828 REPORT— 1902. 



whole Iiuman being is the teacher's care,' for all must admit that the faculties gene- 

 rally should be cultivated and educated. At present we make the fundamental 

 mistake of disregarding this truth but there is evidence that sounder views are 

 beginning to prevail. It is very noteworthy, for example, that in the recent report 

 of the Committee on Military Education it is laid downtliat^ce subjects are to be 

 regarded as necessari/ elements of a sound sreneral education, viz, English, Mathe- 

 matics, a Modern language, Latin and Experimental Science. Moreover it is 

 recognised that each of these subjects has a peculiar educational value of its own. 

 .Such a conclusion takes tlie breatLaway ; indeed, it is almost beyond belief that 

 Headmasters of Public Schools could commit their brethren by attaching their 

 names to a report containiug such a paragraph as the following: — - 



' The fifth subject, which may be considered as an essential part of a sound 

 general education, is Experimental Science, that is to say, the Science of Physics 

 and Chemistry treated experimentally. As a means of mental training, and also 

 viewed as useful knowledge, this may be considered a necessary part of the intel- 

 lectual equipment of every educated man, and especially so of the officer, whose 

 profession in all its branches is daily becoming more and more dependent on 

 Science.' 



Just consider what this recommendation means : that it is now publicly ad- 

 mitted by high authority that all boys should have the opportunity given to them 

 at school of gaining knowledge bij experience — by actually doing things themselves, 

 not merely by reading about them or being told about them, because this and 

 nothing short of this is what is aimed at by all who advocate the introduction of 

 Experimental Science as a necessary pnrt of school training. The reign of the 

 cleric as absolute monarch of the school kingdom will be at an end if such doctrine 

 be accepted and acted upon ; there will be some chance of our regaining the 

 reputation of being a practical people. Members of the British Association will be 

 carried back in a dream, some thirty odd years, to 1867, when a report from a 

 ('ummittse, consisting of the General Officers of the Association, the Trustees, the 

 Eev. F. VV. Farrar, the Ilev. T. N. Hutchinson, Professor Huxley, Mr. Joseph 

 Payne, Professor Tyndall and Mr. J. M. Wilson, specially appointed to consider 

 the best method of extending Scientific Education in schools, was presented by the 

 Council to the General Committee and it was resolved: 'That the President of 

 the Association be requested to communicate the Ileport to the President of the 

 Privy Council,' &c. One among the reasons then given why general education in 

 echools ought to include some training in science was, ' as providing the best disci- 

 pline in observation and collection of facts, in the combination of inductive with 

 deductive reasoning, and in accuracy both of thought and langruage.' History does 

 not record what the Privy Council did with the memorial. Had the Council been 

 mindful of its duty to the country and paid serious attention to so weighty a 

 representation our present position might have been a very different one ; the 

 German and American bogies would have assumed less portentous dimensions in 

 our eyes, and we might have found ourselves far better prepared than we were to 

 cope with the conditions in South Africa. Accuracy of thought and language, 

 according to the evidence given before the Committee on Militarj' Education, ai'e 

 qualities in which military candidates are particularly lacking, notwithstanding 

 the asserted value of Latin^ — the chief subject of study in the Public Schools — as 

 mental discipline. 



Unless we are prepared to disregard not only all the lessons of the recent war 

 but also the lessons we have been receiving during years past in the wider war of 

 commercial competition ; unless we are prepared to disregard the still wider con- 

 sideration that education must be an efl'ective preparation for life and not merely 

 for business, tne findings of the Committee on Military Education must be em- 

 bodied in our practice. Undoubtedly the real issue decided by the Committee was 

 the question whether the antecedent, not the technical, training of mihtary 

 candidates was properly conducted. In other words, our Public School system 

 was on its trial. Although not referred to in so many words, this system is most 

 pfTectively condemned in .spirit m every line of the Report and far more between 



