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it need not be further referred to — being already established and 

 appreciated — only it should be in the hands of really trained 

 Kindergarten teachers who understand its object, and are 

 naturally capable of carrying it out. 



For older children another question may be disposed of here 

 at the outset, — whether boarding or day schools are best. Cir- 

 cumstances sometimes decide definitely in favour of the former, 

 but where there is a possibility of home boarding I am strongly 

 of opinion that it is safest and best, unless the home is a very 

 sorry affair indeed. One of the chief reasons for sending a boy 

 to school is of course that he may rub against his fellows and 

 get rid of awkwardness and the shyness bred of a solitary life at 

 home, and learn s avoir fair e and savoir vivre. 



In fact in the great English public schools the boys to a large 

 extent educate each other. In the older days this seems to 

 have been all the real education they got there. But there is 

 something terribly wrong in the system which makes it necessary 

 that in order to be educated young children should have to go 

 through the tortures and misery described in Tom Brown's 

 School Days for instance. There would appear to be little reason 

 why this mutual education cannot be equally well obtained in a 

 good day school, and if not quite perfectly, the deficiency is 

 more than balanced by the risk, which I have good reason to 

 think is great, of bad influences and acquirement of bad habits. 

 The breaking up of home influences for good and sweet lives is 

 also not to be lightly thought of. 



A difficulty which hampers us a little at the outset is the 

 need of making provision for preparation in some cases for a 

 University career. For unfortunately our Universities, so far as 

 regards their teaching or professional methods, work largely by 

 the competitive examination and prize system. The large num- 

 ber of subjects, and the nature of the subjects, and the way in 

 which they must be "got up" to pass some of these examina- 

 tions do not accord, I think, with the best ideas of culture or 

 advancement of learning. 



If the mere honour and dignity of a degree be all that is 

 wanted, or the " pecuniary value of a first class " be the object, 



