JO- 



NA TURE 



[Jam'arv 20, 19 10 



was frequented throughout each day, and the papers which 

 were read were followed with interest by large audiences, 

 and gave rise to a number of animated discussions. 



Prof. Sadler opened on the morning of January 7 with 

 an examination of " The Relation of Elementary Schools 

 to Techiiical Schools, Day and Evening." An abridgment 

 of his paper appeared in Nature of January 13, so it is 

 unnecessary to make more than a brief reference to it here. 

 Some of the chief difficulties in the way of further educa- 

 tion for children from primary schools were traced by 

 Prof. Sadler to the snapping by the factories of the educa- 

 tional tradition associated with the old apprenticeship 

 system. Too many English parents now think that a 

 child's education ends when he leaves the elementary day 

 school, while our employers and foremen have lost the 

 sense of responsibility for the further education of the 

 young people in their employment. Substantial reform can 

 only be attained after a completion of the change in public 

 opinion now in progress, and by the re-enlistment of the 

 great employers to the cause of continued education. As 

 regards the legislative measures that will eventually be 

 required to extend the powers of local authorities in deal- 

 ing with technical continuation classes, and to secure 

 regularity of attendance. Prof. Sadler advocated the re- 

 commendations of the Consultative Committee of the Board 

 of Education. 



Mr. James Baker contributed to this discussion an 

 account of the system of continuation schools in Austria, 

 from which it appears that apprentices to a great variety 

 of trades are bound to attend regularly the industrial 

 schools of their townships after leaving the elementary 

 schools at the age of fourteen, and that employers are 

 bound to allow the necessary time for such attendance. 



-Mr. J. H. Reynolds urged that the half-time system 

 demanded by employers must be postponed until after the 

 children's fourteenth year. 



On Friday afternoon, January 7, Mr. Max Muspratt, 

 J. P., C.C., opened the discussion on cooperation between 

 employers and education authorities. He cited (as Prof. 

 Sadler had also done) the example of certain large firms 

 (Messrs. Brunner, Mond and Co., Northwich ; Messrs. 

 I-ever Brothers, Port Sunlight; and the United Alkali Co., 

 Widnes) the directors of which bound all their young 

 employees to attend evening classes up to the age of 

 eighteen or nineteen, the firms paying the fees. This 

 system of friendly compulsion is rendered possible by the 

 fact that the large works in question practically monopolise 

 the labour market in their respective areas ; but in the 

 larger towns, owing to the difficulty of bringing the 

 hundreds of offices and firms into line, the only solution 

 is to give powers to local authorities to start some form 

 of compulsory attendance at evening schools up to the age 

 of sixteen for office boys and apprentices. In Liverpool 

 the big engineering shops, eg,, of the Dock Board and 

 the White Star and Cunard lines, offer a variety of induce- 

 ments to apprentices to continue their education, and a 

 similar beginning has been made in a variety of other 

 trades (building, painting, plumbing, &c.). 



Mr. V. .A. Mundella described the scheme under which 

 the Associations of Shipbuilders and Engineers of Sunder- 

 land cooperate with the Sunderland Technical College in 

 the training of engineering apprentices. 



Mr. R. Wallace, of the Wallsend Shipway and Engineer- 

 ing Company, and vice-chairman of the Wallsend Educa- 

 tion Committee, said that any attempt to educate the 

 masses bevond their capabilities would not benefit them, 

 and would he a waste of the nation's resources. Thev 

 v/ere dissatisfied with elementary education, and with good 

 cause. What they needed was skilled handicraftsmen. 



On the morning of January 8 Mr. J. C. Medd opened 

 the discussion on " Education Abroad and in England," 

 and we hope to find space for an abridgment of his paper 

 in another issue. Mr. Medd considers that the facilities 

 for technical and scientific instruction are as great in 

 England as in Germanv, but the German has the advantage 

 in the better quality of the pupils who attend those colleges 

 and schools. In elementary education there is a great 

 need for more practical instruction, some relaxation of 

 the regulations as to building and equipment for manual 

 mstruction and domestic science, and the introduction of a 

 system of supplementary courses. 

