932 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1069 



If we are to progress in these matters, a 

 system must soon be developed which, is 

 broader and better than that under which 

 we now muddle along — at present the real 

 problems of education are all but neglected ; 

 even if the official mind were capable and 

 desirous of promoting progress, the work of 

 administering rules and regulations— of 

 keeping the machine going — is so great that 

 no time is left for thought. 



We have seen the error of our ways suffi- 

 ciently to give up payment by results, and 

 are all but ashamed that we were ever mis- 

 led by Robert Lowe to adopt such a soul- 

 killing policy. But none the less our entire 

 'educational system is still in the grips of 

 'commercialism, and, in this respect, as a 

 ?nation, we stand alone, I believe. Scholar- 

 Ships, prizes of one kind or another, exami- 

 nations are the perpetual feast of British 

 education. Examinations, in fact, are a 

 regularized and very lucrative branch of 

 industry — mostly in the hands of certain 

 firms who diplomatically shelter themselves 

 under the Eegis of this or that educational 

 body; but the universities are the greatest 

 sinners. Valuable as examinations may be 

 within certain narrow limits and for cer- 

 tain definite purposes, there is little doubt 

 that our general ignorance is in no small 

 degree determined by our worship of 

 the examination fetish. So long as 

 the system prevails, the education of our 

 youth will not be in accordance with either 

 their capacity or their requirements, but on 

 lines corresponding to those by which prize 

 cattle are raised for show — they will be 

 trained to develop some specially catching 

 point. 



The examinations are an inheritance from 

 the literary rule. It is possible to test on 

 paper whether a man be "well read," but 

 faculty as distinct from capacity can not be 

 so determined. What is worse, by forcing 

 students to commit a large body of doctrine 



to memory, the attention becomes fixed 

 merely upon what others have done and 

 little time or inclination is left them to ac- 

 quire a knowledge of method — the faculty 

 of thinking for themselves and applying 

 their knowledge. No class suffers more 

 seriously than medical students under the 

 system — their preliminary training is all 

 but entirely didactic, and the time spent 

 upon it all but wasted ; we need not wonder 

 that medicine has made so little advance, 

 the practitioners being in no way trained 

 in the use of scientific method. 



To improve our system we need to get 

 rid of our blind British belief in "men of 

 affairs," especially in the "man of busi- 

 ness," so-called, really the man of com- 

 merce, as persons capable of ordering every- 

 body's affairs and everybody's business. 

 The commercial man, the financier or the 

 lawyer, would never think of calling us in 

 to manage his proper business — why should 

 he be thought competent to manage ours? 

 Results show that he is not, as my argument 

 in this address would lead us to expect 

 would be the case. 



No one will seek, for one moment, to 

 minimize the progress made or fail to recog- 

 nize that infinite credit is due to those who 

 have controlled the work of education thus 

 far; hitherto, however, progress has been 

 made in providing accommodation and get- 

 ting scholars to school and college: the art 

 of teaching has made no corresponding 

 advance — nor will it, I believe, until the 

 onus is cast more directly upon the teachers 

 and they are forced to exercise greater fore- 

 thought in the direction of collective action 

 — until they are placed in a position to be 

 sole managers of their own affairs and 

 called upon to row together as entirely 

 self-chosen crews. At home, excepting at 

 our ancient universities, "governing 

 bodies" are paramount everywhere — not 

 the teachers; and too often the sense of 



