October 3, 1918 



NATURE 



Qi 



system may, indeed, make an end of it. After tin- 

 war, the report says, "keen emulation will be cn- 

 countered, lost ground must be recovered, new 

 Openings must be found," and so on; and modern 

 languages must be taught so that boys may be 

 prepared to join in this commercial warfare or in 

 the higher warfare of diplomacy. Though it may 

 [uestioned whether the success of a nation is 

 due entirety to these things, the Committee leaves 

 no doubt as in its own views. The value of busi- 

 ness is stated quite candidly and unconsciously. 

 "Our foreign trade does riot comprise the whole 

 of our activities, but the whole of our activities 

 depend upon it." "Alter the war we shall want 

 it more and more if we are to enter into the corn- 

 men i.,l conflict and succeed in the struggle " To 

 the honoui ol schoolboys be it said, they will not 

 be inspired with a consuming zeal for study by 

 business outlooks on life. 

 We submit that the duty of the Committee was 

 not to supply service of this kind, or to satisfy 

 the demands of either commerce or diplomacy. Its 

 privilege was to impress new ideals into the ser- 

 vice ol the State; to inspire and send forth new 



workers into all parts ol the national life. What- 

 ever views we may hold On the historical, social, 

 or economic questions of this or any other country 

 - -and the Committee does not conceal its own 

 we might have expected in the report nobler 

 foundations for these new modern studies. 



The report is on pleasanter ground when it con- 

 cial value of modern languages in 

 terchange of knowledge and ideas between 

 the nations of the world. The Committee reminds 

 us that no country can afford to rely on its own 

 domestic si,,res of knowledgi and ideals; and 

 scientific workers are advised to make themselves 

 familiar- with as many modern languages as pos- 

 sible. "The whole civilised world is a co-operative 

 manufactory of knowledge " and of ideals. "New 

 researches are constantly leading to new dis- 

 coveries, new and fruitful ideas are giving new 

 pointers to thought, new applications of old prin- 

 1 iples are being made, and in this work all 

 civilised countries can collaborate." We would 

 that the Committee had made these fruitful 

 thoughts more prononnccd and more vital in its 

 i. and that it had shown how to apply them 

 in the school life. It is possible that this union 

 of thought and endeavour between the nations is 

 the gift for which we are searching. 



When, however, tin Committee definitely turns 

 to the value of modern studies in education it be- 

 • onus apologetic, and has no advice to offer but 

 that the modern language master should copy his 

 classical colleague and try to live up to his stan- 

 dard of culture. The value ol i lassical studies is 

 set forth in the well-known form, and the search 

 tor the new spirit which the study of modern lan- 

 guages might invoke is abandoned. 



The opinions of the Committee on educational 

 methods are astonishingly reactionary, and would 

 be alarming if they proceeded from men who were 

 themselves trained in modern studies; but the 

 surprising, and to that extent reassuring, fact is 



NO. 2- 



I02] 



that most of the Committee are men who have 

 gained their inspiration from the classics, and not 

 from modern language study. They lament that 

 "instruction cannot be universal; it must proceed 

 from the more instructed to the more ignorant." 

 Or, again : " Modern studies can only work 

 through the few to the many, through the many 

 to the multitude." This is certainl) contrary to 

 natural methods of progress, and is opposed to the 

 modern methods of education which have been 

 suggested by science. It is to be regretted that 

 the Committee did not include any representative 

 ol science. The sister Committee on science had 

 the help of at least two modern language scholars. 

 The report is influenced by the Board of Educa- 

 tion. This is easily traced in the appearance of 

 "coherent " education and co-ordination. Co- 

 herence appears in most of the Board's circulars. 

 It has worked woeful ruth with evening schools, 

 continuation classes, and technical education. It 

 reaches its sublime limit in the advocacy of 

 classics as the dominant study for admission to the 

 Higher Civil Service — for which the classical 

 education is described as the most coherent of 

 courses of study. 



tNSURANCE AND ANNUITIES FOR 

 COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY TEACHERS. 

 T^HE recently issued twelfth annual report of 

 -*- the president and treasurer of the Carnegie 

 Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is 

 one of much importance in connection with the 

 question of life insurance and pension provision 

 for college and university teachers in America. 

 Twelve years ago the above corporation was 

 founded in order to provide pensions for the 

 college and university teachers in the United 

 States, Canada, and Newfoundland, and during this 

 period it has, without doubt, not only proved a 

 boon to the beneficiaries, but also increased the 

 attractiveness of the teaching career. But the 

 experience of the past twelve years and a careful 

 study of the whole problem have led the trustees 

 of the foundation to the conclusion that the prin- 

 ciples on which they have acted in the past have 

 been unsound. While insisting that the payment 

 of pensions to men who, like college, and 

 university teachers, arc in receipt of fixed and 

 rather modest salaries must be regarded as a 

 matter of right, and not of favour, the trustees 

 have become convinced that no system of free 

 pensions can he devised which will not in the end 

 affect the teacher's pay, and that the contributory 

 system of annuities is the only one which society 

 can permanently support. 



The trustees are, therefore, driven to the con- 

 clusion that the policy of free pensions which has 

 been pursued during the past twelve years is 

 unsound, and they have decided to act sincerely 

 and courageously on the strength of their newly 

 formed convictions, while at the same time acting 

 justly towards those present teachers who have 

 come to regard the present rules of the foundation 

 as in the nature of a contract. An additional 



