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PAST PRESIDENT. The Right Hon. Lord STRATHCONA and MOUNT ROYAL, G.C.M.G VICE-PRESIDENTS. Hon. Sir WM. ARBUCKLE, Kt. (Agent-General for Natal). S. H. BUTCHER, Esq., Litt.D., LL.D., M.P. Hon. T. A. COGHLAN, I.S.O., J.P. (Agent-General for New South Wales). DAVID DAVIES, Esq., M.P. Hon. ALFRED DOBSON, C.M.G., K.C. (Agent-General for Tasmania). A. HILL, Esq., M.D. Sir PHILIP HUTCHINS, K.C.S.I. (Representative Education Depart ment, Burma). The Ven. the ARCHDEACON OF LONDON. . The Rev. The Hon. EDWARD LYTTELTON (Head Mas^r E- ~oaege;. Rt. Hon. The EARL OF MEATH, K.P. Sir GILBERT PARKER, D.C.L., M.P. (Representative Education Depart- ment, Manitoba). Sir F. POLLOCK, Bart., D.C.L. Sir THOMAS RALEIGH, K.C.S.I. Hon. C. H. RASON (Agent-General for Western Australia). Hon. J. W. TAVENER (Agent-General for Victoria). Sir HORACE TOZER, K.C.M.G. (Agent-General for Queensland, Re- presentative Department of Public Instruction, Queensland). Hon. J. H. TURNER, Agent-General for British Columbia (Represen- tative Member). FEDERAL COUNCIL IN LONDON. Chairman, S. H. Butcher, Esq., Litt.D., LL.D., M.P. ERNEST BAGGALLAY, Esq., M.A., J.P. H. R. BEASLEY, Esq. (Representative Private Schools Association). R. D. BELOE, Esq., M.A., Winchester College. Sir JOHN BRAMSTON, G.C.M.G., C.B., D.C.L. Professor BURY (Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge). Miss B. A. CLOUGH, Vice-President of Newnham College. [Branch). Hon. Sir JOHN COCKBURN, K.C.M.G. (Representative S. Australian D. T. COWAN, Esq., Director of Education for Hampshire (Repre- sentative Asso. Directors and Secretaries for Education), England. Sir HENRY CRAIK, K.C.B., M.P., Vice-President Scotch Branch. WALTER CRANE, Esq., R.W.S. (Judge of Design to the League). HENRY V. ELLIS, Esq. (Representative Natal Branch). H. W. EVE, Esq., M.A. (Representative College of Preceptors). T. GREGORY FOSTER, Esq., Ph.D. (Provost University Col. , London). Professor E. A. GARDNER, M.A. (University College, London). Miss GRAINGER GRAY (Representative Association of Head Mistresses). Mrs. JOHN HALDANE. Sir PHILIP HUTCHINS, K.C.S.I., Chairman Executive Committee. Rev. T- P. MAHAFFY, D.D., D.C.L., C.V.O., Trinity College, Dublin. C. A. MARTIN, Esq., LL.D. (Representative Education Dept., Bengal). The Hon. EVELYN MOORE (Representative Cape Colony Branch). TOHN MURRAY, Esq., M.A., J.P., D.L. GEORGE PARKIN, Esq., LL.D., C.M.G. Lt.-Col. G. T. PLUNKETT, C.B., R.E., Chairman Museum Committee. Principal Sir H. R. REICHEL, M.A., LL.D., Chairman Welsh Branch. Rev. A. F. RUTTY, M.A. (Representative I. Assoc. of Head Masters). W. J. MILES STARKIE, Esq., Litt.D. (Resident Commissioner Irish National Board). Sir CHARLES LYALL, K.C.S.I., Hon. Treasurer. Mrs. ORD MARSHALL, Hon. Secretary. E. BURRELL BAGGALLAY, Esq., Hon. Solicitor. C. F. KEMP, SONS & Co., Hon. Auditors. L / F2,/ TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE. Preface 3 Introduction ... 5 List of Representatives and Delegates 7 The Opening Ceremony ... ... ... 17 The Luncheon ... ... ... 34 Divisions of the Meetings ... ... ... ... ... 38 The Official Conference ... ... ... .. ... ... .. 39 The Full General Conference 45 The Open Meetings ... ... 114 The Sectional Meetings ... ... ... ... 175 University Section ... ... ... ... ... 178 History Section ... ... ... 180 Technical Education Section ... ... 181 " Training of Teachers " Section 243 Museum Section ... ... 273 Nature-Study Section... ... ... 296 " Teaching of English " Section 325 The Exhibition - ''~~' 35 Social Engagements 352 The Aylesbury Conference '. ... ... 354 Index of Subjects, Speakers and Places 357 THE LEAGUE OF THE EMPIRE. REPRESENTATIVE MEMBERS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE EMPIRE. His Excellency the GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA. His Excellency the HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR SOUTH AFRICA. The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Burma ( Representative of the League). The DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, Transvaal. DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, O. R. Colony. The SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, Barbados. The DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, Rhodesia. The DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, S. Nigeria. The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Mauritius. W. W. HORNELL, Esq. (Assistant Director of Public Instruction, Bengal). The Hon. T. CAPPER (Superintendent In- spector of Schools, Jamaica). The RESIDENT COUNCILLOR, Penang. The DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION, Straits Settle- ments and Federated Malay States. G. SIMPSON, Esq., Inspector of Schools, Bermuda. T. C. LEWIS, Esq., M.A. Sir NEVILE LUBBOCK, K.C.M.G. (Chairman West India Committee) Principal PETERSON, LL.D., C.M.G. (McGill . University, Montreal). The WARDEN OF TRINITY COLLEGE, Mel- bourne. Prin.M. HUTTON, LL.D. (Univ. Col.,Toronto). The Hon. R. HARCOURT, Welland, Ontario. The Hon. Mr. JUSTICE KNOX. EDMUND MARSDEN, Esq., B.A., F.R.G.S. Hon. A. R. McCLELAN. Hon. W. H. MONTAGUE, Toronto. Mrs. FESSENDEN (Originator of Empire Day). Ven. Archdeacon WHITINGTON (Tasmania). W.E. HOARE, Esq., M.A. (Principal, Doveton College, Madras), Representative of League. The PRINCIPAL, Royal College, Colombo, Representative of the League. Prof. PEI.HAM EDGAR (Vic. Univ. Toronto). Lt.-Col. J. H. COLLENS (Chief Inspector o! Schools,Trinidad),Representativeof League The SECRETARY OF EDUCATION forGuernsey A. E. SCOUGAL, Esq., Chief Insp. Scotland. The HEAD' MASTER, Grammar School, A. BARTLETT, Esq., H.M.I. [Antigua. W. BILLING, Esq. (Inspector of Schools, Patna Division), Representative of League. S. BUSH, Esq., H.M.I. G. F. CORNWALL, Esq., K.C. (Inspector of Colonial Schools, Gibraltar), Representa- tive of the League. E. F. DAVIDSON, Esq., H.M.I. A. B. DILLON, Esq. (Inspector of Schools, Belize), Representative of the League. H. G. FOWLIS, Esq., Gambia, Representa- tive of the League. JOHN HARBIN, Esq. (Inspector of Schools, Grenada), Representative^ of the League. J. ANDERSON HARNEY,* Esq., Roseau, Hon. Secretary Dominica Branch. ROBERT W. J. HORNE, Esq. (Inspector of European Schools, Bengal). His Excellency GOVERNOR OF N. S. WALES. His Excellency the GOVF.RNOR OF VICTORIA. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF S. AUSTRALIA. '[LAND. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF QUEENS- H.E. the GOVERNOR OF W. AUSTRALIA. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF MADRAS. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF BAHAMAS. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF BARBADOS. His Excellency the GOVERNOR AND COM- MANDER-IN-CHIEF OF BKRMUDA. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF FIJI. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF THE LEEWARD ISLANDS. [CHELLES. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF SEY- His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF TRINIDAD. His Excellency the GOVERNOR OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS. The LiEUT.-GovERNOR OF VICTORIA. His Grace the LORD ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY. [Colony Branch). Lady HELY-HUTCHINSON (Patroness of Cape Sir GRAHAM BOWER (Government Admini- strator, Mauritius). Sir MARSHALL J. CLARKE, K.C.M.G. (Resi- dent Commissioner, Rhodesia). [NIGERIA. The HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR SOUTHERN The HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR NORTHERN NIGERIA. [TOLAND. The RESIDENT COMMISSIONER FOR BASU- The Right Hon. The PREMIER OF NEW ZEALAND. [Natal Branch). Sir HENRY BALE, Chief Justice (President of Rt. Hon. Sir S. WAY, Bart., P.C., Chief Justice (President S. Australian Branch). The COLONIAL SECRETARY for the Bahamas. The COLONIAL SECRETARY, Gibraltar. The COLONIAL SECRETARY, Hong Kong. The COLONIAL SECRETARY for St. Helena. The SECRETARY FOR SOUTHERN NIGERIA. The Hon. The MINISTER OF EDUCATION for S. Australia [for Indii. The DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF EDUCATION E. B. SARGANT, Esq., M.A. (Education Adviser to High Commissioner of S. Africa). The SUPERINTENDENT-GENERAL OF EDU- CATION for the Cape Colony. The CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCA- TION for New Brunswick. The SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION for Nova Scotia. [British Columbia. The SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION for The CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Quebec. The COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, Sas- katchewan. [Bombay Presidency. The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, Punjab. [Central Provinces. The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, (For full list see the publications of the League. ) SOME unavoidable delay has occurred in issuing the Report of the Federal Conference on Education. It is now, we believe, however, fairly complete, and we hope it may not only prove useful for reference to those who were present but also of interest to many unable to attend the discussions. Our acknowledgments are due first to Lord Elgin (at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies) for his sympathy and his great courtesy in conveying the invitations to the different Colonial Governments ; also to the India Office and to the Foreign Office for similar assistance. We offer respectful thanks to the Imperial Government and the Colonial and Indian Governments for authorising the attendance of representatives of the different Departments of Education throughout the Empire ; also to the Officials of the Board of Education, of the Education Departments for Scotland and Ireland, and of the Colonial and Indian Departments for their co-operation and assistance in bringing the Conference to a successful issue. The large support of the Universities, Museums, Colleges and Educational Associations was most grati- fying and was invaluable to the Conference in that by 4 PREFACE. their aid all the different Branches of Education were widely represented. For their presence at the Confer- ence the Council thanks the Earl of Crewe (then Lord President of the Council) who opened the Conference,. the Earl of Elgin, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Sir Horace Plunkett, and those others to whom acknowledgement is made in the appended list. We desire finally to express to all the Representatives and Delegates who were present our appreciation of the honour it has been to us to welcome them to this the first Conference on Education between the different Countries and Crown Colonies of the British Empire. S. H. BUTCHER, Chairman of the Federal Council* The Proposal to hold a Conference on Education submitted to the Departments. IN consequence of the large educational undertakings in the hands of the League in all parts of the Empire, and of the rapid development of the reciprocal and co-operative work between the different Countries, the Council had the honour in August, 1905, to lay before the Education Departments through- out the Empire a proposal to hold a Federal Conference on Education in 1907. Preliminary Meeting. Favourable replies having been received from a number of the Colonial Authorities a preliminary meeting was held in July, 1906, to consider arrangements. Representatives of the English Board of Education and other Education Departments of the Empire were present, and the proposal for holding a compre- hensive Conference on Education in May, 1907, was unani- mously approved. Invitations conveyed by favour of the Colonial Office. The matter being respectfully submitted to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Elgin was graciously pleased to convey the invitations to the Conference on the part of the League to the Colonial Education Departments in the Colonial Office mail bags, and authorised the Council of the League to include in the invitations a state- ment of his sympathy with the scheme. The India Office also laid the matter of Indian co-operation before the Govern- ment of India, and the Foreign Office were good enough to convey the letter of invitation to His Majesty's Agent and Consul-General at Zanzibar. Conference held in London, May 24th, 1907. The Conference took place in the Caxton Hall, Westminster, between the dates of May 24th and June ist, 1907, and was the first ever held where Representatives of the Education Depart ments throughout the British Empire have been appointed by 5 their respective Governments to attend. The Right Hon. the Earl of Crewe, Lord President of the Council, presided at the Opening Ceremony. The Official Conference num- bered 50 members. -Mr. S. H. Butcher, M.P., Chairman of the Federal Council of the League, presided as Chairman throughout ; Mrs. Ord Marshall, Hon. Secretary of the League, attended as Secretary. At three of the Meetings Lord Tennyson, President of the League, was present by request of the Con- ference. In connexion with this Meeting a General Conference took place which was attended by over 150 delegates from the Universities, Educational Associations and Colleges in all parts of the Empire. The programme of work laid down by the League was carried out in full, and the Official Conference placed on record " its high appreciation of the work of the League in stimulating and collecting and circulating informa- tion on educational subjects." One of the most important results of this Conference was the resolution passed in favour of a quadrennial Conference, and the announcement that the next Official Conference on Education would be called by the Imperial Government. LIST OF REPRESENTATIVES AND DELEGATES The Patroness of the Conference was ; HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS LOUISE. The Officers of the Conference were : The Right Hon. Lord Tennyson, P.C., G.C.M.G., President, League of the Empire. S. H. Butcher, Litt.D., LL.D., M.P., Chairman of the Federal Council. Sir Philip Hutchins, K.C.S.I., Chairman, Executive Committee. Sir Charles Lyall, K.C.S.I., LL.D., Hon. Treasurer. Mrs. E. M. Ord Marshall, Hon. Secretary. The following Representatives were appointed by their respective Governments to attend the Conference : DEPARTMENT. United Kingdom. Board of Education Welsh Department of the Board Scotch Education Department Irish National Board... India Office ... REPRESENTED BY. The Permanent Secretary (Sir R. L. Morant, K.C.B.). The Director of Special Inquiries and Reports (H. F. Heath, Ph.D.). P. A. Barnett, M.A. The Permanent Secretary (A. T. Davies, M.A.) O. M. Edwards, M.A. The Secretary (J. Struthers, C.B. ). W. H. W. Cornish, M.A. The Resident Commissioner (W. J. M. Starkie, M.A., Litt.D.). A. N. Bonaparte Wyse, M.A. T. Morison, M.A. 7 DEPARTMENT. Canada. Ontario Quebec ... Nova Scotia ... New Brunswick Manitoba British Columbia ... Alberta and Saskat- chewan Australia. New South Wales ... South Australia Queensland ... Victoria Western Australia ... Tasmania New Zealand South Africa. Cape Colony Natal Transvaal Orange River Colony India Bengal Bombay ... _ ...... Madras United Provinces ... Central Provinces ... Burma REPRESENTED BY. The Hon. James J. Foy, K.C., Attorney- General. The Deputy Head of the Department of Public Instruction (George W. Parmalee, D.C.L.). The Superintendent of Education (A. H. Mackay, LL.D., B.Sc., F.R.S.C.). The Chief Superintendent of Education (J.R. Inch, M.A., LL.D.) The Minister of Education (The Hon. Colin H. Campbell, K.C.). The Agent-General (The Hon. J. H. Turner). The Minister of Education (The Hon. A. C. Rutherford). The Agent-General (The Hon. T. A. Coghlan, J. Leslie Williams, B.A. [I.S.O.) The Director of Education (A. Williams), the Agent-General (The Hon. J. G. Jenkins), Rev. Bertram Hawker, M.A. The Agent-General (Sir Horace Tozer, K.C.M.G.) and E. M. B. Cribb, M.A. The Director of Education (Frank Tate, I.S.O., M.A.). The Agent-General (The Hon. C. H. Rason). Cyril Jackson, M.A. The Agent-General (The Hon. Alfred Dobson, C.M.G., K.C.). The Inspector-General of Schools (George Hogben, M.A.). The Superintendent-General of Education (The Hon. Thomas Muir, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S.). P. A. Barnett, M.A. (English Board of Educa- tion, to give information). Patrick Duncan, C.M.G., formerly Colonial Secretary, and the Inspector of Schools, Johannesburg and Rand Circuit (F. Handel Thompson, M.A.). The Director of Education (The Hon. Hugh Gunn, M.A.). The Director-General of Education for India (H. W. Orange, C.I.E., M.A.). C. A. Martin, LL.D., formerly Director of Public Instruction, and C. Russell, M.A., Principal, Patna College. The Inspector "of European Schools (A. L Covernton, M.A.) The Director of Public Instruction (A. G. Bourne. D.Sc., F.R.S.). T. C. Lewis, M.A., formerly Director o Public Instruction. A. Monro, C.I.E., M.A., formerly Director of Public Instruction. The Inspector of Schools (S. W. Cocks, M.X.). DEPARTMENT Ceylon Jamaica ... The Bahamas British Honduras Hong Kong Southern Nigeria Gold Coast Colony Gambia ... Seychelles... Mauritius Straits Settlements Basutoland Falkland Islands REPRESENTED BY. The Inspector of Schools (R-. B. Strickland M.A.) The Inspector of Schools ( P. J. O'L. Brad- bury, M.A.). Rev. J. Audley Browne, M.A., Member of the Board of Education. Sir Walter Llewellyn Lewis, M.A., formerly Chief Justice. The Inspector of Schools (E. A. Irving, M.A.) The Director of Education (J.A.Douglas.M.A.) TheDirectorofEducation(E.G.Rowden,M.A.) The Colonial Secretary (The Hon. H.M. Brand- ford-Griffith, C.M.G.). His Excellency the Governor (W. E. Davidson, C.M.G.) The Inspector of Schools (Adolphe Bernon). G. B. Stratton, M.A,, a member of the Straits Settlements Civil Service. The Educational Adviser to His Excellency the High Commissioner of South Africa (E. B. Sargant, M.A.). His Excellency the Governor (VV. L. Allardyce, C.M.G.). The full General Conference included Members of the Official Conference, and the following list of Delegates : MUSEUMS. MUSEUM. REPRESENTED BY. British Museum ... The Duke of Northumberland, K.G., P.C., D.C.U F. G. Kenyon, M.A., D.Litt., Ph.D. The Director, Lieut-Col. G. T. Plunkett, C.B., R.E. Professor A. S. Kidd, M.A. Dublin Museum Albany Museum, Gra- hamstown, Cape Colony Committee on Visual Instruction sitting at the Colonial Office S. Australian School of Mines & Industries H. J. Mackinder, M.A. UNIVERSITY. Oxford Association for the Edu- cation of Women, Ox- ford The President (The Hon. Sir Langdon Bony - thon). UNIVERSITIES. REPRESENTED BY. The Vice-Chancellor (The President ot Mag- dalen College, T. H, Warren, D.C.L.). The Warden of All Soul's College (Sir W. Anson, Bart., D.C.L., M.P.). F. J. Wylie, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose. Mrs. F. Lucas. Miss J. Watson. 10 UNIVERSITY. Cambridge Girton College, Camb.... Newnham College, Camb. London ... Edinburgh Glasgow Durham... Manchester Leeds Sheffield Liverpool University College, Bristol University College of Wales, Aberystwyth University College of North Wales, Bangor Queen's College, Belfast Queen's College, Gal way University College, Reading McGill University, Montreal, Canada Toronto University University of New Brunswick Queen's University, Kingston, Ont, Canada Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada REPRESENTED BY. The Vice-Chancellor (The Master _ of Gon< ville and Caius, E. S. Roberts, M.A.). The Master of Downing College (A. Hill, MJX, Litt.D.). Rev. A. Caldecott, D.D., Litt.D., St. John's College. Rev. D. H. S. Cranage, King's College. Miss G.'E. M. Jackson. The Principal (Mrs. Henry Sidgwick). The Principal (Sir Arthur Rucker, M.A. r LL.D..D.SC., F.R.S.). The Provost of University College (T.Gregory Foster, Ph.D.). The Principal of King's College (Rev. A. C. Headlam, D.D., M.A.). Miss Margaret J. Tuke, M.A., Principal of Bedford College. Miss Lillian Faithfull, M.A. The Vice-Chancellor and Principal (Sir Wm. Turner, K.C.B., D.C.L). Professor Richard Lodge, M.A. Professor Darroch, M.A. The Vice-Chancellor and Principal (D. MacAlister, M.A., LL.D., D.C.L.). Professor R. Latta, D.Phil. Miss Janet A. Galloway, M.A. Sir Isambard Owen, M.A., D.C.L., M.D. The Vice-Chancellor (A. Hopkinson, M.A., LL.D., K.C.). The Vice-Chancellor (N. Bodington, M.A., Litt.D.). The Vice-Chancellor (Sir Charles Eliot, K.C.M.G., LL.D.). The Vice-Chancellor (A. W. W. Dale, M.A.) C. W. Bailey, M.A. . % The Principal (Professor C. Llovd Morgan, LL.D..F.R.S.). The Headmaster of Clifton College (Rev. A. A. David, M.A.). The Principal (T. F. Roberts, M.A.. LL.D.). The Principal (H. R. Reichel, M.A., LL.D.). Professor W. Graham, M.A., Litt.D. Professor Fitzjohn Trench, M.A., M.R.I. A. The Principal (W. M. Childs, M.A.). G. W. Parmalee, D.C.L. . R. Parkin, C.M.G., LL.D. Professor W. B. Anderson, M.A.. Professor E. Mackay. W. L. Grant, M.A. UNIVERSITY. King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia Sydney Melbourne University of Tasmania University ot New Zealand Rhodes University Col- lege, Grahamstown Transvaal University College University of Allahabad, India Calcutta ... Madras ... Panjab ... II REPRESENTED BY. Rev, W. H. Binney, D.D. Sir Philip Sydney Jones, M.D. Professor Theodore Gurney, M.A. The Master of Ormond College (Dr, MacFarland). The Yen. Archdeacon Whitington, LL.B. Professor F. D. Brown, M.A. Professor C. H. H. Cook, M.A. G. Hogben, M.A. Professor A. S. Kidd, M.A. John Robinson. A. R. Golding. M. B. Cameron, M.A., B.Sc., Fellow of the University. Professor E. Denison Ross, Ph.D., M.R.A.S. The Director of Public Instruction, Madras (A. G. Bourne, D.Sc., F.R.S.). J. Sime, C.I.E., M.A., LL.D., formerly Director of Public Instruction, Panjab. COLLEGES. (Technical and others.) COLLEGES. India. Islamia College Bareilly College, Bareilly Meerut College Patna College Dayanand Anglo - Vedic College, Lahore 'New Zealand, Nelson College Christ's College Masterton Technical College Queensland. Brisbane and Rock- hampton Grammar Schools South Africa. Diocesan College, Rondebosch, C.C. REPRESENTED BY. Sheikh Abdul Cjadir. Professor Vere O'Ratigan, Professor of English Literature. W. Jesse. C. Russell, M.A. Professor Bhai Parmanand. C. Y. Fell, B.A. Professor C. H. H. Cook, M.A. T. Grundy. J. Wheatcroft, M.A. Rev. Canon Jenkins, M.A. ASSOCIATIONS. County Councils Assoc. Education Committee Association of Directors and Secretaries for Education ASSOCIATIONS. REPRESENTED BY. W. J. Willis Bund, J.P. Sir James Rankin, Bart., J.P., D.L. Rev. C. J. Steward. D. T. Cowan, Director of Education Hampshire. for 12 ASSOCIATIONS. College of Preceptors ... Headmasters' Conference REPRESENTED BY. Headmasters' Assoc. . Headmistresses' Assoc. The Teachers' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools Association of Prepara- tory Schools Private Schools Associa- tion National Union of Teachers Training College Asso- ciation Assoc. of Head Teachers Association of Tech- nical Institutions Welsh County Schools A ssociation Teachers' Training College Association National Association of Manual Training Teachers Association of Teachers in Technical Institu- tions Rev. J. O. Bevan. E. W. Maples, LL.D. The Headmaster of Westminster School (Rev. J. Gow, Litt.D.). The Warden of Brad field College (Rev. H. B. Gray, D.D.). The High Master of St. Paul's School .(Rev. A. E. Hillard, M.A.). The Headmaster of University College School (H. J. Spenser, M.A., LL.D.). The Headmaster of Chigwell School, Essex (Rev. Canon Swallow, M.A.). The Headmaster of Mill Hill School (J. D. McClure, M.A., LL.D.). The Headmaster of Charterhouse (Rev. G. H. Rendall, M.A., Litt.D.), The Headmaster of Owen's School, Islington (J. Easterbrook, M.A.). Miss F. Gadesden, M.A. Miss Mowbray. Miss F. Edwards. A. Kahn, M.A. Miss M. M. Penstone F. Storr, B.A. A. A. Somerville, M.A. C. H. Greene, M.A. W. H. C. Jemmett. G. Gidley Robinson. H. R. Beasley. Ernest: Gray, M.A. Allen Croft. Miss Cleghorn, L.L.A. Miss A. L. Broome. Rev. H. Wesley Dennis. Professor Mark Wright, M.A. Miss Allen. H. E. Griffiths. E. S. Mortimer. The Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett P.C., K.C.V.O., D.L., F.R.S., etc. Principal Clay, D.Sc. Principal S. H. Wells, A.M.I.C.E., A.M.I.M .E. Miss Vivian, B.A. W. Jenkyn Thomas. Miss H. Powell. The Hon. Sir John Cockburn, K.C.M.G., M.D. E. Ortner, Examiner, City and Guilds of Lon- don Institute. V. A. Mundella, M.A.', B.Sc., M.I.E.E. ASSOCIATIONS. Montreal Protestant Board of School Commissioners Ontario Educational Association New South Wales Teachers' Association Victoria Secondary Schools Association Victoria Head Mis- tresses' Association Association of Secondary Teachers, Victoria The Board of Wellington College and Girls High School Otago District Educa- tional Institute, New Zealand Southland Education Board, New Zealand Otago Education Board Auckland Education Board Transvaal Teachers' Association Museums Association ... Royal Society REPRESENTED BY. E. W. Arthy, M.A. James L. Hughes, M.A., Chief Inspector of Schools for City of Toronto. C. H. Hodges. M.A. L. A. Adamson, M.A. j-Miss I. Henderson. Miss Richmond. Dr. J. R. Don. J. C. Thompson, M.H.R. Mark Cohen. L. M. Myers. A. Stephen, M.A. J. Maclauchlan. E. Howartn, F.R.A.S., F.Z.S. A. D. Waller, LL.D., M.D., F.R.S., Director of the Physiological Laboratory, University of London. Members of Council, ) Sir Frederick Pollock. Bart., D.C.L. League of the Empire j Professor M. E. Sadler, LL.D. Professor J. B. Bury, Litt.D., LL.D., D.Liit. R. D. Beloe, M. A. Lieut-Col. G. T. Plunkett, C.B., R.E. R. F. Scharff, Ph.D. The Hon. Sir John Cockburn, K.C.M.G..M.D. Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S. Miss Rees George. Miss Vivian, B.A. J. E. Roberts. /History f -^ c3 2 -sJ Museum ^y Nature Study ... 3 ( _jy /South Australia $. u I Monmouthshire g c - J Montgomery- SB] shire SW I Barbados JJ \Natal Royal Sanitary Institute British Academy The Royal Drawing Society British Science Guild ... The Hon. Sir John Cockburn. K.C.M.G., M.D. The Classical Association Professor Sonnenschein, M.A.. D.Litt. The Geographical Assoc. A. J. Herbertson, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S. The Historical Assoc. Miss Ellen Me Arthur, Lrtt.D. The English Association Professor F. S. Boas, M.A. Modern Language Asso- G. F. Bridge, M.A. ciation. E. Owen, B.A. Miss K. Gray. H. V. Ellis. Colonel J. Lane Notter, R.A.M.C. Professor I. Gollancz, M.A., Litt.D. T. R. Ablett. 14 ASSOCIATIONS. REPRESENTED BY. Royal Colonial Institute -G. R. Parkin, C.M.G., LL.D. London Chamber of Sir Albert Kaye Rollit, LL.D., D.C.L. Commerce Victoria-League ... Miss Mary Gurney. S. African Colonization Miss Haldane. Society Workers' Educational , Albert Mansbridge. Association Moral Instruction F. H. Hayward, Litt.D. League J. H. Wicksteed, M.A. The following gave their -valuable assistance as Chairmen of the Meetings and Sections : The Right Hon. the Lord President of the Council (The Earl of'Crewe, P.C., M.A., F.S.A.). The Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies (The Earl of Elgin, K.G., P.C., G.C.S.I., D.C.L., &c.). The Right Hon. the Earl of Meath, K.P., P.C. The Right Hon. Lord Reay, P.C., G.C.S.I., LL.D., &c. The Right Hon. Lord Tennyson, P.C., G.C.M.G. The Hon. Sir John Cockburn, 'K.C.M.G., M.D. Sir Philip Magnus, B.Sc., M.P. The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, the Master of Gonville and Caius. The Principal, University of London, Sir Arthur Riicker, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc.,. F.R.S. The Rev. Canon G. C. Bell, M.A. ' Professor J. B. Bury, Litt.D., LLD., D.Litt. S. H. Butcher, Litt.D., LL.D., M.P. The Chief Superintendent of Education, New Brunswick (J. R. Inch, M.A., LL.D.). . Lieut.-Col. G. T. Plunkett, C.B., R.E. Professor Saintsbury, M.A., LL.D., D.Litt. The Hon. Secretaries of Meetings, Sections and Committees were : Basil Williams, M.A. (Hon. Secretary to the Sections). The Hon. Henry Lygon, B.A., L.C.C. (University). R. D. Beloe, M.A. (History). R. Mullineux Walmsley, D.Sc. (Technical). T. S. Foster (Training of Teachers). Miss Beales (Museum). Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S. (Nature Study). Ernest Young, B.,Sc. (Teaching of English). Byron Brennan, C. B.^j Henry V. Ellis \Hon. Secretaries of Committees. W. J. Evans J Opening speeches were made and papers prepared by t The Right Hon. A. J. Bajfour, P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., M.P., &c. The Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett, P.C., K.C.V.O., F.R.S., &c. Professor J. Adams, M.A., B.Sc. (London University). C. W. Bailey, M.A. (Liverpool .University). Adolphe Bernon. S. H. Butcher, Litt.D., LL.D., M.P. 15 S. D. Chalmers, M.A. (Sydney). W. H. Clark -James (Western Australia^. The Director of Education for Hampshire (D. T. Cowan). Principal}. H. Crowther, B.Sc. (Halifax). A. Godfrey Day, A.M.I.M.E. (Bath). G. Drage, M.A. Professor J. J. Findlay, M.A. Ph.D. (Victoria University, Manchester). H. A. L. Fisher, M.A. (New College, Oxford). J. H. Fowler, M.A. (Clifton College). Principal W. M. Gardner, M.Sc., F.C.S. (Bradford). R. E. Gosnell (British Columbia). The Head Master of Westminster School (Rev. J. Gow, Litt.D.). Professor P. J. Hartog, B.Sc. The Director of Public Instruction for Ceylon (J. Harward, M.AA The Principal, King's College, London (Rev. A. C. Headlam, D. D., M.A.). The Master of Downing College, Cambridge (A. Hill, M.D., Litt.D.). M. D. Hill, M.A., F.Z.S. (Eton College). Professor Hopkinson, M.A., M.I.C.E. (Cambridge University). The Chief Inspector of Schools, Toronto (James L. Hughes, !V.A. ). Professor A. S. Kidd, M.A. (Rhodes University College, Grahamstown). The Superintendent of Education for Nova Scotia (A, H. Mackay, LL.D., B.Sc., F.R.S.C.). The Inspector of Schools, Seychelles (G. Mackay, M.A.). H. J. Mackinder, M.A. (London School of Economics). The Superintendent-General of Education for the Cape Colony (The Hon. Thomas Muir, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S.). Professor J. II. Muirhead, M.A., LL.D. (Birmingham University). V. A. Mundella, M.A., B.Sc., M.I.E.E. (London). Madame Bergman Osterberg. Principal J. H. Reynolds, M.Sc, (Manchester). J. Robinson (Transvaal University). Professor M. E. Sadler, LL.D. (Manchester University). Professor Saintsbury, M.A., LL.D., D.Litt. (Edinburgh University). Principal F. W. Shurlock, B.A., B.Sc. (Derby). R. Somervell, M.A. (Harrow). Miss C. L. Thomson. The Rev. Canon N. G. Vine, M.A. Miss Ethel A. M. Webb, B.Sc. The Organising Hon. Secretary of the Exhibition was Wilfred Mark Webb, F.L.S., who also gave much assistance in other parts of the Con- ference. Others giving assistance were Mrs. Hardy, Mrs. Ernest Baggallay, Mrs. Mathers, Miss Hargood, Mrs. Tirard, Miss Lyall, Miss Amice Macdonell, Miss Leach, with the staff of the Office of the League. FEDERAL CONFERENCE ; ON EDUCATION OPENING CEREMONY THE Federal Conference on Education, convened by the League of the Empire, was opened by the Lord President of the Council, the Right Hon. the Earl of Crewe, on Empire Day, May 24th, 1907, at the Caxton Hall, Westminster. The official representatives of the different Education Departments of the Empire and the Delegates appointed to attend the Conference by the Universities, Museums, and other educational bodies, were received by Lord Tennyson (President), by the Chairman of the Federal Council and other officers of the League. Academic dress was worn, and the robes of the Vice-Chancellors and the gowns of the graduates of the various Universities made a brilliant show of colour. The opening ceremony took place in the large hall, and the proceedings began with the playing of the National Anthem. The Right Hon. Lord Tennyson, G.C.M.G., then introduced the Chairman, saying : " My lords, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the League of the Empire, I thank the Lord President of the Council for his presence here to-day, and I now ask him to declare this important Representative Conference on Education open." The CHAIRMAN (Lord Crewe) then opened the Con- 17 2 i8 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION ference and said : " My lords, ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to-day to take the Chair at the first meeting of this very important Conference, and to declare it open. " I owe that honour not, as I think, to any personal claims of my own, but to the fact that it is my privilege to preside over the ancient Department of the Privy Council, the only Department of State in this country which exercises certain functions in regard to the whole Empire, both self-governing Colonies and the Dependencies and Protectorates which own the sway of His Majesty the King. That is a very old story. The Privy Council has had an independent existence for some 600 years, but the fact that it exercises these functions in relation to the whole Empire springs from the very small fact that when William the Conqueror came to this country he owned certain possessions outside England. The Channel Islands to this day approach His Majesty the King through the medium of the Privy Council, and not through Parliament ; and it was from that small beginning that the other dominions of His Majesty beyond the sea, now so much larger than the Channel Islands, also, for certain purposes, approach His Majesty by means of the Privy Council. " My lords, ladies and gentlemen, we are met here to-day, on the 24th of May the birthday of our late gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, a day which, as I venture to think, by a very happy provision, has since been set apart as a reminder of our great Imperial position and our great Imperial responsibility. In this country we are not a great people for celebrations and anniversaries. We carry into our public life, perhaps, too much of that reserve which is supposed to dis- tinguish us in our private life, and that is possibly one reason why to those who live in other parts of the Empire it may seem that this notion of an Empire Day has not been taken up in this country with the general enthusiasm which it might have been ex- pected to evoke. There is also, perhaps, although I OPENING CEREMONY 19 would only allude to it here in the most passing way, a certain fear in the minds of many excellent people in this country that such a day might give somewhat excessive opportunity to those people however few in number as I believe they are who prefer to look upon the Empire, not as we desire to look upon it, as a great engine for advancing the civilisation of the world, but who appear to be more proud of it in the possibility of a menace which it might constitute to other countries. No such charge, at any rate, can be brought against the occasion which causes us to meet in this hall to-day. No critic can possibly bring against this Conference any charge of aggressive- ness or of the sort of temper which we should not wish to see introduced into our Imperial affairs. Quite the contrary indeed. This gathering is not strictly an official gathering, although it is held, as I am glad to know and believe, under official sanction and en- couragement ; and many officials, both British and Colonial, will, as I hope, take a useful part in its pro- ceedings. It is held under the auspices of an important body, of which my friend, Lord Tennyson, is the worthy President the League of the Empire ; and I hope I may be allowed to congratulate him and his colleagues of that association upon the signal success which they have achieved in bringing together this great concourse of men and women interested in the education of the Empire. " First of all, apart from anything which this Con- ference may actually achieve, it is surely of vast benefit that those who, under ordinary circumstances, must, by the necessities of the case, find it difficult to meet, should have an opportunity for full and frank ex- change of ideas. By such an interchange they must arrive at a truer appreciation of each other's merits and a fuller understanding of each other's difficulties. A famous French writer has said we are apt to judge other people by ourselves, and while we handsomely acquit them of any charge of possessing our defects, yet we are not able to forgive them for not always 20 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION possessing our good qualities ; and it certainly is only by association, by meeting, by formal, and perhaps even more by informal talk, that it is possible to get over those natural prejudices which, as human beings, we all entertain when the business and affairs of our friends come under our consideration. I think it cannot be doubted that we, in different parts of the Empire, in educational matters have much to learn of each other. We have also, both in Britain and all over the Empire, I have no doubt, much to learn from the practice of foreign countries, and those of you who come from a distance will, as I hope, have an opportunity not only of studying our methods here, but also of acquiring a fuller knowledge of edu- cational matters on the continent of Europe. Those who come from abroad will find us here greatly taken up, in some aspects, by the example of Germany, We all remember how, now nearly thirty years ago, Matthew Arnold in a very memorable article pointed out to his fellow-countrymen how infinitely superior the general system of intermediate education in France was to that in this country. We hope that there will be certain positive suggestions carefully considered and brought to some harvest by this Con- ference. " I notice at your first open meeting, to be held to-morrow, the exceedingly important subject of a possible interchange of teachers and inspectors is to be considered. I confess that that is a subject which I have always had at heart, and it seems to me that the difficulties in the way of this particular advance, a very great advance as I believe, are by no means so great as those which undoubtedly surround other aspects of interchange, and I sincerely hope that the discussion which this point will receive in the course of the Conference may bear very useful fruit. I notice lower down in your list a more difficult subject, which, I am sure, will also repay discussion that of university co-operation. That, I think, is a subject in which many of you take a great deal of OPENING CEREMONY 21 interest. If it is possible to bring the universities all over the Empire into some closer relation with each other, with some possible interchange of cer- tificates (of course taking especial care that no dero- gation is allowed from the standard which in each particular subject it is thought necessary to maintain), if that can be done, although I admit it does seem to me a difficult matter, yet I am certain that a still further advance will have been made in the Union of the Empire in relation to this great subject. " Quite apart, however, from the subjects on your agenda paper, we always feel in this country, I am sure, that a Conference of this kind, clearing the air, as we hope it will, must be of great advantage to us. There are many of us in this country who consider we have not yet succeeded in making the science of education sufficiently exact. There is a great deal still done by rule\of thumb, which might, one hopes, after due consideration, be done in a more scientific and orderly manner. You have as one of the subjects for discussion the connection between elementary and secondary education. That is a subject over which, in this country, we have been for many years, and undoubtedly still are, most profoundly concerned, and he would be a very bold man who would say that, so far as England is concerned, we have advanced very far yet towards the solution of that particular problem. Then, again, we feel that in relation to another subject on your paper, that the training of teachers is a matter upon which we still, for reasons into which nothing would induce me to enter on an occasion of this kind, remain somewhat behind- hand. I hope that a discussion at such a Conference as this, into which political questions are not allowed to enter, may serve a useful purpose in drawing at- tention to the necessities of this country in that regard. Again, we feel in this country at least a' great many of us feel that the whole theory and practice of examinations as carried on in our different centres of education needs very careful consideration. I 22 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION am not going to attempt to enter into that subject now ; it is one which certainly gives rise to many sinkings of heart, both as regards elementary and higher education ; and in connection with that I should also mention the problem which, it seems to me, faces us specially here, and which, I suppose, faces educationalists elsewhere, namely, the new problem of how soon specialisation is to begin, because special- isation is being, in this country, in some branches of learning forced upon us at a rate which I know gives considerable alarm to many of those best qualified to speak in the name of education. " I sincerely hope that the stay of those who come from other parts of the Empire will be as long as they can make it, and that it will be an agreeable stay. We are, in these times, accustomed to associate the word ' Conference ' with a vast deal of what does not strictly belong to a Conference I mean banqueting, and matters of that kind. You who come from other parts of the Empire will not be subjected to quite such severe hardships as those which the eminent Prime Ministers who attended the Imperial Conference had to face. But I do hope that your stay in London will not be merely a business stay, but that it will also be an agreeable one, and that, besides the solid work that is done at this Conference, some concession may be made to the nether sphere of the fleeting hour. " Lastly, I will say that I hope this will only be the first of a series of such Conferences. It has been said that the only separation which can be called real separation is that which does not hurt those who are separated. That kind of separation, we hope, will never exist again between those interested in education in different parts of the Empire. If they are parted, they will mind being parted, and, minding it, as they will, we hope that they will arrange and agree to meet frequently again either here or possibly in some other centres of the Empire, because it has never seemed to me that London ought to be treated as the only centre of the Empire in which representa- OPENING CEREMONY 23 tives of the Empire might meet. I trust that this Conference, therefore, will be merely the first of a long and useful series of such gatherings which may promote the cause of education and also promote the unity of the Empire." Lord TENNYSON next read some messages and telegrams from distinguished persons who were unable to attend the Conference. H.R.H. Princess Louise, Patroness of the Conference, and the Duke of Argyle expressed their regret at being unable to be present, but sent their hearty good wishes. Lord Elgin also wrote regretting his absence from London. His Excellency the Governor-General of Canada (Lord Grey) sent his good wishes. His Excellency the High Commissioner for South Africa sent the following telegram : " Please accept my best wishes for success of the Federal Conference on Education. SELBORNE." A telegram from South Australia said : " South Austra- lian loyal greetings ; great Demonstration Exhibition last night ; King's portrait unveiled. GOVERNOR." The CHAIRMAN now called upon His Excellency the Governor of the Falkland Islands. His EXCELLENCY (W. L. Allardyce, C.M.G.) said : " Mr. President, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, I appear before you here as the representative of the Grown Colonies in this vast Empire of ours. " The question of education in the Crown Colonies is a complex and difficult one, for the reason that they often contain a large diversity of population, and it is extremely difficult to fuse a common system which shall be applicable to large numbers of very different peoples. The Crown Colonies are therefore indebted to you, and on their behalf I beg to tender to the League of the Empire our sincere thanks for the opportunity accorded us of coming to London in order to exchange views with one another. "It is a great opportunity for each and all of us to be able to see the representatives of Ceylon, Southern Nigeria, the Gold Coast, the Straits Settlements, and many other colonies it does not matter which they 24 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION come from and be able to exchange educational ideas with those gentlemen. And although a number of the Crown Colonies, like the one I represent, are small, remote, distant, and very isolated, nevertheless it is possible that the representatives of the larger colonies, by associating with us and interchanging opinions, may be able, perhaps, to acquire some ideas which may be new and useful. On behalf of the Crown Colonies I tender, again, my best thanks to the League of the Empire for allowing us this opportunity of meeting together." The HON. THOMAS BENT (Premier of Victoria) then addressed the meeting and said : " Mr. Chairman, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased that this Conference should be opened on a day on which we are accustomed to celebrate the birthday of her late most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, a woman whom we all revered. " Victoria, which State I represent, is about the only place which has been entirely colonised by the British. We are a loyal people, and we have sent from Victoria, 13,000 miles, our Director of Education, whom I am glad to see on this platform. I feel quite sure that he will take his part with credit in the discussions of this great Conference. " The question of secondary and other education is engaging the attention of the legislators of all the Australian States. Victoria has free, secular, and compulsory education, and is now doing her best to ensure the possibility of the son of the poorest man in the State who has brains going right up to the Uni- versity. Education we consider is the best asset we have in Victoria. We have gold, wine, coal, butter, and all those kinds of things ; but education is our greatest asset, and when I tell you that with a small population of. 1,250,000 we spend 800,000 a year upon this subject you will understand the value we set upon such work. My noble lord here has said that you in England are greatly taken up with the example of Germany. We in Victoria say that we are in advance of Germany. Within the last year we have instituted OPENING CEREMONY 25 Chairs for Agriculture and Chairs for Mining at our Uni- versity, and it is our great desire that our educational system shall be carried on on such lines that all sorts and conditions of children shall receive the greatest of God's gifts, viz. education. " I hope this Conference will go on and prosper and be, as I feel sure it must be, a great success." The Chairman then called on Dr. GEORGE W. PAR- MALEE (Deputy Head of the Department of Public Instruction, Quebec), who said : " Mr. Chairman, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to-day to represent the province of Quebec at this Conference. " I am not the senior representative from the Dominion of Canada, but I come from the premier province in the way of seniority from a province which, as you all know, is largely French and largely Roman Catholic. Notwithstanding the fact that the problems which arise in French schools, where the Roman Catholic religion is taught, are quite different from the problems which confront us, yet the Roman Catholic Ministry of the day have cheerfully appointed a non- Catholic, and an English-speaking man, to represent them at this Conference. " Not long ago one of my confreres on the Pacific coast declared that in British Columbia they had practically no religious difficulty, the reason being that they had secular education and nothing else. I may say, in connection with this point, that in the province of Quebec we also have no religious difficulty, and this is because we have religious teaching in all our schools. As a matter of fact, I presume that neither of us has stated the case entirely correctly. I think that they have no difficulties in British Columbia, and that we have none in the province of Quebec, because both sides are willing to give and take. In my own experi- ence I find, as between Protestants and Roman Catholics in the province of Quebec, there is indeed a greater disposition to give than to take, and so long as that spirit prevails we shall have no difficulty. 26 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION " The greatest difficulty we have to contend with is the apathy of the people, who do not fully realise the value of education. They say they do, but they do not prove it by sufficient contributions to the support of education. In the province of Quebec, and in other large parts of Canada, except, perhaps, the West, where the material resources are so great that everybody is becoming wealthy after two or three seasons, it is almost impossible to get our people to recognise the real value of the good teacher to the community, and to show that recognition by offering emoluments that will attract the best minds and the best characters into the teaching profession. " I beg to acknowledge on behalf of the province of Quebec, and on behalf of Canada, the hospitality which has been shown to us, and to thank the promoters of this Conference for the opportunity which they have given us of coming here together to confer upon edu- cational questions." The VICE-CHANCELLOR, the President of Magdalen College, Oxford, speaking for the Universities, said : " My lord President, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, my duty is on behalf of the older Universities more particularly, and perhaps also of the other Universities of the Empire, to thank the promoters of this Con- ference for having brought us together here to-day. " The spring of 1907 will, I think, be ever memorable as the era which brought together the first adequate and effectively representative Conference of the self- governing daughter States with the Motherland the first Conference which has really deserved and obtained the name not only of a Colonial, but of an Imperial Conference. If this Conference has not, either in quality or in quantity, achieved all the work which some hoped it might have done, at any rate it may claim to have taken the first step towards making the ideal of the British Empire a working reality. That Conference is now over, and has become part of history. ." For us remains the humbler and more homely task of considering how we may further preparation for the OPENING CEREMONY 27 next Conference by organising the education of the Empire because, ladies and gentlemen, it is on educa- tion that the future of the Empire mainly rests. Our Empire is the largest combination and most complex enterprise which has hitherto been attempted, and it depends more than any other work on education, and on education on common lines. The common heritage of our race our literature, our history can only be made the common possession of the Empire through education. It is only through education that the child in New Zealand, in Australia or in South Africa can be made to realise what England, *her life, her cities, her monuments, her landscapes really were with their ancient glories and associations. In the same way it is only education that can bring home to a child in our English town or village, by a Scotch burn or loch, or to a child amid the Irish or the Welsh hills, the great possibilities that are opened to him and his race in the wheatfields of Canada or on the upland plains of South Africa or Australia. " Turning to the Universities, which it is here my province to represent, we move to a certain extent from the present and the future to the past. It is the duty of the Universities to investigate and to teach science, both natural science and the science if it may "be so called of humanity, of history and physical and social law, to propose and to solve economic problems and to develop the lessons of the history of Empires of the past, their inception and their growth, and, to use a famous phrase of a great member of my own College, their decline and their fall. All this must be presented through education to the children and to the sons of the Empire if they are to address themselves to this great problem with advantage. " I am glad to think that one part of your programme is a visit on the part of the Conference to the old Uni- versities of Oxford and Cambridge. I offer you a most hearty welcome on behalf of the older Universities." Dr. MACALISTER (The Vice-Chancellor and Princi- pal of the University of Glasgow) then said : " My 28 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Lord President, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, I have some little difficulty, as the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford has replied for all- the Universities of the Empire, in finding a reason for my selection to say a few words. I can only imagine that it is because I am probably the junior Vice-Chancellor in the world at this moment. " However, if that is not the reason, I may perhaps find a better reason in the fact that Glasgow is the second city of the Empire, and I say that regardless of the presence of any representative from Liverpool. Glasgow has taken a very large part in the education of the Empire, and Glasgow men, as I have learned within the last two months, are prepared to occupy any position of importance or authority in any part of the Empire. They are prepared to supply rulers and governors to every Colony and every Department in every Colony, and I understand this programme is being carried out day by day. For this reason, there- fore, there may be some appropriateness in Glasgow being asked to follow Oxford in thanking the Lord President and the League of the Empire for calling us together in consultation. "A significant event to which I think full atten- tion has not been drawn has happened in London during last term. A very distinguished member of my old University of Cambridge, Baron Kikuchi of Japan, late Minister of Education in that country, and President of the University of Tokio, has been called by the University of London to deliver a course of Lec- tures on Education in this the first city of the Empire. That fact is significant, because it shows that this country is in such a state of perplexity about education that it is ready to welcome suggestions from any part of the world. All over the Empire problems are being faced and solved and results are being piled up, and it is certainly astonishing that with all the work that is going on in our great Imperial Laboratory the re- searches in the matter of educational administration, method, and theory should not be brought home to the motherland from her own children. Here in England OPENING CEREMONY 29 we have been to Japan for instruction in education, when in every part of our Empire we have lessons which might be inculcated here. Sir, I take it that the object in the mind of the League of the Empire in summoning us here was that the results of such experiments and experience should be utilised. " I will not touch on any of the questions which the Lord President has mentioned, other than one which, as it happens, concerns us both. Lord Crewe has spoken of the high importance of considering whether the Universities of the Empire might not arrange some mutual recognition of degrees and examinations. For a great many years, as President of the General Medical Council, and otherwise, I have been interested in that question, and I am glad to say that, thanks to the action of the Privy Council and of the Lord President also, we are drawing very near indeed to a universal recogni- tion and reciprocity with regard to the medical degrees of the Empire. " I take it, sir, that this problem which we have been attempting to solve has been more difficult than that of the mutual recognition of degrees in Art and Science, because it touches not only the question of learning and of competency, but also of the skill of those who are to be entrusted with the treatment of human life. I may say, however, that all over the Empire, with one or two exceptions, mutual eligibility and mutual recognition have now been completed. In Australia, in India, even in Malta, and in one province of Canada, the degrees granted by their own Universities are registerable 'at home, and those of the United Kingdom are register- able over there. We are still waiting for the other provinces of Canada to fall into line, and Quebec at the present moment stops the way. I have taken the opportunity of mentioning that, because I should be delighted, and I may say the Lord President also would be delighted, if such a force of public opinion could be created as would enable us to close up this small gap in the circle. " I have to thank you, and to thank the League of 30 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION the Empire, for giving us this opportunity of comparing results and of learning lessons from the whole of our Empire." Lord MEATH then said : " My lords, ladies and gentlemen, a very pleasant duty has fallen to my lot namely, to propose a hearty vote of thanks to the Lord President of the Council for having taken the Chair at this most important and unique meeting. Lord Crewe told us that this was not an official gather- ing. His lordship was perfectly right ; but at the same time, when we remember that we have amongst us a large number of representatives who have been officially appointed to this Conference by their Govern- ments, I think that at all events we may say the gather- ing is of a semi-official character ; and anyhow, I, as an Imperialist, am glad to see present to-day in the Chair a man who is at the head of the Education Department of this country. " My lords, ladies and gentlemen, it is an immense pleasure to me that I have lived to attend a Conference where not only the principal educationists of this country, but the principal educationists of the whole British Empire are assembled. This is a unique year, an epoch-making year. We have heard echoes of what has been taking place at the recent Confer- ence of Premiers in Downing Street. About this we hope to hear more in the future. What we are our- selves certain about is that this Conference is also an epoch-making one ; and, in my opinion, it is even of more importance than that to which I have just alluded. I will tell you why. The Conference that met in Downing Street was a Conference of rulers. On the people depends what character of ruler will be elected. Therefore, I say your work to-day is, to my mind, infinitely more important than the work of the recent Imperial Conference, for you have to mould the minds, the consciences, and the feelings of the children of the British Empire, who will elect in their turn the rulers who will make of their country either a ' Little England ' or a great Imperial Empire. OPENING CEREMONY 31 " My lords and gentlemen, we are grateful to the representatives who have come here from all parts of the world. We are grateful, also, to the organisation which has been the means of bringing them all to- gether, and in that connection I should like to mention the name of Mrs. Ord Marshall, the Hon. Secretary. " I have to thank my lord on behalf of those who are here to-day, and I propose a resolution of thanks to him for taking the Chair." Mr. FRANK TATE, I.S.O., M.A. (Director of Educa- tion, Victoria) then seconded the vote of thanks to the Lord President of the Council, and said : "In common with the other delegates who have come from. the remote parts of the Empire, I look forward with very great pleasure not only to meeting those who have administration in the Colonies, but also the representatives of the Home Departments and of the learned Societies and the Higher Educational In- stitutions of the Mother Country. The seal has been happily set on our proceedings by the fact that the Lord President has opened this the first of our meetings. " Every great question, whether social, political, or industrial, comes back to the question of education ; the first condition therefore of the successful main- tenance of our Empire is that we shall strengthen and co-ordinate our educational organisations. Not so many years ago the different grades of education had little concern with each other. The most signifi- cant fact of to-day is that throughout the Empire all grades of education are being gradually linked together, so that the educational house shall be made firm and strong. " This meeting will do much to make the man-in- the-street recognise the importance of this. We cannot work without the man-in-the-street, for educa- tion is of such vital concern it can no longer be left to private benevolence or to the Churches ; it has become a great national affair. Therefore it is ex- ceptionally pleasant that one occupying so high an official position as the Lord President of the Council 32 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION should open this Conference of educationists and wish us God-speed in our work. I have great pleasure in seconding the motion of thanks." Sir FREDERICK YOUNG, K.C.M.G., supported the resolution. The CHAIRMAN (Lord Crewe) in reply said : " My lords, ladies and gentlemen, it has been a sincere and profound pleasure to me to be present and to- take the Chair at this opening meeting of the Confer- ence." " It has been a pleasure to me also that the vote was proposed by my friend, Lord Meath. I regard Lord Meath as a valuable asset of the Empire, for he is a standing contradiction of the popular fallacy which would lay down that a man must either be a sort of purblind creature, interested only in parochial affairs, or a wild being of the Jingo type, thinking merely of aggression and conquest. Lord Meath is a standing contradiction of that ridiculous theory ; for while there are thousands of people in humble homes in this country thanking him and Lady Meath for the admirable work they have done in furthering the well-being of their fellow-countrymen, that has not prevented Lord Meath from taking a part in promoting the idea of Empire both in this country and all over the wide dominions of the Crown. I am very grateful, also, to the seconder of the resolution, Mr. Tate, Director of Education for Victoria. " It is delightful to find that in certain other parts of the Empire there is a complete absence of some of those difficult problems which affect us here. Some of our difficulties here, I believe, spring to a con- siderable extent from the fact of our being a very old country, inheriting a vast number of old traditions and beliefs which cannot be disturbed or uprooted without considerable friction taking place. One word more about this Conference. I trust it will not be too harmonious. Conferences which are so, are apt, I think, to be somewhat fictitious, for harmony may be produced by people refraining from saying what they OPENING CEREMONY 33 would like to say. I hope that this Conference will be one of perfectly free speech, perfectly free criticism ; and I am certain that, so far as the representatives of this country are concerned, any criticism which may be offered upon our methods, views, or ideals of education will be received in the best possible spirit, and with the determination to profit by it as far as we can. I thank you very heartily, ladies and gentle- men." The meeting then terminated. THE OFFICIAL LUNCHEON THE Representatives and Delegates (the list of which has been already given) were afterwards entertained at luncheon in the Council Chamber. Among others present were The Right Hon. the Earl of Crewe, Lord and Lady Tennyson, Lord and Lady Llangattock, Lady Napier of Magdala, the Governor of Victoria and Lady Talbot, Lady Brassey, the Agents-General for the different countries, the Premier of Victoria, Sir John Bramston, Baron Kikuchi, Mr. David Davies, M.P., with the Chairman and Officers of the League. Lord TENNYSON presided, and gave the toast " The guests from our Dominions beyond the seas, and our other guests." In the course of his speech he said : "In matters of education the Mother Country has much to learn from the Colonies the Colonies have much to learn from the Mother Country. I be- lieve that this Conference will be memorable, not only in the annals of education, but of the Empire. It is the small beginning of a most important movement, and, I hope, the precursor of other such Conferences. I am confident that the widening, the regulating, the co-ordinating, the uniting by means of co-operation of the various systems and courses of education through- out the Empire would further the moral and intellectual progress of the Empire, and would promote almost more than anything else the great cause of Imperial unity. Is it not true that our prophets and seers in literature, art, and science, and our foremost teachers of youth, have done more than even our statesmen to help to weld this Empire of ours into a political entity ? Will you allow me for one moment to tell you what I conceive to be the 34 OFFICIAL LUNCHEON 35 prime qualifications of a great teacher of youth ? He should have the power of sympathy, of imparting information without cram, of gauging and moulding character, of inspiring reverence and kindling enthu- siasm, and shall I add it ? of knowing his own limita- tions. One of the wisest of our bygone teachers at Cambridge, my old friend Professor Adam Sedgwick, I have heard, once addressed his class in this fashion : ' Gentlemen, I may not be able to teach you anything, but I can fire your imaginations.' He knew full well that in the curriculum at our universities, colleges, and schools the chief danger to be avoided is the sleep of the heart, of the higher intellect. But I am not here to ad- dress you on problems of education, but to express our confidence and belief that your deliberations during the coming week will be productive of far-reaching and most beneficial results. We of the League of the Empire hold the now famous dictum that education is the transmission of life from the living, through the living, to the living. We of the League of the Empire look forward with eagerness to the infinite future possibilities of education education, not as a mere question for educational experts, but as an intimate part of our national and Imperial life." Sir REGINALD TALBOT (Governor of Victoria), in responding, congratulated those present most heartily upon the happy thought which had suggested the choosing of Empire Day for the opening of the Con- ference. Empire Day was founded for the most part by his friend Lord Meath in memory of our great Queen ; and if that great and noble mind, that great loving heart, was bent in one direction more than in another in what concerned the interests of her Empire and her subjects, it was upon the rising generation, the children of her subjects. Dr. STARKIE, in a humorous speech, referred to the difficulty of touching upon education and at the same time avoiding politics. Every question in Ireland was political, and certainly education was not one of those that did not come into that category. In another 36 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION respect he was afraid he was ill-qualified to speak, because he had not had an opportunity of acquiring that delicate skill' which one of his countrymen de- scribed as skating on thin ice over burning volcanoes. They had heard some of the gentlemen at the previous meeting speak of the various nationalities whom they were supposed to teach. He thought, however, on reflection that Ireland was a microcosm of the whole Empire he was about to say, but he might say, perhaps, of the world. They had tribes there also, though they did not call them by the same names as those in distant parts of the Empire. He believed that the first tribes that arrived in Ireland were the lost tribes, some of whom had since been found there, to the cost of some other people. There were other tribes also, and those gentlemen who spoke that morning of the absolute peace which reigned in education in their happy lands would not find much of a sympathiser in him. He could comfort himself with a hope which had been expressed that morning, that in education there would be no peaceful conference. Well, there was not much likelihood of that in the country he came from. They clad themselves in triple brass before they went to an education conference. In his country they " fought like devils for conciliation, hated each other for the love of God." To come to the various problems they had to face, he thought he was eminently qualified to sit on one of the committees. There was the bi-lingual problem they had got that very strongly in the west of Ireland, Their aim was to abolish English altogether except for commercial purposes. He concluded by thanking the hosts for the hospitality shown to the guests. Dr. MUIR (Superintendent of Education for Cape Colony), who also replied, said that South Africa was absolutely united in one thing, and that was the desire for education. Nothing had more prominently come out as a result of the war than the keenness with which the people of all races had taken to education. They had no Empire Day in South Africa, but they had its OFFICIAL LUNCHEON 37 equivalent. When Queen Victoria died they resolved to keep her birthday for ever, as they had been in the habit of doing. It bore the name of Victoria Day, and they might be certain that in Cape Colony every school that day was closed, and that on the previous day emphasis was abundantly given by all the teachers to the many virtues of our great and good Queen. He would be very much disappointed if something per- manent did not come of this meeting, if some organisa- tion, no matter how small, was not formed for the purpose of getting them in closer touch with one another after they had left Great Britain. RECEPTIONS In the afternoon Lady Tennyson held a Reception of the Representatives and Delegates, and of members of the League and their friends. In the evening the Representatives and Delegates availed themselves of Mr. Beerbohm Tree's invitation to a special performance at His Majesty's Theatre and to a Reception afterwards on the stage, which was transformed with the help of scenery into the historic Westminster Hall. Mr. Tree welcomed his guests with a delightful speech, which was responded to by Repre- sentatives of the different countries and Colonies. - SITTINGS OF THE CONFERENCE FROM MAY 25 TO JUNE i, INCLUSIVE THE business sittings of the Conference began on Saturday, May 25, and the proceedings are given under the following headings : (a) Official Conference ; (b) Full General Conference of Representatives and Delegates ; (c) Open Meetings ; and (d) Sectional Meetings. OFFICIAL CONFERENCE OF REPRESENTATIVES Appointed by the Governments and Education Depart- ments of the different countries and Crown Colonies of the Empire. THE Official Conference sat in private, issuing each day a notification only of the work under consideration. At the conclusion of the meetings the following an- nouncement was made in the Press of June 3, 1907, on behalf of the Imperial Government : "It is understood that a strong desire has existed that Official Conferences on Education, consisting of representatives sent by the various Governments throughout His Majesty's Dominions, should be held at regular intervals, and that the first of such Con- ferences should be convened by the Imperial Govern- ment. " We are officially informed that an announcement was made on behalf of the Government to one of the Conferences of Education Representatives of various Colonial and Indian Governments and of the Home Government, held last week by invitation of the League of the Empire at Caxton Hall, that His Majesty's Government considered it desirable to arrange for an Official Education Conference to be held in the year 1911. The Secretaries of State for the Colonies and for India are preparing to send out intimations to that effect." 39 40 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION The following official report was issued to the Press, June 3, 1907, by the League of the Empire : We have received from the League of the Empire the following statement issued by the Official Con- ference convened by the League of the Empire, the meetings of which were held at Caxton Hall, between 10 and 12 o'clock, from May 25 to June i. The Conference consisted of representatives nominated for the purpose by the several Governments or educa- tion departments, and held its meetings in private. Mr. S. H. Butcher, M.P., Chairman of the Council of the League of the Empire, presided as chairman throughout, and Mrs. Ord Marshall, Hon. Secretary of the League of the Empire, attended as secretary. At three of the meetings Lord Tennyson, President of the League, was present by request of the Conference. The first meeting on Saturday, May 25, was devoted to settling procedure at the official meetings, and to the selection of subjects for discussion by the full Conference and by committees respectively. It was decided that the larger subjects which it was desired to discuss should be taken in full Conference, and that certain subjects of a more special or technical nature should be discussed in three committees con- sisting respectively of those representatives in whose countries these subjects were of chief importance. It was decided to devote the morning meetings on each day to sessions in full Conference, and that the committees should meet in the afternoon, and further, that resolutions should only be put when it was clear that the Conference was prepared for a unanimous decision. The transactions at the morning meetings were as follows : On Monday, May 27, the subjects of discussion were " (a) the Mutual Recognition of Teachers' Certifi- cates," and " (6) the Interchange of Teachers and Inspectors." Under (a) the Conference was asked to consider " whether in order to facilitate interchange of teachers, OFFICIAL CONFERENCE 41 practical steps could now be taken to promote a larger degree of mutual recognition of the teachers' certifi- cates issued by different educational bodies in various parts of the Empire ; and whether in the case of individual teachers more might be done by the educa- tion departments concerned to sanction provisional recognition of one another's certificates for short specified terms, the renewal of such recognition to be contingent on favourable reports being received from inspectors who have observed the teacher's work." A full discussion took place, and after a considerable interchange of information as to the manner in which certificates in the various countries were awarded and their value equated, the Conference came to the con- clusion that the variety of local conditions, especially in regard to such matters as the tenure of teachers, their method of appointment and promotion and similar points, made it impossible to arrive as yet at any complete system of mutual recognition of the teachers' certificates issued by different educational bodies in various parts of the Empire. As regards (b) the Conference was asked to consider, " How far interchange of teachers and inspectors between different parts of the Empire would be feasible, (i) .for a short visit, or (2) for a term of years." After discussion it was resolved : " That the Conference considers it desirable that financial and administrative arrangements should be made for enabling teachers and inspectors of schools to acquire professional knowledge and experience in parts of His Majesty's Dominions other than their own." On Tuesday the subject of discussion was " The possibility of closer uniformity of curricula, nomen- clature and methods of presenting official educational statistics." On the first part of this subject it was resolved, " That, in the opinion of this Conference, it is not desirable or necessary to take any steps to bring about uniformity of curricula or text-books for the different school systems of His Majesty's Do- minions." On the second part it appeared that, in 42 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION view of the great variety of conditions prevailing, what was needed was not so much a greater degree of uniformity in presenting statistics, as a clearer under- standing of what is connoted by the terms used and the definitions employed, and it was resolved that, "It is desirable that the different education depart- ments of His Majesty's Dominions should define, year by year, with precision, the terms used in the regulations and statistics that they publish and the basis upon which their published statistics are prepared." The next three sittings were devoted to a careful investigation into the various ways in which the in- terests of education in the different parts of the Empire could best be furthered by encouraging closer relations and a more effective and continuous exchange of information between the several education depart- ments. It was felt that the actual meeting together in conference of persons engaged in the administration of education for the purpose of personal interchange of information and ideas was of the highest possible value, but there were also great advantages to be derived from having a permanent machinery for collecting and disseminating, year by year, information on various subjects in regard to the condition, develop- ment, and progress of education in different parts of the Empire. The following resolution was agreed to : " That the delegates desire to express their apprecia- tion of the value of this Conference to the work of the education departments throughout the Empire, and resolve (i) ' That a quadrennial Conference is desirable' ; (2) ' That the representatives sent to the Conference should be selected by the Governments ' ; and (3) ' That it is desirable that the first of such Conferences should be convened by the Imperial Government.' ' It was also resolved that, " The Conference is unani- mously agreed as to the importance of a permanent central bureau of educational information." A resolution was passed on Friday " That this Con- ference places on record its high appreciation of the work done by the League of the Empire in stimulating OFFICIAL CONFERENCE 43 educational activity and in collecting and circulating information on educational subjects." Saturday morning's meeting was devoted to receiving reports of committees and resolutions from the open Conference. Cordial votes of thanks were passed to the League of the Empire, to the Chairman, Mr. S. H. Butcher, M.P., and to Mrs.Ord Marshall, Hon. Secretary of the League. A presentation was made to Mrs. Ord Marshall in the form of a miniature set in diamonds COMMITTEES A summary is here added of the subjects discussed by the three Committees (A, B, and C) of the Official Conference. COMMITTEE A Problems affecting parts of the Empire in which there are large English-speaking Populations. (a) The relative value of professional training and practical experience in the education of the teacher (i) for primary schools, (ii) for other schools. Rural education : (i) The training of teachers for rural schools ; (ii) The provision of education in sparsely popu- lated districts ; (iii) The modification of the curriculum for schools in rural areas ; (iv) (a) The relation of primary schools in rural areas to specific agricultural education of a higher type ; (6) The provision of a specific agricultural education for rural areas. Scholarships versus low fees in education other than elementary. Physical Training. (i) In elementary ; (ii) in other schools ; (iii) what should be the differentiation with regard to the sexes. Manual training and training for the home. 44 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION COMMITTEE B Problems affecting English-speaking Populations in Remote Portions of the Empire. The subjects discussed by the Committee were as follows : (a) The encouragement of higher education. (i) By co-operation between neighbouring Colonies, (ii) By the establishment of scholarships tenable in larger centres within the Empire, (iii) By the holding of examinations conducted by Universities situated in other parts of the Empire. (b) Moral instruction. (c) Hygiene. (d) Co-education. COMMITTEE C The Ei-l.in%ual Problem, both Languages being European. THE FULL GENERAL CONFER- ENCE OF REPRESENTATIVES : AND DELEGATES Six sittings of the Full General Conference were held from 12 to 1.30 p.m. daily from May25 to May 31. The subjects for discussion were as follows : Date. Sat., May 25. Mon., May 27. Tues., May 28. Wed., May 29. Thurs., May 30. Fri., May 31. Chairman. The Earl of Meath. Lord Reay. Dr. J. R. Inch. The Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge Univer- sity. Sir Arthur Riicker. Professor Bury. Subject. Mutual Recognition of Teachers' Certificates and Interchange of Teachers and Inspectors. (See page 46.) Technical Education. (Seepages?.) Freedom for the Individual School. (See page 68 ) Admission to Universities, Technical Schools and Agri- cultural Colleges. (Seepage 81.) University Co-operation. (See page 94.) The Place of History and Geography in Education. (Seepage 105.) 45 SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1907. Chairman, THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF MEATH, K.P., P.C. THE full text of the Agenda was : Mutual Recognition of Teachers' Certificates. To consider (a) Whether, in order to facilitate interchange of teachers, practical steps could now be taken to pro- mote a larger degree of mutual recognition of the teachers' certificates issued by different educational bodies in various parts of the Empire. Under this head it might be considered whether, in the case of individual teachers, more might be done by the Educational Departments concerned to sanction provisional recognition of one another's certificates for short specified terms, the renewal of such recogni- tion to be contingent on favourable reports being received from Inspectors who have observed the teachers' work. Interchange of Teachers and Inspectors. To consider (b) How far interchange of Teachers and Inspectors between different parts of the Empire would be feasible. (1) For a short visit. (2) For a term of years. The CHAIRMAN said that he regarded the Conference 4 6 INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 47 as a most important event, and in after-years its influence might be found to be greater even than that of the Conference lately held in Downing Street, for, if his anticipations were justified, the whole of the Empire would be affected in a most marvellous manner. There could be little doubt that the subject of mutual recognition of teachers' certificates and the inter- change of teachers and inspectors required the very gravest consideration. There was an enormous number of educational bodies all over the country, but there was practically no organisation or central influence ; whatever central organisation there was seemed to be bound up with red tape. The President of the Council had little or no power to make his influence felt in educational matters, whereas in the Colonies the Ministers of Education were able to make their in- fluence felt throughout all the Educational Institutions. Although centralisation was not always wise, decentral- isation could be carried too far. His own feeling was that there was a great deal too much decentralisation, and that the centralisation which existed was not in the right direction, but rather hindered than helped education. DISCUSSION Mr. D. T. COWAN (Director of Education for Hamp- shire) said there were great difficulties in dealing with teachers from the Colonies who wished to take up teaching in the home schools, for home teachers who had obtained certificates or diplomas in the Colonies found, on returning to England, that these diplomas and certificates did not possess much value in the estimation of educationists here. To take an example from the elementary schools, a certificate issued by the Education Department of Cape Colony did not secure to the holder recognition as a certificated teacher at home, and it seemed to him somewhat unfair that all the children of this great Empire should not be treated on an equality. The difficulties were not insuperable, and it ought to be possible to find a modus vivendi. 