THE COLONIAL REVIEW A quarterly Readers' Digest of articles concerned with colonial questions, including general policy, administration and the social services. Special attention is paid to educational experiments which may be of service to those working in other colonies. The periodicals read cover the whole of the British Colonial Empire, and articles are included on the French, Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese and American colonies. The Colonial Review is impartial in its presentation of all shades of opinion. Annual Subscription, 3s. post free COLONIAL DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION Present Address: LIVINGSTONE HOUSE, BROADWAY, WESTMINSTER, S.W. I SCIENCE PRACTICAL SCIENCE OF LIVING THINGS By M. E. GOODWIN, B.Sc., and O. I. MORGAN, B.Sc. Book I (Second Edition), 128 pages; Book II, 125 pages; Book III, 128 pages; Book IV, 158 pages. Cloth, 1s. 9d. each. A simple, practical course in Biology, well suited to lower forms. Illustrations are a special feature-bold and artistic -by a well-known expert in this class of work. THE NEW PRACTICAL PHYSICS (Science for Young Citizens) By F. ANNISS, B.Sc. (Lond.). Book I, Liquids, 179 pages; Book II, Gases, 206 pages; Book III, Time, Heat, Light, Electricity and Magnetism, Mechanics, 239 pages. Cloth, 2s. 9d. each. Book IV, Heat, Light and Sound, 320 pages, Cloth, 3s. 6d. Book V, Electricity and Magnetism, 313 pages, Cloth, 3s. 6d. Suitable for lower forms. A GENERAL CHEMISTRY FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES DRYAD HANDICRAFTS Educational contractors for the supply of all craftwork materials tools & equipment. Publishers of books on craftwork ST.NICHOLAS STREET LEICESTER 22 BLOOMSBURY STREET. W.C.1 WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT EDUCATION? KEY: 1: (b). 2: (c). 3: (c). 4: (a). 5: (c). 6: (e).* 7: (d). 8: (a). 9: (c). 10: (c). 11: (b). 12: (a). 13: (d). 14: (c). 15: (c). *The Board of Education Act (1899) did not come into force until the appointment of a ' President'. This took place after the end of the South African War (1902). Question 6 is the only one with a catch. THE FUTURE IN EDUCATION "WHY we an NEW By Professor F. A. CAVENAGH, King's College, London WHY are we an uneducated nation and how can we become an educated nation?" Sir Richard Livingstone's answers to these two questions are, briefly, (a) that the great majority leave school at an age when their education has hardly begun, and (b) that real education, since it depends on experience of life, must come at a later stage hence the solution lies in a great expansion of adult education. With those two broad conclusions nobody will disagree. The nineteenth century conception of ' elementary' education, as something complete in itself, is so obsolete that the term itself is being discarded. Το cease education at 14 is as unnatural as to die at 14" Sir Richard's epigram will find general approval-though a coroner might inquire what exactly 'unnatural' means in the context. So, too, the need for vastly increased adult education has long been recognized. As far back as 1919 the Report of the Adult Education Committee laid down, in emphatic capitals, a "necessary conclusion that remains unrealized. The actual words are worth recalling Adult Education must not be regarded as a luxury for a few exceptional persons here and there, nor as a thing which concerns only a short span of early manhood, but . is a permanent national necessity, an inseparable aspect of citizenship, and therefore should be both universal and lifelong. That the opportunity for Adult Education should be spread uniformly and systematically over the whole community, as a primary obligation on that community in its own interest and as a chief part of its duty to its individual members, and that therefore every encouragement and assistance should be given to voluntary organizations, so that their work, now necessarily sporadic and disconnected, may be developed and find its proper place in the national educational system." Brave words! Are they, I wonder, remembered by two members of the Committee, Mr. E. Bevin and Mr. Arthur Greenwood? " "Both universal and lifelong": we have far to travel before that ideal is reached. Sir Richard Livingstone maps out a road which would at least take us part of the way. It follows the lines of the Danish Folk High Schools, which had such striking success in transforming an uncouth peasantry into an educated people, and, indirectly, brought about their co-operative system of farming. It is hardly necessary to remark on the different conditions in Denmark and England. Apart from their obvious differences of occupation, Denmark, at the time when the People's Colleges were founded, was a defeated country; Grundtvig deliberately set his people the ideal of “making good from within what has been lost from without" by a simple and cheerfully active existence on earth in the service of the country". There is a sad irony about their secondary aim, to fortify Denmark against German aggression. Yet, in spite of these very important differences, there is much that we can learn from the Danish colleges. Sir Richard lays particular stress on the benefits of residence-comradeship, and