Hi SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— L. 



lishment, and, in urban areas with a large school population, the necessity for providing 

 as economically as possible far greater facilities, at any rate for the children of special 

 aptitudes, than could be supplied in the elementary school. Indirectly, this gave 

 promise of benefiting also the schools from which the pupils were selected, for it 

 relieved large classes and, by reducing the range of abilities left in the school, limited 

 the problem of the teachers. 



In the selective central school the average of intelligence will usually be at least 

 as high as that in the ordinary secondary school. The curriculum, therefore, will, in 

 its fundamental subjects, especially in the first two years of the course, be very similar 

 to the usual secondary school curriculum with perhaps a little less emphasis on the 

 text-book work. It is in the third year when the central school problems begin to 

 take definite shape and call for intelligent and discriminating solution. From that 

 time onwards the work of groups of pupils and sometimes even of individuals will be 

 determined not so much by stereotyped theories of what is, or what is not, a good 

 general education, but rather bj' a combination of forces, viz. the observed abilities 

 of the child combined with (1) the opportunities which the area affords for their 

 profitable development, and (2) the wishes and the possibilities which parents and home 

 circumstances respectively display. 



(c) Mr. H. T. Morgan. — The Non-selective School and its Curriculum. 



The results of selection by examination ; typo of pupil, definitely non-intellectual. 

 Physical education and its importance for adolescents. Games and outdoor occupa- 

 tions. The value of arts and crafts. Balance necessary between speech or language 

 on the one hand, and handicrafts on the other. Importance of practical work. 

 Courses of study. The great need of scientific determination. The time factor : 

 need for consolidation of subjects. How far can curriculum be individualised ? 

 How much knowledge is really important for every child ? What choice can be 

 given and how can it be made ? Training and drill in ' studjdng.' The discover}' of 

 aptitudes or the creation of appetites. The conversion of pupils into students. 

 Great importance of the cultivation of thinking. Social training most important of 

 all but not primarily a matter of curriculum. Individual development through 

 individual study ; social consciousness through group activities. Breadth and 

 elasticity in the curriculum essential. Need for freedom and experiment and the 

 danger of standardisation. The menace of examination and certification. 



(d) Miss V. E. Caer Gordon.— i^actors governing the Scope of the 

 Curricula in the Modern Girls' School. 



The trend of the curricula in any school is governed by at least four important 

 factors. It depends, first of all, on the ideals and beliefs of the person who frames 

 it, secondly on the type of child to be catered for and the locality in which the school 

 is situated, thirdly on the building and equipment available, and, fourthly, on the 

 number and personnel of the staff. The writer of this paper believes that the firsi 

 aim of the educator should be to promote enthusiasm and zeal for work. The child 

 must desire to achieve. She can then be taught to employ adequately the mechanism 

 of thinking and so discriminate between relative values. These two processes are 

 often simultaneous, but the first is none the less the foundation of the second. 



In order to summarise briefly the next three points above, it may be useful to 

 describe a modern non-selective girls' school. The locality is a mining town in 

 Northumberland where children grow up with peculiar limitations of experience. 

 The building has been designed to meet the requirements of a liberal primary education, 

 and includes two domestic science rooms, a handwork room and a needlework room. 

 There are thirteen staff specialising in their own subjects. Pupils enter the school 

 at the age of eleven and are divided into three grades according to ability, the aim of 

 the curricula being to give scope for the development of the potentialities of every 

 type of child. 



The majority of the pupils respond most readily to instruction in practical subjects, 

 and the school might be said to have a domestic science bias, but the teaching is in 

 no way vocational. The natural instincts of girlhood gravitate towards the domestic 

 arts ; the special need of the locality is for good home-making, and manj' of the 

 pupils become servants when they leave school. Nevertheless, the first aim of the 

 workroom is to educate the child through the craft. 