 KG. 2099, VOL, 82] 



Mr. Otto .Siepmann attributed the high average excel- 

 lence of elementary education in Germany partly to the 

 thorough six-years' training which intending teachers 

 receive in the training colleges, and partly to the fact that 

 the field from which the teachers are drawn is not denuded 

 of its most gifted scholars by any " educational ladder " 

 which leads to other spheres of activity. In the secondary 

 schools, also, individual prominence is sacrificed to raise 

 the common average. All subjects are done in form, and 

 practically the whole form is promoted from one stage to 

 the next. Thus a particular aptitude for a special subject 

 is never developed at school, but the German system 

 ensures for every boy a sound general education. At the 

 universities all this is changed, and the freedom which 

 students arc allowed in the choice of subjects, the general 

 lack of supervision and of interim examinations, react 

 favourably upon their work. They carry into life an active 

 interest in some branch of knowledge, which they fre- 

 quently pursue as long as they live. 



Limitations of space prevent any reference to the dis- 

 cussions on art subjects and physical training, and allow 

 merely brief reference to two other topics. 



Miss Burstall admitted that the young people who now 

 leave our secondary schools are to a large extent lacking 

 in self-reliance and the power of independent work. She 

 attributes this result to the pressure of the examination 

 system, which forces the teacher, almost in self-defence, 

 to do for the children half the work of gaining, arranging, 

 and applying knowledge. Independent work by the 

 scholars requires inore time, which can be got only by 

 reducing the number of subjects studied in any one year. 

 The first thing to aim at, therefore, is to lighten the 

 pressure of examinations. 



Mr. W. B. Steer urged that much could be done to 

 encourage independent habits of study by substituting silent 

 reading, followed by keen questioning, for the ordinary 

 reading lesson. At present excessive teaching leaves scant 

 time for learning. Mr. E. E. Unwin spoke of the leisure- 

 hour work and other forms of independent study practised 

 in Bootham School, York. 



On " The Relation of the State to the Training of 

 Teachers of Domestic Subjects, and their Relation to the 

 University," Prof. Smithells urged that the time had come 

 for incorporating the training schools of cookery and other 

 domestic subjects in an improved scheme for the general 

 training of teachers, and for treating this important branch 

 of work with less parsimony than hitherto. The domestic 

 training schools should form an integral part of the 

 women's training colleges, though not necessarily in the 

 same building. At the same time, there was no reason 

 except that of e.xpense why a fuller curriculum of train- 

 ing in branches of knowledge relating to these subjects 

 should not be provided in our modern universities, which 

 already function as dav training colleges for teachers seek- 

 ing a more extended knowledge and the attendant degree 

 in arts or science. 



Miss M. Atkinson sooke of the introduction in London 

 King's College for Women of two courses in domestic 

 science, one for undergraduates and the other for post- 

 graduate students. It was necessary in domestic economy 

 to draw a sharp line somewhere between the minimum of 

 hygienic knowledge and domestic skill, which should form 

 a part of the education of everyone, and the specialised 

 technique to be demanded of those who proposed to be 

 experts in the subject ; but in reaard to the latter class 

 especially, the basis of the training should be re.il and 

 not sham science. The preliminary studies in physics, 

 chemistrv, physiology, and economics should consequently 

 be provided by first-vear courses at the university in these 

 subjects, exactly as for students of engineering or medicine. 



TH£ ETHNOLOGY OF CALIFORNIA. 

 "T^HE University of California, continuing its useful work 

 ■*■ of investigating the ethnology and languages of the 

 now rapidly disappearing Indian tribes of that State, pub- 

 lishes in the third part of the fifth volume of its Proceed- 

 ings a monograph, by Mr. P. E. Goddard, on the Kato 

 tribe, a branch of the Athapascan race on the Eel River. 

 They have undoubtedly assimilated much of their culture 

 from contact with the Pomos to the south and the Yukis 



