ON STUDIES MOST SUITABLE FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 497 



Report were added valuable appendices, the results of the labours of some 

 members of the Sub-Committees, dealing in detail with the methods of 

 teaching arithmetic and mensuration very much on the lines suggested by 

 Professor Perry at the Belfast Meeting in 1902, and also with nature- 

 study in its relation to the general curi'iculum and with domestic work. 



There are many satisfactory indications that the Board of Education 

 are now moving in the direction indicated in the Committee's Eeports, 

 but they are moving slowly. Workshop exercises, nature study, and 

 domestic science are now regarded as essential parts of the curriculum 

 of our primary schools. Some of the prefatory memoranda to the Board's 

 regulations are excellent. They breathe the true spirit of educational 

 reform. In the preface to this year's Code it is gratifying to tind a state- 

 ment to the effect that the age for commencing handicraft instruction has 

 been reduced from twelve to eleven. This somewhat belated concession 

 will help to remove many difficulties. It is further stated in the same 

 memorandum : ' The Board have under consideration tlie question of 

 developing all forms of manual instrviction in the lower classes of public 

 elementary schools, and, in particular, of filling up the gap between the 

 infant school, in which manual instruction is an essential part of the 

 curriculum, and the upper classes, to which the teaching of hand- work is 

 at present confined.' This is a welcome statement and full of encourage- 

 ment, as promising to give effect to some of the recommendations of your 

 Committee. But it does not go far enough. It leaves much to be yet 

 done. The reference to manual training occurs in a Section of the 

 memorandum headed ' Instruction in Special Subjects.' Why special 

 subjects 1 What we ask for is that manual instruction shall be ' an 

 essential part of the curriculum ' in the elementary as it is in the infant 

 schools ; that it shall be closely associated Avith practical science teaching 

 and with drawing and with other parts of the school curi'iculum. For 

 many years I have urged that hand-work should be made the chief 

 instrument of elementary education ; that the brain should be developed 

 by means of manual exercises ; that practical studies should dominate the 

 teaching. We are coming to understand that the attitude of passive 

 receptivity in the pupil — a condition of mind too frequently welcomed by 

 the teacher — should be discouraged, and that the lessons should be such 

 as constantly call forth fresh energy. There is an increasing tendency to 

 associate more closely the activity of the playground with that of the 

 classroom. It is felt that the child's energy should be utilised in school, 

 and not wholly dissipated in play. The true function of the playground 

 is not the utilisation of unspent energy and exuberant spirits, but 

 relaxation and recreation. The recognition of this fact will lead to far- 

 reaching changes in school life. We shall see physical and mental energy 

 jointly utilised in school, and not separately, as now, in lessons and in 

 play. 



If these general principles are sound it follows that much of the 

 instruction now given in our schools must be closely associated with, and 

 should be so oi'ganised as to arise incidentally out of, the pupils' practical 

 work. This work should not be everywhere the same. It would be 

 different after a certain age for boys and girls, different in urban and 

 rural schools. It would vary in difi'erent parts of the country. The 

 system of education should not be too strictly codified. Much should be 

 left to the initiative of local authorities. But how vai-ied soever may be 

 the subjects and instruments of the instruction to be provided in our 



1908. K K 



