past. Prof. Dakin proceeded to read a selection of answers received to a questionnaire. One from Sheffield was, "The natural leaning of the Sheffield child is to neither plant nor animal life. They live on steel and what steel stands for. All have an inborn love of both physics and chemistry. Other tastes have to be acquired." Another reply, from the North of England, was, “Please don't teach my Maggie any more about her inside, because it is rude."

Dr. Lilian Clarke urged the necessity of studying biology in schools as scientifically as chemistry and physics were now studied. The subject could and should afford a training in scientific method. Huxley had the method of a physicist, and his work was characterized accordingly.

Prof. Tattersall confined his attention to the importance of the cultural aspect of the study of biology, and explained lucidly how the subject was of use in the stages of childhood, adolescence, and adult life.

on

A committee appointed in 1923, under the chairmanship of the Rev. Dr. H. B. Gray, next presented a second report Educational Training for Overseas Life." Full of suggestion, this report, published at a most opportune time, shows the necessity for a widening of the science syllabus with the object of developing a boy's natural bias towards life on the land and for giving girls some practical knowledge of modern operations connected with farm life. The report concludes with an account of the scope of agriculture in the secondary schools of the overseas dominions. Mr. H. W. Cousins (Brampton County Secondary School) opened the discussion and gave a most interesting account of what could be done in a mixed secondary school in a rural area. The outlook of the course was, no doubt, vocational, but the aim was educational.

In the afternoon session Prof. Cyril Burt opened with a paper on Vocational Guidance in the School." He explained how a child could be measured exactly by mental tests. By these it was possible to divide the child population of the country into a number of well-defined grades. The first grade consisted of children who, at 10 years of age, had the mental development of a child of 15. These numbered about I per cent of the child population of the country. These bright children should be sought out and given the best education possible, which would enable them to fill the higher positions in the Civil Service, to enter professions, and to undertake administration work. About 2 per cent of the children came into grade two. They were fitted mentally to become successful tradespeople, to hold executive positions, and for similarly responsible posts. The third grade was composed of about 10 per cent of the children, who were suited for highly skilled work. In the fourth grade came children who were just above the average, and thus suited for work requiring skill; and in the fifth grade came children who were suited to work requiring a less degree of skill. To the sixth grade belonged those who were suited only to become unskilled workers. Below these was a seventh grade, consisting of those who were below the average mentally, but two-thirds of whom passed into the working world. A last grade contained idiots and those who should be kept in institutions. It had been found that the openings existing for various types of workers corresponded in number to the number of children qualified to fill them under the grading system he had described.

Mr. F. M. Earle followed with an account of experiments carried out by the National Institute of Industrial Psychology. About 100 cases had been dealt with, the range of inquiry covering, on the one hand, the child's home and family circumstances, health and physique, school attainments and record, intelligence, character and temperament, hobbies and interests, manual and mechanical abilities, and, on the other, the specific requirements, psychological as well as physical, of the commoner occupations.

Mr. J. W. Cox dealt with "Mechanical Aptitude in Relation to Education and Vocational Psychology," and described numerous tests of varying difficulty, comprising

simple mechanical models with missing links, diagrams and descriptions, designed to get rid of the objection to assembling common objects.

Another aspect of the subject was considered in a paper read by Mr. E. Sater Davies (Director of Education for Kent), which described what could be done in a large county area by an education authority in organizing vocational guidance and applying common sense in helping each individual to make the most of his abilities and opportunities. (This paper will be found on page 694.)

Sir Robert Blair, in closing the discussion, referred to the obvious limitations of the suggestions made. He desired to know how much time was occupied in investigating a single case. The question of cost is a serious one, and an authority with many thousands of pupils must know how practicable a scheme will be in a wide area. The method should be reduced to the simplest form, and teachers should be allowed to use that form. He also pointed out the unwise publication of teacher's reports which militated against their completeness and conciseness. He advocated the adoption of a code of technical terms.

