884 REPORT — 1903. 



done must be introduced into schools. This class of work should be made as 

 attractive as any game ; in fact, it should be organised on a similar footing, 

 directly in co-operation with the scholars. It is of the utmost consequence that 

 various branches of manual training should receive adequate and serious treatment 

 in all schools. 



3. Interest and Individuality. 



In the boarding school of the future there should be little or no evening 

 lesson-learning of the conventional type ; the time will be far more usefully spent 

 and in a more healthy manner in experimental and manual work.. 



In the future, besides manual training, general physical training must receive 

 a due share of attention. When the formalities of classics no longer fill the mind, 

 the example set in classic times may meet with some recognition : some efibrt will 

 be made to embody Greek ideals in our scholastic practice. 



The higher should differ from the preparatory school mainly in the extent to 

 which proclivities which become manifest during the preparatory course are given 

 scope for development, in the increasing difficulty of the tasks set, and in the 

 increasing demand for results. 



4. General and Professional Education. 



Undue specialisation may have an eff"ect the very opposite to that which it is 

 argued makes specialisation desirable. In all careers the preliminary qualification 

 of most worth is general intelligence. 



Arguments such as these favour the conclusion that in schools generally both 

 literary and practical studies should at all times receive adequate treatment, and 

 that specialisation should as far as possible be avoided. The differences that 

 should be allowed to arise between different types of school should be differences 

 in the character of the work done within either of the two main branches — in the 

 character of the reading or in the choice of subject-matter for the experimental 

 studies. 



5. The Domestic Profession, 



It is a very serious outlook for the country that the higher education ot 

 women is almost entirely in the hands of those who have been trained in schools 

 where academic views prevail .almost exclusively. The very fact that women 

 have only asked that they should be allowed to do as men do, to have what men 

 have, is proof that they have failed to understand the position they hold. 



6. Aims of Scientijic Instruction. 



It is essential that whatever be done should be done thoroughly : the object 

 in view is to teach method ; it is not primarily a question of results. The require- 

 ments of examining bodies of the present irrational type must be resolutely set 

 aside. 



The various branches of science are not of equivalent value as educational 

 instruments. Physics and chemistry are the foundations, as it were, of scientific 

 belief; they underlie all natural phenomena, all vital changes. But although it 

 is necessary, before attempting in any way to consider the nature of the processes 

 which attend life, to understand the fundamental principles of physics and 

 chemistry, there is no reason why the biological sciences should not receive 

 attention at a very early stage. In physics and chemistry experiments can be 

 made in a way and with a degree of completeness which is impossible in the case 

 of the biological sciences ; the latter, however, afford unrivalled opportunity of 

 cultivating observational power. But in future the object of schools will be to 

 give their scholars a broad outlook over nature : to create interest in all that goes 

 on around them. 



