200 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



schools should be groundless. When the kind of education which I am 

 advocating is available for those whom it suits, the number following 

 the conventional secondary curriculum may be proportionately less, 

 though we have not yet fully met the need for secondary schools in all 

 parts of England and Wales, more especially in the rural areas. But do 

 not let us forget that schools exist for the children, not children for the 

 schools. The duty of the teacher is to ascertain the varying abilities 

 of the children, a process in which the tests devised by psychologists should 

 be of value. The duty of the administrator is to see that, so far as is reason- 

 ably possible, every child is given a chance of developing his special ability, 

 as well as of acquiring general culture. 



Moreover, once we recognise that variety of gifts as between boy and 

 boy must receive different treatment, we shall no longer hesitate to differ- 

 entiate so far as may seem desirable between boy and girl. Time was 

 when it was necessary that girls shoidd give proof of their ability to study 

 the more serious subjects hitherto reserved for boys. To-day that claim 

 has been long established. Heads of girls' schools can now afford to 

 adapt their curricula more than formerly to the varying needs of their 

 pupils, intellectual and physical. More especially does it seem desirable 

 that, unless preparation for professional life makes it impossible without 

 overstrain, time should be found for definite training in domestic science. 

 Many new and wider interests are opening up, but honie-niaking must 

 still play an important part in the lives of the vast majority of women. 



I have perhaps spoken of the ' central ' school as if it-offered us the type 

 of school we want. But its development is recent and it is still in the 

 process of evolution, so that the term may connote either a school giving a 

 purely general course, or one with a commercial or an industrial bias, or 

 both. The London County Council, finding that ' central ' schools of the 

 commercial type have tended to increase more rapidly than those with an 

 industrial bias, have lately decided that where possible both courses shall 

 be included in one school — a step which seems eminently reasonable, 

 though the practical difficulties of providing a double bias in one school 

 may no doubt be serious. A head master of long experience in a ' central ' 

 school has told me that he found further subdivision of these courses 

 necessary in order to secure interest and sense of purpose. His experience 

 showed that the interest aroused by wider variation had more than made 

 up for the lack of special teachers for each group, and, as elsewhere in 

 such schools, had had marked results in lengthening school life. 



As the Consultative Committee emphasize, however, whether ' central ' 

 or ' modern ' schools realise the desired end must mainly depend on the 

 breadth of vision of head master or mistress, and we may add, of the 

 staff in general. Every keen teacher must long to see his pupils interested 

 in the things which appeal to him personally, and to such it may be a con- 

 siderable mental effort to realise that the interests of some pupils may 

 develop along quite different lines. As we have seen, the inability of 

 educationists generally to realise this has been one of the reasons for the 

 loss of precious time. But a clear lead has lately been given from the 

 presidential chairs both of the National Union of Teachers and of the 

 Association of Education Committees, and we may therefore hope for a 

 general broadening of the outlook among educationists in general. 