the freedom from distraction found in pleasant country surroundings. "Let them be a family of their own, talking, learning, reading, playing, dancing, singing -by all means singing much together.' It is a pleasing picture; and certainly the success of our own few residential colleges for adult students warrants further development. But it should be borne in mind that not every adult finds such communal life congenial, just as not every boy is suited to a boarding-school; we are still apt to be hypnotized by Newman's purple patch about the university that "merely brought a number of young men * The Future in Education. By Sir RICHARD LIVINGSTONE. (3s. 6d. Cambridge University Press.) BOOKS together for three or four years and then sent them away Nor would the "living word ", on which Grundtvig set such store, evoke the same reverence from English students, who on the whole prefer learning from books; and, as it is, public libraries play a very considerable part in our adult education. Still, it would be an enormous advance if local colleges, some at least of them residential, were set up in every region, assigned definitely to adult students. The plan, as Sir Richard points out, is in no way impracticable: the cost would not be prohibitive, and there will be many large country-houses lying derelict after the war. And to free men for a period of education ought, on paper, to be as simple as freeing them for military training; whether it will actually be so depends on the general will of the nation. Sir Richard Livingstone goes a step beyond Grundtvig in proposing refresher courses for educated' people, civil servants, professional men and women, &c. That, too, is a most admirable suggestion. It would bring new life and stimulus to the universities; and its effects on the spirit and on the efficiency of the nation cannot even be guessed at. Again, if we have the will, this too can be accomplished. And yet, were all this achieved, there would remain a huge gap: universal lifelong education would be nowhere in sight, for only a fringe of the population would be touched. In the elementary field universal education was attained only by compulsion; and, as it would be merely fatuous to propose compulsory education for adults, some other approach must be found. The solution surely lies in adopting a far wider interpretation of adult education'. If it is to be really universal and lifelong, if all men and women, of all social classes and all levels of intelligence, of the most diverse tastes and capacities, are to be brought within the fold, then, clearly, adult education must be regarded as including all, or almost all, the pursuits in which men and women are interested. One is bound to say 'almost all', for there are some activities and some 'passivities' that by no stretch of language could be called educational. The line cannot be rigidly drawn, since it depends on one's own inclinations: each of us will exclude for others the sort of things we don't like ourselves. And Sir Richard Livingstone for his part would seem to exclude, broadly speaking, everything that lies outside books. "Education. But what education?" he asks, and replies that one clue is the old conception of a liberal education". And this, he continues, comprises " the study of the material universe, and the study of man as a sentient, thinking and spiritual being ", in fact just what Matthew Arnold in his day epitomized as man and his world ". That sounds comprehensive enough; yet for both these distinguished humanists it is 'man that really counts. "The elements of different sciences can be taught," says Sir Richard, but it is even more desirable to bring home to the student the meaning and importance of science in human life." Even the study of man turns out to be pretty much what Arnold called " getting to know the best that has been thought and said in the world" in fact, the old classical tradition. This is not the place to argue the case for or against the study of the classics; but it is relevant to maintain that culture' does not begin and end with the ancient world. A select and expensively-trained minority will always, let us hope, keep alive the knowledge of Greece and Rome; but for the masses culture must have more indigenous roots. Such a platitude seems hardly worth stating; yet Sir Richard, after quite justifiably contrasting with our cinema "the drama which the whole Athenian people watched in the bright March weather millenia ago ", continues with the amazing question "what fraction of our masses would sit through a performance of the Trilogy or (Continued on page 550) OXFORD BOOKS The World To-day Two new volumes have recently appeared. 