460 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—L. 
organising exhibitions of articles of daily use of good design, preferably at 
a price which the average man can afford. 
DIscussION (12.30), led by Dr. CLoupEsLey BReEreToN (Literature) ; 
Mr. Basi Maine (Music) ; Mr. G. L. THorpe (Art). 
Friday, September 6. 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS by Dr. A. W. PICKARD-CAMBRIDGE on Education 
and freedom (10.0). (See p. 189.) 
Discussion on Discipline (11.10). 
Mr. J. H. BADLEy. 
Our attitude towards discipline depends on 
(a) Our view of human nature ; 
(b) Our social outlook. 
(a) The traditional view : human nature radically bad, to be repressed. 
The modern view : it is radically good, to be allowed free growth. Both 
views partial truths : instincts neither good nor bad, but directed to higher 
or lower ends. Hence need of training, to distinguish and encourage 
higher ends. Can experience alone give this? Nature’s methods too 
slow and too costly, so must be supplemented by discipline. But how much 
and of what kind depends on purpose in view. 
(b) If to produce efficient servants of the State, the completer the discipline 
the better. If to develop individual responsibility, need of all freedom 
that is possible with what discipline is necessary. ‘Two doctrines of 
advanced school considered: that repression is always harmful; that 
children should decide everything for themselves. Freedom needs a frame- 
work of discipline (examples in Montessori method and Dalton Plan). 
Discipline must change with growth—need of increasing trust and responsi- 
bility. Freer methods more difficult for the teacher, but alone allow of 
true education: i.e. fostering of self-activity guided by self-control. 
Mr. T. F. Coape. 
The function of education is to present life or mediate reality to the 
child, so that there shall be evoked in him a willingness not only to submit 
to discipline but to respond actively to it. 
Discipline in a modern school may resemble that of a club rather than 
that of a dictatorship. This does not mean that such discipline is lax. 
It means that those who frame it aim at making discipline attractive and its 
hardness worth while, and aim too at giving all possible zest to effort. 
Discipline, to be of use, must be voluntarily accepted and co-operated with. 
The chief value of the ‘ habit-forming ’ discipline of early years is that it 
gives the child a sense of an orderly world, from which sense there should 
gradually proceed a perception that every sphere i is governed bylaw. True 
discipline, leading to true freedom, consists in the understanding of, and 
conscious co-operation with, law. ‘Therefore, not only must school 
discipline be founded on universal law, but the connection between such 
discipline and law must become by degrees understandable to the child. 
For if he can see purpose in and behind the discipline of school life, he will 
more willingly co-operate with it at school, and will achieve a sense of security 
in the general scheme of things outside school as well. 
