OVERLAPPING BETWEEN SECONDARY AND OTHER EDUCATION. 217 



The present conditions of want of relationship between educational 

 institutions of different grades are natural consequences of the inde- 

 pendent growth of these institutions. Much can, of course, be said in 

 favour of autonomy in education, but there is no doubt that it leads in 

 some cases to undesirable competition and dissatisfaction which would 

 be avoided if the work of each type of institution were clearly defined. 



It is of interest to record here that in the United States precisely the 

 same situation has arisen as exists in England, and that the latest report 

 (1910) of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching 

 deals particularly with this subject. The report points out that a great 

 number of colleges are scattered over the United States having no satis- 

 factory relation to the secondary schools from which they draw their 

 students, exacting entrance requirements with little regard to the 

 secondary schools, and receiving in turn from the high schools pupils 

 who are in the majority of cases ill-prepared for college work. The 

 situation, as in England, is unsatisfactory alike to the college and to the 

 secondary school, and can be regarded only as a transitional stage in the 

 development of an organised educational system. 



The subjoined summary of the conclusions arrived at by the President 

 of the Carnegie Foundation, as the result of a detailed discussion of the 

 problem, is particularly worthy of consideration in connection with the 

 inquiry of the present Committee ; for the views expressed are as applic- 

 able to our own schools and colleges as they are to similar institutions 

 in the United States : — 



The President of the Foundation urges that this whole question be ap- 

 proached by secondary school men and college men in a spirit of co-operation. 

 Neither the certificate method of admission nor the piecemeal examination 

 method have in his opinion solved the problem. He urges that the college must 

 find a solution which will test better than \he certificate or the piecemeal exami- 

 nation the fundamental qualities of the student, and will at the same time leave 

 to the high school a larger measure of freedom. He recommends a combina- 

 tion of certificate and examinations, the latter of a simple and elementary 

 character, but calling for a high quality of performance without which the 

 candidate will not be admitted. For example, under this plan the boy who 

 cannot write good idiomatic English would not be admitted to college at all, but 

 would be sent back to the secondary school. The President of the Foundation 

 urges a co-operation between the secondary school and the college not as unrelated 

 institutions, but as two parts of a common system of education. He argues that 

 the interest of the great mass of high school students must not be sacrificed to 

 the interest of the minority who are looking toward college. He insists on a 

 larger measure of freedom for the secondary school, but on the other hand he 

 argues that the interest of the boy who goes to college and of the boy who goes 

 from the high school into business are alike conserved by learning a few things 

 well, not by learning many things superficially. The boy who has obtained such 

 intellectual discipline is a fit candidate for college, whether he has studied one 

 set of subjects or another; without this intellectual discipline he is unfit alike 

 for college or business. It is therefore, in the opinion of the President of the 

 Foundation, the plain duty of the college to articulate squarely with the four-year 

 high school and to leave to the secondary school the largest freedom so that it 

 may educate boys, not coach them ; but at the same time to require of the candi- 

 dates for admission tests which rest upon high performance in the elementary 

 studies and mean mastery of the fundamentals. 



In the present inquiry the Committee decided to deal, in the first 

 instance, only with schools, colleges, and universities in England, 

 and not to consider the special subject of the relationship between 



