L.— EDUCATION. 197 



may lie in a rapid and desirable increase in self-confidence and self-respect 

 among such children, but we have been slow to grasp the distinction between 

 verbal and non-verbal or practical ability, and to realise how much ability, 

 quite equal to the normal, may fail to show itself in the ordinary lessons 

 of school. We constantly remind ourselves of the many distinguished 

 men who in their school days were held to be of little promise, and yet we 

 hesitate to draw the obvious conclusion that their school life should have 

 been able to do something more to develop their special gifts. 



As long ago as 1912 Sanderson of Oundle expressed the opinion that 

 probably the majority of boys thought in things, not words, and described 

 how boys considered dull in class developed intellectually when set to 

 work in shops, laboratories, drawing-office or fields. They gained in 

 self-respect and confidence and returned with good results to subjects 

 which previously had been dropped. Their work in school had a new 

 interest for them, and many such boys had ended by gaining university 

 scholarships. 



But Professor Burt goes further still. ' So much of the children's daily 

 work in after-life,' he reminds us, ' will depend upon muscular co-ordina- 

 tion that a training in manual dexterity should form a part of the all- 

 round culture possessed by every human creature. To perfect their 

 accuracy all the muscular mechanisms of the body need specific exercise.' 



Manual work, moreover, in its finer form leads to the development 

 of a sixth or ' kinsesthetic ' sense, which Sir Charles Sherrington's research 

 has shown to depend on sense-organs embedded in the muscles. On this 

 depends the prowess of the athlete, the highest skill of a masseur or 

 trained mechanic. It probably reaches its greatest perfection in the 

 musician's ' touch.' An organist has this sense developed not only in his 

 hands but in his feet. 



Professor Burt is, therefore, I think, right in warning us against the 

 popular and exaggerated antithesis between handwork and brainwork. 

 ' All handwork,' he writes, ' that deserves the name is also brainwork. 

 The reception and appreciation of muscle sensation is as much an intel- 

 lectual activity as the reception and appreciation of the " higher " sensations 

 that are received by the observing eye or by the listening ear. Handwork, 

 therefore, may claim quite as much " intellectual respectability" as reading, 

 writing or arithmetic' As the Consultative Committee have done well 

 to remind us, a liberal or humane education is not to be secured through 

 books alone. 



Are we not also in some danger of ignoring the importance of purpose 

 in learning ? The child is essentially a practical being. His deepest 

 instinct is to create and experiment ; his highest ambition to imitate 

 what he sees his elders doing. As adolescence approaches his mind 

 develops new interests and powers that are practical rather than purely 

 intellectual or academic. The sounds of the world reach him through 

 the school doors and lure him with the hope of a life of greater liberty 

 and more definite usefulness. Masters of schools of every type can testify 

 to the number of boys who take a new and living interest in their school 

 work — of whatever kind it may be — from the day that it can be shown to 

 them that it will help to prepare them for their future career. This 

 sense of purpose — this desire to be of use — seems to me one of the finest 