48 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION It was necessary, first, to deal with the certificates and diplomas which justified the engagement of teachers in primary schools, and then with the more difficult problem, the recognition of the diploma or qualification which would justify engagements in the secondary schools. In connection with the latter, especially, certain social conditions existed which were almost too subtle to be described. With regard to the first point he desired to bring forward a practical suggestion. He thought it would be wasting time to try to standardise the certificates, and that the greatest possible good would come from freedom in the method adopted by each Government in their award. But it was essential to know some- thing about the teachers and their power to teach, and therefore it seemed to him that in primary schools the teacher should be required to present a diploma or certificate and a testimonial from his or her own Government. Having satisfactory evidence as to capacity, then it would not be too much to ask that, in the event of the teacher securing a home appoint- ment, there should be within a definite time a special inspection by a Government Inspector, and if that were satisfactory the teacher should be granted the same status as that of the home teacher. That seemed to be a simple way of getting over the difficulty. When he turned to the secondary schools the subject seemed full of difficulties, because the differentiations were so much greater in connection with the diplomas. But what had been said of the primary schools might be said of the secondary, that what was wanted was some form of testimonial from the Colonial Govern- ment. Then the applicant should be tried in one of the home schools, the only difficulty being to know how long the period of tests should go on. He thought, roughly speaking, that the minimum should be at least one year. With regard to the exchange of teachers it would probably be a stimulus, and touch the imagination, if INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 49 teachers came from distant Colonies with fresh ideas untrammelled by tradition. Mr. JAMES L. HUGHES, M.A. (Chief Inspector of Schools, Toronto) believed that the meeting would lead the people throughout the Empire to see that it was possible to unite in a very important department of national life. Then other departments would follow. The great function of the Anglo-Saxon race was to bring the world together, and the Conference might mark the first step towards the unity of the Empire. In Canada English certificates were recognised ; and a teacher with a diploma from a training college in England, and with testimonials as to experience, was admitted where vacancies occurred. There was a desire to make arrangements for the recognition of certain grades of certificates throughout the Empire. Teachers who had diplomas from normal schools or training schools and entered the profession might easily be classified into distinct classes, graded according to their standard of success in their pro- fession, and he was disposed to limit the interchange to those who held the highest rank. Those teachers who had taken a regular course of training and who afterwards proved by their success in teaching, by their enthusiasm in the work, and by their continuing to study the best modern ideals, that they were leaders in their profession, might be formed into a class and recognised as entitled to teach in any part of the British Empire. The standing of the teacher would have to be certified by the Local Authority of that part of the Empire from which the teacher came, and he believed it would do a great deal to spread throughout the Empire the best elements of teaching. The English and Colonial child were psychologically the same. In some cases environment made a little difference, but the same great fundamental principles applied. The plan of interchange of teachers would lead to organisation in all parts of the\ Empire and assist in laying down the great fundamental principles for the 50 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION training of the race, physically, intellectually, and morally. That was an ideal of the highest kind, and worthy of the highest effort. Whilst it might not be achieved at once, he thought much might be done by appointing a Committee representing various parts of the Empire to consider the matter very carefully and to report at a later meeting. Experience had taught him that when men started honestly to achieve a purpose, so-called practical difficulties vanished, and that in many cases they were mere prejudices. He was glad that in Canada there was no social question such as had been referred to, and he believed that in all lands that so-called social question would ultimately disappear. Mr. W. L. GRANT, M.A. (Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia) thought that the plan of interchanging teachers and inspectors would cut at the root of what was perhaps the greatest curse in modern primary and secondary education, namely, the lack of prizes in the profession. There was very little inducement for the best men and women to stay in the profession ; that so many had remained was a proof of enthusiasm. Many great Canadians had begun as schoolmasters, but they used their profession as a stepping-stone and became lawyers, doctors, clergymen, contractors, or politicians. The highest prizes in education were seldom given to those who began in the lower ranks, and the result was that a large number of teachers lost all hope, and in losing hope became narrow and faddy. There- fore he thought the interchanges might be utilised as prizes to be given to the teachers who had the best recommendations and qualifications, not academic, but practical. For instance, if a girl teacher in the back parts of Nova Scotia knew that if she could make her school the best in the county she would have a chance of being sent for six months or a year to Australia or Great Britain, she would work with much more heart. A school-teacher in England, who knew that there was INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 51 some chance of obtaining a better position in a new country, might find an incentive to make her work in Little Peddlington of the highest order. Even an inspector should be given something higher to strive for, and in a new sphere, with new enthusiasms, he would work as he had never worked before. The CHAIRMAN asked Mr. Hughes whether he desired to move the appointment of such a Committee as he had mentioned in his speech. Probably Mr. Grant would be willing to second any such motion. Mr. JAMES L. HUGHES said he had no written resolu- tion, but he would propose one to the effect that " This meeting approves of the plan suggested for the recogni- tion of certificates throughout the Empire, and that a Committee, representing different parts of the Empire, be appointed to consider the matter and to report before the Conference closed." Mr. GRANT said he would have much pleasure in seconding the motion, and he thought it would be well if the Committee comprised the various school in- spectors from Great Britain and other parts of the Empire who were present, and if its Chairman were Mr. Hughes. Mr. HUGHES approved of the suggestion, but, under the circumstances, thought he could not well move the resolution himself. The resolution was therefore moved by Mr. COWAN, and seconded by Mr. GRANT. Mr. T. GRUNDY (Masterton Technical College, New Zealand) thought the great stumbling-block in the way of recognition of teachers' certificates through- out the Empire lay in the fact that the home country did not recognise the certificates from the Colonies. The first step necessary was to obtain that recognition. With reference to the interchange of teachers, there was no need to discuss its advisability ; it went without saying that it would be to the advantage of the whole of the Empire if such an interchange could be made. It appeared to him that the difficulty of the certificate might be got over by some arrangement amongst the 52 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Education Departments of the various colonies, by which a teacher's certificate of a certain definite value should be issued' throughout the Empire. If a teacher became a graduate of a University the endorsement of the fact upon the certificate would go far to assist future advancement. Many of the teachers in New Zealand were looking forward hopefully to the inter- change of teachers, as their small salaries prevented them from putting by sufficient to make visits to the old country. He suggested that the salaries might be exchanged temporarily as well as the positions. He had no doubt that many in Great Britain would be very glad of the opportunity to see how education was carried on in the remote parts of the Empire, and would give good value for any extra expense, by the effect they would produce upon the children whom they taught. Mr. GEORGE HOGBEN, M.A. (Inspector-General of Schools, New Zealand) considered that there were certain general questions to be determined before there could be mutual recognition of certificates, or anything like an interchange of teachers, still more of inspectors of schools. It would clear the ground, he thought, if he explained in as few words as possible the position that his Education Department took up in regard to teachers' certificates. In New Zealand there were four classes of certificates A, B, C, and D. The certificates were lettered according to the literary qualifications required for obtaining them. The A certificate represented the literary qualifications demanded for an M.A. degree in first or second class Honours at British Chartered Universities in any part of the Empire. B represented literary attainments measured by the ordinary degree of B.A. or M.A., not involving Honours ; or Departmental Examinations requiring a qualification at least as high. C represented literary qualifications sufficient to carry a candidate through everything except his final examination for his degree ; it would require, for instance, the prelimi- nary examination in the University of New Zealand, INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 53 and three out of the six subjects required for the final examination. D represented the literary attainments measured by a matriculation examination. Then there were numbers representing professional skill and experience. The numbers ran from i to 5. Di would represent a teacher who had passed the matriculation examination and who had studied theo- retically the principles of education and methods of teaching, and would show he had at least eleven years' experience and the highest, or next to the highest, marks for efficiency in teaching. He men- tioned those things to show the difficulty of agreeing upon a mutual exchange of teachers, unless there was a knowledge of what the exchange represented. In New Zealand they had gone as far as this : If any teacher came from Great Britain or any colon}' of the Empire possessing a certificate from the Educa- tion Department, some certificate would be given to him which would secure him against any of the dis- abilities that accompanied its non-possession. With- out a certificate he probably could not be put upon the superannuation fund and could not obtain the other benefits accruing from that fund. Teachers who were not certificated in New Zealand were liable to a deduction of 10 per cent, from their salaries ; and by recognising the certificate of the British Education Department or of Departments of other parts of the Empire, New Zealand saved the teacher from that deduction. Six years ago it was decided that until there was an Imperial Conference established, or some other method of consultation, New Zealand would recognise, as an act of inter- imperial courtesy, all official certificates, and that had been done. He had his doubts as to the value of some of the certificates compared with those of New Zealand, but if the thing was done at all it had to be done thoroughly. Other colonies had done the same thing, while others, and the home Department, had postponed action until there could be a common basis. It was hoped that 54 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION at the Conference there would be some kind of agree- ment to recognise the certificates, but he confessed to considerable doubt as to the possibility of the exchange of teachers between New Zealand and Great Britain. He believed it would be very largely at the expense of the children. New Zealand had evolved along lines so far separated from Great Britain that it would be a loss of time to interchange. Mr. P. A. BARNETT, M.A. (Chief Inspector, Training of Teachers, England) desired to correct previous speakers on questions of fact. The Board of Edu- cation in this country recognised certificates issued in British colonies, but treated each one on its merits, and that was the most which at present was practic- able. He had not the least doubt that the Board of Education would consider a practical scheme for a common certificate, but so far the evidence of a common ground was very slight. He wished to say a word or two with regard to Natal, in which colony he had spent two years. Without expressing any opinion as to the value of the interchange of inspectors, he might say that when he was Superintendent of Education for that colony, he arranged with the Scotch Department for the interchange of inspectors, and the experiment turned out excellently. The financial difficulties, however, were considerable. No doubt it was quite possible to devise a scheme, but the difficulties on the financial side were very great. Sir PHILIP SYDNEY JONES, M.D. (Sydney University) suggested that it would be a wise thing to include in the resolution the Directors of Education who were doing good work in several of the Colonies. Mr. GRANT thought it would be better to add to the resolution power to add to the numbers of the Committee, and in that case the Committee would be able to include the Directors of Education and any other gentlemen whose technical knowledge might be considered valuable. Sir PHILIP SYDNEY JONES approved. The resolution was then put as follows : " That a INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 55 Committee, with power to add to their number, be appointed, consisting of the various School Inspectors present from Great Britain and the other parts of the Empire, to draft a Scheme (a) For an interchange between the different parts of the Empire of School- masters, School-mistresses, and School Inspectors ; and (b) for the mutual recognition of teachers' diplomas and certificates. That this Committee be requested to report to a later meeting of this Conference, and that Mr. J. L. Hughes be the Convener and Chairman of this Committee." The CHAIRMAN said he had a long list of names before him, which he thought it would not be necessary to read out, because any school inspector who was on the list would be a member of the Committee. He there- fore asked the Meeting to approve the appointment of the school inspectors whose names were on the list. This was agreed to. Dr. A. H. MACKAY (Superintendent of Education, Nova Scotia) said that in Nova Scotia there were four classes of teachers, and great difficulty had been found in exchanging certificates with the other provinces of Canada. He was therefore glad to see that some- thing was being done, because it would facilitate arrangements in the Dominion of Canada. As the law was at present, he felt an injustice was done to certifi- cated teachers from Great Britain, many of whom were very much better trained than some Canadian teachers. At the present time the Canadian teachers were going to the Western Provinces, where Nova Scotian certifi- cates were accepted. Mr. J. A. DOUGLAS, M.A. (Director of Education, Southern Nigeria) suggested that although it was not easy to arrange for an interchange of teachers in widely distant portions of the Empire, it would be fairly easy to arrange for an interchange between geographical groups of colonies. In West Africa considerable benefits might accrue from such an exchange. The West African schools were obliged to accept what teachers could be obtained, and any recognised teacher's 56 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION certificate was accepted. The very fact of equal qualifications would render more easy the interchange of teachers between the geographical groups. The whole question could not be settled in any satisfactory way until there was a Federal Council of Education in London. The Conference then adjourned. (For a further discussion on this subject see page 115.) FULL GENERAL CONFERENCE MONDAY, MAY 27, 1907. Chairman, THE RIGHT HON. LORD REAY, P.C., G.C.S.I., LL.D., etc. THE full text of the Agenda was : Technical Education. Higher technological educa- tion in -the Empire. (1) Limits of technical instruction in Universities and Colleges of Science. (2) Possibility of closer agreement as to the standards of attainment required for admission to courses of study. (A printed paper dealing with existing institutions was distributed. It was entitled " Higher Technological Education in England." Copies can be obtained at the Offices of the League, price 6d.) The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said that technical education included the very important subject of manual training in elementary schools, and he thought that if representatives from India and the Colonies would visit some of the Council schools in London, they would be pleased with the development which had taken place. It had been a matter of peculiar interest to him when he was Chairman of the London School Board, and he had no doubt that the London County Council had further developed that important branch of elementary education. The ladies present would be greatly interested in the subject of domestic economy, in connection with which a great 57 58 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION development had taken place in the elementary schools of London. The development of technical education in rural schools was of the utmost import- ance, and the Board of Education had given it a strong impulse by arranging for object lessons and the training of teachers in the knowledge which was required in elementary schools in rural districts. He was aware that very different opinions were held on that subject, and that at the present moment a Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture was dealing with it. With regard to the question of technical education in secondary schools it was held by many that it was better for those who intended to visit the universities for the purpose of obtaining technical knowledge to have a general education and not a specific technical education. They must not lose sight of the fact, however, that there were a number of boys in ele- mentary schools who could devote a certain amount of time in Continuation Classes up to sixteen years of age, but who were obliged to stop there ; and the question arose whether the secondary education carried on at higher elementary and similar schools might not, to a certain extent, be made applicable to those who were obliged to leave school at an early age. There was the further question whether technical education should be given at the universities or in what the Germans called Technical High Schools. His own view was that the best solution was to give the higher technical education at the universities, and that the students of those higher technical institu- tions ought not to be segregated from the other uni- versity students, but should enjoy the great benefits that accrued from university life. The latest development in London with regard to higher technical education was the Charter which had lately been conferred on what was the equivalent in this country to the Charlottenburg Institution in Berlin. The London University desired that the new Institution should ultimately be incorporated with it, and become one of its faculties. It was unnecessary for him to point TECHNICAL EDUCATION 59 out the vast importance of technical education in connection with British manufactures, trades, and industries. The maintenance of such ascendency as England at present possessed in those directions no longer depended on a haphazard method of dealing with education, but on organisation. . He entirely agreed with the desire expressed by some of the Colonial delegates, that a central organisation should be established, in which the results of the ex- perience of educationists of every part of the Empire could be brought together, so that the whole might reap the benefit. Such an organisation would be of the very greatest value and importance. DISCUSSION Professor HOPKINSON, M.A., M.I.C.E. (Cambridge) opened the discussion by remarking that the University whose Engineering Department he had the honour to represent had had to face in rather an acute form the question of the extent to which, and in what form, technical instruction should be given. Thirty or forty years ago the only courses of instruction of importance at Cambridge were those represented by the Classical and Mathematical Triposes. In view of the records of the after-careers of those who had passed through those courses, no one could deny that the education they received constituted as fine a preparation for the work of life as could be desired. But they had the peculiarity and disadvantage that the things learned in the course were of no possible use or application in a man's subsequent work. The question then arose whether it might not be possible to incorporate in the University Courses the teaching of subjects the knowledge of which would be of use to a man in his profession. That suggestion had encountered a good deal of opposition, because there was a strong feeling that a study such as mathe- matics was in a sense degraded by any sort of appli- cation at all even such applications as had been made 60 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION by the great products of the Cambridge School of Mathe- matics, Lord Kelvin, Professor Thomson, and others, to the elucidation of physical phenomena ; and much more was objection raised to the suggestion that things learned in the university should be of direct applica- tion in practical problems. Unreasonable though that might be at first sight, there was a certain basis of reason in it. When technical subjects were taught in a University, there was a real danger that the primal purpose of university education, the training of the mind, might be lost sight of in the desire to cram the man with a knowledge of facts which might be of great use, but which were not educational. Some few years ago he noticed in an examination paper on Electricity and Magnetism (which he was glad to say was not set by one of the English universities) the following question : " Give the diameter, the resistance and the weight per mile of No. 18 standard gauge copper wire." He did not suppose anybody present would defend the teaching of things of that kind in a university. A university education could be devised in which scientific things were taught, and for many men an education of that type was much better than one, purely as educa- tion and without any regard to the profession a man was going to adopt, which dealt solely with abstrac- tions, like the old classical or mathematical studies at Cambridge. There were many men who had no aptitude for ab- stract reasoning, and who never took the slightest interest in mathematics, but such men could take a great interest in the subject and obtain much educa- tional value from it when they saw it applied. The theory of heat could be taught quite as well from the testing of steam engines as from the ordinary appliances of a physical laboratory ; but it seemed to him that if they were to adhere to the ideal of a university education, the primary thing to keep in mind must be the educational value of the training. His view was that the test as to whether an engineering course in a TECHNICAL EDUCATION 61 university was of the proper character or not would be, Was it a good general education for a man who was not going to be an engineer ? If that could not be said of it, then he was inclined to think it was getting too technical. It was their proud boast at the Engineering School of Cambridge that the course was as good a one as any in the university for a man who was going to be a parson. The Rev. A. C. HEADLAM, D.D., M.A. (Principal of King's College, London) believed that there would gradually work out two different types of technical training that which was to make the highest and most experienced craftsmen and workmen, which could be pursued very well in technical institutes apart from universities, and that which was to make the scientific leaders and employers of labour in connection with engineering. There were two reasons why he particularly wished . they should be brought in contact with the univer- sities. The first was that, while English engineers were unrivalled in their practical capacity, one often heard that they were a little behindhand in acquaintance with the newest scientific methods ; and as engineering was getting more and more scientific, it was most essential that the engineers of the future should be brought in direct contact, not only with the academic teacher of engineering, but with the academic teacher of pure science. Grumbles were sometimes heard from professional quarters that they wanted to be free from the influence of professors, because professors did not always make the best engineers. It was equally true that professors of political economy did not make the best politicians, but he supposed every great politician had derived a good deal of the impulse and inspiration of his work from coming in contact with university teachers. The second reason was the importance of the training of the engineer as a citizen. It seemed to him it was essential that young engineers, who would be 62 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION pioneers in many parts of the world, and who might fill important positions in the Colonies, should have that general- training as a citizen which was best attained by the mixed life of a university. Mr. GEORGE HOGBEN, M.A. (Inspector-General of Schools, New Zealand) agreed with the general princi- ples Professor Hopkinson had laid down, but was afraid there was a certain amount of vagueness as to how far technological education would require to be supple- mented before a fully trained engineer would be evolved. Dr. Headlam had suggested the direction in which that might be done in centres which were large enough to maintain not only universities, but also technical schools of a high grade ; but he thought their ideals would be fairly well satisfied if the independent techni- cal institutions could be closely associated with the university and its working, so that the engineer might go from one to the other without a break. They had a great many problems in New Zealand, quite different from those of an older country, where matters were far more complicated ; but they must not consider their own colony only. The University of New Zealand had already agreed to suggestions, made by the Institution of Civil En- gineers in England, with regard to the programme for the training of students. The same remark also applied to manufacturing chemists, a profession which was of increasing importance to New Zealand. Students should be sent to higher technological institutions in close touch with the workshops in order to obtain the best kind of training. Dr. N. BODINGTON, M.A., Litt.D. (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds) spoke as one without any technical knowledge of science or its applications, but who had been connected administratively with the old Yorkshire College and with the University for many years. He could conceive no greater folly than for the higher form of instruction to be dissociated from the universities of the country. Historically, he could not help thinking that the universities had 63 just as much claim to provide for the training of the business man as they had in the Middle Ages to provide for the training of the man of law, of medicine, or of theology. The universities did not come into existence for the sake of giving abstract general training, but in order to provide men who were useful for the purposes of life. He believed it was by historical accident and not by any deliberate policy that in Germany the technical schools stood alongside of, but were independent of, the universities. One thing which it was important to avoid in this country was a shallow, unscientific teaching of techno- logy ; and therefore up to a certain point the course of the student of pure science and of applied science must be one and the same. There could be no better safeguard that technology should be taught in a scientific way than by including it in the university system. One of the ways in which the maintenance of a good scientific standard was ensured was to put all the students at the intermediate stages through the same scientific examination, whether they were going to graduate as students in pure science or students of applied science. At a later stage differentiation came in. One of the Degrees of the Leeds University had been contemptuously described as a Leather Degree, but it was really a Degree in a difficult form of chem- istry, in which a high student of technology ought to be trained. The basis of the Degree was that the student passed a general intermediate examination in pure science ; half his final examination was also in pure science, and the remaining part in chemistry as applied to the manufacture of leather ; and, speaking generally, that was the principle on which the Uni- versity had gone in granting Degrees. The Leeds University always impressed upon the students that by the time they left the University they had only begun the work which was to fit them for the business of life. An engineering student did not leave 64 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION the University as a competent engineer, but had to go into the workshop to get the technical training neces- sary. The weak point of most of the students who came to the University was their mathematics ; but whether in agriculture, in engineering, or in any other subject, they did not wish any attempt whatever made to anticipate the technical training of the University. Rev. JAMES Gow, Litt.D. (Head Master of West- minster School) agreed most heartily with Professor Hopkinson's statement that the technical education given at the universities should be a civic preparation, and should be as good for the parson as for the engineer. Most of the speakers had dealt with the end and the limits of technical education, but he desired to say a few words about the beginning. Principal Bodington had stated that the boys who came to the University from the schools were ill-prepared in mathematics. That defect was not likely to be cured, because, as Professor Hopkinson said, there were some persons who could never be educated in the technical way, and there were a good many boys who could not learn abstract things without their practical application. He had seen many examples at school of boys who were hopelessly bad at their books, but who at the same time were educating themselves by learning practical applications. It might be said that for such boys a technical department ought to be instituted, somewhat similar to the department they would go through at the university. The object of school education was to give a certain liberality and freedom of mind to the boy ; he should not leave school thinking that money was to be the chief occupation of his life, that he was to work for himself alone, and that he had no place in the Empire. If a technical department was started in the school, the mean man would at once seize upon it, saying he wanted his boy to learn something that would be of use to him. Once the mean man was allowed to control any department of the school, its function was gone ; TECHNICAL EDUCATION 65 it could not do what it set out to do, namely, make men and not mere handicraftsmen. For that reason Principal Bodington's desideratum would hardly be supplied from the schools, because, ex hypothesi, the people who went to the technical departments of the universities were people who could best be taught through practical applications, and those were just the things they ought not to try to give. Principal CLAY, D.Sc. (Chairman of the Association of Technical Institutions) moved : " That it is desirable that the standard of the examination for students from the United Kingdom taken as equivalent to the entrance examinations of the various Techni- cal Colleges whose certificates are recognised by any Government of the Empire, should be that of the Junior School certificate of the University of London, or the equivalent certificate of the Oxford and Cam- bridge Examinations Board." He advanced as one of the principal reasons why they were anxious to have a common standard for the early part of the work the fact that the whole field of technical instruction was so wide that it was impossible to cover it entirely ; and therefore for the first two or three years of a full course they expected that similar work should be done in a large number of institutes, but after that each institute should take up a branch upon which it could specialise. Something of that kind had been successfully attempted in London, where the Polytechnics had more or less each developed on its own lines. If that was to be done generally, it was obvious there must be something in the nature of a common standard for the first two or three years of the course. The first thing to aim at, therefore, was some common entrance examination, and after that they might expect that by degrees the standard attained by the students when they left would be higher and higher. He had also been re- quested to move the following further resolution : ' That it is desirable that the Colonial Office and the Board of Education should co-operate in issuing 66 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION officially particulars as to courses of study, fees, ex- penses of living, etc., at Colonial Universities, Technical Colleges, and Agricultural Colleges, together with statements of the advantages attaching to their De- grees and Diplomas." He frequently had inquiries as to the matters mentioned in the resolution, and if an official publication in a tabulated form could be pre- pared it would be of very great value. Dr. G. R. PARKIN, C.M.G. (University of New Bruns- wick) said that a man of imagination who studied the ancient classics, poetry, and philosophy ought to be in daily intercourse with the man of exact science who had studied precise things and had that technical training which fitted him for practical occupations. The tendency of Canadian colleges and universities was to unite those two things, and he was sure there was reason for it. He was told that in the medical pro- fession the desire was growing for medical men who had not only been trained in a purely medical school, but who also had the advantage of a university education. He hoped that the great University of Oxford would attach more and more importance to those things which dealt with the practical side of life, and on the other hand he was satisfied that those great practical institu- tions which were growing up in this country and abroad would lose some of their highest results if they did not try and connect the two. Dr. HEADLAM suggested it was not desirable that the first resolution Dr. Clay had moved should be adopted, as it had not been discussed. The CHAIRMAN said it seemed to him the resolution was so important that the discussion had not been adequate. He need hardly point out that, with regard to those technical colleges which were affiliated or associated with the universities, it would involve a departure from the rule that each student was expected to go through the matriculation examination of the universities. That was not a rule from which he thought the universities would be prepared to depart in favour of an examination of a lesser standard. He TECHNICAL EDUCATION 67 therefore thought it right to rule that the resolution was out of order. He thought the meeting would agree that it would be wiser to refer it to a future Conference. This was agreed to. The CHAIRMAN said he did not think there was any objection to the second resolution which had been moved. Dr. BODINGTON (Leeds) suggested that the resolu- tion should include the circulation of information with regard to English Institutions for the benefit of the Colonies. Dr. CLAY stating that he had no objection to the insertion of words to that effect, the resolution in the following form was then put and carried : " That it is desirable that the Colonial Office and the Board of Education should co-operate in issuing officially particulars as to coursesof study, fees, expenses of living, etc., at Colonial Universities, Technical Col- leges, and Agricultural Colleges, together with state- ments of the advantages attaching to their Degrees and Diplomas, and that information should be circulated in the Colonies as to similar advantages and facilities which exist in this country." The CHAIRMAN, in closing the proceedings, thought that a foundation of pure science was first of all required and that then applied science could be taken up with- out harm. People sometimes forgot that applied science was just as important as pure science, and the experience of Leeds in that respect was invaluable. He also thought the imaginative element could just as well be cultivated by scientific training as by a literary training. On the motion of Mr. S. H. Butcher, M.P., a vote of thanks was accorded to Lord Reay for presiding, and the meeting terminated. (For further discussions on matters of Technical Education see pages 128, 182, 199 and 225.) FULL GENERAL CONFERENCE TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1907. Chairman, DR. J. R. INCH (Chief Superintendent of Education for New Brunswick). THE full text of the Agenda was : Freedom for the Individual School. To consider (a) How far it is desirable to give freedom to each individual school, whether elementary or secondary, to shape its curriculum according to the needs of its pupils and of the district which it serves. (b) Whether the determination of questions of curri- culum should be left to the judgment of the head master or head mistress of the school, and, if so, subject to what degree of supervision or control on the part of a govern- ing body attached to the school or of the Education Department of the State. The subject having been opened by the chairman, a paper was read on ELASTICITY IN SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT by C. W. BAILEY, M.A., Head Master, Holt Secondary School, Liverpool (Delegate of Liverpool University). Our order, in the educational world of this country, " rooted in disorder stands " ; and the absence of system is probably a national characteristic. But there is strength as well as apparent weakness and waste of energy in the position. We owe much to this 68 LATITUDE IN CURRICULA 69 freedom to develop new types ; and not the least gain is to those in charge of the actual teaching work. Official direction should never be allowed to stifle originality, or the teacher artist may become an educa- tional artisan. It is often the most enthusiastic men and women who are most readily discouraged by official " red tape " ; and over-organisation is one of the chief dangers of the present municipalisation of education. The model administrator is one who will believe with Kipling that " There are five-and-forty ways Of constructing tribal lays : And every single one of them is right." Nothing could be more fatal to the real development of education than the appointment of dull and pains- taking officials to organise and control it. To the practical teacher nothing is found in practice less stimulating than a " code of regulations," and even a '.' scale of salaries " may be used by the incompetent or cowardly to avoid making judgments which ought to be made. Uniformity so dear to the narrow mind is a word which ought to be as much shunned in education as it must be respected in mathematics. Its first advocate was probably Procrustes, whose plan has been followed with similar results by people who howl for systems and worship the brazen image of rigid Method. The schools which have a problem to face (and which of them has not?) ought to be veritable pedagogic laboratories, where investigations which enlarge the boundaries of the science of education may take place. It is certain that experiment is the life-blood of suc- cessful science, and it seems reasonable to believe that there is no more finality in education than in physics that Froebel is no more a final authority than Watt, or Herbart than Faraday. It is noteworthy that the great original contributions to education have always been made by those in direct contact with teaching, those who have their work at 70 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION heart and gain their inspiration from devotion. It is further of interest to note that the greatest work has been done by me'n who were officially untrammelled. We must be careful that we do not approve, in the way of a system, something which is a soulless thing something which looks well on paper, which is in reality far worse than the diversity of type it has super- seded. The Board of Education have already partly recognised this as true with regard to the individual secondary school when, in the prefatory Memorandum to their 1906 Code, they state that " full efficiency can be secured and the best teaching and organisation power attracted only where the head master is en- trusted with a large amount of responsibility for and control over teaching, organisation and discipline." Yet their own code has not always left the head master with full freedom of choice. May we illustrate from Liverpool the advantage of experiment on a fairly large scale ? In Liverpool of recent years a most important subject has been the relation of the elementary to the secondary school ; and in Liverpool, under wise ad- ministration, more latitude has been allowed to schools where this problem was being faced than has been per- mitted in almost any other city in the Empire. The children of the lower middle class attending sub- urban elementary schools of higher grade type have been allowed to remain as ex-standard pupils in these schools, and supplementary courses have been arranged for them ; so that in several of these schools pupils have passed the Northern Universities' Joint Board matricu- lation examination and gone on to the University Training Colleges without having attended any public secondary school. The fees in the older secondary schools were higher than such parents clerks, cashiers, junior officers of the mercantile marine, etc. could afford, and the elementary school was near their own doors. Of course it is obvious that where such a state of development is accomplished reorganisation has become imperative ; and the result of the experiment LATITUDE IN CURRICULA 71 will no doubt be the establishment in Liverpool of municipal secondary schools with fees within the means of such parents, and a curriculum specially adapted to the city's needs. The point is that a solution of the problem will now emerge, but under a cast-iron system such experi- ments as have been carried on in Liverpool for the past five years, and which have shown the definite need of a newer type of secondary education, could never have taken place. If experiment is useful to the big departments of education, it is also no less needful in the development of the teaching of individual school subjects, and in the classification of children. For example, a very im- portant question that only most conscientious experi- ment can ever settle is the question of co-education of girls and boys ; and however bitterly the opponents of a " mixed " scheme may regard it, as scientific enquirers they should rejoice that scientific data are being collected by its employment. Let us plead for our profession that it should be free and open-minded ; and to this may be added what only comes later in the development of any profession viz. that it should be generous in communicating the results of its labours, and not selfishly adhere to its discoveries as trade secrets. DISCUSSION Dr. H. J. SPENSER (Head Master, University College School, London, who represented the Head Masters' Conference) said there were two or three general considerations which he wished to submit to the Conference. He thought they were more or less agreed that the training, up to the age of twelve, should be largely made up of elementary subjects, and even the Head Masters' Conference was becoming convinced of the desirability of relegating Greek to a later time. He held very strongly that the education at the pre- paratory school should be largely assimilated to that 72 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION given in the primary schools. That was one reason why the merchant who obtained a clerk from the secondary school at the age of fifteen was apt to compare the boy's powers disadvantageously with the education a boy had gained at an elementary school. The cleverest boy at the age of twelve usually obtained a scholarship and went to the secondary school, while the dullard stayed on until he was fourteen unless exempted under the Act. There were at present higher elementary schools with 30 or 40 per cent, of clever boys, perhaps not clever enough to get a scholarship, and he pleaded that something should be done for those boys in the way of assimilating the cur- riculum of the higher elementary schools to the trade schools of Continental nations. He did not mean that the trade schools should be substituted for the ap- prenticeship system, which was becoming extinct ; but he did think the studies in the higher elementary schools might with great advantage to the country be made to have a more direct bearing on the future occupation of the boy. With regard to the secondary schools, at present the Board of Education prescribed what was called a good general education, and there was also a specialised course in science, a legacy from the old Technical Education Board. The phrase " general education " was vague. His objection to the general education scheme was that it implied there was only one good general education, a view against which he protested. There were at least four or five, and might be even a dozen possible combinations of subjects differing both as regards ingredients and proportion of ingredients, each of which might be fairly said to afford a good general education. In one combination the tone might be given by classics, in another by modern languages, in another by science, and in another by those subjects having a direct bearing on the boy's future commercial life. He thought that Mr. Morant might take his courage in his hands and do something, not in the way of prescribing a cast- iron education, but in the way of suggesting something LATITUDE IN CURRICULA 73 that local committees, in consultation with their head teachers, might adopt. The idea of a good general education leading nowhere should be abandoned. He was not pleading for a premature specialised education, but that boys and girls might be taught something having a direct bearing on their future. Coupled with that was the important question of the classification of schools. Everyone knew that to combine under one roof four distinct types of schools a classic side, a modern side, a scientific side, and a higher commercial side resulted in a great loss of energy, and a very difficult problem in the way of time-tables. The parent who wanted his boy to go into business could send him to a school of the Handelschule type. He wanted a recognition of the great truth that education should be the training for life, and he believed it was possible, without sacrificing the constituents of a good educa- tion, to teach a boy subjects which would have some bearing on his future. With regard to supervision and control on the part of the governing body, the question was answered, he thought, in the last Report of the Board of Education, page 45, where Mr. Morant very wisely said, " The limit of useful control is to be found at the point where it ceases to be an expanding and stimulating force and tends to fetter and sterilise." Mr. H. R. BEASLEY (Private Schools Association) said that in Great Britain almost everything in educa- tion was the result of private enterprise. In the Colonies there were practically no endowments, and very few men were rash enough to undertake the establishment and conduct of private schools, still less of girls' secondary schools. To-day there was a great movement in favour of extending education, and that movement appealed to no one more strongly than to those people who had sufficient faith in education to embark their capital and devote their lives to the profession of secondary education. As a teacher of twenty-one years' experience, and as one who had served on educational bodies, he knew quite well that no good work could be done unless the teacher was 74 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION absolutely free. How far that was possible when municipal authorities had the control of education he was not prepared to say. In place of a Board of Governors, who, perhaps, themselves had been at a university, they now had municipalities controlling the secondary schools, and it was not always possible for a man engaged in trade or commerce to sym- pathise with the ideals of educationists. There- fore the heads of secondary schools found that their liberty as teachers was likely to be very seriously curtailed if they got the grants for which they were clamouring. A certain amount of money was abso- lutely necessary if a school was to be efficient, and it was not likely that local authorities would grant large sums of money without trying to obtain more control. Dr. W. J. MILES STARKIE (Resident Commissioner, Irish National Board) said that everybody was in favour of freedom, even the Heads of the Education Departments ; but some of them knew from experience that many teachers were not good interpreters of synonymous terms, and licence and freedom were sometimes confounded. The object of the admini- strator was, while encouraging freedom, to put down license. Although codes were drawn up and pro- grammes arranged, the teachers were invited to draw up curricula to suit the needs of their own localities. His experience of 14,000 teachers was that they objected to nothing so much as drawing up a curriculum : in the district he represented they thought it was a trap set by the Central Department. Conse- quently whatever programme was proposed for any type of school became absolutely universal, and in spite of the efforts of the officials of the Department, in spite of the inspectors, the teacher still kissed the rod and embraced the chains. As far as his own Department was concerned he emphatically supported the thesis proposed. With regard to specialisation, one of the speakers had said that education appeared to be under full sail to nowhere. He was almost afraid to say that that represented his ideal, but, like every- LATITUDE IN CURRICULA 75 thing else, the statement required interpretation. It was said that education should have a bearing on life, but to him that was an objectionable dictum. They had heard from a lady * an interpretation of this dictum that education should have a bearing on life. As Head of a Department which had great difficulty in making terms with the Treasury occasionally, to save himself trouble he thought he should certainly support her views. He calculated that in his part of the world the cost of each child was about 3 a head, but he found if they adopted the curriculum proposed by the lady, the cost of each school would be 15$. a week. It was said, " What is the use of literature to a ploughman or a tailor ? What is the good of mathematics if you have no money, and if a piece of chalk and a door be sufficient for keeping accounts ? " The proposal seemed to be that no school was to have a head master or assistant master, but that somebody was to invite in the tailor and the bootmaker, and so on, and the boys were to be taught the various things those people could teach them. With regard to private enterprise, as far as he could make out, its great advantage was that a teacher could do what he liked. Nobody could interpret him as decrying the labours of the private school masters. In the days before the State troubled itself with educa- tion the private schools filled a great want. But when he heard that the great advantage of the private school was freedom, he thought of Mr. Squeers. Mr. Squeers' ideas of education were thoroughly modern in that they had a bearing upon life. Mr. Squeers' idea of asking a boy to spell " winder," and then setting him to clean it, was thoroughly in accordance with the views of the lady who had spoken on the previous day, and she surely must deplore very much the retrogression in English education during the last sixty years. W T ith one point raised by the last speaker he was in thorough sympathy namely, the paying of a living wage to the teacher. * See page 140. 7 6 Mr. G. F. BRIDGE (Modern Language Association) said that no doubt Mr. Beasley was quite right in emphasising how much private enterprise had done for England, but he could not follow him when he' contended that private schools were more free than public schools. It was true they were free from the control of public authorities, but there was a certain authority which exercised a far more intense tyranny than any Board of Education, and that formidable person was the examiner. Private schools were under the heel of the examiner to an extent that public schools were certainly not. Preparatory schools were under the domination of the public schools, and had to conform their curriculum to that of public schools. For instance, they had to teach two or three languages to their young boys, knowing all the time that that was exceedingly deleterious from the educational point of view. If anybody thought that statement was exaggerated let him read Vol. VI. of the " Special Reports and Enquiries " published by the Board of Education. Private schools were not one whit more free to make educational experiments, either in matters of curriculum or matters of method, than the public schools. A little too much had been heard of variety in education. Although that was most important, there was another side to it. Although, as Dr. Spenser had pointed out, there might be a very large number of types of general education, yet it was most import- ant to try and find what was the general basis of all good education. Was it not true that, to make educa- tion complete, subjects ought to be taught that were absolutely useless for the future life, simply because the object of education was to build a mind, to form an intellectual character ? Taking the question of languages, quite apart from their utilitarian purpose, the learning of a language undoubtedly immensely strengthened the capacity to understand language. If a boy learned some language other than his own, his capacity to understand his own language and express himself in it was greatly strengthened, LATITUDE IN CURRICULA 77 Mr. W. JENKINSON ABEL, B.A. (Nottingham) held most strongly that the fullest possible liberty should be given to the individual teacher. The Board of Education should limit itself to the issue of skeleton exemplar schemes, leaving the local education authori- ties to fill them in in accordance with local necessities. The local authorities ought in their turn to leave the head teachers to fill in the details to meet the special requirements of pupils. With regard to grading in schools, he thought that whether a child was going to leave school at twelve or remain until sixteen or seventeen, there should be very little difference in the subjects taught. A comparatively formless founda- tion should be laid, the endeavour being to strengthen the various mental faculties. After the age of twelve the period of differentiation might begin, and he held with Dr. Spenser that some regard should be paid to the walks of life that the scholars would probably follow : not that specialisation should begin really, but that there should be a tendency towards it. After the age of sixteen the real education should begin. In the foundation course no foreign language should be taught, and in the case of scholars who could not remain at school later than sixteen Latin and Greek were so much lumber. Those who were staying at school until sixteen might with advantage take at least one modern language other than English and also do something in practical science. Mr. WILFRED MARK WEBB, F.L.S. said that if the child was to have the power of acquiring knowledge for itself, which all the stuffing with languages and science would not necessarily give, the teacher must be allowed a certain amount of freedom. The whole idea of Nature-Study, in which he was interested, was to ensure the strengthening of a child's mental faculties. Dr. E. W. MAPLES (College of Preceptors) said the question of a curriculum was a very difficult one and should not be left wholly to head masters or head mis- tresses. In the County of Middlesex the head masters and mistresses of the secondary schools had been 7* asked to consult with inspectors of the University of London, representatives of the various subjects, and then to draw up .their curriculum and submit it to the governing body. He thought very little power should be left to popularly elected governing bodies of second- ary schools to determine the exact curriculum. In Middlesex the University's assistance had enabled the curriculum to be widened, and there had been a very great advance in the work. The tendency was for each individual inspector to force upon the. schools of his district his own particular pet theory ; but in Middlesex, in some cases six or seven inspectors of the University, whose outlook was much wider than that of one particular inspector of the Board of Education, had been consulted. It had been said that the bogey of the private schools was the examinations. His own experience was that it was also the bogey of the public schools, and the bringing in of the University and doing away with the multiplicity of examinations had tended to destroy that bogey. The CHAIRMAN said that, in connection with the question under discussion, truth lay in the middle. It would be absolutely impossible in New Brunswick to leave the matter of text-books and courses of study to be determined by the teachers, because, in the rural districts at least, they were often young and inexperi- enced. In the more advanced schools of the towns and cities greater discretionary power might be given, but that could be done by the administration permit- ting departures from the ordinary curricula in order to meet the requirements of special conditions. If the teacher was left free, there were many cases in which parents would demand that their children should be exempted from certain subjects and should take others, and the more ignorant the parent the more unreasonable would be the demands. As the system was very democratic, it would be difficult to resist if the teacher alone, was brought into antagonism with parents in the rural schools. Mr. C. W. BAILEY, in replying, said the Meeting had LATITUDE IN CURRICULA 79 been practically unanimous, with the exception of the Chairman, who had made an important contribution to the discussion. He thought the Conference would be prepared to insert in the Resolution the words " within the limits of due efficiency." From the professional point of view, the least that could be asked was that the teacher should be free to do his work to the best of his ability. With regard to the general science of education, if a teacher had been properly trained the general principles would appeal to him and he was not likely to make very many mistakes. With regard to Dr. Starkie's remarks as to the inertia of the teachers, he thought that was an unfortunate heritage of past history, and that the time would come when well-trained Irish teachers would be quite willing to submit their own plans for carrying on work. With regard to private schools, no doubt a great debt was due to the enterprise of enthusiastic teachers, but a large number of private schools were carried on for the sake of pecuniary gain. He thought the opinion of the Conference was that it was desirable, as far as consistent with efficiency, for each individual school to shape its curriculum according to its needs, and he formally moved that as a Resolution. Mr. L. A. ADAMSON, M.A. (Melbourne) asked whether in New Brunswick there were absolutely no schools outside of State control. The CHAIRMAN said there were a few private schools, but very few. With the exception of some schools in certain towns under the direction of the Roman Catholic Church, he believed there were not more than half a dozen private schools in the Province. Mr. ADAMSON could not imagine anything more deplorable from the point of view of freedom. What he understood by freedom was that schools should be free from the absolute domination of the State. The CHAIRMAN said there was nothing to prevent the establishment of private schools in any Province of Canada, and the various religious denominations had mostly some collegiate institution under their control, 8o FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION but, as a rule, nineteen-twentieths attended the public schools. Mr. JENKINSON ABEL seconded the Resolution moved by Mr. Bailey. Mr. S. H. BUTCHER, M.P., and one or two other members questioned whether in so small a Meeting it was advisable to carry so far-reaching a Resolution. The CHAIRMAN said the principle recognised in the Conference was that, if there were any dissension, no formal motion should be put. Mr. BAILEY agreed that, in view of the possible far- reaching consequence of such a drastic Resolution, it would be better to withdraw it. Mr. JENKINSON ABEL agreed to the withdrawal of the Resolution, and the Meeting then concluded. FULL GENERAL CONFERENCE WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1907. Chairman, THE VICE-CHANCELLOR OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY (E. S. Roberts, M.A., Master of Gonville and Caius). THE full text of the Agenda was : Admission to Universities, Technical Schools and A gricultural Colleges . To consider the advisability of closer co-opera- tion in the recognition of certificates admitting to courses of study in Universities, Technical Schools, and Agricultural Colleges. In addition To consider the feasibility of co-operation between the Old Boys' Associations of the Public Schools throughout the Empire. The CHAIRMAN said the subjects, so far as he could gather from the reports in the paper, had been touched upon already. He deprecated as the outcome of the meeting any hard-and-fast rule, or anything other than a mere general principle. Speaking for his own University and he had no doubt the same might be said of Oxford it had been found better to proceed in detail first. Any one acquainted with Cambridge would know with what horror propositions called a " Special Grace " were regarded. Still a great many of the general working rules that had been adopted in Cambridge had proceeded from the legislation 81 6 82 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION authorising a departure from an existing set of rules. He had no doubt that before long there would be a sufficient number of single exceptions and single pieces of legislation to justify proceeding further. DISCUSSION Dr. HILL (Master of Downing), in opening the dis- cussion on the first item of the agenda, thought there could be very little doubt about the desirability of co- operation in providing leaving certificates at schools suitable to qualify for admission to the universities and also to technical institutes. At various times during the discussions of the Conference reference had been made to the great superiority in such matters of our Teutonic neighbours, but there was a great deal to be learned on the question. The leaving certificate of a German school was the entrance certificate of a German university, and that was a state of affairs at which he thought it was necessary to aim. The Board of Education had made special inquiries, and there had been a great deal of investigation into the educational conditions in other countries, but whenever a new ques- tion cropped up in England it was treated as one that had never occurred in the history of any other nation, and that had to be settled on its own merits. Educa- tional experiments had been made in the Colonies with more or less success, but whether successful or not, the results should be applied in the treatment of new cases as they arose. When the Chairman and he were undergraduates, they were not allowed to pass the " previous " examination of the University until the end of their first term, but now it was possible for a boy straight from school to pass it. But he did not think the conditions at Cambridge could be yet de- scribed as very liberal. Much more had been done in some of the other universities of Great Britain ; the four northern universities, for example, had federated and held a common entrance examination, and school- masters knew the standard at which to aim. It ADMISSION TO UNIVERSITIES 83 seemed to him it was extremely important that schools should know what was the standard of entrance to any university. Another very great indirect advantage which Cambridge could not claim to possess was that it became almost necessary, if there was to be a de- finite qualifying examination for entrance, that a very considerable latitude should be allowed in the choice of subjects ; and in the four northern universities and in London University there was a considerable range of choice. If a boy was going to be an engineer he would not require to go through precisely the same school training as if he were going to be a doctor. In Germany advantage had been taken of the leaving certificate to insist upon a general rise in the standard of education, because upon its being passed or not depended the amount and the conditions of the military service which a man would have to undergo. He could hardly look forward to any period when we should reach such an imperialistic conception in England, but it was possible that the introduction of a general leaving certificate might lead to certain privileges to those who passed it well, and therefore might lead to an improve- ment in school studies. Dr. G. W. PARMALEE (Quebec) said that in Canada the questions of leaving certificates and of co-operation with regard to admission to various classes of study had been definitely settled on account of the organisation of the schools. For instance, in practically all the provinces of Canada there was a connected course of study, pro- ceeding by regular steps from the Kindergarten to the University. In the lower grades the only examinations were those given by the teachers themselves, but when pupils reached secondary school rank they took ex- aminations prepared by a Board of the Department of Education. Medical and engineering schools and universities knew exactly what any particular certifi- cate meant. The disabilities under which the schools at one time laboured were so great that the plan was hit upon of having uniform examinations and saying to the various bodies, " These are our certificates, and 84 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION you know what the course is : will you accept this in place of yours? " and they had all consented. The conse- quence was that a leaving certificate was given after an examination by a University Board, and was accepted as matriculation in arts, in medicine, and in science not only in the province of Quebec, but by the uni- versities of Ontario and other provinces. Similarly the -certificates of Ontario were accepted in Quebec and in other provinces. It was generally believed at one time that the superiority of Germany over other parts of the world in industrialism was attributable to the technical schools, but people had begun to find out that that was not the reason at all. Prussia had a well-organised elementary school system a hundred years before the Forster Act was passed in England, and it was upon that widely diffused and thorough elementary educa- tion that the higher education of the German people was founded, and without that technical education would have been quite useless. Professor SONNENSCHEIN (University of Birming- ham) was interested to hear from Dr. Parmalee that the problem was hardly one for each Colony considered by itself. It was still a burning question in this country, and possibly the question of bringing the Colonies into some relation with the examination system of the Mother Country might be of interest. England was still feeling the evil of a multitude of examinations, especially as affecting the small grammar schools. There were two ways in which the difficulty could be met. The first was for one examining body to recognise the examinations of other bodies, and the other was for each examining body to give as large a measure of freedom as possible to the schools which sent up candi- dates in regard to the choice of the branches of work they studied. Why should not each school be allowed to offer such classical and modern authors as happened to be suitable to the particular boys in question ? That had been done in Birmingham, where no books were prescribed. The candidates were allowed to offer books according to their own choice, subject to the ADMISSION TO UNIVERSITIES 85 approval of the University and to the maintenance of a certain standard with regard to quality and quantity. As far as he knew, the only difficulty was one of trouble to the examiner, but he supposed examinations existed rather in the interest of the examinees, and perhaps that difficulty could be met. In recognising one another's examinations the universities had to protect themselves by not allowing candidates to fall below a certain standard, and also to secure that the candi- dates were fitted to enter upon a particular course of study. Personally, he was inclined to allow as much freedom of choice to the individual schools as was con- sistent with a university protecting itself, and also as large a measure of mutual recognition of certificates as possible. The matriculation examination of the University of Birmingham was not recognised by the University of London, although the general outline of the examination was very similar. The universities in the old days seemed to follow the principle that a graduate of another university was about as good as a matriculation candidate of its own, and to some extent that spirit still prevailed. He thought the day of hard- and-fast tests in matriculation examinations had really passed, and we were moving in the German direction, and recognising school certificates. That had been brought home to him in connection with the importance of a wide general education, and at the same time the impossibility of students carrying on all the sub- jects to the end of their school course. For instance, it was desirable that every pupil at some stage of his school course should make acquaintance with physical science, and similarly perhaps acquire some knowledge of Latin ; but it was not desirable that the physical science or the Latin should necessarily be pursued to the end of the school course. Yet the entrance examination to any of the universities always demanded a knowledge of the particular subject at the end of the school course. How could it be expected that pupils should have some acquaintance with subjects not directly in their line without having studied them to 86 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION the end of the course ? The only way was the recog- nition of a school certificate to the effect that for a certain number of years the pupil had devoted atten- tion to the subject, and that should be reckoned to his credit at the end of his school course for entrance to the university. Sir PHILIP SYDNEY JONES (University of Sydney) said the entrance to the University of Sydney was by passing a matriculation examination in two divisions, A and B. All candidates were compelled to pass through the A course, consisting of English, Latin, mathematics, and Greek or French or German, varying a little in the different faculties. If a man was going in for the Arts course he took higher Latin ; if for medicine or science, either higher Latin, higher Greek, higher French, or higher German. In engineering he would not be required to pass in the higher languages, but higher mathematics would be required. Section 3 of chapter x. of the Calendar laid down that under- graduates of other universities might, at the discretion of the Professorial Board, be admitted to the University without examination, provided they gave sufficient evidence of their status and good conduct. Graduates of other universities might also, at the discretion of the Senate, be granted admission without examination, provided they furnished evidence of their degrees and of their good fame and character. Sir JAMES RANKIN, Bart. (Chairman, Herefordshire Education Committee) thought there might be a difficulty in accepting the leaving certificate for entrance, in the case of a boy leaving his school fairly early and not entering the university for some years. For self-preservation they required to have a certain amount of matriculation examination. Again, in many schools no knowledge was acquired of the dead languages. It would be very undesirable that a leaving certificate with no Greek should be taken by a university requiring Greek. Greek could not be acquired in a few months, and therefore such a certifi- cate would place undergraduates in a very awkward ADMISSION TO UNIVERSITIES 87 position. It appeared to him that a very great lati- tude would have to be allowed, and that any decision the Conference might come to upon the point would have to be a matter of voluntary action. Mr. S. H. BUTCHER, M.P., thought it was clear that no compulsion of any kind could ever be brought to bear upon universities in the matter of admitting candidates to the university. The whole matter must be worked out by arrangement as, indeed, it was gradually being worked out already ; but it was singular how long it had taken, even in the United Kingdom, to adopt the recognition of different cer- tificates, or even to allow of the passing of students from one university to another. The thing presented itself in two points of view one being that of the schoolmaster and the schoolboy. From that point of view it was advisable that the number of examinations should be limited as far as possible. At the present moment schools had to prepare a number of boys, almost at the same stage of learning, for different universities whose demands varied. It was an enor- mous waste of time and a most onerous demand upon the boy. His wish was to diminish as far as possible the number of examinations a boy had to pass. The passing of students from one university to another became of more importance every day in proportion as universities specialised. One would have supposed that Oxford and Cambridge, after so many centuries, would have been able to say that any one who passed the examination for a college at Oxford should also be allowed freedom to enter the University of Cam- bridge, and vice versa. At present he believed Oxford accepted the Cambridge examination, but Cambridge said that the Oxford standard of mathematics was too low. The truth was that the matriculation examina- tion in each case was not a university examination but a college examination. The universities had no standard for matriculation. A good many persons both at Cambridge and Oxford were considering whether there should not be a common matriculation 88 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION examination, something which the universities would recognise as a qualification of entrance. Scottish universities had 'already combined to hold a single matriculation examination. That was the work of a Royal Commission on which he himself sat, and he could say from experience how immense had been the gain to the Scottish schools. It had also done a very great deal to raise the standard of secondary educa- tion. It was obvious the difficulties were greatly increased on going outside the United Kingdom and trying to find some equivalent standard for the various universities of the British Empire. One way in which the Conference might help would be by the information which representatives of different universities and other institutions were able to give as to the real standards of their examinations. The inspection of an examination paper was no index to the standards of examinations. He had known some of the worst examiners set the hardest papers. What was it it was desired to test in the young man who. entered the university ? The accepted theory, judged by practice, was to discover whether he had attained a certain standard in certain definite subjects. He thought that in future the question would rather be, what was the value of his general culture ? had he received such a groundwork of education as would enable him to proceed with advantage to the university ? It might be asked, how was the university to protect itself against admitting men who would not be able to satisfy the university condition ? He was inclined to say that the men must come at their own peril ; if they thought they were unfit to pass the examinations required for the degree course they had better not enter, but if their general education qualified them he should be inclined to give them larger freedom with regard to entrance. The CHAIRMAN thought it was the opinion of a large number of educationists outside the universities that the present school-leaving certificate conducted gene- rally by Oxford and Cambridge was destined to have OLD BOYS' ASSOCIATIONS 89 a large future ; some said it was destined to supplant " responsions " at Oxford and the " previous " exami- nation at Cambridge. The steady progress from the Kindergarten to the University existed in theory in this country. With reference to Sir James Rankin's remark that the university demanded knowledge at the end of a school career, he should like to point out that the school-leaving certificate placed the minimum age at seventeen, not far short of the time when a boy would enter the university, and even at present the entrance examinations were frequently passed some two or three years before the university was entered. As Mr. Butcher had said, they had to take their chance afterwards as to whether they would find the univer- sity conditions in the subsequent examinations too hard for them. With regard to Mr. Butcher's remark that matriculation meant the standard imposed by the individual colleges, with a very few exceptions it was an open secret that the " previous " examination or "responsions" was practically the matriculation examination ; and the more it became a matter of being passed before entrance, the more it became a genuine matriculation examination. With regard to the slowness of the movement, the new rules had been adopted after correspondence and conference. It was very much easier for Oxford and Cambridge, London and Edinburgh to confer than it was for any of those colleges to confer with Sydney. The question of distance alone was conclusive with regard to the necessity of patience. OLD BOYS' ASSOCIATIONS In opening the discussion on the possibility of co- operation between Old Boys' Associations, Dr. Gow (Head Master of Westminster School) said he came to report progress in a movement in which nothing as yet had been effected, although there was a possibility that a good deal would be done. The initiative in the movement was really due to an association of public go FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION school boys in Montreal, who sent a letter to the Head Masters' Conference, which was considered by a committee of which he was the chairman. It was thought it would be a useful and pleasing thing if young men leaving the public schools were sent over, with a certificate from their head masters or from the school, to the Public Schools Association in Canada, with a request that the Canadian Association would help to put them in the right way. A form of certificate was suggested and sent out, and was sent back with some modifications, the most important being that the certificates should go through some central office : that, for instance, certificates signed by the members of the Head Masters' Conference should be counter- signed by the Secretary of the Conference. It was found that many of the young men going to Canada would require some training at an agricultural college, and it turned out that at Guelph College, attached to Toronto University, no student was admitted who had not been at work for a year on a farm in Canada, and that requirement seemed to be prohibitive. Inquiries were now being made whether any substitute would be allowed for .instance, a year at a farm or in an agricultural school in England. There were similar rules with regard to other agricultural colleges in Canada, but he believed they were not so strictly kept. With regard to the connection between public schools associations here and those in the Colonies, the Head Masters' Conference had inquired as to the permanence of the organisation in Canada, and it turned out that there was no permanent organisation. The associations consisted mostly of young men who had no settled residence, and were not very well off, and they did not see how they were to establish an office with a secretary to look after it. That was likely to be a difficulty in all the Colonies. At that point Professor GRANT, Beit Reader in Colonial History at Oxford, made an interesting suggestion. He said that in Oxford there were 34 Canadian undergraduates in residence, amongst them OLD BOYS' ASSOCIATIONS gi being 24 Rhodes scholars. The Colonial Club at Oxford had just over 120 undergraduates and over 20 graduates, and nearly all were going back to the Colonies to take up their life-work ; they would be valuable helpers in the proposed scheme, and their addresses would be kept at the Oxford Club. It was hardly likely they would be able to undertake heavy correspondence, but they would, no doubt, do their best for anybody sent out. Professor Grant believed that a movement in favour of enlisting the services of those Colonials would be received with enthusiasm. On this side, perhaps, a larger organisa- tion would be required, and the suggestion had been made that the London Chamber of Commerce might establish an Inquiry Bureau for collecting information as to openings in the Colonies. A paper that had been circulated contained a suggestion that the League of the Empire should be entrusted with the work. Though that was the first he had heard of the League wishing to undertake anything of the kind, he had no doubt their services would be valuable. He thought the League might collect information and publish a little book relating to all the universities and colleges throughout the Empire. That would be doing an immense service to all sorts of young men leaving this country. Mr. L. A. ADAMSON (Victoria Secondary Schools Association) said that in Australia there were a number of permanent Old Boys' Associations, but he did not know of any association there of English public school boys. The paper that had been circulated, signed by Mr. Ellis and himself (see page 92), arose from the fact that they wished to do something in return for their British parentage. The Old Boys' Associations in Australia were in a position to be of use to young Englishmen, and there would be no difficulty in the secretaries giving information to any one properly accredited. He could answer for the Public School Association in Australia that they would be willing to do anything in their power to help any Old Boys 92 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION coming from England. He was extremely sorry to hear that the Montreal Old Boys' Association was not so permanent as those in Australia. In Australia the clubs of Old Boys had buildings on a very large scale. Dr. Gow pointed out that the Association in Mon- treal was an association of English public school boys who happened to be in Montreal, not an association of boys from Canadian public schools. No resolution was reached, but the CHAIRMAN said the subjects were of much interest, and he hoped they might be brought forward at a later period in the Conference. The meeting then adjourned. The following paper was printed and distributed at the meeting : k . f . , CO-OPERATION BETWEEN THE OLD BOYS' ASSOCIATIONS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE EMPIRE The League of the Empire has already expressed a hope " that some all-embracing union between the great boys' schools of the Empire may be effected " (Federal Magazine, No. i, p. 10). There can be no question of the debt which the countries of Greater Britain owe, in this respect, to the Motherland, which for many years supplied almost all their head masters and most of their assistants. Nor can it be questioned that the result has been an amount of instinctive fellow-feeling which is one strand, already stout and powerful, in the Bond of Empire. And the moment seems now to have been reached when Greater Britain may have an opportunity of making a return : and the return which some, at any rate, of their schools are ready to make takes the shape of an offer of help and courtesy to members of the Old-Country's Schools, when they find their way as visitors or as settlers to lands across the seas. Perhaps it would be best at this stage not to try to OLD BOYS' ASSOCIATIONS 93 formulate any very definite scheme, but to point out that the public schools at home and most of the schools of the corresponding type " over there " have their " old boys' " associations, already loosely in touch with one another ; and that they want little more than a central exchange office to put them into communica- tion. So that the decision of the Conference can be invited on three points, which, for convenience' sake, may be stated affirmatively : (1) That it is desirable to form a union of the great boys' schools of the Empire. (2) That this will best be done through their " old boys' " associations. (3) That the League of the Empire be asked to act as I lie organising centre. HENRY V. ELLIS, Formerly Head Master of Hilton College. Natal. L. A. ADAMSON, Delegate. Victoria Secondary Schools Association. (For other meetings dealing with Universities see pages 94 and 163.) FULL GENERAL CONFERENCE THURSDAY, MAY 30, 1907. Chairman, SIR ARTHUR RUCKER, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S. (Principal of the University of London). THE full text of the Agenda was : University Co-operation . , To consider the best means of drawing together the Universities of the Empire through post-graduate study and research. The CHAIRMAN read the following letter from Lord Curzon, addressed to Mr. Butcher : " Living as I am in the country, and in retirement, it is. I fear, impossible for me to be present at Thursday's meeting of the Federal Conference on Education. May I, however, to my apologies add one line of sympathy and good wishes ? I am probably the only person who can speak in the double capacity of Chancellor of an Indian and Chancellor of an English University. The problems that confront the two institutions and the two functions are very different, but the ultimate object of both is the same, and the younger and smaller university can certainly profit by consultation with kindred bodies in every part of the Empire, and still more with the parent institutions in the Mother Country. There can be no greater mistake than to treat the universities of the Colonies and other component parts of the Empire with any feeling of aloofness, and the supreme merit of your 94 95 Conference is that it, for the first time, presupposes an equality of interest and identity of purpose." He also read a letter addressed to himself by the Duke of Devonshire : "I am sorry that my absence from England prevents my attendance at the Official Con- ference of Education Departments and others from universities of the Empire, on May 30, when the in- teresting question of a closer connection between these universities will be discussed under your presidency. As I have no doubt that such co-operation, if it can be attained, will have results of the highest importance to the interests both of science and of the Empire, and that the discussion will form a valuable contribution towards this good object, I hope you will accept my best wishes for the success of the Conference." The CHAIRMAN, continuing, said that Lord Rosebery, the Chancellor of the University of London, was at present abroad, but had he been available, he was quite sure he would have added a third letter. The Rev. A. C. HEADLAM, D.D. (Principal of King's College, London) then read a paper on UNIVERSITIES AND THE EMPIRE of which the following is a summary : The analogy of the Middle Ages, and of the influence of the universities in England, suggests that the develop- ment of universities should form an important element in giving unity and homogeneity to the Empire. This will only be possible if the right idea of a university is understood. i. A university should be an independent self- governing body, founded by the Crown, and " visited " if necessary by the Crown, but managing its own affairs and free from the supervision of any Government department. It should be the function of the Privy Council to advise the Crown in the matter of universi- ties, and the Lord President of the Council should be their protector. 