"

At the final session "The Conditions of Success of Technical Education" was considered. Sir Robert Blair, formerly Chief Education Officer of the London County Council, who was the opening speaker, pointed out that technical education had its origin in the early eighties during a period of popular alarm at the growth of Continental competition in industrial markets hitherto regarded as British preserves. Since then the movement had succeeded in establishing technical schools and colleges as an integral part of our educational system, and its practical spirit had made a lasting influence on the older and more academic" schools. The general extension and improvement of elementary and secondary schools had been accompanied by a distinct raising of the level of teaching and attainment in the technical schools; and at the same time those institutions had been endeavouring to adjust their efforts to an expanding and changing, but not altogether sympathetic, industrial system. It was easy to point to remarkable achievements on the part of particular schools in raising the educational fitness of artisans and technical staffs, and in direct co-operation in industrial problems. But in the absence of any general survey it was not possible to say whether technical education had fulfilled the purposes of its founders, or in what new direction its energies should be turned to capture the sympathies of industrial organizations. What industry required, stated Sir Robert, was a constant inflow of young men who would keep the industry alive to the fact that they must be prepared as they go on to shed their older ideas, and to take new ones and develop them. It would be a great advantage, he argued, to bring industry and education into closer co-operation than they had been in the past. He felt that their industrial system tended to become conservative, and that they were now languishing because they were waiting for the advent of the men who had passed through the universities and technical institutions and were working their way to the top. When they got there they would get a new burst of industrial success.

Mr. J. Wickham Murray contended that there was no fundamental difference between technical and any other form of education. It did not aim merely to produce an efficient worker. The probable and actual life-work of a student could be used to cultural ends. No system of education, he added, which ignored the growing complexity of modern life with its manifold social and industrial problems, could be successful.

Mr. Oliver Freeman (Portsmouth) submitted that it was the duty of the State to provide technical education in the fullest sense as much so as the provision of secondary and elementary education, and Mr. Charles Coles (Cardiff Technical College) said they could not permit the trades unions, particularly in these days of specialized labour, to look on techincal education as something to be kept under suspicion. He concluded with a most interesting, though

brief, account of how the active interest and co-operation of employers and trade unions in education had been fostered and maintained at Cardiff.

Moral Training in Boarding Schools and Day Schools was the next item arranged for, but unfortunately an excellent paper by Mr. R. F. Cholmeley was merely presented, in his unavoidable absence, owing to lack of time. Mr. F. W. Bushell deplored the absence in school inspection reports of any adequate reference to the supply of moral education, and pointed out that moral development was easier at good boarding schools, but the dangers were greater. He advocated the desirability of wider experiment.

Mr. F. J. Hemming (Ilchen Secondary School) considered the question from the day school point of view, and stressed the importance of ideals and unity of purpose and ultimately the theory of life in the development of personality.

Dr. W. H. D. Rouse (Perse School, Cambridge) dealt with the problem in his usual inimitable style in a paper regarded by many as one of the most enjoyable items of the whole proceedings. He had no doubt that the boarding school, as an instrument of training, was far more powerful than the day school. In the boarding school boys acknowledged the first claims of honour and public spirit-they believed in fair play and generally practised it. Large day schools in large towns were, in his view, the most difficult of schools to influence; even there much could be done if the boys were caught young. Everything in the last resort depended on the home. In Queen Victoria's reign strict discipline ruled in the home and everybody was the better for it, including the wife. With a strict father, a good

FOR

mother, and a competent nurse, the boys came to school having a background of religion, of good general knowledge, and a sense of discipline. He deplored the passing away of the Victorian home. Now, as a rule, the father had abdicated to the wife, neither strong nor wise enough to secure strict discipline. In consequence the boy was left to decide for himself what ought to be decided for him. The schoolmaster had to do the father's part, or sometimes had to give way because he could not help the boy going out in the evening if his father allowed it, and could not stop him smoking if mother gave him cigarettes. Schoolmasters, he continued, have to supply the steadying influence and to check the indulgences. School does now what was once done in the home. Wonderful things could be done by a good house master, and happy was the house that contained a charming lady, old enough to be discreet, yet young enough for the older boys to fall in love with her in term. School training should be the same as a good house could give, and it amounted to what might be briefly called the gentleman's code of honour." This code applied equally well to the peasant and the artisan, provided he was left alone by agitators. The great advantage of the classical course was the moral teaching it gave. Science

gave nothing of the sort, mathematics nothing, modern languages a little of that in an inferior way, history a part, chiefly political. Classics gave it all in the last three years of school life.. Dr. Rouse concluded with a brief description of the public school boy he had in mind-" modest, simple, good at games and at work, genuinely fond of both, and free from that worst of moral vices, the desire to take advantage of his neighbour."

