October 15, 1908J 



NA TURE 



619 



A thoroughly well-sustained discussion on rural educa- 

 liun \va:> u^ci..d by I'rof. Miall, who urged teachers to 

 lead their pupils to see, handle, and think tor themselves. 

 It was regrettable that so many artificial aids — pictures, 

 leady-made preparations, &c. — were employed. Referring 

 to school gardens, Mr. David Houston urged that the 

 education of the child must come before the desire to have 

 a prolific garden. Miss Lilian Clarke described her 

 methods used at Duhvich, and Mr. George Fletcher de- 

 tailed a course of classes in rural economy which has 

 been given to certain teachers by the Irish National Board 

 of Education. Mr. Fletcher said that it was less a ques- 

 tion of the introduction of a new subject into the curri- 

 culum than the infusion of a new spirit into the system. 

 If every school in town and country possessed and utilised 

 freedom to make its surroundings a means of educatit")n, 

 the problem would be in a fair way to solution. He 

 urged the value of carefully arranged summer courses of 

 instruction for teachers, as the new spirit could only come 

 through the teacher. The audience heartily approved Mr. 

 Fletcher's stateinent. Mr. C. H. Bothamley gave an 

 account of the fairly successful efforts made to promote 

 rural education in certain English counties, referring par- 

 ticularly to Somerset. The Very Rev. Dr. Delaney ex- 

 pressed the opinion that, alike in the training of children 

 and of teachers, the fetish of examinations was the curse 

 of education. Mr. J. Hegarty, a member of the Co. 

 Dublin Teachers' Committee, pointed out that school 

 gardens would not give a desire for rural living while 

 agricultural wages were so low. Miss Constance Cochrane 

 believed that small holdings would go a long way towards 

 promoting the success of agricultural education — where 

 these had been established she had seen the greatest keen- 

 ness on the part of both parents and children to learn 

 all they could from the school gardens ; where there was 

 no prospect of a holding, the boys' wish was to get away 

 froin the country. Miss Cochrane added detailed advice, 

 based on successful experience as a school manager in 

 remote rural districts. The Rev. Dr. Kingsmill Moore, 

 |)rincipal of the Church of Ireland Training College, 

 deprecated specialisation in the early education of children. 

 Their object must be, not to fill the mind, but to make 

 it capable of filling itself. 



Education in Ireland was the leading subject at the 

 Monday meeting. .According to the printecl programme, the 

 discussion on this subject was to have been preceded by one 

 on tests of educational elficiency. However, on the request 

 of the committee of the section, the opener, Mr. T. P. Gill 

 (Secretary of the Department of .Agriculture and Technical 

 Instruction for Ireland), merged the question of efficiency 

 tests in the consideration of the situation in Ireland, and 

 his paper led to an animated debate. In his original 

 abstract he had considered educational tests under throe 

 aspects : — (i) Physical : the effect upon bodily develop- 

 ment ; health ; intellectual efficiency and moral strength 

 as depending on health ; manual training ; discipline. 

 (2) Mental : the development of observing, thinking, and 

 correlating power ; the avoidance of crain. (3) iSIoral : 

 the test here should aim at ascertaining whether the 

 teachers have the right outlook and influence ; whether 

 the pupil is being led to know and love the right things ; 

 to understand his private and public duties ; to select true 

 aims in life. Mr. Gill welcomed the opportunity of dis- 

 carding more abstract themes, and turned to the Irish 

 situation at the present moment. The cou^tr^■ had to 

 organise a new university system, and he looked forw-ard 

 to such a reform as would produce a truly national educa- 

 tion, not, as in the past, imposed from without, but 

 developed by Irish thouerht concentrated effectively upon 

 this aim. He considered that the educational mill had 

 ^vorked recently in a manner calcul.ated to manufacture a 

 half-baked and inefficient nation, the special target of his 

 criticism being the intermediate schools. He looked , for- 

 ward to a day of intellectual freedom for these schools, 

 when inspection would be substituted for examination. 

 The main impulse for these reforms must come from the 

 universities, and they now had to consider and settle 

 upon their purpose and ideal. They had to create, not 

 only a congeries of professional schools, not only a 

 machinery for research, but an intellectual and moral 

 centre for the nation. 



