ON THE CURRICULA OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 4.23 
university rank ; and those in which the majority leave at fifteen or six- 
teen and proceed to business. There is, however, no sharp line of demarca- 
tion between the two. 
2. The Committee consider that one modern foreign language should 
in all cases be begun at an early age; but are of opinion that it 
would be a wise educational experiment to postpone the systematic teach- 
ing of Latin as an ordinary school subject till twelve years of age, and 
that such a change will prove sufficiently successful to warrant its 
adoption. 
On the other hand, they are of opinion that such absence of systematic 
teaching by no means precludes its incidental teaching before the age of 
twelve by such means as wil] naturally occur to a fully qualified teacher 
of young boys. 
The Committee also desire to record their opinion that the continued 
teaching of either of the two dead languages to boys who after serious 
trial have shown little or no progress in, or capacity for, such linguistic 
study has little or no educational value ; and that, though the mental 
training afforded by such study is of great value in the case of many 
boys, yet in the case of others such study not only produces no good 
results, but does positive harm to their mental and moral progress by 
reason of their incapacity to grapple with its difficulties. 
The Committee go further, and express their doubt whether the 
authorities in some secondary schools have sufficiently recognised this 
fact: or have provided sufficient alternatives to such linguistic study. 
3, The Committee deprecate any form of early specialisation in the 
education of children, and therefore regard with grave concern the fact 
that the entrance examinations at the great English public schools give 
undue prominence to the study of Latin (and Greek) in the course of 
education at the preparatory schools, the result being that too little time 
is available for (a) the teaching of the mother-tongue, () manual training, 
(c) science and mathematics. 
4. The Committee would deprecate anything like State-imposed 
rigidity in the organisation and studies of secondary schools. 
But the Committee are led to the conclusion that up to twelve years 
of age there might be a broad general course of education for all. It 
would in all cases include careful preliminary training in the use of the 
mother-tongue, so that it could be used in speaking and writing cor- 
rectly on ordinary occasions, and would further comprise the following 
divisions :— 
(1) Literary. (2) Mathematical. (3) Scientific. (4) Manual Training. 
They consider that a school week of twenty-six hours might be divided 
as follows :— 
Literary work, thirteen hours ; mathematical and scientific work, 
nine hours ; drawing and manual training, four hours ; while for those 
who after twelve years of age commence the study of Latin the division 
of time should be: Literary work, sixteen hours ; other subjects, ten 
hours. 
5. The Committee are of opinion that the curriculum in secondary 
schools suffers gravely from the number of subjects which have been 
crowded into it, and they regard this as the most serious factor in 
