502 



NA TURE 



[September 13, 1906 



teeth, playtime, and leisure. Some standard method of 

 testing the hearing of children is desirable. Reports from 

 other countries show that 12 per cent, to 20 per cent, of 

 school children may be defective in their hearing. An 

 examination of the teeth of 10,500 English and Scotch boys 

 and girls of an average age of twelve years in poor law 

 schools, workhouses, and reformatories showed only 14 per 

 cent, of these children with teeth free from decay. The 

 children in our public elementary schools are in a much 

 more neglected state than the poor-law children. The 

 committee thinks that daily cleansing of teeth should be 

 enforced by parents and teachers, and that dentists employed 

 by school authorities should make systematic examination 

 of teeth. 



Sir Lauder Brunton spoke on physical education, and 

 showed that mind development was brain development. 

 The teaching of hygiene might begin with the washing 

 and dressing of dolls. He urged the medical inspection of 

 schools, and brought to the notice of the section the 

 National League of Physical Education and Improvement. 

 His lecture was supported by a most welcome and generous 

 distribution of pamphlets sent by that league, and his 

 display of lantern-slides in the adjacent room when the 

 botanists adjourned for lunch allowed of the presentation 

 of evidence to a section which does not always find it easy 

 to get at the facts which underlie opinions. 



Dr. Ethel Williams gave careful estimates of the time, 

 cost, and usefulness of medical inspection. In Newcastle, 

 with 45,000 children on the books, three officers could 

 inspect each child Ihrice in its school life at a cost of 

 about 2000/. per annum, equivalent to a farthing rate. 

 For the whole country 200,000/. would give similar inspec- 

 tion of children, with supervision of epidemics and of 

 school buildings. Prof. Sadler pointed to the crux of the 

 difficulty in getting parents to act on medical officers' 

 reports, and Mr. Ernest Gray spoke of the attitude of 

 suspicion in the working classes. Major Salmon spoke of 

 the Swedish system of gymnastics as developed in Den- 

 mark. To keep the air clean for breathing exercises a 

 damp felt or sacking is passed over the floors before every 

 lesson. 



Mr. A. Burrell said that freedom to move in one's 

 clothes and a sense of cleanliness were the bases of true 

 hygiene. The rightly dressed, clean child, and the well- 

 ventilated class-room were the best lessons. Organised 

 games had been approved, but playing centres had not yet 

 been provided. A medico-ethical training was necessary 

 for the teacher who was to stand hour by hour before weak 

 sight, incipient deafness, and malnutrition. There should 

 be a standard of health in training colleges analogous to 

 that demanded by the Army and Navy. 



Mrs. J. R. Macdonald showed how all schemes for the 

 education of wage-earners of school age were bound up 

 with social and economic questions. She urged a better 

 enforcement of the Employment of Children Act, 1903. 

 Mr. Hugh O. Meredith described the Workers' Educational 

 -Association — an effort to organise the higher education of 

 working men by means of collegiate life in local guilds 

 associated with the University Extension movement. Mr. 

 .Arnold S. Rowntree explained how similar ends were 

 achieved by the adult schools meeting on Sunday morn- 

 ings. 



The discussion in Section I on the physiological value 

 of rest might almost have been called a joint meeting, 

 considering its interest for those attending Section L. Dr. 

 .Acland found that sleep was necessary for the growth of the 

 brain and nervous system, and that many schools had not 

 secured sufficient sleep either for younger boys or for those 

 older boys who needed it. Mental and bodily health can- 

 not be severed, and muscular exertion is not a remedy for 

 brain fatigue. Dr. Bevan Lewis correlated brain-fag with 

 muscular fatigue. The minimum of sleep for growing 

 children was not defined, but no one advocated less than 

 nine hours. Laboratory investigation into the general laws 

 of fatigue is needed in the opinion of Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. 

 Dr. Macdougall suggested that early morning sunlight 

 should be shut out of a child's room. 