96 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION 2. The aim of a university is to promote a vigorous intellectual life and training, by uniting in one society very varied subjects of study and the preparation for different propositions. 3. A university should be free from ecclesiastical control, and based on religious liberty. This means not an equally inhospitable attitude to all religions, but the opportunity (not necessarily for all in every university) for the clergy of all religious bodies to have a university training. 4. A university should be built up by a combination of State grants and private benevolence ; it should be provided with funds of its own rather than supported by State subsidies. Two types of universities are based on false concep- tions. The one is the Examining University. A university does not exist to give a degree a degree should be evidence of university training. The other is the Federal University. The only excuse for the existence of a Federal University is the need of pro- viding for weak and newly founded university colleges. The right way of dealing with such is to " affiliate " them to an existing university until they are strong enough to stand alone. As an application of these principles it is suggested that two universities should be founded in South Africa, one at Cape Town, the other at Johannesburg ; that the higher education of South Africa should be concentrated in these, and other colleges (if necessary) affiliated to them. With regard to the co-operation of universities it is suggested that two things are essential : 1. That universities should accept one another's entrance examinations. No definite uniformity of standard can be attained, but an approximation should be arrived at. 2. That a degree should as far as possible admit to advanced studies in other universities. Each university should consider how far it is possible or desirable to recognise courses in other universities UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 97 as part of its curriculum. But normally it is probably better that the whole of a student's ordinary course should be spent in one university. There can be no uniformity of standard for degrees, as the value of a degree does not depend on examina- tions only, but on a great variety of circumstances. The co-operation of universities should mainly consist in the free interchange of students and purposes, rather than in any organisation. London University, if properly supported by London, should take a prominent place among the universities of the Empire, but ought not to claim any peculiar or special position. (Copies of the full text of this paper may be obtained from Messrs. Spottiswoode & Co. Ltd., 5, New Street Square, E.C., price 6d.) An address was then given by The Right Hon. A. J. BALFOUR, P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., M.P., Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, on HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH. Mr. BALFOUR said : " The Principal of King's College has travelled over almost the whole of the ground and touched upon almost all the topics which interest those who have at heart the higher education of the community, and he has given his own solution of some of the difficulties which have been found in times past to press upon university development and to hinder university progress. He denounced in vigorous language the intervention in university affairs either of a Government department or of a municipality, or indeed of any other of the existing organisations into which the community is divided for educational pur- poses. But at the same time he recognised, and all must recognise, that while liberty is one of the greatest gifts with which a university can be endowed, one of the most valuable and all-important, it nevertheless is a fact that history proves to us that universities have 98 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION occasionally abused that liberty, in the sense that they have fallen from that high standard to which they ought to have been attached, that they have neglected to use the material resources at their command, and have ceased to be centres of active and original thought, pioneers in the great work of investigation, of scholar- ship, of the higher studies. Now, how are those two difficulties to be recognised ? If you leave the uni- versities entirely to themselves, if you bring to bear on them no outside influence at all, you are liable to the kind of danger which I have described and the reality of which no man I am addressing will be inclined to doubt. On the other hand, if you try to bring to bear on them such external forces as the control or semi- control of a Government department or a municipality, you undoubtedly run a set of dangers almost as great, perhaps in the end more sterilising, because not so easy to remedy. The particular solution which I think the Principal of King's College suggested namely, that we should reject the Government depart- ment, but accept the President of the Council may be satisfactory, but I do not exactly see in what respect the President of the Council, as representing the Sovereign, will necessarily be more endowed with enlightenment and virtue than a Government depart- ment at the head of which is a Minister also repre- senting the Sovereign and responsible to Parliament. The truth is that no cut-and-dried plan can be con- trived which has not its own dangers associated with it. It is absolutely necessary that public opinion in some form or other should be brought to bear upon universities, as upon every other great activity or organisation. It is not easy to see how that public opinion is to be brought directly to bear. Directly you organise public opinion, in the form of a depart- ment or otherwise, you run a certain class of dangers. If you leave it unorganised, you may render it very powerless ; and even if it be not powerless, let us not forget that public opinion itself is very apt to be un- enlightened, and in no sphere more so than in the UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 99 particular matters in which we are interested namely, higher education and research. I believe that it is largely due, not to the maleficent influence of any Government department or any municipality, but to the inherent ignorance of public opinion, that we have come to overrate, in the preposterous manner in which we do overrate, the value and importance of com- petition, of examinations, in our universities. I think the Principal of King's College made a brief reference to that evil, and I am quite sure it is an evil which cannot be overrated. I do not mean to say that you can dispense with examinations. I venture on no such dogmatic utterance ; but I do think it of import- ance that we should have present to our minds the inevitable evils which examinations carry in their train, or the system of competitive examinations as it has been developed of recent years in our great universities. The truth is that a book which is read for examination purposes is a book which has been read wrongly. Every student ought to read a book, not to answer the questions of somebody else, but to answer his own questions. The modern plan, under which it would almost seem as if the highest work of our universities consisted in a perennial contest between the examiner on the one side, and the coach on the other, over the passive body of the examinee, is really a dereliction and a falling away from all that is highest in the idea of study and investigation. I do not know how far these evils can be eliminated from our system, so far as the pre-graduate course is concerned. I have to leave the solution of that problem to those who are directly responsible for the government of our univer- sities. But, at all events, let us rejoice in common that there is one branch of university work, of growing interest and importance, daily receiving more recog- nition from all that is best in the intellectual life of the country I mean the post-graduate course. There the slavery of examinations is a thing of the past, the intellectual servitude in which the pupil has hitherto been is a thing he may put on one side ; and he is in TOO FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION the happy position of being able to interrogate Nature and to study history with the view of carrying out his own line of investigation and research, instead of being in a perpetual subservience to the idea whether such and such a subject is worth getting up for examination purposes, whether he may not have omitted to read with sufficient attention something which to him is perfectly useless, perfectly barren, perfectly unin- teresting, but on which some question may be asked by a too curious examiner. He is in the position of having his teacher as his fellow-worker, of having a man at whose feet he has come to sit. Professor Rutherford has been mentioned. We could mention cases like that of Professor Rutherford, for whose aid and assistance students come from all parts of the world at once as pupils and as fellow- workers. That is the proper position from which the most advantage can be extracted from the concentration of intellectual life at one of our great universities, and it is the post- graduate course which I hope to see rapidly and effec- tively developed in all the universities of this country and of the Colonies. And let me observe that it is in connection with the post-graduate course that there can be a kind of co-operation between us and the more distant parts of the Empire, which is impossible with regard to the earlier and lower stages of university culture. In the primary and secondary schools of a country evidently only the children or young men of the district within reach can attend ; and no co- operation with other countries or with the Colonies is possible except after mutual consultation, after con- sideration of the problems common to education in all parts of the world, after exchange of information which I hope will be one of the outcomes of this Conference. But when you leave the lower stages of education, and when you come to the post-graduate course, you get an intercommunication between different parts of the Empire which is closer, and which may be more fruitful ; for it is not merely the communication of ideas, it is not merely a central bureau of information, UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 101 invaluable as I believe such a bureau would be, it is the actual interchange of students. If we can so arrange the post-graduate course of our universities that it will be thought a normal and natural thing for any man who has the talent and the time to devote his life to investigation, first to get his education at one of the universities of his own country, and then to go and conclude that education in a post-graduate course in one of our Colonies, how great will be the advantage, not merely to the student, but to the communities which will be brought together by a tie which may unite us all in a common interest in these higher sub- jects. I therefore think that, though at first sight the subject of examinations, and the allied subject of university training free from examinations may seem somewhat alien to the topic of a closer communication between Great Britain and other parts of the Empire in the matter of education, they are, in fact, closely allied they are topics which naturally lead one into the other. And I earnestly hope that one of the out- comes of this Conference, and certainly the outcome in which I take the greatest interest, will be such a development in the post-graduate system, and such a mutual arrangement between the universities in all parts of the Empire, as shall not only stimulate post- graduate research, but shall enable and encourage that research being carried on in different parts of the Empire by members travelling from one part of the Empire to the other, and thus bringing home to us, even more than it is brought home already, the close .community of interest, not only in things material, but in things of the highest intellect and research, which should bind together the citizens of a common Empire." DISCUSSION Dr. G. R. PARKIN, C.M.G., said that as a Rhodes Trustee he had been brought into contact with all the universities in the Empire. There was probably no 102 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION better means of unification than bringing men together at the university, which was the idea of Cecil Rhodes. The practical question for them was How could it be done ? There should be a clear understanding between all the universities how students should be shifted from one to another. This would require very careful study, and what was wanted was a central secretariat to supply information. That was the practical ques- tion before them. It was not merely a question of students coming home from other countries ; he believed there would be a great development in the other direction for instance, of students of agriculture going to Canada. Dr. HOPKINSON (Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester) said that the subject of paramount importance at the present moment with regard to university life was that of post-graduate research. Each kind of university had its own danger. The university of the old type suffered from the danger of becoming too self-centred, and there was nothing like bringing in new life, young men who had been trained under other conditions, and who had already had the widening influence of a university training elsewhere. The new universities in the large towns had the danger of becoming too provincial, but he believed they struggled against that with a large amount of success. It was suggested that the object was to consider the best means of drawing together the universities of the Empire through post-graduate study and research. He would like to eliminate the word " Empire " and substitute the word "World," for on that matter they knew no difference of country. The first condition of success was to have an en- thusiastic teacher at work in his own laboratory from day to day, working with the young men who came to him a sympathetic man, a man of research, who would stimulate and encourage the young men. It was the great teacher who attracted, not the magnifi- cent equipment put up regardless of expense. The next thing was to have easy access for the student. UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 103 In his own university, Arts students who were able to do research work were taken at an almost nominal fee, and had the advantage of the direction of a pro- fessor and full use of the libraries and university appliances. In science, a student received all the advantage of the equipment, the direction of the professor, and the use of materials for a fee of three guineas a term. For those who showed they could do more advanced work, there were Research Fellows, who were elected after they had shown some useful work, and they were absolutely free. He believed there were young men of all nations fired with the old love of learning, who really wished to make pro- gress by contributing something to knowledge. But even the enthusiastic student had to live, and that brought him to the question of the provision of main- tenance. He did not think it was desirable to have very large endowments for research work, but some were necessary, and he was glad to say private liber- ality had done something. The next question was that of the recognition to be given to the work done. A great deal too much was heard about degrees, but he was talking about the degree course. A man who was a graduate of an approved university, if he had a Bachelor's degree, and did good work, could obtain a Master's degree in Science or in Arts, and he might then proceed to a Doctor's degree. There were cases of people who had not actually taken a degree but who came from approved universities, and who showed that they could conduct original research. Such men would be admitted, if they satisfied the Faculty as to their work and their general education, to a degree equal to a Master's degree, and might afterwards pro- ceed to a Doctorate. Dr. HEATH (Board of Education) wished to inter- vene in the discussion to remove a misconception. Dr. Headlam had referred to what he described as the old-fashioned idea of Charlottenburg having been followed in the case of the new Imperial Technical College. That was not the case at all. The new 104 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Imperial Technical College was to be a school of the University of London, and to stand in exactly the same relationship to the University of London that all the medical schools in London already stood. By request of the Chairman Dr.HEADLAM summarised the discussion, emphasising especially the value of the small university. The meeting then adjourned. (For the continuation of this discussion see page 163.) FULL GENERAL CONFERENCE FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1907. Chairman, PROFESSOR J. B. BURY, Litt.D., LL.D., D. Litt. (Regius Professor of Modern History, Cam- bridge). THE full text of the Agenda was : The Place of History and Geography in Education. Papers on The Place of History in Secondary Schools, by Mr. R. Somervell, M.A. The Place of History in University Education, by Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, M.A. The Place of Geography in Education, by Mr. H. J. Mackinder, M.A. THE CHAIRMAN in opening the meeting said that it must be admitted that history had had in the past a very small place, and had not been considered a subject of very high educational value. But the justification of admitting it at all was that it was a branch of general information somewhat like the " Child's Guide to Knowledge." For instance, if William the Conqueror happened to turn up in con- versation, the name would not be strange to one, if one had learned history at school. If very lucky, one would know what country was conquered ; while, if one happened to be very good, one would associate the event with the number A.D. 1066. The fact was that excellence in history meant the capacity for retaining a great many numbers in one's head, just io6 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION as excellence in geography meant that a great many lists of names were carried in the head. The question had been raised, in connection with the work of the League of the Empire, whether the results justified the amount of time allotted to the instruction, but the thing was whether the teaching could be trans- formed so that it might promote the comprehension and sense of civic responsibility. It could thus be easily seen why history had been made a strong plank in the platform of the League. One of the great objects of the League was to promote mutual know- ledge in the various countries of the Empire, and mutual knowledge and mutual interest would obviously tend to greater sympathy and a feeling of solidarity. The League could hardly overlook the probability that a study of the common history of the Empire and the particular histories of its countries might have a very important effect in creating a consciousness of the Empire as a whole in fact, a sense of responsi- bility as citizens of the Empire. At present, the League was engaged in an experiment. It was pre- paring text-books on Imperial History. The idea was due to Mr. Monk, and he (the Chairman) would ask Mr. Monk to explain more fully his conception. It was through him and the generosity of the late Mr. Spitzel that the League was enabled to undertake the experiment, and the arduous task of planning and supervising and editing the books was entrusted to Professor Pollard, whose services the League was so fortunate to secure. The first question before the Conference was one which especially concerned secondary schools. The universities exercised an enormous influence on secondary schools, and any great change in university education was sure to react on the general lines of secondary education. The capital feature in the history of university educa- tion in the last quarter of a century had been the rise of new subjects. In the new universities, physical science, history, geography, and mechanics had taken a prominent place from the first, while in the old HISTORY , 107 universities they had forced their way to the front. For instance, at Oxford and Cambridge, within the last ten years or so, the number of students who took final honours in history had increased by leaps and bounds, the mere fact that scholarships were gained in those modern subjects had secured that special instruction would be provided in secondary schools. But that only applied to students who might happen to be taking those special subjects. As a subject of all-round education, history could hardly be said to occupy a much larger space in the schools than it did in days gone by. Of course they must not forget, besides, that Greek and Roman history were taught. It must be remembered, therefore, that they were face to face with the general question as to whether history ought to have a larger place than it had in school education, or whether, like philosophy and mechanics, it ought to be taken as a serious study at the university, and not at school. For himself, he confessed he was extremely sceptical as to whether history was a very suitable study in school hours. He thought that, of all subjects, history depended most on the teacher, and it was only the teacher with very exceptional gifts who could really make history a subject of educative value to schoolboys in school hours, and not a mere dead weight on the memory. Referring to the subjects before the Conference, he assured them they were well worthy of discussion. THE IMPERIAL TEXT-BOOK SCHEME By THOMAS H. MONK Mr. MONK said that, after living in the Colonies a number of years, his experience was that if the teaching was given in a disjointed manner, there was no real benefit derived by the scholars. It oc- curred to him that there should be a series of text- books, dealing not only with the past history of the io8 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Empire, but with its modern history, and that these should be introduced into the schools throughout the Empire. The use of the books would have a far- reaching effect on the growth and the stability of the Empire. The main idea was that the books should be prepared in three series, primary, intermediate, and final ; that they should contain up-to-date informa- tion ; and that, if practical arrangements could be made, they should, from time to time, be renewed. There must be the support of the Empire. A univer- sal use of the books was to be desired, and as the series was to be published by an independent organisation, as is the League of the Empire, any profit derived might be put towards scholarships and the formation of a reserve fund for renewals of the books and keeping them up-to-date. THE PLACE OF HISTORY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS By R. SOMERVELL, M.A. (Harrow School) " In the secondary schools of the first half of the nineteenth century the only fully recognised and adequately taught subjects were Greek and Latin. During the last fifty years there has been a growing recognition of mathematics, modern languages, natural science, history, geography, and English language and literature. These subjects have claimed attention not only as being useful in after-life, but as educationally valuable. But they have not all attained the same position. In mathematics and natural science and modern languages, it has come to be understood that specially qualified teachers must be employed ; they have been taken one by one out of the hands of the form master or mistress, and handed over to specialists. A further advantage to these subjects has been given by the practice of re-grouping the pupils according to their attainments, and not teaching them in the HISTORY 109 classes or forms in which they are placed mainly by their knowledge of Latin and Greek. " If history has made less progress than, and still occupies an inferior place to, mathematics and other non-classical subjects, this is due to the fact that it has not received the same advantages. It is taught as a ' form subject,' which is a minor drawback ; and it has not been generally recognised that it demands any special training or qualification in the teacher. The claims of history have not had the strong public support that has been accorded to natural science and modern languages. Nor can it claim to be ' useful ' knowledge in the sense that arithmetic is useful to a boy going into a counting-house. But it prepares its pupils to be good citizens, and trains the judgment of character and actions, and widens the intellectual horizon. It is the school of patriotism, but this is a sentiment which must be allowed to mature slowly, and there is a danger in forcing it into premature and mechanical expression." THE PLACE OF HISTORY IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION By HERBERT A. L. FISHER, M.A. (New College, Oxford) Mr. FISHER entirely concurred with the admirable remarks to which they had listened. He was of opinion that history was the great school of politics, and it was the function of the universities of the Empire to train the political judgment of its citizens. As a teacher of history in the University of Oxford, he was particularly concerned with the function of the universities as teachers of history, and if he were devising a course of history that might be adopted in a Canadian or an Australian university, he would recommend first, the study of modern European history in the ^eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ; secondly, a study of the no FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION political history of the Empire ; and thirdly, a study of comparative institutions connected with such a study of early law and custom as might be derived from the old Teutonic law books and from various works of anthropology. He believed that Australian and Cana- dian newspapers revealed a great ignorance of the conditions of European politics, and that ignorance, he thought, might be likely to produce serious danger. It could, however, be corrected by the diffusion o-f historical knowledge through the universities. A good course of European history, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was now rendered possible by the publication of a number of valuable works. An important thing, for a Colonial university, was to lay stress upon the great factors of English and Imperial civilisation, the causes that had led to the growth, predominance, and excellence of the common law, the history of parliamentary development and the spread of parliamentary institutions, the causes and effects of the English Reformation, the spread of English geographical discovery, English colonisation, and the organisation, political and constitutional, of the different Colonies. As the Empire was brought into connection with inferior races, it was an important element, in any historical education, that some know- ledge should be acquired of the conditions of primitive life and primitive civilisation. He believed it was becoming acknowledged that history was a subject which required a good man to teach. A man who knew English history, geography, and literature was a desideratum in many English schools, and if the universities could turn out such a man there might be a great improvement in the school teaching of history. History could not be taught in schools merely by class methods ; a combination of class method and lecture method was required. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were under one special disadvantage in connexion with the advanced teaching of history they were an hour's journey by train from our national archives, and that had been found a grave incon- GEOGRAPHY in venience by a number of Colonial students. In con- clusion he drew attention to the organisation of the Historical Association, which had for its aim the im- provement in the conditions of historical teaching in this country. THE PLACE OF GEOGRAPHY IN EDUCATION By H. J. MACKINDER, M.A., Director of the London School of Economics. Mr. H. J. MACKINDER referred to the work which was being done by the Colonial Office and under its auspices, in the direction of preparing slides for the purposes of lectures in different parts of the Empire, with the object of enabling citizens to visualise its com- ponent parts. A further point to which he wished to draw attention might, he thought, be made to hang on a word dropped by a speaker in a most interesting speech at the dinner of the Royal Geographical Society. That word was " Siberia." It was suggested that many children were taught about Siberia when, perhaps, they would be better occupied in learning about portions of the Empire. We required not only mutual knowledge in different parts of the Empire, but know- ledge of the Empire as a whole a quite different thing and that knowledge from without as well as from within. If we were going to have an Empire as a whole, we must think, for instance, of that Empire's alliances. If we were going to have anything valuable politically, if we were going to make those who could be instructed citizens of the Empire when they grew up, they must be ready to grasp in its full meaning and consequence the results of such an alliance as that of the Empire with Japan. That alliance had come about as a result of events which never could have happened but for the existence of a trans-Siberian railway. To understand the change that had been brought about by that rail- ii2 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION way, it was necessary to understand something of the relatively vacant, at times frozen, space which occupied the centre of the greatest continent in the world. The world's history had largely consisted of the doings of that great proportion of mankind who lived ringed round the great land which was often described as Siberia ; and the placing of a railway, and what presently would be a system of railways, right across that land, frozen half the year, drained by its rivers into an Arctic Ocean, desert in certain portions, though with land capable, no doubt, of bearing a considerable population in future, the construction of the railway across that land had constituted, perhaps, the greatest revolution of the present epoch of the world's history. We had covered the ocean with ships, but within the last twenty years we had placed continental railways over what hitherto were vacant spaces far more difficult to cross, of far higher resistance, far more real barriers to human action and thought than ever was the sea since, at any rate, the days of Columbus. We commonly said that those knew little of England who only England knew. He ventured to believe that in the future those would know little of the Empire who only the Empire knew. We must give such a teaching that the child, as he grew, should know why the Empire ought to exist. The Empire is an element in the world-structure of politics. When France was paralysed after the war of 1870, and now when Russia was relatively paralysed after her war, there were difficulties in maintaining the peace of the world, and it was necessary that the missing Power should be returned to its place as soon as possible ; so we should best think of the Empire not as so much red on the map, but as an essential part of the intricate machinery of the world interlaced with other Powers, and to be understood only if we thought of it in its relations with Russia, the United States, France and Germany, as well as existing in space alone. If we were to have real civic responsibility to the Empire, the geographical imagination must be cultivated, the power of moving in thought easily through great spaces GEOGRAPHY 113 must be cultivated, and the power of seeing each isolated geographical fact not as a fact alone, but as placed in the midst of the world, and as related to every other fact in the world. That was the culminating object of geographical teaching. That was what he meant when he said that geography was in three stages. We started our geography with a physical basis and home knowledge, then we visualised the distant parts, and then, finally, it was necessary that the students should be able to think in these days of world geography as the stage of world history, world knowledge, world politics of the Empire from without as well as from within, the Empire as a necessary part of the machinery which maintains the peace of the world. Then, and then only, should we have a worthy civic responsibility to the Empire, and not merely one which sought to paint the ocean red. We did not own the ocean we used the ocean. That false simplicity which ensued from considering merely the world map with the Colonies painted red, that merely territorial idea, was, he ven- tured to suggest, to be deprecated ; and therefore it was that he pleaded that those in authority would not ask schools to teach simply the geography of the British Empire that was done in this country, and it was done elsewhere. What he wanted was the teaching of the home geography, and that for the sake of a sound foundation. We wanted also, no doubt, mutual knowledge, the visualisation of the other lands. But let us have it, that even from the elementary schools the child of all the portions of the Empire went forth knowing the essentials of the rest of the world, and realising and realising with humility the great and yet the partial function of the British Empire in the government of humanity. On the proposition of Mr. FISHER, seconded by Mr. MACKINDER, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the Chairman, and the meeting was concluded. OPEN MEETINGS FIVE Open Meetings were held, on the afternoons of May 25, 27, 28, and 30, and on the morning of May 31. The subjects for discussion were as follows : Date. Sat., May 25. Mon., May 27. Tues., May 28. Thurs , May 30. Fri., May 31. Chairman. Lord Tennyson. Sir Philip Magnus. The Earl of Elgin. Sir Arthur Riicker. Professor Bury. Subject. Interchange of Teachers and Inspectors between the different parts of the Empire. (Seepage 115.) Agricultural Education. (See page 128.) Connexion between the Ele- mentary and Secondary Schools. (See page 150.) Universities and the Empire. (Seepage 163.) The Place of History and Geography in Education. (Seepage 174.) 114 OPEN MEETING SATURDAY, MAY 25. 1907. Chairman, THE RIGHT HON. LORD TENNYSON, P.C., G.C.M.G. (President of the League of the Empire). THE subject for discussion was : THE INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS AND INSPECTORS BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE EMPIRE Mr. S. H. BUTCHER, Litt.D., LL.D., M.P. (Chairman of the Council, League of the Empire) in a few opening words, prior to the discussion of the subject, said he would not attempt to repeat the varied and warm expressions of welcome which had been given the previous day to the delegates and representatives from different parts of the Empire. But as the present was the first open meeting of the Conference, the League ought to say they did tender to the delegates their most heartfelt thanks for attending. A train of thought that had been in his mind during the past few days had been summed up by a passing phrase which had been used the previous day by one of the speakers, namely, that the Colonies were the great experimental laboratories of the Empire. In the matter of social and political questions that had long been recognised. In the Colonies new problems had arisen and old ones had been solved in new ways. The Colonies were young communities, with far more detachment of mind than was possible for us in the "5 n6 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Mother Country to have ; they were unhampered by traditions, and often impelled by the very necessity of existence to discover solutions for problems which this country either counted unsolvable or put aside as so difficult that it could not venture to attempt to solve them. He thought that Colonial wit had been sharpened by being forced to face difficulties. All the resources of an inventive 'and adaptive ingenuity had been brought into play in order to find solutions of problems not only in connection with political and social matters but also in educational matters. It was a great thing to be able to get the inflexible intelligence, the versatile faculties, and the power of adaptation of the Colonials to bear upon the difficult questions with which we in this country had been wrestling so long. If the daughter states owed, as he was sure they would be the first to admit, much to the Mother Country, the Mother Country in turn, even in the matter of education, would, he thought, find ere long that it owed a great debt of gratitude to the daughter states. He would like to mention an historical parallel, namely, that of the Greek Colonies. Those Greek Colonies were the workshop of the Hellenic mind ; they supplied the Mother Country with a ceaseless output of ideas ; the material which they brought with them from the mother state they recast, and they sent it back home in new forms of power or of beauty. In fact, it was in the Colonies more than anywhere else that one had the great original and originating minds of Greece. As soon as ever the young colonists had satisfied the material needs of existence they set themselves to work in every domain of speculative life in literature, art, philosophy, as well as in the construction of political societies ; and in every one of those fields of activity they did work which, in many cases indeed, in most cases surpassed the results which had been achieved in the Mother Country. He was not going to flatter the Colonies by suggesting to them that in certain departments they outstripped INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 117 the Mother Country ; but he did believe there was a similar great future before them in the intellectual domain as was achieved in that direction by the ancient colonies of Greece. In one thing, at least, our Colonies were like those of Greece. Those Greek states felt themselves to be the members of a single family and the guardians of a common heritage. They took out with them the sacred fire from the hearth of the mother city, and that fire was never allowed to be quenched in the remotest parts of the civilised world in which they settled. That, he thought, was also absolutely true of our Colonies at the present day. But it was not enough that we should learn from the Colonies and the Colonies learn from us : the Colonies and the Mother Country must also learn to work to- gether. If we had a common destiny we must also have a common purpose, and that purpose would make our destiny. The Empire started with a great stock of traditions and sentiments of loyalty in fact, the whole of our rich inheritance, moral and intellectual ; but we shared that inheritance with all the members of the English-speaking race : it was not peculiar to the Colonies. One felt that within the Empire some- thing more was needed, and in the first instance we should within the Empire bring together our educa- tional ideals, comparing them, enlarging them, and harmonising them, and in that way create a new and binding unity. By that unity he did not mean uni- formity of type in education, because that uniformity was as little good for the Colonies as it was for the Mother Country, but he meant unity of purpose. That, he believed, could be based only upon an instructed, as distinct from a merely instinctive, patriotism. No amount of mere aspirations, mere sentiment, mere sense of greatness, would suffice ; something more was needed, and that was will-power, that everything should be done to direct the collective will of the Mother Country and the daughter states towards creating an ideal of common citizenship and of common service. Among the many means which might be n8 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION suggested for doing that was the one which was under discussion at the present moment. No doubt it was an end to which all looked forward, that there should be open doors, open avenues everywhere to recognised merit throughout the Empire, and that there should be, as far as it was possible, open thoroughfares be- tween all the class-rooms of the Empire. That could not be done in a moment, but something could be done in working towards that end. A cynical philosopher of the present day had said that " Those who can, do ; those who cannot, teach " ; but the Conference meant to prove that teachers could be doers in fact, he thought teachers would be the best of doers, because they could prove themselves, if they worked in har- mony with those to whom the organising of their education was entrusted, to be makers of character and builders of Empire. The present Conference was only the first of its kind, and he did not want unduly to magnify its importance. One thought of Dr. Johnson's schoolmaster, who published a spelling-book and dedicated it to the universe. They did not want to fall into any error of that kind ; but in all sober earnestness he did think that the Conference which was assembled was a memor- able gathering and had in it the promise of great development, and that it would be, as Lord Tennyson had remarked the previous day, the forerunner of many gatherings of the kind which would be increas- ingly fruitful in results. They were all convinced that the things of the mind were among the most potent of the uniting forces of the world, and all engaged in the work of the Conference might fairly confidently feel that they were forwarding a great Imperial enterprise. The CHAIRMAN announced that in answer to a telegram he had sent to His Majesty the King from the Conference, he had received the following : " The King asks you to convey his sincere thanks to the representatives and delegates with the Council of the League of the Empire for their loyal message, which His Majesty sincerely appreciates." INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 119 Professor M. E. SADLER, LL.D. (Manchester Uni- versity), in opening the discussion, wished to found his remarks upon three propositions. In the first place a skilfully directed course of education could do far more than people in England had generally believed to impart a certain tone and complexion to the mind. It could not secure that the pupil would believe after- wards the things -that he was taught at school to believe, but if the teaching appealed to the imagination and affections, and wa*s sympathetic and clear, it would at any rate make the pupil want to believe afterwards the things which those in whom he placed his early trust wished him to believe. To think that teachers could mould at pleasure the subsequent beliefs of their pupils was a fallacy which would be mischievous if it was not patently absurd. Nor could the most elabor- ately organised systems of education artificially secure unity between things which inevitably tended to fall apart. Believing, however, that there were great forces which made for the lasting defensive unity of the Empire, it might justly be expected that wisely directed education would promote a tendency to con- solidation and would make for Imperial peace and for the free development of different ideals behind a ram- part of common defence. Secondly, behind that rampart of common defence, the essential thing was that the Empire gave equal shelter to the interplay of varying ideals, ideas, and faiths. Possibly it was our tendency as a race to work out for the world some new formula of the relationship between the individual and the State. We recoiled from bureaucratic collectiveness and from the cruelties of untrammelled individualism, and perhaps it might be found that some new formula of citizenship could be worked out through the recognition of associations formed for different purposes in life, but all united together by a common sense of patriotic gratitude to the equally sheltering State. His third proposition was that all that was most vital in education came to the pupil through the person- 120 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION ality of the teacher, and that in these days a teacher could aim at no higher thing than, on the intellectual side, to bring pupils to reverent veracity of mind, humbled by a sense of unseen spiritual powers, and on the ethical and practical side to a state of fairness of mind combined with capacity for decisive action. To do that the teacher must have experience of life, and if he was to have experience of life he must travel. The effect on the mind of teachers, after having spent time on real practical work in one of the great nations of the Empire, would be that they would see everything in a new perspective. Something had already been done in the direction of interchange of teachers and inspectors, he always regarded an in- spector as a teacher of teachers, and not as a separate individual, and much had been done by the officials of Canada and New Zealand, but the fundamental difficulty was the cost. He would submit a few figures in order that the audience would be able to judge whether the advantages to be gained would be worth the expenditure. Suppose 150 teachers went to other parts of the Empire for a year's service, 50 going to Canada, 50 to Australasia, 20 to South Africa, 20 to New Zealand, 5 to Jamaica and the West Indies, and 5 to the Straits Settlements and Hongkong. The cost for second-class return tickets would be 6,660, or an average per teacher of 44 8s., or, including the cost of reciprocity, a sum of 13,000 would be needed. In his judgment, more ought to be done to make teachers' certificates more interchangeable all over the Empire, but he did not believe it would be possible to work on any systematic and satisfactory plan unless there was established some Central Bureau of Education for the Empire which should have official cognisance, which should be situated in London, and which should include in its ranks of officers representatives appointed and paid by the different colonies and parts of the United Kingdom. He was convinced that in the matter of interchange and inter-recognition of certifi- cates there ought to be an Imperial organisation INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 121 representing the Education Departments of the Empire, working on an independent basis, and, ulti- mately, acting as part of the Secretariat of the Imperial Conference. Mr. ERNEST GRAY, M.A. (National Union of Teachers) thought the subject had been brought forward at a very opportune moment, for during the last two or three years there had been on the part of local education authorities a most pronounced attempt to narrow rather than to enlarge the area in which teachers in public elementary schools might serve. The teacher was not the servant of the State, but the servant of the local authority, and therefore something more than the assistance and co-operation of states was needed to enlarge the system of interchange ; the direct and active assistance of the local education authorities throughout the motherland was necessary. There had been a tendency to attempt to compel the teacher who had been brought up as a child and as a teacher in one area to give long years of service in that area. Nothing could be more harmful to educa- tion than that, and therefore he was exceedingly glad to hear of a scheme to place the teachers' certificates at the disposal of the Empire. Parochialism narrowed the intellectual horizon, naturally, and it would be a great blessing if means could be found of removing teachers from one part of the Empire to another. Difficulties, however, were in the way, one undoubtedly being the question of the certificate, and he entirely endorsed the suggestion of Prof. Sadler, that a Central Bureau should be established which might evaluate the certificates which were granted by the various states. He was certain that the teaching profession in England would greatly resent any attempt to employ teachers from overseas whom they might consider, perhaps wrongly, of lower qualification. Then, there stood in the way an exceedingly awkward declaration. It was not generally known that the student here who entered a normal college pledged himself to give service in a public elementary school, and the Treasury 122 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION had held that the service which he so pledged himself to give extended to a period of thirty-three years. Al- though that pledge was often broken, yet students were advised to treat a moral obligation of that kind with respect. The Government, it was understood, were trying to remove that, and he hoped the present discussion might strengthen the Government's hands in that respect. It had hitherto kept some of our best-trained teachers in a particular class of school. He believed that Mr. Joseph Chamberlain had secured the insertion of a clause whereby service in a Colonial school would satisfy that declaration. In his judgment the teacher must be away three to five years if he was to do good to himself and to the schools, both in the Colonies and in this country. He was by no means sure that instead of interchange it would not be better to facilitate and encourage the free migration of teachers throughout the Empire. Dr. J. R. INCH (Chief Superintendent of Education, New Brunswick) said that in Canada, owing to the circumstances connected with racial and religious conditions, it was found impracticable to form an Educational Bureau to control the administration of education throughout the Dominion. Each Province had its own educational law and regulations in the preparation of its teachers, and undertook the full work of carrying on the schools of all classes, from the kindergarten to the university. The opening up of the Western Provinces by the influx of emigrants had created a demand for teachers there which had left the Eastern Provinces in a very unfortunate position. In New Brunswick, where there were about 70,000 children attending the public schools, it was found almost impossible to find teachers for the rural schools owing to the teachers moving westward, notwith- standing the fact that there was an annual attendance at the provincial normal schools of about 250 candi- dates preparing for the teaching profession. New Brunswick had a free school system ; their public schools, primary and secondary, were free to all the 123 children of the Province of all degrees, classes, and conditions. As Chief Superintendent of Education of the Pro- vince, he had every year numerous applications from teachers in Great Britain who wished to take up teaching in Canada, and yet, owing to the narrow policy of the various Provinces of the Dominion, it had no reciprocal arrangements by which it could interchange teachers, even between the Provinces much less between the remoter parts of the Empire. He believed it would be possible to fix a standard through a Central Bureau without the risk of lowering the standard either of Great Britain or the Colonies, by which a free interchange of teachers could take place, and which would enable them to go as citizens to any other part of the Empire to which they chose to migrate. Dr. W. J. M. STARKIE (Resident Commissioner of the Irish National Board) said that no one appreciated more than he did the value it would be to a teacher to see more of the world. He admitted that he was thoroughly in sympathy with the idea of the interchange of teachers, and if possible, as an administrator, he would desire to carry it out. But from the point of view of an administrator all he could promise was to remove obstacles. The management of Irish schools was not in the' hands of his Board ; they were managed by local managers, by individuals ; and it entirely depended on the individual whether he would allow his teacher to go or not. He knew many managers who would be delighted to let them go, and in some cases would give them an extremely good testimonial ! but he was not quite sure whether they would be willing to take them back at the end of a period ! v However, there was the practical difficulty the consent of the manager had to be obtained. Even suppose the manager did con- sent, it did not at all follow that, when the teacher had experienced the pleasures of a foreign country and a higher salary, he would return to his native land. 124 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION In that case what happened to the teacher from the foreign country who had taken his place ? From the point of view of administration all he was willing to do was that which had been done in the case of English and Scottish teachers : Ireland had recog- nised English and Scotch certificates ; and the English and Scottish Departments had recognised Ireland's. The effect of that had been of immense advantage to England and Scotland, but he did not know that it had been counterbalanced by any service to the Depart- ment of Ireland ! With regard to the interchange of inspectors, he was afraid the same remarks applied. He would like to know something about the inspectors that a foreign department would side-track on to Ireland and how long the inspector would be ex- pected to remain, because his experience of inspectors was that for a year they were rather an encumbrance. He looked forward with apprehension to what might happen in a peaceful Irish district when a foreign inspector arrived with his own ideas of what ought to be done ! He found that foreign inspectors were in- variably extreme reformists, and he would as soon let loose on an Irish village a company of artillery as one of those gentlemen. With regard to his own Department, he might say that he was arguing completely in the face of his ex- perience. Some time ago the English Department sent over an inspector, and he (Dr. Starkie) learnt immensely from him ; consequently he was in favour of interchange, but every country must speak for itself. He did not think interchange was possible in Ireland. The Hon. COLIN CAMPBELL, K.C. (Minister of Edu- cation, Manitoba) said the great difficulty of Manitoba was to obtain teachers, owing to the rapid increase in the population. They in Manitoba believed in the principle of a reciprocity of teachers. In all profes- sional lines, not only so far as teachers were concerned, but in medical, legal, and all other professions, they welcomed from any part of the British Empire the graduates of similar institutions and gave them the INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 125 same rights and privileges that those in Manitoba themselves enjoyed. Teachers, however, had to take a short course of normal training to give them a local view and also to train them in the law that apper- tained to the working of the public schools in Manitoba. Their problem in the West was largely elementary education, and they were engaged in endeavouring to give to the teachers of the West a better position year by year, and to increase their salaries. They believed that no profession was entitled to better treatment in that respect than the teaching profession, which had not received that recognition in the past to which it was justly entitled. On behalf of Manitoba he welcomed an interchange of teachers, and cordially endorsed the proposition of the reciprocity of rights of teaching througho.ut the Empire ; and as far as Manitoba was concerned they had set, he believed, in the Dominion the first example of that, and they would continue to maintain that policy. Mr. P. A. BARNETT, M.A. (Chief Inspector of Training Colleges to the Board of Education, England) said he feared that Mr. Gray had not made quite clear the character of the declaration which students made on entering training colleges. It was not a pledge in any sense. The exact terms used were a declaration that it was the bond fide intention of the particular person who was going to enjoy the advantages of the moneys voted by Parliament for a particular end, and contri- buted to institutions designed for a particular end, to give his services to those ends. But that was not oppressively worked. In the whole course of his experience he did not remember the Board of Educa- tion interfering in order to bring a particular person to book who had a year or two after signing that declara- tion forgotten all about it. With regard to the thirty-three years' service, that was absolutely unknown. It did often happen that teachers who had signed the declaration and had had their training in training colleges, when they left before a very limited period, before the end of two years, 126 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION returned to the College a certain sum which the College might be expected to lose in grants, if the teacher did not complete a term of at least two years ; but after that nothing more was done, and no pressure was applied. The important point he wished to make was that the declaration was not pressed, whatever might be thought of the obligation that lay upon a person who signed it. Further, he should like to say that the Board of Education not only considered ,and accepted the certificates which were given by other education au- thorities for what they were worth and in comparison with the Board's, but admitted the holders of such certificates to their own certificate with all the privi- leges that attached to it. Mr. ERNEST GRAY said he would like to reply to Mr. Barnett's criticism that the declaration was never pressed. He knew of a case where a teacher went from Lancashire to the Straits Settlements. Directly, he accepted service there he was called upon by the English Government to refund the cost of the training college, nearly 100. He agreed to do that in the course of three years. When he landed at the Straits, he found he had made a mistake in the value of the dollar, and after receiving his salary and paying off one-third of the cost of his training, he found he would be left without a single penny in his pocket. He returned to England by the next boat, and legal proceedings were taken against him by the Straits Government to recover the cost of his passage out. Miss LATHAM (St. Mary's, Paddington) said in the questions which had been discussed that day very great difficulties seemed to be placed in the way of practical action. Over and over again in similar cases it had been necessary to have volunteer action in front of State action in order to show the Government that the things mooted were possible and could be carried into effect. She would like to ask those who were considering, from the practical side, the question of interchange of teachers whether (now that there INTERCHANGE OF TEACHERS 127 were so many representatives from all parts of the Empire present) it might not be possible to arrange next September or the following September for an interchange of teachers between individual schools, which were not necessarily hampered by some of the conditions which had been referred to that day. In that way a beginning might be made. For example, a master of a boys' school in this country might go to Canada for a year, and vice versa, the head masters and the governors agreeing, and then the teachers could return to their respective schools at the end of the year. She thought it was easier to arrange such a scheme in the case of girls' schools than of boys' . If a beginning could be made by volunteer action it might pave the way for a much more important action in the future. The CHAIRMAN then read a Resolution which had been carried at the morning meeting of official representa- tives and delegates to the following effect : ' That a Committee, with power to add to their number, be appointed consisting of the various school inspectors present from Great Britain and other parts of the Empire, for the consideration of interchange between the different parts of the Empire of school- masters, school-mistresses and school-inspectors ; and ior the consideration of the mutual recognition of teachers' diplomas and certificates. That this Com- mittee be requested to report at a later meeting of this Conference." The CHAIRMAN, in closing the meeting, thanked the speakers for their interesting remarks. From what he had gathered the interchange of inspectors was much more practicable than the interchange of teachers, and he hoped that would be arranged. On the motion of Mr. S. .H. BUTCHER a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Lord Tennyson for pre- siding, and the Session concluded. (For the report of the Full General Conference dealing with this subject see page 46.) OPEN MEETING MONDAY, MAY 27, 1907. Chairman, SIR PHILIP MAGNUS, B.Sc., M.P. THE subject for discussion was : AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION The CHAIRMAN, in opening the meeting, said it was very opportune that the Technical Education Section of the Federal Conference on Education should be opened by a discussion on Agricultural Education introduced by the Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett. Few men had given more attention to that important subject than Sir Horace Plunkett, and few had done so under more difficult conditions. For several years now, at great personal sacrifice, Sir Horace had devoted his great talents and organising capacity to the im- provement of agricultural instruction in a country where agriculture was, or ought to be, one of its leading industries, and during the short time that he had directed the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Ireland he had succeeded in arousing a general interest in the application of scientific methods to the growth of crops and to improvements in the breeding of stock, which, if he had continued in office, would have made Ireland more prosperous and its inhabitants happier and more contented. In opening the Section, he might be allowed to say a word or two with regard to the conditions under which Technical Education might become a factor in 128 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 129 linking together the different parts of the Empire, and in stimulating community of thought among its scattered citizens. To create the germs of Imperial ideas in the minds of the rising generation was, he took it, one of the main objects of the Federal Conference, so auspiciously and opportunely inaugurated under the direction of the League of the Empire. Without venturing to embark on the troubled waters of Colonial Preference, or any other controversial questions, he thought he might say that they all desired that the Empire should, as far as possible, be bound together industrially and commercially, as one united whole, and that the different parts should utilise and supple- ment each other's natural resources. To that end it was necessary that all parts should avail themselves to the fullest extent of the advantages which science lent to industry ; and that those who were engaged in the production of manufactured goods, in agriculture, and indeed in commerce generally, in whatever part of the Empire they might be working, should receive the highest possible technical training adapted to their special needs ; so that we might be able, in the first place, to supply our own internal wants, with the minimum of aid from foreign countries, and then to exchange our goods on the most advantageous terms for such raw products of other countries as we were least able to obtain within the wide extent of our own Empire. If that was the end they had in view, the value of a free interchange of ideas throughout the Empire on all matters connected with industrial edu- cation would be fully appreciated, and the advantages of such Conferences would be at once recognised. What they desired was that all members of the Imperial family should endeavour to assist one another to the utmost in the attainment of the most complete and the highest developed system of technical educa- tion, and that the schools in which such education was provided should be open on equal terms to all citizens of the Empire, who should be encouraged in various ways to learn one another's industrial resources and 130 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION requirements. It was surely in that sense that Mr. Chamberlain urged them " to think Imperially," i.e. first of all " to think " a mental process not too commonly acquired, and needing very careful methods of instruction ; and, secondly, to think of ourselves, not as members of an isolated town or country, but as citizens of one great Empire bound together by civilis- ing ideals, which could best be realised in the promotion of trade and commerce and in practising the arts of peace. That was no selfish or narrowing policy, for the Empire was so vast, and embraced peoples of so many different races and creeds, that the effort to seek the welfare of the whole necessarily demanded some sacrifice of immediate advantage from each different part, and the endeavour to realise the geographical and economic condition of the whole constituted in itself a liberal education. The papers to be read in the^Section would no doubt throw much light on the means to be adopted to im- perialise the system of technical education. Every effort should be made to improve, by the highest techni- cal training, the method of food production in all our Colonies' ; and he was glad, therefore, that the subject to be first discussed in the Section was that of Agri- cultural Education, on which no one was more com- petent to address them than Sir Horace Plunkett. The following paper was then read by Sir Horace Plunkett : AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION Paper read by THE RIGHT HON. SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, P.C., K.C.V.O., F.R.S. When I was invited to take part in the proceedings of the Conference, I was occupying the official position from which, as I read in the papers a few days ago, I have resigned. I notice that your resourceful Secretary has found a new justification for my presence in the fact that I am the President for the year of the Asso- AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 131 elation of Technical Institutions. I shall not fail, when I next discharge the duties of that office, to mention the honour you have done me on this occasion, as it will please those who must find it a little difficult to explain how I came to follow such men as Lord Avebury, Sir William Anson, and your Chairman of to-day in a presidency over educational experts. In my modest contribution to your discussion to-day, I propose to use my official experience in Ireland for what it has taught me, but in the main to rely upon my observation and reflections as a student of what appeals to me as a great neglected problem of the last half-century, the problem of Rural Life. My object must of course be to suggest the part which education has to play in the solution of that problem. As the opener of the discussion I may to some extent give a line to the Debate, but before I can justify the course I take, or indeed claim any serious attention to my remarks, I think it right to be quite frank about the limitations of my point of view. I feel, moreover, that the value of such gatherings as this would be largely lost if those to whom a prominent part in the discussion was assigned did not make it quite clear from what sources they derive their con- tribution to the extraordinarily rich fund of information from which the Conference is able to draw. Circumstances have brought me into close touch with the conditions I am going to discuss in two countries. I may say that I have some first-hand knowledge of rural life which as regards England and Scotland is incomplete, as regards Canada is slight and as regards other portions of the Empire is nil. The two countries in which I have studied, and indeed have lived a coun- try life, are Ireland and the United States. And it happens that in both these countries there is just now a distinct movement which recognises the problem of Rural Life as being clamant for solution, and soluble mainly by education. I have in my hand an essay upon the problem of Rural Life in the United States ; it is by an obscure 132 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION writer and marked "confidential," but I shall quote from it a passage which I think concisely explains the cause why that problem has been neglected, and in- dicates what I believe to be the true reason why its consideration and treatment are urgent. " That a subject of such obvious and fundamental importance/' the essayist writes, " should hitherto have occupied a position' of so little prominence in the public mind is easily explained. Public opinion is a town-made thing, and among western nations the progress of civilisa- tion has riveted men's thoughts upon the great centres of industry and commerce, where the most startling changes have taken place. The dweller in the modern city not unnaturally believes that the many and varied improve- ments recently effected in its conditions have fully coun- teracted the apprehended evils of concentration. He is confident that the rapid and cheap transit facilities which enable the industrial and commercial classes to live in ever- widening suburbs will realise the ideal of rus in urbe. What with improved sanitation and physical culture on the one hand, and the multiplication of movements for intel- lectual advancement and social betterment on the other, the townsman of the future is expected to unite the physical health and longevity of the Boeotian with the mental superiority of the Athenian. " This somewhat optimistic survey seems to me to neglect one important factor. It does not appear to have been sufficiently considered how far the ethical and physical health of the modern city has been due to the constant influx of fresh blood from the country. At present the town makes an irresistible appeal to the spirit of enterprise, to the growing craving for excitement, to the desire to live where there is most life. But sooner or later, if the balance of trade in this human traffic be not adjusted, the raw material out of which urban society is made will be seriously deteriorated ; and the symptoms of national degeneracy will be properly charged against those who failed to foresee the evil and treat the cause." I have quoted this passage not only because it em- phasises the importance of the problem, but it indicates its main elements. I consider it also very significant AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 133 that there should be a problem of Rural Life at all in the United States. Not only is there no rural depopula- tion there, but there is no agricultural depression, and yet any one who reads President Roosevelt's addresses will realise the alarm which is felt by the leading states- men in the great Western Republic at the tendency of the town to grow at the expense of the country. A few brief quotations from the President's messages will reveal his mind. A remarkable passage in his message to the 58th Congress (1903) treats of " the loneliness and lack of mental companionship," against which " the more active and restless young men and women rebelled," and to escape which they fly from the farms to the cities. He is hopeful that the rural free delivery, taken in connection with the telephone, the bicycle, and the trolley will do much towards " lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more attractive." Similar sentences scattered over the addresses of the last five years and which might be multiplied from his speeches show how the President, the most practical of men, comes back to Education as we all do wherever we start out to deal with social and economic problems, though we may differ in the meaning which we give to the term. "In no department of Governmental work in recent years," he wrote in 1902, " has there been greater success than in that of giving scientific aid to the farming popula- tion, thereby showing them how most efficiently to help themselves." In 1904 he tells us that " The Department of Agriculture has grown into an educational institution, with a faculty of 2,006 specialists making research into all the sciences of production. . . . Co-operation is had with the State Experiment Stations, and with many other institu- tions and individuals. . . . The activities of our age in lines of research have reached the tillers of the soil and inspired them with ambition to know more of the principles that govern the forces of nature with which they have to deal." Perhaps most notable of all is the following passage in this 134 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION same address in which he describes the achievement of the Department in the discharge of its educational functions : " Nearly half the people of this country devote their energies to growing things from the soil. Until a recent date little has been done to prepare these millions for their life work. In most lines of human activity college-trained men are the leaders. The farmer had no opportunity for special training until the Congress made provision for it forty years ago. During these years progress has been made, and teachers have been prepared. Over 5,000 students are in attendance at our State agricultural col- leges. The Federal Government expends $10,000,000 annually towards this education and for research in Wash- ington and in the several States and Territories. The Department of Agriculture has given facilities for post- graduate work to 500 young men during the past seven years, preparing them for advanced lines of work in the Department and in the State Institutions." In this pronouncement we have in the minimum of words the maximum of constructive suggestion. In the near background we see the picture of country life in its un- tutored, undisciplined and, consequently, unavailing com- petition with the modern town. In the foreground we see, through the application to the country of the methods to which the town owes its progress, the dawn of better things. Let us return now to Ireland and look at what I may call the opposite end of the problem of Rural Life. To me the Irish question I mean the social and econo- mic as distinct from the political (I might almost say the internal as distinct from the external) Irish question is essentially the problem of rural life, and this for the simple reason that the vast majority of the people necessarily derive their living from the land. But the circumstances of the country are so exceptional that great caution must be observed in applying Irish experiences to other countries. For example after suffering under a wholly unsuitable Land System which had been patched and patched without any mitigation of the discontent it caused, we woke up one day to find it abolished with the aid of a hundred millions loan AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 135 and twelve millions gift from the Imperial Exchequer. In the process a social and economic revolution will take place. A community commonly described as possessing an upper and a lower class is to be simplified by the lower class buying out the upper all perfectly sound and good if certain other things are attended to, a most dangerous experiment if they are not. While this has been going on, the new Department of Agriculture and Other Industries, and for Technical Instruction for Ireland, as it is described in the Statute Book, has been struggling to do these other things. Its aims and objects, its failures and successes, have all been the subject-matter of Governmental inquiry and are therefore sub judice. The slight references I shall make to the first seven years of the Department's operations, during which I was chiefly responsible for its admini- stration, must await therefore confirmation until the Committee of Inquiry reports. It was understood by ninety-nine people out of every hundred who took an interest in the new department at the start that its educational functions were mainly intended for the promotion of industries of an urban character and that agriculture would be developed primarily and chiefly by aids of a more direct kind. Among the farmers themselves there was no belief in the value of education, and the very first thing we had to do was to collect mainly from other countries, because there had been no opportunity of training them in Ireland a body of itinerant instructors in agriculture. The main function of these officers was to explain the .practical value of the kind of technical education which they had themselves received. We found it extremely difficult to get men who had the necessary qualifications for producing this effect. They had to be as good with the plough as with the microscope, and in addition to have a kind of culture which general education alone can give. We have been training young Irishmen during these seven years for the work, and we know what a long and costly course is required. But while this initial work was going on a very singular 136 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION and gratifying development of public opinion took place. The Department was democratically consti- tuted : a Council which acted as a deliberative assembly and criticised its operations, and two Boards which advised it and controlled its expenditure, exer- cised a dominating influence over its policy. They deliberately supported the Department in resisting the inevitable and quite natural demand of the agricultural classes for a lavish expenditure on direct aids, bringing early and substantial returns to agriculture. Instead of such a popular policy they preferred the wiser course of accumulating funds for founding, building, equipping and administering educational institutions, and for subsidising Secondary and Upper Primary Classes in order that the sciences underlying agriculture might be taught so soon as the people had been brought to realise the value of the education, and Irish teachers had been trained to put it into operation. Of course we gave direct aids to farmers through schemes which were not what is generally understood by education, but we always tried to make these schemes educational in their influence. Our best helpers, brought into the work through our democratic constitution, came to accept education as the real agency of progress to which we must look for permanent results. There is one branch of the technical instruction which has been applied both to rural and urban con- ditions in Ireland to which I personally attach para- mount importance I mean the range of subj ects relating to home life. I must avoid details, but the main object of these courses, whether itinerant, or as part of school curricula, is to enable the family, especially the female members, to provide a higher standard of living out of the available means, and to use the time of the mem- bers not employed in agricultural operations for adding to the resources of the home by industries subsidiary to agriculture. This will be a convenient point at which to touch upon the relations of this and other forms of practical education with general education. I will not treat AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 137 this part of the subject from the Irish standpoint, for obvious reasons. My strong belief with regard to the education re- quired by rural populations is that it should be far more general than technical. Of course the teaching of physical and economic science is nowadays necessary. But these will not be applied effectively unless they are made interesting as well as profitable. What is required more than anything is to dignify the patri- archal calling in the minds of all classes. From the universities, public opinion ought to be moulded to this view, and thence also should the teachers in the lower grades derive their inspiration. I am not going to give my views to an audience mainly composed of educational experts upon the methods for giving if I may use another of President Roosevelt's expressions the " right twist " to the education of our rural schools. My own belief is that much thought is wasted over curricula, time-tables and other details, which would be much better spent in mentally and morally equipping the teacher for his or her task. However, I, personally, have had to consider the whole question as one of administrative procedure rather than of educational principle, and from this standpoint my only definite suggestion will be made. My own educational functions having been restricted to the teaching of the sciences underlying agriculture, to domestic economy, drawing and manual training, I have come to feel that the right attitude of mind in which the pupil avails himself of these facilities is the really important thing. I feel that it is essential that there should be the closest co-ordination between those who are mainly devoting themselves to forming the character and those whose primary object is to make the indivi- dual efficient. But this part of the subject I leave to those engaged in educational work. The sum and substance of my own theories upon the subject under discussion comes, then, to this. The problem of Rural Life is to be solved mainly by education, general and technical. There are of course 138 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION many other directions in which the State both by legislation and administration can protect the agri- cultural interests and elevate rural life. At the present moment State interference with the tenure of land is being vigorously resorted to. Co-operative and other movements for benefiting rural communities heretofore almost confined to urban centres are coming to our aid ; but so serious does the whole situation of country life appear to me to be, that I hold it to be essential that all these agencies of progress, official and voluntary, should act in co-operation and co-ordination with each other. More especially is this the case when practical education and general education come together in and around the rural school. I hold it to be the function of agricultural depart- ments to concern themselves with the problem of rural life in all its branches, and to bring about the necessary co-ordination of effort between all who are helping to solve the problem. And this not because the work of these departments is more important it is less important than that of some others. But, as I see things, this branch of government is the only one which can give its whole mind to the needs of the agricultural classes. Studying the utterances of President Roose- velt and other thinkers upon the social economy of the country districts in America, knowing what was in the minds of my best fellow-workers in Ireland, and as a most interested spectator of work which is now being undertaken in this field of human effort both in England and Scotland (of which I hope some who follow me will speak), I fully expect this view to receive practical recognition in the near future. I hope that the discus- sion that is to follow will lead to a full recognition of the reality of country backwardness under the con- ditions of modern civilisation and the urgent necessity for devoting the best thought of the educationists of the Empire to the discovery of the remedy which I am convinced cannot be effectively applied without their aid. