202 . SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



themselves tlie system plainly imposes burdens whicli are in general be- 

 yond their means. A settlement of the question is demanded in spite 

 of the fact that any attempt at a solution brings the solver up against 

 what some would call religious conviction and others sectarian prejudice. 

 Nevertheless there is more general good will in the air and a greater spirit 

 of reason, and we ought to go forward. I submit that advance can go 

 forward on lines which have been proposed, and found pretty general 

 support, that the Voluntary schools should be transferred to the local 

 authorities, who in return should allow at certain times and on certain 

 days facilities of entry. Religious instruction would be given at definite 

 periods, during which, if it were desired, certain children could be with- 

 drawn for denominational instruction to be provided by the denominations. 

 So far as Church of England and Nonconformist schools are concerned, 

 I do not believe the withdrawal would in practice prove necessary or 

 desirable, for I think that a very strong majority of the nation desires 

 that the basis of all our education should be religious and Christian. 

 These religious bodies are near enough together to arrive at a concordat 

 as to the syllabus of religious instruction which should be followed, and 

 the principles of the denomination could well and fitly be taught in the 

 Sunday schools. I would submit that the educational enthusiasm and 

 beneficence of the denominations could from their own point of view be 

 most usefully directed to the provision of a certain number of schools 

 for post-primary education and of training colleges for teachers. At any 

 rate the scheme which I have thus briefly outlined is not one which 

 disturbs the position and functions of teachers on the one hand, or one 

 which need create friction between the churches and the local authorities 

 on the other. But it does give the local authority effective control over 

 buildings and organisation, and that is a necessary condition if further 

 advance is to be made. 



That further advance is outlined in the Report on the Education of 

 the Adolescent, which has come to be known as the Hadow Report ; since 

 its publication it has commanded an unusual amount of support and 

 interest. I give my unqualified adherence to the proposals which it 

 makes, though I do not agree with the nomenclature which it suggests. 

 Primary education should in future be a stage which ends at about the 

 age of 11-f, and this for the best of reasons, because at about that age 

 childhood closes and the first beginnings of adolescence set in. A second 

 stage of education should therefore start at this point, going on for the 

 majority to 15 + , for many to 16 + , for some to 18 or 19, this stage being 

 regarded as a single whole, designed to meet the needs of the adolescent, 

 and therefore containing within itself a considerable variety of type. 

 This is not simply a question of adding one year to the course as it exists 

 at present ; it means rethinking the whole of our education on a psycho- 

 logical basis, and designing the primary course for the years of childhood, 

 the post-primary courses for the ensuing years. It means as an ideal that 

 all children would go forward after eleven on parallel lines, following the 

 course best suited to each. The Hadow Report therefore states in its 

 second conclusion that, ' while taking the country as a whole, many more 

 children should pass to " secondary " schools in the current sense of the 

 term than pass at present, it is necessary that the post-primary grade of 



