344 



Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



Lady Lockyer. 



Dr. Lockyer. 



Mr. Maccoll. 



Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S. 



Sir a. Noble. Bart., K.C.B., F.R.S. 



Sir Gilbert Parker, M.P. 



Prof. Perry, F.R.S. 



Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., F.R.S. 



The Lord Reay, G.C.S.L 



Sir Wemyss Reid. 



Sir William Richmond, K.C.B., R..\. 



Mr. E. Robertson, M.P. 



Sir Henry Roscoe, F.R.S. 



Sir a. Rucker, F.R.S. 



Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S. 



Mk. Alex Siemens. 



The Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal. 



Sir L. Alma Tadema, R.A. 



Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S 



Dr. a. D. Waller, F.R.S. 



Field Marshal Viscount Wolseley, G.C.B. 



Sir Henry Trueman Wood. 



NEW REGULATIONS OF THE BOARD OF 

 EDUCATION. 



"M O system of national education is complete which 

 •'■^ fails to recog-nise the essential importance of the 

 work of the satisfactory secondary school. Its import- 

 ance, that is, both as providing- a means bv which the 

 exceptionally well endowed boys and girls of the 

 elementary schools may continue their education under 

 better conditions, and also as affording an adequate 

 preparation for those pupils who later will become 

 technical students and university undergraduates, or 

 who will without further instruction enter upon the 

 active duties of life. The recent Education Act gave 

 an official recognition to what has long been urged 

 by those who understand our educational needs, that 

 true education from beginning to end is an organic 

 whole. The duty has, in fact, been laid upon the 

 Board of Education of superintending and promoting 

 the supply by local education authorities of education 

 other than elementary. The Board is now the final 

 court of appeal in all matters pertaining to the adminis- 

 tration of secondary education. 



It is considerations such as these which lead us to 

 regard the regulations ' recently issued by the Board 

 of Education for the government and administration 

 of English secondary education as one of the most 

 important of the educational documents of recent 

 years. For, since the Board is in a position to reward 

 by substantial grants a due adherence to the regula- 

 tions here formulated, it is clear that the principles 

 advocated officially will, whether they are right or 

 wrong, e.xercise a profound influence upon the curri- 

 culum and ideals of the schools. 



Such being the case, it is gratifying to find that 

 on the whole the regulations are framed on broad and 

 liberal lines, though, as we shall have occasion to 

 indicate, there are dangers which it is imperative those 

 in authority should avoid, and indications that the 

 claim of instruction in scientific method to a place in 

 every stage of education may be disregarded if certain 

 phrases in the regulations are followed too literally. 



It will serve to give a clearer idea of the influence 

 the regulations are likely to exert if an attempt is 

 made first to review some of the definitions put forward 

 in the official publication. A secondary school is 

 described as 



" any Day or Boarding- School which offers to each of its 

 scholars, up to and beyond the age of sixteen, a general 



4. to July 3., 



NA TURE 



[August i i, 1904 



NO. 18 1 5, VOL. 70] 



education, physical, mental and moral, given through a 

 complete graded course of instruction of wider scope and 

 more advanced degree than that given in Elementary 

 Schools. " 



E.xplaining what should be the characteristics of 

 a secondary school course of instruction, the prefatory 

 memorandum to the regulations states that it should 

 be general, complete, and graded in its various 

 branches. The explanation as to the precise meaning 

 to be attached to the description " general " deserves 

 — both because of its fairness and catholicity — to be 

 quoted in full : — 



" The instruction must be general ; «.e. must be such as 

 gives a reasonable degree of exercise and development to 

 the whole of the faculties, and does not confine this develop- 

 ment to a particular channel, whether that of pure and 

 applied Science, or literary and linguistic study, or of that 

 kind of acquirement which is directed simply at fitting 

 a boy or girl to enter business in a subordinate capacity 

 with some previous knowledge of what he or she will be 

 set to do. A Secondary School should keep in view the 

 development and exercise of all the faculties involved in 

 all these different kinds of training, and will fail to give 

 a sound general education to its scholars in so far as it 

 sends them out, whether to further study or to the business 

 of life, with one or other of these faculties neglected, or 

 with one developed at the expense of the rest. Specialisation 

 in any of these directions should only begin after the 

 general education has been carried to a point at which the 

 habit of exercising all these faculties has been formed and 

 a certain solid basis for life has been laid in acquaintance 

 with the structure and laws of the physical world, in the 

 accurate use of thought and language, and in practical 

 ability to begin dealing with aflf.iirs." 



Secondary education such as is outlined in this para- 

 graph will meet with the approval of every man of 

 science. Education conducted on scientific lines is 

 that which gives a "■ reasonable degree of exercise and 

 development to the whole of the faculties." If the 

 Board takes care that in interpreting its regulations 

 in the schools the inspectors strive to secure this all- 

 round, healthy mental development of English boys and 

 girls, the hearty cooperation and sympathy of men of 

 science may be depended upon. For to ensure the 

 exercise and development of all the faculties, a train- 

 ing in experimental science is necessary, just as a 

 course in literary and linguistic studies is essential. 

 As the quotation shows, the Board of Education is 

 aware that for a complete education many studies are 

 required, each with its own object and special work. 

 It is important to bear in mind also that the main 

 groups of studies cooperating for the complete educa- 

 tion of the child are of equal importance. Just as the 

 study of literature and language can promote the 

 growth of and strengthen some faculties to which 

 practical studies are unable to appeal, so a training in 

 experimental science is the best and only means of 

 ensuring the healthy unfolding of other sides of the 

 human brain. The classical scholar ignorant of the 

 laws and phenomena of nature is an uneducated man, 

 just as is a man of science who has no knowledge of 

 the literature of his own and other countries. 



This view of true education is admirably set forth 

 in the statement prepared by the president of the British 

 Association, and revised bv a committee including the 

 deputv Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, 

 the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, 

 and representatives of the modern English universities, 

 for presentation to the Prime Minister by the recent 

 deputation which waited upon him with reference to 

 increased State aid for university education. 



" The men upon whom the nation must chiefly depend 

 for aid under the complex conditions of the modern world 

 must not be entirely untrained in the study of the nature 

 and causes of the things which surround them, or of the 



