024 fRAlCSACtlOl^^S 0^ SfiCtlON L. 



no more than an liolil- a week between tliem. The Leadmistress no doufct tated 

 the arrangement, but had to conform. 



I have said that the grounds for introduchig each separate subject are often 

 ■petfectly reasonable. Thus by ancient nsage Latin is made a necessary subject in 

 certain schools. Then a claim is put in for Greek as more interesting and equally 

 important. French and German demand admission, and put forward claims 

 which can hardly be overstated. The result is that some boys in secondary 

 schools attempt four languages, and many attempt three. Then we usually find 

 that no foreign language, ancient or modern, is mastered to the point at which it 

 can be used in reading, writing, or conversation. Our wish to be fair and con- 

 sistent has landed us in an absurdity. The root of the whole difficulty lies in the 

 fact that while there are perhaps fifteen or twenty branches of knowledge emi- 

 nently fit to be taught in school, no pupil can profitably undertake more than five 

 or six at a time. The man of business who is inveigled into a shop is better 

 able to resist importunity than the .schoolmaster. He will say : ' If you insist upon 

 the drawing-room table, you must go without the chest of drawers ; if you insist 

 upon the chest of drawers, you must go without the drawing-room table.' I wisli 

 that the headmaster or headmistress might find courage and strength to require 

 that every subject admitted to the curriculum should come round frequently, at 

 least for two or three years ; as nearly as may be once a day, but we cannot be 

 rigid in these matters. 



The sciences taught in school may spoil one another's chances in the same way. 

 Not a few schools are convinced that they must have chemistry and physics 

 because of their industrial importance, hygiene because of its relation to the 

 health of the community, physiology to make the hygiene intelligible. The school- 

 boy is made to buy more sciences than he can pay for, and his time is gone before 

 he reaps any of the advantages which are so much desired. 



Too Much aiid too Lomj. 



One inevitable result is that the school hours, including the preparation of 

 lessons, are nearly always too long. Another result is that the schoolboy who is 

 willing, but not very clever, is often overworked. I have known many such cases 

 myself, and have also known cases in which excellent results have been attained 

 in a good deal less than the customary time. If we could consent that our pupils 

 should remain ignorant of many useful things, if we could materially shorten the 

 lessons of very young pupils, and if we could bring the home-lessons into much 

 smaller compass, I believe that the education which we oiler would really be more 

 valuable. 



Natui'al and Attificial Education. 



If we had a pupil put into our hands for solitary instruction, like the Emile 

 of Rousseau, we should find it wise to begin by studying him closely, and three 

 things would particularly require attention — his aptitudes, his inclinations, his 

 opportunities. The first two are self-explanatory, but the word opportunities may 

 present some difficulties. It includes, of course, opportunity of learning, but the 

 chief stress is to be laid upon opportunity of exercise in after-life. This is the 

 opportunity which stimulates interest and rewards exertion. Moral character, 

 intellectual character, curiosity, love of knowledge, equipment for practical life, 

 and, so far as I can see, all considerations which ought to govern the choice of a 

 study, come nnder one or other of the three requisites— aptitude, inclination, 

 opportunitj'. 



In school we have not so much solitary pupils as groups of pupils to consider, 

 and this compels us to accept compromises, which are familiar to every teacher. 

 We have often to .study the wants of a school-form as well as the wants of an 

 individual. 



Some writers have given to the education which considers first of all aptitude, 

 inclination, opportunity the name oi Natural Education, while that which makes 

 its choice of studies on abstract or arbitrary grounds, with little reference to the 



