44 



NA TURE 



[March i i, 1909 



children to remain at scliool after sixteen years ot 

 age. These facts apply both in the case of boys and 

 girls. The net result is, therefore, whether \ve con- 

 sider England as a whole or London in particular, 

 onlv about one-fifth of the pupils in secondary schools 

 receiving annual grants of 5/. per pupil from the 

 .State, and supported largely by local rates, are more 

 than fifteen years of age. Our Stale-aided secondary 

 schools are, in fact, mostly of the nature of higher 

 elementary schools which pupils leave before they are 

 sixteen, instead of being true secondary schools in 

 which students remain until they are eighteen or 

 nineteen vears of age. When the majority of pupils 

 remain until this age, the higher work which should 

 be the distinguishing' characteristic of secondary 

 education will be possible, but at present it is an 

 euphemism to describe as secondary schools the 

 numerous institutions which merely put a finishing 

 touch upon primary education. Judged by German 

 standards and the ages of the pupils, our secondary 

 schools receiving State grants would for the most 

 part be more correctly described as day continuation 

 schools. 



It inay be presumed that pupils who leave school 

 at fifteen or sixteen years of age do so in order to 

 begin industrial or commercial careers. The school 

 course of such pupils should obviously differ from 

 that of students who propose to continue their edu- 

 cation to a later stage, with the view of entering 

 universities or professional life. .Schools which only 

 keep their pupils until sixteen years of age or under 

 ought, therefore, to have a curriculum appropriate 

 to the needs of pupils who will enter offices or work- 

 shops immediately they leave. To make such pupils 

 commence a course which has a university examina- 

 tion as its ultimate end is to waste time and oppor- 

 tunity. Only in schools where most of the students 

 remain until they are eighteen or nineteen years of 

 age should a curriculum tending to the require- 

 ments of professional careers or universities be 

 adopted. 



The necessity for the provision of different 

 types of school for the education of boys and 

 girls above fourteen years of age was urged last 

 year by the Association of Teachers in Tech- 

 nical Institutions, and recommended in the report 

 of the education committee of the British Science 

 Guild, printed in Nati're of January 28. Two 

 types of secondary school should be recognised — one 

 in which pupils leave at about sl.xteen years of age 

 to enter industrial or commercial life, and the other 

 in which pupils remain to eighteen or nineteen years 

 of age and leave to enter the universities, the pro- 

 fessions, or technical institutions of university 

 standard. The former type of school, described 

 variously as a "trade," "preparatory trade," or 

 " craft " school, should prepare definitely for trades, 

 crafts, industries, or commerce. In the words of the 

 British Science Guild report : — " Due regard should 

 be paid in these schools to the continuance of the 

 general education of the pupils, but special provision 

 should be made for sound scientific and technical 

 training in relation to the industries or requirements 

 of the district." The true secondary school may aim 

 at a higher standard on the purely academic side ; 

 and its curriculum should be of an entirely different 

 character from that of the craft school. Up to the 

 age of thirteen or fourteen there is really no sound 

 ' ducational reason against the adoption of a single 

 curriculum for all boys and girls — whether in public 

 elementary schools or in preparatory schools. From 

 that point, however, the pupils who do not leave 

 school should be able to continue their education in 

 different schools, according to their needs. To use 



NO. 2054, 'VOL. 80] 



a metaphor, the train which a pupil will enter at the 

 age of fourteen will differ according to his destination. 



In addition to the secondary schools referred to in 

 the foregoing statement, and regarded as efficient 

 by the Board of Education, about thirty technical 

 institutions are recognised by the Board as giving 

 an organised course of instruction in day classes^ 

 including advanced instruction in science or in science 

 and art. These schools are attended by about 2700 

 students, mostly above seventeen years of age, of 

 whom rather more than half attend a full course of 

 instruction. The number of students in evening 

 schools and classes carried on for the education of 

 persons already engaged in some occupation which 

 takes up the greater part of their time is about 

 700,000. In the case of most of these students, their 

 sole educational training has been in the primary 

 school up to the age of thirteen or fourteen years. 

 .\t about sixteen years of age or later, they enter 

 the technical schools, after a period of three or four 

 years in which they have received no systematic in- 

 struction. The result is that a large part of the 

 work now done in evening classes in technical schools 

 is of a very elementary character. The teachers are 

 capable of giving higher instruction, but the want 

 of the most elementary knowledge on the part of 

 the students will not permit them to do so. 



.\s was stated last year by Prof. W. M. Gardner 

 in a discussion at the annual general meeting of 

 the .Association of Technical Institutions, that of 

 a hundred boys passing through elementary schools, 

 and ultimately taking positions as industrial work- 

 men, foremen or managers, probably not more than 

 four or five pass through a secondary school, and 

 not more than three or four attend a day technical 

 school. The great problem is, therefore, that of the 

 boys who leave the primary schools at the ages of 

 thirteen or fourteen, or even earlier, and constitute 

 ninety-five out of every hundred boys of that age. 

 Three courses seem to be open : — (i) to provide for 

 practical instruction to occupy a large part of the 

 time during the latter years of a prim.ary-school 

 course ; (2) to pass boys forward from the primary 

 school to specially arranged trade or craft schools 

 for one or two years ; or (3) to depend, as hitherto, 

 upon evening schools for technical instruction. The 

 provision of craft schools seems to offer the best 

 solution of the problem. AA'here the leaving age is 

 low — as it is in most of the State-aided secondary 

 schools — the Board of Education should urge that 

 the schools be of a commercial or industrial type in 

 which practical work, having a direct bearing upon 

 the needs of the district, will occupy at least half 

 the time of the course. The leaving age should 

 determine the scope of the curriculum, and the in- 

 terests of the district should decide the technical 

 tendency to be given to the practical work in the 

 schools which pupils leave at about fifteen years of 

 age. 



As to secondary schools of a high educational type, 

 consideration of the facts available leads to the con- 

 clusion that there will have to be many more pupils in 

 schools of this character if the position of secondary 

 education in England is to be comparable with that 

 in Germany. From a national point of view, much 

 of the money expended to secure free places at 

 secondary schools for pupils from public elementary 

 schools is wasted, for the work at the schools leads 

 usually to distaste for an industrial career, and ends 

 in boys taking up some clerical occupation. The only 

 secondary education which will assist the industrial 

 progress of the country is that which results in an 

 increase in the number of highly-trained men to 

 become captains of industry. Any money expended 



