August 22, 1907] 



NATURE 



439 



reform I have suggested is unaffected by such criticism. 

 The practical training I have advocated, vifhether founded 

 on object-lessons furnished by the Field, the Workshop, 

 ur the Home, would prove the most suitable for develop- 

 ing the child's intelligence and aptitudes and for enabling 

 him to derive the utmost advantage from attendance at 

 any one of the different types of secondary schools best 

 fitted for his ascertained abilities and knowledge. The 

 bent of the child's intellect would be fully determined 

 before the age when the earliest specialisation would be 

 desirable. No scheme of instruction for primary schools 

 ran be regarded as satisfactory which is not so arranged 

 that, whilst providing the most suitable teaching for 

 children who perforce must enter some wage-earning 

 pursuit at the age of fourteen, or at the close of their 

 rlementary school course, shall at the same time afford 

 a sound and satisfactory basis on which secondary and 

 higher education may be built. And I hold the opinion, 

 in which I am sure all teachers will concur, that a scheme 

 of primary education pervaded by the spirit of the Kinder- 

 garten which, by practical exercises, encourages observ- 

 ation and develops the reasoning faculties, and creates in 

 the pupil an understanding of the use of books, would 

 form a fitting foundation for either a literary or a scientific 

 training in a secondary school. 



I have purposely chosen to illustrate the main subject 

 of this address by reference to defects in our primary 

 instruction, because the success of our entire system of 

 education will be found, year by year, to depend more 

 and more upon the results of the training given in our 

 public elementary schools. We have scarcely yet begun 

 to realise the social and political effects of the momentous 

 changes in our national life, consequent on the first steps 

 which were taken less than forty years ago to provide full 

 facilities under State control and local management for 

 the education of the people. 



.^t present all sorts of ideas are afloat which have to 

 be carefully and scientifically considered. The working 

 classes have to be further and somewhat differently 

 educated, in order that they may better understand their 

 own wants and how they are to be satisfied. We have 

 placed vast powers in the hands of local bodies, popularly 

 elected, powers not only of administration, for which they 

 are well adapted, but powers of determining to a very great 

 extent, by the free use of the rates, the kind of instruc- 

 tion to be given in our schools, and the qualifications of 

 the teachers to impait it. Moreover, these local bodies 

 have shown, in many instances, a distrust of expert advice 

 and a desire to act independentlv as elected representatives 

 of the people, which cannot fail for some time at least to 

 lead to waste of effort and of means. It was said years 

 ago, when the centre of our political forces received a 

 marked displacement, that we inust educate our masters. 

 Our masters now, both in politics and education, are the 

 people, and it is only, I believe, by improving their educa- 

 tion that we can enable them to understand the essential 

 difficulties of the problems which they are expected to 

 solve, and can induce them to rely, to a greater extent 

 than they do at present, on the results of the aoplication 

 to such problems of scientific method, founded on the fullest 

 information obtainable from historical and contemporary 

 sources. 



I might have illustrated my subject by reference to the 

 acknowledged chaotic condition of our secondary education. 

 In the report of the Board of Education published in 

 December List we read : " While the development of 

 secondarv education is the most important question of the 

 present day, and is the pivot of the whole education as it 

 .'iffects the efficiency, intelligence, and well-being of the 

 nation, yet its present position may be described as 

 ' chaos.'" The " chaos " by which the present position of 

 our secondary education is here described is intimately 

 connected with the questions relating to primary educa- 

 tion, which I have been engaged in considering. If we 

 construct a system of primary education which serves 

 ec;ually for children of all classes, apart from social con- 

 ditions — a system educationally sound, both as a prepar- 

 ation for immediate wage-earning pursuits and for more 

 advanced and soinewhat more specialised training in a 

 secondarv school — many of the difficulties which confront 

 the Board of Education, and which are largely of an 



NO. IQ73 VOL. 76] 



administrative order, would disappear. The difficulties are 

 in part dependent on the question of curriculum, to the 

 discussion of which a day will be devoted during the 

 present meeting. 



University education in this country, and indeed in other 

 countries, has also suffered much from the hands of the 

 unscientific reformer. In Germany, owing to many causes, 

 the higher education has made considerable advances 

 during the past century ; but, even in that country, a more 

 critical study of the development of University education 

 and a truer recognition of the twofold function of a 

 University might have prevented the early separation in 

 distinct institutions and under separate regulations of the 

 higher technical from University instruction. Only within 

 recent years has France retraced her steps and returned 

 to the University ideal of seven centuries ago. But 

 perhaps the climax of unscientific thinking was reached 

 in the scheme, happily abandoned, of founding a new 

 University in Dublin on the lines suggested by Mr. Bryce 

 in his now famous speech of January last. 



Our conception of the functions of a University has 

 undergone many violent changes. Between the ideal of 

 the University of London prior to its reorganisation and 

 that of a mediaeval University, in which students were 

 never plucked, obtaining their degrees whether they did 

 their work well or badly, there have been many variations ; 

 but I think it may be said that, recently at any rate, we 

 have come to realise the fact that our Universities, to 

 fulfil their great purpose, must be schools for the prepar- 

 ation of students for the discharge of the higher duties 

 of citizenship and professional life, and Institutions for the 

 .prosecution of research, with a view to the promotion of 

 learning in all its branches, and that examinations for 

 degrees, necessary, as they undoubtedly are, as tests of 

 the extent of a student's acquired knowledge, must be 

 regarded as subordinate to these two great functions. 



I will not detain vou longer. I have endeavoured to 

 show under what limitations education may lay claim to 

 be included among the sciences, and how a knowledge of 

 the history of education and the application of the methods 

 of scientific inquiry may help in enabling us to solve many 

 of the intricate and complicated questions which are 

 involved in the establishment on a firm foundation of a 

 national system of education. I have taken my illustra- 

 tions mainly from the reform of elementary, or, as I prefer 

 to call it, primary education, and I have sought to indicate 

 some of the errors into which we may fall when we fail 

 to apply to the consideration of the problem the same 

 principles of inductive inquiry as arc employed in all 

 investigations for the attainment of Truth. 



I believe that this Section of the British Association 

 has the opportunity of rendering a great service to the 

 State. Numerous educational societies exist, in which 

 questions of importance are discussed, and all, perhaps, 

 do useful work. But none is so detached from separate 

 and special interests ; none stands so essentially apart 

 from all political considerations ; none is so competent to 

 discuss educational problems from the purely scientific 

 standpoint as are the members of this Association. If, in 

 the remarks I have offered, somewhat hastily prepared 

 under the pressure of many different kinds of work, I have 

 contributed anything to the solution of a problem the 

 difficulty and national importance of which all will admit, 

 I shall feel that I have not been altogether unworthy of 

 the honour of occupying this Chair. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Liverpool. — Mr. Percy E. Newbury has been appointed' 

 professor of Egyptology in the University. 



London. — University College : — With the assistance of 

 the Chadwick trustees, arrangements have been cotnpleted 

 to hold a new course on school hygiene, including lectures, 

 demonstrations, and practical work, beginning on 

 October i6. The course will be given by Prof. Henry 

 Kenwood and Dr. H. Meredith Richards. It is designed 

 to meet the requirements of school teachers, school 

 lecturers, and those qualifying to become school inspectors 

 and school medical officers. A certificate of proficiency 

 will be granted to those who qualify themselves. 