Sir Philip Magnus presented the report upon the course 

 of Exi>erimenfal, Observational, and Practical Studies most 

 Suitable for Elementary Schools, The committee asks that 



NO. 1924, VOL. 741 



active and constructive work on the part of children should 

 be largely substituted for ordinary class-leaching. To make 

 this possible, smaller classes, trained teachers, and sympa- 

 thetic inspectors are necessary. Supplementary reports of 

 subcommittees were presented by Prof. R. A. Gregory on 

 arithmetic and mensuration, by Mr. R. H. Adie on nature- 

 study, and by Mr. George Fletcher on domestic work. 

 There was an eager and universal request for copies of 

 the full text of these reports, and the printed supply proved 

 very unequal to the demand. The committee of the section 

 proposed to arrange for further reprints. Prof. Green said 

 that primary teachers needed training to use the freedom 

 now given them, and needed also the opportunity of a 

 higher professional course at the universities for those 

 desirous of promotion. Mr. Cyril Jackson admitted the 

 difficulties of large classes, Mr. T. P. Sykes emphasised 

 the need for freedom to experiment, and Dr. Traill the 

 importance of training teachers before trying to rush 

 reforms through the schools. 



In the discussion on Scliool Training for the Home 

 Ditties of Women, Prof. A. Smithells said that at present 

 home training reveals the methods of superstition, ignor- 

 ance, prejudice, and folly. Nor does a formal course on 

 the oxides of nitrogen and chlorides of phosphorus always 

 produce a scientific attitude of mind in a household where 

 ovens will not heat and meat will not keep. A school- 

 mistress with a scientific degree may fail to understand 

 the hot-water system, the gas meter, or the filter. There 

 is a more excellent way, and it is possible to develop a 

 science of the household free from pedantry and free from 

 empiricism in that vast undeveloped intellectual region 

 connected with the domestic work of women. The dis- 

 cussion was continued by Prof. Armstrong, Prof. Millicent 

 Mackenzie, and others. 



The morning of Monday, August 6, was reserved for 

 those public- and secondary-school questions relating to the 

 Balance of Subjects in the Curricuhim, the perennial interest 

 in which has lately been revived by " Kappa " and by the 

 " Upton Letters." Papers contributed by the Hon. and 

 Rev. E. Lyttelton and by Mr. A. C. Benson were read in 

 the absence of the authors. The possible omission of Latin 

 in the preparatory school seems to have come within the 

 range of discussion ; at any rate, precedence for French 

 seems agreed upon. Mr. T. E. Page proposed a committee 

 to draw up a scheme of general study, to indicate the 

 method and purpose of teaching the various subjects, and 

 to show at what stage specialisation should be allowed. 

 Mr. G. Gidley Robinson spoke of the preparatory-school 

 master as not a free agent, scholarships being the root of 

 the mischief. Mr. Arthur Rowntree assumed that training 

 for power of work and service should be the prime object 

 of education, and asked for an unburdening of the curri- 

 culum to allow of individuality in leisure hours. 



Scientific Method in the Study of School Teaching was 

 described by Prof. ]. J. Findlay. Progress has been 

 hindered by those earlier advocates of training who treated 

 education merely as applied logic and ethics, but progress 

 may be expected from experimental psychology and genetic 

 psychology or child study. The popular interest in educa- 

 tion leads to the ready adoption of opinions rather than 

 the encouragement of prolonged investigations ; but results 

 in methods of school teaching can only be secured by 

 observation of children. Educational experiments require 

 the cooperation of several teachers for several years without 

 external interference. Reforms have recently been intro- 

 duced by external pressure, and only very inadequately 

 tested by scientific experiments within the schools. 

 Teachers should work in their schools as in a laboratory ; 

 but scientific habits are not easily acquired, and men 

 trained in one branch of science do not readily transfer 

 their scientific habits to the regions of prejudice and tradi- 

 tion. The demonstration schools at Manchester propose to 

 Investigate a few special topics, such as the elementary 

 teaching of modern languages, practical mathematics, the 

 association of parents with school life, and a school camp. 

 Prof. Findlay applied his experimental methods for mor*" 

 than five years in Cardiff to discover the Processes involved 

 in the Acquirement of a Foreign Language. The process 

 is fundamentally one of acquiring habits of automatic re- 

 action in the association of foreign symbols with ideas. 



