268 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



Educational Training for Overseas Life.— Report of Committee 

 appointed to consider the Educational Training of Boys and Girls in 

 Secondary Schools for Overseas Life (Sir John Russell, Chairman ; 

 Mr. C. E. Browne, Secretary ; Major A. G. Church, Mr. H. W. 

 Cousins, Mr. T. S. Dymond, Dr. Vargas Eyre, Mr. 6. H. Garrad, 

 Sir Richard Gregory, Mr. 0. H. Latter, Miss McLean, Miss Rita 

 Oldham, Mr. G. W. Olive, Miss Gladys Pott, Mr. A. A. Somerville, 

 Dr. G. K. Sutherland, Mrs. Gordon Wilson). 



This Committee was appointed in 1923 under the Chairmansliip of the late Dr. H. B. 

 Gray. Its first objective was to ascertain what provision existed in the Secondary 

 Schools of Great Britain for the ' Educational Training of boys and girls for Overseas 

 life.' The inquiry arose from the observation that, although boj's on leaving school 

 were finding it more and more difficult to obtain suitable situations in offices and 

 works in the home land, few were found to go overseas. In spite of the tempting 

 offers by the Dominion Governments of free land and loans, it was noticed how few 

 boys entertained the idea of a career in agricultural occupation, although it was 

 evident that considerable numbers of the young men in banks and other offices are 

 far better suited, from their character, and physical qualities, for the more vigorous 

 and freer fife on the land overseas. 



The replies to a questionnaire sent to over 500 boys' schools and to 150 girls' 

 schools supplied the bulk of the information contained in the report issued at Toronto 

 in 1924. Inquiries were addressed at the same time to the Board of Education, 

 Local Education Authorities and to Directors of Education in the oversea Dominions, 

 as well as to various institutions such as the League of Empire, the Public Schools 

 Employment Bureau, the Victoria League, and the Overseas Settlement Office. The 

 replies received confirmed the idea that in most schools there is to be found a 

 percentage of boys and girls whose capacities and interests would be better developed 

 through practical studies than by the more academic work of Mathematics and 

 Science ; they further indicated a wide-spread opinion amongst headmasters in 

 favour of a more practical type of school work for a large proportion of the pupils 

 in their schools. 



As a i-esult of these inquiries the Committee came to the following conclusions : — 



1. A demand exists on the part of the Overseas Dominions for boys of the right 

 type with an agricultural bias, if not with training, and coincides with the home 

 country's need of finding healthy employment within the Empire for a large number 

 of her sons. 



2. The public schools, and other large secondary schools of Great Britain send 

 into the world every year a considerable number of boys and girls of the right type 

 who are better fitted for an open-air than an overcrowded city life. 



3. There has been no serious attempt in the majority of schools to meet this 

 demand. Schools have hitherto provided only three avenues for subsequent careers 

 — literary, mathematical and scientific — in some places only two. While this is 

 sufficient for many boys, it does not provide for the more practical type, so that 

 numbers find no outlet for their natural ability in that spirit of enterprise and 

 adventure which Dominion life offers. They lack necessary guidance and experience. 



4. The undoubted value of agricultural studies as a means of education has been 

 overlooked in the past. Some schools have made with success the experiment of 

 adding this new method for educating boys of the practical type. A few acres of land 

 worked as a miniature farm, or as a number of experimental garden plots in the 

 working of which boys take an active part, have not only been used for studying 

 agricultural or horticultural problems but have provided material for working other 

 subjects, particularly general science and mathematics. Such work encourages 

 reading for a definite purpose, observation of natural phenomena, the keeping of 

 records, and adds considerably to the appreciation of geography. 



5. Experience shows that the school curriculum exercises an important influence 

 in deciding a boy or girl's career. The school farm, or gardens, and associated studies 

 of a practical nature would, therefore, bring to their notice the possibilities of a career 

 on the land. It would give them some idea of agricultural activities and sufficient 