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 139 DISCUSSION Dr. N. BODINGTON, M.A., Litt.D. (Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University) remarked that there was a large Agricultural Department at the University of Leeds, and in his administrative capacity he had naturally been brought into close contact with the work that had gone on there. The question he desired to raise for consideration was whether among the various branches of agricultural education to which Sir Horace had referred the most important might not be that higher type of agricultural education which aimed at the training of the employer of labour, the farmer. He did not for one moment ignore the fact that, by the training of the workman or the labourer, there might be a great gain in personal happiness, for the man who understood the reasons for his work was a happier man than one who worked as a machine. He thought the great success of technical education in Germany lay essentially in the fact that primarily the employers of labour had been trained. In spite of the useful work which might be done by object-lessons in schools, by rural instruction, by training in the domestic and other arts, the vital part of the problem lay in con- vincing the farmers that there was something in science, and in giving them enough science to enable them to benefit by it. In various ways in Yorkshire they were beginning to educate the farmers, although it had been a difficult task. In the first instance the feeling was that a University training was something which had not much definite relation to practical results, but he believed the farmers were gradually being convinced that the work the Leeds University was doing was an important one. It had been said that colleges and schools of culture mainly turned out professors, lecturers, land agents and the like. That was not their experience, for he found at Leeds that 75 per cent, of the young men went back and worked on their farms. The main difficulty was the want of a good general basis of education in the 140 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION young men who came to the University. The Univer- sity did not want these young men to be taught agri- culture at the secondary schools, because they thought the secondary school had plenty of work to do to give a good basis of general education, without which a young man was not susceptible to further training. One of the great difficulties of rural districts was the fewness of good secondary schools within easy reach of the farms. \^hat was wanted was a fair number of higher elementary schools ; and it had seemed to him for years past that it ought to be possible to create them in a certain number of centres by simply putting a top layer on to a certain number of elementary schools. Miss KATHARINE BATHURST desired to make a few kindergarten suggestions with regard to the improve- ment of rural education. In very small rural schools, where there were only forty or fifty children on the books, and where children who obtained a grant for learning cookery and cottage gardening must be eleven years old, there would not be more than three girls over eleven years of age who could earn a cookery grant. The consequence was that in a large number of small rural schools no cookery was taught. In the same way it was impossible to give cottage- gardening lessons to three or four boys over eleven years of age in a small rural school where there was only one teacher. Who was to look after the rest of the school if the one teacher was giving cottage-gardening lessons out-of-doors ? She particularly wished the meeting would pass a resolution, that whether a subject was taken by boys or girls should be left to the managers and teachers of the individual schools. With a class of six to twelve children, and leaving the question of their ages largely to the discretion of the teachers and managers, much useful work could be done in both those subjects. There was another difficulty in making children do practical things in school. They insisted at present upon their teachers of cookery having a certificate. In the rural districts of England AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 141 there was usually a well-to-do squire and a not well-to- do clergyman. The former as a rule had a kitchen-maid, and many of the squires would allow their kitchen- maid to go once a week and give cookery lessons in the school. But they were not allowed to do it because that particular teacher was not qualified. Therefore the lessons could not be given in the school hours, and the subject would receive no grant from the Board of Education. She suggested that all red-tape regulations of that kind should be swept away. Then with regard to cookery, the Board insisted upon certain apparatus being used and certain regulations being followed, but it was no mortal use to teach village children cookery on a gas stove. The same conditions must apply when the lessons were given as when the child put the lessons into practice at home. She earnestly asked the meeting to pass another resolution, to the effect that an ordinary cottage could be hired for half-a-crown a week from some village woman with her own rather skimpy apparatus, so that the children could grow the things in the garden which they cooked in the school, and so that the stock-pot could be kept going. All those things could be done if they would only be allowed by the Board of Education in school hours, and at very little expense, for she knew many people who would voluntarily help to do the work. She knew from practical experience that in one village school the boys knew more grammar than she did, but they could not mend a hole in their coats. There very often lived in out-of-the-way villages a tailor, and if that man could only be employed to teach the boys to mend their coats they would be only too delighted to learn. A needle and a few pieces of cloth were very cheap, and the very expensive apparatus which was provided in town schools in the manual- training centres was often not required. Another very useful industry which might be taught in the same way was boot-mending. If something practical could be done in the way of utilising voluntary effort, and in 142 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION the abolition of regulations which at present hindered the work, a good deal of useful education could be given throughout the rural villages of England. Mr. WEST (Australia) remarked that it had been found even more essential in Australia than in the Homeland to deal in a practical manner with the training, not only of the children in the schools, but of the farmers, because in Australia, as in all young countries, they were met with a set of conditions in regard to its development which were quite different from those which existed in the Old Land from which many of the pioneers came. It soon became evident that, in order to deal with those new conditions, the men had to be trained in a practical way. The result had been that throughout Australia a great deal of attention had been given to the work of agri- cultural education, there being active departments of agriculture in all the States of the Commonwealth. In recent years this policy had been followed still further by developing the co-operation of the teachers in fostering nature-study lessons in the State schools, and that, it was found, was of great practical service in directing public attention to the value of agricultural education. It was only by those means that the tremendous drift to the cities that had gone on all over the world for the last fifty years, and which was coinci- dent with the rise of industrialism, could be stopped. That problem had to be faced in Australia just the same as in the Old Land, because half of the four million population of Australia was in its six largest cities. In order to fight successfully against that tendency, the ideals of the community had to be changed, in addition to attention being paid to technical instruction. The people had to be brought up to recognise that a man who was doing the world's work behind the plough was as good as a citizen with a black coat and a tall hat. Mr. H. HAMEL SMITH, in approaching the subject from the tropical education point of view, thought that one of the best ways of encouraging agriculture was to appreciate fully those who had the teaching of it, and AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 143 to encourage them to move about the world as much as they possibly could. Until the actual places were visited, and the operations carried out were inspected, one could not possibly realise their advantages or dis- advantages. A good deal had been heard lately of the rubber boom out in the East ; and yet from all he could gather, the Directors of the different experimental and botanical stations had experienced a good deal of trouble in visiting each other's plantations in order to find out which was the best method of tapping the rubber trees to extract the rubber, and other interest- ing information connected with the industry. Sea island cotton had been recently well established in the West Indies, owing to the visit of a Government repre- sentative, whose expenses were paid by the Govern- ment. It was important that the teachers should have their information kept up-to-date with regard to technical methods of treating the crops if this nation was to draw its food supplies from the Colonies. One article which was not at all satisfactory in the Colonies at present was cocoa. Whereas the Portuguese islands on the west coast of Africa had increased their crop of cocoa very largely since 1888, if Trinidad and the West Indies had increased their output in a similar proportion, instead of producing 150,000 bags of cocoa last year they would have produced a million. One speaker had said that the farmer required teaching more than the labourer, and his own experience was that the planter ought to be taught first. He had often worked on estates, and found that the men were very willing to learn whatever they could be taught ; but he hardly ever met a man born on the spot, a Creole farmer, who was willing to be taught anything. Lord MONTEAGLE, K.P., D.L. stated that he had been very pleased to hear Sir Horace Plunkett praise the system of nature-study in the primary schools as well as the practical instruction given to the farmer. Al- though he agreed with Dr. Bodington that in one sense it was necessary to begin at the top in agricultural 144 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION education, and that the farmers must be educated, in another sense the foundation must not be neglected, because experience in Ireland had shown that the first difficulty was to interest the farmers at all in the subjects. As Sir Horace had pointed out, the farmer was apt to be very sceptical about the value of science to him at all, and those who had experience with the rising generation of farmers realised that that was the primary difficulty. In order to get the farmers in Ireland interested, the Department of Agriculture employed, in the first instance, instructors to go round and give popular lectures, which, with the aid of demonstration plots, had been very successful. Winter courses of study, established for the sons of farmers at various selected centres in the county, had been most successful in awakening an interest in agri- cultural education, and had been attended with such good results that they were now rapidly spreading through most of the counties in Ireland. In addition, there were agricultural stations in the four provinces which gave a higher course of instruction. He thought the great thing was to interest the farmers in the subject by practical demonstrations and instruction, and also to awaken the interest of the children by nature-study in the primary schools. Mr. FRANK TATE, I.S.O., M.A. (Director of Education, Victoria) thought it would be of advantage if he gave a brief outline of how Victoria had tried to build up something like a co-ordinated scheme of rural educa- tion. He agreed with Sir Horace Plunkett's remark, that the general education of the rural worker had to be attended to as well as his technical education. In Victoria they began, as most people had done, by trying in a vague way to attend to technical educa- tion by establishing an agricultural college, at which the farmers looked askance. Some people who did not want to practise agriculture, but who wanted to teach it, came along and were enrolled as students, but the college was, on the whole, a failure. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 145 A little while ago much greater interest in develop- ing the agricultural industry was manifested, the Agricultural Department of Victoria becoming very active. They sent out bodies of experts to try and infuse a little interest in scientific studies, and in practical ways of doing things, among the farmers. Courses of popular lectures and farmers' classes were held, which undoubtedly had some good effect, but to his mind they were rather like revival meetings, only producing a sensation for the time. Now and then they managed to get one believer into the fold, but the others very soon dropped down to the usual humdrum. In Victoria they believed firmly that the problem of primary rural education must be satisfactorily settled before proper higher technical education could be obtained ; and therefore they had never adopted a system for Crural schools which placed them on a lower plane than the city schools. They insisted that the teachers who went to the rural schools must be as well trained as the teachers in the city schools, and that all the subjects which made for general culture must also be taught, because they believed that the man who had to live his life afterwards in the country must have had a generally diffused education ; he must be able to touch life on many sides, and be a man of fairly broad average culture. In arranging the syllabus, therefore, they determined to make the group of subjects that came under nature work the central subject of the curriculum, by which he did not mean the collecting of specimens and the tabulating of observations, but the attempt to give the children the seeing eye, in order that they could see for themselves and express their opinions. They did not expect that the children in the rural schools would have an elaborate knowledge of botany or entomology, but that they would have an educated attitude towards the facts of life. As by-products of school work, the Government had encouraged the school garden and the experimental plot, where the teacher was able to do his work in a satisfactory way. 10 146 Throughout the whole of Australia, it would be very rare indeed for a visitor to go to a rural school and not see a good school garden. The Government had also established a system of scholarships, so that boys and girls from the primary schools might get scholarships designed to carry on their agricultural education. He had been impressed by a remark made by Dr. Bodington, that in somewhat sparsely populated localities there should be day continuation schools. The Government of Victoria had recently approved of a proposal to establish what were called agricultural high colleges, which were really day continuation schools. They were not, in the true sense of the term, technical schools, but aimed rather at carrying on the general education of the child of the farmer. They aimed not so much at giving him the old high-school or grammar-school education, but rather at carrying on his general education, and at the same time speci- ally directing his attention to those subjects which should be of interest to the farmer, and were connected with the life of the district. A boy who won such a scholarship might go to one of the continuation day schools, or one of the public schools in Victoria, or the large secondary schools if he wished to go on after- wards to the University. He remained in the agri- cultural high school or secondary school for two years, and, if he was ambitious for a technical education, he could go to the agricultural college and get technical agricultural knowledge. If, on the other hand, he went back to his farm he was catered for by the expert of the Agricultural Department. He had attempted to show briefly what they had tried to do in Victoria by attending to the general education of the child in the rural district, to give him as broad and liberal a training as possible. They tried through the medium of nature-study to carry on his education, and if the boy's father could postpone the wage-earning period to sixteen or seventeen, to give him technical education in the agricultural college, or high technical education in a university. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 147 Sir HORACE PLUNKETT, in replying to the discussion, remarked that the speakers had not criticised his paper, but had supplemented it by filling in a great many of the more important omissions. He had been very much interested in Miss Bathurst's contribution on the home-life side of rural education. He entirely agreed with her view that education in domestic economy should, as far as possible, be given under the con- ditions of the life that was intended to be improved. There was one convent in Ireland where the nuns followed out that principle in all their teaching, and their school was one of the very best he had ever seen in his studies of technical education. It was a day school to which the poor children came in from the district around, where they could study almost any subject in connexion with their life that they liked to take up under the most thoroughly competent teachers. The teachers belonged to a Belgian order, and in Belgium, he need not say, a higher training in domestic arts and sciences could be obtained probably than in any other country in Europe. He remembered going into the kitchen and seeing a crowd of girls being taught to cook. The smoke was so dense that he could not keep his eyes open ; but the nuns explained to him that that was part of their system, because they wanted to have all the conditions of home life reproduced in their school. Two of the speakers had given interesting pictures of what had been done for building up rural education in Australia. The great educational movement which produced such wonderful results in the butter trade of Australia was due, not only to education, but also to the organisation of the farmers. In that connexion he desired to say, upon the relation of agricultural co- operation and agricultural education, that there had been a very bitter controversy in Ireland upon the ques- tion as to whether it was legitimate for a branch of the Government to spend public monies in teaching the farmers how to combine together for the better conduct of their business. The view taken was that it was an 148 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION interference with trade, and undoubtedly in individual instances that was so. When farmers combined together, they bought in larger quantities at a lower rate, and consequently those who had been selling smaller quantities at a higher rate might be temporarily injured. But in the long dis- cussion that had taken place upon the subject, which was finally decided by a popular vote in favour of State action, it came out clearly that, in more ad- vanced countries, it was not necessary for the State to devote any public monies to the purpose, because the general education of the country gave that economic sense to the farmers which enabled them to do those things for themselves. It was further held that it was quite wrong in principle for the Government to pay to enable people to make a profit out of which they could very well afford to pay for the cost of organisation. But, on the other hand, it was found by those who were engaged in giving technical instruction, that the giving of such instruction to unorganised farmers was not effective and consequently it was necessary to get the farmers organised. Therefore it was decided that, to bridge over the present difficulty, the monies should be pro- vided out of public funds for the purpose of organising the farmers, and that every means should be taken to try and persuade the farmers, partly by withdrawing the public funds, that they ought to provide the funds themselves. It had been stated that English farmers might take a leaf out of the book of Australia and produce more butter at a shilling a pound ; but the speaker might not be aware that the reason they could not do it was that it took about two and a half gallons of milk to make a pound of butter, and allowing for the cost of the manufacturing process, the sale and so on, even if they obtained fourpence a gallon for their milk and it cost them nothing to make the butter, that would be a miserable price for their milk compared with what they obtained by sending it into the towns. That was AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 149 the reason that more butter was not made in England. It was not from a lack of scientific training in butter- making, but simply because it paid better to sell milk in this country. In Ireland, on the other hand, they had done exactly what had been carried out in Australia. The system of co-operation had been carefully de- veloped, and half of the large export of butter from Ireland came from co-operative creameries, the manage- ment of which was entirely in the hands of the farmers themselves, every penny of the capital having been subscribed by them. Reference had also been made to the way in which a pest in the orange orchards of California had been removed by means of knowledge gained through experiment. There also happened at one time to be another pest in the cotton-growing districts of America known as the boll weevil, a little insect which destroyed the boll in the cotton plant, and without a healthy boll the plant would not grow properly. In dealing with the pest, they applied the well-known treatment of strengthening the health of the crop so that it did something to resist the in- vader. That process involved not only teaching the farmers a far higher system of agriculture, but the necessity of combining together co-operatively for trying all sorts of agricultural experiments. He would not go into details, but the boll weevil proved to be a blessing in disguise. It still did its destructive work to some extent, but the yield of the crop had been enormously increased. In some years the crop almost resisted the attacks of the weevil, and the revenue of the farmers in the cotton-growing districts had been increased by endless additions to their farming operations of a far more profitable nature than the continuous growing of the single crop in which they had formerly indulged. The meeting then terminated. (For other meetings dealing with Technical Education see pages 57, 182, 199, and 225.) OPEN MEETING TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1907. Chairman, THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF ELGIN, K.G., P.C., G.C.S.I., D.C.L., etc., Secretary of State for the Colonies. THE subject for discussion was : THE CONNEXION BETWEEN THE ELE- MENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS (a) in respect of Curricula. (b) in regard to Promotion of Teachers. (c) in respect of Public Administration. The CHAIRMAN, who was received with cheers on rising to open the meeting, said he was very glad to take the Chair, if only in the first place to offer his apology for not being present at the opening meeting of the Conference, which he desired to attend but was at the last moment prevented from so doing by urgent business in Scotland. He was afraid the same reason had prevented him from acquainting himself as fully as he could wish with the Proceedings that had taken place during the sittings of the Conference which had already been held ; but he desired to say how grati- fying it was to him that the invitation, which the organisers of the Conference sent out through the medium of the Colonial Office mail-bag, had been so well responded to from the various parts of the Empire. He believed that the Conference was attended by forty or fifty representatives of the Colonies and other 150 CO-ORDINATION IN EDUCATION 151 Dominions of the Crown beyond the seas, and he could not help thinking that, though they were not sent here on an exactly official mission or with any authority from their Governments to initiate proceedings in consequence, still their presence would be of interest and an advantage to the Conference itself, and that the delegates themselves would be able both to give to others and to take away with them valuable information. He did not think it was intended that he should in any way take upon himself the task of initiating the discussion on the subject which had been put down for the afternoon's meeting, but he desired to be allowed to say a word or two, because it so happened that the particular subject of secondary education was one which occupied a good deal of his time some years ago. It came into prominence about the time when he entered public life, some thirty or more years ago, and attention was directed to it following upon the great Education Acts of 1870 for dealing with elementary education in England and Scotland. He thought it would be within the recollection of those who took part in educational discussions at that time that the establishment of the schools under those Acts for elementary education under public authority almost inevitably directed attention to the provision of secondary education in Great Britain, and he was afraid that the review which was then made showed that in almost all respects it was very unsatisfactory. Dealing alone with Scotland, with which he was him- .self chiefly interested at the time, he thought it was correct to say that the direct provision of secondary schools in Scotland was confined to a very few schools in some of the larger boroughs. The institution of the board-school system, instead of increasing the demand for the establishment of secondary schools, threatened, at the outset at any rate, even to attack those which existed, because there was undoubtedly for some years a feeling that the borough schools were meant to be the contribution 152 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION from the public boroughs for the education of the children within the boroughs to which they belonged, and from his own knowledge it threw obstacles in the way of the extension of the benefits of secondary education to a great number of children. But in speaking of Scotland in the way of secondary education, there was one fact which must never be overlooked, namely, that it was the boast of Scotland that the path of any boy was open from the parish school to the university. That was a system which was of great value in rural districts, and which had very remarkable results in many instances. He thought all would acknowledge that it meant the development in the boy of application, in the student of the university of self-denial and perseverance, and in the teachers a spirit of enthusiasm in their pupils which was highly to be commended and desired. But with a system such as that it would be impossible to deal fairly and adequately with the extension of secondary education which the extension of elementary education involved, and which it was the business of the meeting to consider. He was not going to say how the situation in Scotland had altered, but he thought something had been done to bring about what he believed was the desideratum for the position of secondary education, namely, that it should be in a position properly correlated both to the elementary school below and the university above it. In his judgment, when a system of that kind could be pro- moted and established the most satisfactory results would be obtained, both for the pupils attending the schools and for the teachers who did duty in them. He had made those few remarks in order to demon- strate that he was capable of taking a lively interest in the subject to be discussed. He had no doubt that the delegates from different parts of the Empire would give particulars of their different systems and their rates of progress ; but he humbly submitted that the principle to which he had alluded was one which might usefully be kept in view in any part of the CO-ORDINATION IN EDUCATION 153 world in which it was possible to institute a regular and co-ordinated system of education from the elementary schools to the university. NOVA SCOTIA Dr. A. H. MACKAY (Superintendent of Education in Nova Scotia) stated that he had been asked to give an outline of the Nova Scotian system, which was practically the system in vogue in nearly all the provinces of Canada, and very nearly the same as in the province of New Brunswick. Nova Scotia had a population of about half a million, and a little over a hundred thousand pupils attended school during the year. The school system ran up in a line from the kinder- garten to the university. There were five or six universities all independent and not under Govern- ment control, and New Brunswick had a provincial university to cap the secondary-school system. The primary division of the educational system consisted of an eight years' course of study, succeeded by a four years' course in the high school, followed by the university. At the end of the eighth year of the elementary course, the majority of the pupils were from thirteen to fifteen years of age, and up to that time they pursued the common course of study, in- cluding English, drawing, and freehand, followed in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades by mathematical drawing. A good deal of time was given to arithmetic from the commencement, and the child studied a little algebra, sufficient, if he did not go into the secondary or high-class school, to enable him to interpret formulae in engineering work, and to do simple calculations. History and geography were also important subjects. In Grade 9 the work went on in exactly the same way, the schools being entirely free. There was one school in every county which got a special grant, provided it opened its doors free to every one in the county who 154 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION passed the leaving examination of the common schools, and that was called a county academy. There was there a four years' system, and the student could select his own course, either the classical or the English course, or partly one and partly the other. The course for any particular school was determined by the local demands of the county. The School Board was the principal authority and the inspector was the next ; and if there was any difference of opinion between the teacher of the school and the inspector, an appeal could be made to the Council of Public Instruction. An examination was held at the end of each year in each of the courses ; a certificate of various grades was given, the marks in the various subjects being put in the margin, to the end that if a student went to the university he could present his certificate and show the marks he had gained for a particular subject. By comparing the marks on the certificate with their curriculum the different schools and universities could accept or reject the certificate and place him in his class without the trouble of another examination. With regard to the promotion of teachers, there were teachers with scholarships D, C, B, and A. For a high class a teacher must pass the A standard, which was more difficult than the ordinary graduation at the universities, but a teacher was now treated in every respect the same in the primary schools as in the high-class schools. THE CAPE COLONY The Hon. THOS. Mum, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S. (Superintendent-General of Education in Cape Colony) sketched out the system of elementary, secondary, and university education in the Cape of Good Hope. Their system was the natural growth out of a previous system, originally consisting of a series of purely elementary schools called first-, second-, and third-class schools. As that system developed and the population CO-ORDINATION IN EDUCATION 155 of the country increased, and administrators from the Central Office became a little bit more influential, it was found desirable that they should select from the large number of elementary schools a certain number that should be called high schools with the object of doing work leading straight to the university. Seven or eight years ago they succeeded in instituting throughout the Colony between thirty and forty high schools specifically so called. The interesting point in connexion with the system, therefore, was that the curriculum of the elementary schools was closely asso- ciated with the curriculum of the high schools. Cape Colony differed in this respect from England, where the curricula were perfectly independent of each other. Sixteen years ago there were in the Cape elementary schools seven standards corresponding roughly to the seven standards of the elementary code in England. When the high schools were started they determined that Standard 5 or its equivalent must have been passed by any pupil who entered on the high-school course, which therefore in a measure began with Stan- dard 6 or its equivalent. The high-school course was a course of four years, and the standards, instead of being numbered, were called A, B, C, and D. The final standard was the passing of the matriculation in the Cape University. The system was a short and simple one, and, so far as their experience went, it had worked fairly well. If a pupil had not been in one of the elementary schools, and could not present a certificate as having passed Standard 5, the principal of the high school examined the pupil and placed him according to the result. Admission to the colleges was obtained by a certificate of having passed the matriculation examina- tion of the Cape University. The university was founded originally on the model of the old University of London, which all educationists were glad to say had gone, and they hoped that the people of the Cape were going to take another step in the same direction as London by having a teaching university. As to the 156 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION promotion of the elementary school teacher to the secondary school, he would say that the teachers in the high schools at the Cape were prepared specially for the high schools, but they had recently instituted a system of scholarships whereby the teacher who had ambition to proceed from an elementary school to a high school could attend a college and a training school and qualify for a certificate entitling him or her to teach in a high school. All the educational institutions were administered by one Department, that of Public Instruction. The consequence of that was that they had the supervision of the child from the earliest stages up to the university. The system in Cape Colony had been one of steady growth towards the policy of making it possible for any boy in a country school to get a bursary so as to enable him to go to the high school of the district and so make his way to the university. They hoped that the school boards which had recently been formed would keep that steadily in view, so that all the ability in the country, no matter in what grade of society it might be found moving, might have its reward. NEW ZEALAND Mr. GEORGE HOGBEN, M.A. (Inspector-General of Schools, New Zealand) thought the most profitable thing he could do was to describe in brief what had been done in New Zealand in the direction of the co-ordination of the various branches of education, primary, secondary (including technical) and univer- sity. New Zealand had had for a very long time a system of public instruction, which had grown out of that originally founded, which dealt principally with primary education. The steps which had been made within the last seven or eight years had been so funda- mental, so far as they affected the co-ordination of the different parts of education, that he thought they deserved especial notice. With the exception of those made last year they were all carried out under the CO-ORDINATION IN EDUCATION 157 premiership of the late Rt. Hon. John Seddon.to whom New Zealand owed so much. They were glad to think he lived long enough to complete what they thought was almost a national system of education. New Zealand realised that, though they thought they had almost solved the question of the co-ordina- tion of the different parts of the educational system, the problems were very much simpler than in the older countries of the world. So many of the disturbing elements were absent in New Zealand, that it would have been almost a reproach if some solution of the kind had not been found. There were twenty-nine secondary schools, strictly so called, in New Zealand which filled up the gap between the primary school and the university. Two of them were denominational schools, and the other twenty-seven derived much help from endowments made by founders. The endowments were of two kinds they were either particular endow- ments belonging to the particular school, or provincial endowments divided among the several secondary schools in proportion to the number of pupils. All the schools, whether receiving a particular en- dowment or not, were entitled to general provincial endowments. All the schools had separate governing bodies. It was now easy to found high schools in New Zealand, because since 1903 if sixty parents declared that they would send their children to a high school the Government was bound to take that into consideration, and generally if there were a hundred a new high school was founded. Two new schools had been founded under that Act, and during the present year they anticipated that another would be established. All the schools, including the denominational schools, were subject to inspection, and must offer either scholarships equal to one-fifth of their net annual income derived from their endowments, or give free places to pupils under Government Regulations. Twenty-six out of the twenty-seven had elected to give free places, i.e. admit pupils free. Subsidies were given to the schools for the free pupils they admitted, varying from 4 to 158 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION 10 155. a head, almost inversely proportional to the endowment. There were six secondary schools for Maoris, which were not public schools, although four of them had received Crown grants of land. They were under denominational management, and it was not pro- posed to interfere with them because it was obvious that the religious question assumed a different form compared with European religion. 20 a year was given for each free Maori sent to the schools by the Government. There were also sixty-one district high schools which contained two departments : first, the primary department, corresponding in every respect to the primary department of a primary school ; and, secondly, the secondary department, under a separate staff in separate rooms, but under the same head master. There were a large number of small country towns in New Zealand where pupils who required secondary instruction, and where it would not be econo- mical to establish separate high schools, could obtain just as good secondary instruction from the secondary department of the district high schools. That idea was taken from the old Scotch parochial schools, and it enabled them to carry free secondary education into the country districts. To be admitted to the secondary school, the pupil must have gained a certificate of competency in the subjects of the Fifth Standard, corresponding very nearly to a good Fifth Standard pass in England ; and to gain a free pass he must obtain a good pass in the subjects of the Sixth Standard for two years. The student could have his free place continued in the secondary school up to nineteen years of age. There were nearly six thousand such free places in New Zealand this year, with a total population of 940,000. Included among that number were 500 bursaries, most of which gave maintenance-money in addition to the free places, which enabled country pupils who could not go to a district high school to maintain them- selves, or to be maintained as boarders, at the great CO-ORDINATION IN EDUCATION 159 high schools. Every pupil in the Colony, therefore, could get free secondary education up to the age of nineteen if he showed he was qualified for it. The last step which was carried out was the giving of free university education to a certain number. Forty-two entrance scholarships to the University, tenable at any one of the four University Colleges which the successful student chose, were offered each year. The colleges were not resident colleges, but teaching colleges. In addition to the university scholarships, every student who, in the scholarship examination of the university, gained what was called " credit " was entitled to the payment of fees at the University College up to 20 a year. 12 was the average amount of the university fees, so that it paid all, except the fee for the medical course, which amounted to just over 40. The present Minister had established Research, Travel, and Higher Technical scholarships, which carried on the post-graduate course. DISCUSSION Mrs. BRIDGES ADAMS remarked that she could see no sympathy whatever between the democracy of this country and the present Conference and those who had already spoken ; but it might be of advantage if she informed the delegates that the working classes in this country had a very definite policy with regard to secondary and technical education. This was that it should be within the reach of every child, and that it should be provided by the State. They needed a broad highway up which all the children of the nation could go. They therefore wanted a non-competitive system of maintenance scholarships, which would bring the scholarships within the reach of every child capable of benefiting by secondary and technical education. The Labour Party intended to make a deliberate attack upon the great educational endowments of the country. In England, Scotland, and Ireland there were a large number of very valuable 160 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION foundations at the universities and in the great grammar schools, which were intended originally for the children of the poor. They intended also to insist upon a system of individual medical inspection, so that when a child of thirteen or thereabouts was sent into a factory the health record of that child would be kept and they would be able to say that it was inconsistent with patriotism to send such children into the factories. They were not going to allow children to be taught in the starving and underfed condition in which they were being taught, even to-day, in the schools of London. Mr. H. R. BEASLEY (Private Schools Association) remarked that those people who had established schools at their own cost, with no endowments or Government grants, were as thoroughly in earnest as any socialist democratic federation. Every subject on the programme of the Conference related more or less to State-fed and bounty-fed education, no mention being made of education outside the State-regulated schools. The Royal Commission which sat on Secondary Education in this country reported that, if education was to make the Empire what they desired, it must not be stereotyped, but that there must be varieties of schools and teaching. The way to do that was not to demand free primary, secondary, technical, and university education for everybody, because not two per cent, of the children in elementary schools would be able to benefit by a full secondary-school course ; and the bulk of students did not go through a four years' course of secondary education. While every one was calling for more money to be spent from public funds on education, they were likely to see a great injustice done to the men and women who had taken upon themselves to supply that education at a time when no Government thought it its duty to do so. Were the people who had invested their money in private schools to be ruined by being undersold by a system of municipal and county CO-ORDINATION IN EDUCATION 161 secondary schools ? There was no " live and let live " in a system which wished for the establishment of free secondary schools all over the country, irrespective of the existing conditions. More than 50 per cent, of the secondary education of the country was given in private schools ; and he asked the Conference to con- sider whether it was in the best interests of education that they should be undersold by any national system of secondary schools. Mr. E. S. MORTIMER (National Association of Head Teachers) said that many of the educational endow- ments which were now helping the middle classes to receive their education undoubtedly belonged to a class which now had to seek, by means of public grants, the money which should be put at their service. There was a great difference between the meaning of primary and secondary education in the English and Colonial point of view. The Colonials read secondary education in the right spirit, namely, that it was education not of class, but of degree. Miss CHATER, as the principal of a large private school, agreed with the remarks Mr. Beasley made, but also stated that in the cause of education she would not grudge any one having the right of free education, as they had in the United States. The child was the citizen of the future ; and if good citizens of the Empire were to be created, the children must be given as good an education as they could possibly receive to fit them for their work in life. Mr. THOMAS FOSTER (University College, Bristol), in referring to the question of the promotion of teachers from the primary to secondary schools, said that one of the difficulties they had got over was the idea that there was a line of social demarcation between the primary and secondary teacher. He did not think that was a true differentiation between the two classes at present, and, so far as it affected the question, it was a factor which would rapidly decrease. It was not a line of social demarcation, but of tradition and training. ii 162 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION The great difficulty with regard to the promotion of young primary teachers to secondary teachers lay in the fact that they had not been adequately trained in academic work, and that their information was not sufficiently wide or specialised in the ordinary subjects in which they would have to give instruction in a secondary school. Another difficulty was the fact that the training desirable for a secondary teacher was different from that desirable for a primary teacher, and in his opinion the question could not be solved in England by anything but a more thorough academic and professional pre- paration of the teacher. Mr. CARTER (Sydney, Australia) thought that the means of progression from the primary to the high school could easily be supplied by means of the bursary, and stated that this system had worked well in New Zealand, many of the bursary boys having become leading lights of the State. A Commission which came over from Australia to study the educational problem came to the conclusion that there was nothing to be learned from the English system, and that if anything was to be done it must be by following the French or German systems. It therefore behoved the Con- ference to take in hand the co-ordination of English education on a European basis. He urged the formation of an Imperial Council of Education which could from time to time take into consideration all suggested schemes, and to which the Colonies could apply for information on the subject. If some such Imperial Council of Education could be formed, it would be a practical outcome of the Con- ference, and would be of real help to every part of the Empire. The meeting then terminated. THURSDAY, MAY 30, 1907. Chairman, SIR ARTHUR RUCKER, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., Principal of the University of London. THE subject for discussion was the paper (q.v. p. 95) which had been read at the Full General Conference that morning by the Principal of King's College, London (Rev. A. C. Headlam, D.D., M.A.) entitled : UNIVERSITIES AND THE EMPIRE Professor SONNENSCHEIN, D.Litt. (Classical Associa- tion) said he had long felt a mistake had been made by the too-exclusive policy on the part of universities in the giving of their degrees. They seemed to him to have been too much inclined to treat graduates of other universities as somewhat on the footing of under- graduates, and to put them through a course of training which was suitable for undergraduates. In propor- tion as the newer universities developed, it appeared to him that such a course of training would become less and less suitable to graduates of any university. If they wanted to pursue their studies at any other university, they would expect to go through something other than a course of undergraduate study. He remembered the regret which was expressed to him in America years ago by some university people, that England had lost the opportunity of providing higher education for Americans by exercising that policy. If an American graduate came to an English university, 163 164 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION he was expected to go through the undergraduate course, and he felt it to be a waste of time. The result had been that Americans did not come to Great Britain for education, but had made their homes in Germany, so that work which might have been thoroughly accomplished by the older English uni- versities had gone into other hands. The simplest solution of the question at first sight seemed a system of ad eundem degrees i.e. the ad- mission of graduates of any one university in the British Empire to the corresponding degrees of another university. The system which held, he believed, be- tween Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin might be ex- tended to other universities. But he thought the difficulties surrounding a system of ad eundem degrees were to a very great extent insuperable, in spite of what had been heard from the Vice-Chancellor of Glasgow, to the effect that the difficulties had been largely over- come, even in so difficult a matter as medicine. There seemed to be another solution of the matter, quite apart from ad eundem degrees, and not involving the difficulties of them, namely, the way which had been pointed out by the newer universities of Great Britain. Dr. BODINGTON (Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Uni- versity) expressed his complete concurrence with all the leading principles laid down in Dr. Headlam's paper. He sympathised with his ideal of the uni- versity, and his view that the relation between seats of learning in the Empire and throughout the world should be a free co-operation, and not one based in any way on mechanical arrangements. There was one portion of the address with which he found himself not in equal agreement. Principal Headlam con- demned in no uncertain terms the Federal University, but he thought the split in the Victoria University could not fairly be quoted as a condemnation of the Federal system, and in saying that he was speaking with the full concurrence of the Vice-Chancellor of Manchester. The break-up of the Federal University had left three UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 165 universities which were united by ties of amity, by which he could not think they would have been united if they had started as three separate bodies. Principal Headlam had suggested that, in order to facilitate co- operation among universities, they should accept one another's entrance examinations. Personally he trusted that would be done increasingly, but it was necessary to remember that it was not a simple matter, because directly it was put into effect it gave the students who came to a university the choice whether they would go in for its own examination or an examination of the other university. If there was any essential difference of standard between the two examinations, the students would flock to the easier one. Dr. Parkin's suggestion that there should be some means of diffusing, amongst the universities of the world, information as to the character of the examina- tions obtaining in each would be of great practical help to those who were at present working the uni- versity system. Sir GILBERT PARKER, M.P. remarked that four years ago he gathered together the first Imperial Uni- versities Conference that had been held in the course of the history of the Empire. A resolution was passed to the effect " that in the opinion of this Conference it is desirable that such relations should be established between the principal teaching universities of the Empire as will secure that special or local advantages for study, and in particular for post-graduate study and research, be made as accessible as possible to students from all parts of the King's dominions." A Council was formed, consisting of some of the most distin- guished names in the world of science, education, literature, and history, and it might be well asked what had been done. He admitted that, from circumstances over which he had no control, out of the Council to which he had referred nothing definite had yet come. He was practically the organising secretary, and an organising secretary must have time and money. He found it 166 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION was absolutely impossible for him to develop the practical side of the work, i.e. the establishment of a Bureau for the distribution of information concerning university work throughout the Empire. That was undoubtedly the first practical step which should be taken, so that any student coming from any part of the Empire desiring to have information concerning any university could obtain it without difficulty. If the present Conference could arrange for the establish- ment of such a Bureau it would be well worth the Conference having met. Sir PHILIP SYDNEY JONES, M.D. (University of Sydney) stated that the ideals laid down by Dr. Headlam were, in a large measure, fulfilled by Sydney University. The Principal had said that a university should have a self-governing body founded by the Crown, visited if necessary by the Crown, but managing its own affairs, free from the supervision of any Govern- ment Department. The University of Sydney stood in exactly that position. The University of Sydney was extremely liberal on the question of co-operation with other universities, accepting the undergraduates of other universities ad eundem gradum, provided they could give sufficient evidence of their alleged status and good conduct. They also admitted graduates of other universities ad eundem gradum, provided they gave sufficient evidence of their degrees and good fame and character. It might be said that the Sydney University afforded such facilities owing to the fact that its standard was not very high, but that was disproved by the eminent men who had passed through the university. More- over, undergraduates from the Sydney University who had failed to pass its examinations had come over to the Old Country and succeeded in passing similar examinations at other universities. What he had said about Sydney applied also with slight modifications to other universities in the Commonwealth Melbourne, Adelaide, and Tasmania. He thought Dr. Parkin's suggestion for the establishment of a Bureau and UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 167 Secretariat for the interchange of information from universities throughout the Empire would be a great step forward in the way of reciprocity between the universities. The VICE-CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Dr. T. H. Warren, President of Magdalen College) alluded to the sentence in Dr. Headlam's paper which said, " Each university should consider how far it is possible or desirable to recognise courses in other universities as part of its curriculum, but normally it is probably better that the whole of the student's ordinary course should be spent in one university." Oxford had been, and was at the present moment, considering how far it was possible to re- cognise courses in other universities and colleges. They were doing everything they could to recognise definite courses, degrees, honours, and diplomas which had been obtained by students at other universities, whether colonial, English, continental, or foreign. Oxford had gone a long way in that direction, and he thought it would go still further ; but, still, Oxford, and he had no doubt Cambridge, felt that what Dr. Headlam said in that sentence was of great importance. He hoped the delegates who would visit Oxford would appreciate that what was called the atmosphere of a university like Oxford or Cambridge was a very large part of its instruction and influence, as was also the result of intercourse, the give and take, between students residing there for a considerable time. It was really necessary that a student should spend a considerable time at the university. The student who had spent a long time at another university might come with great advantage and satisfaction to Oxford or Cambridge for some specific purpose to hear some distinguished Professor, to follow some particular course, or to take a diploma or some advanced post- graduate work ; but if they were to get the ordinary normal course which Dr. Headlam stated, then he thought they must spend some considerable time at the university. 168 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION In regard to the Rhodes Scholars, Oxford had laid down the rule that they must spend not less than two years ; it was not thought to be fair either to them or to Oxford to ask them to come for a less period. The migration of Professors was a more easy matter, and he hoped to see that very much developed. He was sure there could be nothing better than that Oxford, Cambridge, and other universities should have visits from Professors of eminence in their own par- ticular subject who could speak with special know- ledge, eloquence, and authority on that subject, who could impart a fresh impulse to the students, and who would also perhaps be themselves stimulated by lectur- ing to a fresh audience. Nothing could be better than that home teachers should go to the Colonies, and Colonial teachers should come to England. With regard to the migration of students, however, he wished to emphasise the point that while universities should give every opportunity, they should not develop too much of the migratory and butterfly spirit among the students. Professor W. L. GRANT, M.A. (Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia) said he wished especially to speak with regard to what he considered the misleading impression left by Dr. Sonnenschein. The doctor had said that a great many Americans had passed by Oxford because they were compelled to take the undergraduate course. The reason they were compelled to take the under- graduate course was because they were fit for nothing else. He fancied that a great many Colonials and Americans who came over with exalted ideas of the research work they were going to do found that they got a much better training by going through that ordinary undergraduate course. It was not perhaps generally known that Colonial students at present were given preferential treatment at Oxford. At present any Colonial student be- longing to a recognised Colonial university, having done a certain amount of work in that university, was allowed to begin not at the beginning, but a certain UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 169 way along his course ; but a great many and he thought it was greatly to their credit found that they were not good enough to begin that certain way along, and therefore began at the beginning. It was quite misleading to say that Oxford shut its doors or did not give adequate facilities to Colonials. No doubt Oxford or any other university was not perfect ; if it was it would not be half as interesting, but he thought more might be done in certain direc- tions. For instance, he thought that the Oxford School of Medicine might be made much more purely post-graduate ; and in other ways changes might be made. He felt as a Colonial bred and born, and one who had studied for four years at Oxford, that Dr. Sonnenschein had left a misleading impression when he spoke of the welcome given by Oxford to Colonials and Americans in terms which one could describe as step-motherly. Professor SONNENSCHEIN said he did not intend to say the reception given to Colonials was step-motherly, but he did think that a Bachelor's Degree was not a sufficient recognition for advanced study, coming on the top of the Colonial Degree ; and the Bachelor's Degree was all that the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge or any of the Scottish universities were at present in a position to offer. Dr. GREGORY FOSTER (Provost of University College, London) said that Sir Gilbert Parker seemed rather to suggest that the great inter-University Conference of some four years ago had had no practical results. He (Dr. Foster) admitted that the practical result of a Bureau, which was a doubtful blessing, had not arrived, but the practical result of a steadily increasing flow of Colonial students to this country had. He could testify from his own knowledge in his own college that since that Conference, mainly through the personal friendships that were then formed, not through any Bureau the number of Colonial students coming to this country was steadily increasing. At University College, for example, they had had last year 170 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION no less than eighty Colonial students, half of that number being undergraduates. At the University of London some twenty students were doing post-gradu- ate work, and the remainder were doing special pieces of work. There was no doubt that from that Conference results were being obtained the good of which it was difficult to measure. He would be the last to say anything in disparage- ment of research work, but at the same time at the present stage he thought one should enter a caveat against certain dangers in regard to research work that were very obvious to those who were immediately connected with that work. One of those dangers was the beginning of such work before the student was fit to do it. The second danger was that research was getting organised outside the universities. Separate research institutions were being organised, and there was a conception growing up that it was a thing more or less apart from regular university work. That was a most disastrous state of things, and he hoped their Colonial brethren would not allow it to grow up in the Colonies. The best research work could only be done when it was done in close contact with the undergraduate work. A third danger in research development was that the higher degrees at present given for research were of the most various in meaning. It was extremely difficult at the present time to have any clear notion as to what a research degree at the various universities meant. It was of course undesirable to attempt any hard-and-fast uniformity, but it seemed to him that there was a far graver danger there than in regard to the various standards of the entrance examination that had been referred to : the mistake that might be made by admitting a man through an easier entrance examination, if a mistake was made, was discovered in the course of that man's first year's work ; but in the case of research work it took very much longer to discover that mistake and it was very much more difficult to get the real value of his work than it was UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 171 with the undergraduate. He therefore felt that, valuable as the post-graduate research work was, it was one that required the utmost care in its adminis- tration. Professor FuzJoHN TRENCH, M.A. (Queen's College, Galway) said that the system in Ireland represented pretty nearly all that it should not be. He had listened that morning to the remarks made with regard to the lines of work on the part of free and independent uni- versities, the possibility of their co-operation, and so forth, with envy, because they in Ireland had a State- constructed and a State-supported system which had been mechanically imposed upon them from without, so that there was no possibility of organic development from within. It worked like a machine, and the seed of life was wanting. The possibility of developments in local requirements was wholly absent, and he would just give one example of that. Celtic studies had become of importance during the last few years that was to say, it had been recognised in the English and Continental universities. Galway was so situated in the most Celtic part of the world that it might be held to be the very centre of Celtic studies. But the student who was anxious to specialise in Celtic went to Germany and studied there. Lectures in Celtic were delivered at Manchester Uni- versity and in the Continental universities ; but in colleges in Galway, in the very centre of, one might say, Celtic life, there were no facilities for Celtic studies at all. That was one result of having been given a cast-iron system which there was no possibility of modifying. They in Ireland had something totally different from what Dr. Headlam had set forth as the ideal of a univer- sity, and therefore the way in which university work was being carried on in Ireland was very different indeed. The difficulties were in part due, of course, to ancient history, but also partly to much more modern history, to repeated experiments made in the nineteenth century by successive Governments to settle 172 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION purely academic questions in a purely political spirit. In the first place they had a Federal University given to them in 1849. That lasted until the 'eighties, when the Crown took it away and gave instead a university which was not a university at all, being an examin- ing body pure and simple. Those conditions which Dr. Headlam had set forth as being so desirable for a university wer,e lacking in Ireland. What they wanted was a system on purely academic lines. The CHAIRMAN in closing the discussion thought the meeting might congratulate itself on having had a very interesting discussion. He would not attempt to sum up the result of the discussion, but the impression left on his mind was that with regard to the question of co-operation of universities, they were not so bad as they were painted. There was no doubt that the means of access from one university to another were much greater than formerly, and that facilities were much more easily given than had been the case in the past. With regard to the dissemination of information, a good deal was already being done by the exchange of University Calendars and in other ways. Whether it was necessary to establish a great organisa- tion in this connexion was, he thought, a little doubtful. He, however, suggested the advisability of forming a little Conference composed of representatives from the universities within the British Islands to discuss the best means of disseminating information between themselves and the Colonial universities ; and the Conference could ask the Colonial universities in return to send any information they could supply. If that suggestion commended itself to the meeting he thought the following resolution might be the most practical result of that afternoon's gathering : " That it is desirable that a Committee representing universities should be formed which should investigate the question whether it is possible to facilitate the exchange of in- formation as to their different courses and standards between the universities of the Empire, and to take action accordingly." UNIVERSITY CO-OPERATION 173 Mr. S. H. BUTCHER, M.P., seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously. I The following resolution was also moved and seconded : " That in the opinion of this Conference it is desirable that a paper on Colonial History should form part of the modern history school or tripos of every university in the British Empire." Some exception was taken to this by certain dele- gates owing to there being no time for discussion. The CHAIRMAN suggested the best course would be to postpone the motion until the following day. The meeting then terminated. (For other meetings dealing with Universities see pages 8 1 and 94.) OPEN MEETING FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1907. Chairman, PROFESSOR J. B. BURY, Litt.D., LL.D., D.Litt. (Regius Professor of Modern History, Cambridge) . THE subject for discussion was : THE PLACE OF HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY IN EDUCATION The full report will be found under the heading " Full General Conference " on page 105. 174 SECTIONAL MEETINGS Hon. Secretary, Mr. BASIL WILLIAMS, M.A. SECTIONAL Meetings were held on the following sub- jects : UNIVERSITY SECTION Chairman, Sir ARTHUR RUCKER. Hon. Secretary, The Hon. HENRY LYGON Date. Subject. Thurs., May 30. ... Universities and the Empire. (See page 178.) HISTORY SECTION Chairman, Professor BURY. Hon Secretary, Mr. R. D. BELOE. Date. Subject. Fri., May 31. ... The Place of History and Geography in Education. (See page 180.) TECHNICAL EDUCATION SECTION Chairman, Sir PHILIP MAGNUS. Hon. Secretary, Dr. R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY. Date. Subject. Mon., May 27. Agricultural Education. (See page 181.) (afternoon) Mon., May 27. ... Technical Education in the United Kingdom, (evening) (See page 182.) 176 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Date. Subject. Tues., May 28. ... Technical Education in Canada, Australia, and S. Africa. (See page 199.) Wed., May 29. Technical Training in Home Office Schools. Technical Training in the U.K., and its Re- lation to the Needs of the Colonies. Systematic Courses in Evening Classes. (See page 225.) "TRAINING OF TEACHERS " SECTION Chairman, Rev. Canon G. C. BELL. Hon. Secretary, Mr. T. S. FOSTER. Date. Subject. Tues., May 28. ... The Organisation and Equipment of a Practising School. A Syllabus of Instruction in the Duties of a Citizen. (See page 243.) Wed., May 29. ... The Relation between the Professional and General Education of the Future Teacher. The Training of Teachers in Methods of Physical Development. (See page 259.) MUSEUM SECTION Chairman, Lieut. -Col. PLUNKETT. Hon. Secretary, Miss BE ALES. Date. Subject. Mon., May 27. The Formation and the Interchange of School Collections. (See page 273.) Wed., May 29. ... The Circulating Museum. A Permanent Central Museum. (See page 286.) NATURE-STUDY SECTION Chairman, The Hon. Sir JOHN COCKBURN. Hon. Secretary, Mr. WILFRED MARK WEBB. Date. Subject. Tues., May 28. ... Nature Study versus Elementary Science. (See page 296.) Wed., May 29. .. Nature Study as a Means of Culture. (See page 314.) SECTIONAL MEETINGS 177 "TEACHING OF ENGLISH'* SECTION Chairman, Professor SAINTSBURY. Hon. Secretary, Mr. ERNEST YOUNG. Date. Subject. Sat., May 25. ... The Teaching of English in Public Schools. The Teaching of English to non-English- speaking children in the Colonies. (See page 325.) Wed., May 29. ... The Place of the Mother Tongue in National Education. The Use and Abuse of the Fairy Tale in the Teaching of English Literature. (See page 340.) 12 UNIVERSITY SECTION THURSDAY, MAY 30, 1907. Chairman, SIR ARTHUR RUCKER, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S. (Principal of the University of London). Hon. Secretary, THE HON. HENRY LYGON, B.A., L.C.C. 10 a.m. SECTIONAL Meeting in the Central Hall, the Principal of the London University in the chair. Proposed and carried nem. con. : " That this Section desires to express its sympathy with the Vancouver College in the severe loss which that college has suffered by the loss of its Principal." Proposed and carried nem. con. : " That this section desires to express its sympathy with the McGill University, Montreal, in the blow sustained by the University in April last in the destruc- tion, by fire, of certain of its buildings." 12 noon. Full Conference of representatives and delegates in the Central Hall, the Principal of London University in the chair. Paper read by the Principal of King's College, London, on " Universities and the Empire." Discussion on Principal HEADLAM'S paper. Speakers : The Rt. Hon. A. J. BALFOUR, M.P. (Chan- cellor of Edinburgh University), Dr. G. R. PARKIN, C.M.G., The Vice-Chancellor of the University of 178 UNIVERSITY SECTION 179 Manchester, The Director of Special Inquiries and Reports (Board of Education). (A full report of this meeting will be found under the heading " Full General Conference " : see page 94.) 3 p.m. Open Meeting of the University Section in the Central Hall, the Principal of London University in the chair. Discussion on Principal HEADLAM'S paper continued. Speakers : Dr. SONNENSCHEIN, The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, Sir GILBERT PARKER, M.P., Sir PHILIP SYDNEY JONES, M.D., The Vice-Chan- cellor of Oxford University, Professor W. L. GRANT (Beit Reader in Colonial History at Oxford), The Pro- vost of University College, London, Professor TRENCH, and the Chairman. Resolution proposed by the Chairman and seconded by Mr. S. H. BUTCHER, M.P., Chairman of the Federal Conference on Education : " That it is desirable that a Committee representing universities should be formed to investigate the ques- tion whether it is possible to facilitate the exchange of information as to their courses and standards between the universities of the Empire, and to take action accordingly." Resolution carried nem. con. 4.45 p.m. Resolution proposed by Dr. G. R. PARKIN, C.M.G., and seconded by the Chief Superintendent of Education, New Brunswick : " That iij the opinion of this Conference, it is desirable that a paper on Colonial History should form part of the Modern History School or Tripos of every uni- versity in the British Empire." Resolution supported by Professor A. F. POLLARD and opposed by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds. Resolution, by leave, withdrawn. (A full report of this meeting will be found under the heading " Open Meetings " : see page 163.) HISTORY SECTION FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1907. Chairman, PROFESSOR J . B. BURY, Litt.D., LL.D., D.Litt. Hon. Secretary, MR. R. D. BELOE, M.A. 12-1.45. OPEN Conference. Address by Professor BURY. Explanation of the Scheme of the League of the Empire History Textbooks, by Mr. THOS. H. MONK. Paper on " The Place of History in Secondary Schools," by Mr. R. SOMERVELL, M.A. Address on " The Place of History in Education," by Mr. H. A. L. FISHER, M.A. Address on " The Place of Geography in Education in relation to Civic Responsibility within the Empire," by Mr. H. J. MACKINDER, M.A. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the Chairman. (A full report of this meeting will be found under the heading " Full General Conference" : see page 105.) 180 TECHNICAL EDUCATION SECTION MONDAY, MAY 27, 1907. Chairman, SIR PHILIP MAGNUS, B.Sc., M.P. Hon. Secretary, DR. R.MULLINEUX WALMSLEY, Principal of the Northampton Polytechnic Institute. SIR PHILIP MAGNUS, M.P., took the chair and delivered an introductory address. The Right Hon. Sir HORACE PLUNKETT, P.C., K.C.V.O., F.R.S. opened a discussion on "Agri- cultural Education " by reading an address. The discussion was continued by Dr. N. BODINGTON (Vice-Chancellor, University of Leeds) ; Miss K. BATHURST, of Oxford ; Mr. WEST, of Victoria ; Mr. H. HAMEL SMITH ; Lord MONTEAGLE ; Mr. FRANK TATE, of Victoria. Sir HORACE PLUNKETT replied, and the meeting was concluded by some remarks from the Chairman. (A full report of this meeting will be found under the heading "Open Meetings" : see page 128.) 