198 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



instincts to be found in young people. It must be the task of the school 

 to foster it, to direct it to the channels in which it will best bear fruit, 

 and the school in its turn — and in more classrooms than one — will reap 

 the benefit of the new interests aroused. 



There is no need to dwell on the aesthetic value of much handwork, 

 especially such as is taught in girls' schools. All indoor handwork bears 

 a relation to the art lesson, and therefore has a definite part to play in 

 the development of culture. 



Nor must we forget the importance of practical instruction as an 

 element in character training. It taps fresh sources of energy, brings 

 them under control, and is valuable to neurotic children in giving stability, 

 and to adolescence in preventing overwork. At this stage Professor Burt 

 tells us that more concrete and practical activities even for the super- 

 normal and especially for the bookworm form a wholesome corrective. 

 We know how much juvenile delinquency is due to the overflow of 

 emotional energy and to misapplied manual skill, and how practical 

 activities have proved successful in giving the youthful offender a necessary 

 legitimate outlet for his energies. 



It is clear, therefore, on educational grounds that it is at the post- 

 primary stage above all others that we need the greatest variety of courses, 

 and of courses that will include practical instruction. 



But educational reasons are reinforced by considerations affecting our 

 social and economic welfare. We can no more afford to forget the need 

 for co-operation between education and industry than to ignore the 

 economic interdependence of the different parts of the Empire. On the 

 one hand, we recognise variety of character and ability as constituting 

 one of the wonders of human nature, and believe that partly owing to our 

 varied racial strain and partly to our love of mental freedom we may 

 claim to possess it to an exceptional degree. On the other hand, we cannot 

 but be conscious of an almost equal need of the country and the Empire 

 in general for service of varied kinds. Only by services of infinite variety 

 demanding every possible exercise of human ingenuity, initiative and 

 industry, can we hope to find employment for our dense and still growing 

 population. In particular we in this country need the greatest possible 

 development in varied ways of productive industry, as the Overseas 

 Dominions need the development of their vast unpeopled territories. Yet 

 even twenty-two years ago the Consultative Committee, in the Report to 

 which I have already referred, hinted that our education inclined to lead 

 boys to desire to be clerks rather than mechanics, and deprecated any 

 encouragement being given to enter a profession already at that date 

 overstocked. In the years that have elapsed the tendency has increased 

 — girls have entered clerical occupations in large numbers, and the crowding 

 in the professions is greater than ever. Possibly this process has been 

 accentuated since the war by industrial depression ; but if our productive 

 industries, both rural and urban, are to meet the competition from abroad 

 which now assails them even more fiercely than twenty years ago, 

 they urgently need the best ability of varied kinds. Schools other than 

 those recognised as ' technical ' cannot be expected to send out trained 

 workers, nor definitely to prepare boys and girls for life overseas, but 

 schools and departments giving the ' advanced ' and practical instruction 



