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various capacities and interests of its pupils. Some of the studies and activities have to do with personal happiness and with life for its own sake, some with service or citizenship according to the requirements of the community. A recent comprehensive report on primary education in Scotland* stresses this point of view : rec l uires em phasis is (1) that, in the school, curriculum and methods should follow the child s natural line of development; and (2) that, while the child is receiving the richest of all gifts it is in our power to bestow, a literary education . . . we should not destroy or needlessly impair those primitive powers and graces, those qualities of initiative, curiosity, ingenuity, and selfdependence that are also an essential part of his heritage. Specific training and drills find their place—an important one—but technical efficiency in the world of business or in the private fives of people is much more the outcome of allround growth than of direct training alone. The modern school is not wrong in its purposes when it sets itself the wider functions, and criticism should be directed not at the aims, but rather at the means. Teachers, Inspectors, and administrators should thus be the chief critics. The supply and training of teachers, the adequacy of buildings and equipment, and the nature of the curriculum require the closest attention in order that the means may be adequate to the ends in view. The Scottish report already mentioned states very clearly the relationship of subjectteaching to education in its fullest sense, as the following quotations indicate. They give, moreover, strong confirmation of the educational policy we have been following in this' country : We believe that the object to be achieved is to awaken the interest in the child, or make him aware of needs demanding fulfilment, so that he will either spontaneously or with suitable encouragement persevere along profitable lines of activity suitable to his stage of development and his native genius. ***. * * * The general purpose of the curriculum must direct the special approach to each " subject " This purpose is surely to give meaning to the apparently chaotic, to give direction and discipline to natural activity; to make what seems complex, difficult, and awkward into something that is simple, easy and graceful; to give a sense of mastery over self and circumstance. ****** As we have already hinted, we discard with little regret the narrow and obsolete view that reading, writing, and arithmetic are the three fundamentals of education. A half-truth of this kind does more harm than good if it leads to the notion that every effort must first be concentrated on these subjects, that on them alone can any sound superstructure be built, and that all other subjects are more or less " frills." ****** If it is necessary, having regard to what We have already said above, to talk about any subject at all being more fundamental than another, we would suggest tentatively, and as a basis for clearer thinking on the subject, that the three fundamental subjects are physical education, handwork, and speech. While recognizing a certain artificiality even in this division, we think it may be worthwhile to consider it in a little more detail. The report goes on to show how on the threefold foundation of physical education, handwork, and speech it is proposed to plan the whole superstructure of Scottish education. From physical education emanates physical development, good personal habits, knowledge of hygiene, suitable exercise and games, a healthy environment; from handwork the curriculum expands into skills and studies associated with the hands or with machines operated by the human hand, into mathematics, arithmetic, many sciences, and into the arts of the painter, sculptor, architect, and musician ; from speech, which is the foundation of human communication and the vehicle of thought, develop reading, oral and written expression, literature, history, &c.

* Primary Education : A Report of the Advisory Council on Education in Scotland. His Majesty's Stationery Office, Edinburgh, 1946.

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