L.— EDUCATION. 193 



' burgh ' schools of Scotland, points out that the dependence of these 

 schools on fees and support from public funds tended to make their curri- 

 culum broader than that of the English endowed schools, which was too 

 often limited by the wording of trust deeds. 



Thring introduced manual work and music into Uppingham in the middle 

 of the nineteenth century, but until mathematics, science, modern languages, 

 and English had won a recognised place in the curriculum, only a limited 

 development could be expected of subjects still further removed from the 

 tradition of the schools. 



It may be said that it is only within the last twenty or thirty years 

 that we have succeeded in establishing a fairly balanced secondary curri- 

 culum on academic lines. The claims of English, indeed, in secondary 

 schools are hardly yet fully established, and the cultural value of music 

 is only slowly gaining recognition. We are no longer ready to accept the 

 dictum of William of Wykeham that grammar (i.e. Latin) is ' the founda- 

 tion gate and origin of all other liberal arts, without which arts of this 

 kind cannot be known,' but are we not too ready to give our assent to the 

 view that the study of a foreign language is necessary to culture ? It is 

 well to remember that the Committee on the Teaching of Modern Languages 

 expressed the opinion that ' in schools where the majority of pupils do not 

 stay for more than four years it may be advantageous that, after due trial, 

 a certain proportion should be entirely relieved of language study and 

 should concentrate their attention on English and the various other 

 subjects which cannot be neglected in such schools. A pupil may have 

 very useful abilities and yet be incapable of learning any foreign language. 

 In the curriculum of such pupils the study of English might be much more 

 fully developed than it is at present.' It may be added that for these 

 pupils the study of good translations of the best foreign literature, both 

 ancient and modern, should greatly assist the attainment of a broad 

 culture. 



Such being the history of the literary and scientific subjects, we need 

 not be surprised that the progress of handwork has been slow. From 

 1889 onwards, Local Authorities were empowered to give technical 

 instruction, and a generous provision of public money was made for the 

 purpose, but the instruction provided was frequently on too narrow and 

 specialised a basis to have great educational value and therefore lacked 

 popularity. Until the Education Act of 1902 enabled Local Authorities 

 to deal with secondary as well as technical education effective co-ordina- 

 tion of the two was impossible. 



It was not, however, until seven years after the passing of the Act 

 that the Consultative Committee were asked by the Board of Education 

 to consider the extent to which education by means of practical work 

 should be developed in secondary schools. In 1912 the Committee 

 reported to the effect that secondary education had been too exclusivelv 

 concerned with the cultivation of the mind by books and the instruction 

 of the teacher, and recommended that every secondary school should 

 provide for the teaching of some branch of educational handwork. 

 Handwork to-day, therefore, is found in some degree in all secondarv 

 schools in England and Wales, but, as the Consultative Committee pointed 

 out, pressure of work often leaves little time for it in the forms preparing 

 1927 O 



