SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 459 
Tuesday, August 12. 
12. Sir Ropext Fatconer, K.C.M.G.—The Canadian University. 
The Canadian University has developed in accordance with local conditions 
into an individuality of its own. This has been due partly to its history. The 
political struggles of the various provinces are in measure reflected in the 
character of the several institutions. The stream of largest influence has been 
from Great Britain. 
Except in minor instances, until the Universities of the Western Provinces 
arose very little American influence is traceable. The character of the Canadian 
University is due to the first professors, who came from Britain—Oxford, 
Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Dublin have been the most influential. The 
Canadian Universities since their origin have had an uninterrupted flow into 
them of British academic life. Its extent is manifest in the methods of teaching 
and the curricula, whether in Arts or the professions. 
The British honour and pass system has been transferred to the Arts facul- 
ties; the examination instead of the recitation method prevails. The American 
influence is seen, however, to some extent in the athletic and social customs, 
and in the presence of chapters of American Fraternities the headquarters of 
which are in the United States. 
13. Hon. Dr. H. J. Copy.—The Administration of Education in 
Canada. 
The history and character of the administration of education in Canada; the basic 
difficulties of the administrators due to (1) the vast extent of the country with an 
average population of only two per square mile, (2) the varied character of the popula- 
tion, (3) the diversity of religious belief, (4) newness of the country, the modern era 
of Canadian history only beginning with the completion of the C.P.R. in 1885; the 
great administrative problems of Canada being the organisation and maintenance 
of schools in sparsely settled districts, and among foreign peoples of different nation- 
alities, the influences that have moulded Canadian education and made it a provincial 
and not a Dominion concern. 
In Ontario the most interesting of all problems was that of providing secondary 
education for all children. The Adolescent School Attendance Act, as part of the 
attempt to solve the problem, aims to secure for every child the right to a full develop- 
ment of his endowments, and to guarantee to society a fair measure of return in service 
for the expenditure on his education. 
14. Dr. S. B. Srycuamr.—The Selection of Pupils for Auailary 
Classes. 
The paper discussed the question to what extent it is possible and desirable 
to utilise the local school staff in conducting school surveys. It contained 
the results of recent surveys conducted by the Ontario Department of Education, 
in which the preliminary general selection of pupils for special classes has been 
made by the local school staff—inspector, principal, teacher, nurse, and physician. 
It described the procedure by which the staff selects about twice the number 
to be assigned to the special class, for subsequent examination by specialists. 
It suggested methods of study and observation for the purpose of making 
an approximate estimate of mental age without giving a formal intelligence test, 
and gave the results of an experiment conducted for the purpose of determining 
how closely the teacher’s approximation (after such preparation) coincides with 
the findings of an examination by a formal test. 
15. Major J. B. Cownes.—The Working of the Adolescent Education 
Act in Ontario. 
The Adolescent School Attendance Act, 1919, by which the compulsory school 
age is raised to sixteen years, is the result of a demand for vocational as well as 
for broader general education. 
