TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 627 
sciences. ‘The ideas we acquire concerning the stars do not modify or otherwise 
affect their movements. They simply affect our knowledge of their movements. 
But the ideas we acquire concerning our own behaviour may affect not only our 
knowledge of that behaviour but the behaviour itself. 
2. The ideas awakened through moral instruction will tend to act themselves 
out, and in thus enacting themselves provide the natural opportunity for moral 
training. Thus moral instruction and moral training are intimately connected as 
stages in the completed process of moral education. 
3. Since the moral ideas emerge from the depths of the personal life, we shall 
find it hard on any vital definition of religion to sever moral ideas from their 
religious setting or moral from religious instruction. In any case it seems inad- 
visable to sever the two in advance in an artificial way. Teaching that is scrupu- 
lously ethical may if it reach deep enough become profoundly religious in its 
appeal whilst still remaining wholly non-theological and non-sectarian. In our 
view the exclusion of the child’s most natural treasury of morals, the Bible, 
from courses of moral instruction intended to promote the child’s good cannot be 
logically defended, though it may on lesser grounds be judged expedient. 
4. In discussing the conditions of moral instruction it would conduce to 
clearness if interests were considered in the following order: (1) the child’s, 
(2) the teacher’s, (3) the interests of parents and churches. No solution could, 
of course, be regarded as anything but provisional which did not satisfy all the 
essential interests involved. 
5. Admitting the view of Professor Sadler that ‘the question of moral educa- 
tion is the heart of the modern educational problem,’ and that ‘if this is 
neglected, education is a peril,’ the conclusion of the late International Inquiry 
dealing with moral instruction and training in schools, that in all public 
elementary schools at least one lesson a week should be devoted to moral instruc- 
tion can hardly be considered extravagant. 
6. The main part to be played by philosophy in assisting moral education 
seems to lie (1) in the psychological investigation and analysis of the life and 
mentality of childhood, (2) in the discussion of the problems and requirements 
of social ethics, (3) in the organising of a Weltanschauung in the light of which 
educational ideals in general and those of moral education in particular may be 
brought into helpful relations to each other and to the rest of life. 
(A discussion followed, in which Dr. H. B. Gray and Dr. A. Lerprr took 
part.) 
6. The Teaching of Botany. By Miss L. J. Cuarxe. 
7. The Teaching of Domestic Subjects in Primary Schools. 
By Mrs. C. M. Merepiru. 
The inclusion of any subject in the primary school curriculum needs careful 
justification because of the limited time available. Each subject must either be 
useful in the zense that it is to be of service later on, or educational, or both. 
The domestic subjects are generally regarded as both; but they would probably 
not be selected on educational grounds alone. Hence it is important to realise 
exactly what useful result is arrived at and to base the teaching upon this. 
This aim may be best described as preparation for the more intelligent manage- 
ment of a home, and the teaching should therefore not occupy too much time to 
the neglect of general education, nor should it be isolated from other subjects 
which, e.g., provide for amusement and the occupation of leisure. Finally, 
‘housecraft’ should be the subject, to which cooking, sewing, &c., are sub- 
ordinate. 
The main difficulties in teaching housecraft are: (a) that the conditions in 
school are often too unlike those in the girl’s future home. Something is now 
being done to avoid this, but a complete solution is impossible as long as slum 
conditions still prevail in many working-class homes. 
(b) That the child has no adequate motive for her work. This is more 
ss) 2 
