SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 505 
Failure on the part of European personnel may usually be traced to disregarding 
the rate of possible progress, making the task undertaken too personal to the individual 
worker, working towards mistaken ideals. 
In determining the course of training preliminary to the work abroad, this vital 
point is often disregarded : the African teacher is the obvious teacher of the African. 
In addition to the specialised training fitting the worker for some definite side of his 
task, his general training must include a study of methods appropriate to the education 
of the very young: a knowledge of general science sufficient for coping with problems 
+o be met both as student and teacher ; a knowledge of general linguistics ; a general 
anthropological course if not already embraced by the foregoing. 
Early difficulties encountered by the worker are due to the paucity of records of 
work already done and of material collected, and to the absence of policy on the part 
of controlling authorities. The first leads to much waste of labour, and the second 
to the framing of many and contradictory policies. 
The cultivation of a sense of responsibility should be the main plank in his policy, 
coupled with a desire to help Africans towards the things which they feel they need. 
How can our work be directed towards making the African more fully responsible 
for the formation of new schools? Might not rural education and all schemes for 
village schools be placed more directly under native control? How can we drive 
home the value of each grade of the more technical sides of training ? 
Other difficulties are connected with the conflict between vernaculars and English 
as the medium of education; the disappearance of native institutions under the 
influence of education; the multiplicity of authorities with varying interests responsible 
for the control of education; the passing of control to Government as the price of 
assistance in educational work. 
Dr. A. R. Paterson. 
Discussion. (Sir Jonn Apamson, C.M.G.; Mr. C. W. Hosiey'; Mr. A. 
Victor Murray; Right Hon. Lord Racian!; The Hon. Hues A. 
WyYNDHAM.) 
The Hon. Hucu A. WyNDHAM. 
A group which has been organised by the Royal Institute of International Affairs 
to make a comparative study of education in Java, Indo-China, the Philippines, 
Malaya and the Japanese dependencies and mandated islands. This study was in 
every way suited to Chatham House owing to its close international implications. 
The first step in the inquiry would be to decide what tests should be applied in 
passing judgment on the education given, and the next would be to apply the tests 
comparatively having regard to the national characteristics of the five governing 
powers, the force of the impact of Westernism in each of the dependencies, the 
results achieved in the past and the influence of the Native on the imported culture. 
The co-operation of everyone interested would be welcomed. 
Monday, September 28. 
ScHoo.t CLINics AND CHILD GUIDANCE :— 
Dr. G. A. AupEN.—The Difficult Child. 
Amongst the various forms of maladjustment in children one stands out especially 
on account of its frequency, 7.e. that of the eldest child who finds himself displaced 
from his position as the centre of attention in the home by the advent of a second 
child. The trauma produced by this displacement often results in behaviour which 
causes much concern to the careful, and sometimes over-conscientious, parent. 
yee psychological basis of this and other maladjustments may be explained as 
follows :— 
In the early months of infancy the child is essentially a ‘self of enjoyment.’ This 
individualist attitude is the outcome of his increasing apprehension of the contrast 
1 Representing Section H (Anthropology). 
