THE VACATION CONFERENCES.

THE NORTH OF ENGLAND EDUCATION
CONFERENCE AT BLACKPOOL.

The seventeenth annual meeting of the North of England Education Conference was held in Blackpool-the home of conferences in the first week of the New Year. The attendance of between 400 and 500 delegates from the North of England showed the extreme interest in educational problems of people from the north, and the subjects under discussion were wide in range and varied in scope. Unfortunately, Cabinet business prevented the President of the Board of Education from attending, and his place was taken by Dr. A. E. Ikin, Director of Education for Blackpool.

Some Problems of Organization" were dealt with by Dr. Ikin in the address which he gave in the place of Mr. Woods's Presidential Address. Dr. Ikin dealt with the organization of pupils from 5 to 11, with examinations and reports for transfer to secondary schools, with the types of secondary schools necessary to cater for all capacities, and with the methods of teaching in such schools.

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Papers on "Dual Control in Elementary Schools" by Mr. F. J. Leslie, Secretary of the Association of Education Committees, and Mr. Councillor Compston, were read. The general trend of the arguments concerning dual control" was that the suggested right of entry into Council schools as the price for the surrender of voluntary schools will not be granted. Alderman Jackson, Chairman of the West Riding Education Committee, referred to the recent report of the Cambridge Education Committee, which showed possibilities of a line of settlement on the basis of a commonly accepted syllabus for Scriptural instruction for use in all schools with unity of control. New lines in educational methods were dealt with in an extremely interesting paper on “Teaching by Wireless," by Mr. Burrows, of the British Broadcasting Company, and in a paper by Lord Gorell dealing with the Film in Education." The inclusion of two subjects of this type at a conference of this character showed that educationists are on the look-out for any new developments which may benefit the rising gene

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The possibility of the film as an adjunct to ordinary educational methods and not as a substitute, was well illustrated. Lord Gorell drew attention to the lack of suitable educational films, and a demonstration was given showing some of the best films, both English and French, which have been produced on educational lines up to the present. He also showed a daylight screen, which may be used in a classroom without any darkening of the room. The Rev. A. W. R. Little, Vice-Chairman of the Blackpool Education Committee, spoke of some of the difficulties he had experienced in obtaining non-flam films suitable for a projector which he had purchased for use in his school.

Mr. Burrows, in dealing with "Teaching by Wireless," drew attention to the enormous possibilities if the inclusion of lectures by the greatest living authorities on certain subjects were possible for pupils in continuation schools, or for the advanced course pupils in public or secondary schools. A demonstration of these possibilities was given, consisting of a brief lecture on St. Paul's Cathedral by Mr. Walker, illustrated by lantern slides which were shown to the members of the Conference, the voice from somewhere describing the slides as they appeared. The extremely interesting and important subject of Education and Business" was dealt with by Captain Bain, Secretary of the Works Committee of the United Alkali Company, and the necessity for co-operation between Education Authorities and managers of industrial firms was emphasized by Mr. Spurley Hey, Director of Education for Manchester. Captain Bain spoke of the growth of opinion in industrial circles of the value of highly educated men for the chief managerial posts in industrial concerns. He referred to the growth of a feeling of responsibility by industrial managers for the well-being of their employees, and described the methods being adopted by some large firms for continuing the education and training of some members of their staff, but he did not advocate too much education on purely vocational lines in ordinary schools. This subject was further dealt with at another session, when a paper on "The Urgency of an Inquiry into the Relationship of Technical Education to other Forms of Education and to Industry" was given by Mr. J. Wickham Murray, Secretary of the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions.

The subject of "Preparatory Departments in Secondary Schools was dealt with by Miss B. M. Sparks, Principal of the Ladies' College, Cheltenham, and Miss M. Howes-Smith, County

High School for Girls, Altrincham. The necessity of a training ground for the older pupils of secondary schools was emphasized, also the absolute fairness of allowing persons who desired such to be allowed to send their pupils to a preparatory department in a secondary school, providing they were willing to pay the difference between the cost of education in the secondary school and that in an elementary school, where education would be free. It was pointed out by Mr. J. Turral, headmaster of the Blackpool School, that the best private or independent schools recognized the value of a preparatory department just as the great public Schools had done, while Mr. J. Graham, Director of Education for Leeds, pointed out that even if picked pupils from elementary schools formed a certain proportion of the pupils admitted to secondary schools at 11 years of age, yet the presence of a preparatory department in the school ensured something in the school which would be of benefit to those coming from the elementary schools.

The Place of Music in Education" was well dealt with by Dr. Walter Carroll, Musical Adviser to the Manchester Education Committee, who advocated the early training of pupils to read from the Staff Notation and a training in musical appreciation for all types of pupils.

