TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 791 



3. The Waste of Time in Secondary Schools. 

 By J. H. Leonard, B.Sc. 



The complaint is frequently heard that the hours in secondary schools are too 

 short for the number of subjects required to be included in the curriculum. In 

 this paper attention is directed to another aspect of this question, viz., the waste 

 of time in secondary school work. Instances are given from actual experience 

 showing how time is wasted («) from over-elaboration of a subject ; (I)) from a 

 lack of co-ordination in the work of related subjects; the latter naturally results 

 in {e) the overlapping of subjects. There is, further {d) the waste of time in 

 specinc subjects as generally taught. It is shown, too, that valuable lime is 

 wasted in the rigid adherence to ' term examinations ' ; and in the preparation for 

 public examinations, the functions of which might be better discharged by ade- 

 quate inspection. The waste of time entailed by the useless elaboration of marks 

 and reports is also noted. 



All such misapplication of school time means loss of energy which might 

 otherwise have been profitably employed. The remedy will, of course, vary in 

 different schools and as regards different subjects. But the principles to be kept 

 in view will be the same throughout : (i) any expenditure of time which does not 

 give adequate return must cease ; {\\) subjects included in the curriculum must be 

 co-ordinated. 



4. The Training of Teachers. By Miss E. Constance Jones. 



Those engaged in training teachers, i.e., the lecturers in training colleges 

 and in the training departments of schools, ought to have the best obtamable 

 preparation for the work— the best school and univer.^ity education, includ- 

 ing, as a very important part of the latter, a genuine and careful study of 

 psychology under competent guidance. They ought also to take a cour.sa of 

 training in some existing training college or training department, and, if pos- 

 sible, to have experience of both elementary and secondary training; perhaps, 

 also, of teaching in both elementary and secondary schools (though this may 

 be a counsel of perfection). That they should be of proved ability and 

 special competence for their work, of pleasant manner and sympathetic temper, 

 goes without saying. Further— and this is a point upon which special stress 

 should be laid— it is desirable that the same preparation and qualifications 

 should be required in the lecturers for elementary as for secondary training 

 colleges. Both sorts of colleges want as lecturers men and women whose p >wer3 

 have been brought to the very best they are capable of, whose standard of 

 thought and feeling and action is high, and therefore also sincere and simple ; 

 who have truly had ' a liberal education,' and are thus instructed and self-reliant 

 without being inconsiderate or conceited, who se? things in right perspective, 

 and though they know the best when they meet it, yet have at the same time 

 a sympathetic understanding of the causes of failure, and can and will help those 

 who stand most in need of encouragement. 



The elementary training colleges ought to have such people— that is, they 

 ought to have the best that can be produced— and the secondary can have no 



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If the above .suggestion were carried into effect it would probably be very 

 influential indeed in producing better understanding and sympathy between 

 teachers and learners in elementary and secondary schools. In saying this one 

 does not lose sight of the very important differences between elementary and 

 secondary schools, and the kind of teachers and teaching which they require ; 

 nor of the relative importance of training and purely intellectual acquirement, 

 according as the teacher has to deal with younger or older, with more 

 instructed or less instructed, pupils; nor should the proposed uniformitv ot 

 .standard for all training-college lecturers in the least tend to obscur.' or cduIusc 

 any such essential difterences. 



