Principals wishing to have their J. & J. PATON, EDUCATIONAL 143 CANNON STREET, LONDON, E.C. 4. Telephone: Central 5053. Edited by ALEXANDER NAIRNE, D.D., Sir ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH, M.A., and T. R. GLOVER, M.A. Based on The Cambridgeshire Syllabus of Religious Teaching for Schools (see below). The BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM in The Daily News: "In The Children's Bible the Cambridge Editors have produced a book which deserves an immense circulation, alike among children and adults. If it could be made the basis of religious education in this country we might confidently expect a new and happier era in our religious life." The Cambridgeshire Syllabus of Being the Report on the Teaching of Religion and of the Bible by an Advisory Committee. of the Cambridgeshire Education Committee. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. Is 6d net. This Syllabus is specially recommended in the recent Report of the Board of Education Consultative Committee on The Education of the Adolescent. CAMBRIDGE NATURE STUDY SERIES Educational Associations in Conference ANNUAL EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE : UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON The fifteenth annual Conference of Educational Associations, held at University College from December 30 to January 7, offered an interesting programme of addresses and discussions, including the presidential address and three joint conferences. More than fifty associations co-operated, representing many aspects of educational work and policy. The President, Sir Henry Miers, formerly Principal of London University and ViceChancellor of Manchester University, selected a challenging subject for his address "The Choice of What is Good for Others -a problem which, as he said, faces all who are placed in a position of authority, including politicians, teachers, parents, journalists, social reformers, authors, artists, preachers, missionaries, entertainers, and even dressmakers. A revolt against custom and authority had developed since the War, and new agencies were at work, such as the cinema and broadcasting. The re-action was a desire to resume the old shielding or defensive attitude. In Russia, everything that might lead to antiCommunistic opinion was 1igidly excluded from the country. In England, he detected signs of revolt against perfect liberty. "Let us control these agencies," people were beginning to say, "and only disseminate what is good." But what were the criteria of "goodness' How were we to test such a thing as music? Pleasure was no test, because people got pleasure out of things obviously bad for them. We are faced continually with these opposed ideals of freedom and authority. Sir Henry Miers's conclusion, evidently based on mature thought, was that wide access should be given both to the good and the worse, and that both adults and children should be taught to cultivate their own judgment. Give the wide choice, and encourage the exercise of training and judgment." " " The joint conferences were devoted to discussions of the questions of " Voluntary Enterprise in Education and "How Practical Instruction can be given in various types of schools." Miss Adler, in opening the discussion on voluntary enterprise, reminded the audience of a fact often overlooked, that "voluntary enterprise" is possible in schools controlled by public educational authorities, e.g. in the raising of the school age, school journeys, care and after-care, old scholars' guilds. Mr. R. W. Ferguson, director of education for Messrs. Cadbury Brothers, showed how much useful educational work can be done by enlightened industrial firms, and Dr. Rouse gave evidence of the degree to which the "voluntary " principle can enter into school work even in a public school. For example, through use of the direct method in modern language teaching, a very compulsory subject became in effect a voluntary one.' Mr. Arthur Rowntree, of Bootham School, York, discussed the wise use of leisure. Boys should be encouraged, he said, to take up such subjects as natural history and archaeology, art, handicraft, or photography. The collector becomes the systematist and finally the scientist. In the conference on " Practical Work," the general desire to make education less" bookish" was evident. Sir Christopher Turner urged the value of practical work, both in elementary and secondary schools, in town and country; not less than three afternoons weekly would meet the need. Mr. G. W. Olive, of Dauntsey School, described the special curriculum of his school, which prepares boys for agricultural work in England or the Dominions. Miss E. D. Cook, of Manchester, referred to the practical difficulties of arranging instruction in cookery, for which two-hour lessons were necessary. For country schools, she recommended the travelling kitchen, the teacher spending a fortnight or more in each village; but permanent arrangements were not so expensive as some people imagined, if the food is sold. Miss Palin, of Colston's School, Bristol, described the arts and crafts teaching in a school of 600 girls. A great variety of handwork is possible, closely related to social history and geography teaching. Lace-work and tapestry weaving made the children realize that beauty rests not only in form but in a well-made and accurate piece of work. From the large number of addresses delivered and subjects discussed, it is an invidious task to make a selection. Sir Robert Blair's presidential address to the Education Guild gave an interesting summary of "the movements which have brought the national system of education to its present position," taking as his point of departure the work of Lancaster and Bell in the early years of the nineteenth century. This was followed by an inspiring address by Mr. John Russell, on Pestalozzi, in commemoration of the centenary of his death on February 17. Mr. H. Ward gave an address to the Training College Association on the important