A96 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 
SECTION L.—EDUCATION. 
(For references to the publication elsewhere of communications entered in 
the following list of transactions, see p. 507.) 
Thursday, September 13. 
1. Prof. O. Jespersen.—Grammar and Logic. 
There are two opposite views—one that grammar is nothing but applied logic, 
the other that language has nothing to do with logic (is ‘alogical’). Both are 
one-sided and wrong. Grammar embodies the common-sense of untold genera- 
tions as applied to the complex phenomena of human life; language is never 
illogical where strict logic is required for the sake of comprehension, but 
neither is it pedantically logical where no ambiguity is to be feared. Sometimes 
its logic is suppler, and even subtler, than the stiff formal logic of the schools 
(negation, &c.). But in order rightly to appreciate the logic of grammar it is 
necessary to face grammatical facts squarely and to respect the individuality 
of each language. Grammar can and should be considered from three points of 
view: (a) form, (8) syntactic function, (c) natural or logical (‘notional ’) 
meaning. (a) and (6) differ from language to language, (c) is common to 
all mankind. Syntax Janus-like faces both ways, towards (a) and (c). Gender 
(masculine, feminine, neuter) and tense are syntactic, sex (male, female, sex- 
less) and time notional categories, which do not always correspond to one 
another : the preterit does not always denote past time (‘if I had money,’ ‘it — 
is time he went to bed’). Case and mood do not exist as purely notional 
categories (c), but belong to (a) and (b). To speak of five cases in English 
is a falsification of scientific facts. 
2. Mr. R. J. McAvere.—Hducation and Business Life. 
(1) (2) The average business man’s attitude to schools. 
(b) The average school’s attitude towards business men. 
(2) The greatest problem in business to-day is to fill vacancies. 
(3) Tendency of schools to put their brightest and best in for scholarships, 
whereas business has little or no use for the University standard or type. 
Eighteen is quite old enough to begin a business career. Too much purely 
cultural education can be a handicap. 
(4) Business in essence is the combined processes of buying and selling, 
and operations such as banking and insurance which are incidental thereto. 
There is nothing technically difficult, but the best work requires the best 
talent. The scholarship fetish should go and business be given the first refusal. 
(5) This involves a new standard in schools. The replacement of the 
scholarship standard by the business standard. 
_ (6) The necessary modification in curricula should follow on the establish- 
ment of more intimate relationships between head teachers and heads of busi- 
nesses. The head teachers should visit big businesses, see the machinery in 
working, and find out what it is all about. Joint Committees would help, 
but the superman will always be hard to seek, in spite of the growth of 
educational facilities, until the schools and businesses can be brought to work 
together for the common end of selecting the right material, giving it the right 
training, and then seeing that it gets the right opportunities. 
3. Mr. W. O. Lester SuitH.—The Older Children in the Elemen- 
tary Schools. 
The paper dealt with the problem from a practical standpoint, considered in 
the light of actual conditions, and subject to present-day restrictions as to 
ways and means. The problem is an old one, but specially urgent to-day. New 
factors outside and inside the school. Changes in the law and their reactions 
on public opinion. The extent of the problem, and the practical difficulties. 
How it is being dealt with. Central schools, and methods of selection for 
admission to them. The curriculum. The question of ‘overcrowding’ the 