The Place of Art in Modern Education was considered by Mr. H. Barrett Carpenter, Principal of the School of Art, Rochdale, and Mr. R. A. Dawson, Principal of the Manchester School of Art, and a plea was put forward for better appreciation of the value of art as a subject of education.

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The Education of the Adolescent and the Adult " had a special session devoted thereto, when a paper by Dr. A. Mansbridge on The Meaning and Purpose of Adult Education was read, and Mr. W. W. Craik, Principal of the Labour College, London, also gave a paper on "Working Class Education." At this session the value of education without bias as dealt with by the Workers' Educational Association was indicated, but a claim on behalf of the Labour College movement was made by Mr. Craik, that this is not satisfactory for the workers, some of whom are now moving for a type of education with a definite bias, on the plea that so long as the worker continues to be taught to think like his master he will never be able to use political or industrial weapons against Capitalism.

The important subject of The Training of Teachers," the key industry of educational work, was dealt with at two sessions. The subject was approached (1) from the point of view of the elementary teacher, Mr. W. Merrick, member of the Executive of the N.U.T., recommending a university course for all teachers, (2) from the point of view of the secondary school, by Miss F. M. Nodes, headmistress of the Municipal High School, Doncaster, who spoke on the part played by the secondary schools in the education of intending teachers, (3) from the point of view of the training college, the Rev. D. J. Thomas, Principal of the Wood Green Training College, giving an extremely interesting paper based on over thirty years' experience of the training of teachers, and (4) from the point of view of the administrator by A. R. Pickles, Director of Education for Burnley, who, among other things, drew attention to the difficulties experienced through inexperienced teachers being unable to teach after the usual period of training. At another session a paper was given by J. H. Currie, Principal Verdin Technical School, Northwich, on the "Necessity for a Course of Training for Technical Course Teachers."

Taken as a whole, the Conference was a decided success, which was very gratifying to the promoters, especially in view of the counter-attractions through the large number of educational conferences taking place in London at the same time. The discussions showed a desire to know and to have details concerning any newer developments, and also to obtain information as to how best to overcome difficulties existing through present conditions.

THE CONFERENCE OF EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS. The annual Conference of Educational Associations was held usual at University College. Initiated some twelve years ago by the Teachers' Guild, now the Education Guild, the conference has grown continuously, both as regards the number of affiliated associations and as regards the duration of the meetings, which this year reached the formidable total of eleven days-January 1 to II, inclusive. Much of the credit for the success of the enterprise is due to the energy and enthusiasm of the honorary treasurer, Miss Henrietta Busk, who has been closely associated with the conference from the beginning. Gower Street has the seductions neither of youth nor of old age, and suffers from a physical rectitude and a certain monotony of architecture. But

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in recent years great developments have taken place. sombre frontage has been broken by new buildings for University College, and a vacant space originally intended for the Shakespeare National Theatre, is to be used for the new Institute of Hygiene founded and endowed by the Rockefeller Trustees. One of the recent additions to University College, the Memorial Hall, formerly a church, was used this year for the first time for the Publishers' Exhibition in connexion with the Conference. This exhibition, as usual, attracted many visitors, for the opportunity of inspecting new school books is greatly appreciated by teachers.

Three general meetings were arranged this year and drew large attendances. The first was devoted to the presidential address by Sir Henry Hadow, Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University, who chose for his subject "The Claims of Scholarship." Admittedly the choice of a subject for an occasion of this kind is not easy: the audience represents a great number and variety of educational interests: questions of salaries and the status of the teaching profession have already been thoroughly canvassed prophecy of our educational future is dangerous in view of unstable political conditions, at home and abroad. There was, however, some feeling that the president's address this year was pedestrian and lacking in inspiration. Some of his suggestions have been the subject of criticism, among others by the Dramatic Critic of The Times. The doctrine that in using words we ought to throw back our minds to their etymological origin is certainly rather alarming even to a well-educated man. For example, the phrase "meticulous accuracy of the machine was condemned on the ground that "meticulous means timorous, and a machine is incapable of the emotion of fear. Would Sir Henry Hadow, we wonder, if a boy were munching chocolate-creams and observed they're nice," reprove the boy, in the fervour of academic scholarship, because nice" originally meant "foolish"? Again, the use of nouns as adjectives was criticized, e.g. election results. Are we not dealing here with compounds often spelt as single words, e.g. standpoint, yearbook, rainbow. The German practice is to form compound words of this type up to sixty letters or more; the English practice is to form compound words or to employ the hyphen or to use separate words, without any underlying principle.

