IJ2 



NATURE 



[April 17, 1913 



most districts, the main part of the increased burden 

 will have to be borne by the State. Since 1870, the 

 proportion of the cost of education borne by the rates, 

 in comparison with that contributed from national 

 sources, has grown very considerably ; and a readjust- 

 ment of the load is imperative. Lord Crewe referred 

 to this disproportion in the course of a speech at a 

 dinner given to Lord Haldane bv the Eighty Club on 

 April 4, and he remarked : — " We cannot coordinate 

 our system without incurring a heavy cost, and the 

 question the Government will have to put is : Is the 

 country prepared, when it has seen our proposals, to 

 say that the benefits which those proposals offer 

 justify a further expenditure, which cannot be small, 

 upon national education." Lord Haldane has also 

 acknowledged (in his speech at Manchester in January 

 last) that "One thing is quite certain — what is about 

 to be done for the coming generation must not be 

 clone at the expense of the ratepayer." In various 

 speeches since the opening of the campaign at Man- 

 chester he has referred to the national responsibility 

 for the development of our educational resources, and 

 the national advantages which will accrue from it. 

 Speaking at a joint meeting of secondary-school and 

 technical teachers at the University of London on 

 March 29, he said: — ''The expenditure on education 

 is productive expenditure, which we are justified in 

 making a sacrifice to incur with the certain tv that 

 we shall get it back with compound interest." 



It is refreshing to find our Ministers accepting the 

 principle that increased provision for education must 

 come from the State, and that the nation will benefit 

 by the additional expenditure. Not many years ago 

 Lord Haldane, in an introduction to Sir Norman 

 Lockver's* collection of addresses on " Education and 

 National Progress" (1906), suggested that the pri- 

 vate donor should be encouraged, but that the motto 

 of the Chancellor of the Exchequer as regards expen- 

 diture upon matters connected with higher education 

 and research should be Festina lente. "I do not 

 mean," he wrote, " that the Government ought not 

 to spend public money generously upon the universi- 

 ties. I mean that it should not be spent unless and 

 until a case for the necessity of such expenditure has 

 been clearly made out." 



We may be permitted to conclude from his recent 

 utterances that Lord Haldane is now of the opinion 

 that a case has been made out for increased national 

 provision for our educational forces. He knows as 

 well as anyone that the great advances being made in 

 education in other countries constitute a formidable 

 menace to ourselves, and that the State can wait no 

 longer for like developments if it desires to maintain 

 a leading position among progressive peoples. What 

 Lord Haldane and other members of the Government 

 have been saying recently as to the responsibility of 

 the State for educational progress has not only been 

 said in New South Wales, but put into practice by 

 the Labour Government now in power. The official 

 pronouncement of the New South Wales Government 

 upon education may appropriately be quoted here ; it 

 reads : — 



"The present Government, recognising that 

 economic reforms are of little value without increased 

 educational facilities, attaches supreme importance to 

 educational reforms. ' A man might have access to 

 land, facilities of travel, industrial energy, credit, 

 economic security, and justice, and vet true equality 

 of opportunity might be lacking. The .society where 

 all these liberties have been won might be sunk in 

 the stagnation of conservatism, and might even breed 

 new forms of inequality and tyranny.' Every im- 

 provement in economic conditions should be accom- 

 panied bv an effort to raise the standard of intelli- 

 gence, and this will only be achieved by the State 

 NO. 2268, VOL. 91] 



recognising its ever-increasing responsibility to pro- 

 vide increased educational facilities." 



The article by Prof. PI. S. Carslaw in Nature of 

 April 3 shows how the policy outlined in this mani- 

 festo has now been carried out in New South Wales; 

 and the reforms there instituted are much the same 

 as those urgently needed in the mother-country. To 

 attempt to describe in detail the many directions 

 in which our educational system requires organisation, 

 improvement, and extension would take the present 

 article beyond reasonable limits, but reference may 

 be made to a few matters mentioned in recent 

 speeches. 



Much has been said of the work of the elementary 

 school in relation to after-life. The great difficulty 

 here is to know what the life after school is to be. 

 More than 40 per cent, of the boys leaving London 

 schools go into irregular employment; not so much 

 perhaps on account of any want of fitness to learn a 

 trade as because of the ease with which such " blind- 

 allev" occupation can be found, and the relatively 

 higher wages which can be obtained. It is not the 

 province of the elementary school to prepare for any 

 particular occupation, but so far as possible to guide 

 the child to appreciate what is bestin life, to train his 

 hand and eye to work together, and to make him trust- 

 worthy, alert, and adaptable in whatever calling- he 

 may be placed. There should certainly be more- 

 manual work in schools, but its aims and methods 

 should be educational and not technical. To attempt 

 specialisation in an ordinary school, from which the 

 boys leave to enter fifty or more different occupations, 

 would lead to hopeless confusion. Manual dexterity 

 can be trained in schools at an age when it is most 

 easily acquired without attempting to teach the pro- 

 cesses of particular occupations. The effect of giving 

 more time and attention to work of this practical 

 nature would perhaps be to increase the dignity of 

 manual labour, and to lead ambition into industrial 

 rather than clerical directions. 



In rural districts the difficulty in making the 

 elementary-school curriculum less bookish is the 

 teacher, who frequently has no special aptitude for the 

 work, and has rarely received a special training. So 

 long as there is no inducement for teachers to qualify 

 themselves for work in rural schools, no improvement 

 can be anticipated. At present the rate of pay is 

 lower than in town schools and the opportunities of 

 advancement are fewer ; so that young teachers natur- 

 ally object to become earmarked for country schools. 

 Exceptional qualifications are demanded without any 

 inducement being offered to teachers to obtain them. 

 The teacher in a rural school is expected to have the 

 spirit of a naturalist, the manual dexterity of an 

 artisan, the experience of a horticulturist, and the 

 culture of a university graduate, and for these admir- 

 able qualities he will receive the pay of a second-rate 

 clerk. It is unreasonable to expect that many men 

 and women possessing such attributes will have no 

 higher ambition than that of teaching in country 

 schools. 



One of the reforms contemplated by the Government 

 is the raising of the age below which attendance at 

 school is compulsory, and the abolition of the "half- 

 time" system. At present, a child can leave school 

 immediately it reaches the age of fourteen years, irre- 

 spective of the standard in which it may be at that 

 time. About 10 per cent, of the children in public 

 elementary schools leave each year, and they are 

 usually in Standard VI., so they have had the full 

 opportunities of whatever education the schools are 

 giving. Partial exemption from school in order to 

 go to work during certain hours of the day can be 

 obtained at the age of twelve bv obtaining an attend- 

 ance certificate, or at eleven in agricultural districts 



