792 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 



5, The Overbalanced Curriculum : a Plea for Individuality in Leisure 

 Hours. By Arthur Rowntree, B.A. 



1. ' Children sliould study the elements of a considerable variety of subjects, in 

 order that they may have a chance to determine wisely in what direction their 

 own individual mental powers can be best applied.' 



2. ' Training for power of work and service should be the prime object of 

 education throughout life.' 



Assuming that we have balanced the curriculum, there still remain, say, 

 twenty hours for leisure-hour pursuits. Until these are dealt with, the curriculum 

 is unstable, overbalanced by the weight of athleticism in one scale, and the conse- 

 quent lack of ideas in the other. 



For inducing the habit of quick and concentrated attention interest is essential. 

 Opportunities must be found in the library, natural history club, archasology 

 society, carpenter's shop, &c. 



In a school with seventy years of these traditions boys have recently done 

 excellent work in illustrating the colours of insects, in note-books on microscope 

 work and freshwater shells, including careful drawings of a gnat larva, Anodonta 

 cygnea, &c. 



Another boy has made a careful study of ecclesiastical architecture in fifteen 

 volumes, including a comparison of three centuries of archiepiscopal vestments 

 from representative tombs. 



This work is voluntary, pushed on by the public opinion of parents, the 

 school, and old scholars. Patience, industry, acquisitiveness are fostered ; the boy 

 is acting on his own initiative. 



That the system helps to solve the problem of the ' duffers ' is a small part of 

 its work. It effects moral reform and reduces loafers to a minimum ; it widens 

 the circle of thought and tends to a sturdy independence of thought. 



It would be an inestimable advantage if some university entrance scholarships 

 were granted as school-leaving scholarships, so that a premium might be placed 

 on the all-rounduess engendered by leisure-hour pursuits. 



6. Inspection and Regulation of Schools. By Rev. E. C. Owen. 



In the first half of the last century secondary schools were mainly controlled by 

 old classical and mathematical universities, and the teaching profession was a 

 branch of the clerical. 



From about 1850 a new stage began, and questions of control and curriculum 

 were on the way to be settled on a broader and more national basis. In the same 

 period school teaching differentiated into a separate profession. 



The danger ahead, a deterioration in personal qualities of teacher. This shown 

 in two ways :^ 



(1) The diminution of men of first-rate ability by attraction not only to other 

 professions like the Civil Service, but to administrative posts in education. 



(2) Essential that directors, inspectors, &c., should be first-rate men and well 

 paid. But doubtful whether an improvement to substitute inferior teacher well 

 inspected and directed for good teacher uninspected. The man in contact with the 

 pupils' mind ultimately determines result, 



(i) Solution not to go back, but forward, viz., to good teacher well inspected 

 and directed. 



This not gained by training inferior material. Therefore best material must 

 be attracted. This to be done in two ways : (a) by pay, but financial difliculty ; 

 Qi) by prospects. 



If a certain term of practical experience in schools made a sine qua non for ad- 

 ministrative posts, those gain, and a motive added to attract into education. 



(ii) Initiative of teachers hampered by organisation. 



This not a serious danger to assistant masters if requirements of Board of 



