tRANSACTtONS OF SECtlON L. 877 



2. Currimlwn of various Types of Secondary Schools: 

 A protest should be made against the assumption that boys and girls of secondary 

 school age ought to go through the same course ot studies. It may be doubted 

 whether^it is^t all wise to give, in ordinary cases, to gir s between the age of 

 twelve and sixteen as heavy a burden of work as can be borne by many boys oi 

 the same age, though even among boys there are great differences of streugth and 

 in the rate of physical and mental development. ,11^ . 



There are thi4e types of secondary education which seem to call tor separate 

 treatment. By separate treatment is meant the assignment of a special curriculum. 

 The three types of curricula would be as follows :— 



(a) Engineering arid other professions depending on Applied Science.— A. 

 secondary school leading up to the engineering professions (mechanical, electrical, 

 civil, and mining) and to other callings connected with applied science. The aim 

 of sJch a curriculum should be to equip a boy at sixteen with the following attain- 

 ments- command over his mother tongue, interest m history and good literature, 

 sound knowledge of geography, thorough groundmg in mathematics, skill in 

 speaking and writing one modern foreign language, fair acquaintance with the 

 requirements of physical science, and skill in usmg the pencil ^nd brush. 



(b) Commercial Professions.-FoT commercial professions, the time assigned to 

 mathematics and to laboratory work in science might be somewhat reduced in 

 order to make room for a second modern language. As another form ot this 

 curriculum, many experienced men of business would recommend a combination 

 of Latin and one modern language. . •„„i.,^ 



(c) Literary Professions.— For the more literary professions, a curriculum 

 providing for instruction in French, Latin, and then Greek or German (in the 

 order stated), would naturally follow to some extent the lines of the Frankfort 

 curriculum. 



3. Desirable Reforms. 



Ui) We ou-ht to have in our English schools far better teaching of the mother 

 ton-lie and more skilful training in expression and composition in English. In 

 this resrard we have much to learn from the French schools, and a good deal from 

 the German. But of the two the French methods seem to me much the more 

 artistic. The German methods are rather prosy for English children. 



(h) In the early years' secondary education for boys we are suffering Irom 

 premature Latin and Greek. The scholarship system at the pubhc schools is last 

 becoming an educational curse. .33 



(e) Far more prominence should be given throughout our primary and secondary 

 education to manual and practical work of all kinds. 



(d) Much of our education is sterilised by cramming up for examinations. 



(e) Thou'^h history (cixcept in its biographical forms) is by no means an 

 niipropriate subject for immature minds, much more can be done to stimulate 

 historical interest by means of the better teaching of history m our schools and by 

 ffiving the pupils a wider outlook over the development of nations upon the eartli. 



( f) Much more should be done to introduce improved methods of geographical 



teaching into schools. , , <• j 1 



(g) We are sadly behindhand in our standards and methods of modern-language 

 teaching. There is likely to be a shortage of well-educated young English teachers 

 competent, by residence and training abroad, to teach French and German on tlie 

 best new methods, while at the same time able to link those subjects to the other 

 parts of the school curricula. 



(h) Let us avoid over-teaching English pupils. We do not want to produce a 

 passive generation. It is far better that our boys and girls shovild learn a little 

 thoroughly than get a smattering of a number of subjects. \\ hen they leave 

 school, they ought only to be beginning to learn. . . „ , • , i- ,, 



(i) It is to be desired that every school should state its intellectual aim ; publisli 

 (according to some approved form) a statistical summary of the hours and work 



