TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 935 



organically all other classes arise. lie does not require the special training of 

 the university professor or of the secondary school teacher, but he does require as 

 perfect a training as can possibly be given to him, and on lines peculiarly adapted to 

 his work. It is fundamentally important that this training should be given to 

 the primary teachers by the best intellects the country can afford, and at the 

 highest teacbiner centre in the country. There should hence, in every modern 

 university, be a Faculty of Education for tbe training of teachers ranking in honour 

 and standing with the older Faculties of Arts and Science. By intimate contact 

 and fellowship with other university students the primary school teacher will 

 gain appreciation of what true education is, and will, further, find a liberality of 

 thought and development whicli can never be attained in a purely technical 

 training college. The existing training colleges for teachers can be utilised for 

 supplying the technical portion of tbe instruction, but should form an integral 

 part of one or other of the Universities. 



The nature of the instruction to be given in the national schools, the text- 

 books to be employed, and the nature of revision of work and examination of the 

 primary schools could also be best carried out under the control and influence of 

 the Universities, and the present system might readily be moditied to this end with 

 the aid of the present personnel. These are the more important changes required 

 in primary education in Ireland ; the provision of means whereby children of talent 

 and genius could be assisted to a secondary education is easy of arrangement. 



Secondari/ Education. — The clnef thing required here is a liberal control by 

 the Universities, acting iu accord with the teachers of the secondary schools. 

 Nothing can be conceived more fatal to the secondary education of any country 

 than having all its schools cast in one mould and of one pattern. 



This is the great evil that the intermediate system has brought about in tbe 

 secondary schools of Ireland. Instead of the liberal freedom which ought to 

 exist in the higher school^, and the power of the teachers to select books and 

 portions of subjects, to develop their own style of imparting knowledge, and of 

 arranging their pupils and disposing of their time according to their abilities and 

 mental trends, there exi.-ts the hidebound system of Intermediate Education and 

 the attempt to turn one boy out machine-made exactly like another. Why should 

 the same books be read and the same syllabuses followed in every secondary school 

 in Ireland, whether the teacher has sympathy and enthusiasm for them or whether 

 he detests them? What tire and love of learning can any teacher raise in his 

 boys under such a prison system ? 



Instead of this let each university within its own sphere of influence recognise 

 secondary schools. Let each school so recognised draw up its own system of 

 work, with the approval and, if necessary, with the assistance of the university 

 authorities, and then let the university act as an external authority in sympathy 

 with the teachers, examining the work done and testing the pupils conjointly 

 with the teachers. The work of the university iu relation to the examining of 

 the secondary schools would to a considerable extent be that of the external 

 examiner in the university, the teacher himself acting as internal examiner to 

 see that ample justice was done to the pupil. The final examination of the 

 secondary school would then naturally become tbe matriculation examination of 

 the university, and the best system would have been arrived at for making this 

 entrance examination what it really ought to be, viz., a guarantee that the 

 matriculant had been so educated that he could with profit proceed to the work 

 of the university. 



2. Discussion on Training in Teacliiyig, 

 (i) Bij Miss C. P. Tremain. 



During recent years public interest in educational matters has greatly in- 

 creased. There is now a tendency to make the provision of the means of 

 education a national, county, or municipal charge, instead of relying on private 

 initiative, 



