THE

HE World War has brought the United States and Britain into closer relationship. On both sides of the Atlantic there is a sincere wish to know more of each other's ways of life. There is a America and vast literature on American history, Britain. ideas, and institutions which is almost unknown in this country. We want more knowledge of and easier access to it. We want, too, more books on these subjects to be produced on this side of the water. There ought to be an American library of information in London where the public documents of the United States would be easily available. Many agencies are now concerning themselves in these matters-the Board of Education, the British Council, Chatham House, the American Outpost in Britain, the English-Speaking Union, the National Book Council and a number of publishing firms. We hope to publish in November a special American number of The Journal of Education which will include articles from distinguished contributors on books on American history, as well as on novels, biographies, &c., which throw light upon the American

intensified as it is by our examination system, should be brought to an end. The position taken up in a recent leading article in The Times at once attracted attention, and elicited a warm response from Professor Newell, President of the American Outpost in Britain, and from the organ of the English-Speaking Union. The first necessity is the enlightenment of teachers on the subject, and we are glad to know that the Board of Education have arranged short courses on the United States, their history and their current problems, for teachers in all types of schools. When in 1938 Professor Laski wrote an introduction to Professor H. U. Faulkner's excellent Short History of the American People he referred to "the long belief of British publishers that the general reader in Great Britain cannot be persuaded to an interest in American history". Yet it is certain that no understanding of President Roosevelt's problems is possible without some knowledge of America's history and traditions. We now begin to see that in order to spread such knowledge we must begin in the schools.

library of a post-primary school in this country a section devoted to American history and American literature. We have no doubt that the Library Associations of both countries will be glad to cooperate with other agencies in making such a development possible.

IT

Studying America.

T is probably true to say that what most English people of this generation ever learnt of American. history amounted to very little. Of course there were the War of Independence, the unfortunate war of 1812, and the Civil War, all of which were noted incidentally in courses of English history. The emergence of the United States as a world power, and especially her part in the war of 1914-18, altered the situation but did not alter the neglect of American history in our schools and colleges. Our present relations with America make it high time that our stiff conservatism in this matter,

not mean only the United States. South of the United States there are the twenty republics of Latin

The Americas of the South.

America, which are going to play an increasing part in world affairs, and in the future relations of Great Britain and the United States. We can no more afford ignorance of Latin America than we can of the United States. The time has gone by when modern history can be profitably studied with the history of the Americas left out, and it is to be hoped that steps will be taken to improve our knowledge of, and make information more accessible about, the Americas of the South as well as the America of the North. We understand that Chatham House is shortly to issue a bibliography on this subject. That at least will serve as a beginning. Meanwhile our readers, we are sure, will look forward with interest to our American number, of which particulars will be found on page 405.

THE HERE can be little doubt that a fundamental debate concerning the right point of departure for the planning of developments in English education is both salutary and essential. Conditions now,

Revolution so different from what they were, call

or Evolution? for something more than a spasmodic 'hunch' or two. So it is well that we should concern ourselves with some explicit thinking about points of departure as well as about distant objectives. In so doing we shall be wise to examine a little more critically than we are wont to do the actual content of the terms we allow ourselves to use. For they may have associations with past usage and former situations which may hamper freedom of thought without our realizing it. Some have associations of struggle and alarm, others of comfort and peace of mind. For instance, even the conservatives among us may come to accept the term "revolution" quite calmly when they become aware of the reality of the thing itself among us, and find that it is not necessarily a matter of blood and tears. Yet, used too freely in the present temper of England it may act as an obstacle to the attainment of quite desirable ends. On the other hand we agree that the term evolution " has its dangers too if it is used to cover lack of adventurousness, mental indolence, and failure to realize that historic changes do not "happen of themselves", but only as a result of the willed actions of men. Might it not be a salutary exercise to train ourselves a little in thinking of our concrete problems without the use of either term?

A DISCUSSION which took place at a recent con

Culture

ference on the subject of "Cultural Aspects of Vocational Education" raised in another form that question of the cultural function and significance of the ordinary working citizen upon which we commented in the August issue. It was contended by some that the rather sharp falling apart in our modern society of the vocations by which the life of the community is sustained and that which generally passes for culture is itself a sign of deep-seated disharmony. Others argued that the mere facts that culture is now so much talked about and that we are apt to be so self-conscious about it point in the same direction. It is certainly true that the periods of history-never of very lengthy duration when the arts and crafts of men reached unusually high levels of excellence and expressiveness were precisely those when nobody talked about culture; when society revealed a high degree of unity, and when all that was richest and most significant in social feeling flowed easily and naturally into the products of the citizen-craftsmen. When, on the other hand, culture becomes a hothouse plant, cultivated in schools and academic conservatories under exotic names, then something has clearly gone wrong with the deeper sources of social vitality. One would suppose that a genuine culture would always be, potentially at least, a common social possession, shared in by all and contributed to by all, though needing always its finer critics to guard it against vulgarity and sham.

THE

-And Work.

HE matter affects contemporary education very directly in determining what relation the cultural shall bear to the vocational in any complete course of modern training. Perhaps that is the wrong way to state the question. We may be confusing our problem and blinding ourselves to the roots of the trouble by this sharp division between the vocational and the cultural. Is not the assumption too readily made that 'culture' is the stuff you work at in secondary schools and W.E.A. classes, and 'vocation' the stuff you work at in technical schools and the technological departments of universities? To overcome the distinction, and to integrate culture and vocation effectively in one and the same richly suggestive training, may not be completely possible until our notions of culture have been brought up to date in our social life generally. At present there is a certain snobbishness both ways, each side tending to despise precisely that which would cure its characteristic one-sidedness. Would not most teachers be all the better if their training and experience included some productive activity or craft widely differing in its nature from that of teaching? Perhaps, too, we may come to ask, with a more acute sense of the full meaning of the question, why a much-needed form of secondary school should be relegated in the Spens Report to a separate category as

"Technical High School". Such questions are being more and more insistently asked, but more clearing of our minds may be necessary before satisfactory answers are found.

