January 8, 1903] 



NA TURE 



The old idea in England was, teach a boy to be 

 manly, teach him not to be a sneak and a coward, and 

 at the same time give him a smattering of education, 

 then let him be placed in the Army or Navy or business 

 and, come what may, character will carry him through. 

 There is no doubt about it that our public-school life, 

 with its traditions and the esprit de corps which it 

 engenders, has had much to do with moulding character, 

 and in past generations, when other nations were settling 

 their internecine troubles and it was simply a question of 

 staking out claims for posterity, this style of education 

 was satisfactory enough. But Germany and other 

 nations, as soon as they had settled their internal 

 struggles, proceeded at once to build up a system of 

 national education which has had far-reaching effects 

 upon many of their most important industries. Not only 

 has German education had such enormous influence 

 upon their own industries, owing to the introduction of 

 scientific methods, but it has likewise been felt in this 

 country, because our manufacturers and traders, not 

 having been taught to believe in scientific training, have 

 stuck to old-time methods, with the disastrous result that 

 in many branches of industry we are unable to compete 

 with the scientific German. In Prussia, all the secondary 

 schools are upon the same lines. The Prussian knows 

 the meaning of a secondary school ; it would puzzle an 

 Englishman to define one. The standard is practically 

 the same in all the Prussian secondary schools ; here 

 we have no standard at all. English masters as a rule 

 are devoted to their schools, German masters to educa- 

 tion. An English boy loves his school ; a German boy 

 has not the same feeling of esprit de corps, but looks 

 upon his school as an establishment for obtaining know- 

 ledge. We lay stress on character, the Germans on 

 knowledge. There are good points in each. The ten- 

 dency in our schools to make the school standard one 

 of proficiency in sport, and to make fun of earnestness 

 and to chaff those who desire to obtain knowledge, is 

 not good. That objectionable expression "don't talk 

 .■■hop," which is often hurled at the head of those who, 

 through a sincere interest in their business or profession, 

 wish to exchange ideas with others, is the outcome of 

 this characteristic. On the other hand, the Germans 

 would undoubtedly gain if they had more freedom from 

 restraint and were not so bound down by hard and fast 

 rules and regulations. 



Other nations have realised that an education which 

 was sufficient fifty years ago is antiquated and of little 

 value in the present day, when science and learning have 

 made such enormous strides. In matters of educational 

 reform, or of accepting new views or theories, we have, 

 as a nation, always shown a conservative spirit. 

 When learning was only advancing slowly and new 

 theories were propounded which had very little found- 

 ation of fact to rest upon, doubtless a conservative and 

 cautious policy led in the long run to greater solidarity 

 and was better than being too hasty in taking up new- 

 ideas solely because they were new, but which would 

 almost immediately require to be discarded for some 

 newer theory. But now, since the growth of knowledge, 

 resting, as it does, on a broad foundation of experimental 

 fact, is so rapid, it is absolutely essential that we should 

 alter our methods in order to keep abreast of the times. 



Fifty years ago, a boy might spend the bulk of his 

 time upon the study of classics and yet be fitted to take 

 his place in business or commerce. To-day, classics 

 alone are of little use. Here it should be pointed out that 

 in Germany the study of classics is not neglected ; in- 

 deed, considerable stress is laid upon that study. Science 

 is, as a rule, not taught until the boys have at least 

 obtained a thorough general grounding in classics, and 

 there are those in Germany who would make the 

 classical education more thorough than it is at present. 

 The following instance illustrates how thorough, in 



NO. 1732, VOL. 67] 



general, the study of Latin in Germany must be. An 

 Englishman, a friend of the writer's, went to study in 

 Bavaria and had no knowledge of the German language. 

 A nephew of his landlady, a boy of about fifteen, was 

 studying at a public secondary school, and although the 

 Englishman was unable to make his landlady understand 

 his wants, he was able by means of Latin to converse 

 with her nephew and so have his wants attended to. 



In a Prussian secondary school, a master has to know 

 a great deal more of the subject which he has to teach 

 than an English master in a similar position. In England, 

 erudition is considered of far less importance than activity 

 of mind and body and success in sport. We often say, 

 "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'' ; we 

 seem to forget the converse, that much play and little or 

 no work unfits the boy for the struggle in after life. On 

 p. 21 ? of the report, we find the following quotation from 

 the remarks of a Frenchman : — "A boy at an English 

 public school has qualities which a French schoolboy 

 does not possess, but those qualities are moral and not 

 intellectual. In English education there is a very weak 

 point — and that is instruction." An educational system 

 in which the weak point is instruction surely requires 

 overhauling. 



The object in our schools should be to teach that the 

 most lasting form of pleasure is to be found in work 

 well done. R. L. Stevenson once said, " I know what 

 pleasure is, for I have done good work." It has been 

 stated that one of the reasons why the Americans are so 

 successful in the present day and seem to be carrying all 

 before them is that " they find their pleasure in their 

 business." 



Centralisation is the backbone of the German and 

 French educational systems. Here we have found that 

 centralisation spells red tape, and now with the swing of 

 the pendulum the cry is for decentralisation. Wholesale 

 decentralisation will probably spell chaos. It is essential 

 that we should have a satisfactory primary education, 

 to be followed up by an efficient and carefully planned 

 scheme of secondary education, but it is very doubtful 

 whether the carrying out of even the finest imaginable 

 system of education could be left entirely to the local 

 authorities or to the teachers themselves. It would not 

 be satisfactory to bind down teachers to a hard and fast 

 interpretation of any code or system. Scope must be 

 left for individuality, not, however, for eccentricity. 



There is one thing the report makes abundantly clear, 

 and that is that we have much to learn from the Germans ; 

 there are many things we might adapt, but very little that 

 we could copy. There is a tremendous outcry in this 

 country for specialisation, and many advocate early 

 specialisation. Early specialisation is not at all believed 

 in on the continent. In the continental university 

 or polytechnic, specialisation is not allowed until a 

 scholar is able to show that he has a thorough general 

 education. We ought to have some equivalent to the 

 German "Abiturienten," or leaving examination. Unless 

 such an examination has been successfully passed, the 

 student cannot enter a university or polytechnic and take 

 his degree or diploma. Further, in obtaining situations 

 in business houses, preference is invariably given to those 

 who have successfully passed this examination ; indeed, 

 many business houses will not take men into their employ- 

 ment who have not passed this satisfactorily. 



Sixty-five pages of the report are devoted to the 

 " Measurement of Mental Fatigue." We find that 

 the systematic study of mental fatigue has been taken 

 up in a spirit of earnest, scientific inquiry ; and it is 

 worthy of note that post-mortem examinations have 

 shown "that those parts of the brain which serve 

 the purpose of systematic thought, commonly known as 

 the reasoning powers, are the last to mature." The ques- 

 tion of what constitutes mental fatigue must always be 

 one of great difficulty. If the laws of hygiene are obeyed 