In

OR the past thirty or more years the general trend in education has been towards the development of direct methods of teaching. The new treatment of languages, for example, with its relative neglect of mere grammar and imitative composition, and its greater emphasis on literature and creative composition, has revolutionized the outlook of pupils in this field. mathematics, however, although there has been the same general tendency, there has been far less success. Since Spencer, most of the authorities have agreed that the old orthodox methods of teaching arithmetic by rules, and of treating geometry exclusively as a deductive science, are wrong. And in consequence some rather half-hearted attempts have been made to reform the teaching of mathematics in accordance with what are now felt to be the psychological requirements of children.

I will not waste words here on the faults of the purely abstract, deductive treatment of school mathematics: its results are seen in the appalling mathematical ineptitude of the majority of the finished products of our secondary schools. Only the other day (August 15) an examiner wrote to The Times Educational Supplement raising the question whether, in view of the actual papers he had recently corrected, geometry was any longer worth its place in the curriculum. The answer to this, of course, is that geometry is fundamental to human thought. As C. H. Hinton says:

'It is important to develop the space sense, for it is the means by which we think about real things. Space is the instrument of mind." The examiners' letter should lead,

not to the exclusion of theoretical geometry, but to a drastic reform of the methods of teaching it.

Worse even than the purely deductive treatment, which at least is only wrong because it is inappropriate among children, is the idiot's method of teaching by rules. Yet how many text-books there are still which appeal almost entirely to rules, especially in arithmetic and algebra. How many boys to-day are really taught to understand the

"

In this matter our salvation will not come from merely doing a few more practical examples " before beginning the theory of the subject. Practical geometry, rightly conducted, is vitally important; but mere drawing and mensuration can be, and now are, greatly overdone. These are mere empiricism, and do nothing to expand the mind, either by training the reasoning powers or by arousing the perceptive faculties. Intuition and logic form the dual basis of all mathematics, and geometry ought to cultivate these, and not the mechanical, powers. The accumulation of facts, however useful in providing a foundation of accurate and concrete perceptions, will never enable a pupil to perceive, understand, or deduce any new relationships; and this is what we require.

Nor do the so-called "practical examples from real life," which are a feature of many modern arithmetic books, help to solve the problem in the least degree. In fact, by introducing irrelevant considerations, they may sometimes hinder the understanding.

A hint of part of the solution of the difficulty is really given by the history of the subject. Almost all mathematical discoveries have arisen in the course of attempts to solve pure problems, or, in other words, puzzles. The interest which these arouse has always spurred people on, according to the degree of their intellectual capacities, to mental efforts which create, gradually enough no doubt, the power to perceive new mathematical truths, and to make new deductions. The logic of the science has grown along with the development of its range; and the same should hold good for the individual in his school course. Set pupils missing-figure puzzles, for example, and they will

learn arithmetic perforce in the process of trying to solve them; and the same holds good with geometrical dissection puzzles.

With regard to geometry, a recent article of mine in The Times Educational Supplement (August 29) suggests a few directions in which reform is possible and desirable, so I will not repeat them here. I would add, however, one point: namely, that it is a mistake to require accurate figures when dealing with purely theoretical proofs. They are irrelevant to the logic, but they prompt the steps of an argument, much as do the leading questions of a poor heuristic teacher. Hence their value when it is a question of discovering something; but hence also their power of inhibiting the process of sheer reasoning. In order to force a boy to prove something logically, one should make him reason from the data with an inaccurate figure, so that his visual perception and memory do not short-circuit his logic.

I believe that if mathematicians seriously tried to produce courses which conformed to these principles they would evolve a Direct Method which would revitalize the whole subject.

Topics and Events

PHYSICAL TRAINING IN West Riding SECONDARY SCHOOLS.Mr. A. H. Whitehead, Senior Organizer of Physical Training to the West Riding County Council, in a recent report to the Higher Education Committee, reviews the progress made in West Riding secondary schools during the past twenty years. In 1905 the accommodation for the teaching of gymnastics was practically non-existent. At the present time thirty-two secondary schools of the fifty-one aided or maintained by the West Riding County Council possess a fully equipped Swedish gymnasium. Hot and cold shower baths are also provided in many instances, and the newest type of gymnasium has large doors on one side of the building so that when the weather is suitable the exercises are really performed in the open air. Where no special gymnasium exists, the main hall of the school is supplied with Swedish apparatus. In only four schools is no inside accommodation available. Of primary importance in the organization of school games is the provision of playing fields and the supply of games' material. In recent years the West Riding County Council has expended considerable sums of money on the purchase, levelling, and laying out of playing fields, including the provision of cricket pitches, tennis courts (grass and hard), net ball courts, hockey pitches, &c. It is characteristic of secondary school competition in the West Riding that there are no and no leagues gate money." In the boys' schools Rugby football, with its tradition of manly play for the game's sake, is gradually taking the place (in those schools not already "Rugger Schools") of Association Football. Closely connected with the provision of playing fields is the supply of equipment. Until recent years it was the custom in many West Riding secondary schools to charge a games' subscription in addition to the ordinary school fees. This custom persists in only one or two schools; since the school fees were raised to a minimum of nine guineas per annum, the games subscription is in nearly all cases included in the fees. During the year 1923-24 the secondary schools in the West Riding area expended £2,473 through the games' fund, an average of 3s. 10d. per pupil.

