644 ON THE TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY IN SCOTTISH SCHOOLS. 



' This is important, since our main hope for the subject must lie in an increasing 

 number of teachers who have been trained to appreciate the value of the subject as 

 an instrument of education. (In this respect Glasgow University is doing good work, 

 and a steadily increasing stream of students with Geography as a degree subject is 

 passing from Gilmorehill to Jordanhill.) 



' From the primary stage the pupils pass to : — 



' (a) The Advanced Division Course, which extend<; for two or three years, or 



'(6) The Secondary Course, which leads to the Leaving Certificate — a five or six- 

 years' course. 



' The Advanced Division Course was instituted on the suppression of the Inter- 

 mediate Course, and was intended to cater for what we may call the non-academic 

 boys and girls, who were not going to the university for example, but who were leaving 

 school at 15 to take up work in commercial, industrial and other concerns. Even 

 in the eyes of the Scottish Education Department these courses have not yet justified 

 their existence, for in the Oeneral Reports for the year 1927 on Day Schools by His 

 Majesty's Chief Inspectors of Schools they are critically referred to as following too 

 closely the traditional intermediate curriculum. In commenting on this statement 

 the editor of the Scottish Educational Journal, who was himself an experienced teacher, 

 says : " If this becomes general we cannot see any great future for advanced divisions." 



' In fairness, however, to those who instituted these courses, I must admit that, 

 rightly conceived and rightly worked out, such courses afford great possibilities for 

 good work, and particularly so in regard to Geography. In the freedom which they 

 give to the teacher the materials which this subject offers, and the nature of the 

 problems which it sets, may well be used to form an admirable link between the school 

 and life and work, and to afford valuable means of developing and guiding the 

 sympathies and mental powers of the pupils, and the consequent establishment of 

 that basis of a well-balanced outlook which will enable them to fill with credit their 

 place as citizens of their country and of the world. But the time is not yet, and 

 what we have in actuality is that indeterminate, mongrel course which appears to 

 have all the weak points of the old Intermediate Course and none of its merits. And 

 the certificate (Day School Certificate, Higher) which is awarded on the completion 

 of the course, is just as indeterminate, but I have little hesitation in saying that, so 

 far as Geography is concerned, it does not demand the same proficiency as did the 

 old Intermediate Certificate. 



' Of the Secondary Course, where, with a grouping with another science. Geography 

 may be taken on a lower or higher standard, nothing need be added to what has been 

 already said, or what has already been printed in the Association's Report of 1927.' 



Mr. A. Stevens, Lecturer on Geography in the University of Glasgow. — 

 'The letter of the Scottish Education Department is so tenuous in its matter, 

 and Mr. McFarlane's treatment of it so thorough, that I do not feel called 

 on to make further comment upon it. On the general question of the unsatisfactory 

 state of the study of Geography in Scottish schools, however, the universities have 

 their point of view, which demands expression and consideration. 



' For a considerable time there has been an output of skilled teachers of Geography, 

 to whose equipment the universities contributed the necessary scientific knowledge, 

 and these teachers are not being absorbed as specialists in Geography by the schools. 

 The University of Edinburgh has had for a good many years a diploma in Geography 

 which is recognised by the Scottish Education Department as a qualification under 

 Chapter V. In Glasgow and Aberdeen there are functioning honours schools of 

 Geography, and Edinburgh is likely to establish such a school in the near future. 

 There is ample provision, therefore, for the training of all the specialist teachers of 

 Geography the country would require if the subject had its due recognition in the 

 school curricula. 



'The school teaching of Geography reacts in many ways on the university depart- 

 ments, and in particular it affects the number and calibre of recruits for the university 

 honours schools. A considerable and steady demand for teachers of Geography would 

 ensure an ample supply of students of high attainment and intelligence for the 

 university honours classes, just as it does in the case of physical sciences. The first 

 honours graduate of Glasgow in Geography, who is a trained teacher, is now 

 unemployed, and later products of that school have failed to secure " Chapter V. posts " 

 in their subject in Scottish schools ; although several have secured research appoint- 

 ments and university posts in England. For the encouragement of geographical 