181 TECHNICAL EDUCATION SECTION MONDAY, MAY 27, 1907. AT the opening of the meeting the chair was occupied by Sir Philip Magnus, M.P., who explained that a Departmental Committee on Agricultural Education was sitting under the chairmanship of Lord Reay, and that that Committee would welcome evidence from any Colonial members of the Conference who were in England. Lieut. -Colonel G. T. PLUNKETT, C.B., R.E. (Director of the Science and Art Museum, Dublin) then took the chair, and the following papers were read : THE ORGANISATION OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN A LARGE PROVINCIAL CENTRE Abstract of paper read by Professor WALTER M. GARDNER, M.Sc., F.C.S., Principal of the Bradford Technical College. Technical education differs from general education in that the latter is concerned less with the subject dealt with than with its presentation in such a manner that the maximum educational value is secured, the choice of subject being thus unlimited. In technical education, on the other hand, the object should be to inculcate proper methods of work and habits of thought 182 TECHNICAL EDUCATION 183 while imparting specialised information with regard to some particular industry ; and to a considerable extent the subject must dominate the teaching. It cannot, however, be too strongly insisted upon that while in many industries technical schools must now provide a substitute for the old apprenticeship system, they will fail in their true function whenever attempts are made merely to give instruction in trade processes or of the nature of trade receipts or empirical methods. Their work should consist of systematic instruction in the sciences underlying the particular industries, and in the nature of the raw materials and processes concerned, followed in the higher branches by investigation bearing upon the industry. To prevent confusion of thought and aim, two aspects of technical education should be distinguished. There is, firstly, the object of so training the student that by special ability or application to his work he may gradually rise to a superior position. This may be termed the philanthropic aspect, and chiefly concerns the individual. Then there is the more utilitarian question of direct benefit to a particular industry by supplying a sufficient number of properly trained operatives and leaders, and also by the introduction of new or improved processes as the result of what may be termed " trade research." The technical education in any centre should b.e so organised as to provide for both these objects, the necessary arrange- ments for which, indeed, overlap to a considerable degree. It is impossible to lay down any general lines for the organisation of technical instruction in different dis- tricts. The state of development of various industries is very different indeed, the growth of science having affected some fundamentally and others to a much less extent. Each centre must, therefore, be treated quite independently. It will usually be found that in any given district a comparatively few industries largely predominate, and these, of course, should be the first consideration. In Bradford, for example, the 184 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION worsted branch of the textile industry is the staple trade of the city and district. Associated with this is found a great concentration of the dyeing industry, which has within recent years developed along very scientific lines. Both mechanical and -electrical en- gineering are also of considerable importance, and are rapidly extending. All other industries are of minor importance in the Bradford district, and hence the work of the Technical College is concentrated into three departments, dealing respectively with the textile industries, the chemical industries (including dyeing), and with engineering. Without the sympathy and help of the employers and the workmen it is impossible to deal successfully with the needs of any industry, and the success of a technical institution largely depends on its close connection with the local trade organisations, both of masters and of men, as well as with the Chamber of Commerce and individual employers. As one example of a useful outcome of such association, it may be mentioned that in Bradford the local branch of the Engineering Employers' Federation send a selected number of their apprentices to the College for two half-days and two evenings per week, and recognise their College work by the more rapid advancement in the works of those who are most successful in their studies. A certain- number of apprentices are also indentured to the College for three years, which time is recognised by the employers when these apprentices subsequently enter the works. In connection with the textile trades it has already been mentioned that the worsted trade is chiefly carried on in Bradford, whereas the distinct branch of woollen manufacture is centred more largely in Leeds, and the cotton branch in Manchester ; the manufacture of silk goods being rather dispersed, but to some extent centred in Macclesfield and Leek. This distribution of the textile trade must be recognised in any satis- factory organisation of technical education in this great industry, and much would be gained if the TECHNICAL EDUCATION 185 authorities in all the districts concerned would mutually agree upon some general scheme. This general idea is applicable to the various branches of very many industries. In devising courses of technical instruction it must be recognised that while it is for the general benefit of any industry that all grades of workers in the in- dustry should have a proper training, the number of men who can eventually attain to leading positions is strictly limited, both by aptitude and opportunity. The training necessary for such superior positions obviously differs from that required for the lower grades. At Bradford those students who are capable of attaining to the higher positions attend the College for three or four complete sessions and work for the College diploma, to obtain which a very high standard of work is required ; and only some half-dozen per year out of the 270 day students receive this distinction. Many more of the day students also remain three years, but their work is not of such a high standard. It must be recognised, however, that the real solution of the difficulty of dealing with the two classes of students will only be attained by the provision of quite distinct courses for each, with, of course, easy access from the lower to the higher at any stage. In evening courses it is not possible to give such a complete and extended training as in a three years' day course, and the best results are obtained by clearly recognising the limitations of evening work and arranging the courses more on specialised lines, dealing with distinct branches of an industry rather than by making an attempt to give a complete training in an industry. Provision must, however, be made for the easy transfer of any specially promising evening student to the day courses. Then it would not be reasonable that all industries and trades other than those most prominent in the district should be ignored in any scheme of technical instruction, but these are most conveniently provided for by means of special trade schools or in evening classes. The domestic subjects, 186 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION such as cookery and laundry work, also come into this group ; and in Bradford all these subjects are dealt with in three centres in the City and not in the Techni- cal College itself, the space in which is entirely occupied by the main branches of work. The Art instruction is carried on in a building adjoining the College, with ramifications in various central schools in the City. A satisfactory organisation of technical work in an im- portant provincial centre may thus be considered to be as follows. Firstly, a well-staffed and highly equipped Technical College dealing with the chief industries of the district only, the work being carried to as high a level as possible. Secondly, one or more trades schools dealing with the less important industries and trades. These may or may not be housed in the same building as the Technical College. Thirdly, a system of in- struction in evening classes dealing, by means of systematised courses, with preparatory work and special work. It need hardly be added that a school of commerce, a school of art, and courses preparing for various examinations, must also be provided, and this is usually most conveniently done in connection with the technical work. Of course such an organisation can only be successful in large centres of population. In smaller districts the cost of a well-equipped technical college would be prohibitive and trades school work only should be attempted, the students being drafted off to larger centres for the more advanced work. The question of the proper relationship of technical colleges to the universities, on the one hand, and the secondary schools on the other, is one on which much difference of opinion exists, and is far too large a subject to deal with in this short paper, but one general remark will not be out of place. In those technical colleges suitably placed and equipped for doing higher work, association with a university would be of great ad- vantage in maintaining proper ideals and keeping up the standard of work, if it were freely recognised that the function of the university is to assist the technical TECHNICAL EDUCATION 187 college to carry its technical work to as high a place as possible, and not merely to consider them as feeders to the university classes. TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN THE URBAN CENTRE OF A RURAL DISTRICT Summary of paper read by A. GODFREY DAY, A.M.I.M.E., Director of Studies, Bath City Science, Art, and Technical School. The writer does not propose to give a detailed account of the actual work in this district, but rather to sketch or map out what in his opinion would con- stitute a satisfactory and practicable scheme for an urban centre working in full co-operation with a sur- rounding rural district. Let it be assumed that the urban centre possesses a properly equipped and efficiently staffed technical school, with well-arranged laboratories and workshops, and that in the surrounding area would be found a fairly complete system of small elementary schools, but nothing more. The school must not confine its operations and use- fulness to one short period of a student's life, but must throw its net wide, and extend its influences into all grades of education. Firstly, much can be done in connection with the elementary schools in the direction of (a) Nature Study ; (b) Art Teaching ; (c) Cookery and Domestic Subjects ; (d) Hygiene and Natural Science ; (e) Manual Instruction. The school teachers can be gathered together for courses of instruction with experimental work, so that in turn they can give lessons in their schools. The responsible lecturers in these subjects can visit the schools in order to advise and suggest improvements by friendly criticism, after inspecting the work executed by the pupils, and might on occasion give special lessons on points of interest. i88 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION The technical institute could form a museum of natural history and science objects, and arrange for its circulation to the schools of the district. It would be the local centre for that interchange of museum specimens between schools of the Empire suggested in the discussion this morning. (See page 282.) Secondly, technical institutes in small centres are rarely fully occupied during the daytime, and can readily be utilised to accommodate a day school of the higher primary or secondary type. Thirdly, the technical institute should have a " do- mestic training " department for teachers, housewives, and domestic servants. This department of the school could readily be developed (and this is already often done) , so as to give cookery teaching in the elementary schools by means of peripatetic teachers, or better still with concen- trated masses of population, by bringing the children to the cookery centre. Fourthly, into the evening technical classes of the Institute the young men of the district should be gathered for instruction in carpentry and joinery, and other branches of the building trades, such as masonry and brickwork, builders' quantities, etc., for plumbing and sanitary engineering, for horticulture and principles of gardening, for engineering, mining or other local trades. The county authority could render assistance by paying the railway fares, on condition that regular attendance is made. Such an arrangement is obviously an economy for the county : the cost of maintaining plumbing or other workshops is heavy, and quite unremunerative in the case of small classes. The work of branch classes or local evening con- tinuation schools must not, however, be overlooked. Here, again, the technical school can extend a helping hand. It should gather the teachers together for frequent discussion, mutual suggestion and criticism ; it should see that the curriculum is designed to lead up to the more advanced courses provided at the centre ; it should be ready to lend maps, diagrams, TECHNICAL EDUCATION 189 apparatus and specimens, and, for some subjects, to supply the needful " specialist " instruction. Fifthly, the technical institute should become the centre for research work for the district, and the separate organisations now in existence for this purpose might with advantage be amalgamated with the technical school, and the laboratories and scientific equipment might thus be more widely utilised. Sixthly, Higher Day Courses of Technical Instruction should as far as possible be developed in these centres for the exceptionally talented youths intending to pass on to the advanced courses of a modern university, such as Birmingham, a large technical college such as Man- chester, or to the courses of the ancient universities. Finally, a further linking-up is eminently desirable. These smaller technical schools scattered over the country can achieve a certain amount of success, but there is a constant danger that their work may become stereotyped, and that their students may be retained beyond the stage of useful study. Would it be possible to connect all these schools with a central college for each larger division of the country ? After a life spent in educational circles, first in London, then in a large provincial centre at Birming- ham, and later in the smaller provincial city of Bath, the writer has become more and more convinced that the greatest educational reform of the present day lies in the direction of " linking " or " gearing up " our present somewhat disconnected system. The villages lie on the periphery of a wheel, of which the urban centre is the axle or hub. These centres should in turn gear into a larger wheel repre- senting the university colleges or higher technical schools of the large industrial centres ; and these again should gear into the final wheel of the universities or the new central " Charlottenburg." The vigour of young life in country districts would thus help to move the sober wheel of university culture, while in return the highest thoughts, the newest dis- coveries, and the greatest ideals the country can produce KJO FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION would press outwards to the remotest districts ; and instead of a number of loose, runaway wheels of in- dependent motion, there would be a general clocklike system working with the harmonious whirr of a great machine with little friction, but with a steady momen- tum under full control. The consideration of the necessary conditions for the successful development of such a scheme still remains. These are : (a) Unity of administration ; (b) Finance. In districts possessing a single council for the control and administration of education in the towns and in the rural areas, there should be no difficulty, but unfortunately this is too rarely the case. In England a county borough authority works independently of a county council the borough committee cannot regulate the work outside its own area, the county cannot organise the work of the city. Even in those smaller boroughs which are not independent for higher education, one finds elementary education often placed under local control, and higher education under county management. Cordial co-operation between these various bodies is needed as the first essential ; but more than this must be arranged. If the acts of the local school committee have in each instance to be approved by two, or even three, separate authorities meeting in- dependently, unavoidable delay and frequent mis- conception may arise. To avoid all this a joint local committee should be formed. This committee should be the governing body of the central technical institute, and should be vested with power to carry on the work in accordance with a scheme approved by the respective authorities. The governing body would each year prepare and submit a report of work done, a syllabus for the ensuing year, together with a financial statement and estimate. The respective authorities after accepting such reports would place at the disposal of the committee the necessary funds for the work, the allotment of the TECHNICAL EDUCATION 191 cost being made on a basis mutually agreed upon in the original scheme. Instances of the advantages derived from such co-operation and joint management may be found in many districts, but the system needs universal extension under a general policy to obtain the very best organisation for all areas. LOCAL TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS Abstract of paper read by FREDERICK W. SHURLOCK, B.A., B.Sc., Principal of the Derby Technical College. The present paper briefly describes the work of the Derby Technical College. The day classes give systematic courses of in- struction in engineering, chemistry, biology, and art, requiring a minimum attendance of twenty-five hours per week. There are also short courses of instruction in engineering, involving attendance on two half -days per week, for pupils and apprentices from the Midland Railway and other engineering works. The evening classes provide similar courses, with instruction in building, in language and commerce, and a few special subjects. The evening schools of the town are arranged in three grades, of which the classes at the Technical College form the highest, and provision is made for the passage, by means of scholarships, of students through the various grades to the Technical College. No agricultural work is done by the College, as this is provided for by the Midland Agricultural and Dairy College at Kingston, which is maintained by the County Councils of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and the Lindsey Division of Lincoln- shire. There is no day school for boys or girls directly connected with the Technical College. The students are supposed to have received a satisfactory school education in either elementary or secondary schools, and care is taken to admit no one to either day or evening classes who is not likely to profit by the course of study proposed. The great majority of the students are over sixteen years of age. There is no endowment. The funds available for the work consist of the Exchequer contribution, fees, a contribution from the rates, and grants from the Board of Education and the Derbyshire County Council. Other local institutions differ from the one de- scribed in various ways. In size they vary from a one-storey building of two rooms, in which a few evening classes are conducted, to fully equipped colleges giving systematic courses of instruction in science and technology of university standard. In country districts evening technical classes are often held in the elementary schools. In the county of Derbyshire there are about fifty such centres, in which the number of evening technical classes varies from one to twenty. In the smaller towns the technical classes are often associated with higher elementary or secondary schools of modern type. In Derbyshire there are six such centres. In towns of moderate size and in certain special cases the association of technical work with the secondary school is very convenient, as the presence of the technical classes enables laboratories and work- shops to be provided for the use of the secondary school, and the school trains well-prepared students for the technical classes, the arrangement being thus mutually advantageous ; whilst in the larger towns, where the technical institute and the secondary schools are under separate management, the supply of well- prepared students for the former often leaves some- thing to be desired. Enough has been said to show that local technical institutions are of very varied typ, and to illustrate the fact that the larger institutions do not, as a rule, start complete and fully equipped, but grow up and are modified during the process by the local circum- stances to which they must adapt themselves. Some TECHNICAL EDUCATION 193 of the more important of the circumstances which determine the character of the technical work, are the nature of the district, the character and distribution of the population, the nature of the industries, the character and efficiency of the schools, and the funds available for the purpose. What, then, are the conclusions that may be drawn from the foregoing that may be of general use in other parts of the Empire ? It is, I think, impossible for any one to suggest a comprehensive scheme for the Empire, as any such scheme must of necessity be a matter of growth and experiment in which the ex- perience of the Mother Country will naturally be utilised. A local institute in a healthy condition may be regarded as a living and growing organism which has to adapt itself to its environment, and which in its turn reacts on and produces changes in that environ- ment. Any control exerted by a central authority should be such as to stimulate and guide, but not to fetter or restrain local effort. There must be the greatest possible freedom for the local governors and teachers to experiment with a view to working out the scheme best suited to the needs of the locality. Since the schools must supply the pupils for the technical classes, it is of the highest importance that the education given in them should furnish a sound basis for the superstructure that is to be reared on it. Especially is it to be desired that the pupils should leave the schools with their minds alert, and with a keen desire for knowledge. The scope of this paper does not permit us to pursue this important topic. To ensure the success of the work, there should be cordial co-operation between local authorities, so as to prevent the frittering of money and energy on a number of small schemes, and every effort should be made to secure the active support of the employers of labour, without whose good-will the best-planned schemes for technical education can meet with only a limited success. Probably in the development of 13 i94 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION local institutions and in the evolution of a general scheme the policy of the steady jog-trot which Lord Cromer recommends in Egypt is that which will ul- timately lead to the best results, the ideal being con- stant development without undue haste and without rest. Dr. R. MuLLitfEUX WALMSLEY said the idea of the Section in obtaining the papers was that it would be advantageous to visitors from other parts of the Empire to have, from experts, statements of the problems dis- cussed in the papers. Mr. VICTOR A. MUNDELLA, M.A., B.Sc., M.I.E.E., Head of the Physics and Electrical Engineering De- partment, Northern Polytechnic Institute, Holloway, London, then read his paper on TECHNICAL TEACHING AND RESEARCH Technical institutions have been founded in this country, in which day courses for the future captains of industry, evening courses for working men and women, day technical courses for apprentices, day scientific courses for the pupils of a secondary school, and finally day and evening courses for students pro- ceeding to a university degree examination, are held in turn in the same lecture-rooms and laboratories. By this system the expense of buildings, equipment, and management is reduced to a minimum, but the efficiency of the work suffers seriously, owing to the divided interests of the teachers and the very varied equipment necessary in the same laboratory. The success of a technical institution depends primarily upon the teacher, and a head of a depart- ment must have well-equipped laboratories and be aided by an efficient staff of assistants. However high may be his qualifications and however up-to-date his knowledge, both scientific and technical, yet he will fail in his profession unless he keeps in touch with TECHNICAL EDUCATION 195 every advance in the knowledge of his subject and is also engaged in some research work. In nearly all cases, for the reasons mentioned above, a teacher has little time for either reading or research. Primarily he is a teacher, and his teaching work fills up every working hour of the day. Prof. Meldola had referred to this matter, and showed that (i) the burden of both day and evening classes, (2) the want of sufficient endowment, (3) the exaggerating of the importance of the business side of the institute, (4) the statistical standard of judging the success of these institutions, and (5) the large number of students who work for purely examination purposes, and not to acquire a real working knowledge of the subject, are all main causes in affecting the efficiency of the institutions. Some modification of existing conditions must be made if technical institutions are to take their proper place in the educational system, and if they are to react favourably on the industries of the country. DISCUSSION The CHAIRMAN said there had been many points of great interest brought forward for instance, the re- lationship existing between the technical institutes and the minor technical classes and manual instruction classes in connection with schools in the district in which the technical institute was the only centre. The working of those together was""of the highest im- portance for the success of the system. With regard to the papers, if he might mention first what was brought forward last because it was very essential to the success of all technical instruction there was the question of how the teachers in technical institutes were to be allowed sufficient time for carrying on research work, for reading, and for keeping themselves at the high level necessary to a teacher who was to be of any value in leading the country in technical know- ledge. The remedy was hard to find, but the im- 196 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION portance of the point could not be overrated. With regard to what Principal Gardner had said about the institutes busying themselves chiefly with the scientific principles which underlay the industries of certain towns, it was very important that that should not be carried too far, because it would have a very narrow effect on technical instruction if the central institute endeavoured to 'confine the technical instruction which, after all, was only one branch of a man's educa- tion to a narrow line intended to benefit that par- ticular industry. He might illustrate the point with what had happened with regard to art. Within a short time of the Circulation Department of the South Kensington Museum being instituted, certain centres asked for something which would help their particular industry : for instance, some said they were making lace, and it was no use sending them ivories or enamels ; others said they were all engaged in silversmith work, and it was no use sending them tapestries and em- broidery. Some were a little wiser. One great place wrote and said : " All our industry certainly is lace, but we want our designers to be artistic, and they will not become artistic or do good work unless they have a broad artistic education. Please send us down tapestries and ivories and enamels, and so on, because it is only by opening their eyes to the beauties of the art world generally that we can make them better designers of lace." To some extent the same would apply in science and in all technical instruction. None of the speakers had mentioned the question of how much actual bench instruction or manual instruction should be given in any technical institute. As an expert in the building trade, his eyes were very much opened by visiting two schools, he believed the first in Europe, at the Ecole Professionnelle at Rouen, the school for masters and the school for men. In the school for the masters the pupils had an hour and a half each day at the bench for the first year, in the second year dealing with wood, and in the third and fourth years with metal, from the ages of thirteen to seventeen, TECHNICAL EDUCATION 197 the rest of their day being given to ordinary education. At the end of four years, the pupils were fit to take a place as leading hands in any workshop either for wood or metal, and when they went up at the age of seventeen to the Ecole Polytechnique, or any other great college in France, they rather more than held their own with other boys who had not had workshop instruction. In the other school, a cheap school for the sons of mechanics, and those who did not aspire to be more than foremen, four or five hours were given to the bench and two or three hours to drawing, mathematics, mensuration, and so on, and they were turning out young men 99 per cent, of whom, after a year or two in the workshop, became foremen. Those two schools were well worth visiting. Their staffs were very enthusiastic and had met with a great success. Principal HICKS (Shoreditch Technical Institute), as one who was dealing with technical education day by day, expressed his gratitude to the authors of the papers. Technical education to-day was only pioneer- ing work, and very vague notions existed as to what it was. Very great care and deliberation were re- quired in educating the public on the matter. In connection with his work, he had what was known as a technical day school for boys, the boys being drawn from the elementary schools. It was hoped that the majority of them would become associated either with wood-work or metal-work, and the course was one of three years. In the first year, two-thirds was general education and one-third bench work ; in the second year, when the boy was fifteen, one-half was bench work and one-half literary or general work ; in the third year, the work was two-thirds bench and one- third general. According to experience, a boy who had gone through the three years' course was able to plan small objects, make them to scale, and understand all the underlying principles connected with the material he used. The CHAIRMAN, in closing the meeting, hoped that ig8 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION some further opportunity would occur for discussing the various questions in an endeavour to get some useful suggestions in connection with technical in- struction and co-ordination of such schools and colleges in Great Britain with those in the other countries and Crown Colonies of the Empire. A vote of thanks having been accorded to the readers of papers, and a vote of thanks to the Chairman, the meeting closed. TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1907. Chairman, SIR PHILIP MAGNUS, B.Sc., M.P. THE subject for discussion was : CANADIAN, AUSTRALASIAN, AND SOUTH AFRICAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION The CHAIRMAN, in opening the meeting, said oppor- tunities had been already afforded to visitors from other parts of the Empire for obtaining information as to the character of the technical instruction given in British institutions, but so far nothing had been said as to the kind of instruction given in other coun- tries. He was very pleased, therefore, to find that some information was to be forthcoming at that meeting. Of the various institutions to be men- tioned he believed the one in Sydney was the oldest and most advanced, and it was some little satisfaction to him personally to remember that when the Tech- nical Institute was organised there he had the satis- faction of ordering, and sending out to Sydney, the greater part of the apparatus with which the Technical Institute was equipped. CANADIAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION An address by MR. JAMES L. HUGHES, M.A., Chief Inspector of Schools, Toronto. 199 200 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Mr. Hughes said he was not present as a specialist in technical education, but simply as the oldest super- intendent of education in Canada. He had heard a discussion on the previous day as to whether technical education should form part of a university course ; that matter had been settled in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec by actually making technical education in several departments a part of the univer- sity course which students might take and for which they could obtain a degree. They were trying to organise a general system of education which would tend towards the development of technical power from the kindergarten to the university. In the past, universities were supposed to be institutes to train men for the learned professions, but people were coming to believe that universities should be places in which to train men and women for any department of life which they might have to take up ; so that while there were secondary schools in which Latin, Greek, and other languages were the main features for the students who were to enter the professions, they had already organised, in the secondary schools and in the universities, courses for those who intended to follow other departments of work. In Canada they believed that it was not only fair to the individual, but fair to the nation, that all men and women should have the opportunity of obtaining as much culture as possible. It was believed also that those men who were to be engineers, or leaders in agriculture, or industry, or in commerce, should have the opportunity of meeting with the men who were to enter the learned professions, that the contact with those men during the university course would be of great advantage to those who were to be engineers or leaders in industry and commerce, and on the other hand that a touch of practical life would be an advantage to the men who were to be doctors, lawyers, or ministers. One re- acted on the other. In his own city the kindergarten was the fundamental basis of all school work ; every child was trained to do the work which he could best TECHNICAL EDUCATION 201 do and to acquire a taste for work. With manual training in the elementary schools and technical instruction in the high schools young men were pre- pared for engineering, mining, or whatever work they wished to undertake, and at the same time they were afforded an opportunity of obtaining as much culture as possible. He had recently visited Germany for the purpose of studying that department of work, and he had no objection to the institution in Charlottenburg, or to its introduction into England, provided that the men who were to attend the institution had already had a university course or were provided with the opportunity of obtaining university culture while they were working in the institution. The schools that most impressed him were the schools at Munich for the working classes. Every boy who left school at the age of fourteen continued his education for four years by attending the school three afternoons a week, the employer being compelled to allow him to attend. Each boy in any one of the forty schools conducted by the city obtained a thorough training in the elementary principles of science connected with the department of labour in which he worked, not only theoretically, but in connection with the practical application of the work. He also continued to receive literary guidance. A boy who left school at. fourteen was not capable of understanding literature, and therefore needed guidance. He thought it was an excellent method, and he should certainly advise that in his own country some method should be adopted to guide young people after they left the elementary school, and to give them a training in their work. With regard to the work that was being done in Canadian universities, the University of Toronto, being situated in a great agricultural country, naturally devoted a great deal of attention to agriculture, and even the United States admitted that the Toronto University was the very best agricultural college in America. It had a very thorough course in all departments of agriculture. In Queen's College, Kingston, a school for mining had been established by 202 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION the Government in connection with the university, and there was also a mining school in Toronto Uni- versity. In that University and in the McGill Uni- versity in Montreal there were very thorough courses in engineering, civil, mechanical, and electrical. No doubt Cambridge men were proud of the fact that a great Cambridge man at the McGill University had made the University distinguished throughout the world by the discoveries which he had made. In that University there was an equipment very much finer than in any other in America, or possibly in the British Empire, given by a very great friend of education, Sir William Macdonald, who was knighted by the late Queen Victoria. In Toronto and Montreal a young man might receive a university degree by taking, as the main part of his course, work in any department of engineering. In addition to agriculture, engineering, and mining, there were departments for pharmacy and dentistry. Ladies were able to take an art course, a course in music, or a course in domestic science, and obtain degrees in those subjects. In fact, Canada was trying to give such an equipment to young people as would qualify them in all departments of work in a large and rapidly developing country. The univer- sities were training not merely those who were to be leaders in the professions, but those who were to be leaders in industry and commerce, so that all might have the opportunity of qualifying themselves for advancement in the work which they were called upon to perform. Mr. R. E. GOSNELL then read his paper on THE SCHOOL SYSTEM OF BRITISH COLUMBIA A few years ago, Sir William Macdonald, the millionaire tobacconist of Montreal, who has contributed so largely to McGill University, voluntarily inaugurated at his own expense a system of manual training TECHNICAL EDUCATION 203 throughout Canada. It was carried out through the instrumentality of Professor Robertson, of the Canadian Department of Agriculture, a man of infectious en- thusiasms. Whether he was himself the inspiration or simply the medium whereby a great inspiration had practical effect, I know not ; but it was the beginning of a new movement of a new era in education. The scheme was probationary. That is to say, Sir William agreed to maintain a staff of expert teachers in manual training for two or three years free of cost to the public, after which the results would have been sufficiently apparent to enable the educational authorities to determine whether they would be justified in continu- ing the work on similar lines. I do not know precisely what happened in the other provinces, but in British Columbia there was no hesitancy about the policy to be adopted upon the expiry of the probationary period. The Department of Education immediately engaged one of the experts to take charge of the instruction throughout the Province, and manual training is one of the most successful features of our system to-day. Carpentry and modelling were among the principal things taught to the pupils under this system at certain hours of certain days of the week, with extra classes on Saturday. It is quite unnecessary to tell any one with a knowledge of children that they immediately became deeply engrossed in the work, and it was not long before their handiwork was comparable with the products of skilled mechanics. If our educational authorities would but realise it, the problem of keeping children busy and happy during school hours is best solved by providing them with something for their hands to do rather than for their brains to puzzle over. Children are all idol- worshippers and young idolaters. Their earliest instincts and extremest delights are all in the direction of fashioning snow men, making mud- pies, building houses out of blocks, riding cockhorses- imitating, moulding, fashioning, drawing, giving con- crete expression to their ideas of things they see or hear of in life. An abstraction to which they cannot 204 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION give form and flesh and blood in their imagination is lost on them. British Columbian children are like all other children in this respect, and we have to-day at our agricultural fairs and meetings of teachers' institutes exhibitions of wood-working, modelling, map-drawing, geometric designs, etc., which make us proud of the generation that is to succeed us in the direction of affairs and inspire us with the hope that their careers will be useful and productive of great results in developing the resources of a new nation a guarantee that they will not form part of the great formidable army of drones and social parasites bred by an almost universal system of purely academical training. In the Victoria High School there is a teacher of domestic science, who gives practical demonstrations of how to make a husband happy with hot rolls and coffee, how to bake bread that cannot be used as an implement of domestic warfare, and how to cook steaks that bode not of heartburnings and indigestion. Victoria High School has also prepared a commercial course, supposed to fit the pupils with some equip- ment for business life. Technical training, therefore, in the sense in which it is understood educationally, is not a distinguishing feature of our system, but the leaven is there and will eventually leaven the whole structure. Taking the results as pertain to the public schools generally, I believe that British Columbia in this, as in some other respects, leads the whole of Canada. It may be unnecessary to explain the distinction, but for the benefit of some of our English friends I may say that the public schools of Canada do not correspond to the public schools of Great Britain, such as Eton, Harrow, Haileybury and Rugby. Our public schools more nearly resemble the board schools of this country. They are free, elementary, and wholly maintained by rates. We have schools similar to the public schools of Great Britain, but their importance and influence on public life are not at all commensurate with such great 205 English schools as I have mentioned, though in many other respects they are quite their equal. Many of our colleges and universities are also under public control and largely supported by grants of public money. For instance, while McGill is a generously endowed private corporation, Dalhousie of Halifax, Queen's of Kingston, Victoria, and Macmaster's are denomi- national colleges ; Toronto University and Manitoba University, of Winnipeg, are provincial, or public institutions maintained in a great measure by grants of public money and within the jurisdiction of the respective Ministers of Education. The new Pro- vinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta are going to have provincial universities of their own, and British Columbia has already made provision, by setting apart two millions of acres of land as an endowment, for the establishment of a provincial university. This brings me back to my own Province. The present free-school system of British Columbia, which has been in operation since 1872, was in many essential respects a copy of the old Ontario Act of 1846 ; but in the course of time and owing to the immense extent of the Province and the sparseness of population, it was found necessary materially to modify the Ontario system in order to suit peculiar conditions. One of the most important modifications was for a long time that of paying the teachers direct from the provincial treasury. To understand why that was necessary is to understand a good deal about the physical conditions of that Province. As population became scattered over the wide domain, it was necessary to build schools ; but owing to the sparseness of this population, self- support of these by the parents of children was practic- ally out of the question, so they were maintained wholly out of the rates. With a view to meeting the cost of education under these peculiar and special conditions, a special head or poll tax of three dollars a head was imposed on the entire adult male population. In time, the original intention of this impost was forgotten, but it still goes on, and, like the income tax in Great Britain, 2o6 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION I am afraid will, in peace as well as in war, become a permanent one. It is very useful, however, and not altogether illogical, inasmuch as everybody is made to contribute to the cost of the Government, whose bene- fits he enjoys. The Hudson's Bay Company, which owned the whole of Vancouver Island, established free schools, and for several years supplied the educational needs of the community, which, it is needless to remark, were limited. In the early days after Vancouver Island emerged from the protectorate of the Fur Company there does not seem to have been, except in the way of private schools, any particular provision for education. In 1865 the Vancouver House of Assembly set apart $10,000 for educational purposes for that year. Nor in the mainland Colony of British Columbia, which was a separate Crown colony, did there seem to be any pro- vision. At the time of the union of these two colonies the free-school system first referred to was virtually dead and school matters throughout the Province re- mained in a very crude and unsatisfactory condition until 1872, the year after which union with Canada was effected. The white population then amounted to between 10,000 and 12,000. British Columbia at the outset escaped a school question such as has seriously troubled and still troubles some of the other provinces. The educational system as established in 1872 was purely secular and non-denominational. It is so to-day, and any attempt to introduce religious teaching into the schools would raise a tremendous storm of protest. It is not, therefore, discussed at all. It is enjoined on all teachers that the highest morality shall be in- culcated, but that no religious dogma or creed shall be taught. The Lord's Prayer may be said at the opening and closing of schools. There are no sectarian schools except private schools. A complete and workable measure came into effect in 1906, and is meeting with general satisfaction. Under the new system, practically every school in the Pro- TECHNICAL EDUCATION 207 vince is made amenable to local control, and the Government, instead of paying the teachers' salaries, makes an allowance per teacher based on attendance. Five classes of schools are created viz. : City schools, with average actual attendance of 1,000 or over, for which an allowance of $360 is made. Ditto, second class, attendance 250 to 999, $420. Ditto, third class, below 250, $465. Rural municipal schools, $480. Rural district schools that is, schools in a district outside of municipalities. There is provision for another grant of $i for every $i voted by the municipality, up to an amount not exceeding $100. The wisdom of such legislation in the interest of the teacher is obvious, in discouraging the cutting down of the teachers unnecessarily and of increased allowance for special efficiency. The great progress of education, as well as the pro- gress of the Province as a whole, is shown by the following figures : No. of Schools Attendance Cost 1872 . . 25 . . 1,028 . . $36,764 1875 .. 41 :. 1,403 .. 44.506 1885 . . 76 . . 4,027 . . 71,151 1895 . . 183 . . 13,483 . . 189,000 1907 . . 250 . . 30,000 . . 490,000 I learn that there were 663 teachers employed alto- gether, divided as follows : 34 in High Schools. 343 in Graded Schools. 286 in Common Schools. You will see that each teacher has on an average about 45 pupils. But if the teachers are well worked they are also well paid, better possibly than in any other part of the Dominion. Average salary is be- tween $50 and $60 per month, but ranges from $45 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION to $100 per month. Inspectors get from $125 to $150 ; normal-school teachers from $100 to $150 ; high- school teachers, $75 to $150. The salaries are fixed by the Government or by the school boards. In British Columbia we accept the degrees of recognised universities as a proof of the graduates' educational qualifications ; but, speaking subject to cor- rection, the candidate must pass a further examination in school law and take a course in the normal school. The object of the interchange of teachers proposed at a previous meeting of this Conference is, I take it, to improve the status of the teaching profession. Any scheme looking towards this end must for acceptance necessarily guarantee the qualifications of the ex- changees. There is only one way in which, to my mind, the object sought maybe accomplished, and that is by the establishment of schools of pedagogy in each of the self-governing parts of the Empire, whose diplomas would, like the degrees of Cambridge, Trinity, McGill, Harvard, and Yale, be taken at par the world over. Chairs of pedagogy might be established in the leading universities or in connection with normal schools, where not only the universally recognised principles and methods of teaching would be expounded, but where the school laws and scnool systems of the Empire would be studied under teachers drawn from various parts of the Empire. In this way the systems could gradually be assimilated and a common standard created for the Empire. A university has been long talked of in British Columbia, and in 1890 an Act was passed giving powers for the establishment of one, but there were many obstacles in the way. Financial difficulties forbade any acfion until this year, when an Act was passed at the session of the legislature just closed making provision for a fund out of the sale of lands to be reserved for the purpose of founding a university. I want to point out wherein a university in British Columbia will have conspicuous advantages and why technical training there will be of supreme importance. TECHNICAL EDUCATION 269 British Columbia is a province of great and varied resources. It is highly mineralised throughout its entire area with coal, copper, gold, silver, zinc, lead, platinum, mica, etc., etc. It has extensive iron deposits along the coast of the mainland and the Island of Vancouver. It has very large reserves of timber. It has immense wealth in the food-fishes of its waters. It has water-powers, pulping-wood, and inexhaustible supplies of economic material such as clays, lime, and structural materials of all kinds. It has thousands of miles of sea coast, indented by many beautiful and commodious harbours. And it has a geographical situation of untold potentialities in relation to the future of the new all-British trade route of the world, with special advantage in relation to the Orient. The whole industrial and com- mercial economy of the world is being reorganised and readjusted to a new order of things. British Columbia is right on the new line of cleavage, whose energies radiate forward to Australia, India, China, Japan, and South America, and backward to the Motherland and Europe. An alma mater which did not place its children in harmony with such environments would not be worthy of its name or of national support. We have the assurance of the head of the British Columbian Government that the Pacific Province will have a university equal to the best, where those who come to settle in its midst will have educational oppor- tunities of the most superior kind in all the great departments of human knowledge and activity. May I add parenthetically, without prejudice, that according to the provisions of the Act for the creation of this university it is to be strictly non-sectarian and secular. I see for Victoria or Vancouver, or wherever the university is placed, a great educational centre a centre of education, not only where the mind of the coming generation will be well equipped, but where British institutions will prevail, where the British flag will for ever fly, where British laws and justice will be 14 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION respected and enforced, and where British men and women will be bred equal to the best traditions of the race. The CHAIRMAN thought he need scarcely say that every one was very interested in the paper, and he was sure he was only echoing the wishes of every one present when he, said that the new university about to be established in British Columbia had the best wishes of everybody in the Mother Country. DISCUSSION Dr. A. H. MACKAY (Superintendent of Education, Nova Scotia) said that Nova Scotia was that portion of Canada nearest to the mother land ; it was a coun- try of about 20,000 square miles, with half a million population and 100,000 pupils in the public schools. The eastern strip of land was rather rugged and rocky, wrinkled with gold-bearing quartz, but the middle of the province was very good agricul- tural land and the valleys produced the most noted apples in the world. The northern region of the country, from Cape Breton to Cumberland, was full of coal and other minerals, and there was a large manufacture of iron and steel. The province con- tained lime, gypsum, manganese, copper, and a certain amount of tin. There were quite a number of uni- versities. The training in public education laid special stress upon preparing each pupil for the per- formance of his duties as a worker, so that it was not made imperative upon any one who went through the eight years' common school course to pass into the high schools to take that literary culture which was the foundation of the old professional status, although it was open for them to do that if they liked, and some of them did it. In the normal schools manual training was made compulsory for both male and female teachers. At first people laughed, and asked whether the ladies were to be trained as carpenters. They were told that the majority of the ladies were TECHNICAL EDUCATION to become teachers, and would have to teach boys throughout the country, and that they were being trained to interest them in some of the manual opera- tions and to impress them with the fact of the dignity of labour. They hoped to have even in rural schools at least one bench in the schoolroom, where two or three boys of aptitude might work for an hour or two. In the elementary schools there were as many as thirty mechanics' science schools, where woodwork was carried on, and iron work would probably be introduced. About 10,000 dollars had been given by the Treasury to subsidise the schools and encourage the people to look after them properly. Then there were domestic science schools for girls, and a third class of school called the rural science school, which gave a special training in rural schools not teaching agriculture. It was found that agriculture could not be taught in the rural schools, but an attempt was made to teach the foundations of agriculture and to interest the pupils in the nature side of rural life so that the boy should see that the farm was not a dull place, but a place of romance. The teaching of the phenomena of the natural world was as useful as a classical course, and had the merit of attaching the children to the country, preventing them from going, as so many had gone, to the United States and to the prairies of the West. The universities had been adding to their other facul- ties the faculty of engineering. They had a very good equipment for both mining and mechanical engineering connected with the University of Dalhousie ; other institutions were making arrangements to do at least two years' work in some of the technical classes of McGill University. The feeling had been growing so strong that at last the Government had been stimulated to voting 100,000 dollars for the purpose of establishing a technological college, as they had established an agricultural college. The agricultural college was near the provincial and normal schools, so that the teachers while going through their training might take some special course in agriculture or horticulture. In the 212 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION country schools they were expected to give lessons in both subjects. Mr. E. W. ARTHY (Superintendent of the Protestant Schools, Montreal) said that technical education in the Province of Quebec was in its infancy and it was only in the city schools of Montreal that any regular in- struction of the kind was given. In that remark he wished to except the McGill University, which was magnificently equipped. In the public schools of Montreal there was a graded course in manual training which extended over seven years, from the kinder- garten to the end of the elementary schooling, the course embracing three branches drawing, construction, and design which he preferred to call by one generic name, " the Arts," as they were closely related to each other and were presented as a co-ordinate whole rather than as a series of unrelated studies. Those arts were necessary to one another in practice and could not be successfully taught apart. In framing the course an endeavour was made to distinguish with some care two growth-periods of the child's life, and to adapt the exercises to them. From the fifth to the ninth year the child developed through sensory channels ; his language was limited, and drawing and construction formed his chief means of expression. Opportunity was therefore afforded during this period for abundant illustrative drawing as a means of expression. In- struction in object-drawing was also systematically given, in order that he might steadily gain in the power to make discriminatory judgments and to record the results of such judgments with ease and certainty. At that stage the arts were not presented as separate sub- jects, but were used as a means of teaching con- cretely many subjects of the curriculum. The teacher constantly turned to drawing and construction in connection with language- work, arithmetic, and the like ; the arts were constantly used as models of teach- ing, as means of securing the child's personal expression. Technical accuracy at that stage was subordinated. The work done required no muscular adjustment ; none TECHNICAL EDUCATION 213 of it was small, trying both to sight and fingers ; and none mechanical, leading to hours of automatic per- formance. Original expression was very evident, and the products belonged to the producers. The second growth-period of the child was from nine to thirteen or fourteen. Difficult muscular adjustments were now easily acquired and habits rapidly fixed. There was much constructive work, in order that the pupil might acquire dexterity and skill in the handling of simple tools and the manipulation of a variety of materials. The arts were now used as disciplinary agents, giving pre- cision of handling and self-control, inculcating perse- verance and holding up ideas of self-reliance and honesty. Drawing, painting, pasting cardboard, wood -carving, etc., were all of use in developing con- crete form and of immediate value. At the end of the course a boy's bent had been heightened by cultivation, his hand was gifted with skill, he could perform some scores of operations, and was familiar with some scores of tools. He could make a simple plane, and use it ; he could design a simple decoration, and apply it. Throughout his work he had completed half a hundred models and had received a strong constructive bent, and above all had learned to see the world about him as a constructed world. The success of the manual training course which he had outlined in the elementary schools was so apparent as to lead to the conviction that that which had been found really educational up to the end of the elementary school period would be found equally so in more advanced schools, provided it rested upon the same particular principle of broad general education. With that end in view a school had been erected in Montreal known as the Commercial and Technical High School. It offered a four years' course designed to be equivalent, educationally, to the four years' course of secondary schools, and it afforded an opportunity to its students to pursue the usual high school course in literature, science, and mathe- matics, and at the same time to receive training in the technical or commercial department. An effort had 214 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION been made to provide a course that was liberal, in- tended primarily for those who were to enter upon a business career or to earn their living by the work of their hands. For that purpose some of the so-called liberal subjects had been given a practical turn and practical subjects were being utilised as a means of education. The combination of the liberal and practi- cal, to make the. thinker a worker and the worker a thinker, was the ideal of the curriculum of the school. As the school was only in its first year of operation it was premature even to predict its success. He would only say it was not the aim to turn out an office clerk or a skilled artisan, but rather one with faculties so trained that he would equally adapt himself to become either one or the other. TECHNICAL TRAINING FOR COLONIAL WORK Paper read by S. D. CHALMERS, M.A. (Sydney), Head of the Technical Optics Department, Northampton Polytechnic Institute, Clerkenwell. The differences required in the training for tech- nical professions or trades to be practised in England or in the Colonies depend on the specialisation, or absence of specialisation, in the particular industry. As a general rule Colonial conditions prevent any great specialisation in those professions or trades which are not distinctively Colonial. These particular industries require a training more like that indicated for English specialised industries. But in most cases the work of the Colonial engineer or technical expert will range over the whole of his profession and will not be limited even by the nominal boundaries of that profession. A consulting engineer's work might range from automobiles, through heavy machinery, to bridge construction, water supply, or electric lighting. A knowledge of many of the pro- cesses of technical chemistry is invaluable, while the TECHNICAL EDUCATION 215 specialising chemist develops into a general mining engineer after being a mineralogist and geologist, or develops in some other equally surprising way. An instrument-maker might conceivably specialise in surveying instruments, but he would soon be com- pelled to add other types of instruments, in consequence of the absence of specialists of those departments ; while the plane-parallel glass worker or the bubble maker who thrives in London would overstock a Colonial market as the result of one week's work. If, like Grayson's of Melbourne, his work is the best in the world, he can, of course, command the world's custom ; but considerable pressure will be brought to bear to induce him to come to London. As a Colonial permanently resident in London, I have been struck by the aggregation of curiously specialised trades in particular localities. Especially is this the case in Clerkenwell, the home of the watch- making and optical industries. It required some imagination to believe that watch hands were made in a special workshop, devoted entirely to this small part of one industry. The best chronometers make the round of seven or eight workshops before they are ready for use ; while in spectacle-making, gold frames, gold-filled, and steel spectacles are made by different classes of workmen, and folders are another branch again. The actual lenses are ground in one workshop, edged in another, and fitted into the frames in a third. Sextant-making is a special industry, less highly specialised than it was, but still the parallel glass comes from one workshop and the instrument goes to the mathematical divider for graduation. The trend of development is in the direction of bringing these various subdivisions of one trade under the same roof ; but they still remain quite distinct trades. These illustrations are taken from the most highly skilled sections of these industries, but there is the same specialisation, even where parts are produced by mechanical processes. The iris diaphragm-maker, the rack-and-pinion cutter, andjihe wheel-cutters are char- 216 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION acteristic of England ; I leave you to imagine their fate if they were to emigrate, say, to Johannesburg. Men trained in this way could hardly be expected to adapt themselves to conditions which require the practice of enough trades to crowd a street in Clerken- well. This extreme specialisation is characteristic, not only of the workman, but also of the technical expert. These differences would seem to indicate that the training for the best English and Colonial work should be entirely different. The quality which is absolutely essential to success in a technical profession or trade in the Colonies is adaptability, while the capacity for applying general ideas to problems not even remotely resembling those previously solved is better than a special knowledge of one or two of these problems. Under English conditions it is almost essential that the expert should specialise in one particular depart- ment ; but the narrower this department, the more thorough must the knowledge of it be. A knowledge of many widely differing branches in their bearing on this special subject may be required. Thus the education required is in one way broader, in another way narrower, than is requisite for Colonial work. The training should, therefore, include a good general education, giving a knowledge of matters allied to his profession in such a way that any branch may be developed as it relates to the special subject in hand. In any one of these general scientific subjects the very highest work may, at a subsequent time, be demanded, at the same time most of the ordinary technical ap- plications are of no value, except as they illustrate general principles, or the methods of applying scientific knowledge to technical problems. The same type of considerations applies also to the general professional work. Much of this work will necessarily relate to general ideas and processes, which are of interest both to the specialist and to the general worker. But apart from this there is much that has only its technical value, and should be utilised in the training of the specialist only so far as it will enable TECHNICAL EDUCATION 217 him to begin his special work with a knowledge of the methods and conditions under which scientific know- ledge can be applied to technical problems. It is, in fact, a training for his special work, and should be used to develop the qualities which are to be used in acquir- ing and applying that special knowledge. Although the general subject-matter of such a course might be suitable for the Colonial engineer, each portion should be regarded from a different point of view ; the general scientific education should include at least the typical and ordinary technical applica- tions ; the English specialist on electric lighting wants his chemistry so that he may understand chemical processes, and apply this knowledge to his own work ; the Australian engineer may have to carry out one of the standard technical processes, or modify it to suit special conditions, chemically analogous, but technically different. The principal part of the Colonial expert's training lies, however, in the general principles of his profession. He must bear in mind the application of these prin- ciples to the most diverse problems, and his course of study should be so arranged that he may realise the universal application of many of these principles. The problems that have been solved in some departments must be generalised to include possible cases in other departments. The Colonial student, too, requires a special subject ; not because he is likely to depend on this department, but as a matter of training. It is impossible, in general work, to attain to the quality of work which specialisation allows ; and it always exercises a beneficia 1 influence on all one's work to have done one piece of work of the highest standard. Thus the general schemes of work do not differ very widely for the two classes we are considering ; but each portion of the course has different aims in the two cases, and it is of the utmost importance that the various parts should be utilised to give the right kind of training, as well as knowledge. On the possibility of combining these acquirements in the case of large classes, I will 218 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION not venture to express an opinion ; but experience shows that it is quite feasible with small classes. The considerations given above are only applicable to the training of the technical expert ; but a similar distinction may be drawn if we consider the whole training of skilled workmen. But in general, technical training of workmen is divided into two parts : in the workshop the skill necessary for the ordinary work of the shop is generally acquired, while the technical institutes supply the other training. In England the tendency is for the workshop training to give special skill in one particular operation or process, while the workman has no opportunity of acquiring other allied processes which might naturally form part of his work. With suitable facilities, such as a technical institute supplies, he can apply his special skill to these and allied branches, and so improve his work generally and attain the adaptability which workshop conditions force on his Colonial brother. This quality makes a workman more valuable to his employer, because it permits of continuous improvement in workshop methods. If the man's work and methods were per- fect, the cultivation of this adaptability would be undesirable ; for example, in the case of chrono- meter springs, where delicacy of touch plays a most important part. In the Colonies it may be presumed that the skilled workman has, from painful experience, acquired this virtue of adaptability. Evidently the scope of a technical institute under these conditions differs widely from that of an English institute ! Even under more normal Colonial conditions there is no need to cultivate versatility, except in the " new chum," and the function of technical classes should be to improve the general quality of work by providing the skilled workman with facilities for special work, and opportunities for the consecutive practice necessary to become perfect at one small operation. This will react on the general quality of the man's work. In such cases the instructors should be men who have had special experience of one particular process or opera- TECHNICAL EDUCATION 219 tion ; perhaps the parallel-glass worker referred to above would be a suitable instructor while waiting for fresh orders or learning a new business. His function would be, not to train possible competitors, but to teach that delicacy of touch and perfect finish which characterised his work. The training which is given in our technical institutes to evening students would, in many cases, prepare a workman for Colonial conditions as far as is possible without actual Colonial experience ; but the profes- sional training would, in most cases, require consider- able modification to adapt it to the requirements of intending Colonials. TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA Paper read by W. H. CLARKE-JAMES, late Instructor, Perth Technical School Technical education in the State of Western Aus- tralia was inaugurated in May 1900, and from that date to the present time steady progress can be recorded. The work has received the approbation of the Govern- ment and people, who are now fully alive to its great practical possibilities, and the necessity for ample provision being made for its effective maintenance and expansion. From the year 1900 to the present date the work has been carried on in a number of iron buildings, but the demand for more accommodation has compelled the Government to reserve a fine site upon which up-to-date buildings will shortly be erected. The status of the work has been raised by the affiliation of the Perth Technical School with the Adelaide University, thus enabling students to prepare for their degrees in arts and science. For the purposes of this paper the chief features of the system and its results will be dealt with under "separate headings. Management. Technical schools in Western Aus- 220 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION tralia are controlled by the Minister for Education, through the Education Department, the schools being in charge of a " director " (having the title of " Director of Technical Education in Western Australia "), with the necessary teaching and clerical staff for each centre. Schools in Operation. In May 1900 the first Technical School in Western Australia was opened in Perth ; to-day, schools exist in seven centres, the majority being in the Goldfields districts. It must be remembered that Western Australia has only a popu- lation of about 300,000, the largest town, Perth, claiming about 40,000, and that the country from north to south measures 1,400 miles, and from east to west about 1,000 miles, its area being nearly a million square miles. System of Enrolment. During the earlier years the conditions of enrolment were more liberal or elastic than those of to-day, an age limit, and, in some cases, trade and primary education qualifications, being now essential. Roll. The steady progress of the work can be best confirmed by reference to the following figures. In 1900 the staff consisted of seven, including the Director. In 1905 the number had risen to 47, and this number has since been increased. In 1900 the students' roll numbered 257 ; in 1905 the number had risen to 665. Subjects. In the opening year classes were started in chemistry, assaying, mineralogy, carpentry, metal- working, wood-carving, and drawing. The success of the first year's work was so marked that other classes were quickly formed, and in 1905 the subjects embraced in the syllabus numbered 53, the latest being enamel- ling, leather-working, photography, pottery-work, bat- tery-milling, accountancy, dress-cutting, etc. Owing to the mineral wealth of Western Australia, classes conducted for the training of assayers, miner- alogists, and mining engineers receive special attention and strong support from those aspiring to these posi- tions. To facilitate the practical work a battery ' and allied plant have been erected. TECHNICAL EDUCATION 221 Finance. The cost and upkeep of the schools are charged to the State, the fees received from students being but a portion of the cost of the system. In 1900 the fees amounted to 152 ; in 1905 to 1,076. The expenditure in 1900 was 964 ; in 1905, 6,609. From the official estimates for 1906-7, I learn that the estimated expenditure will be 8,685, and fees are expected to realise 2,000. The fees for trade classes are very moderate, and in some cases are paid by the students' employers. Students thus receive technical information which would, in the ordinary routine of trade learning, be overlooked by employers. Reduced fees are charged when students enrol for more than one term. Examinations. Compulsory sitting is not carried out. An attendance of 75 per cent, of the year's class meetings is enforced. With the arts and science, mines and trade certificate classes, attendance is, of course, compulsory. It is an open question whether sitting for examinations should not be compulsory, as the teacher is oftentimes prevented from obtaining the highest results from his year's work. Again, many students of mature age join the classes for general self -improvement, and these refuse to sit for examinations. Quarterly test examinations are also held and reports forwarded to the Director. It may here be stated that the Education Depart- ment invites the co-operation of recognised trade unions in framing a course of study necessary for securing trade certificates. Scholarships. Scholarships are granted when the pass is first-class, the general principle being to rebate the fees for the ensuing year. A more elaborate system will no doubt be introduced as the work is more firmly established. Correspondence Classes. Classes have recently been started for science subjects, and, in view of the scattered population in Western Australia, it is confidently expected that the results will warrant the experiment. 