October 13, 1910] 



NATURE 



485 



desire to interpret them could find a pleasure and a pur- 

 pose in seeking the necessary chemical and physical know- 

 ledge ; whereas to have begun by acquiring this in a pre- 

 paratory course, with no definite object in view, would 

 have been to set back a mature mind to school methods 

 of training, and very possibly to have stifled instead of 

 kindling any real scientific interest. 



This is, again, an illustration of my contention that the 

 most special study, if carried on in the true University 

 spirit, is very far removed from ordinary specialisation, 

 and involves very wide extension of interest and learning ; 

 whereas, if carried on in a preparatory spirit, it is neces- 

 sarily limited. 



In a very short time this student had published three 

 original papers which seem to me of considerable import- 

 ance, though perhaps on a somewhat obscure subject, and 

 I see that they are now quoted as marking a substantial 

 .advance in knowledge. 



Of course, this is the e.xceptional case of the exception- 

 ally able student ; but I think it illustrates two things — 

 first, the prevalence of the conventional attitude that 

 preparation on school lines is necessary even for the post- 

 graduate student ; secondly, the fact that what is really 

 necessary to the University student is the purpose, and 

 that with this before his eyes he may safely be introduced 

 to new fields of work. 



One result of the conventional attitude is that those who 

 have distinguished themselves at school in some subject 

 are often assumed to have a special aptitude in it, and 

 to be destined by Nature to pursue the same subject at 

 the University, whereas their school success may only 

 prove that they are abler than their fellows, and that this 

 ability will show itself in whatever subject they may take 

 up. Such students would sometimes on coming to the 

 University be all the better for a complete change of 

 subject, without which the continuance of the school 

 studies too often means a perpetuation of the school 

 methods. Those who are wedded to the idea of a 

 systematic progression from secondary to university educa- 

 tion run the risk of closing the door to this possibility, or 

 at any rate of seriously prejudicing it. 



Another result is that when teachers are always play- 

 ing a somewhat mechanical part in a systematised course, 

 receiving duly piepared pupils and preparing them again 

 for the next stage, such an atmosphere of preparation is 

 produced that many persons continue to spend the greater 

 part of their lives in preparation without any reasonable 

 prospect of performance. 



I am well aware that, on the other hand, there always 

 have been, and are now, many earnest and accomplished 

 University teachers who are pursuing the methods that I 

 advocate, whose teaching is always inspired with a pur- 

 pose, whose pupils are stimulated to learn in the spirit 

 of inquiry, and who consequently exercise a personal 

 influence that is profound and enduring. I am deeply 

 conscious how much I owe to some such teachers with 

 whom I have studied .ind to others whom I have known. 

 But still it does remain true that this is not yet the atmo- 

 sphere of ordinary University education, that it does not 

 yet invigorate the ordinary University student, and that to 

 him the passage from school to the University does not 

 necessarily mean a transition from mental discipline and 

 preparation to mental activity and performance. 



The distinction that I have in my mind between Uni- 

 versity and school teaching may be expressed in this way. 

 At school no subject should be taught to a class as though 

 it were intended to be their life-work ; to take an ex- 

 ample, it too often happens at present, owing really to 

 excessive zeal on the part of school teachers, that mathe- 

 matics is taught as though each member of the class were 

 destined to become a mathematician ; consequently only 

 the few scholars with a real aptitude for mathematics be- 

 come interested, and the remainder are left behind. On 

 the other hand, at the University each subject should be 

 studied as though it really were the life-work both of 

 teacher and student. Thus, to take the same subject as 

 an illustration, the mathematical student will attend the 

 full courses of his professors and will follow them with the 

 interest of a mathematician ; whereas for the scientific 

 student it will only be in those branches of mathematics 

 which concern him that the interest of his special science 

 will put him on terms of eaunlity with the mathematical 



NO. 2127, VOL. 84] 



student. If I may choose an illustration which is familiar 

 to myself, any student of mineralogy can easily be inter- 

 ested in and benefit by a course in spherical trigonometry, 

 because it is one of the tools of his trade, but to send 

 him to lectures on differential equations would be only to 

 discourage him. On the other hand, the student of 

 chemistry would rather be interested in the latter. To each 

 of them certain branches of mathematics as taught by an 

 ardent teacher afford a real intellectual training, but 

 neither would gain much if compelled to follow a general 

 University course of mathematics designed for mathe. 

 maticians. 



It will be observed that I have endeavoured to confine 

 myself to the subject of University education, and not to 

 say much, except by way of contrast, concerning school 

 teaching. 



I must, however, return to it for a moment, if only to 

 emphasise the danger of that specialisation, which, since 

 it takes place at school and not at the University, is 

 bound to be narrow, and which is often encouraged in 

 pupils of special aptitude preparing for University 

 scholarships. 



That a boy or girl should for a year or even two years 

 before leaving school be practically confined to one subject 

 .md should before entering the University be examined in 

 that alone, appears to me to be contrary to all the best 

 traditions of school teaching, and to the often expressed 

 desire of the Universities to ensure a good general education 

 in those whom they admit. There should, I think, be no 

 scholarship examination which does not include several of 

 the subjects of a normal school curriculum, however much 

 additional weight may be given to any of them. Although 

 it may be necessary that University entrance scholarships 

 in one subject should be given either to encourage its 

 study or to discover those who have a special aptitude, 

 yet, so far as scholarships are intended to be rewards for 

 intellectual pre-eminence, they should, I think, be directed 

 to general capacity, and not be used as an encouragement 

 to limited study. From what I have already said it will be 

 clear that I do not attach much importance to special 

 preparation at school for those who intend to proceed to 

 the University. If a boy has a very special taste or apti- 

 tude, it should have abundant opportunity for displaying 

 and exercising itself at the University, provided only that 

 it has not been stifled, but has been given some encourage- 

 ment in the school curriculum. I understand, for example, 

 that those who teach such a subject as physiology at the 

 University would prefer that their pupils should come to 

 them from school with a general knowledge of chemistry 

 and physics rather than that they should have received 

 training in physiology. With the present modern differen- 

 tiation into a classical and modern side, or their equiva- 

 lents, the ordinary school subjects should be sufficient 

 preparation for any University course if they are not 

 mutually strangled in the pressure of an overcrowded 

 curriculum. 



To be fair, however, I must state another view. A very 

 experienced college tutor who has had previous valuable 

 experience as a master in a public school tells me that in 

 his opinion the real problem of the public schools is the 

 " arrest of intellectual development that overtakes so many 

 boys at about the age of sixteen." "There are few public 

 schools," he says. " whose fifth forms are not full of boys 

 of seventeen or eighteen, many of them perfectly orderly, 

 well-mannered, and reasonable, in some sense the salt of 

 the place, exercising great influence in the school and 

 exercising it well, with a high standard of public spirit, 

 kindly, and straight-living, in whom, nevertheless, it is 

 difficult to recognise the bright, intelligent, if not very 

 industrious, child of two or three years before." 



He thinks that there is a real danger of degeneration at 

 this age, owing, for one thing, to the manner in which the 

 boys are educated en bloc : up to a certain age boys can be 

 herded together and taught on the same lines without great 

 harm being done, but after a certain time differentiation 

 begins to set in. The school curriculum, however, does 

 not admit of being adjusted to suit the dawning interests 

 of a couple of hundred boys : and he sees no cure for this 

 difficulty except a considerable increase in the staff and a 

 corresponding reduction in the size of the forms. But he 

 thinks that much may be done bv an alteration in the 

 system of matriculation examination, which sets the 



