788 TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION L. 



years ago teaching iu such schools was almost wholly classical, circumstances 

 have now wholly altered ; but there has been no rational and systematic attempt to 

 deal with a neAV order of things such as has been created by the immense advance 

 in scientific knowledge and the altered demands of modern life. In fact (i) either 

 the old classical teaching has been retained, and a great variety of otlier subjects 

 have been added to it iu a haphazard manner, with the result that boys are wholly 

 confused by the bewildering number of things they have to learn, so that they 

 learn nothing well, and lose all real mental training ; or (ii) classical study has 

 been abandoned altogether by boys who join either an 'Army Class ' or a ' Modern 

 Side,' in neither of which does any real educational purpose exist, the former 

 aiming merely at success in examinations, which are continually altering their 

 character according to the changing humour of military authorities ; while the 

 latter has usually no higher aims than to give boys what is called a 'practical,' 

 'useful,' or 'commercial' education, the study of languages, for instance, being 

 conducted chiefly with reference only to their utility, and that of mathematics and 

 science only to their application. 



As far as can be judged the tendency is at present to completely oust classical 

 study. The pressure of competition and the obvious commercial value of scientific 

 knowledge make it every day more difficult to maintain a study which has no 

 apparent ' wage-earning ' value ; and yet in the interest of science as well as 

 literature (using those two words in a wide sense) it is vital that in education no 

 study should be estimated too entirely by the standards of the market or the 

 counting-house. If scientific men alloAv that type of culture which is represented 

 by classical study to pass into disrepute because it does not ' pay,' they will find 

 that scientific study too will soon be required to stoop to merely commercial aims. 

 But to make such aims supreme is to ruin education, the purpose of which is not 

 merelv that a man should be able to earn his bread, but also learn to use his 

 powers wisely and worthily, and which has for its end not only wealth but well- 

 being. Literature and science — again using the terms with the widest meaning — 

 are in fact the two component parts of education (putting aside for the moment such 

 training as is manual or physical), and no form of education is other than maimed 

 which neglects either ; and the one object of all schemes of education should be 

 (1) to see that these two studies are properly combined, and (2) that each is so taught 

 as (a) to aid moral and intellectual growth, and (/3) to be of actual service in the 

 necessary work of gaining a livelihood. The task is a difficult one, but the 

 problem is in itself clear. It is roughly this : What must we teach in the way of 

 literature, i.e., of all that is meant by culture, art, the humanities, history, or the 

 like, and wliat in the way of science, i.e., not only of science, but mathematics, 

 geography, &c. ? And, secondly, how shall we teach it ? Shall we teach lanoruage, 

 for instance, chiefly as a mental discipline, as a means of reading with appreciation, 

 or as a convenience in practical life ? And so, too, with science and mathematics. 

 Shall mathematics aim at making boys ready-reckoners, and science at teaching 

 them to explain a motor-car, or what ? At present all is chaos, and the demand 

 of the market seems liisely to become the controlling force unless some body with 

 nobler aims steps in. The British Association is such a body, and its Educational 

 Section has a great opportunity of fulfilling a great duty. 



(ii) By The Hon. and Rev. E. Lyttelton, M.A} 



(iii) By A. C. Benson, M.A. 



For the large majority of average boys, the classical system, however con- 

 scientiously administered, is, under present conditions, a deliberate disregarding of 

 most of the methods by which intellectual influences may be brought to bear on 

 theyoung. The principal defect of public-school education at the present day is 

 its diff'useness, its lack of concentration, its vagueness, its desultoriness. The boys 

 master so little, and so rarely seem to learn how to use their minds. The crying 

 need is simplification. By taking out of the ordinary educational scheme, one by 



' Published in the School World, September 1905. 



