NA TURE 



[November 3, i{ 



in which the child happeneu to reside, he would be 

 justified in passing on with a smile and a shrug. 



Owing to the insufficiency of the educational machinery 

 in country districts, and the disproportionate assistance 

 given to urban centres under the decentralising policy, 

 another evil has arisen which threatens to cripple still 

 more seriously the already languishing rural industries. 

 By the examinational selection of pupils for scholarships 

 the best intellectual products of the country districts are 

 gradually being weeded out, and all the skill and intelli- 

 gence for which the land is thirsting is being diverted 

 into other channels. This process, if allowed to go on, 

 can only have one result : there will be left such an 

 inferior residue that some future .Minister of Education 

 will have to deplore, even more emphatically than did 

 Sir John Gorst in his memorable speech in the House of 

 Commons last June, the barrenness of the outlook with 

 respect to rural education. Still louder will go up the 

 cry of the economist, that while the land is lying barren 

 for want of skilled attention, and the villages are becom- 

 ing depopulated, the towns are becoming overcrowded 

 to the starvation point of competition. 



In order to counteract these evils, it is desirable that 

 the resources of science should be made as available to 

 the inhabitants of the country as to the dwellers in 

 towns. -•\ long acquaintance with the habit of mind of 

 the average British farmer has convinced us that the 

 only chance of salvation in the future is to bring the 

 educational machinery into his neighbourhood. It is 

 useless to tell him that he must send his children to 

 some distant school or college where science teaching 

 forms part of the curriculum. He knows nothing and 

 cares nothing about science. He looks upon learning as 

 a dangerous thing, and associates chemistry with bogus 

 fertilisers. .An e.xperiment which leads to no practical 

 issue causes a chuckle, and if a downright failure is the 

 result, he is rather pleased than otherwise. The so- 

 called " agriculture " of the certificated schoolmaster, 

 which was let loose in some counties in the early days 

 of the technical education movement, is very largely 

 responsible for hardening the scepticism of the prac- 

 tical farmer towards science. 



Perhaps we are over-sanguine in the belief that the 

 agricultural salvation of our country depends on the 

 scientific education of the coming generation. .At any 

 rate the belief has taken practical form, and a school of 

 science has been founded at Bigods, near Dunmow in 

 Essex, by one of the writers (F. E. W.), which it is 

 hoped will set an example throughout the country. No 

 claim is made for any particular educational originality 

 in this venture. The raisoii (/'(ire of the school is that 

 it serves a thinly populated agricultural district where 

 there is no organised science school in existence. There 

 are districts of a similar kind all over the country, and 

 there is a distinct need for such schools in these dis- 

 tricts. The Essex County Council has extended some 

 aid towards the Bigods school, and it is to be hoped 

 that other County Councils will follow suit in their own 

 districts. Certainly no better use of the " whisky 

 money" can be made in agricultural districts than in 

 establishing schools of science where the children can 

 receive a sound training, extending over the three or four 

 years between their leaving the elementary school and 

 their entry into life as bread-winners. In some cases it 

 might be possible to develop existing schools in the 

 desired direction ; but, on the whole, a fresh start would 

 seem to be the preferable course. The average country 

 grammar school is generally too much hampered by 

 ancient tradition to meet modern requirements ; the edu- 

 cation in such foundations has not a sufficiently scientific 

 bias, and the particular class of students whom it is our 

 desire to see catered for, do not take kindly to the grammar 

 school curriculum, apart from the question of cost, which 

 is more than the small farmer or proprietor can afford. 



NO. I 5 14, VOL. 59] 



With respect to the curriculum at Bigods, we have at 

 present adopted that laid down for schools of science 

 by the Science and .Art Department. In most respects 

 this scheme seems adaptable to our requirements, which 

 may be described briefly as an education which, while ! 

 allowing a certain amount of time for literary subjects, 

 gives also a general scientific training with some manual 

 training. No specialisation will be allowed till the pupils 

 have passed through the elementary stage, and in the 

 advanced course the sciences bearing on agriculture will 

 be given extra prominence. A large mansion has been 

 placed at the disposal of the school as a residence for the 

 principal and for boarders who reside too far off to come 

 to the classes daily. There is plenty of land about the 

 establishment for experiment plots, apiaries and poultry 

 runs, and a farm adjoining the estate is available for 

 field demonstrations. Yot the advanced classes the ser- 

 vices of the County Council Staff Instructors, who are 

 experts in their various departments, will be requisitioned. 

 The school has made a start with some forty pupils, of 

 whom about twenty-three are considered qualified to go 

 through the school of science ; while the remainder are 

 in course of training for this curriculum. One especial 

 feature of the scheme is the mixed education of boys 

 and girls together in the same class. This system has 

 been found to work admirably in other schools, both in 

 this country and elsewhere, and it is intended to give it 

 a fair trial in Essex. .So far as experimental science is 

 concerned, girls certainly are quite as keen and do just 

 as well as boys if they are properly taught. The only 

 point of ditference in the education of the sexes is that 

 the girls sacrifice some portion of the manual training 

 and science in favour of domestic subjects, such as 

 cookery, needlework, and domestic economy. Chemical 

 and physical laboratories, a workshop and well-equipped I 

 laundry are, of course, essential parts of the institution. 



The educational experiment which has been inaugur- 

 ated in Essex is one which we venture to think is worthy 

 of success and encouragement. Tiie main difficulty with 

 which we shall have to contend will no doubt be that of 

 persuading the parents to allow their children to remain 

 long enough at the school to complete their education. 

 At any rate, the chance has now been placed in the way 

 of the inhabitants of a district which has hitherto been de- 

 void of institutions for carrying on any systematic scheme 

 of secondary education. The firm belief that such estab- 

 lishments will do more permanent good to the agricul- 

 tural welfare of this country than any amount of sporadic 

 teaching or evening courses to people already mentally 

 and bodily weary with a long day's work, has prompted 

 the expenditure of money, time and thought, which have 

 been necessary to found this school. Of equal weight 

 has been the conviction that the mental discipline im- 1 

 parted by sound instruction in the principles of such 

 sciences as are taught under the curriculum, is the best 

 of all equipments that can be given to the agriculturist 

 on his entry into acti\e life. In order that would-be 

 benefactors of rural education need not be alarmed, it 

 may be pointed out that large institutions are not 

 essential. At Bigods the laboratories of the school of 

 science are available for about twenty-five pupils. We 

 shall be satisfied if for some years this department of 

 the school can be maintained at this number in the 

 elementary and advanced stages. The great desideratum 

 of the time is the establishment of numerous small but 

 thoroughly efficient secondary and technical schools in 

 appropriate centres, so that all the rural districts may be 

 catered for. The general level of intelligence in the 

 neglected country districts is bound to be raised in the 

 long run by such means— not only by the direct effect of the 

 training, but indirectly by reacting upon the elementary 

 schools and compelling them to increase the efficiency of 

 their teaching. Kk.vnces Evki.vn W.vrwick. 



Raphael Meldola. 