question of the relation of the universities to the training colleges. The proposal that intending teachers should graduate in a university was, he thought, in advance of public opinion and impracticable on account of expense; but he made several useful suggestions for extending university influence over training colleges. Prof. Winifred Cullis's address to the Association of University Women Teachers on Emancipations," Mr. Isaac Foot's to the Friends' Guild of Teachers on Betting and Gambling," Sir Alfred Davies's to Art Teachers' Guild on The new duty of art lovers to the countryside"; Miss Faithfull's to the Association of Head Mistresses of Recognized Private Schools on Some ways of promoting intellectual interests among schoolgirls," Sir Rennell Rodd's to the Modern Language Association on The urgent and growing need of a knowledge of modern languages to-day," are a few of the addresses, selected at random, which will repay careful study when the published report of the conference is available. " It should be added that the arrangements for the conference were not restricted to oral discussions. The Dalcroze Society (Incorporated) gave a lecture-demonstration of eurhythmics at the Scala Theatre, and an exhibition of educational films was given at the Stoll Picture Theatre. The Publishers' Exhibition was held as usual but, owing to the Great Hall being under repair, the accommodation was more cramped than last year. It was evident, however, that the publishers are taking an active and important part in the educational movement. To Prof. J. E. G. de Montmorency, the Chairman of the Committee, Miss Henrietta Busk, the Hon. Treasurer, and Miss M. A. Challen, the Secretary, thanks are due for a conference which, in scope and interest, fully maintained the high standard set by previous conferences. THE NORTH OF ENGLAND EDUCATION Most of the subjects discussed at the North of England Education Conference, which was held in Liverpool from January 6 to 8, were either of direct or indirect interest to secondary school teachers, though the sectional meeting in which "The Place of the Secondary School in the English Educational System was discussed, could not be reckoned amongst the outstanding successes of the Conference. This meeting was more largely attended than any of the other sectional meetings, and amongst the audience were members who had contributed largely both by time and substance to the cause of secondary education. Miss Alice Stoneman's opening paper could scarcely have been improved. What then was the cause of the disappointment, which was freely expressed? Did it arise from the fact that the present position of the secondary school is to a certain extent anomalous, and that secondary school teachers, like elementary school teachers, are not at the moment thinking either as broadly or as bravely as those who are striving to view the educational system of the country as a whole and to shape it as a better instrument of training? It is a point for secondary school teachers to consider. The meeting in question may have lost much of its effectiveness because it was sandwiched, in an afternoon session, between morning discussions on 'Post Primary Education ' and 'Efficiency in Education' which were of extraordinary interest. Mr. A. B. Archer's paper on Efficiency in Education, with special reference to individual work in the secondary schools went extremely well, whilst Mr. C. W. Bailey's suggestive paper on Secondary Schools and the Drama," with the following discussions by the Rev. Father Gurrin, Rector of St. Francis Xavier's College, Liverpool, and by Mr. Frank Roscoe, formed a fitting climax to a conference of great interest. " " Lord Eustace Percy opened the Conference by a presidential address in which he urged the need for a national policy in education, developed naturally from below and not imposed from above. The I three year programme policy would, he thought, secure this end. In the bringing of suitable education within the reach of all, said Lord Eustace, it is so easy in the process to shorten the reach of those to whom the gift is offered. Education must remain a bracing thing. The qualities which every English school tries to bring out in its scholars are selfreliance in thought and action, mental and physical fitness, pride in getting a good job well done and keeping oneself in hard training, the sense of duty and the sense of adventure. It is on personal effort and family sacrifice that every school and university has been built: no system of free places and maintenance allowances can take the place of the individual's duty to educate himself and find work for himself and to assist the other members of his family to get the best education and the best work available, according to their abilities. In England we attempt, however imperfectly, to proportion the taxpayer's assistance to the needs and abilities of the scholars. Our policy rests on discrimination and we need to guard against the constant tendency of all public administration towards indiscriminateness. We have to guard against it not so much in the interests of public economy, as in the interests of education itself. The hardworking boy of 16 in regular work at good wages who unthinkingly accepts from the ratepayer, as a matter of course and as his right, free transportation to the evening class, may thereby be losing something of far more value to him than a tramfare. Lord Eustace concluded his address by an appeal to members of public bodies and to teachers, to safeguard the parent against wrong and injudicious teaching. Dr. Ernest Barker, the Principal of King's College, London, and the Chairman of the drafting sub-committee, opened the discussion on "Post Primary Education," by explaining the recently published report of the consultative committee. Miss E. R. Conway followed with a spirited attack upon the transference of children to another institution at the age of II. This was countered in an amusing way by Mr. Beaumont, a secondary school