770 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 



and quickening of purpose we have derived from the zeal and courage of America, 

 from the diligent pains, the thrifty but never parsimonious management and the 

 skilfuUj' directed efforts of German education ; from the very practical patriotism 

 of Denmark and from the brilliant academic renaissance in France. In education 

 one nation is foolish to attempt a slavish copy of another, but still more foolish 

 to refuse to learn from it. And the result of all these diverse influences is that 

 much mora that is hopeful for the future is quietly taking place in English educa- 

 tion than any one observer can realise. 



The leaven is at work. If we were informed of a similarly fruitful movement in 

 educational opinion in a foreign country we should be ready at once to admire and 

 to draw a moral from it. Let us not deny ourselves the pleasure of deriving 

 encouragement from what is taking place among us at home. It was indeed high 

 time for a great change, for I suppose that no one who endeavours to look upon 

 English education with a candid eye could fail to admit that in no other civilised 

 country have so many otherwise intelligent people been habitually indiflerent to 

 education or unaware of what it may be able to do. In spite of the fact that the 

 suggestions to teachers in the elementary schools, issued as a Blue-book by the 

 Board of Education, has had a sale equal to that of a popular novel, I am afraid 

 that great tracts of this habitual indifference still remain undisturbed ; and it 

 must be admitted that in England, as compared with the best of Scotland and 

 Germany, the home still does little to co-operate with the work of the school ; 

 that manifold class separations have prevented the growth of unity in our school 

 system ; that we have been very wasteful of the more ordinary kinds of intel- 

 lectual material; that we have done pitifully little to teach the mother tocgue; 

 that we have done far too little in our school lessons to kindle the power of 

 imagination which, on social, on political and on economic grounds we greatly and 

 urgently need ; and that by our worship of examinations we too often encourage, 

 on the part both of teachers and of learners, the wrong attitude of mind. 



But nevertheless, on looking at the matter as a whole, we have good reason to 

 feel that during the last ten years the mind of the nation towards educational 

 matters has significantly changed, and that we have every reason to feel 

 encouraged for the future. If truth be told, we are worried and puzzled at 

 the questions involved. But I make bold to say that we are perfectly right to 

 feel worried and puzzled — that the central difficulties of the whole matter are the 

 outcome of a profound change in our mental outlook, due to scientific investigation 

 and to an upthrust of new social forces and ideals ; that our best chance of gradu- 

 ally finding a right solution for our difficulties lies in discarding the idea that 

 somewhere in the world there is a magic formula in education which can heal 

 our troubles ; and that we should recognise the need of patient and systematic 

 experiment in new educational methods and forms of training. 



During the last two or three years it has been my duty, on the invitation of a 

 number of local educational authorities, to study the working of many diflerent 

 kinds of school and the social and economic effects of various forms of educational 

 effort in typically different parts of England. May I venture very briefly to 

 summarise the conclusions and impressions which these inquiries have made upon 

 my mind? In the first place, I am profoundly impressed by the differences 

 between different districts in this country, differences in economic need and, what 

 matters far more, in psychological outlook upon educational matters. If there is 

 one country in the world where a rigid cut-and-dried State system would be 

 quite inappropriate, it is this country. We cannot, therefore, be too grateful for 

 the number of men and women all over the country, members of local authorities, 

 teachers and other social workers, who are devoting to the question of the public 

 welfare an amount of thought and time and money which is not surpassed in 

 any other land. And we may be thankful for the fairness of mind and temperate- 

 ness of judgment which mark their outlook on educational affairs. 



I am also deeply impressed by the inevitably great expense which must be 

 incurred in carrying out in an adequate manner any effective plan of national 

 education. The expense will be far greater than has yet been realised. Yet we 

 have so much educational leeway to make up that we are bound to incur thia 



