OcTOBER 23, 1913] 
responsibility—and, as a necessary sequence, a sense 
of discipline—a standard of truthfulness and con- 
sideration. In this connection I have been greatly 
impressed by a report issued by the Warwickshire 
County Council on the effect of the establishment of 
the prefect system in the elementary schools of that 
county, and | wish it was possible to place this report 
in the hands of every teacher in the country. It is 
stated in the introduction that ‘the fundamental idea 
of the prefect system is the formation and develop- 
ment of character and the utilising for this purpose 
of the efforts and activities of our pupils themselves.”’ 
The pamphlet contains a description of the system 
as established, and the different methods adopted in 
the schools of the county in carrying it into effect. 
A summary of the head teachers’ remarks, compiled 
by the Director of Education, is given as an appendix, 
and | cannot resist the temptation to quote largely 
from his report :— 
“In the autumn of 1911 a conference of head 
teachers was held on prefect systems in elementary 
schools. It was then decided that all the head 
teachers present should try the system for a year, 
each one on his or her own lines, and then report as 
to its working. 
“Nearly all have now made reports, one only 
having failed without good cause. Reports have come 
in from six large or middling boys’ schools, three 
large girls’ schools, two large mixed schools, mostly | 
in villages, and one infants’ school—twenty-three in 
all, embracing schools of practically every type. 
“The record, with one exception, is a story of 
success, in most cases of extraordinary success, so 
much so as to put the possibility and value of the 
system beyond a doubt. Whether in developing the 
prefect’s own character, or in creating a sense of 
school honour among the other children, or in smooth- 
ing the whole working of the school, the result is equally 
striking. And the more ambitious the scheme of a 
school, the more it approximates to the public school 
tradition, the bigger the faith in boy and girl nature, 
the greater has been the success. The few evidences 
of comparative disappointment come from schools 
where the system has been tried haltingly and with 
distrust. Where there has been courageous faith in 
the children they have risen to it to a degree that 
must surprise even those who were readiest to believe 
in school self-government. Nor is the success con- 
fined to large schools or boys’ schools. Boys’ and 
girls’ and mixed schools, town schools and village 
schools, all have the same tale to tell. A supply 
teacher who has served in seven schools since the 
conference has found that ‘ from all classes of children, 
town and country, a ready response is made to an 
appeal for added responsibility and trust on their 
Part. sus 
“The prefect, being in authority himself, comes to’ 
see the necessity and value of discipline. He is as 
keen as is his head for the school’s honour; he worries | 
the unpunctual, he takes charge of the playground. 
He is proud at being asked and able to help in 
matters of school routine, most of all when the teacher 
is called out of the class-room and he is himself 
responsible for order. And woe then to the disorderly 
or slack... 4 
“Tn its way one of the most remarkable applications 
of the system is its appearance in a miniature form in 
an infants’ school. Children of six and seven, happy 
in the possession of the monitor’s bow of ribbon, 
take care of the younger children and remove dust 
which has escaped the caretaker’s eye. . . . 
“Tt is a moot point whether a written constitution 
helps or not. Some teachers deprecate rules, as limit- 
ing a prefect’s sense of responsibility and his freedom 
NO. 2295, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
| become almost human. 
255 
to follow out his own ideas. That rules, however, 
meet some want seems to be proved by the fact that 
at a school where the head master had purposely 
made none the boys themselves drew up their code, 
and, the head master adds: ‘I could not have got 
out any better rules.’”’ 
The origin of the movement the results of which are 
thus described is due to the man whom I regard as 
the greatest educator of our time—namely, Sir Robert 
Baden-Powell. I believe that the Boy Scout move- 
ment is rendering greater service than our com- 
plicated State machinery in preparing those who are 
brought within its influence for the struggles of life. 
It is a matter for regret that so small a fraction of 
the children in our schools is able to share its benefits. 
1 only wish it were possible for our political system 
to admit the appointment of Baden-Powell as Minister 
of Education, with plenary powers, for the next ten 
years! 
He states that when visiting a great agricultural 
school in Australia he asked the principal to inform 
him briefly what was the general trend of his train- 
ing. The reply was: ** Character first; then Agricul- 
ture.” 
If this, suitably modified, could be adopted as the 
motto for all our schools, the present attitude of the 
man in the street towards education would soon 
undergo modification. 
There is truth in Dr. Moxon’s statement that ‘‘A 
man has to be better than his knowledge, or he 
cannot make use of it,’’ and our efforts should be 
mainly directed to making the character and the in- 
telligence of the child so much better than his know- 
ledge that increase in knowledge will follow as a 
matter of course. Let us devise some kind of uni- 
versal junior scout system which may so brighten the 
intelligence that the boy will want to know. Let him 
also discover that the paths to knowledge are reading, 
writing, and arithmetic; he will then gladly follow 
his guides and gather more by the way than when he 
is pushed along those paths in a perambulator. 
So long as we attach greater importance to the 
results of examination than to the judgment of the 
teacher our system stands self-condemned, for it places 
knowledge above character. 
It is natural that the discontented amongst us 
should try to cast the blame on those in authority, 
and I confess that at times I feel as if I could join 
the militant section and relieve my feelings by throw- 
ing stones through the windows of the Board of 
Education; but in recent years I have been privi- 
leged to pass to the other side of those windows, and 
I have, to some extent, been led to realise how able 
and how devoted are the men to whom the guidance 
of our educational system is entrusted. All who are 
brought in contact with them must acknowledge their 
earnestness and their zeal in the cause in which they 
are enlisted, and it is remarkable how, in the dis- 
cussion of educational questions, they can, in moments 
of partial abandon, cease to be strictly official and 
It is evident, however, that 
the aim of such men must ever be the smooth work- 
ing of the machine as a whoie. The comforting 
words “coordination,” ‘‘ uniformity,”’ ‘‘ efficiency,”’ are 
ever in their minds. A system planned on one great 
design and perfected in all its details is the ideal for 
which they are bound, consciously or unconsciously, to 
strive. The pity of it is that the more successful their 
efforts, the worse it is for education in this country. 
Evolutionary progress is only possible where variety 
exists, and variety is necessarily abhorrent to the 
official mind. Freedom for local authorities to adopt 
their own methods, to experiment—and often to fail— 
| is the system, if system it can be called, by which 
