696 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 
between the teaching given to the people and their industrial and social needs; 
and further, that their success in commerce, in military and other pursuits was 
largely due to the training provided in their schools. Unmindful of the fact that 
Education is a relation, and that consequently the same system of education is 
not equally applicable to different conditions, there were many in this country 
who were only too ready to recommend the adoption of German methods in 
our own schools. Experience soon showed, however, that what may have 
been good for Germany did not apply to England, and that, in educational 
matters certainly, we do well to follow Emerson, who, when addressing his 
fellow citizens, declared: ‘We will walk on our own feet; we will work 
with our own hands, and we will speak our own minds.’ Still, the example of 
Germany and the detailed information which we have obtained as to her school 
organisation and methods of instruction have been serviceable to us. 
Whilst all information on educational subjects is valuable, I am disposed to 
think that in our efforts to construct an educational science we may gain more 
by inquiring what has been effected in some of the newer countries. Wherever 
educational problems have been carefully considered and schemes have been intro- 
duced with the express intention and design of training citizens for the service of 
the State and of increasing knowledge with a view to such service, those schemes 
may be studied with advantage. Thus we may learn much from what is now being 
done in our Colonies. Their efforts are more in the nature of experiments, Our 
Colonies have been wise enough not to imitate too closely our own or any foreign 
system. They have started afresh, free from prejudice and traditions, and it is 
for this reason that I look forward with interest to the closer connection in 
educational matters of the Colonies with the mother country, and I believe that 
we shall gain much knowledge and valuable experience from the discussions of the 
Federal Conference which has recently been held in London, and which, I under- 
stand, is to be repeated a few years hence. 
But valuable as are the facts, properly collated and systematically arranged, 
which a knowledge of British and foreign methods may afford us in dealing 
scientifically with any educational problem, it is essential that we should be able 
to test and to supplement the conclusions based on such knowledge, whenever it 
is possible, by direct experiments, applicable to the matter under investigation. 
We have not yet recognised the extent to which experiments in education, as in 
other branches of knowledge, may help in enabling us to build up an educational 
science. Some years since there was established in Brussels an Ecole modéle in 
which educational experiments were tried. I visited the school in the year 1880, 
and I could easily point to many improvements in primary education which 
found their way from that school through the schools of Belgium and France to 
our own country, and, indeed, to other parts of the world. From a special Report 
on Schools in the North of Europe, recently published by the Board of Education, 
we learn that in Sweden the value of such experiments is fully recognised. We 
are told that in that country ‘it was early felt that the uniformity in State 
Schools was of so strict a kind that some special provision should be made for 
carrying out educational experiments,’ and experiments in many directions have 
been made, mainly in private schools, which receive, however, special subventions 
from the State. We gather from the same Report that the State regards the 
money as well earned ‘if the school occasionally originates new methods from 
which the schools can derive profit.’ I venture to think that experimental 
schools might with advantage be organised under the direction of some of our 
larger local authorities. The children would certainly not suffer by being made 
the subjects of such experiments. The intelligent teaching which they would 
receive—for it is only the most capable teachers who should be trusted with such 
experiments—would more than compensate for any diminution in the amount of 
knowledge which the children might acquire, and indeed such experimental 
schools might be conducted under conditions which would ensure sound instruc- 
tion. Many improved methods of teaching are constantly advocated, but fail to 
be adopted because there is no opportunity of giving them a fair trial. As a 
general rule it is only by the effort of private individuals or associations that 
i 
Pewee 