teacher of Edinburgh, who pointed out that Miss Conway was advocating a plan adopted in Scotland some twenty-five years ago. This had failed in practice and had been abandoned in favour of one similar to that advocated by the Consultative Committee. Mr. Beaumont, and later the Chairman of the Leicestershire Education Committee, both referred to the added demand for secondary school places which had followed the establishment respectively, of advanced divisions" and "central schools of selective type." " The discussion on Efficiency in Education " was opened by Prof. Campagnac in a paper that can only be described as a literary gem which every teacher should strive to acquire. Adopting as familiar and convenient, Locke's conception of education as consisting in virtue, wisdom, and breeding, and in learning so far as it harmonizes and contributes towards those three, Prof. Campagnac worked up to the idea of educational efficiency in relation to the performance of duties in the three fold universe in which we are placed the duty of good manners in society, of practical common sense in the management of affairs in the larger world of men, and of response in the still wider sphere in which, other voices being silenced, we hear a speech more august than the speech of men. Mr. A. B. Archer, who followed, gave an instructive account of an attempt to secure greater efficiency in a secondary school of 350 boys by the concentration of all formal class teaching into the morning sessions, thus leaving the afternoons free for independent study, art, handicraft, music, dramatics and games. After three years of experiment it was possible to say that there had been no loss of ground such as the reduction of teaching periods might have been expected to produce. On the contrary, in most subjects the masters reported definite improvement in work. Breaches of discipline had almost entirely ceased, the general health, both of staff and pupils, was better, and the boys had developed keenness and a more self-reliant attitude to their work. Mr. Brian Heathcote, the personnel officer of Messrs. Alfred Holt and Co., a Liverpool Shipping Firm which recruits entirely from public and secondary school boys who have reached matriculation or Higher School Certificate standard, had some striking things to say about the hundreds of boys interviewed during the last few years. They were potentially good material, he said, but distressingly lacking in accuracy. A large proportion of them seemed to regard knowledge as an end in itself, and they could not apply it. They may have studied French for five years, yet were unable to say in French "I am glad to see you (laughter). They could solve right-angled triangles, but were unable to use this knowledge to find the height of a picture rail. An entrant to a business career, who was to become anything but a mere hack, had to possess five attributes, viz. (1) accuracy, (2) intelligence, (3) loyalty, (4) a capacity for self-education, and (5) the will and ability to translate thought into action. The careless, inaccurate boy, who passed messages incorrectly, addressed letters incorrectly, or wrote up books incorrectly, was a menace to any business, and loyalty, conceived as an independent sense of service, with the acceptance of personal responsibility for one's job and determination to carry through to a conclusion any work which has been entrusted to him, was as essential in the latest joined junior as to the chairman of directors. It was desirable to have some common standard of knowledge, e.g., matriculation or its equivalent, as a starting point, although knowledge without intelligence was of little use in business. Employers were coming more and more to rely on intelligence tests for the classification of candidates for business positions. If school reports were to be believed every boy leaving school was a paragon. A much closer contact between schools and universities and business was advisable so that educationists might have their ideas and ideals tested and proved by employers who were dependent on the schools for their supply of efficient material. Mr. C. W. Bailey, in a suggestive paper on "School and the Drama," gave several original illustrations of the power of children to live in imagination a whole cycle of lives. The preparation and production of a school play was a useful method of cultivating the "team spirit." It unified the whole resources of the school and provided so many interesting things to do. It called for so many gifts and showed how splendidly one art helped another. There was the designing of the dresses and the making of the same. There was the making and painting of the scenery. There was the training for the music and the dances and the practice in correct and audible speech. Mr. Bailey said that he would rejoice in the founding of chairs of music and dramatic art at the universities. Commenting on this, Mr. F. Roscoe said that he was entirely opposed to the idea, which would simply mean that one would get learned treatises on the drama, thus causing the whole subject to be removed from the domain of art to that of education. Some people believed that entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven could be gained by writing an essay on the Ten Commandments. THE INCORPORATED ASSOCIATION OF HEADMASTERS The thirty-fifth annual meetings were held in the Guildhall of the City of London on January 4 and 5. One of the outstanding features of the proceedings was an address by Mr. W. C. Fletcher, C.B., late Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools, on Mathematical Teaching in Secondary Schools.' There is sometimes a tendency among those who have not been actively engaged in teaching for some time to idealize and to ascribe to the average boy and average teacher gifts and powers that the exceptional alone possess. It is also noticeable that innovations and radical reforms in methods of teaching originate usually either from those who have given up teaching or from