INDIA OF TO-DAY.-The sub-title of the film " India of To-day' is no exaggeration-for it is indeed a fascinating film." The pictures were taken last winter by Mr. Henry Howse, F.R.G.S., and the film is presented under the auspices of the Joint India Film Committee. Information regarding it is obtainable from Mr. T. H. Baxter, at 6 Salisbury Square, E.C. 4, under whose direction the pictures were made. To journey from Cape Comorin to the Khyber Pass in two hours is no light adventure; but one rises after the passing of the last picture mentally alert. The simple pictures of village life of the potter nimbly turning out dozens of little drinking pots to be used once and then broken and cast aside of the obedient elephant slowly removing enormous stones for use in the building of a memorial chapel-of the irrigation of the country fields and of the Persian ox-turned water-wheel-of the blind boy scouts pitching their tent-of the (Continued on page 702.)

DUCKWORTH

Childhood's Fears: Psycho-Analysis and the Inferiority-Fear Complex

By G. F. MORTON, M.A., B.Sc., Headmaster of the Leeds Boys' Modern School. With a Foreword by the Bishop of Knaresborough and a Preface by Dr. W. H. Telling. Large Crown 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. net.

This is the first book which attempts to modify the current doctrines of psycho-analysis from the standpoint of an experienced, practical schoolmaster.

"The book is so sensible, and its citations from observed facts so apposite, that it leaves little doubt in the mind that this writer, at least, has found real value and use in the study and application of the existing science of the unconscious mind. Here is an obviously practical and hard-thinking schoolmaster who makes good and useful sense of the theories, and composes the quarrels upon the neutral territory of education."-The Times Educational Supplement.

"It is good to see bogeys laid at any time, but best of all when the laying is performed so dexterously and yet so straightforwardly as Mr. Morton does it in this interesting and excellent work. Mr. Morton has done an excellent service to the parent, the school teacher, and the State."Daily News.

Introduction to the Study of History

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By Ch. V. LANGLOIS and Ch. SEIGNOBOS. Preface by F. York Powell. Large Crown 8vo, cloth. (Second Impression.) 7s. 6d. net.

"A handbook that students will use and value in proportion to their use of it; a book that will save much muddle of thought and much loss of time."-F. YORK POWELL.

Six Greek Sculptors (Myron, Pheidias,
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By ERNEST GARDNER, Professor of Greek Archaeology
at the University of London. With 81 plates. Demy 8vo,

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"For the benefit of the student generation we would recommend those not yet familiar with Greek sculpture to take this volume as a very competent introduction to the principal sculptors of the great days of Greece."-The British Builder.

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In this volume Mr. Boulenger has a host of entertaining stories to tell on the subject of his protégés.

He deals with the many problems that arise out of the management of an aquarium, of which the general public is ignorant, and in popular language gives an account of the life-histories and habits of all those inhabitants of the ponds, rivers, and oceans that have been kept in captivity at the Zoo and elsewhere.

STUDIES IN THEOLOGY.-NEW VOL.

The Doctrine of the Person of Christ By SYDNEY CAVE, D.D. Cloth.

55. net.

Dr. Cave's book has not only the erudition of the scholar, but a firsthand touch upon human life. If, as he thinks, the most that we can expect is a theologia viatoris, a pilgrim theology, it is well that so good a guide is available."The Sunday Times.

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Hours in the National Gallery

By STEWART DICK, Official Lecturer to the National Gallery. With 16 plates. Crown 8vo, cloth. 38. 6d. net.

Thousands of visitors to the National Gallery have delighted in Mr. Stewart Dick's talks, which enable them to appreciate the general principles of great painting and the different characteristics of the various schools and artists represented in the world's greatest picture gallery. This book is published in response to a widespread demand.

innoculation of the lepers of the little boys who learn the teaching of the parable of the Good Samaritan by acting it, donkey and all-leave one more alive than do the glorious pictures of the Taj Mahal, the Pearl Mosque at Agra, and the Fort Palace at Delhi. The film deals with (a) the land and the people; (b) impact of the West; (c) education; (d) medical work; (e) impact of Christianity. The film can be seen at the Regent Street Polytechnic Cinema from September 28 to October 3, and no one who has "his face to the East" should miss it.