Commercial and Industrial Education.

IMPORTANT questions of post-war reconstruction were discussed at the meetings of the British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education at Birmingham in July. Principal Kitchen, of the Technical College, Rugby, pointed out that after leaving school young people seemed to mature very quickly indeed. A boy or girl who had been working two years, say from 14 to 16, was very much more mature than the secondary school boy or girl of 16. There was the key to the principles of the curriculum that must be applied to part-time education. It must be based on the new interest which became the major interest at that time, namely, employment. A high proportion of teachers must have experience of industry, by direct contact with it not only by contact through books. Mr. Locke, of Messrs. Rowntree & Co., contended that the youth problem arose very largely out of the workshop or the working conditions under which the young people of to-day spend their working lives. Proposed improvements in education would not have the results which were hoped for unless the working conditions were also improved. That was the root problem. It was the problem of giving young people in industry a significance and a status that used to be accorded to the one-time craft apprentices. Parallel with training in the workshop must go some form of daycontinuation education. In our August number we stressed the point that the training of the adolescent is the concern of parent, teacher, and employer. The old

slogan, "Education for life and not for livelihood" is a dangerous half-truth, for 'livelihood' is a vital part of 'life'. The terms 'liberal education' and 'vocational education' should never be used as though they were opposed to each other. These two aspects should be combined in the education of the adolescent, both in his last years at school and in the education which he receives when he has left school.

A

STATEMENT has been issued by the Christian Education Movement with the approval of the Archbishops and the Acting Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council. It says that Christian the events of this last year have deeply Education. stirred the conscience of the nation. The scandal of evacuation was a salutary shock." It raised in many minds the question whether a nation which tolerated such conditions of life for many of its children could rightly claim to be fighting the battle for Christian civilization. On all hands there is talk of a New Order. Is this New Order to be Christian? To put it bluntly, do we or do we not care whether successive generations of children are taught to understand and accept the truth of God made known in Christ, and the practical implications which follow from that belief? We are all involved and that means that we must all cooperate. Concerted action, however, on the part of the churches alone is not enough. There must be co-operation between the churches and the teachers and administrators. We have now to make a choice between two conflicting and contradictory estimates. The one regards man as a creature of this world, finding the satisfaction of his nature in obedience to state-loyalties, and the enjoyment of state-rewards. The other regards him as a child of God with spiritual endowments which demand both training and freedom of expression. That choice radically determines our whole conception of education. For the Christian there is no choice. Education is from top to bottom religious, or it is not education. The statement concludes with a suggestion that groups should be set up to study defects in the existing situation, and to promote lines of action by which they can be remedied. The statement has been followed by a message to the people from the Archbishops of Canterbury, York and Wales, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and almost all the diocesan Bishops of England, Wales and Scotland, calling for a general reaffirmation of faith in God and resistance to the menace of Nazi evil.

As we said in our August number, we deplore the

The New President.

policy which calls for a new President of the Board of Education about once a year. In the last twenty years there have been no fewer than thirteen Presidents. We hope that the new President means to stay in his present post, and we are certain that all educationists will give him every support. Mr. Butler possesses high qualifications for his task-a task which any crusader might envy. Much will be required of him, for vested interests and the dead hand of the Treasury will be

against him. We look to him to gird on his armour and fulfil the expectations which present stresses have aroused. We have said before, and we say again, that the best way of securing adequate discussion of authoritative proposals would be through the setting up forthwith of a Royal Commission on Education. We hope that this will be reconsidered. Meanwhile we offer Mr. Butler our hearty good wishes, trusting that before long he will be able to make an official announcement on behalf of the Government concerning the educational measures which it is intended to put in hand. He has the opportunity of making a deeper mark on English education than that made by any of his predecessors. It is the earnest wish of all educationists that he will take full advantage of this unique opportunity.

THE action of the Board in communicating only to

What is Education's 'Constituency'?

local education authorities and to the accredited representatives of certain educational organizations the draft proposals for educational reform which have been worked out by the Board's Officers raises an issue of the first importance. Whatever one may think of the soundness of the Board's action from the standpoint of policy, its ground is quite clear. Obviously they were referring certain proposals to what they took to be their immediate constituency' in the country. The question at issue is whether, in the present circumstances of the country and the state of public opinion, they showed wise judgment in so doing. We cannot think so. The constituency' for education in this country is now very much more than the professionals who work the machine. Some of the shrewdest and soundest criticisms and suggestions concerning education come now from people not directly concerned with the machine at all. Also, among large numbers of thoughtful citizens and anxious parents education is coming to be looked upon, not as a limited or 'expert administrative service, but as the most important aspect of the nation's social policy. The Board seem to have missed a great chance of raising their steam in the more capacious boiler. What would be thought of a Ministry of Food which gave all their confidences to shopkeepers and wholesalers and had none for the great body of anxious consumers? It is the consumer of the egg and not the hen that is the best judge of its quality.

LIEUT.-COL. TOM MORGAN, in his presidential

address to the Head Teachers' Conference, voiced in vigorous and convincing fashion what nearly all teachers are thinking just now. Among A Fighting the points he made were: Education Speech. should not be left, as Adam Smith said, to a few interested individuals, but rather should all people become interested in such a vital subject; Democracy' becomes a mere shadow without its handmaiden, 'Education'; reorganization got mixed up with economy, which functioned almost entirely at the expense of the teaching profession-witness the Geddes report; Hadowism stresses the importance of senior