NOTES ON EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 827, 27 May 1910, Page 5

NOTES ON EDUCATION

> (Br "Socrates.")' Sight years ago it was- recognisci by the Governing Body of. Edinburgh University that the uniformity whicl had hitherto prevailed in tho tcachin; of pliysics and in the examination o students of the subject was no longe defensible. The examiners were there fore appointed to act in conjnnctioi with the lecturers. One of these w;i •to take tho mathematical and thi other the experimental work. Of lat years it has been felt more and morthat the time devoted to this worl by medical students —their course last, only three months—was to a great ex tent wasted so long as the wort re mained unspecialised and general. Tu< training required by a medical mai was hardly tho samo as that whicl should bo given to an engineer. Thi year (states tho London "Standard" a third examiner has been appointee to examine in that part of tho scieno which has a physiological bearing, tin first to receive the appointment bein; Dr. Daivson Turner. Dr.-'Turner i: medical electrician to the Edinburgl Royal Infirmary, and has for. the las two years held the position of exam iner in. physics to the conjoint boan of tho Royal College of" Surgeons ant the Royal College of Physicians in Lon don. . ' ,-■ Writing on the subject of the pro gress of polytechnics in London, Mr. S G. Rawson, in the "Standard," con eludes an interesting rqview, with th< hope that the report of tho RoyaJ Commission upon tho University ol London, shall enable the polytechnic: end their. students to draw closer anc yet closer to the university, to the up lifting not only of tho university, nol only of the polytechnics, but of all form: of educational effort in' London.-More-over, thus, and only thus, will there be the direct connection of the primary school, through the secondary school and through the polytechnics, with the university. Such report, when carried into effect, will really be the enabling act 'of tertiary education, and will be the* logical outcome, through the Secondary Act of 1902 and the Acts ol 1883 and 1890, of the fundamental Act which gave educational freedom, the great Primary Education. Act of 1870. "In other words," he says, "the university then would tend more and more to be rooted, and, indeed, will only be of national importance when it is rooted, in the primary: school. Incidentally, too, I may add that I believe some of: the universities, as well as the polytechnics, owe their existence io the Act of 1870." In a score of essays, "Broad Lines in Science Teaching," edited by F.> Hodson, Ph.D., the methods of teaching it in secondary schools have been exhaustively discussed (states a reviewer). Almost all the writers have had personal experience in schools or nniversities, with the i consequence that the. reader- has the satisfactory feeling that; they thoroughly understand ■ their subjects. This is not to say that the book is pedagogic; it is marked by original thought and a facility of expression. The,general attitude is studiously moderate; in fact, so anxious are the authors to give full recognition to the value of literary and linguistic training that they are evidently a littlt ofraid of arousing the wrath of the "practical , ' parent or the scientist who has won his way to success in a pair ol blinkers. The editor writes that "science teachers still growl here and there at what they regard (perhaps Tightly), as , excesses of heuristic fanatics, and there , is yet room for'somb defence on the heuristic side." Doubtless excesses occur, ■ but when the teachers of science and of languages and letters'are'both agreed that it. is their business to train in method and to develop capacity rather than to cram facts they. have readied a common standpoint from which progress is possible. •■"_.■ ■ . In" the course of an able address on the subject, "Betwixt School and Citizenship, ' given before tho . National Union of Teachers at its recent conference at Plymouth (England), Sir John Hibbert put forward an earnest plea for education during the period of adolescence. • Quoting from the report Df the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on attendance at continuation schools, he said that "what these young people need is tho frjendly counsel which good teachers give, continued association with the corporate life of a well organised school, and the maintenajico of tho habit of learning which they began to form in the elementary school, but often lose during the untended years which follow its premature close." 'He urged, and lie brought evidence of all kinds to help in pressing his contention; that no boy-or girl should be entirely free from educational supervision before the age' of 17. This is rather more than the Consultative Committee think it wise to recommend just at present, though they fully expect that at some time in the near future compulsory attendance at continuation classes between the ages of 14 and 17 years of age will become desirable. They suggested that all local education authorities should bo under a statutory obligation to make provision for such continuation classes as may bo required, and they further suggested that the attendance at those classes should only bo made compulsory when the education authority adopt .by-laws to. that effect. Professor Sadler's evidence given before the Royal Commission on tho Poor Laws was quoted freely by Sir John Hibbert in condemnation of our present system of giving children a teiith of an education, and then letting them loose to fight their way up ,-to citizenship. Professor Sadler holds that ii is all too easy for a boy of 13 or 14 to find some kind..of virtually unskilled work, for which ho receives wages which et the time seem, high, and which flatter his sense of being independent ol school discipline and homo restraint. The work lasts for a few years, but leaves the lad, at the- very time when he begins to want a man's subsistence, .out of tho line of skilled employment, and only too likely to recruit tho ranks of unskilled labour. The samo evil, oi course, exists in the caso of girls. "Certain forms of industry, winch make large use of boys and girls whe have recently left tho elementarj schools, are in part (except where th« employers make special efforts to meet their responsibilities) parasitic in character, and get more than they ought arid more than their promoters realist they are getting, of the physical an< moral capital.of the rising generation Many callings connected with transport and communication, and some branche: ,of manufacture use juvenile unskilled labour.to a degree which, if no counter acting measures are taken, must ransi grave and lasting injury to nationa ."The vast majority of children loavi school either before or about the oge o 14; and despite the ample opportunitici offered by public and private niunificoiici thehuge number who receive no furthe training of a systematic kind is rathe: startling. It is estimated that ther< ore (in England) 3J millions of chil *lren between the ages of 13 and li years. About one-third of a millioi of these are still in the public ele jnentary schools, and over one-third o a million aro in attendance- .it publi< yr private secondary schools, day tiadi »nd technical schools, schools of art etc. This leaves over 2i millions o children between tho nges of 13 an< 18 years who have left the public ole taenta-ry day schools, three-quarters o ■jsrhich, it is estimated—on week (lays g& any rate—are under no cducatioiia ~'~"5ot supervision.