TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 849 
blackboard, and in this matter the current generation of teachers were not 
honest. A detached series of lessons was to be avoided. One lesson ought to 
grow out of the other, and things learnt in previous lessons should be necessary 
to the proper interpretation of the later work. Incidentally the work should draw in 
all the other school subjects; composition, for instance, should be concerned with 
the description of experiments already performed. As to the subjects of study, 
nothing lent itself better to school treatment than the life of a plant. No doubt 
the difficulties of training colleges were great; but, unfortunately, it was those 
institutions which had least learnt the lesson of working on the scientific method. 
They regarded their function as that of providing information instead of enlighten- 
ment. The time now given to getting up books about Herbert and Froebel 
might be better devoted to practising what those theorists were dimly feeling 
after—education from the thing, and not from words, experiment as a means of 
observation and research. The ‘ nature study’ which prevailed so largely in our 
schools to-day had too often no more relation to the study of nature than art 
muslins had to art. Nature study should not consist of little lessons picked up 
here and there—the interesting sugar-plums of science—of a lesson on seed 
dispersal, followed by one on tadpoles. There must be system and an avoidance 
of the formal science of the text-books. Above all, there must be no attempt to 
make the teaching complete. From the lowest to the highest forms of teaching 
gaps must be left for the student to fill up on his own account. 
MONDAY, AUGUST 22. 
1. Discussion on the Training of Teachers and the Local Education 
Authorities. Opened by the Right Hon. Henry Hosunouss, MP. 
Probably the most important factor in our educational progress at the present 
moment is the training of our teachers. This has been recognised as a matter of 
national concern, not only by a formal resolution passed last March by the House 
of Commons, but by training being insisted upon as a condition of registration 
under the recent regulations. But the actual establishment of training colleges 
has more nostro long been left to private initiative, and the deficiencies which 
have naturally resulted are now under the Act of 1902 to be supplied by the action 
of the local authorities and not of the State. The object of the present paper is 
briefly to indicate the difficulties which beset local bodies in their endeavours to 
perform what is really a national task. 
It must first be noted that (taking county councils and county borough 
councils only) there are some 130 local authorities for higher education in England 
and Wales. Some of these dispose of very small funds, considering the numerous 
and important objects of their expenditure, which include secondary and evening 
schools, scholarships, and technical classes of all kinds. In default of pressure 
from the central authority some of these local bodies will be slow to raise more 
money for the training of teachers. The Government, it will be said, offer liberal 
contributions, amounting, in the case of the larger training colleges, almost to the 
whole cost of maintenance. But it is the initial cost of establishing new institu- 
tions with expensive buildings and equipment which is likely to prove most 
formidable to the ratepayers’ representatives. Nor are any substantial building 
grants to be expected from the Government unless a great deal more pressure is 
applied to the Treasury to carry into effect the very shadowy promise made in the 
House of Commons last spring. 
Next to the deficiency of funds comes the difficulty of getting any proper co- 
operation between so many authorities, autonomous and often jealous of each 
other. Some inspiring and propelling force would seem to be required in many 
cases to effect the necessary combinations between counties and boroughs to 
establish training colleges. Possibly a lever towards this end may be found in the 
vaguely worded section of the Education Act which requires local education 
1904. 31 