2s. 6d. net each volume. With Mexico and Central America. By J. B. Trend, Professor of Spanish in the University of Cambridge. Pp. 128, with 10 pages of illustrations and 4 maps. The achievement of the Spanish and Portuguese Americas during their century of independence makes one of the great stories of modern history, while their possibilities for the future offer an even more fascinating prospect. The civilization of South America is still a brilliant fringe, carried forward inch by inch on the edge of jungle or desert, and up the face of high mountains; whether in towns, or in cultivated lands, or in the wired cattle-ranches of the Pampa, it has been won only by sustained effort. The life of these lands is mainly a country life, yet only modern inventions can fight back the natural forces of such an intractable continent, and only modern social ideas can overcome the human inertia sometimes induced by such difficulties. This brilliant survey by the Professor of Spanish at Cambridge gives a comprehensive account of a group of peoples whose belief in progress has not been shaken, and whose ideals-however unlikely they might appear in Europe-represent to them plans which it is possible to put into practice. No. 4. CANADA. By B. K. Sandwell, Managing Editor of The Saturday Night, Toronto. Pp. 124, with 8 pages of illustrations, and a map. Canada's magnificent contribution to the war effort of the British Commonwealth has quickened interest in the history, political organization, and peoples of the great Dominion. Mr. Sandwell's first-hand knowledge of Canadian life enables him to give, in this timely book, a vivid and concise account of the country's progress from colonial status to that of a federal self-governing nation in free association with the Crown. The author throws a light upon Canada's special problems (e.g. the incorporation of the French-Canadian and other non-English communities, relations with Britain and the United States, &c.), and he rounds off his story with a word on Canada's voluntary and swift enlistment in the forces of freedom in the present conflict. No. 1 was Professor Brogan's U.S.A. and No. 2 was Hitch's America's Economic Strength. Other volumes are in preparation including: AMERICA IN WORLD AFFAIRS. By Allan Nevins, recently Harmsworth Professor of American History in the University of Oxford. Pp. 144, with 8 pages of illustrations and 2 maps. TURKEY. By Barbara Ward, Assistant Editor of The Economist. Pp. 128, with illustrations. and maps. Oxford Pamphlets on World Affairs No. 50. American Foreign Policy. No. 51. Norway and the War. By G. M. Gathorne-Hardy. 4d. net each No. 53. No. 52. Britain's Food in Wartime. By Sir E. John Russell. (Shortly.) No. 54. The Arsenal of Democracy. China. By Professor P. M. Roxby. A full list of the Pamphlets up to No. 50 will be sent on application. The Oxford War Atlas The First Two Years By J. H. Stembridge. Pp. 128, with 67 black-and-white maps, each with a page of explanatory text opposite to it. 2s. 6d. net. (Shortly.) This atlas is a record in maps of the events of the first two years of the war, down to the beginning of September 1941, and at the same time a reference atlas for the main theatres of war in which operations are now proceeding. The maps and text have been compiled from numerous official and authoritative sources. the Philoctetes"? Hamlet at the Old Vic would have been more to the point, though even Hamlet is some 300 years old. Whereas the "whole Athenian people" (with the exception of the considerable slave population) were watching a contemporary play, based on a plot familiar to them from childhood, to say nothing of free seats (painfully hard they must have become), a day's holiday, and a semireligious atmosphere. They were not asked to transport themselves to some foreign clime, distant in time and space, intelligible only after long years of specialized study. No; the culture of a people is a native and spontaneous growth, making a direct and untutored appeal, to all alike. requires no bolstering up by endowments, carries no social prestige, and is of little financial benefit; for an Oxford divine once let the cat out of the bag about the study of Greek literature, which, he remarked, not only elevates above the vulgar herd, but leads not infrequently to positions of considerable emolument ". It Does this mean throwing overboard the traditional culture', and cutting people off from the best that has been said and thought? Not at all; but it does mean recognizing, as the Spens Report does in another connexion, that this culture cannot be thrust down the throats of many; and further, that the right approach, at any rate for unschooled adults, lies through literature that is here and now from appreciating that, they may desire to know what has gone before. And fortunately our age is not destitute of popular literature and art. From many examples take the Art By the People' exhibitions, and the working-class writing now springing up in factories, mines, fire-stations, wardens' posts, and barrack-rooms, and appearing in e.g. The Penguin New Writings. Not to be compared with Sophocles or Thucydides or Virgil? Of course not; but they are of this age, as were those mightier writers of theirs. Nor can it be denied that there are many alert and intelligent persons who, like Huckleberry Finn, don't take no stock of dead people ", and who are convinced that seeking lessons from history is no more than an elegant pastime. "That which is past is gone ", wrote Bacon, and irrevocable; and wise men have enough to do, with things present and to come: Therefore, they do but trifle with themselves, that labour in past matters." It has been a constant claim that the study of general principles, as illustrated