those who are regarded as cranks. The teacher in harness is too fully occupied with routine work in bringing his form up to the necessary standard to have time or opportunity for experiment, and it is owing to pressure from without that new methods are introduced into schools. The new ideas are generally extravagant and impracticable but in time the grain is separated from the chaff and a workable and improved method results. Those whose experience goes back twenty-five or so years, will recall the waste of time over the direct method of modern language teaching, the heuristic method of teaching science, and the chaotic change from Euclid to geometry. In these subjects practical experience has modified the original idea, but still real reforms have been effected and great progress made. The great improvement of the last twenty-five years synchronizes with the introduction of inspection by the Board of Education, and its original rigid system has been modified and the objectionable and extravagant features have disappeared or are disappearing. There is no doubt that inspection has been, and is, beneficial to schools, in that it keeps things fluid and prevents them getting into grooves. In spite of twenty-five years of inspecting, Mr. Fletcher is under no delusion as to the enthusiasm of the average boy for mathematics and for geometry in particular. In his address he dealt mainly with geometry and referred to the great progress made, particularly in secondary schools, in the teaching of this subject. The views he expressed are not always those held by inspectors at full inspections, and it would be a service to schools if a copy of his paper were given to all inspectors of mathematical subjects. He urged the importance of building on a sure foundation and emphasized and stressed the vital importance of a proper commencement and getting the right teacher for the beginners, but he realized that this teacher was hard to find and that a mathematician did not usually care about devoting himself to small boys. He pointed out that exact mathematical thought and reasoning should be insisted on from the start and that quality and not quantity of work was to be aimed at, and that boys should be left to face and solve their own difficulties-too much help was worse even than none at all. He advocated a few minutes figure drill in unison by the class each lesson. He stated that the amount of work left to be done in the two years between the first and second school examinations was too great, and that more ground should be covered before the first examination. He did not suggest or advocate that the standard of the first examination should be raised, but that the school syllabus should go beyond the examination syllabus. He also suggested mechanics and the calculus should be taken, but not as examination subjects. This is a counsel of perfection and perhaps possible where conditions and staff admit of forms being grouped into sets, but in most secondary schools at present comparatively few boys remain on for a second examination and the first examination is of primary importance. Since the form as a whole has to be entered and all boys brought up to the necessary standard, the mathematical master is inclined to play for safety and confine himself to the examination syllabus and utilize any available time for revision purposes. Lookers on see most of the game, and though perfection in the teaching of mathematics has not yet arrived, still, looking back over his twenty-five years as chief inspector, Mr. Fletcher evidently feels that great progress has been made. Among other subjects discussed at the meeting were the Higher School Examination, the aesthetic value of the school environment, practical subjects in the secondary school curriculum, and Board of Education Circular 1381. Headmasters are always clamouring for elasticity and more freedom of action for the different types of schools, but directly any degree of elasticity is obtained some one brings forward a reactionary resolution asking for uniformity. In the case of the Higher School Examination a resolution was proposed urging one common examination for the Higher School Certificate to be conducted by the Board of Education in conjunction with the universities and the schools; but fortunately wiser counsels prevailed, and an amendment was adopted that it was desirable, having regard to the urgent necessity for variety, elasticity, and experiment in education, that the several Higher School Examinations at present conducted should be retained. In the discussion on the aesthetic value of the school environment, the erection of a standardized type of school building irrespective of nature of the surroundings was deplored. Distinctive and dignified buildings together with suitably decorated and fitted halls and class-rooms have a definite influence on the tone of the school and the morale of the individual. There can be an excess of glazed tiles and hygiene. A resoltuion was passed unanimously condemning the increasing tendency to regard secondary schools as fields for the purpose of advertisement and propaganda. These are often of a very clever and subtle nature and of an apparent educational value and offer scholarships and prizes for essays, &c. They are really commercial enterprises and advertisements, and though harmless and even useful from certain points of view, tend to divert the boy from his proper work and duties. The suggestion that various practical subjects in the curriculum of some schools, such as agriculture, engineering, and various textile processes, should be included in the subjects for the General School Certificate did not meet with much support. Fear was expressed that the financial arrangements of Circular 1381 would result in diminution of the powers of governing bodies. The power and responsibility of a governing body lie largely in that body's own hands, just as a headmaster's freedom depends on his own action and initiative. The Board of Education and Education