222 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION General. Following the examinations it is customary for the Perth Technical School to hold a public display when the work of the students can be inspected, and the apparatus and tools can be seen in operation. The future has great possibilities ; for in a country where hidden treasures have to be wrested from the earth and progress made in arts and manufactures, it is of paramount importance that the youth of the land should be trained to be master of the secrets of his craft or trade. At this point of the meeting, Sir Philip Magnus was compelled to leave the chair, which was taken by Dr. R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY. Principal GARDNER (Bradford) said that from the papers it appeared that in all the Colonies technical education was perhaps much more appreciated by the public than it was in this country, and the problems they had to face were more directly interesting to the mass of the population than they were here. Mr. JOHN ROBINSON (Technical Institute, Johannes- burg) next gave an address on TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA Mr. Robinson said that technical education in the Transvaal was new. Before the war scarcely anything had been done. A school of mines was opened in Pretoria in 1897, and there were four students, and the war broke out in 1899. After the war it became apparent to all that technical education was one of the crying necessities for the Transvaal. A large population was growing up for whom occupa- tion had to be found, especially in the mines, and for occupation in the mines it was essential they should have some technical training. Posts of managers, mining engineers, and so on, were being taken by men from Europe and America. There was a time when the American mine manager and engineer largely pre- dominated, but it was not so now to such an extent. TECHNICAL EDUCATION In 1903 the Lieutenant-Governor appointed a Com- mission, and at the beginning of 1904 the Transvaal Technical Institution opened its doors. In that institution men were being trained for every branch of engineering, and above all for mining, and there were men studying chemical technology. There were sixty students in the various years of a four years' course. The first year was devoted to a training in general science, as was also the second year, but owing to exigencies it was necessary to begin to specialise even in the second year. In the third year there was a general engineering training, and in the fourth year the student specialised in whatever branch he wished to follow. The entrance was by matriculation, which was slightly higher than that of the Cape Uni- versity. The output was about twelve men per annum qualified as mine managers or engineers, and these men went into the mines. In the lower technical work there were now 1,200 students in technical classes, the largest centre being at Johannesburg, with 300 students. There were centres also at Pretoria, Pot- chefstroom, and throughout the colony. In Johannes- burg a large equipment had been got together for the mining school, and that equipment could be used in the evenings for technological instruction. The staff of professors numbered fourteen, and they were used to some extent to supervise the lower technological instruction, which was of a very sound character. University College, which he represented, was also extending its operations, and now examined in Bloem- fontein. The general managers of railways had started technical classes, and before he left, a com- munication had been received from the Natal Govern- ment asking the College to undertake examination in technical subjects of the students in Natal. There were one or two problems which he should like to indicate. The first was that of interchange of cer- tificates. The certificate of the lower technical classes was quite a sound one, based on South Kensington and quite up to their standard ; but it would be very 224 valuable if there could be some common certificate, so that a student holding a certificate of the Transvaal University College might make use of it in another part of the Empire for admission to some other kind of work. For instance, the College was used to train plumbers, and they were given a certificate on obtaining 60 per cent, of the marks in an examination, and the Town Council of Johannesburg allowed them to practise on that certificate. If a man came with a City and Guilds certificate he was not allowed to practise, but had to pass the examination and be registered by the Town Council, and probably if the South African certificates were taken to Australia or Canada they would be of no value to the men. The CHAIRMAN said the suggestion of interchanging certificates was essentially a suggestion for the Con- ference, and he hoped it would be taken up in the other Sections and some attempt made to carry it through. He was delighted to hear there was already some reciprocity, and if it was at present all on one side he need not tell Mr. Robinson there was a reason for it. What must strike every one who had been present that evening was that in the Colonies, as in America, the keenness for technical education was in strongly marked contrast with the indifference with which it was regarded in this country. A vote of thanks having been accorded to all who had taken part in the meeting, the Section adjourned. TECHNICAL EDUCATION SECTION WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1907. Chairman, PROFESSOR HENRY E. ARMSTRONG, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. THE following papers were on the agenda : Technical Training in Home Office Schools, by Canon N. G. Vine, M.A., Redhill. (See below.) Technical Education in the United Kingdom and its Relation to the Needs of the other Countries and of the Crown Colonies of the Empire, by Principal J. H. Reynolds, M.Sc. (Municipal School of Technology, Manchester). (See page 229.) Systematic Courses in Evening Classes (Continuation and Technical), by Principal J. H. Crowther, B.Sc. (Technical School, Halifax, England). (See page 236.) Mr. TREVARTHEN, in the absence of Canon Vine, read the paper on TECHNICAL TRAINING IN HOME OFFICE SCHOOLS Canon N. G. VINE, M.A. claimed that in recent years the Department had continued to be the pioneers of technical instruction to boys and girls, the elementary and secondary schools having hardly yet given evidence of their prowess in the execution of really skilled technical products such as Home Office schools had been able to exhibit. The main 225 15 226 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION lines of the course of technical training usually followed in their schools were, firstly, to impart an intelligent knowledge of diagrams, plans, and drawings illustrating machinery or details or methods connected with the special subject or branch of industry which the student had to be taught ; secondly, to explain the nature of the materials to be used, and such other general information as would serve to interest a pupil in the branch of labour he was to be taught ; thirdly, to instruct in the use of the tools and machinery em- ployed in the execution of the particular work ; and lastly, to impart a knowledge of geometry. The results of the manual training done were most creditable to the schools. All their own work was carried out under a master artisan in each department with boy labour namely, builders' and carpenters' work, smiths' and plumbers' work, painters' and decorators' work, and tailors' and shoemakers' work. The work done in these Home Office schools was not in any sense clumsy or makeshift work, but a really creditable and approved manual production. In the senior Home Office schools boys were trained up to the age when they must earn their own living, the principle being instilled of learning one trade well and sticking to it. With regard to the junior Home Office schools, where the children were often received at quite an early age and had the advan- tage of a good many years' training, the elementary instruction in manual work was both necessary and useful ; and as it could be commenced as a kinder- garten method of instruction to quite young children, the time could be well spared for a gradual but very solid foundation of a trade. For the same reason it became possible to give a pupil an opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of one or more trades or indus- tries before his schooldays came to an end. In senior schools few boys left these shops without having made progress enough to be able to obtain places as improvers and so earn a decent wage ; and even when the trade taught was not followed up after leaving school, there was always a source of employment and possibly of TECHNICAL EDUCATION 227 recreation within reach when required and in so many callings of life a supplementary acquirement came in useful, often leading to higher or more re- munerative employment. An emigrant, for instance, always found invaluable in his backwood home any skilled knowledge he might have acquired. On every ground the Home Office schools might be credited with having realised the importance and the advan- tages of the intellectual training which should ac- company the acquisition of technical experience as far as their limits would allow. DISCUSSION The CHAIRMAN ventured to think the subject was one of real importance. Many thought that the work being done in reformatory schools was of such an important character that it ought to be extended to all schools generally. He had himself recently seen a good deal of technical and manual work of the kind being carried on in a high-grade school which the Government had established at Osborne for sailors. Ten hours a week were given to manual work at that institution by boys of thirteen years of age, and the effect that work was having on the general intellect of the boys was extraordinary. Mr. GEOFFREY DRAGE, M.A. (sometime Chairman of the Training Ship Exmouth) considered that one branch of technical education had been very much neglected in schools, namely, training for the sea. It had been generally recognised, both by Acts of Parliament and in subjects in the House of Commons and before the Colonial Conference, that on the con- tinual supply of seamen the prosperity and safety of the Empire largely depended. The First Lord of the Admiralty, in the Conference of 1902, laid down that it was a matter of vital necessity that what he called the maritime spirit, which prevailed to a very great extent at home, should be developed in some way or other in those large continental tracts which made up so large a proportion of the Empire beyond the 228 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Seas. During the past half-century there had been a tremendous decline in the supply of British seamen. In the years 1859 to 1899, while the merchant tonnage of the British Empire had trebled, the number of seamen had decreased 25 per cent., and the number of boys and young men 85 per cent. There were 96,914 seamen and petty officers in 1857 ; in 1901 there were only 44,200. At that rate the British sea- man would very soon disappear from our Mercantile Marine. But it was not only the Mercantile Marine service that had to be considered ; the Navy was making ever-increasing demands for men on the popu- lation. The question had been inquired into again and again by Committees of the Admiralty and the Board of Trade, who had reported in favour of training- ships and of encouragement being given to training- ships, but nothing had been done in that direction, except the appointment of a further Committee. He thought it was a crying shame that in England there had not been the slightest attempt made to systematise the technical education in the one trade in which we lived and moved and had our being namely, the trade of the sea. There was no possi- bility, as there should be, of a boy climbing to the top of the tree in the Mercantile Marine, the same as he could in the Navy. The one system which had been found efficient and economical in training boys for the sea was that of training-ships. The training- ship Exmouth had put three thousand boys in the Navy, and more than three thousand in the Mercantile Marine. On that ship all the latest forms of physical instruction and development were in use. In con- clusion, he earnestly suggested the necessity of not only increasing the number of training-ships in England, but also the founding of them in the Colonies to main- tain the maritime spirit by which the Empire lived and moved and had its being. Mr. BASIL WILLIAMS, M.A. said that the Committee of the Feltham Industrial School was also, in a humble way, trying to train boys for the sea by instructing TECHNICAL EDUCATION 229 them on a ship which they had erected in the middle of a field. Any one travelling on the South- Western line could see it. He asked Mr. Drage how he managed to get the boys to the Exmouth. He gathered that they were not boys from reformatory or industrial schools. Mr. DRAGE replied they had no such boys. They spread their net all over Great Britain to obtain the boys. He might mention that he understood from the Japanese attache who had visited the Exmouth re- cently, that the Japanese Government were thinking of paying them the compliment of building a similar ship in Japan. With regard to the cost of the boys, each boy cost 32 a year, as compared with 116 a year on a naval training-ship. Dr. R. MULLINEUX WALMSLEY thought the method by which practical training was managed in Home Office schools as described in the paper appeared to be a most excellent one. It was not apparently merely the instruction in the use of tools and machinery which was pure manual training but also the training in the use of diagrams, and so forth. Mr. TREVARTHEN remarked that the scheme as laid down in the paper was in actual working at the school at Redhill, and he would be delighted to show any delegates over it. On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Canon Vine for his paper. Principal J. H. REYNOLDS, M.Sc. of Manchester, then read his paper on TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM and its Relation to the Needs of the other Countries and of the Crown Colonies of the Empire The desirability of promoting a better knowledge of the Motherland on the part of her colonies and a closer acquaintance with its traditions, its literature 230 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION the common heritage of all and with its economic and industrial achievements, aims, and developments, is growing in strength, and nothing is more likely to contribute to this consummation than to make fully and freely known and easily accessible all the means of educational progress and attainment, both general and special, that the homeland has to offer. The English people have been slow to realise the necessity for specialised training in the application of science to industrial and commercial enterprise, re- lying perhaps too confidently upon natural advantages of soil and climate, upon a singularly favourable position in respect of accessibility for the interchange of commerce, and especially upon a great natural aptitude for industrial pursuits combined with special qualities of adaptation of means to ends. They have come at last in some measure to realise that the advance of knowledge of natural phenomena and of their laws, in which their own great men of science have borne no mean part, has been such as to revolutionise industry, and that now not only is the skilful hand required, but the cultivated and alert brain, and that if the nation is to retain its acknowledged position as a great industrial and commercial nation it can only do so by the careful training of its industrial leaders in the applications of science, and in the know- ledge and mastery of the newly discovered powers which scientific investigation and discovery have placed at the service of man. Hence there have risen up in the great urban centres institutions, some of them municipal in their inception and maintenance, others depending for their creation and support upon the munificence of private enterprise, splendidly equipped and staffed for the training of men competent to direct with intelligence and educated foresight the great in- dustries for which the United Kingdom is famous throughout the world. Of the former it may be sufficient to name the great School of Technology at Manchester and the Technical Institute at Belfast ; of the latter some^of the London TECHNICAL EDUCATION 231 Polytechnics, the Glasgow and West of Scotland College, the Durham College of Science, the City and Guilds of London Institute, the University of Bir- mingham, and notably the Northern Universities, especially those of Manchester and Liverpool. Indeed it would be, I think, hardly regarded as invidious to name Manchester as offering a singular instance of municipal, combined with individual, enterprise such as it would be difficult to parallel in any country in respect of the advantages it offers, in the wealth and efficiency of the equipment it possesses, for the training of men for the great industries associated with chemistry, engineering, and textiles. But it is also beginning to be understood that the real advantages of technical training cannot be at- tained unless the general education of the country is on sound lines, and that the better educated a man is, the more surely will he grasp the true relation between science and its applications alike to industry and to commerce, so as to ensure that the fruits of both shall be such as to promote the permanent well-being of all, in every rank, who contribute to their development and progress. It is to the obvious and mutual advantage of the Mother Country and of her daughter colonies, as well as of her acquired dependencies, that every legitimate means should be employed to promote a good under- standing between them. Nothing is so likely to ensure this as to offer to specially selected and carefully educated young men of our colonies and dependencies .the means of specialised education and training such as this country in its various industrial centres now so abundantly provides. It is our plain duty to assist our colonies in the fullest development of their natural wealth and resources, and thus to create as it were an England in every part of the world where Englishmen can live and thrive. To bring to England the best type of colonist and give him the opportunity of intercourse with men of like aims and capabilities, is to create a bond of union 232 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION and common friendly understanding stronger than legislative enactments or formal treaties, and to promote the cause of civilisation and the peace and progress of the world. Such men, because they bring with them not only educated faculties, but a resolute and earnest spirit else they would not travel so far or make the needful sacrifices of time and money infuse an influence of great value amongst their fellow-students which makes their presence very acceptable, especially as they invariably secure the respect and goodwill of their English friends. It should be the strenuous aim of the authorities in our colonies and dependencies to ensure satisfactory preliminary educational conditions in the case of all men seeking the special advantages which the home country has to offer in respect of scientific and technical education. A common standard of admission is a crying need of the present time, and if it could be arranged on generous lines, it would not only contribute to a better organisation of the secondary schools, but it would greatly encourage and stimulate the desire for further education of a higher and, where needful, of a more specialised type in institutions where the young colonist could receive a sound training in applied science leading to a diploma or degree. It is important to note that in institutions like the McGill University at Montreal there are resources in respect of technical training, due to the wise and liberal munificence of a Canadian, that might well attract the English student to departments of technical study in which that university stands almost unique in the wealth and value of its equipment. It is recipro- city of this kind which will create and foster an entente cordiale between the Mother Country and her colonies, which all good citizens of the Empire eagerly desire. DISCUSSION The CHAIRMAN said all were aware that Mr. Reynolds had had an altogether peculiar experience in matters TECHNICAL EDUCATION 233 of the kind dealt with in the paper, and he spoke with a knowledge which very few possessed. Dr. WALMSLEY remarked that all must admire the very concise way in which a vast amount of knowledge had been condensed into the paper. For many years he, personally, had been very strongly of opinion that England ought to offer all the advantages it could to Colonials and to the natives of India to come for their final technical training to this country. But those who had listened to the discussions which had taken place in the building during the week would recognise that there was another side to the question, and that several of the Colonies considered that they could teach the Mother Country something as well as learn in return from the Mother Country. Mr. Reynolds had mentioned the McGill University, but there were other like institu- tions ; and it was said that the one in Johannesburg was coming forward with a heavy equipment such as might, in a few years, put to blush many similar in- stitutions in this country. But, after all, there were a great number of colonies, isolated places, which could only afford a technical school of the lowest rank or of medium rank, and those colonies and those in- stitutions should be encouraged to send, by means of scholarships, their most deserving students to other institutions, such as the one presided over by Mr. Reynolds himself. While they did not object to any one from any nation coming to England to avail himself of the opportunities afforded here, it was particu- larly those from the colonies and the natives of India they desired to attract. The Chairman had under his charge at South Kensington students from all parts of the earth, as he personally had in another direction in the Metropolis. Anything the Conference could do to develop that idea would be well worth doing. Mr. V. A. MUNDELLA said there had been two or three discussions during the week in regard to standards of admission to universities and technical colleges, out nothing had been arrived at ; nobody seemed to have had any ideas on the subject. Some people wanted to 234 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION put it as low as the Junior Cambridge, and others wanted to raise it as high as the London Matriculation. He desired to know whether Mr. Reynolds had any definite views on the subject. Principal REYNOLDS said he thought it was high time there should be a common matriculation examina- tion. The four Northern Universities had a joint Board which was independent of any single university, and that joint Board had agreed upon a common examination for matriculation which gave right of entrance to any of the associated colleges of Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, and Leeds. He thought there ought to be some reciprocity as between those Northern Universities and, say, the University of London, the University of Wales, and the University of Durham. Indeed, he thought it ought not to be difficult to arrange for an examination, practically a leaving ex- amination of the secondary schools which should require a special knowledge of English, a foreign lan- guage, and science, which would enable the student to enter profitably upon a specialised course either in arts or science or in technology, in any of the universities or properly equipped technical schools. Something of that kind was, he thought, badly needed. In reply to Mr. Mundella's question, he should say that an ex- amination at least not less than that required by the University of London should be expected from properly prepared candidates in the secondary schools, and that having passed such an examination as a leaving ex- amination they then should be free to enter, without further question, into the university or into the technical high school, as the case might be. What, in short, was wanted, he thought, even more than examina- tion, was an adequate period in the secondary school itself. When one remembered that in most of the secondary schools in Great Britain the length of time passed therein was, on an average, not more than three years, it would be seen it was impossible for the pupil to have that training which was necessary for any effective pursuit of scientific subjects in the univer- TECHNICAL EDUCATION 235 sities or in technical colleges. The German system of a six years' course, at least, ought to be adopted for boys in the secondary schools, in order to equip them for entrance upon scientific and technical training. The CHAIRMAN, in closing the discussion, said the question raised by the last speaker was probably the most important question that the Empire had to consider at the present time, and he was very glad Mr. Reynolds had brought forward a suggestion with regard to a school-leaving examination. From his experience extending over twenty-five years as a teacher in technical institutions, he was quite satisfied that the future depended much more on the proper preparation at the early stage than it did on the work done at the completed stage. What was wanted at the present time was some revolution on the part of the public against the school system which pre- vailed, and which would never be put straight until pressure was applied from outside. The schools would never reform themselves ; opinion was so conservative. Those who were dealing with schools were necessarily in a position which led them to hold restrictive views ; they did not know enough of the requirements of the world outside to put themselves in the right position towards their scholars. While technical education had advanced in a remarkable way, school education had not done so. He was one of those who believed that if the experience gained in those matters in this country could be collected together, it would be found that this country stood on a far higher level than even Germany did, and that England had made a far more thorough examination of methods than had been made by any other country, not excepting America. What was so much wanted at the present moment was some focussing of public opinion on the question ; some means of getting together the information that was at hand, and of placing it at the disposal of the public. On the motion of the Chairman, a hearty vote of 236 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION thanks was accorded to Principal Reynolds for his paper. Principal J. H. CROWTHER, B.Sc. (Technical Col- lege, Halifax, England) then read his paper on SYSTEMATIC COURSES IN EVENING CLASSES (Continuation and Technical) Introduction. The vast majority of the boys of this country discontinue attendance at the day schools either at the age of fourteen or before, whilst in the textile centres of the North tens of thousands com- mence to work half-time at the age of twelve, with the result that practically all the latter class of boys as well as many of the former only possess a very defective primary education. Realising the desirability of improving the education of these boys, and also of inducing them to seek further knowledge, strenuous efforts have been made for over a quarter of a century to secure their attendance at evening schools. This was attempted at the outset by making the curricula of the evening schools as attractive as possible, in many cases entirely recreative, also by offering prizes, treats, excursions, etc., for regular attendance. There was no serious attempt to provide systematic work in fact, the general impression was that such a procedure would empty the schools, an erroneous impression which I am afraid still prevails in some belated districts. Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890. The allocation of the residue under this Act for educational purposes gave a great impetus to the establishment of evening schools for so-called technical instruction ; teachers and managers alike were inspired with the idea of securing large numbers of class entries, and they undoubtedly succeeded. When the actual tech- nical instruction was reached, the unwisdom of this TECHNICAL EDUCATION 237 procedure soon manifested itself to the more intel- ligent teachers, who found that their classes consisted of an infinitesimally small number of pupils who were properly prepared to benefit by a course of specialised instruction, and of a very large proportion totally unfitted and who could not express themselves in writing, who could not make a simple computation, and who had no knowledge of the most elementary principles of projection. It was apparent that this condition of things must cease, both on educational and financial grounds, but how was the change to be brought about ? The most logical plan appeared to be the systematisation of the whole of the work. Systematic courses were introduced by different bodies of managers in different parts of the country ; but all were more or less doomed to failure, since in each locality there were at least two sets of managers operating, one generally con- trolled by the local school board, and the other by the technical instruction committee, each body being entirely independent of the other, and generally ignor- ing the existence of the other. The only solution of this problem appeared to be the co-ordination and systematisation of the whole of the work in each district. This, as is well known, was impossible until the passing of the Education Act in 1902, which placed the management of all evening schools (con- tinuation and technical) in one area under the same authority, and rendered possible the much-desired co- ordination and systematisation, thus securing efficient technical instruction, so far as it is possible in evening classes, at a minimum cost. Systematic Courses. Before attempting to introduce these, it is almost essential to determine pretty ex- haustively two factors first, the particular require- ments of the district, and second, the necessary pre- paration required by the students of the whole area, who in the future hope to benefit by specialised in- struction. After such an inquiry, the following scheme, which is submitted for your consideration, 238 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION was formulated, and is now being carried out with considerable success in a county borough with a popu- lation of over 100,000, and an area of 13,634 acres. The whole of the evening work is divided into three sections. Sections I. and II. are carried out in the evening continuation schools, the ages of the pupils ranging from 13 to 17 or 18, and Section III. is carried out at the Technical College, the ages of the students ranging from 16 upwards. Section I. consists of a two years' preparatory course, and 'is intended for those students who have allowed a period to elapse between leaving the ele- mentary day schools and entering the evening schools, or who have been half-timers, or who are of less than average ability, i.e. for those who do not possess a satisfactory primary education. The subjects of instruction are : English, geography and history, calculations (experimental or practical mathematics, or workshop calculations), and drawing (sketching and instrumental). Attendance three evenings per week is compulsory. Home-work should be done. The preparatory-course students are allowed the option of attending one special class (wood-working or metal- working) one evening per week in place of one class of the formulated course, and the time-table is so arranged that the pupil does not entirely omit any of the ordinary subjects. Section II. consists of three courses (Industrial, Commercial, and Art) each extending over two years, which provide the necessary and indispensable pre- paration for students desirous of studying successfully the specialised instruction given at the evening classes of the Technical College. Any boy having a good primary education should be at once admitted into the first-year of any of the above courses. Students who have attended a secondary school might with advantage take the second-year course for industrial students, but not the second-year course for com- mercial students, since on the commercial side special- ised instruction commences in the first year. The TECHNICAL EDUCATION 239 subjects of instruction in the first-year industrial course are : English, experimental mathematics in- cluding drawing, and practical physics. In the second- year : English, practical mathematics, machine draw- ing for engineers and textile students, or building construction and drawing for building trades and plumbing students. In the first- and second-year commercial courses the subjects of instruction are : English, book-keeping, office routine, commercial arithmetic, shorthand or French. Students must attend three evenings per week, and take the above courses exactly as arranged. The head teacher, however, is given discretionary powers, and in an exceptional case may allow a student to attend one or two evenings per week. Home-work is compulsory. It will thus be noticed that the whole of the work of the evening continuation schools is arranged in systematic courses, requiring attendance three evenings per week, and that home-work is compulsory in the ordinary courses. During the Session 1906-7 over 99 per cent, of the students attended three evenings per week, and of the total enrolment considerably over 80 per cent, were in attendance the last week of the session. It must be admitted that such an arrange- ment furnishes the Technical College with students who have become accustomed to systematic class- work, regular attendance, and compulsory home-work. Unlike the subjects of instruction in the evening continuation schools, those at the Technical College cannot be grouped to form systematic courses to the same extent. They may be roughly divided into three classes : Class I. Commercial, technological, and such sub- jects as machine construction and drawing, building construction, applied mechanics, steam, etc. These readily lend themselves to the formulation of systematic courses, particularly in the more elementary stages, and are attended by the great majority of the students of the College. Class II. Pure science and art subjects and languages, 2 4 o FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION which may be incorporated into courses, but which in many cases are required by students as part of a general education, or for special professional purposes. Class III. Such subjects as physiology, physio- graphy, and hygiene, which are mainly required by elementary teachers, and are necessarily treated as non-course subjects. Only 18 per cent, of the students of the College take the subjects in this class. Class I. subjects have been grouped into eleven systematic courses : viz. mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, building trades subjects, plumb- ing, house-painting and decorating, pure chemistry, dyeing, gas manufacture, cloth- weaving, worsted- spinning, and commercial knowledge, extending over three or four years, following on the first- and second- year courses given in the evening continuation schools. Students are required to attend three evenings per week ; home-work is compulsory. It will no doubt be interesting to learn that in the highest courses of mechanical engineering, textiles, and plumbing, 70 per cent, of the students enrolled were in attendance the last week of the session, and were attending three evenings per week. Class II. subjects have been arranged into somewhat elastic systematic courses, mainly intended for students preparing for the matriculation, intermediate, and the final B.Sc. examinations of the University of London, the matriculation examination of the Northern Universities, the College of Preceptors, and the phar- maceutical examinations. Class III. subjects are not grouped. Co-ordination Scheme. To insure the success of the systematic courses at the Technical College, it has been found imperative to co-ordinate the whole of the work of the area. The following is the co-ordination scheme in opera- tion at Halifax. The evening schools of the borough are divided into four grades. Grade I. take the pre- paratory courses only, and are usually located in the thinly populated districts. Grade II. schools provide, TECHNICAL EDUCATION 241 in addition to the preparatory courses, first-year com- mercial, industrial, and art courses, and are located in the more populous districts, whilst the Grade III. schools, situated in the most populous districts, have, in addition to the courses given in the Grade II. schools, second-year industrial, commercial, and art courses. The Grade IV. school is represented by the Technical College, practically in the centre of the borough. By such an arrangement it is possible to pass students from one school to another, and to secure reasonable uniformity in the preparation of students who enter for the specialised courses at the Technical College. This session 90 per cent, of the second-year students taking the first-year mechanical engineering course at the College attended the second-year industrial course at the evening schools last session. These schemes are most effective when the organisa- tion of the Technical College and the evening con- tinuation schools are under the control of one official. I will conclude by enumerating some of the influences which have largely contributed to the successful introduction and carrying out of systematic courses : (i) Classification of all grades of students ; (2) Ap- pointment of properly qualified teachers ; (3) Award- ing of scholarships ; (4) Recognition of the work by employers of labour ; (5) Head teachers are not required to take classes. DISCUSSION Mr. REYNOLDS said that Principal Crowther had had a singularly successful experience in Halifax. He (Mr. Reynolds) thought it could not be too clearly stated that for a long time to come very close attention would have to be given to evening work. He knew that evening work was not popular with a certain class of Professor, who had little respect for the evening student, and considered him a person with whom it was quite impossible to do anything ; but that was not his own experience. He had found the evening 16 242 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION student^ where he was a good student, a most zealous and industrious person, who, by reason of his contact with the practical problems of life, was able to take a great deal from the opportunities which were offered to him in evening classes. A great effort was being made in the North of England to systematise the work of evening classes. In his own city of Man- chester, which had a population of over 600,000, and which was surrounded by a good many towns, so that within a very few miles of the Exchange there was a population of about two millions, a great deal was being done in that direction. Mr. Crowther had referred to the Act of 1902. He (Mr. Reynolds) re- garded that Act as one of the very best Acts within recent years ; if it did no more than to unify the authorities for education, it had that great merit. The result was to put an end to the conflict which had gone on between the technical instruction committees of a city, or the technical institution of a city, and the work of the school board of that city. Dr. WALMSLEY also bore testimony to the high value of many of the evening students. He took a very special interest in the subject of group courses. Eleven years ago he faced the subject, long before it had been faced by any one elsewhere. When he attempted to introduce group courses years ago, he found the system of payment by results in vogue, and in order to get his group courses going he had to dispense with the South Kensington Branch alto- gether ; he could not go under their rules, which were cast iron, and which would not allow of good work being done. Fortunately he had a governing body who allowed him to go on with the work, and do it without the aid of South Kensington at all. Now, under the new regime, they were working with South Kensington, and working most cordially. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Principal Crowther for his paper, and the section terminated. (For other meetings dealing with Technical Education see pages 57 and 128.) "TRAINING OF TEACHERS' SECTION TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1907. Chairman, REV. CANON G. C. BELL, M.A. Hon. Secretary, MR. T. S. FOSTER. THE CHAIRMAN : " Ladies and gentlemen, I am very glad to see such a well-attended and representative meeting. It is all the more encouraging because I am told that all the delegates and representatives from the different colonies have suddenly been invited to meet the Prime Minister this evening at the House of Commons, and therefore we shall not now have their presence and their help. But we may hope to see them to-morrow at the afternoon meeting. So we are a happy party by ourselves, met to consider English questions without any interruption, or I ought more gracefully to say any illumination, from our Colonial friends. Our domestic problems we can discuss among our- selves, without fear of tropical criticism. I assume that you are all interested in the training of teachers. I, myself, am more particularly interested in the training of secondary teachers. But the speakers who come before you this evening will not, naturally, confine themselves to that branch of the subject. " The training of elementary teachers, of course being compulsory, brings into the training colleges great 243 244 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION numbers of students, and of course their education involves interesting questions and problems. I wish that I could say that the training of secondary teachers was equally encouraging. " I think most of us are convinced that if we can train those who are going to be teachers in secondary schools whether university men or not it would be a very good .thing for them and the boys over whom they have charge. And for a time, after the establishment of the Teachers' Registration Council, and action on the part of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and elsewhere, the prospects of the training of secondary teachers seem to be fairly encouraging. " Recent events in Parliament and elsewhere especi- ally the Education Bill of 1906 have brought rather a blight on the prospect ; and even the women who have shown such admirable zeal in preparing them- selves for school-work and have crowded the lists of the Registration Society even they have found their spirits damped by the present want of encouragement to train them on the part of the Education Board and other authorities. I do not say that the Education Board wish to discourage training in fact, they speak very fairly on the subject, and some of their regula- tions are of a satisfactory nature to those who want training, but the net result of it all is that at present one hears that hardly any men from the universities are offering themselves for training courses, and that the number of women who are offering themselves has very sensibly diminished. " I hope that this meeting and the one we hold to-morrow when we shall be reinforced by Colonial stalwarts will help to convince the authorities that we require training for secondary teachers, and trust for a speedy production of things which will lead to the result which is so much desired." Professor J. J. FINDLAY, M.A., Ph.D. (Victoria University, Manchester) then addressed the meeting on TRAINING OF TEACHERS 245 THE DEMONSTRATION SCHOOL and other Practical Means of Training the Teacher and the following is a synopsis of his remarks : " Every one who begins to practise his calling does so at the expense of those upon whom he practises. When you employ a young dentist, or are served by a young shopman, you have to accept the services of the beginner, and he can only learn his trade by serving you. It has, however, been sometimes supposed that the school can be saved from this universal law by what is called training that the training college may turn out teachers who escape the penalty of inexperience, who can enter fully fledged into the ranks of the capable practitioner. This is a false view : all that a system of training can do is to shorten the period of practice, to guide the beginner, to help him to reflect upon what he observes, so that intelligence may assist experience. But the essence of any sound system is to be found in its close relation to reality, to the daily problems of the profession, and to realise the meaning of these methods, materials, ideals, the student and his plan of training must begin with and continually return to practice. "Now, in every calling in which some formal plan of training has been marked out, you find two types of practice, types which belong to the nature of things, and are each of them essential to the making of a complete craftsman. The first is that of the apprentice, by practice under the ordinary conditions of the pro- fession ; the beginner shares in the regular routine, helps the older experienced practitioner, and learns the daily routine of the life which his fellows lead. This sort of practice, I take it, is an essential part of any scheme of training. Our English code recognises it to the full ; it requires that the student in training should spend so many weeks in a public elementary 246 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION school. Now, every public elementary school, when used for such a purpose, is a practising school, and should be regarded and classified as such. Wherever a school is conducted under the Code, in receipt of grants, with a properly certificated teacher in charge, any such school ought to be recognised as a place where a beginner can try apprentice work. By appren- tice I mean student. I want to make this point emphatic because I know that the contrary opinion is held. It is sometimes attempted to classify public schools and to make special regulations, approving some special head teacher and school as qualified to admit such apprentices, and another as disqualified. These distinctions to my mind are futile ; if a school isjso badly taught that it is unfit for a beginner to practise in, then it ought not to receive public money, and any way the poorer schools will naturally be sparingly employed for purposes of apprenticeship, exactly as in other professions. Further, this sort of practice must be under the direction of the head teacher and the staff, and visiting lecturers or masters of method coming in from outside cannot rightly take their place. No stranger can interfere in the internal management of a school ; he may make a few suggestions or hints, but the real work of training, of planning the syllabus, and the methods of directing the teachers' relations with the scholars is part of the regular work of the place, and depends upon a hundred personal factors which are unknown to visitors. The head teacher's part in this oversight of such students should be recognised. Before I go on to the second type of practical work I wish to urge that this first type practice under the daily conditions of the profession should form part of, or be precedent to, a course of college training. When a university graduate comes to consult me about training, I ask him to go at once into a school I do not care much what type of school and get some regular experience even a month will be of great value. And I urge this simply because I want him to realise what my lectures mean when he comes later on to courses of TRAINING OF TEACHERS 247 lectures. We have had in this country two highly contrasted systems ; one of primary training, in which the student has come to college after being a pupil teacher with an excess of apprenticeship ; the other of secondary training, with an excess of theory, of philosophy, of history, and oftentimes a most scanty acquaintance with the realities of school life. The defenders of the latter system tell us that the student will have plenty of opportunity in after-years of getting practical experience ; but I ask for this experience to be gained beforehand, or side by side with theoretic studies, simply because these studies have no value unless they are based upon first-hand observation. " And this brings me to the second type of training. Our first type of practice is the apprenticeship type. It is, however, primitive. It begins in any calling or trade before the formal efforts to study cause and effect have been organised. As soon as a profession becomes so organised by systematic thinking and by science, the beginner can expect something more than mere practice, and the lecturer, the demonstrator, steps in to help him with larger views, with fruits of experience gathered from a wider field. The professor of law, or engineering, or of medicine, is the same type of man as the ordinary practitioner, except that he is now set apart for the specific duty of studying and helping students. Unfortunately as regards the training of teachers a different view has often obtained in this country ; it has been supposed that the theory of education was something to be learnt in a training college, expounded by those who had no immediate responsibility or concern in school life, and that students could keep the two separate, learning theory in the lecture room, and practice apart from it. This is a capital heresy, and the fact that it has gained so much support accounts largely for the discredit in which the theory of education has been held. Wherever sound theory has been produced, it has sprung from teachers who have been in close contact with children and with school life. I will not detain this Conference 248 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION by proving my point from the history of educa- tional science, but I will indicate briefly the chief characteristics of the type of school to be used for this purpose. " Firstly it should be known by its proper name. It is of course a practising school, for students should take a share in the daily teaching ; but as we have seen, all public schools may be practising schools. The distinctive function of this school is as a -place of demonstration the lecturer on education is, or should be, a demonstrator, and the school in which he works is the laboratory in which he presents the practical out- come of the theory which he expounds in lecture and in textbook. When you ask me how I teach arith- metic I say, ' Come and see ! ' It should therefore be called a Demonstration School, and it is a matter of congratulation that the Government have accepted this title in the clause which they were good enough to accept in the last Education Bill of 1906. We hoped that this clause would be reinstated in the non-con- tentious Bill of 1907 by the House of Commons, but this the Government would not agree to, and our hopes are now deferred to 1908. " Now, as such, this type of school may assume many shapes ; it may receive children who pay fees, or it may receive very poor children ; it may be an ele- mentary school, or it may not ; but whatever its constitution it must be managed and controlled by the Training College, with its curriculum, its methods, its corporate life regulated with the purpose of demon- strating principles and ideas of education. " In what respect, then, will it differ from any other good public school ? To all outward appearance it may not differ indeed in some respects it may differ for the worse, since very often the most useful de- monstration schools have been poorly equipped and miserably financed. It differs from others simply from the aim with which it is established. Its daily scheme of lessons, its rules of management, the efforts of its teachers, all serve a double purpose to expound to TRAINING OF TEACHERS 249 students as well as to care for the children. It needs for this purpose not a smaller staff than other schools, but if possible a larger staff, since students must be looked after as well as the children. It does not need to be a larger institution, the classes need not be large, since the purpose of the school is to show what cannot be shown so well in the larger classes of the public schools viz. the life of the individual child, his progress under a continuous scheme of teaching. All sound study of education begins with the study of the individual child, his disposition, his reactions, his growth ; and the demonstration school is the best place for the pursuit of what is now called child study. " I conclude by summarising the argument in three propositions : " (i) Every student of education should gain some experience under the ordinary conditions of school life either previous to or during the course of training. " (2) This should be gained in the ordinary public (elementary or secondary) schools and conducted under the direction of the head teacher and his staff. ' ' (3) Every Training College or Department of Educa- tion should have a Demonstration School as a part of its equipment, under the control of those who train the students and who lecture on Teaching. Every student should gain some part of his experience, and should make his studies of individual children, in such a school, and should thus learn the theory of curriculum and method by close association with a daily exposition in practice." DISCUSSION Mr. BRUCE (Head Master, St. Jude's School, South- wark) said he was only there to offer a suggestion as to the practicability of training teachers. Under the present regulations of the Council they had recently got some secondary teachers into their schools. He would not tread upon anybody's toes if he could help it, but he must say he was not surprised to hear the 250 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION statement that the secondary teachers, as a rule, had not much training. Whether the teachers they possessed in secondary schools were non-successful or had no training whatso- ever, the fact remained that when they were put before elementary school boys they were absolutely nowhere. One hardly knew, therefore, whether to feel contempt for the authorities who let the thing go on and allowed the children to be taught by a large proportion of in- efficient teachers, or to feel pity for the poor men who were placed before the classes. Secondary teachers who came into elementary schools ought to have experienced proper training. He knew instances of where one boy went to another and made a sum clear to him where the teacher could not. Some- thing might have been forgotten by the teacher, or he might not have been able to gauge the boy's mind. The boy was not necessarily a loser by having a young person to teach him. On the contrary, very often he was a great gainer ; and although he was a great believer in training experience, they should not press too much upon the losses there were through the inexperience of the young teacher. He was a strong believer in the pupil-teacher system. What were obtained to-day were teachers who were not too fond of work and who could not listen to children. The training of teachers was most valuable, although the dictum that the teacher was born, and not made, was very true. His belief, and that of many others, was that teachers were not selected with sufficient initial care. Miss A. WOODS (Maria Grey Training College, Brondesbury) said that one point on which she certainly could not agree was allowing teachers to come to the schools and teach before they had received a thorough training. When the raw beginner came fresh from college to a school she greatly feared that the children became the sufferers. Miss J. A. GALLOWAY, M.A. (Hon. Secretary, Queen Margaret College, Glasgow University) said that in TRAINING OF TEACHERS 251 Scotland they were trying all they could to make the training as thorough as possible, and give every ad- vantage to the students. One thing particularly seen in the north by her and by others was the necessity of the training of women for teachers. In Glasgow there was a large training department, the total number of women students alone being 205. There were two sets of training, one being specially normal, which did not take part in the university course, while the other set did take that course and came under her personal observation. During the past three years the system had been that either the university and the training courses could be taken together, or firstly the uni- versity course for three, four, or five years, and the training course afterwards : anyhow there must be a full year of nothing but training. In the university course alone the length" of time must be three years. There were two sessions in the course of the year, one being of twenty weeks and the other of ten. The students in training must take chiefly their university work in the winter weeks, and wholly and solely training work in the summer time. The practice took place in the Board Schools and other schools. On the whole, after three years' experience the system ap- peared to be more advantageous to girls, though the fact of both the university and the other course being taken together meant devoting very long hours to the study. In the course of that period, however, the students had been turned from school-girls into women : they had matured their knowledge and gained great intellectual advantage. Miss LACEY (Head Mistress, Grove School, High- gate) said that she felt bound to ask whether those who in a Demonstration School came to " practise " upon the intellects of the children spoiled those children less than those who began there ? She said em- phatically, No. Were they to put the children in one school and make them a ransom for the remainder ? Miss K. BATHURST (late Inspector of Schools) was of opinion that a great deal of harm was done in training 252 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION colleges by discountenancing originality and experi- ment, and by forcing teachers to take the form and the caste which happened to commend itself to any particu- lar institution. What was wanted as much as any- thing in elementary schools was the encouragement of experiments. It was cruel to destroy the indi- viduality of a person and make that person think that he or she could ,do nothing. If they were made to think they could do something they would develop something which probably no one else would be able to teach them. Her second point was that she strongly deprecated the appalling amount of criticism which was poured upon young teachers by inspectors and other critics when those teachers were put to the test. Such severe criticism tended to discouragement and did more mischief than otherwise. Mr. J. H. GETTINS (University College, Reading) viewed with apprehension the growing tendency of collecting large bodies of training students in one institution. What was training ? Why, it was the theory which was obtained through lectures and the skilfulness and dexterity used in class teaching. Such training produced enthusiasm. Enthusiasm could only come through contact with another who possessed it. Therefore his contention was that that individual enthusiasm could not be produced when so many students were brought together in one place and conse- quently passed out of intimate personal supervision. He entirely agreed with Professor Findlay's sug- gestion of the Demonstration School, and was of opinion that schools should be organised with the co- operation of the colleges, so that the students could examine the schemes of instruction from the lower to the higher standards. Students would thus go away possessing certain ideals which would remain as models through life. Professor FINDLAY, in reply, said they must possess a staff to do the regular work, and not let the students be at the expense of the staff. If good teachers were TRAINING OF TEACHERS 253 obtained and the schools properly organised, the children would not suffer. He agreed that children gained considerably by having the individual attention of the teachers. The Rev. BERTRAM HAWKER (of South Australia), having been invited by the Chairman to speak, said he had been into some of the schools in this country during his visit. He had studied the methods of teaching, and could bear testimony to the success of the painstaking efforts of the teachers. Professor J. H. MUIRHEAD, M.A., LL.D. (Birmingham University) then read the following paper entitled CIVIC INSTRUCTION BY SYLLABUS The first question that is suggested by the title of this discussion is how far a syllabus of instruction is desirable at all. There are those who hold that such instruction is wholly artificial : the teacher should confine himself to the indirect method. The character of the citizen and the citizen-like character in general are more effec- tively formed incidentally and unconsciously. Others hold that while such instruction may be made a conscious object by the teacher, his methods should be mainly indirect. I hold that there is a time in a child's development when forms of conduct and the institutions that correspond to them become like everything else in his environment, an object of curiosity, and that this dawning civic consciousness forms the opportunity of the teacher to attempt something more systematic in the way of developing it into the spirit of citizenship. I hope it will be clear that for the earlier years of childhood our syllabus will be an adaptation of the ordinary school curriculum so as to give a central place to stories, songs, and poetry which may kindle imagina- tion and feeling in the right way. An hour or two a week devoted to story-telling and poetry recitation 254 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION would not be too much. I should only stipulate (i) that the story should be told and not read only in this way can you secure that it has taken hold of the feeling and imagination of the narrator in the way that is necessary if it is to stir them in the child ; (2) that no attempt should be made to point the moral. Indeed, if the story is of the right kind I should not be too anxious that it should have a moral to point. This, if I might venture a criticism, seems to be the main defect of stories specially selected in books on moral instruction. They are wanting in wholesome disinterestedness and virility. They are too obviously made down to suit the child ; and if my observation goes for anything, the normal child is as resentful of stories as of coats and trousers that are made down for him. Allegory seems particularly liable to this vice, and there is much wisdom in the remark of a distinguished teacher that we can never safely forget that the normal child is apt " to strip off the allegory to swallow the story and to spit out the moral." At a second stage of the child's development my syllabus would still consist of an extension of the same principle. The only difference would be that real biography, elementary history, and more continuous and advanced narration, appealing to a longer memory and a wider imagination and sympathy, would take the place of fable and fairy tale or history that is selected chiefly for its vividness of colouring and naivete of conception. The main thing at this stage is real knowledge on the part of the teacher of the social and civic forces which form the background of the events and characters of which he is speaking, a knowledge that can only be got, if not by first-hand acquaintance with original documents (though this in these days with the aid of reprints is by no means an impossible ideal), yet by the aid of the better-class histories and biographies. Even when we come to the age at which civic in- struction is appropriate I still find myself obliged to lay emphasis on this condition. With a living interest TRAINING OF TEACHERS 255 on the part of the teacher in the social history and life of the nation, a sense that the forms and institutions about him are palpitating with the stored energy of centuries of the past and represent the better mind of a vast community in the present, there is no part of the work of the school which will not offer opportunities of civic instruction. Without it the best syllabus will not be worth the paper it is printed on. It was the neglect of this condition more than any other probably which accounts for the almost total failure of Mr. Acland's well-intentioned effort to introduce civic instruction in the last Liberal administration. It was a skeleton scheme to the children with all the re- pulsiveness, I fear, of the skeleton to the teacher with none of its suggestiveness. If we may assume the existence of this background of knowledge and feeling in the individual teacher, I have no doubt of the value of a syllabus of civic instruction, but in proportion to my sense of its import- ance I shrink from any attempt to stereotype it in a paper like the present. Its leading objects will be those set out by Ruskin in a passage not sufficiently familiar to educationists. Faced by the question whether politics, in the large and dignified sense in which he conceives of it, can be taught to school-boys, he answers : " No ! but the first elements of it ; all that is necessary to be known by an individual in order to his acting wisely in any station of life might be taught not only to every school-boy, but to every peasant ; . . . the honourableness of every man who is worthily filling his appointed place in society, however humble ; the proper relations of governor and governed ; the nature of wealth and mode of its circulation, the difference between productive and unproductive labour; the relation of the products of the mind and hand ; the true value of works of the higher arts and the possible amount of their production ; the meaning of civilisa- tion, its advantages and dangers ; the meaning of the term refinement, the possibilities of possessing refine- 256 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION ment in a low station and of losing it in a high one ; and, above all, the significance of almost every act of a man's daily life in its ultimate operation upon himself and others, all this might be and ought to be taught to every boy in the kingdom so completely that it should be just as impossible to introduce an absurd or licentious doctrine upon our adult population as a new version of the multiplication table." For purposes of systematic instruction the syllabus here sketched will fall into three groups corresponding to (i) the history and meaning of civilisation in general ; (2) the growth of civic freedom in our own nation ; (3) the responsibilities and privileges of individual stations, more particularly those involved in trade or profession and in our economic relations to others. It is clear that such a division could not correspond to different ages in the child. Wherever civic instruc- tion is attempted at all, portions of each would have to form a part of it. Thus it would be impossible to treat of the growth of popular government in any community apart from the invention of printing, or of modern factory industry apart from the discovery of steam power. In the grading of the instruction the same principle would have to be adopted here as in other subjects. We should have to take account of the pupil's range of experience on the one hand and the possibility of interesting him in abstractions on the other. I. Without attempting to dogmatise, the following subjects would seem to be appropriate to children of thirteen to fifteen (=the Vlth and Vllth Standards in elementary schools). 1. The story and significance of great inventions. The growth of humane feeling and institutions such as hospitals and orphanages. Discoverers and reformers in medical and social science. 2. Under a second head would come, together with much of the former, matter that is of particu- lar national or local interest. In my own city, for TRAINING OF TEACHERS 257 instance, the discoveries and inventions of Joseph Priestley and James Watt, or the art of Burne- Jones, explanations of current incidents in politics, a general election, the erection of a new building, a national or municipal celebration. But there would be little attempt at political or industrial history as such. 3. Under a third head would come talks on the necessity and dignity of work. The duties and rights of property , the evils of debt, of gambling and betting. The common ownership of property. Parks, art galleries, libraries and schools. Grati- tude to the community. II. For pupils from fifteen to seventeen. 1. The growth of toleration : (a) in sense of non- interference, (b) active sympathy with different points of view. The growth of international relations. Inter- national commerce and law. The ideal of universal peace. Arbitration. Poetry, art, and science as common possessions, illustrated by biographies of poets, men of science, artists and musicians. 2. Institutions of central and local government. The growth of the Colonies and Empire. 3. The industrial revolution and the factory system, trade unions and industrial combinations. Responsibilities of both to each other and to the community. Co-operative ideals. Many attempts have been made to introduce sylla- buses on these or similar lines. I have no personal experience beyond a few elementary schools in my own city. The effects in some of these are said to be sufficiently marked, and I am told where " civic in- struction " is adopted on a large scale, as in some of the states and cities in America and throughout the whole of France, it is held to have a great role to play in the evolution of the citizen character. An authority on education who recently went to America with some prejudice against the whole system returned a complete 17 258 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION convert to it, telling me that he had been present in the city of Chicago at a most effective lesson on the evils of civic corruption, given under the recently adopted syllabus of the Board of Education there, and that throughout the schools he visited this is a most real and valuable part of the school curriculum. But it is only from secondary schools and colleges that we can hope 'for convincing testimony. Knowing of one leading London day school in which the attempt was made to carry out Ruskin's ideal, I wrote to the head mistress for her syllabus, at the same time inquiring what her unbiassed opinion was of the re- sults. Her answer may interest you. " These courses," she wrote, " are very successful. The pupils are much interested in the information thus acquired and there is certainly considerable effect in stimulating what might be called their civic conscience. The effect comes, of course, with the general tone of the school, which has always been associated with public- spiritedness in the wider sense. We have, I think, a good deal of London patriotism in particular." "Pedagogic like other wisdom is justified of its children, and there is one group of its children which has in recent times done more than justify the wisdom of the syllabus. The Japanese nation may be said to have been made by a syllabus of civic instruction. The CHAIRMAN said that two admirable and instruc- tive papers had been read, and excellent speeches had been made, the result being that all present had been given a good deal to think about. The proceedings then terminated. "TRAINING OF TEACHERS' SECTION WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1907. Chairman, THE REV. CANON G. C. BELL, M.A. THE following papers were on the agenda : I. " The Relation between the Professional and the General Education of the Future Teacher." (Pro- fessor Adams and Mr. F. Handel Thompson of Johannesburg.) II. " The Training of Teachers in Methods of Physical Development." (Madame Bergman Osterberg.) THE RELATION BETWEEN THE PROFES- SIONAL AND THE GENERAL EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE TEACHER Professor J. ADAMS, M.A., B.Sc. (University of London) said that the general education of the future teacher might be considered under the two heads (i) quality, and (2) the order in which the culture studies should be presented. No time need be wasted in discussing the first aspect. Every one is agreed that the higher the general culture of the teacher the better. The real problem is the order in which the professional and culture subjects should be presented. The two views that hold the field are the " concurrent " and the " post-graduate." Some trainers of teachers believe that all the cultural or academic subjects should be presented in the first instance, and that only when 259 260 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION these are mastered should the professional studies begin. These form the post-graduate, or post-academic school. This principle can be applied to non-university two-year students as well as to the regular university students ; for under the New Regulations of the Board of Education a Two- Year Course may be so divided that the first year is taken up almost entirely with cultural subjects and the second year with pro- fessional. Among university people the post-graduate view is all but universal ; among the trainers of two- year students there is a preponderance of opinion in favour of the concurrent method, the arguments being that the students have such an imperfect acade- mic training that it is advisable to spread their academic subjects over the whole of the two years. Further, even in the case of university students it is sometimes found that there is an advantage in the alternation between the academic and the professional studies throughout the whole course, and that the academic studies of the students actually gain from the fact that in learning how to teach others the students learn how best to conduct their own studies. The speaker was personally strongly in favour of the post-graduate scheme in the case of his own students, with the proviso that a certain amount of practical work in school should be given during university vaca- tions throughout the whole of the three years of training. Mr. F.HANDELTHOMPSON,M.A. (Inspect or of Schools, Johannesburg), speaking on behalf of the Colony which he represented, said that his object was to place before them the system which they were endeavouring to work out in the Transvaal. He had not had time to prepare a formal paper, but he had put down their system under different headings. First, they had one system of training for Primary and Secondary School Teachers. That he would elaborate further later on. Then they insisted upon a satisfactory standard of general education being reached before any professional training was begun. That standard of general educa- tion they took as the London Matriculation or rather, TRAINING OF TEACHERS 261 the Cape Matriculation, which was a trifle lower than that represented by the London Matriculation. As a rule, no professional training of any kind was started before the age of seventeen or eighteen. They had no pupil-teacher system, and they had no teachers in their schools below the age of seventeen or eighteen. They endeavoured to carry out the principle that in the pro- fessional training of a teacher theory and practice should proceed pari passu. They also ensured that after a teacher had passed through the training college, before the certificate was granted he must serve a certain amount of time in actual service in the school, and, as far as possible, that that service should be spent only in certain selected schools. They maintained that until the certificate was fully earned, the candidate should be looked upon as still being in training, and therefore they selected certain schools for service where the teacher must go after leaving the training college, and where he was not put in a position of full responsibility. They had three classes of certificates, named re- spectively third, second, and first class. In each case there were three qualifications essential before the certificate was granted. In the case of the third-class certificate, the standard of general education asked for, as he had already said, was that of the Cape Matriculation, or of course its equivalent. They had a system of equivalents in the Transvaal, not only with regard to university examina- tions, but also in connexion with teachers' certificates. They had a Grading Commission, to which all questions of certificates were referred. The second qualification for a third-class certificate was a theoretical knowledge of the general principles of the science and art of teach- ing, as applied to the general subjects of the primary- school course. The third qualification was that they must have had one year's successful service as assistant in a selected school. That was the lowest certificate which they recognised ; but as they had difficulties in finding sufficient teachers for their schools, they had 262 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION recognised under certain conditions a " provisional " third-class certificate, only held for three years, and the teacher came to them as a bona-fide candidate for their third-class examination. They gave him three years in which to qualify. If at the end of that time the teacher had not satisfied those conditions, his or her service ceased automatically. They were not encouraging in Johannesburg the employment of pro- visional certificated teachers. Although they paid what would appear to his audience a very decent salary to those teachers, it was a salary which they certainly could not live on with any comfort. With regard to the second-class certificate, the standard of general education required was represented by the Cape Intermediate or the London Intermediate in Arts or in Sciences, or the equivalent. As regards theory, they asked for a more extended theoretical knowledge of the science and art of teaching, with psychology, ethics, curricula, organisation particu- larly with reference to the management and control of a school of at least 150 children. In the third place they asked, before the certificate was granted, for two years' experience as assistant in a schoolof at least 150 children or as head teacher of a smaller school. It was an im- portant point that, of that two years' service, one might be spent in a recognised college where facilities were, provided for the necessary higher training. They were encouraging teachers to come to their training college in the first instance to be qualified as third-class certificated teachers. They then went out into their schools for a year or two, and then were encouraged to come back and go through a further course of training, both with regard to the academic and the professional side. If that training was successfully gone through, they then became qualified, after the necessary service, to the second-class Transvaal certificate. With reference to an earlier statement as to not distinguishing between the training for primary schools and for secondary schools, he should point out that except in the preparatory departments of the TRAINING OF TEACHERS 263 secondary school they did not employ third-class certificated teachers. The second-class certificate was the lowest which they recognised for the secondary school and that certificate was as a rule the highest certificate they got in the primary school, so that although they recognised no difference with regard to the training for the primary or the secondary school, at the same time the qualifications were different in each instance. With these second-class certificates, they had a system of endorsement which specified special ability to teach such subjects as singing, drawing, science, etc., up to the level of Standard VII. of the elementary-school course equal to about the lower fourth form of the secondary school. With regard to the first-class certificate, the general standard of education was that of a pass degree of any recognised university. Regarding theory, they asked for more extensive knowledge of schools and school methods as they existed in other countries, such as France, Germany, the United States, or one of the British Colonies or dependencies, such knowledge to be gained wherever possible by a visit of at least a year's duration to the country selected. The practice for the first-class certificates was that of a head teacher of a primary school of 150 children, or a recognised secondary school of at least 50 scholars. DISCUSSION Mr. FRANK TATE, I.S.O., M.A. (Director of Education, Victoria) said he was especially interested in Prof. Adams's remarks, because in one delightful sentence of a very delightful book of his he pointed out that the whole history of the development of the training of the teacher could be got from an examination of the old Latin Grammar sentence : " The master teaches John Latin." Perhaps he might remind them of how Prof. Adams discussed that, and showed that the old ideal of teaching many years ago was that the master should know Latin, and the more of it the better, and so the 264 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION demand was for a teacher who was highly skilled in the particular subject that he professed to teach. The next demand was that he should not only know Latin, but that he should know something about how to teach. And there was still a third demand that was being emphasised in modern times : that he should not only know his subject and something about the art of teach- ing that subject, but that he should know John himself. He thought they were all agreed that this wonderful personality that they demanded the modern teacher to possess must really comprehend in itself the elements of all three. Now, the question was, How were they going to select their teachers and train them, so that they should not only know how to teach their subject, but they would know the particular subject of the experiment with which they had to perform daily ? Most of his hearers had been engaged lately in dis- guising the pupil-teacher system in various ways, and producing, perhaps, very much the same result. He gathered from Professor Adams and he was glad to hear him allude to it that there was a danger in their demanding an abnormal degree of culture from the teacher unless that was attended with a true knowledge of how to utilise the culture in his school work, and a true knowledge of the subject of all teaching i.e. the pupil. He thought it was just as well they should hear sounded a note of warning that the closer connection growing up between the training of the primary teacher and the university might be attended with the danger that their students looked for success in uni- versity class-lists rather than success in their pro- fessional training. He was continually reminding the young student-teachers in Victoria who were privileged to go to the university through the training college, that after all his Department was a Department that must look at its work in a commercial way, that they were providing education for a consideration for the people of Victoria, and that while they were very glad indeed that their young student-teachers should become distinguished graduates of the university, it TRAINING OF TEACHERS 265 was very much more important that they should put that knowledge to use, namely, that they should actually teach in the schools ; so right throughout the whole of the training system they had endeavoured to secure the right training in the practice of supervision. The first problem, taking a would-be teacher from a primary school, with, say, a fairly complete primary education, was, What were they going to do with him ? He thought that they were all agreed that before a lad began his work as a teacher in a primary school he should have had a fairly complete secondary education, and they had to look round and see where they could get that secondary education. Now, he was not satis- fied that the ordinary secondary school would provide that in a satisfactory way. He agreed with Professor Adams that a great deal depended upon how the young student learnt his ordinary culture subjects. So they in Victoria had to bring into existence certain special secondary schools in which they gave the young would- be teachers their secondary education . In order to make those satisfactory, they had to try first of all to get fairly good buildings, satisfying modern requirements. They then had to see to it that every member of the school staff was a man whom they could trust as an exponent of the method of his particular subject. During the secondary stage, their young student-teachers did not get any actual practice in teaching, but they had talks on teaching, and they also saw specimen lessons to school classes in a primary school, these lessons being given as a rule by the staff of the school. Then, for purely local reasons, they employed their young student-teacher of sixteen or seventeen years of age as a junior assistant. If they asked him how a junior assistant differed from a pupil teacher, he would reply he was not there to answer conundrums. But there were very good reasons why the -last stage of training should be preceded by a period, long or short, of doing the actual work of teaching under the ordinary school conditions. There was a great danger, he thought, that if they schemed out a four or five years' course for 266 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION a teacher, and the whole of that time was spent in the seclusion of a college or of a university, with occasional excursions under guidance to schools, that by-and-by the student reached the saturation point, and many of the elaborate lectures on pedagogy and on the higher reaches of education did not appeal to him simply be- cause he did not know what was the problem they were driving at. The advantage that the pupil teacher had who afterwards came into the training college was that he really did know what the problems were that had to be faced, and he really could follow an intelligent attempt on the part of a professor to solve those problems. At the end of the two years the students came back to the training college at the university, and there they endeavoured to give them a good advance on their secondary education and associate them with their university work. But he had been unwilling to throw their training-college work entirely into the university, for the reason that Professor Adams emphasised that they had professors who had never paid any very great attention to method. At the same time he thought that great good had come from their close association with the university. At the end of that two years' course they went out into the schools ; and he might nominate every year twenty teachers for a course at the university. They brought them back at twenty-five or twenty-six years, or older, for a further period of university training. They were suspicious all through unless they accompanied the training of a primary-school teacher step by step with a thoroughly sound professional training. They had spared no amount of pains in getting teachers in their training colleges and secondary schools. Further than that, they had a series of schools associated with the training institutions that they called " training schools " and " observation schools," and they saw to it that every member of those staffs was a picked teacher who could give a worthy exposition of the method which the student-teacher was sent to observe TRAINING OF TEACHERS 267 Miss BATHURST said she thought there was a deplor- able sameness about the training given in training colleges, and inasmuch as the work that teachers did after they left a college was so various in character she thought the training ought to have a correspond- ing variety. She particularly wished to see started Training Colleges for Infant Teachers, and more stress laid upon the great importance of looking after the health of children, and getting the experience of a hospital nurse for a year before a person got the head- teachership of infant schools. She thought the com- bination of the knowledge that a nurse had in a hospital with certain forms of training given in training colleges would be a most valuable addition to the knowledge they already gave. Miss J. C. BENNETT (Wellington Training College, Cape Colony) took for granted that all there were educationists in the finest sense of the word, and though their views and methods might differ widely, their goal was one the intelligent well-being of the student, whether it be the young student in the kinder- garten, the primary or the secondary school, or the adult student in the training college or the other colleges of their country and Empire. It seemed to her that in the final issue the subjects in the curricula were of small moment. They were all educative, or why were they there ? They were all means to an end, the end being the development of the faculties intellectual, moral, physical, spiritual. In developing the faculty, teachers should guard their students from national egotism on the one hand, and private pedantry on the other. They should seek as teachers so to develop their faculties that they would go out into the world sane, sober citizens, each one finding his or her right place in the world. The CHAIRMAN said they were all very gratelul to those who had addressed them and spoken on the subject. He would now call on Madame Bergman Osterberg for her paper. Madame BERGMAN OSTERBERG (Principal of the 268 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Physical Training College, Dartford Heath, Kent) then read a paper entitled : THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS IN METHODS OF PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT The seed of this, discussion was sown as far back as 1878, when a most advanced London School Board adopted the Swedish system of gymnastics in their girls' and infants' departments. Few people, however, as yet realise the aim of physical education the maximum of health through increased organic develop- ment and activity, the maximum of beauty by har- monious development of the human form. Few only are aware of the importance of a complete system of physical training, a system in which outdoor games and systematic gymnastics are proportionately blended. The knowledge of the resources of such a system as well as of its results (which can be proved by anthropometric measurements) is at present the privilege of the gymnastic specialist, scientifically trained. Still, a teacher, even without the wider experience of a gym- nast, might do much to counteract the deterioration of physical strength and form dependent on injurious physical home and school habits. If every teacher had a rational understanding of the value of physical exercise, based on anatomical and physiological reasons, if to this was added a practical knowledge of personal hygiene, a long step would be taken towards solving some of our present difficulties and problems. Armed with this knowledge the teacher might defend the child from the dangers of stunted growth, of physical precocity and many deformities acquired at home, in school, as well as in the play- ground by one-sided movements and positions. Last, but not least, the child would be safeguarded from mental overwork, as the teacher would realise that, mind and body being inseparable, brain-power would increase with healthy and normal growth of body, and from this common source of strength would rise a higher TRAINING OF TEACHERS 269 morality and a more complete consciousness of life itself. England with its enormous population and its thousands of schools must necessarily take time over this reform, which however is gaining ground every day. This reform, begun in the girls' elementary schools in London, has during the last twenty years been adopted in the girls' high schools. Lately the example is spreading to the boys' public schools, such as Clifton and Eton. We have about one thousand girls' schools public and private, which have adopted the Swedish system. Several hundred of these schools have their own experts who give their whole attention and time to the one school. About 450 schools have the Swedish gymnastic apparatus. Last year Clifton College intro- duced Swedish gymnastics through its own staff teachers, previously trained by an expert. Eton College has just completed a splendid gymnasium, which is now being fitted with apparatus on the Swedish principle. Agreed that all teachers should be trained in some methods of physical training, these methods may necessarily become somewhat different. We have to consider first, the training of the expert gymnastic teacher ; secondly, of the teacher of the secondary school ; thirdly, of the teacher of the elementary schools. Two years' training has up to the present been given to the experts at the Royal Central Institute of Gym- nastics in Stockholm, at the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, and in my own training college at Dart- ford Heath. Three years would in the future be better to carry out the following plan. Theoretically these experts should have a thorough knowledge of anatomy, physiology, hygiene, theory of movement, anthropo- metry, and also a knowledge of the science of psycho- logy and pedagogics. They should master the patho- logy of such deformities as we meet with every day in our schools. Their individual training should consist in gymnastics, Ling's Swedish system, and dancing of an ecstatic kind. They should be able to 270 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION swim, and the whole scale of games, indoors and out, should be at their disposal. They should be able to treat spinal curvatures, round shoulders, hollow back, flat foot, and playground accidents, such as strains and dislocations. They should have ample scope for the development of their teaching capacity. As they are meant to spread -the knowledge of physiology and hygiene, they should have special training in lecturing. For this purpose, and for the attainment of a good command, they should be trained in the right produc- tion of their voice. Secondly, the teachers of the secondary school, having finished their ordinary training career, should devote one year to physical training only. To enable them to spend this extra year on training, the Govern- ment might surely assist them financially. Some- thing of this kind is proposed to take place in the new Government training college of gymnastics, soon to be erected in Copenhagen. This plan should be fruitful of most far-reaching and practical results. Without such training there is always the danger of the teacher ignoring the rights of the child's physical nature. Thus she herself counteracts the aim of all education the harmonious development of body and mind. Such a year's training might quite well be organised here in England in connection with the already existing secondary training colleges, or a central institute might be founded for this special purpose. Teachers trained in this way would conduct their own gymnastic classes in the different schools. These arrangements should not exclude the expert. Special classes should be organised by the expert for feeble children and for the deformed. These trained teachers should also conduct the more advanced classes in the gymnasium, organise and coach games, and superintend the anthropometric measurements. Thirdly, the teacher of the elementary schools should receive her individual training while a pupil teacher so as to counteract the injurious positions of her profession during the period of life when her body is TRAINING OF TEACHERS 271 unformed. She would continue this training during her college career, when she would also commence to teach gymnastics. She would during this time get instruction in physiology and hygiene. Once attached to a school, she would commence gymnastic lessons with the children, under the superintendence of the expert, and she would gain a certificate on the results obtained in her classes, not on the result of her own performances. Her class would be examined by the School Board or County Council experts in gymnastics, who, in the name of the Board or Council, would grant her a certificate. DISCUSSION The CHAIRMAN said that Madame Bergman Oster- berg represented a school of training which differed considerably from the gymnastic course they had at most of the public schools. He was talking the other day to one of the Clifton masters who had had a large share in introducing the new system at Clifton, but he did not suppose everybody was convinced that they ought to abandon the old style as Clifton had done. Miss BATHURST asked whether it was recommended that children under seven years of age should go through a regular course of drill such as was usual in the elementary infant schools, in Class I. Madame BERGMAN OSTERBERG recommended that a system of physical education should correspond as nearly as possible to nature. To give little children under seven years any methodical exercises was, in her opinion, totally unnecessary, because they ought really not to be in the infants' school at all. She did not think anything was more objectionable, in this connection, than to see these little things go through a kind of military arrangement. It was unnatural to force little children to sit in school for several hours together, or to concentrate their attention so much as they did. They ought to see that the gymnastics were 272 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION made as far as possible to accord with the children's habits and wants. Miss BATHURST asked for the lecturer's opinion as to the usual practice in elementary schools of crossing arms when the children were not writing or reading. Madame BERGMAN OSTERBERG illustrated the posi- tions in which the children should sit. She extended an invitation to her audience to a demonstration to be held on June 22nd at the Horticultural Hall, when they would be able to see that her system was a " whole scale " of movements. She had noted that her pupils always increased in weight during the first three months of the training. The CHAIRMAN said they were very much indebted to the lecturer for the description she had given of her system. The proceedings then terminated. MUSEUM SECTION MONDAY, MAY 27, 1907. Chairman, LiEUT.