August i i, 1904] 



NATURE 



545 



forces which have to be utilised in our daily life ; their 

 training and education in humanities must also have been 

 of the widest. 



" Such men cannot be produced either by a university 

 uhich neglects science or by a technical college which 

 neglects the humanities. 



" Hence the universities must be enabled to combine 

 these two sides of a complete education, and they must 

 also be enabled to foster research along both lines, for 

 research is the highest and most important instrument of 

 education, as well as its most valuable result." 



.And what is true of higher education is true also 

 of secondary education upon which it rests. 



It is desirable thus to recapitulate these important 

 truths in view of section viii. of the memorandum. 

 This paragraph is likely to lead to misapprehension 

 and to create doubts in the minds of some men of 

 science as to how much of the declaration of faith 

 quoted with approval above is to be regarded as more 

 than the mere expression of a pious hope. Section viii. 

 informs us that all tvDcs of secondary schools fall into 

 thrtc main classes, and that in respect of the kind of 

 education they offer they may be discriminated roughly 

 as the literan,', the scientific, and the commercial types 

 of school. The boys from the literary, or first-grade 

 school — the section goes on to explain — proceed to the 

 university ; the boys of the scientific, or second-grade 

 school, are educated to the age of eighteen or nineteen 

 but do not proceed to the university; the boys of the 

 commercial, or third-grade school, leave at sixteen 

 years of age and go into business and commerce, train 

 to become teachers, or proceed into technical and 

 industrial pursuits. The objects of these schools as 

 set forth in this extraordinary paragraph must be placed 

 before the reader : — 



■' The first of these paying special regard to the develop- 

 ment of the higher powers of thought and e.xpression, and 

 that discriminating appreciation of what is best in the 

 thought and art o' the world, in other ages and countries 

 as well as in our own, which forms the basis of all human 

 culture ; the second, to the training of the intellect towards 

 understanding and applying the laws of the physical 

 universe; and the third, to the equipment of the scholars 

 for practical life in the commercial and industrial com- 

 munity of which they are members." 



-■\fter studving this section one is led to believe that 

 it has crept in by mistake ; it may safely be said to 

 have been written by somebody other than the author 

 of the definition of general secondary education given 

 earlier. Here we detect the old pestilent heresy that 

 culture is the prerogative of the classical man alone, 

 and that " a discriminating appreciation of what is 

 best in the thought and art of the world " is forever 

 impossible to boys from first- and second-grade schools. 

 If the secondary education in all types of school is to 

 give " a reasonable degree of exercise and development 

 to the whole of the faculties," why are not all boys and 

 girls — whether they leave school at sixteen or eighteen 

 — each in their degree cultured? 



The future in life allotted in this section to the pro- 

 ducts of each frade of school is equally preposterous. 

 The paragraph makes it appear as if all the useful work 

 of the world is done by people who leave school at 

 sixteen, and as if all university men spend their lives 

 in indulging their " discriminating appreciation of 

 what is best in the thought and art of the world." 



.As readers of Nature at least know, the sorry figure 

 this country has cut recently in the industrial com- 

 petition of the nations, and in another direction in 

 South .Africa, is precisely because of the disposition in 

 times past, on the part of those responsible for English 

 education, to regard " the training of the intellect 

 towards understanding and applying the laws of the 

 physical universe " as the work of some special kind 

 of school instead of being a necessary and important 



NO. 18 I 5, VOL. 70] 



part of every grade of education. It is surely time 

 that it was recognised on all hands that " practical 

 life in the commercial and industrial community " 

 needs and deserves as good and careful an education 

 on the part of those who pursue it as any other sphere 

 of human activity. But, as we have said, this mal- 

 adroit section viii. is an incongruity so far as the 

 regulations as a whole are concerned, and we trust 

 the inspectors may be instructed to ignore it. 



To turn to the question of the grants to be awarded 

 to secondary schools recognised as efficient by the 

 Board of Education. As the sum is limited which 

 Parliament at present places at the disposal of the 

 Board for grants in aid of education other than 

 elementary, the grants payable under the new regula- 

 tions are to be made in respect of a four years' course 

 only. The average age of the scholars in any class 

 commencing the course must not be less than twelve 

 years. The earlier education leading up to this course, 

 and the further education, if any, given beyond it, are 

 to be regarded as forming together with it a single 

 organic and progressive system. Subject to certain 

 conditions, a grant will be paid on account of each 

 scholar attending the approved course in accordance 

 with the new regulations on the following scale : — in 

 the first year of the course, 40^. ; in the second, 60s. ; 

 in the third, 80s. ; and in the fourth, loox. 



The definition of rational secondary education occur- 

 ring in the prefatory memorandum is not the only 

 guide given to schoolmasters as to the subjects which 

 must be taught to boys taking the grant-earning course 

 between the ages of twelve and sixteen years. In 

 section iv. of chapter i. the subjects of the course are 

 enumerated. We find : — 



" The course should provide for instruction in the English 

 language and literature, at least one language other than 

 English, geography, history, mathematics, science and 

 drawing, with due provision for manual work and physical 

 e.\ercises, and, in a girls' school, for housewifery. Not 

 less than 45 hours per week must be allotted to English, 

 geography, and history : not less than 32 hours to the 

 language where only one is taken or less than 6 hours where 

 two are taken ; and not less than 75 hours to science and 

 mathematics, of which at least three must be for science. 

 The instruction in science must be both theoretical and 

 practical. Where two languages other than English are 

 taken, and Latin is not one of them, the Board will require 

 to be satisfied that the omission of Latin is for the 

 advantage of the school." 



Most practical schoolmasters, and men of science 

 too if they are acquainted with the actual conditions 

 of school work, will admit that we have outlined in 

 these sections a rational curriculum which, in the 

 hands of properly trained teachers, will lead to good 

 results. We are sorry, however, to find the distinc- 

 tion made between theoretical and practical instruction 

 in science; it would be better to insist simply that the 

 time allotted to science should be devoted to experi- 

 mental science. It is difficult to understand, also, why 

 in enumerating, in section ii., the subjects of the curri- 

 culum for a course of work preparatory to that of the 

 grant-earning years, no mention is made of science, 

 since modern practice has demonstrated that useful 

 preliminary work in science may be begun in the lowest 

 forms of a secondary school. 



But however admirable the regulations drawn up 

 for the government of a secondary school, and however 

 logical and complete the statement as to its curriculum, 

 the success of its work in educating its pupils depends 

 finally upon the masters to whom its work is entrusted. 

 If these men have themselves received a broad educa- 

 tion and have been trained for their duties along 

 scientific lines, the boys proceeding from the school 

 will leave it properly equipped to occupy the station 

 to which they will be called. The training of teachers 



