584 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 670 



secondary schools best fitted for kis ascer- 

 tained abilities and knowledge. The bent 

 of the child's intellect would be fully de- 

 termined before the age when the earliest 

 specialization would be desirable. No 

 scheme of instruction for primary schools 

 can be regarded as satisfactory, which is 

 not so arranged that, whilst providing the 

 most suitable teaching for children who 

 perforce must enter some wage-earning 

 pursuit at the age of fourteen, or at the 

 close of their elementary school course, 

 shall at the same time afford a sound and 

 satisfactory basis on which secondary and 

 higher education may be built. And I 

 hold the opinion, in which I am sure all 

 teachers will concur, that a scheme of 

 primary education pervaded by the spirit 

 of the kindergarten which, by practical 

 exercises, encourages observation and de- 

 velops the reasoning faculties, and creates 

 in the pupil an understanding of the use 

 of books, would form a fitting foundation 

 for either a literary or a scientific training 

 in a secondary school. 



I have purposely chosen to illustrate the 

 main subject of this address by reference 

 to defects in our primary instruction, be- 

 cause the success of our entire system of 

 education will be found, year by year, to 

 depend more and more upon the results of 

 the training given in our public elementary 

 schools. We have scarcely yet begun to 

 realize the social and political effects of the 

 momentous changes in our national life, 

 consequent on the first steps which were 

 taken less than forty years ago to provide 

 full facilities under state control and local 

 management for the education of the 

 people. 



At present all sorts of ideas are afloat 

 which have to be carefully and scientifically 

 considered. The working classes have to 

 be further and somewhat differently edu- 

 cated, in order that they may better under- 

 stand their own wants and how they are 



to be satisfied. "We have placed vast 

 powers in the hands of local bodies, popu- 

 larly elected, powers not only of admin- 

 istration, for which they are well adapted, 

 but powers of determining to a very great 

 extent, by the free use of the rates, the 

 kind of instruction to be given in our 

 schools, and the qualifications of the 

 teachers to impart it. Moreover, these 

 local bodies have shown, in many instances, 

 a distrust of expert advice and a desire to 

 act independently as elected representa- 

 tives of the people, which can not fail for 

 some time at least to lead to waste of effort 

 and of means. It was said years ago, when 

 the center of our political forces received 

 a marked displacement, that we must edu- 

 cate our masters. Our masters now, both 

 in politics and education, are the people, 

 and it is only, I believe, by improving their 

 education that we can enable them to 

 undertand the essential difficulties of the 

 problems which they are expected to solve, 

 and can induce them to rely, to a greater 

 extent than they do at present, on the re- 

 sults of the application to such problems of 

 scientific method, founded on the fullest in- 

 formation obtainable from historical and 

 contemporary sources. 



I might have illustrated my subject by 

 reference to the acknowledged chaotic 

 condition of our secondary education. In 

 the report of the board of education pub- 

 lished in December last we read: 



While the development of secondary education 

 is the most important question of the present day, 

 and is the pivot of the whole education as it 

 affects the elEciency, intelligence and well-being of 

 the nation, yet its present position may be de- 

 scribed as " chaos." 



The "chaos" by which the present posi- 

 tion of our secondary education is here 

 described is intimately connected with the 

 questions relating to primary education, 

 which I have been engaged in considering. 

 If we construct a system of primary edu- 

 cation which serves equally for children of 