-CoL. G. T. PLUNKETT, C.B., R.E. (Director, Science and Art Museum, Dublin). Hon. Secretary, Miss BEALES. RESOLUTIONS to be proposed : I. " That the formation of School Collections illus- trative of Science or Art is a valuable aid to education." (Dr. Scharff and Mr. J. Maclauchlan.) II. " That Teachers and others should discourage the making of such collections as might tend to the ex- termination of rare plants or animals and should assist in preserving such objects by fostering a knowledge and love of Nature." (Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., etc.) III. " That when School Collections are made to illus- trate Natural History or other branches of knowledge arrangements for the exchange of such collections between various parts of the Empire will assist the objects for which the League is instituted." (Dr. Chalmers Mitchell and Mr. Howarth.) The CHAIRMAN, in his opening address, said that in that particular Section it was laid down on the pro- gramme that they should consider, firstly, the formation of a central exhibition of industrial or other school work : secondly, the organisation on a permanent basis of the exchange of school work and specimens between departments and museums, or between 273 18 274 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION individual schools. It was one of the principles of the League that so far as might be practicable its work should not be centralised in London, but be carried on by various branches in different places, and it had been assigned to members in Dublin to work the " Museum Section." The Committee had drawn up certain re- solutions which would be laid before the Conference for consideration. The reason for having museums at all was to enable people to gather information from collections of objects instead of learning from books, pictures, or oral descriptions. Observation of objects cultivated the habit of observing accurately, which was often less common among young people who had received a very fair education by means of books or oral instruction only, than among those who were classed among the uneducated because they had little or no knowledge of literature. The object of museums and collections was to extend that cultivation of the powers of careful observation as much as possible among all classes. A museum, as it existed in the temples and colonnades of ancient Greece or Rome, was simply a collection of masterpieces of sculpture and painting. In modern times the scope of a museum had been widened, and in such great institutions as the British Museum there were collections of the relics of ancient civilisations of all kinds, so that by the in- spection of those great collections the student might gain a very complete notion of the life, the beliefs, and the literature of the ancients. In that great museum also, and more particularly in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, there were collections to show the finest productions of decorative art of different countries and periods, so that the student or artisan, engaged in such work as sculpture in stone or wood, in silversmith's work, enamelling, ivory carving, stained glass painting, and a dozen other arts might there see what the best artists and craftsmen had done in different countries and at different periods. Then there were the Natural History Museums. In that in the Cromwell Road, London, were preserved SCHOOL MUSEUMS 275 an immense number of specimens to illustrate as far as possible the known species of animal life, while in other museums there were similar collections. Botanical specimens were arranged on a very similar plan, and a herbarium might contain samples of the vegetable kingdom of the whole world, so far as they could be procured, or there might be a collection of the vegetable life of one particular country or district only. None of those would be of much value unless arranged on some regular system. A hundred years ago it was considered quite enough to collect curios of any kind, whether artistic or natural objects, and a sufficient quantity of those would make a museum. For many years, however, it had been acknowledged that objects were of little value unless shown in a regular series, so as to teach definitely some art, craft, or science. It was more useful to-day to consider the case of collections made for schools and colleges. Among the first questions to be considered would be the following : Is it better as a rule that a school should have its own permanent collections, or that it shall receive from some centre what are called " circulation collections," lent for a definite time, and then to be passed on to another school, or returned to the department from which they were issued ? That question did not, of course, clash with the proposal to form a central ex- hibition of industrial or other school work, which was a separate subject for discussion. The second question was : How far should collections be made by museum officials or other experts devoting their time profes- sionally to the work ? How far may collections be made by teachers for their own use ? and how far should pupils of a school be themselves encouraged to collect and arrange objects ? They had sent from Dublin to be exhibited at the Conference about a score of cases out of their circulation collection. Some of these one could not make up unless professionally engaged in museum work. Others might not have been made up so neatly as those arranged in the Dublin 276 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Museum, but they would serve admirably for teaching purposes. Several other cases were of a very simple kind, and had been purposely sent to show the kind of collections that any intelligent boys or girls might be encouraged to make themselves. The idea of circu- lating objects from a central museum to institutions in different parts -of the country was, he believed, due in the first instance to the authorities of the South Kensington Museum. For many years past that museum had sent small collections of objects of art to schools of art or provincial museums ; then at the end of the time for which they were lent they were repacked and brought back. No doubt that system had been of great advantage to the country, and had given to many students and craftsmen in provincial towns greater opportunities for study. The demand for these loans became so great that it was impossible to supply it by sending out the original objects ; so a system was introduced of making casts of stone and wood sculpture and other objects, and electrotypes of gold- and silver- smith's work, and sending them to country places. By these means not only could the very valuable originals be kept in the parent museum, but it was easy to make several casts or electrotypes of each object, and thus supply the needs of several provincial schools at the same time. The circulation system in Dublin was a development and amplification of that. In the first place, all the objects were securely fixed to the backs of the cases, so that no packing or unpacking of the objects was re- quired and the cases were simply hung upon a wall. A second important point was that all the objects were arranged in cases of uniform length and breadth to keep the space occupied as small as possible. Circulation cases were sent out from Dublin Museum six times a year, and the borrowers were requested to return them in seven weeks' time ; one week being allowed for the Museum officers to make any necessary repairs or re- arrangements. There were now available 237 circula- tion cases at Dublin, illustrating a very large range of SCHOOL MUSEUMS 277 subjects, including decorative or applied art, and such manual arts as joinery and smith's work as well as elementary botany, zoology, and mineralogy. There were also sets to illustrate the antiquities of Ireland in prehistoric and early Christian times. A most im- portant feature was the sending out, with the cases, of explanatory leaflets, and a circular letter pointing out the importance of getting persons with knowledge of the subjects to give short lectures or explanations to students and others who might -see them. With regard to the first question, there was evidently much to be said in favour of maintaining (in London in the first instance, he presumed) an exhibition of objects and apparatus useful in technical instruction and in different forms of school work, which could be seen by teachers and those interested in education and serve as a standard for comparison, and the same would apply to smaller exhibitions in the chief cities of all countries and colonies in the Empire. On the other hand, there were certain obvious objections to the multiplication of exhibitions. In some museums and technical institutions there might be already seen exhibits of the kind he had mentioned, and to multiply such collec- tions unnecessarily was evidently a waste of energy. Secondly, any exhibitions of collections necessitated the employment of persons to take charge, otherwise collections would soon be neglected and rendered almost useless. Another objection was that such exhibitions might degenerate into a means of adver- tising the productions of small numbers of manu- facturing firms and eventually exist principally for their benefit. It ought also to be remembered that in large cities, such as London, there were already so many things which it was desirable and advantageous for teachers, or any other visitor to see, that they should be very chary of unnecessarily adding to the number. The second question for discussion was the organisa- tion on a permanent basis of the exchange of school work and specimens between departments or museums 278 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION and between individual schools. With that work the Museum Committee had already made a commence- ment, but it was evident that it would take some time to develop that branch of their work. Up to the present, schools had taken up the idea in Ceylon, Transvaal, Adelaide, etc., and they had been put into communication for purposes of exchange with schools in England or Ireland. In conclusion the Chairman hoped there would be a profitable discussion on this all-important subject, and that they would obtain useful information and suggestions. - RESOLUTION I Dr. R. F. SCHARFF then proposed : " That the formation of school collections illustrative of Science or Art is a valuable aid to education." He said he was greatly pleased to move the resolution, because the Chairman was in entire sympathy with it. School collections and teaching of the young by means of those collections was a subject which had occupied Colonel Plunkett's attention for many years, as evidenced by the splendid series of collection cases exhibited by him in the building in which they were now assembled, one of the finest collections that he (Dr. Scharff) had ever seen. They were principally in- tended to educate the young and prepare their minds for the permanent exhibitions of a similar nature which might be established in their own schools in the future. School museums were undoubtedly a valuable aid to education. At the present time, when every civilised community recognised the advantage of museums, which were chiefly intended for the culture of the adult, it would be useless to argue that similar collections were not also of great educational value in schools. It was, to his mind, an undoubted fact that systematic collections, in science and art, were a most powerful and useful auxiliary to all systems of teaching by means of object lessons. The idea of forming such school collections, however, was by no means new. Mr. SCHOOL MUSEUMS 279 Webb, who had had a great deal to do with the organ- isation of the meeting, was exhibiting a most beautiful case on the structure of a bird's feather, which all those present ought certainly to see, that he had had made for the Eton College museum, of which he was Curator. Besides Eton, many other colleges and schools in this country, Germany, and America had adopted the system of teaching by means of museums. That it must be of great advantage to the young could not be denied. Then, again, the actual collecting by children was no doubt an aid to accuracy of observation. As was recently pointed out by the Committee of the British Association who reported on Science Teaching in schools, collecting, when judiciously led, was of much value to the pupils and a great motive power for the acquisition of knowledge. The Committee, therefore, were in favour of the resolution now put before the Section. Mr. J. MACLAUCHLAN (Principal, Dundee Museum) seconded the resolution, remarking that he supposed he was asked to do so because he happened to be for this year President of the Museums Association of Great Britain. While he considered it to be an almost sacred duty to press this matter upon the meeting of the Association, which would meet in Dundee in July, anything he now gave utterance to must be taken as an expression of his own individual opinion. He might say, however, that the Association would give them as able support as they could. Speaking himself, as a Curator in two Scottish cities for upwards of forty years, his personal experience entirely confirmed everything Colonel Plunkett had said. He agreed that the de- scription of things to be lent should not be carried too far. That could be done better by museums like the Dublin, or the Victoria and Albert. There might be facilities of loans in such large cities as Liverpool or Birmingham, but in Scotland they had no loan system, although the museums were richly stored with applied art, antiques, technical objects, and natural history. In conclusion he desired to say that the Victoria and 280 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Albert Museum had been of enormous benefit to the schools. Loan collections had been obtained from it for the past thirty years, and there were now two regular loan collections for his part of the country, where the Town Council had constructed a Technical Museum in which various classes were held with great success. DISCUSSION Mr. ROBERT McKEE, M.A. (Willesden Education Board) asked what was meant by school collections. Had they been sent to elementary schools in Ireland ? and were the teachers capable of thoroughly explaining, for instance, a case of shells, in the course of the study of conchology ? Were they trying to bring such subjects as those into elementary schools, or were they referring to higher-class schools ? Then again, did they possess teachers who were able to give the pupils the necessary explanations at the various schools ? The CHAIRMAN said that the collections would be adapted to the class of schools to which they were sent. Some were suitable for the most elementary, while on the other hand some would be adapted only to technical schools, or the higher classes in secondary schools. In Ireland they had sent collections to technical schools and classes, and whenever an elementary-school teacher wrote for a case it was sent off at once. Mrs. JANE HOLTON asked how the cases were pro- tected so that they did not become valueless. The CHAIRMAN replied that in Dublin the rule was to have them back every seven weeks, when they were examined, and, if necessary, repaired. Miss PATERSON (Presbyterian College, Melbourne) said she taught in a girls' college in Australia, where collections of specimens in natural history, etc., were made, and would be glad to know whether some arrange- ment could be come to whereby specimens could be exchanged between that and the Mother Country. The CHAIRMAN informed Miss Paterson that that SCHOOL MUSEUMS 281 particular subject would be dealt with in another resolution. The resolution of Dr. Scharff was then put and carried unanimously. RESOLUTION II Sir HARRY JOHNSTON, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., D.Sc. next moved : " That teachers and others should discourage the making of such collections as might tend to the extermination of rare plants or animals, and should assist in preserving such objects by fostering a know- ledge and love of Nature." This resolution, he said, was extremely important, because the coming genera- tion were looked to to supply help in the preservation of objects of interest in the natural fauna and flora. He regretted that he was unable to stay at the meeting, but he would put what he intended to say into print, and then those who were interested would be able to see what his views were upon the subject. Mr. H. J. CARTER (Principal of Askham College, Sydney) said he had great pleasure in seconding the motion. The subject was most interesting to him, and he had done his best 'to encourage it in the schools with which he had been associated in Australia. The preservation of interesting or rare plants and animals was one of his greatest wishes. And he felt sure that the enthusiasm passed from teacher to pupil, and that that established a proper reverence as to how and when to collect. In the beautiful city which he represented a terrible extermination had been going on, partly due to the jerry-builder clearing away beautiful natural plants and foliage, but most of all, perhaps and it could be prevented to school children and those interested in teaching, as well as to the Government. By the devastation which sometimes occurred under the name of " Botany " and " Science " certain of the flora were practically exterminated. For instance, there were wild-flower shows, which he held were altogether condemnable. Those shows were the means 282 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION of hundreds of people going about pulling up plants wholesale ; and he maintained that that kind of sacrilege could be easily prevented if the educational people would set their faces against it, and say that such actions were not done in the cause of science, but were doing harm to the district. Another point he wished to impress upon the Section was that it would be good to encourage the painting of the flora instead of drying it and despatching it from one place to the other. His suggestion meant that art would be combined with nature. In conclusion, Mr. Carter expressed regret that idolatry of athletics in schools appeared to take the place of the love of the fauna and flora of the various countries in the Empire. DISCUSSION Mr. WILFRED MARK WEBB, F.L.S. (Hon. Secretary of the Selborne Society) said the body which he repre- sented was the first to bring forward amenities of that kind in this country. He related an instance of where a school teacher made it a practice to take photographs of all the birds' nests which he located in his district. He taught the children the necessity to keep a watch upon them. The object was certainly not to make a collection of eggs, but to know the number of young birds which were launched into the world. The result was that the pupils so carefully watched that they prevented other children in the town from committing depredations upon those nests. The resolution was then put from the Chair, and carried nem. con. RESOLUTION III Dr. CHALMERS MITCHELL, F.R.S. (Secretary, Zoological Society) next said he had much pleasure in proposing : ' That when school collections are made to illustrate natural history or other branches of knowledge, arrange- ments for the exchange of such collections between SCHOOL MUSEUMS 283 various parts of the Empire will assist the objects for which the League is instituted." There was, he said, a perfectly definite point where the consideration of natural objects passed into the sphere of education, and that was where one went from being merely sur- prised, pleased, or astonished at the look of the thing, into considering that thing in its relationship with other things in various parts of the world. The considera- tion of animals and plants, from the point of view of geographical distribution, was one of the most easy ways of making a transference from curiosity to science and education. When an individual first passed from one country to another one saw practically no difference at all. In woodland or mountainous or marshy regions there were apparently the same kind of animals and other things. But very soon one began to notice that there was a difference, and that the degrees of difference became very marked. They got right away, then, into the centre of science. It was from that point of view that Darwin and Wallace, who were collectors, at first took their natural conception. He considered, however, that when the collection passed from science to something else when the collector thought more of the rareness of the specimens than of their interest, the collector became a miser or a speculator. If he (the speaker) were a schoolmaster and desired his pupils to make a collection in botany, he would set them to procure the common weeds to be found either in^a freshly dug-up garden or on a new railway embank- ment. A collection made in that way in this country would be extremely interesting to people in New Zealand, for instance, while a similar collection made over in the Colonies would be highly appreciated here. They did not want all the rare or curious specimens, but simply things which were common or abundant in their own particular localities, so as to compare with those in various parts of the world. In our Empire we had the greatest possible chance of making the most wonderful collections and comparisons. There remained, then, the question of exchanging ; and he 284 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION did not think it would be at all difficult to effect that. It could be done with the greatest ease, as it was done in America in connection with the Smithsonian Insti- tute. That Institute had constituted themselves into a central bureau for the exchange and distribution of scientific publications and specimens. They pos- sessed agents in e,very part of the world, and when people over here desired to send a scientific thing of any description to other people over in America, all they had to do was to send that particular thing to the London agent of the Smithsonian Institute, and it would be duly sorted out and sent to its destina- tion. If that were done through an Institute like the Smithsonian, in Washington, it could be equally well arranged in London, and school collections from all parts of the Empire could be made and despatched. Professor A. S.KiDD,M. A. (Albany Museum, Grahams- town, South Africa) spoke of the Albany Museum in his city, which had been established many years, and of late had greatly developed. It was partly under State management and partly under a local committee. Close by was the Rhodes University College, with a museum attached, and he himself was the professor of English in that college. They had for some time in fact, since expert gentlemen had been on the staff been able to do a good deal in connection with the schools. He might say that in Cape Colony they were sufficiently far advanced as to have protection with regard to certain plants and a large number of the rarer birds. Certainly the most important point there, in his judgment, was the establishment of the circulating museums, but nothing of that kind had been attempted in South Africa. When he returned to Cape Colony, however, he would do his best to stimulate the Directors and members of the staff of the Albany Museum to do something in that direction. Museums, he considered, ought not to be made mere curiosity shops, but places through which pupils could be taught. The proposed interchange would evoke the greatest interest in South Africa. In the Colonies they felt the great want SCHOOL MUSEUMS 285 of pictures, photographs, lantern slides, etc. The children out there knew very little about English scenery and so forth ; consequently when English literature was read to them they could not understand it perfectly. If some one would organise a collection such as he referred to, so as to illustrate the teaching of English literature, it would be a great boon. The CHAIRMAN, in suggesting that the discussion be adjourned till Wednesday, said it was desired that both the pupils and teachers should make collections, which would be exceedingly useful for the purposes of com- parison. It was interesting and touching when children, say in Tyrone or Tipperary, collected and exchanged specimens with other children whom they never saw, residing in such far-away lands as Australia and New Zealand. He knew of such cases, where the children had forwarded packets with the intimation, " I send you the grasses from the fields around my school." A fellow-feeling was thus struck up, which it was the object of those present and their numerous supporters to advance. With regard to the suggestion to collect lantern slides, photographs, etc., he was of opinion that that certainly came within the Museum Section. It had been done in Dublin. The resolution was then put and carried, and the Section adjourned. MUSEUM SECTION WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1907. Chairman, LIEUT. -CoL. G. T. PLUNKETT, C.B., R.E. (Director, Science and Art Museum, Dublin). RESOLUTIONS to be proposed : IV. " That this Conference recognises the value of arrangements for the circulation of museum objects, as organised at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, at the Dublin Museum of Science and Art, at Sheffield Museum and elsewhere, and warmly ad- vocates an extension and development of the system." V. ' That this Conference recommends the organising of a collection of objects specially interesting to those engaged in educational work, in connection with one of the great museums in London." The CHAIRMAN said this meeting would resume the discussion of Monday. It related to the use of museum collections, and how that use could be extended and made helpful to teachers and pupils. He first called upon Mr. E. Howarth, the Secretary of the Museums Association, to speak. Mr. Howarth had for years taken the greatest interest in museum work, and had tried to put forward various schemes for making museums even more useful than they were at the present time. Mr. E. HOWARTH, F.R.A.S., F.Z.S. (Museums Associa- tion) said that in Sheffield there had been for some time a system of ^school museums, which, perhaps, was not 286 CIRCULATING MUSEUMS 287 quite so common in other towns. Sheffield started this work originally through a branch of the Teachers' Guild, and he personally prepared a specimen cabinet, in order to illustrate what he thought to be the proper method of bringing museum specimens before school children. Such things as specimens of natural history of striking character were desirable, and he procured them, the object being to attract attention without aiming, directly, at teaching natural history. In the first instance the circulation was upon a small scale, but the experiment became such a success that no fewer than thirty boxes were now sent out monthly to the different schools of the city of Sheffield. In addi- tion to the cases of natural-history specimens, casts were made of the tools of prehistoric people, and maps of different countries, as well as of the British Islands and the Colonies, were also supplied. Furthermore they procured a collection of stereoscopic slides, that the classes should observe various scenes in nearly every portion of the globe ; and those were exceedingly attractive. Finally, lantern slides were obtained, so that lantern entertainments, as lessons, could be afforded to the children. That had been the general scheme throughout Sheffield. They did not bring it forward with the object of teaching any specific subject, but to allow the children to use their own judgment and obtain their own knowledge. The expense of circulation was borne by the Corporation, but the purchase of specimens and they always paid for the best was entirely through the Teachers' Guild. The CHAIRMAN said that, in addition to the resolutions passed at the previous meeting of the Section, it was suggested that there should be two others. One was : ' That this Conference recognises that an arrange- ment should be made for the circulation of museum objects, as organised at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, at the Dublin Museum of Science and Art, at Sheffield and elsewhere, and warmly advocates an extension and development of the 288 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION system." He thought the bringing in of lantern slides and photographs was greatly to be advocated. The following resolution would also be put before them : " That this Conference recommends the organising of a collection of objects specially interesting to those engaged in educational work in connection with one of the great museums in London." Miss - PATERSON (Lady Superintendent of the Pres- byterian College, Melbourne) expressed the hope that the exchange of collections between the Mother Country and the Colonies would be developed, even if it was only a matter of exchanging wild flowers. These could very well be sent across the seas from the Colonies into the Northern Hemisphere, and vice versa. She felt sure they in the south would be proud to receive col- lections from here. It would greatly assist in further- ing the objects of the League. The CHAIRMAN, in answer to Miss Paterson, said the Museum Committee had been trying to carry out that work for some time, and expressed the hope that that lady and others would communicate with the home country, and the practice be commenced at once. Mrs. JANE HOLTON said that for ten years she worked at the kindergarten, then another ten years were de- voted to nature study, while a third ten years went to museum subjects, and she had come to the conclusion that that was the kind of course that the children should take themselves. If she could be of any help in showing any of the work which she had done, she would be only too pleased to do so. Professor A. S. KIDD (Albany Museum, Grahams- town, Cape Colony) remarked that they at the Cape, under the auspices of the Education Department, were favoured with competitions, for which prizes were given by one of their most distinguished botanists. He thought that collections of specimens by the children might be forwarded every year to other parts of the Empire. That would be a solution to one of the difficulties they were under. CIRCULATING MUSEUMS 289 The CHAIRMAN explained that every month there was published in the Federal Magazine an invita- tion to people to send in notices of their wishes in respect to exchanging specimens. The main thing was for that Conference to discuss the resolutions, and press them on the Board of Education and on the Empire generally. RESOLUTION IV Professor KIDD said that, owing to the differences of climate and social and political conditions, it was very hard to get Colonial students to fully appreciate English literature, and it seemed to him that it would be a good thing if they had available a collection of photographic slides and other objects which would, to some extent, help Colonial students to appreciate English literature. He had made inquiries since he had been in this country, but he had not yet discovered any existing collection which could be duplicated. He thought that photo- graphs and lantern slides should be prepared in con- nection with the lives of our poets. He further thought the Education Departments in the Colonies should purchase one or two sets. That would greatly help them in their teaching in the far-off places in the Empire. In Cape Colony, whenever the pupils found new specimens of anything connected with nature study one of the members of the staff wrote a short article on the subject and sent it to the local news- paper for publication. That would be copied by other newspapers in various districts, and as a result it stimulated people and was of great assistance to the object they had in view. He did not know how far that was done in England. In conclusion Professor Kidd said he felt sure that in Cape Colony they would be only too grateful if the Conference could help them, not only in connection with his special subject, English literature, but also in the general circulation of speci- mens. He had pleasure in proposing the first resolu- tion which the Chairman had read. 19 290 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION DISCUSSION Dr. F. G. KENYON (British Museum), having been invited to speak, said he thought he had less right to address them than others present, because the museum which he represented was less in a position to join in the circulation ,of the articles mentioned in the dis- cussion. At the same time, the British Museum had of late years greatly developed what might be termed the educational side of its work, and did more, perhaps, than was generally known in the way of sending out objects for such uses as Professor Kidd and others had referred to. With reference to lantern slides, that was a new department of work taken up during the last few years by the British Museum. They now had available sets of slides illustrating various subjects, which could be let out to responsible people and in- stitutions for the purpose of lectures. Those sets covered most of the departments of the museum, and reproduced such things as historical documents, objects connected with archaeology, etc., as well as biblical manuscripts illustrating the history of the Bible from the earliest manuscripts down to the time of printing, and manuscripts illustrating art and history generally. Referring to Professor Kidd's remarks as to illustrating British literature, that was covered in the British Museum by autographs of literary men. Those had been circulated very largely. At the present time, however, they had almost run out of print, but he thought that if a little outside pressure was brought to bear upon the Museum authorities, they would be re- printed and re-circulated. With regard to what were called Wall Museum Exhibitions, it was important that they should always be properly labelled, otherwise they would be of comparatively small value for educational purposes. The descriptions should be made very full, as was done in connection with the British Museum. Another important thing was the publication of guides giving full descriptions of all the subjects and the ages in which they occurred ; such guides, for instance, as CIRCULATING MUSEUMS 291 had been published by the Dublin Museum, which was exactly what one wanted. He would only add that if any of those present paid a visit to the British Museum to see how the exhibits, etc., were arranged, he would be only too pleased to place himself at their service. Miss REES GEORGE (Hon. Secretary, South Australia Branch, League of the Empire) said she was much interested in this subject of exchange. In South Australia they had a branch of the League of the Empire, and she was present as its delegate. They were already arranging for exchanges between schools ; and that with which she was associated, the Adelaide Advanced School, had already set in motion a very interesting exchange with the Skinner School in London. Therefore, they already appreciated the value of such an exchange, although they were not doing it so fully, she considered, as it might be done. She was of opinion that they could do a great deal of excellent work if they exchanged slides dealing with English history and literature, in addition to natural objects. In such a new country as Australia it was found to be difficult to get the material for illustrating historical events that they desired so much. They were thus at a disadvantage with the old country, which had all the historical places so close to it. Those things had to be made a living reality to the Australian children, and she was fully conscious of the fact that nothing better could be done than the system of exchange which the Conference was now dis- cussing. She also thought stereoscopic slides were valuable, and would be less difficult to exchange than lantern slides. What was being done at the present time was unofficial, and she considered that if the co-operation of museums in the different centres could be obtained the work could be made still more valuable. The resolution, having been formally seconded, was then put and carried unanimously. 292 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION RESOLUTION V The CHAIRMAN then asked for discussion upon the fifth resolution, which he said was most important. His idea was that if the Board of Education could be induced to assist them the Art and Science Museum at South Kensington might organise a collection of all kinds of educational objects in fact, everything particularly interesting to those engaged in teaching. The same, he believed, would happen in connexion with the British Museum and the Botanical Museum at Kew. Mr. J. MACLAUCHLAN (Museums Association), in moving the resolution, said the matter was not merely theoretical. There was no doubt a difficulty in sending original objects from the British Museum, and it would be a good thing to get a museum such as the resolution indicated, and a great educational work would thereby be accomplished. In answer to a question the Chairman said it was proposed that the museum should be stationary, in London, and anybody from any portion of the Empire who made inquiries could be given the latest informa- tion. Mr. HOWARTH said he recognised the importance of the resolution, and he had much pleasure in second- ing it. DISCUSSION A short discussion ensued as to whether it would not be better to somewhat enlarge the scope of the resolu- tion, and it was agreed that it should read as follows : ' That this Conference recommends the organisation of a permanent collection of objects specially interesting and useful to those engaged in educational work in connexion with one of the great museums in London." Mr. WILFRED MARK WEBB, F.L.S. (Hon. Secretary, Nature Study Section, League of the Empire) was of opinion that they might still further enlarge its scope. CENTRAL EDUCATIONAL MUSEUMS 293 As the resolution now stood he thought the museum would be brought down to a mere trade exhibition. A further discussion followed, and the Chairman announced that the following addition was made to the resolution : " That such a collection should com- prise, among other objects, typical collections suited to schools of various grades." Dr. F. G. KENYON (British Museum) said he thought that in order to give more weight to the resolution they ought to have more testimony as to whether teachers would value such a collection as was suggested. Would they use such an exhibition if one were provided ? Naturally, if the Education Department were ap- proached, that would be the first question which they would ask. If they found that teachers would value an institution of this kind, and they were prepared to start one at, say, the Victoria and Albert Museum, he felt that the British Museum would be prepared to co-operate by sending such specimens of its educa- tional publications and things of that description as they possessed. Miss BENNETT (Wellington, Cape Colony) agreed that a typical collection would be very valuable. She was proud to know that London contained all she desired in that respect. She was conscious of the magnitude of the collections, but she appreciated the present diffi- culty of obtaining what she wanted. The collections in the British Museum were vast, and when she visited that great institution she always found that she could never get beyond, say, the Elgin Room or the Reading Room. The CHAIRMAN said he had experienced the same kind of feeling at the Dublin Museum. That all tended to show that it would be advantageous to get one place, and have the educational exhibits put in one centre. Mrs. HOLTON remarked that children often took to many things in exhibitions which were not expected of them. Such things certainly fed their minds, and this movement was especially important to them. 294 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION The CHAIRMAN explained that such an exhibition as that proposed would be for teachers only. Pupils would not generally go there. It would be for the purpose of letting all the teachers decide how they could improve their own collections. Professor KIDD said he very cordially supported the idea, and felt perfectly sure that any teachers who came to England from the Cape would go to an ex- hibition or museum of this kind, if they knew where it was located. Most of the teachers in South Africa took the greatest interest in their profession, and for that reason, above all, he should warmly support the resolution. Mr. HOWARTH suggested that the Conference should let their views be given to the Teachers' Guild of Great Britain, in order to know what their opinion was upon this subject. Such an opinion would be of the utmost importance. Mr. MACLAUCHLAN said that from past experience he knew that teachers would be certain to visit the museum. In the months of July and August one could not go to the Victoria and Albert Museum with- out finding there a large number of teachers, who made pilgrimages from all parts of Great Britain to consult with the heads of the Departments as to the loans available for the forthcoming year. The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution, added to in the manner suggested, as follows : " That this Con- ference recommends the organisation of a permanent collection of objects, specially interesting and useful to those engaged in educational work, in connection with one of the great museums in London ; and that such a collection should include typical school museums and the outlines of a local educational museum." This was carried with acclamation. The CHAIRMAN said that now the resolutions had been passed, it was necessary to see that they were adopted by the Conference and impressed upon the British Government. They were of the greatest importance more perhaps, than some of the abstract CENTRAL EDUCATIONAL MUSEUMS 295 principles which had been discussed in the larger meetings. He would submit them to the Full General Conference at the end of the week, and trusted that the work done would bear fruit. The proceedings then terminated. NATURE-STUDY SECTION TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1907. Chairman, THE HON. SIR JOHN COCKBURN, K.C.M.G., M.D. Hon. Secretary, MR. WILFRED MARK WEBB, F.L.S. THE CHAIRMAN, in opening, said he supposed they might consider that nature study was the outcome of those protests which had been made of recent years as to the form of education, which was too largely " bookish," and he thought it was just in those new forms of education, such as nature study which was still in the plastic stage, that the best possible benefit would be derived from a Conference of those in the Mother Country and those in the countries beyond the seas who are occupied in the same work. There could be no doubt that nature study had come to the schools, and come to stay, for the minds of those of all ages were now directed to the study of nature. One could hardly take up a newspaper in which one would not see some column or paragraph devoted to the study of nature. Sandwiched between the column which gave " inter- national news " of the deepest importance, and another column containing news of matters going on in our own country, one found reference made to seasonable arrangements going on outside a great city, making one especially at this time of the year long to leave the street and seek the hedgerows of the country. He thought nature study might be regarded as a direct form of education, in place of the indirect form of 296 NATURE STUDY 297 looking at nature through the leaves of books or the eyes of others. It seemed to him that the old educa- tion might be likened to a traveller going through an interesting country with his eyes glued to the guide- book, not seeing the diversity of the landscape with his own eyes, and not observing the customs of the people amongst whom he travelled, doing nothing but looking through the eyes of some one who preceded him. In such a case the mind got a mere pencil-sketch, instead of a deep impression such as would be received at first hand. But although nature study had come into our schools and lives it was not through any fortuitous circumstances, but because it answered one of the greatest needs of the times. He thought all were agreed that we were living in an age of construction, an age of building up all sorts of institutions whether Imperial Councils, or Federal forms of education, or Unions between various kinds of activity, and everywhere one saw signs of con- structive growth. Of course it was not always so. Sometimes the world passed through stages which were quite different, when disintegration went on, and the destructive agencies were more at work than the con- structive. But it was necessary now to take account of the tendency of the age in education, and nature study tended towards forming the type of the con- structive mind that was capable of forming new com- binations. Because the boy would have to live in a world not the same as yesterday, he would have to live very differently from the world of a hundred years ago. Very few lessons in education could be derived, therefore, from those "times when disintegration and iconoclasm were rampant. One was now intent upon the rebuilding of institutions adapted for the needs of the race and the community ; and one could - r see, he thought, that nature study was no incidentalTpheno- menon appearing in the schools and in the community, but a necessity of the age, and under the distinct tutelage of the spirit of the age. Then there was another good work performed by 298 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION nature study. It was the leaven which vitalised the whole of the curriculum. He was speaking last evening to the Head Master of King's College School, who was for several years occupied in organising a County Council education. That gentleman told him that in North Yorkshire he had introduced nature study into the school training colleges, and the testimony he bore was that those boys and girls who had gone through the course of study had their appetites for knowledge greatly increased and their powers of apprehension quickened, while it was notable that they presented a much more eager attitude towards imbibing knowledge of all kinds than those who had not had their eyes opened by such a process. So, nature study was not only delightful of itself, but was adapted to the age ; and apart from the stores of knowledge which were conveyed to the minds, nature study had also a vivifying and quickening influence through the whole curriculum, and fulfilled all the requirements of the school. He was sure, therefore, that everybody would rejoice that it was spreading. He felt confident, also, that the Conference, in bringing educators of other lands into contact with those of the Mother Country, must have an important influence ; and that afternoon they were fortunate in having two such well-known gentlemen as Mr. M. D. Hill (Science Master of Eton) and Mr. Willis Bund present in that chamber to address them. NATURE STUDY VERSUS ELEMENTARY SCIENCE By MATTHEW DAVENPORT HILL, M.A., F.Z.S. (Assistant Master at Eton College). " When asked to read a paper before this Section of the Conference with a view to starting a discussion on the teaching of nature study, I gladly consented, but for purely selfish and personal reasons viz. to solicit expert opinion. For I think you will agree that the time has gone by when eloquent appeals on behalf of NATURE STUDY 299 nature study are necessary. Nature study has come to stay. It is no longer regarded as a transatlantic fad, suitable only to boys and girls of weak intellect, but as at least a desideratum in the education of all. Had it been otherwise, I should not have presumed to address you. But we are here to-day, I take it, rather to face our difficulties and improve our methods by discussion and criticism, than to refer to the educational value of our subject. With your leave, therefore, I will draw your attention to a question which is still to be answered satisfactorily before nature study can make, if it is to make, much headway in the larger secondary boys' schools i.e., How far can nature study be considered a good basis on which to begin a scientific training ? Now, in most schools with which I am acquainted, two, three or four hours a week are allotted to science in the lower forms. Is the time better employed for boys of from twelve to fourteen years of age in nature study, or in more definite courses, say, of chemistry or physics ? Personally, I think it is, and I have had some years' experience in both courses of study ; but I admit that there is ground for dis- cussion. " Let me begin by presenting to you a few of the drawbacks to nature study, met with in the school with which I am myself connected. Our classes consist of from thirty to forty boys. Their time out of school is fully, or nearly fully, occupied with pre- paration and organised games, and as a result the work resolves itself almost entirely into what is done in the classroom. Then, again, the ground thus covered is small, and the boys are apt to think that they have not much to bite on ; or in other words, that they do not learn much. They do not understand what we mean by training the mind. They believe themselves to be well taught when facts are presented to them in such a way that they can assimilate them with the minimum of mental exertion. Another point in con- nection with the feeling of the boys is the question of marks. A great many people still appear to be under 300 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION the impression that no subject is of any educational value unless it lends itself readily to examination. Personally, I have been able to get rid of every form of examination of the boys with whom I have to deal, and I try to get rid of marks as much as possible. But there is still the old idea, and it is difficult to eradicate it. A boy has a practical mind, and he likes to know whether it is right or wrong. He is accustomed to have his Latin grammar drilled into him, and does not understand at first the educational value of nature study, supposing he has no natural gift in that direc- tion. Of course amongst teachers, themselves, of other subjects, especially those who believe so firmly in examination, there are some who are suspicious of this subject, which they look upon as a kind of mere mental pack, not worth serious attention. Thirdly, the demands on the teacher are severe. Assuming, as I think I may, that he has no disciplinary difficulties to contend with, yet, I would remind you, nature study cannot be driven into his pupils. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not mean that this is in itself a disadvantage, but the labour entailed in seeing that every member of the class is using his ability to the greatest possible extent is great. Supposing you take a class of forty boys for fifty minutes that works out at a fraction more than a minute for each. Supposing you have some object which they are looking at. This morning we were doing the snail. I am speaking, probably, to many who have used this in their nature- study course. Now the helplessness of a boy when he has to explain the shape of a snail's shell is great, and words fail him entirely at first. It is very much easier to give a lecture, and illustrate it with lantern- slides, or perhaps a live animal on the table. Fourthly and here I am on less certain ground it does not seem to be the case that the introduction of nature study in the lowest parts of the school has resulted in an increase in the number of those who, later on, take up the study of biology seriously. My classes in this subject are no larger than they were before I started NATURE STUDY 301 to teach nature knowledge to the lower forms. This, however, may be the fault of our system, but I should be glad to hear of the experiences of others in this connexion. I was inclined to hope that the introduc- tion of this kind of teaching would bring on every year a group of boys who, later on, would take up biology, and I thought it was a reasonable idea to begin with. But I do not think I can honestly say that it has resulted in that way. I hope the experience of others has been different. " But in contrast with these drawbacks let me say that there can be no doubt that boys do learn to observe and to write down in grammatical English what they see. From absolute helplessness in seeing and writing correctly, I have noticed a very marked improvement after a few weeks. Further, I am con- vinced that, though the facts they may remember are few, they do get a right idea how to set to work ; to look for themselves, and not to guess ; to handle, examine and watch the animals and plants, and not to be hasty to kill and procure them when dead ; and, perhaps what is most important of all, to recognise that their teacher is not an inspired or omniscient oracle, but one like themselves who has to learn if he will teach that the book of nature is ever fresh and inexhaustible. I mention this because some years ago a colleague said to me, ' The boy thinks you are an oracle on that matter,' and I replied that I was very sorry to hear it, but I would do my best not to let it occur again. . " I now come to the central point of this paper. Are we to believe, or not, that the time of boys and girls of the age I have indicated would be better employed in learning some kind of elementary science, than in what we usually understand by the expression ' nature study ' ? Until comparatively lately, science teaching in schools consisted of lectures, illustrated by experi- ments and lantern-slides, the pupils remaining spec- tators of the scene, merely taking notes and copying them out of school. No doubt practised and unscru- 302 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION pulous lecturers could run this kind of thing off as science teaching, with very little trouble to themselves, and good examination results ; and it cannot be denied that such lectures have often produced an interest, and even an intellectual excitement in the minds of their pupils, which the newer methods fail to raise. But I am glad to believe that teachers now look upon this kind of food as unwholesome, except in homoeopathic doses, and in most schools it has been abandoned. Few will regret it. Nowadays the laboratory is all in all. The pupils must work them- selves, instead of watching the master. They weigh, measure, and do simple chemical and physical ex- periments for themselves. The teacher helps them, corrects their mistakes, and from time to time arranges their knowledge by a lecture on the laboratory work they are doing. Of this kind of teaching I have likewise had several years' experience. When first introduced, as the heuristic method of science teaching, great things were prophesied; but, although a vast improvement on the lecture system, it has not come up to expectation. Unless the teacher is an exceptional man, the work may become mechanical the boys merely do the exercise, but with a minimum of thought ; at the simplest deduction they shy, and ask to be told the answer. Nor does it seem to attract or sift out boys of scientific ability from the ruck. I have always found that the cleverest boys all round are the best at this work. Of course, there are exceptions. You do find a boy, and no doubt a girl, who has apparently only one side of the mind developed, and that side leads towards science. But that is not the case as a rule. The boys who are best at nature study, and take most trouble, are those who are good upon Latin grammar and geometry. Occasionally you get an exception, and when you do, perhaps you get more ability than in the other cases. The laboratory method may be somewhat strange, and if there is anybody in this hall who can let me have their experience on this point, I shall be glad. I am dealing entirely with the NATURE STUDY 303 technical part of the subject, and one which may not appeal to all the audience. I was, however, under the impression that I was to speak to practical teachers, and I have written my paper accordingly. " To my mind the best state of things would be as follows : All children, whether in private or elementary schools, should be taken through a year's course of nature study. On coming to their secondary school they should do more exact courses of laboratory work in elementary chemistry, physics, mensuration, etc. After that, those whose tasks or work in after-life incline them to science should receive more individual attention, and have more time placed at their disposal. But at present this extended course is by no means universal, and I therefore ask you once more, ' Is it to be nature study or elementary science for beginners in secondary schools ? ' But, whichever we vote for, we must be on our guard that our teaching does not become stereotyped or mechanical. The personality of the teacher is, and will always be, of great importance. An enthusiastic man, even though his methods may not be of the best, will do far more good to his pupils than one whose methods are faultless, but who lacks the power of interesting his class. Because we believe in nature study as a means of education, let us not fold our hands and cry ' All's well.' We should be ever on the alert to improve our system. None is perfect. Time shows that some lines of study must be discarded, and fresh ones adopted, if we are to produce the best results. Otherwise even nature study may at length be brought to resemble that Procrustean bed so often quoted by the opponents of classical school education. " May I conclude with a simile already used by an eminent scientific writer, which is, I think, well suited to teachers like ourselves ? In industrial communities it is customary for the members to pay an individual to go from house to house in the early morning to rouse them from sleep, so that they may get to their work betimes. It may well be that the individual who accepts this office is a worker like themselves, but who 304 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION fulfils his duties of knocker-up only because his natural somnolence would otherwise cause him to oversleep himself. If this be so, I think I may compare myself to the knocker-up, and if I have knocked too loudly, or chosen an inopportune moment, when we ought rather to be holiday-making and congratulating our- selves on the progress nature study has made in our curriculum, I beg your pardon." THE NATURE-STUDY SCHEME OF THE COUNTY COUNCILS ASSOCIATION By W. J. WILLIS BUND, J.P. Mr. BUND said he approached this matter from a very different point of view from that of the last speaker, who had dealt with the subject rather from the higher and secondary instruction point. He, personally, looked at it more from the elementary aspect, and also from the still more difficult point of elementary educa- tion in the rural schools ; because when the great cost of education was Considered and particularly the way in which it pressed on the country districts it was most difficult to get rural managers to understand the*advantage of teaching children what they said they would learn equally well outside, without being taught. Now there was a very great deal in that far more than one at first thought ; for there were two very great dangers in carrying nature study too far and not properly regulating it. If it was properly regulated, then nothing tended more to make an accurate observer than studying the different natural forms. The power of learning to make accurate and reliable observation was in itself worth a great deal more than a much larger amount of book-learning. Habits of accuracy and accurate observation were what were wanted, both in the towns and in the country. The scheme of the County Councils Association, of course, embraced very much more than nature study. There was rural education as a whole, and nature study was but a part NATURE STUDY 305 of it. What was aimed at was not merely to give theoretical instruction in nature study, but to try to work up among the rural population some practical good in the observations they made. He was one of those who thought that the collecting part of nature study was, to a great extent, a mistake. It did little good ; but tended to much evil. He knew of two examples, which were the direct results of nature study in a Welsh school. There was only one place, he believed, now left in England and Wales, where the common kite's eggs were to be found. Boys had been told by the rapacious collectors that those eggs were of great value. Certain kites' nests were discovered, and for the past four years they had been systematically robbed, and the robbery had been committed, he had reason to believe, by the boys who had listened to the tale that the eggs were worth money. Those eggs had subsequently found their way to London dealers. That, of course, was an abuse of nature study. Then again, at a certain place the oak fern used to grow in masses ; but now it was about as extinct as the Dodo. People paid for the fern, and it had been uprooted wholesale in consequence of the collecting mania, for lucrative profit. If people encouraged nature study upon those lines, it would have a very short life in schools, and evil would assuredly follow. Referring to the various grasses, Mr. Bund said the fact that some grasses would grow in certain places, while others thrived elsewhere, taught people what were the different kinds of soil, and why particular grasses grew there ; with the result that one could decide which was or was not the soil required for particular purposes. The same applied to weeds. Some grew very strongly in certain places. Then the question arose, which was the best way to deal with them ? In his county much fruit was grown, and he would like to mention an instance where there was advantage gained through juvenile accurate observation. Last autumn a scare arose about what was designated the American goose- 20 306 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION berry mildew, the resemblance of which was so great to the ordinary gooseberry mildew that it took all the scientists of Kew to find out the difference. Growers said the mildew did not exist, and that it did not spread. Well, one or two pupils of a school were set to observe and bring specimens to the County Council, and they did so, to the great satisfaction of that Council. This fact showed the practical use of nature studies, properly conducted. If boys were trained in that way in larger numbers he felt sure an immense advantage would be gained. He mentioned, in passing, that a great deal had been done in the Birmingham University by Mr. Collinge in his Economic Biological Section, and he (Mr. Bund) considered that if the work was extended they would find valuable results. For instance, it ought to be done in country elementary schools, as wished by the County Councils Association ; although he was somewhat afraid of a too scientific side of nature study being introduced there. The reason for his last remark was that if they extended the study too far they would be in danger of educating a class of boy or girl to look with supreme contempt upon the old-fashioned countryman who learned a great deal of natural history by sheer observation. The countryman was unscientific, and might not know the technical name of a plant, but he certainly was aware of the habits of birds, beasts and insects through observation year after year. That countryman might be a poacher, and bad char- acter altogether, but he certainly was educated as a field naturalist, and, though unable to write down anything, would be able to tell more of the habits of the fauna of his district than any one else. Now that sort of man was in danger of dying out, because, when pupils or young teachers who thought they knew a great deal, went to him with their questions, he would shut up and refuse to talk. Men like that might be looked upon as antiquated and worn out, and their hereditary lore was likely to die with them. That would be a great misfortune. Referring to the NATURE STUDY 307 nature of the study which was gone into in elementary schools, he was of opinion that it was extremely limited. The children, under the byelaws of the Robson Act, left school very early, and the question one had to solve was Can you get children under twelve say from nine years old to twelve to be taught sufficiently by pointing out to them certain natural objects which would be of value ? If the answer was in the affirma- tive they ought to do all that was possible to encourage nature study. If, however, they could not, or if only inaccurate observers were produced, more harm than good would be done. One great and most difficult matter was with regard to the teachers. At present very few if any at all were fit to teach nature study. A young man or woman went, say, to a course of lectures given through the County Council, and that man or woman thought he or she was qualified and fit to teach nature. That was a mistake^ He was of opinion that they would not obtain good in nature study until they turned out he would not say a better set of teachers, but at any rate teachers who had been taught to know exactly what they ought to teach, and not attempt the whole realm of nature, as was their habit at the present time. DISCUSSION The Hon. A. DOBSON, C.M.G. (Agent-General for Tasmania), as a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, sympathised thoroughly with the last speaker, who referred to the wanton destruction of eggs. He had been told that many species of the birds which were natives of the British Isles had absolutely ceased to exist, because they had not been properly protected. As tilings were nowadays, when- ever gamekeepers saw rare birds flying over their heads they raised their guns and fired at them, instead of protecting them. Under the circumstances it was most encouraging to hear anybody of experience giving warning, as to the destruction of rare birds, 308 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION animals and plants. He heartily congratulated the speakers who had preceded him upon the valuable information they had given. Mr. T. R. ABLETT said he represented the Royal Drawing Society, which spent its time in trying to facilitate the descriptive powers of children with the view to making their nature study more definite and intelligible to otrier people. So many wise things had been said there that day that he would not travel over the ground that had been already occupied. But he would like to point out that, whether people liked it dr not, all children were students of nature. The younger they were the greater necessity there was that they should study nature. Now, were they to leave them in that study without help or guidance ? Were they to be left like a ship without a rudder, and not assisted into safety ? It had been said that nature study made great demands upon the teacher. That was perfectly true. Nature study and the description of nature had not hitherto found the place it should have had in our schools, because of the difficulties attached to it ; and he felt that it was one of the most difficult for teachers to deal with. That was why it had not come to the front sooner. For any one to understand the child's nature one must become as the child, and see the world as the child saw it in fact, subordinate oneself to the child. Sometimes the child was regarded as a stranger seeking information, while in reality people ought to reverence those new intellects which had come into the world, and which might be the means of discovering that which older individuals never dreamed of. He be- lieved that in this nature study the children would find means of increasing their mental power, which all were so anxious to see. This subject had interested his Society for many years, and they encouraged children of the very tenderest age to scribble with their pencils their observations of nature, while he himself had thus been enabled to show audiences most graphic descriptions of things which the children NATURE STUDY 309 had seen, even when they were of the tenderest age from eleven months up to three years. None were too young for the Society's attention, and they were now endeavouring to get parents and teachers to join in the matter. Children's clever intellects ought to be regarded as being capable of immense use to the world. If they were encouraged to put down what they observed they would do so with pleasure. If that was watched it would be found that they got together a diary which, if preserved, would be seen to be an intellectual record of the children and an environment around them. They possessed won- derful memories and wonderful intuitiveness, and by looking at the screen exhibited at that meeting his audience would see the extraordinary power of the human intellect and what it could do if given the opportunity. He, personally, strongly felt that the countryman was very much like the child. He ac- cumulated great stores of observation and knowledge of the world ; and instead of laughing at him for his uncouthness, people ought to try and get the advantage of his knowledge and have it expanded. They ought, as far as the child was concerned, to regard it as pos- sessing a clever intellect, seeking its way in a new world. If they did not so regard it they would not get all that was desired out of nature study. The Rev. Canon HORSLEY, M.A. said he was one who had been a student of nature all his life, and was still being taught something about nature, sometimes effectually and sometimes otherwise. He did not consider that people gave sufficient assistance to the young mind. He contended that teachers should do more towards developing in children the power of observation. As one who was born in the country, he entirely disagreed with the idea that countrymen were particularly good observers. Mr. FRANK TATE, I.S.O., M.A. (Director of Educa- tion, Victoria, Australia) said that in his Colony they were faced with the problem of nature study, and desired to revolutionise their school methods. There- 3io FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION fore they decided to make that particular study one of the central subjects of the whole curriculum. In order to grapple with their initial difficulty they, he thought, wisely confined the work to the lower standard of the schools, as they did not desire to be too am- bitious and too systematic. Teachers who failed in nature study did so because they were too ambitious and wanted to make it go too closely with elementary science. The object of nature study, as he took it, was not to produce the knowledge of the facts about natural objects, but to produce a certain attitude of the mind which afterwards resulted in an educated mind. In Victoria it was deemed expedient to train the teachers who were to a certain extent ignorant of nature to become first-hand observers as well as the children. The teachers, therefore, did not put book- knowledge into the subject, which was a thing to be avoided. As to the work of nature study being done in the classroom, they in Victoria were thinking seriously of abolishing that, and substituting the teaching and encouraging the children, as they walked to and from school, to notice things from nature, and afterwards discuss them with the teachers. By that system he thought they would thus obtain what was wanted viz. the seeing eye and the understanding heart. With regard to making collections, the Field Naturalist Club in Victoria, which was working hand in hand with the teachers, quite agreed with them in discountenancing the collection of birds and birds' eggs. The authorities, too, were very strict on the subject, an instance as to which he would relate. At an Exhibition in Melbourne, where, by the way, the children's nature-study section was a very great feature, a teacher was seen bringing along, as an exhibit, a case containing eggs. An official saw them, and ordered them to be taken out of the building at once, telling the teacher that to take the eggs was contrary to law, and that he could, if he informed the Customs Authorities, get a fine inflicted upon the teacher. What the children did actually exhibit NATURE. STUDY 311 were mostly drawings and descriptions of various things, the children having worked out the life his- tories of such things as the bean, the pea, the gum- moth and the wasp. Through their nature study in the Colony the children had been of great service to the farmers. The latter, being under the impression that the Potter wasp damaged the fruit, were in the habit of destroying their nests wherever they could be found, until one day schoolchildren discovered in a nest hundreds of eggs and larvae of certain insects, which the wasps had collected as food, and which were known to be most harmful to the growing fruit. From that time, therefore, the Potter wasp was looked upon as the friend of the horticulturist. The children in one of the districts had also been the discoverers of a poisonous weed, and as the result of their find they had been made members of the District Vigilance Committee. Mrs. OWEN VISGER entirely deprecated wholesale collections by children, inasmuch as they were likely to destroy rare specimens. She would like to see the same thing obtain in this country as in New York State, where the system was to wire to the museum, and in response a messenger was sent down to the schools with a case containing the objects that were required for the study of the pupils. She had asked at the British Museum when such a system was likely to be introduced into this country, and with the pride characteristic of the Government official, the answer given to her was " Never ! " Lieut-Col. PLUNKETT, referring to the remarks of the last speaker, said he was not aware that there was any objection in this country to lend exhibits from museums. He knew that at South Kensington it was done every day, and done on a gigantic scale. In connection with the museum in Dublin some 240 cases of exhibits were used for the very object of being lent to various places, while he, personally, had brought twenty, and they were placed in the very chamber in which they were then assembled. With reference to 312 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION nature study and the manner in which it ought to be carried out, his experience was that in most cases success depended chiefly upon the personality of the teacher. Sometimes the study became mechanical and perfunctory. That was not the fault of nature study, but the fault of human nature. He was firmly of opinion that nature study was one of the most useful of all studies. It was a development of that which had always been going on, and he hoped that much more would be seen of its culture in the future. He was glad speakers had referred to the perils of injudicious collection. That ought certainly to be discouraged, although there should not be interference with the encouragement of useful and proper collection. The collection of the common weeds met with in the roads near suburban schools, the common grasses growing in the meadows, and the leaves of ordinary trees could not possibly do harm, but on the other hand must be a means of teaching observation to classes. It was chiefly with the object of showing how collecting could be done without mischief resulting, and how the collecting of the commonest objects was useful, that he had brought the twenty cases to Caxton Hall. Some were collections of grasses found in County Dublin, others in the salt marshes in Dublin Bay, and so on. The commonest objects might be collected by the children and be quite as much an encouragement in nature study as the rarest specimens. One result of the greed for collecting was the destruction of the Killarney fern, which at one time grew around Killarney in pro- fusion, but which had been so ruthlessly uprooted that it was extinct, with the exception of a few which could now be found only in some of the Irish private gardens. He was in a position to say that the greed which had resulted in that state of things was not that of children, but of ignorant adults who had not been taught the love of nature. Miss WADMORE claimed that girls should have the same facilities for nature study as were afforded to the boys. NATURE STUDY 313 Mr. W. CROSS said he was a teacher of nature study, and advised it as a subject for the curriculum in every school. In order to make any headway with young people they must possess centres of living interest, around which they could pack the other subjects which made up the school routine. What was the most central point of interest which appealed to boys and girls ? Was it Euclid, or parsing ? No. The Chair- man struck the point when he said that nature study was to be the centre of interest in education. If the human being was brought to view life intelligently, whether that life be the insect or the plant, he would take that as the environment of after-life. Mrs. JANE HOLTON said she found that nature study led to the love of culture and art. If the love of nature became implanted in any boy's or girl's mind they specialised it through that love. The CHAIRMAN said nature study quickened the intelli- gence and led the pupil to follow with enthusiasm those studies for which he was most naturally adapted. It led the scientific mind to science, and the artistic mind to art. Science did not appeal to the emotions, but nature study did ; and he considered that in many ways the latter filled a more important position in education, especially to the young. Science should be allied to nature study, otherwise it would have a deaden- ing influence. The first lesson which science gave was that one must eliminate things, and not let it colour the outline of intellectual thought. Something was neces- sary to counteract that tendency, and that is where nature study stepped in. Mr. WILLIS BUND, in replying to the discussion on the subject he had introduced, entirely disagreed with the Rev. Canon Horsley when he argued that children and countrymen did not possess powers of observation, or that if they did they did not exercise those powers ; and gave two instances in which countrymen had shown the greatest intelligence and knowledge with regard to various birds^and certain varieties of fruit. The meeting then adjourned till the next morning. NATURE-STUDY SECTION WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1907. Chairman, THE HON. SIR JOHN COCKBURN, K.C.M.G., M.D. AFTER some introductory remarks by the Chairman, Miss ETHEL A. M. WEBB, B.Sc., read the following paper : NATURE STUDY AS A MEANS OF CULTURE ' ' The study of history and literature has for many centuries taken the foremost place in the education of a cultured man, and it is quite unnecessary to insist upon the value of such study ; but perhaps it is not so useless to point out that science teaching may be made a means of culture, apart from its recognised practical value in giving information and providing that training which is necessary to one who would be successful in the struggle for existence. " Quite recently the head mistress of a well-known high school stated her opinion that it was almost impos- sible to get science mistresses who were -educated in any true sense of the term. I do not propose to discuss the truth of this statement, but that such a thing could be said is sufficient to show that either something is very wrong with the methods of training science teachers, or with their methods of teaching, or that ideas as to the educational value of science need a thorough revision. The education received by most assistant mistresses NATURE STUDY 315 science or otherwise is too well known to need de- scription. Most of them spend about ten years of their lives in attendance at a high school, whence they pass, often as scholarship holders, to college for two or three years, take their degree, and then in some cases go to a training college and thence without a break to their first post, the duties of which at once absorb all their energies and form their chief centre of interest. These are educational successes as success is accounted in the educational world ; and there is no reason why such teachers should not be educational successes in a true sense, so long as the work done at school and college is of the right sort. In the opinion of most authorities, no work tends to culture which is not done con amore, although it is necessary to avoid underesti- mating the moral value of application to uncongenial tasks. About work at college I do not propose to speak : if work there is not done for love of it, but only as a means of passing some necessary examination, surely the fault must be in the early training, which has either rendered the student incapable of ' insisting on himself,' and following his natural bent in a choice of study, or has so dulled and narrowed his perceptions that he is incapable of intellectual enthusiasm in any direction. Therefore it is of schooldays that I especi- ally wish to speak, both as to subjects of study and time for studying. No one can overestimate the tremendous stimulation given to the imagination by the practical and theoretical study of chemistry and physics; but years of practical work with little theoretical applica- tion seem to me to be of small use educationally, except to those who are afterwards to specialise in science. Here it is that nature study rushes in, where science fears to tread. In the informal study of nature, we may venture to speak of a rainbow without a year's preliminary training in wave motion and optics, a child may watch a thunderstorm and get some explanation of what he sees, without a course on current electricity though such explanation had best be given by those with real scientific knowledge, who therefore will not 3i6 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION involuntarily give erroneous impressions. In these strenuous days, when children have to a large extent lost taste for reading, when fairy tales soon lose charm, and dolls are quickly outgrown, the benefit derived from nature study is incalculable. Only those who are actively engaged in teaching know how silly is most schoolgirl conversation, how lacking in occupation a schoolgirl's few hours of leisure. It has been my privilege in two schools to watch the effects of the first beginnings of nature-study work. Before school, at recess, even between lessons, children will run to enter observations in their Form Nature Calendars ; arguments as to who saw the first primrose take the place of comment on the apportioning of marks, or discussions as to the rival merits of blue or white hair- ribbons. Walks are taken on the common, or in the lane, instead of up and down in front of shop windows, and very different answers are given from those obtained from a First Form, who on being asked what they saw as they came to school, answered promptly ' Shops,' and on being further pressed, added ' People.' To quote Emerson, ' It seems as if the day was not wholly profane in which we have given heed to some natural object ' ; and again, as has been said by the Bishop of Birmingham in a recent periodical, ' The result of this kind of study to a man, who may be far short of anything that can be called a scientific man, or an adept in science, is that the world in his imagination becomes the scene of great and constant forces which admit of being reverently explored, and thus the imagination of the educated man is enriched and enlightened ; and the effect of this kind of conception, if it once gets hold of a man, not only of his mind but of his imagination, is enormous. It fires his whole being, possesses his whole outlook with the idea of knowledge yet to be won, power yet to be acquired, transformations yet to be made.' " And now a word or two as to the school time- tables. I have said that no work is of real value which is not done for love, and the flaw in our whole NATURE STUDY 317 educational system in girls' schools seems to me to lie in the fact that neither for mistresses nor girls is there any time for such work. I am not speaking of little children, who have usually no home-work, or of Sixth Form girls who have begun to specialise, but of the middle-school girl. It seems as if there could be little time for any extra labour of love in one subject, unless at the expense of time allotted to another. In the middle school half an hour's preparation a week in one subject may be all that is allowed by the authorities. In order to show that girls, especially if living in a boarding-house, have practically no time to take extra pains with any work they love, I will give a time- table showing how one girl's day was portioned out for her. 7.30 to 8 a.m. . . practice. 