September 15, 1904] 



NATURE 



497 



the teaching given in elementary schools it must be made 

 tu imbue the whole study of the intending teacher during 

 his course in the Training College. It must not be con- 

 tined to any one branch of the curriculum. It is true that, 

 p.irtly as the result of tradition and partly from other 

 reasons, the term ' scientific method ' has come to be 

 associated more particularly with the study of natural pheno- 

 mena. But as a matter of fact, scientific method is of equal 

 importance, and is indeed of ancient application, in the 

 fields of history, literature, language, and philosophy ; and 

 wherever knowledge of these has made advance, it may be 

 discerned that the essential processes of scientific inquiry 

 have been employed. When Matthew Arnold declared in 

 iSbS that the want of the idea of science, of systematic 

 knowledge, was the capital want of English education and 

 of English life, he was thinking of science as a method 

 and not as a prescribed portion or subject of a curriculum. 

 It cannot be doubted that this want has been seriously pre- 

 valent in a large portion of the education and training 

 hitherto provided for eleinentary school teachers." 



We might, indeed, widen the scope of these observations 

 anti say that this want of regard for scientific method has 

 been and is a prevalent want in almost every department 

 and grade of English education. 



These unaccustomed utterances from Whitehall may very 

 well prove memorable in the history of English education, 

 as the words of William von Humboldt, quoted by Matthew 

 .Arnold, are so memorable in connection with the education 

 of tjermany : " The thing is not to let the schools and 

 universities go on in a drowsy and impotent routine ; the 

 thing is to raise the culture of the nation ever higher and 

 higher by their means." 



Passing from the sphere of the elementary schools to that 

 of secondary education, we enter on a sphere in which there 

 is much greater need of careful study and the guidance of 

 those who know. 



Our secondary education has by the Act of 1902 been 

 handed over very largely to county councils, excellent but 

 heterogeneous bodies, and for the most part not only 

 ignorant of educational needs, methods, and possibilities, 

 but quite unaccustomed to their practical consideration — 

 altogether unprepared and untrained for the responsible work 

 now thrown upon them, and hampered by their besetting 

 fear of the ratepayers. 



.\dd to these difficulties the prejudice, so common in the 

 ■ ordinary English mind, against what is known as the 

 ■ expert," that is, the man who knows from experience, 

 nd is therefore likely to be earnest for improvement, and 

 I" believe that wise educational expenditure will repay itself, 

 Liid you see how manifold are the obstacles in the way of 

 immediate progress. 



These county authorities need first of all to be themselves 

 instructed and persuaded as to the right subjects for their 

 schools, the coordination or proportion of subjects in any 

 SI heme to be encouraged, the methods of instruction, the 

 M)rt of teachers to be appointed, the wisdom of spending 

 public money on good education, as exemplified in other 

 iciuntries, like Germany, Switzerland, the United States, 

 Denmark. 



Our local authorities feel and recognise that something 

 is needed, but very often they seem to be like children 

 crying in the dark. From lack of educational knowledge 

 and educational experience they do not always know the 

 (litTerence between the right and the wrong method, or 

 lietween the good and the bad school. 



In our rural districts at all events it may be said further 

 that one of our first needs is to persuade the local authori- 

 ties by some convincing proof that expenditure on popular 

 •Hucation higher than elementary is a wise economy, and 

 Miat their bread cast on educational waters will come back 

 " them, not after many days, but very soon and in their 

 \vn homes. Thus my observation has led me to the con- 

 • iusion that by way of preliminary to progress our new 

 •clucational authorities need instruction or persuasion as 

 111 the importance of a sufficient provision for really good 

 secondary education : and it would greativ expedite progress 

 if the Government could and would offer more liberal 

 secondary education grants to be earned by efficient schools, 

 .ind initial grants towards buildings and scientific equip- 

 ment, to be met by contributions from local rates or other 

 local sources, public or private. 



NO. 1820, VOL. 70] 



Many persons and localities would be ready to tax them- 

 selves w^ith the view of securing a Treasury grant not avail- 

 able without such taxation. .Meanwhile the wheels of our 

 local educational chariots are tarrying on every side so far 

 as higher education, whether general or technical, is con- 

 cerned. 



It would also stimulate our local educational authorities 

 if they could be more fully informed as to the practical 

 advantages which have been derived from a practical system 

 of popular education in such a country as the United States 

 of America ; and still more if they had set plainly before 

 them the wonderful results derived by a poor country like 

 Denmark during the last twenty-five years, and in the face 

 of every disadvantage, from the system of education initiated 

 by Bishop Grundtvig and taken up by the Government. 



.■\nd the need of our middle classes, especially that of the 

 farmer and tradesmen classes, is very pressing. A great 

 deal of the education they receive is given in schools of which 

 the public know very little, whether as regards qualifications 

 of the staff — moral and intellectual — equipment, or methods 

 of teaching, or even sanitary arrangements ; and it is to 

 be feared that much of this education would on inquiry be 

 found to be very poor, if judged by any reasonable standard 

 of modern requirements. 



When we pass to the class, of schools generally spoken 

 of as public schools, those that look to the ancient Universi- 

 ties as the goal of their best pupils, we enter on another 

 very interesting and important field of study. 



But for the beginning of our investigation we have to go 

 behind these schools to the preparatory school, which has 

 now assumed a definite place in secondary education, and 

 therefore calls for serious attention. Some of these schools 

 are very good, so far as the conditions under which they 

 work admit of e.xcellence ; in others there is, it is to be 

 feared, much room for improvement. 



And such schools are now so largelv used bv parents 

 that their condition becomes a matter of vital importance, 

 as a boy's progress and prospects, his moral and intellectual 

 future, are very frequently determined for good or ill by 

 his experience in the preparatory school, by the bent which 

 has there been given to his morals, tastes, ambitions, by 

 the fostering of his intellectual gifts or the failure to foster 

 them. 



In the course of my own experience I have known many 

 boys whose prospects in life were spoilt by their unhappy 

 beginnings in some preparatory school, and w'ho conse- 

 quently entered their public school foredoomed to failure. 



These schools are in most cases private-adventure schools, 

 conducted for private gain. Their staff consists very often 

 of young men untrained for the work of education, and 

 sometimes underpaid. They are subject to no public inspec- 

 tion or examination ; in fact, the general public have no 

 knowledge of their condition. 



Seeing how grave are the considerations involved, I hold 

 it to be one of the things needed for the general improve- 

 ment of our secondary education that every private school, 

 of whatever kind, should be liable to public inspection and 

 public report thereon : that a licence should be required for 

 every such school : and that the staff and their qualifications, 

 and the remuneration given to each of them, the sanitary 

 condition, suitability, and educational equipment of the 

 premises, should all be considered in connection with the 

 giving or withholding of a licence. 



.As regards the curriculum of the schools preparatory to 

 the public schools, the subjects taught, and the proportion 

 of time allotted to each, it has to be borne in mind that they 

 are not free agents. In this respect they are dependent 

 on the requirements of the entrance examination at the 

 public schools which they supply ; just as those schools in 

 their turn are dependent on the requirements of the university 

 to which they send their pupils. 



Thus, when we come to confer with the authorities of 

 the public schools our first inquiry is whether their entrance 

 examination is such as to conduce to the best system of 

 education from infancy upwards. 



Believing, as I do, that there is room for improvement, 

 I would ask them to consider and come to a general agree- 

 ment as to the subjects on which special stress should be 

 laid. What place, for instance, is occupied in the Eton 

 entrance examination by such subjects as English language 

 and literature, English composition, spelling, handwriting. 



