TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L.— PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 789 



Section L.— EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 

 President of the Section.— Principal H. A. Miers, M.A., F.R.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



To preside over this Section is to incur a responsibility which I confess somewhat 

 alarms me ; for the President may, by virtue of his temporary office, be regarded 

 as speaking with authority on the subjects with which he deals. Now, it is my 

 desire to speak about University education, and for this purpose I must say 

 something of school education ; but I would have it understood that I really know 

 little about the actual conduct of modern school teaching. One may read books 

 which describe how it should be conducted, but this is a very different thing from 

 seeing and hearing the teacher in his class ; and I fear that personal recollections 

 of what teaching in preparatory and public schools was like from thirty to forty 

 years ago do not qualify one to pose as an intelligent critic of the methods which 

 now prevail. 



Human nature, however, has not changed much in the last forty years, and if, 

 in considering the relations between University and school education, I can confine 

 myself to general principles, based upon the difference between boys and men, I 

 trust that I may not go far wrong. 



I propose first to consider some general relations between teachers and their 

 pupils, and then explain what, in my opinion, should be the change in the 

 method of teaching, or at any rate in the attitude of teacher to pupil, which should 

 take place when the scene changes from school to University. 



First as to general relations between teachers and their pupils. 



Educational systems necessarily prescribe the same methods for different 

 teachers, and, being made for the mass, ignore the individual. But happily, in 

 spite of the attempts to formulate methods of instruction and to make precise 

 systems, there are many, and those perhaps some of the most successful, in the 

 army of earnest school teachers who are elaborating their own methods. 



Now among all the changes and varieties of system and curriculum there is 

 one factor which remains permanent and which is universally confessed to be of 

 paramount importance — the individuality of the teacher and his personal influence 

 upon the pupil. It is therefore a healthy sign when school teachers who have 

 been trained on one system begin to develop their own methods, for in this they 

 are asserting their individuality and strengthening that personal influence which 

 is the real mainspring of all successful education. 



Personal influence is, of course, not only a matter of intellectual attainments ; 

 it appears to me, however, that at the present time so much is made of the duty 

 of schools to aim at the formation of character that there is an unfortunate 

 tendency to regard this duty as something distinct from the other functions of 

 a master, and as independent of intellectual qualifications. Among the first 

 qualities now demanded of a master in a public school for boys are manliness, 

 athletic skill, and a hearty and healthy personality, and these are often regarded 

 as compensating for some lack of intellectual equipment. I suspect that there is 

 a similar tendency in schools for girls. And yet I think it will be found that 

 the only permanent personal influence is really wielded by teachers who exercise 



