834 REPORT—1904. 
I confine myself to one significant quotation from this valuable document : 
‘Much of the instruction which is given in all subjects must necessarily be 
founded upon the statements and the experience of other persons; but every 
education which deserves to be called complete must include some training of 
the student in those systematic methods of inquiry which are necessary for any 
assured advance in knowledge, and which are the most truly educative of all 
mental processes. 
‘Tf this scientific spirit is to find its right expression in the teaching given in 
elementary schools it must be made to imbue the whole study of the intending 
teacher during his course in the Training College. It must not he confined 
to any one branch of the curriculum. It is true that, partly as the result of 
tradition and partly from other reasons, the term “scientific method” has come 
to be associated more particularly with the study of natural phenomena. But as 
a matter of fact, scientific method is of equal importance, and is indeed of ancient 
application, in the fields of history, literature, language, and philosophy ; and 
wherever knowledge of these has made advance, it may be discerned that the 
essential processes of scientific inquiry have been employed. When Matthew 
Arnold declared in 1868 that the want of the idea of science, of systematic know- 
ledge, was the capital want of English education and of English life, he was 
thinking of science as a method and not as a prescribed portion or subject of a 
curriculum. It cannot be doubted that this want has been seriously prevalent 
in a large portion of the education and training hitherto provided for elementary 
school teachers.’ 
We might, indeed, widen the scope of these observations and say that this 
want of regard for scientific method has been and is a prevalent want in almost 
every department and grade of English education. 
These unaccustomed utterances from Whitehall may very well prove memor- 
able in the history of English education, as the words of William von Humboldt, 
quoted by Matthew Arnold, are so memorable in connection with the education of 
Germany: ‘The thing is not to let the schools and universities go on in a drowsy 
and impotent routine; the thing is to raise the culture of the nation ever higher 
and higher by their means.’ 
Passing from the sphere of the elementary schools to that of secondary educa- 
tion, we enter on a sphere in which there is much greater need of careful study and 
the guidance of those who know. 
Our secondary education has by the Act of 1902 been handed over very largely 
to county councils, excellent but heterogeneous bodies, and for the most part not 
only ignorant of educational needs, methods, and possibilities, but quite un- 
accustomed to their practical consideration—altogether unprepared and untrained 
for the responsible work now thrown upon them, and hampered by their besetting 
fear of the ratepayers. 
Add to these difficulties the prejudice, so common in the ordinary English 
mind, against what is known as the ‘expert,’ that is, the man who knows trom 
experience, and is therefore likely to be earnest for improvement, and to believe 
that wise educational expenditure will repay itself, and you see how manifold are 
the obstacles in the way of immediate progress. 
These county authorities need first of all to be themselves instructed and 
persuaded as to the right subjects for their schools, the co-ordination or proportion 
of subjects in any scheme to be encouraged, the methods of instruction, the sort of 
teachers to be appointed, the wisdom of spending public money on good education, 
as exemplified in other countries, like Germany, Switzerland, the United States, 
Denmark. 
Our local authorities feel and recognise that something is needed, but very often 
they seem to be like children erying in the dark. From lack of educational know- 
ledge and educational experience they do not always know the difference between 
the right and the wrong method, or between the good and the bad school. 
In our rural districts at all events it may be said further that one of our first 
needs is to persuade the local authorities by some convincing proof that expendi- 
