PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 731 
(a) Primary Schools. 
Remarks. 
1. ‘Yes, the remedy is a longer school life.’ 
2. ‘Yes; it is folly to occupy a whole class for several hours, for example, in 
making a clay model illustrating the story of Alfred and the cakes.’ 
3. ‘Yes, many children are simply wasting their last six months of: school 
life waiting to be legally exempt from school before taking up manual work.’ 
4, ‘Yes, the remedy not in the reduction of curricula, but in the extension of 
the ‘child’s school life.’ 
5. ‘Yes, teachers fail to look on education as one thing, and put the various 
phases of it in watertight compartments; this is the tyranny of the time-table; 
one would like to say : Teach what you like, when you like, and how you like.’ 
6. ‘Yes, due to the habit of treating each subject, even preliminary subjects, 
as though it were absolutely distinct from others.’ 
7. ‘No, but the mistake, I think, lies in expecting each child to take the 
same quantity of every subject, in other words to develop equally all round. 
The ‘‘ broad general education ”’ ideal is responsible for much over-pressure.’ 
8. ‘No; I fear many teachers do not take advantage of the Board of Educa- 
tion regulations, because they do not wish to run against the wishes of the local 
H.M.I.’ 
9. ‘No, but simplification wanted.’ 
Rather more than half of the Authorities consulted considered that the 
curricula of the Elementary Schools are overcrowded, and rather more than a 
third are of the same opinion as regards the curricula of the Secondary Schools. 
(b) Secondary Schools. 
Remarks. 
1. ‘Yes, undoubtedly a tendency to attempt too much and to accomplish too 
little.’ 
2. ‘Yes, a tendency to widen knowledge at the expense of depth.’ 
3. ‘Yes, owing to an undue pressure on the part of the Inspectors.’ 
4. ‘What is wanted is a sense of proportion.’ 
5. ‘No, if Inspectors do not force particular subjects.’ 
Question VIII. 
“Are you in favour of an increase in the number of vocational schools? Or 
do you consider that the effect of such increase would be detrimental to the 
standard of general education throughout the country?’ 
One-third of the County Directors consulted, and almost half of those of the 
County Boroughs and Boroughs, answer in the affirmative, whereas rather over 
one-fifth state their inability to arrive at a conclusion. A number of those who 
answer in the affirmative qualify their replies by stating: ‘For children over 
fourteen,’ or ‘General education must be first considered,’ ‘Provided general 
education is continued.’ 
As indicating the different views, the following are typical examples :— 
1. ‘Yes, in the case of Agriculture.’ 
2. “No, not in a rural county.’ 
3. ‘Yes, for children who have passed Standard VI. I think the standard 
in Secondary Schools would then be higher, as it would keep away from them 
those children who would not stay for the whole course.’ 
4. ‘Yes. Every boy is born with some aptitude, and education can only 
proceed as it makes this aptitude central.’ 
5. ‘Strongly of opinion that a child’s natural delight in manual skill could 
be made the means of his training for citizenship, but I object to the schools 
being used to train the child for a particular trade.’ 
6. ‘ Any increase which would bring the British system closer to the American 
one as regards vocational education would be detrimental.’ 
7. “I think them a mistake, as very few boys have any fixed idea of what 
they will do after leaving school.’ 
8. ‘The result might be lamentable; it might end in everybody being what 
his father was.’ ; 
9. “A. goes to a Trade School, B. goes to a good General School. At fourteen 
