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should be compulsory physical training for every boy in the 
land from the age of ten or eleven to about seventeen or 
eighteen. Some hard things had been said about mental 
training. The greatest hindrance to education was the 
indifference of parents and the indifference of pupils. There 
was no lack of ability or lack of opportunity, yet only a few 
showed any real love of learning or ardent energy in pursuit 
of it. 
The removal from the schools of the old annual examin- 
ations rid the schools of some great evils, and also withdrew 
some of the effective stimulus of individual effort in the 
school. The present system of instruction had its good 
points, but it was too accidental in its nature, and was prone 
to err grievously in its estimates. We had probably gained 
in our general intelligence ; we had gained, too, in our quali- 
fications ; but we had decidedly lost in our sense of honour, 
in definite purpose in our patient preparation. The average 
child of the present day had few incentives to exertion, and 
so long as he avoided extreme misconduct and paid the mini- 
mum of attention to his teachers, he could enjoy a very com- 
fortable life, free from effort. We should have to go back 
to some of the drudgery of education— getting to know one 
thing at a time, and knowing it well. We should attempt 
fewer subjects, and wrestle with those we did attempt until 
we forced from them their blessing. Developments of 
character and intelligence were of the first value, and in a 
school where honest hard work was carried on regularly the 
character of the pupils was in a great measure assured. A 
child was not educated by doing anything anyhow, but by 
doing something well. 
The bulk of our educational wastage, said Mr. Pickles, 
lay between the years of 13 and 17. Children left school 
just as intelligence began to broaden and character to expand, 
and we were losing half the value of the elementary schools. 
A large number of those who attended our continuation 
schools were those who had done well at school, and those 
who most needed continued education used the continuation 
school least. A system of compulsory continuation schools 
was needed. Part time at the right time was good, and 
the conditions of industry should be adapted to meet the 
needs. In our secondary schools the effect of early leaving 
was largely to cripple their usefulness, especially in those 
higher forms where education really began to tell. A secondary 
school was not a place to “ put on a polish ” in twelve months 
or two years. We should have much to do in the next few' 
