TRANSACTIO^^S OF SECTION L. 837 



Abney in instituting reforms ; but one swallow does not make a summer : a self- 

 acting governing mechanism is needed which would at all times maintain the 

 balance of practice with progress. 



If we consider the process by which decisions on such matters are arrived at 

 even in the bodies representative of very large interests, it is a curiously imperfect 

 one. Usually very few individuals are concerned. We are all still imbued v/ith 

 primitive instincts. In some way two parties arise and the question is, which 

 shall conquer ? More often than not the true inwardness of the issue presented is 

 left out of account — the considered opinion of the day is scarcely asked for or if 

 opinions are collected they are not weighed. Therefore calm reason is rarely the 

 arbiter. The conditions of modern civilisation require that some better method 

 shall be devised which will really enable us to do that which would be of the 

 greatest good to the greatest number. We do not sufficiently remember that 

 while we are tilting, the enemy at our gates is contemplating our failure to main- 

 tain and strengthen our fortifications and quietly advancing his forces to the 

 attack. Speaking of the Navy in the House of Commons not long ago, 

 Mr. Arnold Forster said : ' There was a need for some reinforcement of the 

 intellectual equipment which directed, or ought to direct, the enormous forces of 

 our Empire.' Surely we may take these words as true generally. 



At the present time, when the responsibility of controlling all grades of 

 education is about to be cast upon the community and the actual call to arms is 

 imminent, it is imperative that a sound public policy should be framed and that 

 nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of the public good. It cannot be 

 denied that School Boards have done most admirable service ; but there are many 

 who are convinced that in not a few respects they have been disastrous failures : 

 that we need a wider organisation, penetrated with sounder and especially 

 witli more practical views. The one essential condition of success is that the 

 public should treat the matter seriously, realising that their own immediate 

 interests are at stake ; that they will be the first to suffer if those who are 

 chosen by them to formulate the new policy and to supervise the work of educa- 

 tion are unqualified and, let me add, to emphasise my meaning, unpractical. If 

 the State is to retain any measure of authority, it too must be prepared to exer- 

 cise that authority wisely. The blame to be put upon School Boards in England 

 for having allowed an unpractical system of education in the schools is as nothing 

 compared with the blame to be put upon the Education Department for having 

 allowed such a system to grow up by the adoption of academic ideals and academic 

 machinery. Until recently, it was a disqualification for an inspector to have 

 teaching experience. A good degree, if not political influence, was the one quali- 

 fication. Consequently men were chosen whose practical instincts had never 

 been developed, who knew nothing of practical life and of common-place require- 

 ments, nothing of children and their ways ; with rare exceptions the inspec- 

 tors could look at education only from between literary blinkers. To intensify 

 the evil the wicked system of payment by results was introduced. An inspector 

 such as I have described, working under such a .system, could not do otherwise 

 than destroy teaching.' 



The first necessary step to take will be to reorganise the Education Department, 

 root and branch ; to imbue it throughout with sound ideals and lead it to under- 

 stand its great importance as the head centre of the Educational system : for dis- 

 establish as we may and however much we may favour local self-government, a head 

 centre there must be to correlate the efibrts made throughout the country and to 

 distribute wisdom ; but its functions will be those of an exchange and inquiry office 

 rather than directive and assertive. At least, such is my reading of the tendency 

 of the Zeitgeist. Such a Department will have an Intelligence Board, whose 

 members are partly official, partly unofficial, so that it may maintain itself in 



' The inspector destroys teaching, because he is bound by law and necessity to 

 examine according to a given pattern; and the perfection of teaching is that it 

 does not work by a given pattern (Tliring). 