Authorities must formulate rules and regulations and to meet the needs of various types of schools these have to be framed in general terms and conformity to the spirit rather than the letter is required. Education Authorities are usually ready to consider individual cases on their merits, but when an Authority is asked to define or give a ruling on a particular point, it naturally puts the narrowest construction on it. What it might be prepared to overlook or accept in an individual case it cannot allow as a general rule, and so what was intended as a guiding principle becomes a hard-and-fast rule. In this way schools often make rods for their own backs. THE ASSOCIATION OF ASSISTANT MISTRESSES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS INCORPORATED The forty-third annual meeting of the Association was held at University College, Gower Street. There was a record attendance of members from all parts of the country and the discussion was keen and animated. Resolutions dealing with the First and Second School Examinations were before the meeting, which registered the opinion that the former examination required reconsideration. The view was based on the fact that a large number of secondary school pupils fail to pass, while a further large number leave school without even attempting to sit for the examination. One resolution affirmed that if the First Examination were properly adjusted to meet the requirements of the schools the great majority of secondary school pupils should be able to pass it at the appropriate age. In the case of the Higher Certificate Examination the discussion was mainly concerned with the relationship between this and the examinations for Intermediate Arts and Science and the degree to which success in the school examination should secure exemption from Intermediate. An interesting discussion arose out of a resolution dealing with the exchange of teachers. It was pointed out that while schemes of interchange of teachers between England and Wales, and the Dominions or continental countries, existed and were increasingly used, yet there was no arrangement for a similar interchange within this country. The proposer of the motion expressed the view that such an interchange might do much to counteract the effect of the present immobility and would promote a better understanding of the varying conditions and difficulties of different areas. The teacher whose experience had been gained in schools in industrial areas would gain by a transference to a rural area while the teacher from a remote country school would welcome a temporary change to a town. The meeting devoted a good deal of time to the consideration of a resolution dealing with the existing method of ascertaining the views of members in regard to questions of policy. This has been found to be unduly slow and cumbersome in working and to fail to provide the representative view, the obtaining of which was the purpose of its introduction. The meeting was strongly in favour of a return to the method of voting at an annual meeting and a proposal to limit the voting power to delegates appointed by the branches, was rejected. A meeting of branch presidents, secretaries and delegates was addressed by Miss Burstall (speaking on behalf of the Girl Guides' Association), and Dr. Winifred Cullis (representing the International Federation of University Women), while the open meeting had the good fortune to hear Miss Reta Oldham, who chose for her subject "The Interchange of Teachers." THE HEADMASTERS' CONFERENCE The Headmasters' Conference was held at Brighton College on December 22 and 23, with the Headmaster of Charterhouse in the chair. Besides the usual programme of resolutions there were three interesting addresses: Brigadier-General Kentish pleaded the cause of the National Playing Fields Association with forcible directness: Dr. Rendall, fresh from a tour of the independent public schools of the Dominions, urged the desirability of persuading public-school and university trained men to go out and do a year or two in these schools before settling down to teaching at home, both in their own interests and to help the growth of the public-school spirit in the dominion schools: and Dr. Lyttelton, after drawing a depressing picture of Eton, at any rate as he remembered its methods of teaching, implored his audience to set their feet upon the pathway to reform by studying the work of Miss Charlotte Mason. This was a delightful address, full of shrewd criticism in which Dr. Lyttelton did not spare himself among others who formerly walked in darkness: and if Miss Mason's inspiration has perhaps made more difference by this time than he would suggest, there was no harm in having the value of it set before us with truly missionary emthusiasm. Of the resolutions formally submitted to the Conference the two that were most interesting, both because they were decisively rejected after entertaining discussions, and because of the remarkable effects that were apparently hoped for, were a resolution to go back to the old pronunciation or pronunciations of Latin, and a resolution demanding a single higher school examination instead of the seven now conducted by the university examining bodies. The chief trouble here lies in the practice of Local Education Authorities in picking particular higher school examinations for the award of scholarships, and the Conference decided wisely to concentrate upon this point, feeling that a single examination would inevitably mean a State examination, which nobody wanted, and which the universities would certainly oppose with all their might. As for the pronunciation of Latin, the really appalling reason given for going back was the statement that the preparatory schools could not bear the burden put upon them by the present system and the fact that really shocked the Conference was that the headmaster of Eton, just before going off on a well deserved holiday, had told the preparatory schools that so far as Eton was concerned they |