September 15, 1904] 



NA TURE 



495 



gation which is largely, if not mainly, social, political, 

 religious, moral, and lends itself only in a limited degree 

 to those problems which men whose sphere is natural science 

 are more accustomed to handle. 



These are some of the criticisms which, as men of science, 

 you have to meet, and I may safely leave them to your 

 tender mercies. 



For myself my attitude in the whole matter must of 

 necessity be a humble one. For many years of my life 1 

 was a teacher, but entirely untrained, or rather self-taught, 

 that is to say, relying for my instruction and guidance 

 entirely on my own reading, observation, experience, and 

 practice. 



1 belong to the pre-scientific age of Englishmen engaged 

 in education. I grew up to my profession anyhow, like so 

 many others ; and now for some years I have ceased even 

 to teach, and so even as an untrained teacher I am out 

 of date. 



It is due to this audience and to my subject that I should 

 say thus much. It is my appeal for your kind indulgence. 



As regards the critics whose views I have endeavoured to 

 express, I may say at once that I do not go with them, 

 because I am profoundly convinced that our English educa- 

 tion needs the influence of more light and more thought 

 from every quarter, and especially from those who are 

 familiar with scientific methods. " Blessed are they that 

 sow beside all waters." 



Moreover, I hail the application of scientific intelligence 

 and scientific methods to this subject, because, looking back, 

 I am profoundly conscious that I should have done my own 

 educational work far less imperfectly if in my youth I had 

 undergone any rational scientific illuminating preparation 

 for it. 



In such a process I should have lost no personal gift or 

 aptitude that I possessed, and I should have gained some 

 early knowledge and confidence and power which would 

 have saved me much discomfort and anxiety and some 

 mistakes and failures, and would have saved my pupils 

 some loss and possibly some distress. 



When I turn with these thoughts in my mind and look 

 out over the field of English life I see very strong and valid 

 reasons why our education, its merits, its defects, its methods 

 and results, should be seriously considered here, as also in 

 very different assemblies elsewhere. 



.■\bove all, the persistently traditional and unscientific 

 spirit that still pervades so much of it from top to bottom, 

 its lack of reasoned reflection, demands our special 

 attention. 



" The want of the idea of science, that is of systematic 

 knowledge," said Matthew Arnold, " is, as I have said 

 again and again, the capital want at this moment of English 

 education and English life. Our civil organisation (in- 

 cluding our education) still remains what time and chance 

 have made it." 



This was written about thirty-six years ago, and it is, 

 to say the least, a surprising thing that in an age of 

 unusually rapid scientific development it should be, in the 

 main, still so true, as it undoubtedly is, of a great part 

 of our English educational system. 



There is the lack of any systematic preparation for the 

 business of teaching which still prevails throughout our 

 middle and upper-class education, although here in Cam- 

 bridge and in Oxford some excellent pioneer work is being 

 done in the training of teachers. 



There is the general lack of interest in education which 

 is still so noticeable in a great deal of English society of 

 all grades, the spirit of indifference to it, and even the 

 tendency to depreciate the intellectual life. 



There is the excessive influence of tradition and routine 

 on our great schools and universities, and in some quarters 

 an inert or suspicious conservatism. 



There is throughout our middle-class education a state 

 bordering on chaos, a country largely unexplored, a mi.xture 

 of things good and bad, involving a vast amount of wasted 

 opportunity and undeveloped faculty. 



Even in elementary education, which has received the 

 largest share of public attention, there is much that needs 

 to be done in a more thoughtful and scientific spirit. 



Party politics have to be eliminated as far as possible, 

 especially ecclesiastical politics. 



The fitness of a great deal of the teaching to the special 



NO. 1820, VOL. 70] 



needs and requirements of the children has to be considered 

 afresh. 



The tendency to overlook the interests and the attain- 

 ments of each individual child has to be checked. 



The wastefulness of our absurdly truncated system of 

 elementary education stopping abruptly at about twelve 

 years of age and then leaving the children to drift away 

 into an unexplored educational wilderness has to be super- 

 seded by some rational system of continuation classes made 

 obligatory. Truly the harvest is a plenteous one for those 

 who desire to uplift our English life by helping forward the 

 best modes of educating the rising generation in a scientific, 

 or, in other words, a wise, intelligent, and large-minded 

 spirit. 



Much, it is true, has been done in almost every part of 

 the educational field during the last half-century, but not 

 nearly so much as ardent friends of education anticipated 

 forty years ago. 



I have already quoted some significant words from Mr. 

 Arnold's illuminating Report on the Schools and Universities 

 of the Continent as he saw them thirty-seven years ago. If 

 that report had been turned to immediate practical account 

 at the time, if some English statesman, like William von 

 Humboldt, had been enabled with a free hand to take up 

 and give effect to Mr. .Arnold's chief suggestions, as Hum- 

 boldt and his colleagues gave effect to their ideas in Prussia 

 in the years 1808 onwards, the advantage to our country 

 to-day would have been incalculable. 



In our insular disregard or depreciation of intellectual 

 and scientific forces actually working in other countries, we 

 have undoubtedly wasted some of that time and tide in 

 human affairs which do not wait for either men or nations. 



But, putting regrets aside and turning to some of the 

 practical problems that seem to confront us to-day, I venture 

 to put before you for consideration such cursory and un- 

 systematic observations or suggestions as my personal ex- 

 perience has led me to believe to be of practical importance. 

 For more than this I have no qualification. 



In the first place, the growth of crowded city populations 

 and the conditions under which multitudes have for at least 

 two generations been growing up and passing their lives 

 in our great cities have set us face to face with the very 

 serious preliminary problem of physical health. 



If our physical manhood decays all else is endangered, so 

 that the first business of the educator is to look well to the 

 conditions of a healthy life from infancy upwards. 



Hence the great educational importance of the petition 

 presented by 14,718 medical practitioners, including the 

 heads of the profession, to the central educational authori- 

 ties of the United Kingdom. 



This petition opens with these impressive words : — 



" Having constantly before us the serious physical and 

 moral conditions of degeneracy and disease resulting from 

 the neglect and infraction of the elementary laws of hygiene, 

 we venture to urge the Central Educational Authorities of 

 the United Kingdom (the Board of Education of England 

 and Wales, the Scotch Education Department, the Com- 

 missioners of National Education in Ireland and the Inter- 

 mediate Education Board of Ireland) to consider whether 

 it would not be possible to include in the curricula of the 

 Public Elementary Schools, and to encourage in the 

 Secondary Schools, such teaching as may, without develop- 

 ing any tendency to dwell on what is unwholesome, lead 

 all the children to appreciate at their true value heathful 

 bodily conditions as regards cleanliness, pure air, food, 

 drink, &c. In making this request we are well aware that 

 at the present time pupils may receive teaching on the laws 

 of health, by means of subjects almost invariably placed 

 upon the Optional Code. By this method effective instruc- 

 tion is given to a small proportion of the pupils only. This 

 does not appear to us to be adequate. We believe that it 

 should be compulsory and be given at a much earlier age 

 than at present." 



And it concludes as follows : — 



" In many English-speaking countries, definite attempts 

 are being made to train the rising generation to appreciate 

 from childhood the nature of those influences which injure 

 physical and mental health. Having regard to the fact that 

 much of the degeneracy, disease, and accident with which 

 medical men are called upon to deal is directly or indirectlv 

 due to the use of alcohol, and that a widespread ignorance 



