TRANSACTIONS OT SECTION L. 359 



Continuation Schools: The Workers' Educational Association. 



By J. S. Eaiiter. 



The policy of the Workers' Educational Association, in regard to Continuation 

 Schools comprises opposition to the recognition of ' works' schools.' The 

 employer should be represented on advisory committees, but should have no 

 personal control. Existing works' schools could be absorbed for the time being 

 into the continuation system. Tbe W.E.A. working men distrust the employing 

 interest, as it is almost exclusivelv personal and mercenary. The size of classes 

 shall not exceed 25; provision for medical and dental treatment, as in the 

 elementary schools ; adequate provision for physical training ; subjects of study 

 to be correlated with the interests of the piipils, but not determined merely 

 by trade needs. The curriculum must aim at general culture, for ' the life is 

 more than meat and the body than raiment.' 



ConJiniuition Schools. Remarks by the Et. Hon. the Earl of 

 Malmesbuey, M.A., D.L., J. P. 



(1) Econoim/. — The education problem in its present phase had been intro- 

 duced at a moment when there was the most serious need for the greatest 

 national economy, and it was almost impossible to see how the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer a,nd the local authorities would be able to meet it. The author 

 considered that in return for this expenditure full consideration should be given 

 to what could properly be termed a great national asset — namely, the spending 

 of money to the fullest advantage on boys and girls of exceptional and admitted 

 ability. 



(2) Individualism. — Too little attention was paid in these days to the indi- 

 vidual character of the child. Educationalists had fallen into the great error 

 of placing the average intelligence on too hiffh a basis, and imagining that 

 anyone could be turned into a scholar or scientist if sufficient money was spent 

 on him. This was not true; environment might have much to do with the 

 mouldinET of character. It was not everything ; the natural bent would assert 

 itself. For example, many people born in the most favourable intellectual 

 environment could never rise to the fulness of their opportunities, and this 

 applied to all classes of society. The educational system ought to be dealt 

 with on the principle of a triangle with a very brnad base for a sound elementary 

 education, but gradually through a series of layers narrowing down by careful 

 selection to the survival of the fittest. 



^31 Materialism and Spiritualixm. — It was difficult to say where materialism 

 should stop and spiritualism begin in our educational system. Materialism, 

 when kent within its proper bounds, was a national asset not to be lightly 

 disregarded. 



(4) Conclusion. — ^It could not be denied that in the interest of the individual, 

 as well as of the State, each boy and girl should be educated in such a way as 

 would conduce to the carrying on of the world's work, and a clear distinction 

 should be made between those who would be much more happy and successful 

 as manual workers and those whose natural bent was of a high intellectual order. 



In regard to Continuation Schools, a scheme far more satisfactory, and 

 involving much less expenditure of public funds, would be the establishment 

 of Secondary School Centres, to which bv a process of careful elimination only 

 the more intelligent brains would find their way, and thence would reach the 

 top of the educational ladder. 



The so-called ' intellectual ' was not usually in the end the most useful 

 citizen: man's individual nature must ultimately triumph over the conven- 

 tionalism of a superficial educational system. Patriotism, personal obligations, 

 and good manners were almost wholly absent from our modern curriculimn. 



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