110 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



production in education. The application of that principle plays a great 

 part in industry, but its introduction into the sphere of education is apt 

 to be accompanied by forgetfulness that its success in industry is entirely 

 conditioned by one basic factor, namely, uniformity of raw material. 

 Without such uniformity the practice of mass production is recognised as 

 absurd. The clearer realisation how completely wanting this uniformity is 

 in the human raw material on which education works will serve to impress 

 upon us all the desirability of confining mass education within the narrow 

 limits at the commencement of the educational period when it is for practical 

 reasons unavoidable. 



The fostering of the biological element in education would do some- 

 thing to quicken into renewed life the primitive relationship of parent 

 a.nd offspring which has tended to become deadened under the influence 

 of modern civilisation and more especially of mass education. The 

 parent would be no longer encouraged to regard his child as merely 

 number so-and-so in a vast number of units poured into the hopper of the 

 educational mill. He would be encouraged to keep up his natural sense 

 of responsibility for the welfare and interests of his offspring — the 

 slackening of which in our present s)^stem is responsible for so much that 

 is dej)lorable — and incidentally he would be stimulated to take a live 

 interest in the education of his children, in the selection of those 

 responsible for the ordering of that education, and in the subject of 

 ■education as a whole. 



This greater interest would lead him to a better appreciation of many 

 things connected with education. One of those of which a deeper appre- 

 ciation is greatly needed has to do with the reciprocal relations of physical 

 and mental deportment. Passing along a city street the biologist is 

 constantly having his attention caught by little peculiarities of attitude 

 and movement which reveal to him the existence of peculiarities of quite 

 -another kind — stability or instability of character, mental sluggishness or 

 alertness. He realises to the full that there is a reciprocal relation between 

 mind and body. With the spread of the biological outlook through the 

 community this realisation would become general, and we should have 

 the average parent awakening to the full appreciation of the fact that 

 he is inflicting grievous harm upon his children if he fails to see to it that 

 their ordinary education is accompanied by the full allowance of physical 

 training and games, which, while developing physical activity in the first 

 place, plays a great part in developing mental alertness as well. 



The training of the individual to the highest attainable degree of 

 biological aptitude as a citizen involves naturally his relations to other 

 members of the community. He must be fit not merely to play his part 

 as an isolated individual, but also to carry out smoothly and eificiently 

 his communal activities. As communal evolution progresses, these latter 

 relations become relatively more and more important. In the primitive 

 savage phase the individual is still subject to the ruthless pressure of 

 natural selection. His whole organisation — his bodily health and strength, 

 the acuity of his senses, his mental alertness — is kept up to the highest 

 pitch. As communal evolution goes on, however, the pressure of natural 

 selection becomes modified. In one particular respect no doubt it 

 becomes intensified, for the crowded community provides greatly increased 



