792 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 



use should be taught as such at school. This view they would carry to the extent 

 of excluding many obviously appropriate subjects from the school curriculum, 

 whereas almost any subject may be made an intellectual training; this being a 

 question not of subject, but of the manner in which it is taught. In any event, 

 if the scheme of intellectual training be adequately fulfilled, the period of mental 

 discipline should come to an end with the close of school life, and the mind 

 should then be able to enter upon new studies and to assimilate fresh knowledge 

 without a prolonged continuation of preparatory courses. Indeed, the professed 

 object of entrance examinations to the University is to exclude those whose minds 

 are not prepared to benefit by a course of University study, and to admit only 

 those who are sufficiently equipped by previous training to do so. An entrance 

 examination then should not be merely a test of whether a boy or girl has learnt 

 sufficient of certain subjects to continue those subjects in particular at the 

 University ; and yet it has unfortunately come to be regarded more and more as 

 performing this function instead of being regarded as a test whether the student 

 is generally fit to enter upon any University course. The result is that an 

 entrance examination tends to become a test of knowledge rather than a test 

 of general intelligence; merely one in an organised series of examinations which 

 endeavour to ascertain the advancing proficiency in a limited number of subjects, 

 and therefore tend really to encourage specialisation. Specialisation is not to be 

 prevented by insisting on a considerable number of subjects, but rather by teach- 

 ing even onu subject in a wide spirit. Another result is that the entrance examina- 

 tion belongs properly neither to the school course nor to the University course; if it 

 is taken at the age of sixteen the remainder of the school career tends to be devoted 

 to University work, which should not really be done at school ; if it is taken after 

 leaving school this means that work is being done at, or in connection with, 

 the University which ought to be done at school. It is certainly true that for 

 various reasons a vast deal of education is now being carried on at the Universities 

 which should belong to school life, and moreover is being carried on by methods 

 which are identical with those pursued at school. It is equally true that, owing 

 to the early age at which matriculation examinations or their equivalents may be 

 taken, many schools are now asking that at the age of eighteen or nineteen a 

 school examination may be held which shall be an equivalent not for matriculation, 

 but for the first degree examination at the University. This would really imply 

 that schools should be recognised as doing University work for two years of their 

 pupils' careers — surely a most illogical procedure and one which supports my 

 contention that there is now very serious overlapping, for it assumes that the work 

 for the first degree examination can be carried on either at the school or the 

 University, and therefore that there is no difference in the methods of the two. 



An increasing number of candidates actually present themselves from secondary 

 schools for the external intermediate examination of the University of London; 

 in 1901 there were about 150. in 1909 there were nearly 500 such candidates. 



There will always be exceptional boys and girls who reach a University 

 standard, both of attainments and intelligence, long before they arrive at the 

 ordinary school-leaving age. Let them either leave school and begin their 

 University career early, or let them, if they remain at school, widen their know- 

 ledge by including subjects which are not supplied by the more rigid school 

 curriculum designed for the average pupils ; but let them not cease to be taught 

 as school pupils. It is equally certain that there will also be boys and girls whose 

 development is so slow that they barely reach the University standard when they 

 leave school ; yet some among them are the best possible material and achieve the 

 greatest success in the end. For such persons an entrance examination will be 

 required at the age of eighteen or nineteen; but I think it is unfortunate that 

 this should be the same as that which quicker pupils can pass at the age of 

 sixteen or seventeen, for an examination designed for the one age can scarcely be 

 quite satisfactory for the other. 



I confess that the whole matter is inextricably involved with the question of 

 University entrance examinations. But to enter upon this here would carry us 

 beyond the limits that I have laid down for myself, and it will be more profitable 

 to decide what should be done at school and the University respectively before 

 discussing how the examinations are to be adapted to our purpose. It will be 

 sufficient for me to say that I have been led to the conclusion that matriculation 



