444 



NA TURE 



[October 7, 1909 



which have to be solved before we can approach in 

 English education to what I venture to call the ideal of 

 Imperial responsibility. 



In criticising the old medijeval system of education 

 which prevailed in England until comparatively recent 

 years, and which still has far too great a hold on the 

 more venerable and important institutions of our island 

 home, I would not have you suppose that I am an advocate 

 of a complete, or even approximately complete, basis of 

 utilitarian education. It is an easy charge for those who 

 desire stare super antiqnas vias to throw in one's teeth. 

 I have little hesitation in expressing my belief that the 

 time has come (and I speak as one whose training was 

 that of a classical scholar, for I was brought up in the 

 straitest sect of academical Pharisees) — I sav I have no 

 hesitation in expressing my belief that the time has come, 

 not only that the study of the two ancient languages 

 should be reduced to one for all except scholastic 

 specialists, but also that both should yield pride of place 

 in our educational system to the claims of English, modern 

 languages, mathematics, natural science, and, not least, 

 manual training, so that our young men should be fitly 

 equipped to put their hand to any work vifhich may con- 

 front them amid all the complex problems and critical 

 situations to be found within the world-wide boundaries 

 of the British Empire. 



Germany, France, and the United States have been 

 beforehand with us in the working out of such a reformed 

 system of education. I am by no means one of those 

 who believe that we should be wise in copving the methods 

 in their entirety of any of those three peoples in their 

 educational methods. Undoubtedly in all three there has 

 been _ a more organised connection between the actual 

 teaching given in their respective schools and the indus- 

 trial, social, and political needs of the respective peoples. 

 But no one nation is exactly like another nation in its 

 temper and genius, and I should be sorry to advocate, 

 for instance, the highly organised system cf State educa- 

 tion in Germany, under which it could be predicted to a 

 certainty that boys and girls in every secondary or primary 

 school on any given Friday morning should be studying 

 fsay) the geographical importance of Natal or the out- 

 lines of the coast of Lincolnshire. There must be many 

 educational differences, because the idiosyncrasies of each 

 nation differ from those of another, and I do not think 

 we need ever fear that our intrinsic individuality will be 

 crushed into any Teutonic cast-iron mould or ground 

 down beneath the heel of some bureaucratic educational 

 despotism. But that we ought to change our ways still 

 more than we have, and adopt saner educational models, 

 many searchings of heart through a long educational 

 career have gradually, but overwhelmingly, convinced me. 

 If we are apt to think, speak, and act Imperiallv, our 

 education must take form from a strong Imperial senti- 

 ment, and must aim at instilling Imperial instincts in the 

 young lives which that education- is meant to control and 

 develop. 



I have spoken hitherto of this subject mainlv from the 

 point of view of secondary education, with which I am 

 the most conversant : not only for that reason, however, 

 but because most of those who are destined to proceed 

 to the distant outlying parts of the British Empire, and, 

 when there, to take prominent parts in the development 

 of that Empire, obtain their educational equipment from 

 the secondary schools of England. It is, therefore, on 

 curricula offered or desiderated in them that I have ex- 

 clusively dwelt. But I do not blink the fact that the 

 proper educational organisation of our elementary schools 

 on the one hand, and of our universities on the other, 

 exercises a large influence on the solution of Imperial 

 problems. 



On elementary education, however, I do not propose to 

 touch in this address, mainly because I look forward to 

 experts in primarv schools directing the thoughts of this 

 association more directlv to them. But I will touch with 

 great brevity on the subject of university education. 



Whether Oxford and Cambridge — particularly Oxford — 

 will ever so reform themselves as to contribute largely to 

 such solution remains to be seen. Personally, I look with 

 far greater confidence to the more recently organised 

 universities— those of London, Leeds, Sheflield, Man- 

 iVO. 2084, VOL. 81] 



Chester, and the like — to equip men educationally with 

 those moral, physical, and intellectual qualities which are 

 most in requisition in our great dependencies and common- 

 wealths. 



Such institutions, from their newness, their eagerness, 

 their freedom from antiquated prejudices and vested 

 interests, are more likely to be counted upon for many 

 years to come to send forth a stream of young men who 

 have learned in the school of hardness to face the difficul- 

 ties and to adapt themselves to the austere conditions 

 which are inseparable from life in unworked regions and 

 half-discovered continents. And it is at once a hopeful 

 and inspiring thought that the great Dominion of Canada 

 will welcome such to herself as sufficient and efficient 

 citizens of her all but ■ boundless territories, that she will 

 recognise in them " bone of her bone and flesh of her 

 flesh," physically, mentally, and morally capable, in com- 

 pany with those of her own sons who have long settled 

 in the land, of extending the borders of the Empire by 

 enlarging its resources, and of lifting, securing, and con- 

 solidating thereby the destinies of the Anglo-Saxofj 

 race. 



There is still one more educational factor on which I 

 would ask attention before I close this address. It is 

 this — the necessity of a closer touch educationally (in the 

 sense of " academically ") between the secondary schools 

 and colleges of the Mother Country and similar institu- 

 tions in the great Dominion and commonwealths which 

 own her parentage. How this can be effected without 

 great modification of our existing English system it is 

 hard to see. But one point is quite clear. We must give 

 up that part of our system which insists on choking the 

 passage of the student from point to point in his educa- 

 te the privileges of further education, if such examination 

 on entrance and throughout his academical course. It 

 would be of incalculable advantage to the Empire at large 

 if an extension of educational intercommunion, such as 

 was inaugurated by the noble benefactions of the late 

 Cecil Rhodes, could be secured throughout the Empire. 

 LTndoubtedly examination would be the surest test for 

 determining the question of the admission of a student 

 to the privileges of further education if such examination 

 could be conducted within a limited geographical area. 

 But it is quite an impossible system if adopted as between 

 the outlying parts of a great empire. The United States 

 of America have taught us a better way. For instance, 

 in the State of Minnesota, the university has legislated 

 that if and when the principal of a high school of recog- 

 nised position certifies that a student has successfully 

 pursued for a specified length of time those studies in 

 that high school that would entitle him to admission to 

 the university, he should be admitted thereto without 

 further delay or hindrance. What a paralysing curse the 

 Charybdis of examination has been to all true learning 

 only those who have suffered from it for thirty years can 

 bear adequate testimony. It would be one of the most 

 fertilising sources from which to secure good and pro- 

 gressive citizens if, instead of admitting within her borders 

 all or any who caine of their own spontaneity or from 

 compulsion (leaving their country, perchance, for their 

 country's good), Ihc Government authorities in the 

 Dominion could get into closer touch with the educational 

 authorities of the Mother Country, who would act as 

 guarantee that the material sent out by the Mother 

 Country should be of an approved and first-rate quality. 

 This might be worked on the American " accredited 

 school " system, under which the authorities of the schoof 

 sending the pupil should feel the tnaximiiin of responsi- 

 bility in recommending his admission to the academical, 

 or the technical, or the industrial organisations existing 

 in the Dominion. 



.Since penning the first sentences of the above para- 

 graph last June my eye has been caught by a notice 

 which appeared in the columns of the Times on the 28th 

 day of that month while I was engaged in the very act 

 of correcting the proofs of this address ; but I prefer to 

 leave the paragraph written as it stands, as the notice in 

 question is an eloquent commentary on my suggestion of 

 educational intercommunion. 



I may, perhaps, be allowed to re.ad the extract from 

 the Times verhatiin. though it may be familiar to some 



