ; 

 where a pupil's time suffices for this as well as for the 

 subjects he needs to enable him to earn his living, it is 

 well that he should study Latin and, if possible, Greek. 

 But in cases where the school life of a boy or girl is 

 necessarily limited, it is much better that his or her mind 

 should be trained through the medium of subjects likely 

 to be of greater service in after life ; above all, it is very 

 doubtful whether a child obtains any substantial benefit 

 from a classical training so imperfect that he remains 

 unable to appreciate, or even to read easily, classical 

 literature. 



In the towns, the matter will be more complicated. 

 Many local authorities will have to determine how best 

 to deal with the higher grade board schools, where they 

 exist. In each town, the problem will be different ; where 

 the towns are badly provided with secondary schools, it 

 may be wise to convert the higher grade board [schools 

 into secondary schools, but, in such cases, they should not 

 be allowed to strangle existing efficient secondary schools 

 by providing education of the same kind as these schools 

 offer, practically free of charge. If the circumstances of 

 the town make it desirable that secondary education of a 

 certain type should be offered free, then all the schools of 

 this type should be placed in a position to offer the same 

 terms to their pupils, so that such competition as exists 



NO. 1730, VOL. 67] 



will depend only on the relative efficiency of the teaching 

 in the schools. On the ether hand, in some towns the 

 higher grade board schools have been competing need- 

 lessly with secondary schools in their neighbourhood. 

 In such towns, the higher grade board schools can be 

 converted into higher elementary schools, giving a train- 

 ing for the large number of boys and girls who must 

 leave school at a comparatively early maximum age, say 

 fourteen or fifteen. Indeed, as recent Parliamentary re- 

 turns show, there are, in most higher grade schools, very 

 few boys or girls above fifteen, except backward ones. The 

 curricula of these schools should be materially altered ; 

 they are at present far too ambitious, having regard to 

 the average age at which their pupils leave, and should be 

 amended so as to include only that amount of work which 

 can be satisfactorily covered, and the comparatively few 

 pupils for whom the present curricula are devised should 

 be transferred, by means of scholarships, to secondary 

 schools. 



One of the most fertile causes of the comparative 

 inefficiency of some of the secondary schools in this 

 country is the large number of examinations for which 

 they find it necessary to prepare their students. Thus 

 we have, not only the examinations of the Board of 

 Education, but also the local examinations of the various 

 universities, special examinations for the Army, the Navy, 

 the Civil Service, different county and other scholarships, 

 &c. It would be an enormous gain if, in place of all 

 these various examinations, we had one State examin- 

 ation, on the results of which there would be issued a 

 certificate, guaranteeing a good general education and 

 recognised as qualifying for admission to the universities, 

 the Civil Service, the Army, the Navy, &c. Unfortunately, 

 enormous vested interests are opposed to such a plan, as 

 the present system of indefinite multiplication of examin- 

 ations finds employment for a large number of examiners 

 and is stamped with approval by the action of the older 

 universities, which have in recent years extended their 

 system of local examinations so as to include quite young 

 children ; e.g., the maximum age for admission to a so- 

 called " honours " class in the preliminary local examin- 

 ation of the University of Cambridge is fourteen ! 



Assuming that a suitable basis for technical educa- 

 tion has been made by the provision of an adequate 

 number of secondary schools, it will then be necessary to 

 consider what technical institutions are needed in the 

 district. This will, of course, depend largely on the 

 nature of the industries which exist in particular neigh- 

 bourhoods. In many administrative counties, the only 

 technical institution needed will be an agricultural col- 

 lege, and for some counties a share in an agricultural 

 college would suffice. In other administrative counties, 

 provision must be made for proper technical instruction 

 in such subjects as coal mining, metallurgy, fisheries, 

 &c. But, as a rule, the county will find much of what it 

 wants in the large technical colleges already existing in 

 the great cities within, or adjacent to, the geographical 

 borders of the county. 



In many of the smaller county boroughs, there are 

 already technical schools providing evening classes for 

 artisans ; in the remainder, such evening classes might 

 not infrequently be provided in connection with the 

 modern secondary school of the place. In large cities, 

 which are great centres of population, a first-class tech- 

 nical institution will be needed, providing not only even- 

 ing classes but more especially instruction for adult day 

 students on a par with that given in Germany and the 

 United States. This can only be done effectively by con- 

 centrating in one institution for each district either all 

 the higher technical education or, at least, the highest 

 part of such education in a certain number of branches 

 of technology and commerce. For it is only in instiiutions 

 with numerous pupils that it is economically justifiable to 

 provide the expensive equipment needed for such work 