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The use of nouns as verbs, also condemned by the president, is often unavoidable. We speak of "milking a cow without any sense of incongruity, but as soon as the film producer, in his hour of need, speaks of " featuring " Mary Pickford, he comes under the Vice-Chancellor's ban. Towards the end of his address, however, Sir Henry Hadow brushed aside academic niceties and gave his audience some sound educational advice. To counteract the sloppiness and inaccuracy of middle life, he urged that a great deal more training should be given to children in pure verbal memory. Paraphrasing meant the putting of bad English into the place of the author's good English, and was detrimental. As another remedy he suggested that the child should be brought every day of his school life-we use "school as an adjective in preference to scholastic on the authority of the speaker himself-into touch with some masterpiece of art, or music, or literature, so as to set an intellectual standard leading to chastity and integrity of mind. These are the true characteristics of culture and scholarship.

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The subjects selected for the two other joint conferences were "The Value of the Teacher's Part in the Education of the Future Citizen," and The Education of the Older Children in the Elementary School." At the first the speakers were Mr. C. W. Bailey, Miss Strudwick, and Prof. Nunn, and at the second Dr. Ballard, Rev. E. Dale, and Mr. H. K. Campbell.

THE HEADMASTERS' CONFERENCE.

The annual meeting of the Headmasters' Conference was held at Winchester College on December 20 and 21, under the presidency of Mr. F. Fletcher (Charterhouse).

Mr. Gerard Fiennes, of the Central Council for Economic Information, presented a memorandum on the place of public school men in productive industry. He pointed out that few, even of those who accused the public schools of intellectual shortcomings, would deny that they turned out a type of boy probably unmatched in the world as a regimental officer or administrator. Was not there use to be found for these qualities in industries, where men were employed by battalions? was not the class from which a boy had sprung, but the training which he had received, to which importance was attached. To carry the matter to a practical issue it had been determined

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to approach representative employers and ask them to appoint a representative committee for the purpose of preparing, in conjunction with the schools, a detailed scheme for accomplishing this purpose. If they were to do anything towards bringing the present type of public school boy into industry, they must at the same time, if possible, make a way by which the promising sons of workmen might themselves obtain the advantages of this training. Nothing could be more unfair than that young workmen should find the way to promotion blocked.

After an interesting discussion, the following resolution was passed :-" That the conference approves generally of the suggestion that efforts should be made to promote the entry of public school boys into productive industry, and will be willing to nominate members to serve on a joint committee to consider the matter in detail, and formulate a scheme for that purpose; and that it be an instruction to the committee to get into touch with the Council of the Trades Union Congress and invite them to enter into consultations on this subject."

The chairman explained that the second part of the resolution would have been put before the meeting by Mr. Bramley if he had been able to come. Mr. Bramley had said that the trade unions were quite prepared to believe that a public school education was invaluable for public control, but that in that case the doors of public school education should be thrown as wide open as possible. That was practically the condition of their support for this scheme. That point of view had their most cordial sympathy.

Dr. C. Norwood (Marlborough) moved a resolution, which was passed unanimously, calling the attention of the Board of Education and all educational authorities to the great difficulty which poor boys were finding in getting to the universities, particularly Oxford and Cambridge, and to the grave inequalities and hardships which had arisen and continued to arise from the abolition of State scholarships and from the varying conditions under which senior scholarships were awarded by the County councils.

On the motion of Mr. F. B. Malim (Wellington), seconded by Mr. W. H. Fyfe (Christ's Hospital), the committee was instructed to investigate the possible methods of encouraging and organizing the settlement of public school boys in the Oversea Dominions. Mr. Malim referred to the difficulty of finding places in industry for all the boys leaving the schools, and at this juncture he thought headmasters should enlarge their horizon and call in the new world to redress the balance of the old. A life in the open in the Oversea Dominions growing wheat and wool was more useful and human than cultivating percentages under electric light with all the advantages of central heating.

Considerable time was spent in a wide discussion of the Burnham Report, its administration and effect, and eventually a resolution was passed with two dissentients, on the motion of Mr. H. Cradock-Watson (Merchant Taylors', Crosby), expressing regret that the Burnham Scale was being so administered as to make it difficult, and after a certain stage impossible, for assistant masters to pass from one school to another. A rider was afterwards passed instructing the committee to discuss practical ways of dealing with the difficulty with representatives of the Assistant Masters' Association.

A resolution was passed in favour of some instruction in hygiene being given to every boy during his time at a public school and authorizing the committee to consider a suggested syllabus, including instruction on the effects of alcoholic indulgence. The committee was also authorized to make representations to the Statutory Commission on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in regard to the system by which the large majority of the Cambridge Colleges hold their scholarship examinations simultaneously, and the age limit in the award of scholarships. The Conference welcomed the proposal that scholarships should be reduced in value, on the under standing that they might be increased beyond the present value when the need was proved, and considered that the reduced value might be most conveniently represented by a sum of money.