NO. 203.-;, VOL. 78] 



Prof. Benjamin Moore followed with a paper on corre- 

 lation of pruuary, secondary, and university education in 

 Ireland, there has been no coo.-dination between the 

 chief bodies — the Board of National Education, which 

 controls the national schools ; the Intermediate Board, 

 which exerts bureaucratic sway over intermediate or 

 secondary schools ; the universities, which have hitherto 

 taiven no share in moulding either the priiuary or the 

 secondary education of the country. The changes neces- 

 sary may be summarised as follows : — (i) Primary or 

 national education : the training of the teachers should be 

 under the faculty of education in the university. 

 (2) Secondary , or intermediate education : each university 

 within its own sphere of influence should recognise 

 secondary schools, and the university, acting in sympathy 

 with the teachers of the schools, should test the work 

 of the pupils ; the system of work should be drawn up 

 by each school with the approval of the university. 



The Rev. Dr. Evans defended the action of the Board 

 of National Education, and Prof. Culverwell supported the 

 views expressed by Prof. Moore. The Rev. Canon 

 Mahaffy admitted the existence of serious drawbacks in 

 Irish education. Poverty, the drain of emigration (leaving 

 the feebler behind), and the lack of a sense of duty in 

 regard to school attendance, were responsible for defects, 

 and it was not fair to attribute these to the schools. The 

 system was not such a failure as Mr. Gill had made out, 

 and there was no want of high moral teaching in their 

 schools. The Rev. T. Corcoran would rather modify the 

 examination system than put the teacher under the in- 

 spector, with ' consequent loss of freedom. Subsequent 

 speakers referred to the pay of the teachers, and the Rev. 

 Dr. Delaney warmly sympathised with the strong con- 

 demnation passed on the miserably insufficient payment of 

 the teacher in the elementary schools. He also referred 

 to the university question, and approved the Liverpool 

 University charter, which includes representative men of 

 Liverpool and neighbouring counties. 



Miss C. P. Tremain opened the discussion on the 

 important question of training in teaching. She pointed 

 to three stages in such training : — (i) General educatiori in 

 school and "university college. (2) Professional training, 

 including instruction in the theory and practice of educa- 

 tion and hygiene. The longer course for intending 

 clementarv-school teachers, where the students pursue 

 degree and training courses together, is less successful 

 than the short, intensive post-graduate course for intend- 

 ing secondary-school teachers. The aim is not to pro- 

 duce finished and perfect teachers, but rather aspiring and 

 intelligent ones who will be able to adapt themselves to 

 and learn from subsequent experience. (3) The experience 

 stage of training. Valuable assistance would be rendered 

 if secondary schools directed more attention to the mother- 

 tongue, drawing, clear enunciation, and physical culture. 

 Mr. Charles MacGregor, as the second speaker on this 

 subject, sketched a systein of training- which would occupy 

 three years for non-university students and four years for 

 those following a university course. In explaining the 

 principles of such a scheme he emphasised the need for 

 child-study, for study of recent history of education, and 

 for accustoming students to the idea of experiment in 

 education. 



The programme for the last day was a crowded one, 

 and the discussions on the topics were much curtailed. 

 First came the report of the subcommittee upon the 

 sequence of science studies in secondary schools, which 

 was read by Mr. G. F. Daniell. The first half of the 

 report summarised the replies received to a number of 

 questions addressed to science masters in different types of 

 school. Speaking generally, there is remarkable agree- 

 inent as to the subjects taught and the order in which 

 thev appear in the curriculum. There is also close agree- 

 ment as to the aim of science teaching, but a great 

 diversity in method. The committee believes this diversity 

 to be healthy, as it desires that the teacher should have 

 a large liberty in the choice of his methods. It dr- 

 nrecates the discouragement of improved methods whif'' 

 is found to result from the existing system of preparing 

 for examinations. Two useful tables in the report indici'" 

 the usual science subjects in schools where the leavin<; 

 ages are sixteen and eighteen respectively, and the average 



