PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 697 
changes in system are effected, and teachers are enabled to escape from the old 
grooves on to new lines of educational thought and practice. It is not difficult to 
refer to many successful experiments. The general introduction into our schools 
of manual training was the direct result of experiments carefully arranged and 
conducted by a Joint Committee of the City Guilds and the late London School 
Board. Experiments in the methods of teaching Physical Science, Chemistry, and 
Geometry have been tried, with results that have led to changes which have 
revolutionised the teaching of those subjects. The age at which the study of 
Latin should be commenced with a view to the general education of the scholar 
has been the subject of frequent trial. I would like to see such experiments 
more systematically organised, and I am quite certain that the curriculum 
of our rural and of our urban schools would soon undergo very considerable 
changes, if the suggestions of competent authorities could receive a fair trial under 
conditions that would leave no manner of doubt as to the character of the 
results. 
It would seem, therefore, that if our knowledge of the facts and principles of 
education is not yet sufficiently organised to enable us to determine a prior? the effect 
on individual or national character of any suggested changes, education is a 
subject that may be studied and improved by the application to it of scientific 
method, by accurate observation of what is going on around us, and by experi- 
ments thoughtfully conducted. This is the justification of the inclusion of the 
subject among those that occupy the attention of a separate section of this 
Association. Our aim here should be to apply to educational problems the well 
known canons of scientific inquiry; and, seeing that the conditions under which 
alone any investigation can be conducted are in themselves both numerous and 
complicated, it is essential that we should endeavour to liberate, as far as possible, 
the discussion of the subject from all political considerations. Such investigations 
are necessarily difficult. We have to determine both statically and dynamically 
the physical, mental, and moral condition of the child in relation to his activities 
and surroundings, and we have further to discover how he is influenced by them, 
how he can affect them, and the character of the training which will best enable 
him to utilise his experiences, and to add something to the knowledge of to-day 
for future service. 
Notwithstanding the undoubted progress which we have made, it cannot be 
denied that in this country there still exists a large amount of educational unrest, 
of dissatisfaction with the results of our efforts during the last thirty years. This 
is partly due to the fact that there is much loose thinking and uninformed 
expression of opinion on educational questions. No one knows so little as not to 
believe that his own opinion is worth as much as another's on matters relating to 
the education of the people. In this way statements, the value of which has not 
been tested, pass current as ascertained knowledge, and very often ill-considered 
legislation follows. In this country, too, the difficulty of breaking away from 
ancient modes of thought is a great drawback to educational progress. Suggestions 
for moderate changes, which have been most carefully considered, are deferred 
and decried if they depart, to any great extent, from established custom, and 
the objection to change very often rests on no historical foundation. Occasionally, 
too, the change proposed is itself only a reversion to a previous practice, which 
was rudely broken by thoughtless and unscientific reformers. The opposition 
which was so long raised to the establishment of local universities was largely 
due to want of knowledge on the subject; and certainly the creation, some 
seventy years ago, of a teaching University in London was actually hindered 
through a mere prejudice, which broader views as to the real purposes of Uni- 
versity teaching and fuller information on the course of University development 
would have removed. 
There never was a time perhaps when it was more necessary than now that 
education should be regarded dispassionately, apart from political bias, as a matter 
of vital interest to the people as a whole, Education nowadays is a question 
which affects not only the life of a few privileged, selected persons, but of the 
entire body of citizens, The progress that has been made during the last few 