on the small stage of the Greek polis, was the best preparation for the modern statesman; yet we might be in a happier position to-day if some of our rulers (I name no names) had studied Mein Kampf as carefully as the Republic or the Politics. Here again the argument is not directed against the study of history: that would be completely stupid. But it is a denial of two common beliefs-that every one is by nature interested in the past, and that wisdom necessarily results from the study of history. The latter claim is of course but one example of the formal-training fallacy, that occupies so large a space in modern educational theory. It is only fair to say that Sir Richard avoids, or rather carefully skirts the edge of, this common pitfall. "Studies lead to specific knowledge", he writes, " but, quite apart from that, they are a training, varying with each subject, in the art of using the mind in kindred fields." And again, "If anyone studies a subject to any purpose, it improves the quality and powers of his mind for certain cognate uses, even if he remembers little or nothing of it." The words that I have ventured to italicize save the statements from the indiscriminate claims of transfer that are so unjustifiable. Even so, it cannot too often be repeated that even between related pursuits there is no necessary and automatic transfer; it must be worked for, consciously and deliberately. Luckily, such mental training is possible, otherwise the greater part of school education would be reduced ad absurdum. Leaving however this matter of culture', I would add that education includes much that falls outside that term, whatever meaning is attached to it. It is nowadays a commonplace to say that liberal and technical studies are not antithetical; the notion, or perhaps rather the feeling, that there is something vulgar and degrading about vocational education is a legacy from aristocratic Greeks. For thousands of adults education will arise out of, or be connected with, their work; our earliest attempts at adult education, in the mechanics' institutes, were based on this principle, though they interpreted it too rigidly. Thousands again will find their approach to education through recreational activities in which they take part; it would be not merely pedantic but mischievous to deny the name of education to any pursuit just because it can also be called entertainment. It will be educative in so far as it is progressive and constructive, requiring effort and thought. No list need be given, since every reader can supply examples for himself. The point to emphasize is that all these miscellaneous and practical interests will always bulk most largely in adult education; books, even when made significant by the experience of life, will remain a minority concern. One incidental benefit of the war is that many of us academic people have been thrown into contact with uneducated men and women, and have found again and again that our bookish knowledge is of little avail in situations where practical sense and handiness are required : nor have the educated 'any marked superiority in patience, kindliness, good humour, and innate manners. All this is perhaps not worth saying, since nobody would think of denying it. Yet I cannot help feeling that Sir Richard lays undue stress on books and their contents; if that is what adult education means, then it will never be universal. One can't have it both ways. the pressing Sir Richard Livingstone's main theme is problem of giving the masses of the nation some higher education"; his remarks on other types of education are incidental, and many of them appear to be based on little first-hand knowledge of modern schools. In particular, it is a pity that he should have included as a postscript a criticism of secondary education, for it is not merely, as he says, unconnected with " the main subject, but is directly opposed to what goes before. In the second chapter he maintains that children have not the knowledge of life requisite for understanding history, literature, political science, or philosophy. On the contrary, certain subjects need no experience of life for their full comprehension; among these are mathematics, languages, the sciences, and some aspects of geography. These subjects are normally indicated for the young". Without pausing to inquire how French or Latin can be distinguished as languages from the literature written in them, or whether mathematics is purely abstract and theoretic and does not spring from life", we note that such subjects should form the chief part of the school curriculum—whether the secondary school is intended is not clear. 