TRANSACTtONS OP SECTION L. 747 



3. MHilary Training in Schools. By Rev. A. A. David, 



1. Its Bearing on National Needs. 



The question is not altogether separable from the wider question of Universal 

 or National Training. 



It is fair to point out that the recent sudden demand for a very large number 

 of officers in all branches of the British Army would not have been met as it 

 has been but for the careful and continually improving military practice in 

 Public Schools for the last thirty years, but especially since 1908. 



But it will be endeavoured so far as possible to discuss the School question 

 on its educational merits alone. 



2. Suggestions for a Continuous Course. — At Elementary or Preparatory 

 School stages — Drill and Scouting. In Public Schools. — Ditto with Field 

 Practice and Elementary Tactics and much exercise in handling squads, sections, 

 &c., leading to certificate A, and at a later stage to further training for Olficers 

 and Certificate B. 



3. Effects on the Individual Boy. — (a) in body. Good drill demands and 

 induces alertness of ear, ready attention, and muscles under instant control. 

 Physical exercises for straightening, smartening, and strengthening are probably 

 best done as part of military training. And all this is most easily taught and 

 learnt quite early in school life. 



(b) III cnpacity and cliaracter. To prepare a man to be a soldier means to 

 produce in him faculties and powers which are of more than merely military 

 value, e.g., in connection with the giving, receiving, and transmitting of orders, 

 the appreciation and enjoyment of smartness and orderliness, and later on 

 responsibility, initiative, and leadership. 



(c) in intelligence. Experience has proved the educational value for older 

 cadets of tactical problems for Certificate A, map-making and reading, and other 

 field work. 



4. Effect on the School. — Here again experience has shown that a good 

 Training Corps reacts on the life of the whole school. For instance, in Boarding 

 Schools it is now exerting and, it is hoped, will continue to provide a whole- 

 some check upon the vmdue exaltation of games ; whei-eas in Day Schools, where 

 compulsory games are often impossible, it supplies a wholesome and practical 

 form of exercise and change of interest. 



And it has also been found that a really efficient corps raises the standard 

 of discipline, and even oi efficiency, in other departments of school life. But 

 the drill must be good. Bad drill is worse than no drill. Much of the 

 opposition to school training dates from a time when little was expected of 

 Volunteers, before they were taken seriously by the authorities. 



5. Objections. — The objectors fall into two classes : 



(a) those whose hatred of all war leads them to condemn all military training 

 whatsoever. Such views cannot fail to win respect for those who hold them. 

 In a world of hard realities and second-bests we cannot afford to be without men 

 who will thus continually remind us of what ought to be possible, but neither 

 can we afford to act on their advice. 



(b) those who fear an 'English militarism.' But why should we suppose 

 that English boys would catch a spirit and follow an example which the whole 

 world is recognising to be ridiculous, odious, and disastrous ? 



4. Military Training in Schools. By J. L. Paton, M.A. 



The present time seems to me most inopportune for discussing this question. 

 We are all under the obsession of the war. All that I urge is based not on 

 the present state of things but what will follow when the War is over, when 

 mankind will have a chance, such as it never had before, to open a new era 

 and roll the world upon a new and a better course. 



I. If military training is to be made universal and compulsory in secondary 

 schools, this ought to be part of a national scheme. Compulsion by patches 



