426 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— L. 



IT. The Psychology of the Individual Child. 



A. The measurement of intelligence ; the standardisation of mental and 

 scholastic tests ; the study of the subnormal (including the dull, th& 

 backward, the mentally defective) ; thestudy of the subnormal (including 

 the selection of scholarship candidates). 



B. The analysis of temperament and character ; the diagnosis and treatment 

 of the neurotic child and of the juvenile delinquent. 



Tuesday, August 10. 

 12. Discussion on The Public School System. 



(a) Mr. Ronald Gurneb. — The Public Schools and National Life. 



(1) Difficulty of generalising about public schools. No definition — boarding or 

 day school, school for one class only, school that does not take grants — entirely suits. 



Suggested definition — non-local school, usually with tradition, independent of 

 local authority. 



(2) Rough description of or allusion to public school system in these schools. 



(3) Various lines of criticism on such a system : — 



(a) Premium on brawn, not intellect. 



(b) Crushing of personality. 



(c) Not ' public school ' — ex -elementary scholar excluded. (Labour line 

 of argument.) 



(4) Examination of these criticisms. Public schools have carried on in spite of 

 them, and are successful till to-day. 



(5) Why ? Value of public school qualities, honour, esprit de corps, etc. (Mr. 

 Cyril Norwood's defence of public schools.) 



Public school system doomed if interpreted in wrong sense — exclusiveness ; 

 greatest national asset if interpreted in right sense — spirit of service. What will 

 be the public schools' interpretation of their own system in the future ? 



(6) Mr. M. L. Jacks. — A Training in Community Life. 



1. It is only possible to learn how to do a thing by doing it. Education, therefore, 

 which should aim at the production of citizens rather than scholars (though the 

 scholarly type of mind is an essential element in good citizenship), ought to provide 

 an opportunity of living a community life modelled on the life of the larger community. 



2. Some of the requirements of good citizenship in a community are these : — 

 (a) Co-operative work for an end beyond self, and a sense of responsibility 



towards the whole. 



(6) Ability, among men good and bad, to choose the good and to live with 

 them, and to deal adequately with circumstances good and bad. 



(c) A type of mind accurate enough and sensitive enough to the truth to be 

 able to discern the true meanings of things, the true facts of a case (as 

 distinct from the inferences), the true characters of people, and not to bt 

 misled by the hazy kind of idea which can find convincing expression in a 

 newspaper headline, or the rhetoric of politics. 



{d) Power to strike a happy mean between a natural and right desire for the 

 expression of a personality possessing something of unique value for the 

 community, and the facts of a life which tend to inhibit that expression. 



(e) A recognition that all work, whatever its nature, which is done honestly 

 and thoroughly is honourable. ' All true work is religion ' (Carlyle). 



3. Public schools provide a very workable copy of a community which makes 

 such demands. 



(a) They lay the emphasis on living a life, and not learning a lesson, and o« 



the responsibility of each to all. 

 (6) They throw together into very close contact individuals of varying degrees 



of moral worth and strength, and each individual is left to make his choice 



of friends. Some of the circumstances reproduce those of the outside 



■world. 