'I am not trying to banish history and literature and kindred subjects from the education of the young. I am only urging that we should realize the difficulties and limitations-the important limitations of their study in youth." There is, of course, much truth in this view-though not to the extent of accepting Grundtvig's sweeping dictum "the period of boyhood is not the right school-time". We go as far wrong in imposing on youngsters studies that they are unripe for as we do in imposing on adults a culture that is alien to them. But, in the postscript, where the argument is that our age has lost its soul, the values of school subjects are reversed. They are now classified as means and ends. Mathematics has ceased to be purely abstract and theoretic. “The pupil learns it in order to become an engineer or an accountant or to add up marks or his house-books or for some similar purpose." The other subjects that before were indicated as proper studies for the young, "languages, science, geography, economics, sewing, or cookery ", now take a back seat. I do not question the importance of these subjects all are elements in the nourishment of the human being, but they are destitute, or almost destitute, of this essential vitamin," i.e. are not " concerned with the supreme ends of life". There now turn out to be only four subjects that really count, two of them, theology and philosophy, being outside the school, but the other two, literature and history, being very much the concern of the school. "It is to these subjects that the school must turn if it is seeking for higher ends." The schoolmaster is indeed in a quandary over his catering: one set of dishes contain no vitamins, and the other cannot be digested by the immature. May one refer Sir Richard to one of his own principles, the cross-fertilization of theory and experience", and suggest that his experience of secondary-school organization is insufficient? " In this review I seem to have kept entirely to the part of advocatus diaboli, never a very pleasing role. But the book is so challenging, and has been so widely read, that it calls for the most careful examination. Sir Richard Livingstone has done valuable work for adult education, and his prestige is such that all his words will carry weight. I hope the direction that he gives to the movement will not restrict its course to that of traditional culture. At a time when the future of education is being planned, it is above all things essential that our eyes should be turned forward and not back. Sir Richard bids us heed the origins of Western civilization, Palestine, and Greece. Let us then remember both Orpheus and Lot's wife. THE SOME CHRISTMAS BOOKS, 1941 By S. B. LUCAS HE Christmas Books received this year are very few in number. Nevertheless a number of publishing firms have risen nobly to the occasion, and the boy or girl who is dissatisfied with what is offered must be indeed hard to please. Messrs. Blackie & Son, who understand this kind of thing so well, seem to be entitled to first place, and we will let Mr. Percy Westerman lead off. Colin Standish, well known to admirers of this author, appears again in Standish Holds On (4s. 6d. net). This time he is captured by members of the Karamoni (just the right name for a secret society) and finds himself on board their submarine and a witness of their ruthless piratical activities. They dope him with a noxious drug, but finally he gets the better of the villainous Devilinos in an aeroplane. Very thrilling, too, is Mr. Westerman's other new book, War Cargo (5s. net), in which more old friends appear. The ship Golden Venture sails from New Brunswick with a cargo of aeroplanes bound for Britain, and passes through many perils on the way. A wireless message purporting to come from Halifax but really sent by the enemy deceives the captain for a time, but the raider concerned is destroyed; the story of the Jervis Bay" is introduced; attack from the air and danger from mines must be met; but the convoy which is eventually joined arrives safely, even though the ship is stranded off Blackpool. A fine story of the mercantile marine. It was no doubt inevitable that the events leading up to Dunkirk should be woven into a story for boys, and Major Charles Gilson has used his opportunities to good purpose in Through the German Hordes (4s. net). Tugwell, the young subaltern; Sackville, staff officer; McIvor, the brawny Highland sergeant; Hawke, the Cockney private; Stubbs, the R.A.F. pilot-all these are good to know. Their many adventures and the devices by which they escape capture make a most absorbing story which ends as a boat pushes away from Dunkirk. Gallant Deeds of the War, by Stanley Rogers (4s. net), gathers together some of the most outstanding achievements of the Navy, Army, and Air Force. The fight of the Rawalpindi, the battle of the River Plate, the navy at Narvic, and Dunkirk, come into the picture, as well as a number of thrilling incidents like holding a bridge, a colonel's adventure, heroic firemen, saving a (Continued on page 552) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LEICESTER The College offers courses for the External Degrees of London University in Arts, Science, Commerce, and Law. Some of these courses are suitable for students who wish to take the first Examination in Agriculture, Dental Surgery, Medicine, and Veterinary Science. Inclusive Tuition Fee, £25 per annum. Post-graduate one-year course for the Fee payable by Student, £12. HOSTEL FOR WOMEN STUDENTS Prospectus free on application to Registrar. If in doubt- BOOK TOKENS YOUR FRIENDS CAN EXCHANGE Book Tokens at their own bookshop for just the books they want BOOKS ARE MORE THAN EVER THE BEST GIFTS they are still unrationed and tax-free-but ORDER CHRISTMAS BOOKS AND BOOK TOKENS EARLY |