INTERNATIONAL STUDY FUND FOR ADULT EDUCATION TUTORS. -The World Association for Adult Education is organizing a scheme whereby tutors engaged in adult education will be enabled to visit a country other than their own for a period of two to three months with the object of closer study and research into the adult educational endeavours of that country. This will enable tutors to gain first-hand knowledge of the country visited and a deeper understanding of the general characteristics and cultural needs of its people. The scheme originated in 1924, when a German tutor, the director of Freiburg Adult School, was invited by The World Association to spend three months in England. On this occasion, owing to a bursary being provided by the Council of Fircroft, this college was made the visitor's headquarters. Urged by the really good results of this experiment, The World Association is seeking to promote regular visits of a similar kind. While endeavouring to secure hospitality for the tutor where he decides to stay, means will be provided for him to move freely, so that his entire upkeep need not burden any particular college or institution. It should be noted that while adult students have often been exchanged, no scheme has previously been attempted whereby tutors of adult classes could have opportunities for travel study in this way. The idea will commend itself to all who believe in adult education, as being both practical and significant. Financial assistance for exchanges of this kind has been o ered by Czecho-Slovakia, and schemes with Italy and France have been outlined. Germany has already provided two sums of £60 for the next five years, and the first German-financed tutor will visit England in September of this year. Other countries are being approached as opportunity occurs. Much more financial support is, however, needed if the scheme is to become as large and comprehensive as is desired. Contributions may be sent to The World Association for Adult Education, 13 John Street, Adelphi, London, W.C. 2.

*

VACATION TERM FOR BIBLICAL STUDY.-The Vacation Term for Biblical Study met for the twenty-third year in succession on August 1 this year at Cambridge, where two of the halls of Newnham College were kindly put at the disposal of the students. The inaugural address was given by Canon B. K. Cunningham, the subject being "Faith and Worship." The two courses of lectures during the first week were given by Dr. Theodore Robinson of Cardiff University, and by Archdeacon Lilley. The former dealt with "The Deuteronomic Movement," and after discussing fully the modern theories put forward by various scholars giving a very late, or a very early, date to that movement of reform, he stated his own reasons for still holding to the more generally accepted date, during the reign of Josiah. The Archdeacon of Ludlow had as his subject "Worship," and having first stated the fundamental idea of worship as set forth by the schoolmen, and more especially by St. Thomas Aquinas in his doctrine of the Sacraments and of Grace, he proceeded to deal with Man, as worshipper, and God, as the object of worship. In the course of the same week, the students had the privilege of learning something of the meaning of Hebrew Poetry from Prof. Nairne, and also, they were shown the results of the recent excavations at Ur, by Mr. Sidney Smith, of the British Museum. During the week ending August 15 New Testament books (viz., the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians) were the subject of the Rev. E. C. Hoskyns' course of lectures, which was followed by the consideration of "Some Ancient and Modern Heresies by Dr. Bouquet. Among those who availed themselves of this opportunity to increase and deepen their knowledge of the Bible were deaconesses from America, as well as from England, and sisters from more than one religious community, but perhaps the majority of the students were members of the teaching profession, whose desire to keep abreast of the best learning on these subjects led them to devote the first fortnight of the summer vacation to that object, and whose presence year by year testifies to the practical value of this term. The secretary is Miss Lawder, 25 Halifax Road, Cambridge, to whom all inquiries may be addressed.

University Correspondence College

FOUNDED 1887.

Principal:

WILLIAM BRIGGS, LL.D., D.C.L., M.A., B.Sc.

CORR.COLL

RECENT SUCCESSES

AT

London University Examinations

At the June 1925 Matriculation Examination,

142

Univ. Corr. Coll. Students PASSED

At the B.A. Examination, June 1925,

178

Univ. Corr. Coll. Students

were successful,

TAKING 149 PLACES IN HONOURS

At the B.Sc. Summer Examinations 1925,

87

Univ. Corr. Coll. Students

were successful, TAKING 36 PLACES IN HONOURS

At the External M.A. Examination, May 1925,

16 of the 23

successful Candidates in Classics, English, French, History, Philosophy, and Education were students of University Correspondence College

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