8 to 8.20 .... breakfast. 8. 20 to 8.30 . . bed-making. 8.30 to 8.50 . . walk. 9 to i p.m. . . morning school, i to 1.30 . . dinner. 1.30 to 2.30 . . walk. 2.30 to 4.30 . . afternoon school or games. 4.30 to 4.45 . . dress for tea. 4.45 to 5.15 . . tea. 5.15 to 6 . . practice or music lesson. 6 to 8 . . . . silent preparation. 8 to 8.30 . , supper and prayers. 8.30 . . . . bed. Lights out 9 p.m. Practically the only moments she could call her own were those when meals were not punctual, or were ended quickly ; and even then, should she complain of being unable to get her home-lessons done, these precious moments were also portioned out : 10 minutes before or after dinner . . Grammar, 10 minutes before or after tea . . French verbs, and'so on. Is it to be wondered at that one child said 3i8 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION to me, ' I am waiting till I leave school to do some real work ' ? Girls who, unlike the last, are not clever and fond of work, and who have their time doled out to them in this way, are often quite helpless in- tellectually when they leave school. One ' old girl ' said on revisiting her school, ' It took me nearly a year to find out something I wanted to do ! ' while others, still more unfortunate, never seem to find it. If what I have said about lack of time applies to the pupils, how much more does it apply to the mistresses ! No mistress who throws herself into the varied life of a school has any real time for self-culture, and too often one duty is done in time which should have gone to the efficient performance of another surely a very unsatisfactory position for any conscientious person to be in. To conclude, I wish to ask, in the interest of true education, that for teachers, actual school- work should be confined to schoolrooms, and for pupils, that time should be given for real work at whatever interests them for the moment. There will always be idlers among mistresses and girls, who will never spend more than the minimum time at their work. Why arrange time-tables to coerce such idlers, but which prove a burden and a stumbling-block to all earnest workers ? True education should make for happiness ; ' every moment instructs and every object/ so that the truly cultured man must be able to say with Robert Louis Stevenson : " The world is so full of a number of things, I think we should all be as happy as kings ! " DISCUSSION Mrs. J. S. TURNER regretted to see the present state of things in girls' schools. Nowadays there was such constant hurry and drive for both girls and teachers that the habit of individual and disinterested work was really lost. She would like to know whether, under the circumstances, by giving nature study a NATUREj^STUDY 319 wider place in the curriculum a little of the hurrying habit would be cured. Mr. T. R. ABLETT said that for the past twenty-five years he had been connected with girls' high schools, besides other schools, and recognised that high schools had done a great deal towards the improvement of education in this country, and had taken up many things which would not otherwise have obtained. He had noticed that the ideal of the high schools had been for working for the universities, which he considered a very estimable thing to do. But it could be carried too far if it was forgotten that the majority of the pupils of those high schools would never go near the universities, and therefore it was not wise to put them all strictly through the same training. To get to the universities at the present time necessitated very hard work throughout school life, and he feared there were many who were obliged to go through a severe curri- culum to their detriment, because their own individu- ality seemed thereby to be lost. In connection with nature study, therefore, one felt that its great im- portance tended to preserve the individuality of each scholar, for from the high ideal educational standpoint the individuality of the scholar should be the basis of education. It appeared to him that it was the duty^of those who had the control of the young to discover, as far as possible, what was their touch with the world and their power of observing and thinking ; and having ascertained the educational formula of the individual, to try to work in a natural sequence, that that formula should be developed. He was connected with the Royal Drawing Society, which had been endeavouring to promote observation through drawing, and they had discovered as a result that the young people took a wider interest in the world around them. It was found that they took an interest not only in insects and flowers, but in animals and their own fellow- creatures. Further than that, they developed an interest in the manufactures of their fellow-creatures. Boys, for instance, at a very early age, took interest in 320 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION engines, motor-cars and steamships, and other evi- dences of men's work, and he maintained that boys were best handled through such means. Girls, too, evinced great general interest, especially in their fellow-creatures. He had framed a resolution which he desired to move, because it was founded upon the Royal Drawing Society's observation of the very wide in- terest which young children took in the world around them. The resolution was : "As nature study gives that wide knowledge of the world and its products which is required throughout life, it should be incul- cated in all stages of sound general education, and this Section recommends its earnest encouragement in the home, in the school, and in the outside world. Furthermore, this Section trusts that the educational authorities of the Empire will endeavour to expand and encourage knowledge self-gained from original observation as a fertilising factor in the progress to full intellectual efficiency." Mr. WILFRED MARK WEBB had pleasure in seconding the resolution,. It embodied, he said, everything re- quired in the direction Mr. Ablett had indicated. The CHAIRMAN said nature study encouraged the pupil, which was the greatest desideratum. It taught him comprehension, made him put forth his faculties and seize for himself the knowledge he was going to incorporate, to " read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." He thought there was less mental indigestion likely to follow from nature-study than from any other form of educational diet. Stuffing children, ramming and jamming knowledge into them, without, as it were, developing the mind, led undoubtedly to mental in- digestion of the worst possible form. Nature study, however, created a degree of interest which exalted the faculties. He thought, therefore, Mr. Ablett was quite right when he said that nature study developed in- dividuality. The resolution truly pointed out that it gave that wide knowledge of the world which was re- quired throughout life. That was one of the greatest points. It taught them to use their eyes upon objects NATURE STUDY 321 in the world at large and created an objective form of mind which was so essential in life. It led to action. Action, and not thought merely, was the end of life. When a child went through his course of nature study he did not launch into the world as a stranger ; the world was a continuation of the school. The child who was simply book-informed found that the world did not correspond with the conception he formed of it in the class-room, because he was a complete stranger to it, like a foreigner who found himself in a country the language of which he did not understand. Nature study, he maintained, was the true centre from which a circle could be drawn in any direction and in any department of activity. He considered that the reso- lution was a true and laudable wish, and he looked forward to the time when the class-room would be the smallest part of education. In a school which he esta- blished in South Australia, only half the time was spent in the class-room, while the other half was occu- pied in the garden or the workshop. The pupils thus made more progress and could go into the world without fear. Knowledge, self-gained and properly digested, therefore,' was a beautiful, nourishing diet, and he hoped that nature study would soon take up the position to which it was entitled. The resolution was then put and carried unani- mously. The Hon. CORDELIA LEIGH explained a scheme which she said had been set on foot for correspondence between town and country schools on the subject of nature study, and in connection with which she was honorary secretary. The suggestion which had been made was that each country school included in the scheme should send parcels of objects suitable for nature study to town schools, the objects being previously used by the senders ; the parcels to be sent once in every three weeks, from November to March, and once a fortnight from April to October ; postage not to exceed fourpence ; objects to be " named " as far as possible ; and notice to be sent a few days before 21 322 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION their dispatch. The things sent were to consist of, say, hedgerow flowers, common grasses, common living creatures such as caterpillars, woodborers, and the larvae of butterflies. Birds' nests or eggs, with a few exceptions, were not to be collected, nor any live animals which it would be unkind to keep in confine- ment. Further, ,no butterflies were to be killed, or rare plants uprooted. Town schools were to send in exchange letters written by the scholars at their homes or at school, giving interesting details of town life : picture post-cards, newspaper and magazine cuttings all, of course, previously inspected by the teachers- specimens of general school- work, and so on. Already there were seventeen couples of schools affiliated, and so far the work had been most success- ful. Teachers and scholars were taking a great in- terest in the correspondence and exchange, and several inspectors had expressed warm approval of the scheme. Things had now gone so far forward that Warwick, Gloucester, and Manchester had granted the payment of the postage out of the school funds for all parcels sent out, and other cities and counties and County Councils were being approached with the object of the same favour being granted. Mr. CHASE. (Gloucester Road School) said his was the first school to act with Miss Leigh in this matter. Studies such as zoology, botany, biology, with other kindred " ologies " were apt to frighten children. The children must be interested in the first instance through love of nature. When that took hold upon them they would go in for every variety of nature study, from the leaves of the trees to the conditions of the weather and the rising of the sun. He felt sure the interest of pupils was developing, and he saw signs that it would develop still further. Miss GARDINER gave instances where very young children had taken to nature study, showing that they evinced an interest at the earliest age. The CHAIRMAN asked for other resolutions to be put forward, because he was of opinion that the NATURE^ STUDY 323 Conference was setting a course before the whole Empire. Miss REES GEORGE (South Australia) said they in the Antipodes had a course of study of living nature in the schools, particularly of forestry, and efforts were being made to train the pupils most effectively. She had pleasure in moving " That the supply of teachers acquainted with true methods of nature study being the greatest present requirement, special efforts be made to provide facilities for the proper preparation for this work by students and teachers in training." Mrs. PRENDERGAST had pleasure in seconding this motion. The CHAIRMAN said the only way to start with nature study was to do so fairly, and get a good supply of teachers, imbued with the true spirit of nature study and who did not regard it as secondary science. He thought children should be taught to call everything by its simple name, and not indulge in long rigmaroles of family names. Let them have an affectionate and familiar acquaintance with birds and beasts. Let it be a loving matter, because after all nature study was a question of love, and appealed to the heart. In- telligence would be sure to step in when the affection was there. It was that point which ought particularly to be understood. He was associated with the Swanley Horticultural College, and he and Mr. Medd indited a letter to the newspapers informing the public at large that, recognising the necessity of it, they had in- augurated a three years' course for the express purpose of preparing teachers and students in the most im- portant work of nature study. The result was that they had had during the last three years nature study classes which had been "largely attended. Last year, for instance, there were fifty or sixty students. He urged that the movement he had referred to should be taken up by others. He believed the Resolution now before the Section, moved by Miss George, touched the vital requirement. The resolution was put and carried nem. con. 324 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Miss WEBB then replied to the discussion. She considered, she said, that nature study drew the children more to their teachers. Many were too shy to talk to their teachers unless they found an excuse to do so. With regard to children in the poorer dis- tricts, they ought to be encouraged to appreciate beauty in their environment. Appreciation of beauty extended to further culture. In encouraging observa- tion the imagination was stimulated, as well as the poetic instinct. Once they had the nucleus to start with, the study could be extended in all directions. Many people were under the impression that nature study only embraced disconnected observations. If that were so, then the study ceased to be educational. Of course it ought to be connected. She was of opinion that the Hon. Cordelia Leigh's scheme was excellent. The difficulty, if there was one, was in obtaining material at the right time ; but if country schools were written to, and things were sent up by science teachers in the country, incalculable benefit would be derived in the town schools, although she did not think the benefits derived by the country schools would be at all proportional. On the motion of Mr. Webb, seconded by the Hon. Cordelia Leigh, a hearty vote of thanks to Sir John Cockburn for taking the chair, not only on that, but on other days during the Conference, was carried with applause. The CHAIRMAN, in responding, said the thanks ought to have been given to the readers of the papers and to Mr. Webb, his very faithful ally, who had worked extremely hard, and to whom they were deeply indebted. The meeting then concluded. "TEACHING OF ENGLISH' SECTION SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1907. Chairman, PROF. SAINTSBURY, M.A., LL.D., D.Litt. Hon. Secretary, MR. ERNEST YOUNG, B.Sc. Subjects : I. " The Teaching of English in Public Schools " (Mr. J. H. Fowler, M.A.). II. " The Teaching of English to non-English-speaking children in the Colonies " (Mons. Adolphe Bernon, In- spector of Schools, Mauritius). THE CHAIRMAN said there was hardly any subject so important as the teaching of English in our schools. The teaching of the English language within the limits of the United Kingdom was an exceedingly large subject ; but when they wished, as they now did, to impart it to the outlying parts of the Empire, the matter naturally became very much wider. The greatest difficulty, however, was the selection of the exact subjects and qualifications which an English teacher should have. The matter was at present in its experimental stage, and the comparison of the experience of the different countries with regard to those who had to teach English to pupils and students whose native language it was, and those whose native language it was not, was of the highest possible value. 326 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION For a good many years he had been thinking that the greatest danger ahead was not so much unsystematic treatment of the subject, as, perhaps, systematic treatment of it in the wrong way. The difficulties of teaching English by persons who were even thoroughly accustomed to it were very great indeed. Most of those who had practical experience in teaching knew, unfortunately, that the persons they had to teach had very little acquaintance with the matter, although they had a certain knowledge of it, behind which it would be wrong for the teachers to go. Almost everyone " to the manner born," having been brought up in the associations and atmosphere of English speaking and English writing, had a certain prerogative right in the matter, and could always get up and say, " You say this or that idiom is wrong ; I have read and heard it ; who are you to tell me it is wrong ? " It was most difficult to decide, exactly, how far allow- ance was to be made for idioms ; in fact, hitherto he thought there had not been sufficient allowance. It was exceedingly desirable that we should keep as far as possible to a free or elastic set of regulations as to the elementary use of English. If that were so, and a use was made of good speakers and good writers, he thought no great harm could be done. He owned, however, that in his recent experience he had come to the conclusion that there were works of great repute and supposed excellence which he could not honestly countersign. With such an audience as he had before him, he thought there would be, in the course of the discussion, some light thrown upon the difficulties to which he had referred, and that they would learn how to surmount those difficulties after they had listened to the testimony of those who had had ex- perience amongst pupils and students in different parts of the world. The following paper, which had been printed and laid before the Conference, was taken as read ; TEACHING OF ENGLISH 327 THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS By J. H. FOWLER, M.A., Assistant Master at Clifton College. Breaking away early from classical traditions and set forms, fostered by no National Academy of Letters, directed by no systematic or authoritative criticism, English literature in depth and range probably the greatest literature in the world has grown up in the same absent-minded way in which the British Empire is said to have grown. For many generations even the greatest Englishmen persistently undervalued their own literature. Though Addison taught his country- men to admire Milton, he was not fully aware of Milton's greatness ; though Johnson wrote of Shakespeare with splendid acumen, he was far from understanding Shakespeare's unique position as it is now realised. Even now, when every one is prepared to admit theoretically the importance of English literature, it is only fighting its way slowly to an assured place in the curriculum of English schools. Thirty-seven years ago Sir John Seeley the same whose historical and political writings did more than those of any other man to awaken Englishmen to a sense of the significance of the expansion of England overseas published an eloquent plea for the study of the English language and literature in English schools. " Everywhere but in England, I imagine, the native language makes a prominent part of the educational course." When these words were written in 1870, the education in English secondary schools, both of the higher and the lower grades, both public and private, was still pre- ponderatingly classical. There have been great changes since then, but they have hardly been in the direction desired by Professor Seeley. The present state of things with regard to the teach- ing of English in English Secondary Schools may be 328 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION summarized as follows : (i) In the great public schools a diminished number of boys are still receiving an education which is mainly literary. In some of these schools very little English literature is read and very little English composition is practised. It may readily be admitted that those boys who carry on their classical studies to the tmiversity do not greatly lose, both because their training in the ancient classics is an admirable preparation for the later reading of modern European literature, and because they indirectly learn the use of their own language in the practice of trans- lation and composition. On the other hand, those boys who cease to pursue their classical studies at the age of 16 or 17 have probably gained little beyond the mental discipline from their classics : they have missed that foundation of a literary and humane education which could have been laid in wisely directed English studies. (2) On the modern sides of the great public schools it is generally recognised that the only chance of preventing the materialisation of studies, and of continuing to the modern public-school boy any part of the humanism which has been the best feature of English public-school training on the intel- lectual side, lies in the study of English literature. Fortunately the modern sides of these schools have had among their masters many men who have been conspicuous for their knowledge and love of English literature. It would be impossible to over-praise the excellence, and especially the stimulating qualities, of the teaching in particular cases. But probably there are few modern sides on which the study of this sub- ject has been organised on any general plan, and in any case the schools have developed their systems independently with little knowledge of what was being done elsewhere. It will be one of the tasks of the lately-formed English Association to bring them into communication with each other, and to enable each school to gain from the experience of the rest. (3) In the other secondary schools the prevailing type of education is less and less a literary type. No neces- TEACHING OF ENGLISH 329 sity, I conceive, is more vital for the future of English education than the necessity of securing that every boy and every girl who passes through these schools shall come, through wisely determined English studies, under that humane influence which can best be given through literature. The present position of English studies in these schools is, as the last Board of Educa- tion Report bears emphatic testimony, far from satis- factory. At the same time, the most hopeful feature of the situation is the anxiety of the Board to bring about an improvement. I will venture to suggest in conclusion some of the directions in which improvement may be looked for within the next few years, (i) We shall take more pains to graduate carefully the English literature read in school, and to see that nothing is read which is wholly beyond the pupil's comprehension, and at the same time that nothing is read which is not really literature. (2) As our chief aim is to be the foundation of a love of reading and a taste for the best literature in after-life, rather than the preparation for later specialising in English literature as a university subject, we shall aim at more rapid and continuous reading than has been more commonly practised in this study hitherto. The minute study of a single poem or play may profitably be undertaken from time to time by the higher forms of a school ; but with the higher forms generally, and with lower forms almost always, we should aim at reading English literature at a rate sufficiently rapid to give the form a whole impression of the book they are reading. The practice of devoting a whole year to a single play of Shakespeare, common in many English schools, though not in the public schools, seems to me radically un- sound. The high authority of Professor Raleigh, in his new book on Shakespeare, may be quoted in favour of the impression that is got by " alert and rapid " reading, and by that only. (3) We shall recognise that the best fruits of this study cannot be tested by examination papers certainly not by the prevailing 330 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION type of examination paper, with its literary questions which can be answered by rote out of an introduction, and its grammatical, philological, historical, or "general information " questions which can be answered out of the notes. If we are to test our teaching in this sub- ject at all and it is only right that we should wish to do so we shall rely rather on the test that can be furnished by English composition, taught as the art of self-expression. For (4) much may be done for the teaching of English composition in this direction. Here, too, we shall take pains to graduate our sub- jects according to the age and experience and capacity of our pupils. We shall neither lose sight of the simple but invaluable practical ends that may be served by composition the learning to write a busi- ness letter lucidly, concisely, courteously ; the learning to make an abstract of an argument, to sum up a case, to describe something seen nor yet of more ambitious aims, such as the acquisition of a large and flexible English vocabulary, the acquisition of the rudi- ments of a style and a literary sense. (5) We shall do increasingly more to correlate the study of composition not only with the study of literature and the study of history, but also with every subject that is taught in our schools. It is not too much to say that every lesson ought to be a lesson in English. If only we schoolmasters were properly proud of our heritage if only we realised how splendid a boast it is to " speak the tongue that Shakespeare spake " this English question would speedily settle itself in our schools. For every master would be careful of the example he set to his pupils, and intolerant, in himself as well as in them, of the slovenly and slip-shod speech that is a wanton degradation of our noble mother-tongue ; and few things, I think, would lie nearer to his heart than the desire that in our national literature the coming generations might find a link to bind them to all that was most precious in the past, an inspiration to the loftiest patriotism, a constant source of purifying and elevating thoughts and affections. TEACHING OF ENGLISH 331 RESOLUTION Mr. J. H. FOWLER then moved the following resolu- tion : " That this Conference urge the importance of the study of the English language and literature as an essential part of school training on the grounds of practical utility, an enlightened patriotism, and the humane ideal in education." He said it required some audacity to come forward as a representative of one of the public schools, after the attacks which had been so frequent of late upon the intellectual side of public-school life in England. From letters and works which had been published it had been said that in the public schools of England the bowling and batting averages of the cricket pro- fessional were the all-absorbing topic of conversation, not only among the boys, but among the staff of masters during the period they ought to be devoting to the consideration of their more serious responsi- bilities. He did not, however, intend to deal now with those attacks upon the public schools, but ask his audience to listen to him, as a public-school master, to accept the meditations of his saner moments, and judge as to the soundness or otherwise of the con- clusions to which he would lead them. The paper which he had laid before the Conference gave a kind of historical retrospect of the teaching of English in English public schools, but he would rather speak this afternoon upon the resolution which he now desired to move. With regard to the first point namely, practical utility the charge was often made that an English schoolboy on leaving school was utterly unable to express himself properly in his own lan- guage. To a certain extent that was true, and he would say that we had, as a nation, been shamefully indifferent to our language and our literature. There was the testimony of scientific men and of specialists that they found the pupil who came to them to do special work insufficiently prepared in the use of 332 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION English. English composition should be regarded as a practical study. The preparation of the English essay, as generally practised in English schools, had hardly been right. What was needed was a much more careful gradation than heretofore, a more careful adaptation of subjects to the age and capacity of the pupil, and more .material should be given. It was far too common a practice simply to give the set subjects, as to which the pupil was naturally quite ignorant, and then leave him to evolve the essays from his own brain, or out of books about which he had received no guidance. Something might be done in the way of giving models for essays ; they might use the great English essayists more than they did, such, for in- stance, as Addison, Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, and Charles Lamb. Another thing to aim at, when considering practical utility, was the enlargement of the vocabu- lary of the pupils. It was really quite saddening to think how very small the vocabulary of the average Englishman was when contrasted with the boundless riches of our language. The pupils should be trained to a greater exactness in the use of language ; exact- ness in language led to exactness in thought. They should also be educated in the best English literature, generally in such a way aiming at and developing a love of reading ; at the same time helping them to discriminate between good and bad literature, and making them absolutely independent of the criticism of the railway bookstall. Finally, he urged this study on the ground of establishing an enlightened patriotism. As the word " Hellene " came to stand for a senti- ment, not a race, so he thought the name of " English " should stand in years to come for a point of view, a way of looking at life, and this should be based on our literature, which was a tie to bind the Empire together. DISCUSSION Miss MASON remarked that she endorsed what Mr. Fowler had said. She certainly considered that the TEACHING OF ENGLISH 333 vocabulary of the scholars should be increased. She thought it would be as well also to have an index exfiurgatorius for barbarous words. Lady SCOTT spoke of the fluency with which our language was articulated by many of the Parsees and barristers in India, and said it was very important that the love of our language should be fostered in that great portion of the Empire. Professor F. S. BOAS, M.A. (English Association) said they ought not to dishonour the past in regard to the teaching of English. There were brave men before Agamemnon, and some consideration of the subject before the present day. The present interest in the national tongue was what Matthew Arnold would have called a Zeitgeist. This keenness of interest in the mother-tongue was to be seen 'in Hungary and other parts of the world, whilst closer home the same could be said with regard to Irish and Welsh. Such study of the national language was an emblem, as it were, of the national consciousness. It lent im- mense strength and force to efforts for the teaching of English. There was a great imaginative ideal behind it, as well as the ideal of practical utility, of which so much had been heard. What was now wanted was to organise, not to systematise it. It was to be hoped, therefore, that those from over the seas would assist in the organisation and gradation of the teaching of English. All of them wanted to teach Shakespeare, but where were they to begin ? To whom were they to teach Shakespeare ? Was the teaching to be with or without notes, and was it to last over one, two, or three years ? They really, at the present time, needed a trained and instructed opinion upon the subject, and he hoped this Conference would help to focus it in this country and over-seas. He had pleasure in seconding the resolution proposed by Mr. Fowler. The CHAIRMAN put the resolution, and it was carried unanimously. 334 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION Mons. ADOLPHE BERNON (Inspector of Schools, Mauritius) then read a paper on : THE TEACHING OF; ENGLISH TO NON- ENGLISH-SPEAKING CHILDREN IN THE \ COLONIES Mons. ADOLPHE BERNON said that the learner's early efforts should be directed to the spoken language, its idioms and pronunciation. He recommended the use of dialogue and the learning of phrases used in every-day life, the reading of newspapers, magazines, and the like. His second point was composition. He was of the same opinion as one of H.M. Inspectors of Schools, that a child should begin to compose almost as soon as it can read and write ; but the systematic study of grammar was not necessary at the outset and should be postponed. He recommended reading at home as giving an enlarged vocabulary and ease of style. His third point was the school library, which he considered most valuable in fostering a love of reading, and so widening the mind and fitting the child for the duties of citizenship. The fourth point was the direct system. For material objects it was invaluable, but it was powerless as a vehicle to convey moral feelings or the language of history, philosophy, commerce, politics, science, and the like. In the latter cases it must be helped by translation. He, therefore, did not consider it the sole valuable link in the chain of the teaching of living languages, but only as one of several links. It should go hand in hand with translation when it is evident that the learner has not understood the foreign tongue used by the teacher. Mons. Bernon then called attention to a report of Mr. Legard, one of H.M. Inspectors in the Welsh Division, in which he said he had asked a teacher to question her class upon an object-lesson. All her questions were in English, and every question was readily answered by TEACHING OF ENGLISH 335 the children in the same language. Knowing that the children spoke nothing but Welsh out of school, and wishing to ascertain if they had really understood the lesson, he asked the teacher to repeat her questions in Welsh. The result was blank silence on the part of the children. For all practical purposes, they knew no English at all ; they had simply been trained to repeat parrot-like a certain answer when a particular question was asked just as it is done in all schools for beginners where the direct system alone prevails. The best edu- cational results are obtained in infant schools where the children are taught in the language they know best. Mons. Bernon had tried the direct system alone in some primary schools in Mauritius, and in other schools the direct system combined with translation into the mother-tongue of beginners, and the excellent results in the latter case led him to think that explanations which break new ground should be given first in the mother-tongue, and that the direct method loses much by refusing to admit the claims of translation into the foreign tongue. Finally, there was pronunciation. Could it be learned without a master ? He was of the opinion that pronunciation must be heard, not seen. To attempt to study a living language without learning from a com- petent master its pronunciation, which is the sign of its vitality, was, therefore, " a ridiculous case of mis- directed energy." RESOLUTION Mons. Bernon then proposed the following resolution : ' That in the teaching of living languages the direct system be used, and now and then an explanation in the mother-tongue of the pupil when it is evident that the latter has not understood the teacher." DISCUSSION Dr. T. GREGORY FOSTER, the Vice-Chairman of the Section, thanked Mons. Bernon for his interesting and 336 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION vivid address. He thanked him for enforcing a lesson which the English Association and those connected with it were especially desirous of enforcing, namely, that the one way to teach a foreign language was to begin by teaching the national language. The further point that naturally came to one's mind, after listening to Mons. Bernon in fact, after listening to the earlier discussion that afternoon was the question of the teacher, and the question of the time and the season. The teacher of English was now regarded as a sort of specialist who required his particular subject to be allotted to certain definite hours and days in the time- table, while his colleagues came to the conclusion that they had nothing whatever to do with the teaching of English. If we were to succeed in teaching our children English, and subsequently a foreign language, we ought always to be teaching them English, as much in the sciences and mathematics as in anything else. That had been very much impressed upon him lately in the course of his visits to French schools, where he was informed that the teaching of French was the con- tinual occupation of every teacher, in every class, in every subject : each teacher was as anxious as the actual teacher of the French language to stop at once any inaccuracy in language ; especially when that inaccuracy indicated carelessness or untruthfulness of thought. The teachers, furthermore, tried equally strenuously to stop inaccuracy of pronunciation. When we could rise to that ideal the difficulties which had been referred to by both Mr. Fowler and Mons. Bernon would, to a large extent, disappear. If we could attain to those things which had been related that afternoon it would be almost entirely by the direct method. But it could only be when the national language had been so thoroughly learned that its con- struction, its methods, and its fine shades of thought were realised by the pupils according to their age. Mrs. JANE HOLTON fully agreed with what had been said. If every child was taught English, from baby- hood, as the French child was taught his language, TEACHING OF ENGLISH 337 we should speak our English clearly and beautifully, as everybody English should do, whether high or low, rich or poor. Mr. HARWOOD said he represented elementary schools and thought it most appropriate that they should teach English to non-English-speaking children in England. As to their vocabulary, that was exceedingly limited. The ordinary English working man's vocabulary consisted of about 300 words, and of course that of his boys and girls much less than that number. An im- provement had been effected by the aid of school libraries in his district, and he considered that too much could not be done in that direction. The teach- ing of English, in his opinion, must be continual ; while il children asked the teacher a question it ought to be noted that it was asked in proper English, whilst the answer must be seen to be in proper English also. Miss A. WADMORE said she considered that English was not taught at our schools in the manner it should be ; and agreed with the French fashion, where there was not such a system of hideous " cram " as in our own country. When children were crammed with mathematics, Latin, and the like, very little time could be devoted, to the English tongue. Mr. TILBY was of opinion that the way in which English was taught in our schools at the present time caused the child to get into a stilted and unnatural style. So soon as English was properly taught in the schools, so soon would there be better English used in the press of the country ; and that, in turn, would react upon the English which was used every day. Mr. ERNEST YOUNG, B.Sc. (Hon. Secretary of the Section) said that what the Section was practically dis- cussing, or ought to be discussing, was the various methods of teaching English to children who did not speak the language at all. He would be glad to second Mons. Bernon's resolution, and in doing so would take the opportunity of informing his hearers of his own ex- perience in teaching English in a foreign land. He was 22 338 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION in Siam some years ago, imparting our language to Siamese boys. He had charge of a class of about thirty. He was told, when he saw the boys, " There they are ; now begin." The boys did not understand English, and he did not understand anything of the Siamese language, so any one could imagine the state of blankness in which he was, when he first stood before those well-behaved children. Eventually, finding the one boy in the school who knew a little English, he said to him, " Now, tell them in your own tongue that I am going to name a certain number of objects, in English, and the boys in the class are to repeat them after me." Then he commenced with the word " hat." They repeated it. Then he found what " hat " was called by the Siamese, and he repeated it himself. And so the teaching and learning went on. He used that direct method for some time, and eventually got the boys to go home and ask their friends for certain words and sentences in Siamese, and when they brought them to him he repeated them in English. In the result both he and the boys acquired a considerable amount of both languages. His experience, therefore, was that the direct method aroused much interest, and led to great facility in speech and accuracy in English composition. In fact, the result was so excellent that he could not but say that the average boy of 16 or 17 years of age in this country, taught in the old grammatical method, could not have done so well as many of those Siamese boys. He felt the great importance of the point in the resolution before the Section, which was to the effect that there should be an intervention of some of the mother-tongue while teaching a foreign one. Dr. FOATE agreed with both Mr. Fowler and Mons. Bernon. Through the manner in which children in this country had been taught they were unable to " talk " at all. Therefore, they could neither speak English nor French ; that was to say, they were able to give only the briefest replies to questions put to them. Some teachers might succeed better than others, but one of the greatest things was for them to TEACHING OF ENGLISH 339 drop dignity, and keep their classes alive, without losing control over them. Mr. G. H. ORTON said that in the elementary school of which he was head master oral composition was most prominently put forward. He found that amongst the upper classes there was much more difficulty in working the scheme than in the lower classes. The latter were taught to sit still and be talked at. With regard to the allegation that there was too much cram- ming, it was the fault of the head master if he allowed too many subjects in his curriculum to be studied. The VICE-CHAIRMAN then put the resolution moved by Mons. Bernon. This was carried unanimously, and the meeting terminated. "TEACHING OF ENGLISH' SECTION ,; WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1907. Chairman, PROFESSOR SAINTSBURY, M.A., LL.D., D.Litt. Subjects : I. " The Place of the Mother-Tongue in National Education" (Professor Hartog). II. " The Use and Abuse of the Fairy Tale in the Teaching of Literature" (Miss C. L. Thomson). THE CHAIRMAN introduced Professor P. J. Hartog, who read the following paper on : THE PLACE OF THE MOTHER-TONGUE IIST NATIONAL EDUCATION Professor P. J. HARTOG said that there was perhaps no question so complex in education as the teaching of the mother-tongue. There was none that had been so neglected in English schools ; and the aspects to which the most attention had been given were its minor aspects details of punctuation and grammar, and secondary details of style. The fundamental use of the teaching of the mother-tongue was its use in thought- training ; and this had been all but overlooked in England and to a great extent, though possibly less of recent years, in the British Dominions overseas. In many English secondary schools for boys the 340 TEACHING OF ENGLISH 341 mother-tongue found no place in the curriculum. On the continent of Europe and in the United States, on the other hand, the subject received ample time and attention. But time and attention were insufficient to ensure success ; the method of teaching was of vital importance. The result of German teaching, for instance, though it gave the majority of pupils the important faculty of being able to express themselves readily in speech, did not give the average German boy the power of writing clearly. It was in France that the teachers succeeded best in giving their pupils a mastery of clear and well-ordered statement. The French methods, developed during the last two or three centuries, were, however, not above criticism, nor were they to be adopted without careful consideration in English schools. Taking the French method as a starting-point, he had carried out investigations with English working men and with English children which led him to conclude that the lamentable inferiority of the average English boy in expression was not due to natural incapacity, but to want of training in a rational way. He had worked out a method of training of which the object was to make the pupil try to fit his written words to an ideal conceived by himself not to make him imitate a model and to make him judge of his own success or failure in attaining the end put before him. In this process each pupil was, in a modest way, doing " original work " and learning to use his intellectual conscience. It was to be remembered that one of the great dangers of school life was the danger of sterilising the pupils' minds ; in learning to do the set task, their powers of intellectual readiness and resource were too often killed. Of this there was painful and weighty evidence. The ordinary school " essay," which might be quoted as a proof that the schools were doing something in the way of teaching English, was a preposterous and absurd survival of the past. No one who really re- garded the teaching of English as a method of thought- 342 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION training, no one who realised that it was the function of the school to enable a boy to explain his thoughts or to convey his knowledge to some one not already ac- quainted with what he had to say, would set him the ridiculous task of writing an essay on a subject like " Patriotism " or " The Modern Novel," addressed, as if he had the 'authority of a Macaulay or a Carlyle, to the world at large. It was no wonder that the average English boy, with teaching of this kind, did not learn to write. There was no royal road to the learning of the mother-tongue. But there were certain rational principles, essential for success, and those principles he believed the vast majority of teachers of English had yet to realise. What had been said of writing applied equally to reading it was the sense that mattered. Our great writers at present were read less in our schools for their sense than for their difficulties. Many teachers would regard a straightforward, vigorous piece of argument, without verbal difficulties, as offering no subject for a lesson. The great use of the summary, or precis, applied not to dry-as-dust official documents, but to an interesting piece of some great prose writer, Swift or Burke, Macaulay or Carlyle, had yet to be learnt in most schools. It was to be hoped that a good and healthy tradition of teaching the mother-tongue, founded on the results of actual experience, and with the co-operation of many teachers, would gradually be built up in the schools of the British dominions. RESOLUTION Professor HARTOG concluded by moving the follow- ing resolution : " That the main object of the teaching of English in secondary schools should be first of all to develop the power of thinking and expression, and secondly the power of appreciating the contents of great literary works, rather than inculcating a know- ledge of grammatical, philological, and literary detail," TEACHING OF ENGLISH 343 DISCUSSION The CHAIRMAN remarked that both the paper and the resolution before the meeting opened up a very important question. In some points he thought there was hardly any one present who did not thoroughly agree with Professor Hartog. He gathered that the Professor would agree with the words of a very dis- tinguished Oxford scholar, Professor Nettleship, who was once asked to give a testimonial to a certain in- dividual who had presented himself at a Fellowship examination, but failed to obtain the Fellowship. Professor Nettleship replied, " I shall be delighted. None of them wrote Latin, but he wrote sense." That was one particular way to look at the matter, and it could hardly be too strongly impressed. But there was also another point to be considered, whether the contents of English literature were not so huge that it would be better to begin with the best ex- amples, leaving the assimilation of them to a later period. He hoped, before the resolution was put to the meeting, that some of the members of the Section would discuss it. 1 Mr. W. J. ADDIS, M.A. (Head Master, Holborn Estate Grammar School) said he was glad to think that Professor Hartog's admirable category of the relative importance of the different branches of English was already something of an established fact. English teaching in secondary schools was in a most interesting stage. It had of recent years expanded considerably, and now covered a very healthy and stimulating field. That had come about by natural evolution. He agreed in the main with Professor Hartog. Miss BROWNE referred to the social side of the ques- tion and its relation to daily life. She had lived amongst poor people and she saw the difficulties with which they were beset. Her opinion was that a better grasp of language would help the poorer classes in many ways, and if that could be done, then the fuller teaching of language would be well justified. 344 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION She was inclined to fear, from what she had seen of foreign symptoms, that our mother-tongue was some- what in danger. The murder of the mother-tongue went on to such an extent that it was bringing about, indirectly, many social wrongs, caused especially, she thought, by the " reform spellers " on the one hand, and the Esperanto people on the other. A certain writer once wrote a series of striking articles called " From the Abyss." One of the articles was called " Our Infinite Silence." Nowadays, however, she thought it was rather the other way about, and that it should be termed " our infinite noise." But the noise was quite different from the proper use of our language, and she would like to know whether they were making really sure that the teaching of English at the present time, beginning with quite young children, was being used as an effective weapon. She was rather afraid that in elementary schools, at any rate, they allowed themselves to be content to let the children read out of books, arid so long as they could read fluently, they thought it was all right. She considered they ought to be very careful also to see that there was some- thing more behind that. Perhaps teachers did not go slowly enough, and the meaning of the words was not given to the children so fully as it ought to be. Many of the poorer classes lacked all power of expres- sion and grasp of language, and therefore the riches of literature were not open to them, and their inward poverty was thus intensified. She was sure that the real teaching of language would very much strengthen and clarify the impressions of the children. She took it that in all our colonies the mother-tongue was the chief tongue, and she felt convinced that a richer teaching of it throughout the Empire would lead to much greater knowledge and a better feeling between the Mother Country and her children abroad. The CHAIRMAN said an amendment had been handed to him by Mr. Anderson, that gentleman wishing to substitute the words " power to express thought or emotion clearly " for " power of thinking." TEACHING OF ENGLISH 345 Professor HARTOG said he did not see there was much difference between Mr. Anderson and himself. He thought one of the most valuable exercises that could be experienced was to ask a boy to tell a tale, of which the tutor had given him a plan. Plenty of emotion would then follow as a matter of course. Professor F. S. BOAS, M.A. (English Association) said he felt it rather difficult to join in the discussion, for fear of putting himself in a somewhat false light. He was in entire sympathy with Professor Hartog, and he was grateful that he had heard the paper. No one realised more than he the debt they owed Professor Hartog in connection with the matter before the Section. They were, he thought, at one with that gentleman, in that they needed in English teaching a certain newer method. They ought to make more of English as a method of culture on the one hand, and of instruction in practical efficiency on the other. With all that he was in complete agreement. But where he differed from Professor Hartog was this. He first of all rather objected to the idea that works of literature should be studied as a whole a great many of them rather, perhaps, than a few. Nothing, he considered, had done greater benefit than the study of certain works. A wonderful effect was produced by a thorough study of a great work of art. But beyond that he always deprecated the division which was made between language and literature. He did not speak as a philologist ; he had no right to do so. Literature had been his main interest. But one could not separate language and literature in the way suggested, and one could not fully understand a play of Shakespeare's, for instance, until one knew something of Shake- speare's language, and the labour spent in reading and studying the language was necessary to a full study of literature. When one came to the earlier writers, such as Chaucer, and Spenser, the matter was plain, and needed no enforcement. Professor Hartog spoke of Burke, Defoe, and Swift as studies for school-board pupils, and inferred that a wide knowledge of life would 346 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION be derived through such study. He very much ques- tioned whether most schoolboys or girls could derive much benefit from the study of Burke, Defoe, or Swift, because they were not fully grown up to them. He could imagine a capable schoolmaster teaching his class more literature and life, if he knew how to do it, than by setting .before the pupils such subjects as Burke's " Reflections on the French Revolution," or Swift's " Drapier Letters." When discussed on public platforms, the matter going thence direct to the press, untrue conclusions were sometimes drawn as to what should be considered " literature," and what " language." He contended that literature and language were like body and soul together, and if attempts were made to divorce them it would be found that no one could appreciate fully either literature or language. Where his (Professor Boas') duties took him at the present time, French and German were being taught on the new direct method, but the pupils did not learn much grammar. They were throwing over Latin and Greek. It was all the more important that for a careful methodical training the English language, and in a certain sense English grammar, ought to be studied. The English language had grown and strengthened the life of the English people. Language was life, and had its own romance. Dictionaries were stories in themselves. In the perfectly right and proper desire to spread the study of literature, and to bring more clearly to the front its application to life, they must always speak of it as a living organism, which was enwoven with the life of the English language in a certain sense, and we neglected the study at our peril. The motion by Professor Hartog would satisfy him better if that gentleman left out the last clause altogether, " rather than inculcate philological detail." The CHAIRMAN observed that if they cut out the last clause they would have no literary detail. Professor A. S. KIDD (Rhodes University College, Grahamstown) wished to refer to one thing which had TEACHING OF ENGLISH 347 not been put into the resolution, and that was with reference to pronunciation. His opinion was that the pronunciation of English should be brought in. There should be some attempt to stick up for the purity of pronunciation. In England there was no uniformity with regard to it, and he thought some standard should be laid down. In the Colonies he thought they should keep the pronunciation as right as possible. In the Colonies, however, he came to the conclusion that English literature was almost a foreign language. A very large proportion of the words familiar to the boys in England were unknown over there. He found fault with the manner in which many examination questions were put, for it really meant the learning of the whole of a book by heart. He advocated the pro- vision of lantern slides and illustrations for pupils in the Colonies, so as to make them familiar with, and appreciate, English scenery, poetry, and so forth ; and when he returned to his colony down in the south one of his principal objects would be to provide photo- graphs and lantern slides for the use of the pupils. He, personally, accepted the resolution before the Conference, as a whole. The CHAIRMAN said that the resolution, after the suggested alterations, now read as follows : " That the object of the teaching of English should be to de- velop in pupils the power of thought and of expression, and the power of appreciating the contents of the great literary works, rather than to inculcate a knowledge of grammatical, philological, and literary detail." The resolution was then put and carried. The CHAIRMAN next called upon Miss C. L. THOMSON to read a paper on : THE USE AND ABUSE OF THE FAIRY TALE IN THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE Miss THOMSON said that not long ago fairy tales and romances were considered by educationists unfit for use in schools. The stories in the school reading-books 348 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION were exclusively instructive or didactic, and had little literary value. About ten years ago a reaction set in owing to the views of German educationists reaching England, and a new type of reading book, in which the fairy tale played a large part, came into use. Miss Thomson advocated discrimination in the choice of tales used, many, of the tales being bloodthirsty or without moral tendency. She urged the more extended use of Gaelic and Celtic romances. The story must be valuable as literature and must not be used simply because it illustrated some other subject, and it must be presented in a literary form. (For a full report of this paper see the School World for July, 1907, pp. 257-260.) RESOLUTION Miss THOMSON then moved the following resolution : " That fairy tales, skilfully used, provide a valuable means of literary education for young children." DISCUSSION The CHAIRMAN said the paper opened up a question which had been previously discussed with a great deal of advantage. Of course there were difficulties to be overcome, because so many sides of the question pre- sented themselves. The suitability of fairy tales for teaching could hardly be denied. But the question then arose as to what amount of adaptation should be applied to them. Miss SHEDLOCK said that during the past six years she had been telling fairy tales to children in the United States, and she hoped to be able to do so in England. She quite agreed with the paper which had been read, but she thought Miss Thomson was a little too fearful about what effect some of the stories would have upon the children. She felt it would be very dangerous to tamper at all with the old folk-stories, say by changing the manner in which they ended. TEACHING OF ENGLISH 349 When she was teaching in the West (Pittsburg), she constantly impressed upon her students the import- ance of giving the stories in the most beautiful English and in the most beautiful form. Mr. HAMEL SMITH said he had always looked upon fairy tales as possessing two great uses one, the recrea- tion for a moment, and the other instruction for the future. While not being desirous of altering the old tales, he thought that many would be in favour of the invention of new ones. Fairy tales, he could not help thinking, were the most useful form of teaching children imperial ideas that they could have. Another strong movement which he upheld was the relating of fairy tales to poor children. It interested them, and taught them that there were other parts of the world besides their poor surroundings, where they could go to when they grew up and obtain a living and comfortable homes. If they were told tales of the industries of other colonies and countries they would not become quite so frightened of going there. He had pleasure in supporting the resolution, " That fairy tales, skil- fully used, provide valuable aid to literary education for young children." This was put by the CHAIRMAN and carried unani- mously. The CHAIRMAN conveyed the thanks of the meeting to the writers of both the papers, which he was sure all would agree had been most interesting. The proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to the Chairman, proposed by Professor Kidd. THE EXHIBITION Organiser, MR. WILFRED MARK WEBB, F.L.S. IN connexion with the Conference an interesting exhibition was arranged, which was divided into three sections. In the first were shown some fine examples of the travelling cases issued upon request by the Dublin Museum, and illustrating not only observational work in Natural History and the friends and foes of the agriculturist, but also various arts and industries. There was also a case illustrating modern methods of museum work exhibited by Eton College Museum, which was admirably prepared and was of great educational value. In the Nature-Study Section examples were given of the various means employed in this country of carry- ing out Nature -Study work. School pets came from an institution in London, from the neighbourhood of which such living things are absent. There were also series of drawings, notebooks, diaries, and other records of outdoor and indoor observations. Photographic representations showed the scheme and scope of school journeys, and the Royal Drawing Society contributed a collection of studies by children, which showed marvellous powers of observation. In addition, Mr. George Hogben exhibited a large section of educational photographs on behalf of the New Zealand Government ; there were also shown exhibits from other countries and colonies and a number of toys from Japan. The third division of the exhibition consisted entirely of the displays made by educational publishers and 35 THE EXHIBITION 351 other firms. There were on view fully representative collections of the various books and maps of special interest to those occupied with education in the Empire. Physical, chemical, and optical apparatus was included, as well as botanical and geological specimens. Plasticine and its uses were shown, and there was a collection of appliances used in the education and employment of the blind. SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS DURING the session of the Conference much hospitality was shown to members of a nature very attractive to those visiting the old country some for the first time, others after many years of absence. On May 28 the Official Representatives of the Education Departments of the Empire were invited by the Board of Education to a dinner at the House of Commons to meet the Prime Minister and other members of His Majesty's Government. The Countess of Crewe gave a brilliant reception the same evening to meet the Representatives, about 40 of whom were present. On June i a visit to Eton College was paid, the Provost acting as guide to the Schools, whilst the Head Master and Mrs. Lyttelton afterwards received their guests to tea. On the Wednesday of the following week the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge entertained the Conference at luncheon in Clare College, visits being afterwards made to many of the university buildings and to the boats. On June 7 the members were received by the Vice- Chancellor of Oxford in the Divinity Schools of that university. After his welcoming address a delightful programme, including luncheon and tea in the different colleges, was carried out. Earlier in the same week a visit was paid to Win- chester College, the Head Master and Mrs. Burge having invited all the members of the Conference to an " At Home " in the Warden's garden, and a considerable number also to dine in the Hall and spend the night. On Thursday, May 30, a reception was given by the 352 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS 353 London University, and on Friday afternoon, May 31, the Duchess of Northumberland received members of the Conference at a garden party in the beautiful grounds of Syon House. On Monday, June 3, by invitation of the Lord Mayor, the members visited Birmingham and were entertained by him at a reception in the Council Hall. A committee of leading educationists arranged for hospitality for the night and for visits to the numerous educational institutions of Birmingham the following morning. A visit to Sheffield on June 20 to witness the great Empire Day Pageant concluded the engagements of the Conference. Miss Amice Macdonell's historical play, " The Story of the Armada," was given three times by children of St. Margaret's County Council School, Westminster. The performances were under Miss Macdonell's personal direction and were most successful. The play has been published in pamphlet form, and may be had from the Offices of the League, price 6d. CONFERENCE AT AYLESBURY ON Thursday, June 6, some members of the Confer- ence were the guests of Lord Rothschild at luncheon at Aylesbury. A Conference was held both morning and afternoon, the Buckinghamshire Education Com- mittee having closed the whole of the schools of the county to enable the teachers to meet representatives from the different countries of the Empire. Mr. D. CLARKE (Chairman, Buckinghamshire County Education Committee) occupied the Chair, Lord Rothschild being unavoidably absent through illness. In his opening speech he warmly welcomed the repre- sentatives present. Mr. F. W. VERNEY, M.P. advocated the recognition of Empire Day and spoke as to the value of common educational ideals as a means of maintaining the unity of the Empire. Mr. FRANK TATE, I.S.O., M.A. (Director of Educa- tion, Victoria) said that one of the last meetings he attended in Victoria was a gathering of teachers, who asked him whenever he had the opportunity to convey their greetings to teachers in the Old World. In Australia they were doing their part to celebrate Empire Day in a worthy manner. On May 24 in each year there was not one of their 2,500 schools in Victoria in which Empire Day was not fully celebrated. Every Monday morning also the children formed a hollow square and saluted the flag. This might not appeal to Englishmen who were surrounded by historic associations, but Australians had no historic back- ground except what teachers could get from association with the Empire and from history. The Hon. COLIN CAMPBELL, K.C. (Minister of Educa- tion, Manitoba), after returning thanks for the warm welcome accorded to the Colonial Delegates, described conditions in Western Canada, where nearly half the population was not British-born. It was hoped that 354 CONFERENCE AT AYLESBURY 355 Empire Day celebrations and a " flag " policy in education would help to make the children better British subjects. Canadians believed they could best serve the Empire by developing their own type of citizenship, and whilst it was Canadian it was also in a much wider sense British. He rejoiced that the Imperial Government had decided that they should have Imperial conferences on education from time to time, for he considered they would be very beneficial. Mr. J. A. DOUGLAS, M.A. (Director of Education, Southern Nigeria) spoke of the Imperial Textbooks shortly to be issued by the League. These, he thought, would teach children the duties of citizenship and at the same time make clearer to them the relations be- tween the Mother Country and the Colonies. Mr. C. G. WATKINS (Secretary to the Local Education Committee) introduced the subject of the interchange of correspondence with Colonial schools. Some schools in Bucks had for some years corresponded with schools in distant parts of the Empire with great mutual benefit. Mr. A. WILLIAMS (Director of Education, South Australia) said that his Department supplied all their schools with flags, but that voluntary effort was called upon to provide the flagstaff s. They also issued a monthly paper for the children, and in this they were able to deal with any subject they wished at the time to emphasise. Their Empire Day celebrations were a great success. Afternoon Session Mr. FRANK TATE, I.S.O., M.A. introduced the subject of " How to keep rural schools in touch with the pro- gress and development of educational life." He said that in Victoria most of the progressive work was done in their rural schools. If rural schools in England were not sufficiently in touch with educational progress, it was either that they did not sufficiently appreciate their teachers or that the best teachers were not attracted to work in rural schools. The country child needed higher skill in teaching than the town child, because 356 FEDERAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION there were many tendencies at work in the towns pro- ducing that mental friction which must be a concomitant of true mental life. Education should not be measured by the number of subjects that a child was taught, but by the variety of interests awakened. The only way to educate a boy was to get him to work, and the only way to get him' to work was to interest him. An equally high standard of education should be required in the rural school as in the town school, and the more education could be got into harmony with a child's environment the better. Mr. A. WILLIAMS said that in order to help his rural teachers last year he arranged for them to come into Adelaide for three weeks, where they had special courses of instruction. Mr. E. M. KENNY-HERBERT (H.M. District In- spector) spoke in appreciation of the League's system of correspondence between British and Colonial schools. He also urged that teachers' conferences should be held more frequently, so that teachers might profit by hear- ing the experiences of others. There was much that they could learn from each other, and there were very few schools which would not benefit enormously by such an interchange of thoughts and ideas. Other speakers joining in the discussions were : Messrs. GREENWOOD (President, Bucks Teachers' Association), R. V. ELVEY, F. HIGGENS (Chairman, Works Committee), WILFRED MARK WEBB (Secretary, Nature Study Society), H. BOWDEN (Marsh Gibbon), W. A. ROE (Cheddington School), READ (Botolph Claydon School), BYRON HILL (Buckingham Council School), and the Rev. A. E. T. NEWMAN. Votes of thanks to the speakers and to the Chairman concluded the meeting. A Publishers' Exhibition was held in the Town Hall. E. M. ORD MARSHALL, Hon. Secretary. George Tucker, Printer, Salisbury Court, Fleet Slreti, Londor., 357 INDEX NOTE. Heavy type following a name denotes that the Education Departments, Universities or Associations concerned appointed such repre- sentative or delegate to the Conference PAGE. Abel, W. Jenkinson, B.A 77,80 Ablett, T. R. (Royal Drawing Society) 13,308,319 Adams, Mrs. Bridges 159 Adams, Professor J., M.A., B.Sc. (London Uni- versity) 14,259 Adamson, L. A., M.A. (Victoria Secondary Schools' Association) 13, 79, 91, 92 Addis, W. J., M.A 343 Adelaide (see under Universities, Australasian) Admission to Agricultural Colleges 45,81,90 Technical Courses 45, 57, 81, 232, 233, 234, 236 Technical Schools in Western Aus- tralia 220 Transvaal Technical Institution ... 223 Universities 45,81,234 Africa, South (sec also under Universities, African) Cape Colony, School System in the,. . . 154 Grahamstown, Albany Museum 284 - Natal, Interchange of Inspectors in. . . 54 - Pretoria Mining School 222 - Technical Education 222 - Transvaal Engineering Courses 223 Recognition of Certificates 261 Teachers' Certificates 261 Technical Education 222 Technical Institution, Admis- sion to 223 - Training of Teachers 260 - Universities suggested 96 Victoria Day 36 Africa, West, Teachers' Certificates recognised in 55 Agricultural Colleges, Admission to 45,81,90 Guelph College, Toronto 90 Nova Scotia .. 211 358 PAGE. Agricultural Education 43, 128, 175, 181 In Australia 142 Butter Making 148 Departmental Committee 182 Leeds University 139 The Midland Agricultural and Dairy College, Kingston 191 In Nova Scotia 211 Toronto University 201 - In the Tropics 142 In Victoria 144 Agricultural High Colleges in Victoria 146 Agriculture and Nature Study 306,311 Alberta (see under Canada) Allardyce, W. L., C.M.G. (His Excellency the Governor of the Falkland Islands) 9,23 Allen, Miss (Training College Association) 12 America, Civics in 257 Rural Life in 131 Anderson, Professor W. B., M.A. (Queen's Uni- versity, Kingston, Ont., Canada) 10 Anson, Sir Wm., Bart,, D.C.L., M.P. (Warden of All Souls' College, Oxford University) 9 " Armada, Story of the " 353 Armstrong, Prof. Henry E., Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 225, 227, 232,23^ Arthy, E. W., M.A. (Montreal Protestant Board of School Commissioners) 13,212 Art Teaching in Elementary Schools 187 Associations, List of Delegates representing 11 Old Boys' 89 Old Boys', in Australia 91 Public Schools' 89 Australasia (see also under Universities, Aus- tralasian) Agricultural Education 142 Old Boys' Associations 91 Australia, South, Empire Day 355 Rural Schools 356 Western, Admission to Technical Schools 220 Correspondence Classes in Science 221 Mining Courses 220 Perth Technical School 219 Technical Education 219 New South Wales, Sydney Tech. Institute 199 New Zealand, Engineering Courses 62 British Certificates recognised 53 Photographs of Schools 350 School System 156 Teachers' Certificates 52 359 PAGE. Australasia, Victoria, Agricultural Education... 144 Agricultural High Colleges 146 - Education in 24 - Empire Day 354 Nature Study 309 - Rural Education 144 Schools 355 Training of Teachers 264 Aylesbury Conference 354 Bailey, C. W., M.A. (Liverpool University) ... 10, 14, 68, 78,80 Balfour, The Right Hon. A. J., P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., M.P., &c 14, 97, 178 Barnett, P. A., M.A. (Board of Education ar.rfNatal) 7, 8, 54, 125 Bathurst, Miss Katharine (Oxford) 140, 147, 181,251, 267, 271, 272 Beales, Miss (Hon. Sec. Museum Section) 14, 176,273 Beasley, H. R, (Private Schools' Association)... 12, 73, 160 Belfast (see under United Kingdom) Bell, The Rev. Canon G. C., M.A 14, 176,243,258, 259,267,271,272 Beloe, R. D., M.A. (Hon. Sec., History Section)... 13, 14, 175, 180 Bennett, Miss J. C. (Wellington Training Coll., Cape Colony) 267,293 Bent, The Hon. Thomas (Premier of Victoria)... 24 Bernon, Adolphe (Inspector of Schools, Mauri- tius) 9, 14,325,334,335 Bevan, Rev. J. O. (College of Preceptors) 12 Bi-lingual Problem 44 Binney, Rev. W. H., D.D. (King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia) 11 Birmingham (see under United Kingdom and Universities, United Kingdom) Board of Education Dinner 352 Boas, Prof. F. S., M.A. (English Association) 13, 333, 345 Bodington, N., M.A., Litt.D. (Vice-Chancellor, Leeds University) 10, 62, 67, 139, 164, 179, 181 Bonython, The Hon. Sir Langdon (President, South Australian School of Mines and Industries) 9 Bourne, A. G., D.Sc., F.R.S. (Director of Public Instruction, Madras. Madras University) 8, 11 Bowden, H 356 Bradbury, P. J. O'L., M.A. (Inspector of Schools, Jamaica) 9 Bradford (see under United Kingdom) Brandford-Griffith, The Hon. H. M., C.M.G. (Colonial Secretary, Gambia) 9 Brennan, Byron, C.B. (Hon. Sec. of Committee) 14 360 PAGE. Bridge, G. F., M.A. (Modern Language Assoc.)--- 13, 76 British Columbia (see under Canada) British Museum (see under United Kingdom) Broome, Miss A. L. (National Union of Teachers) 12 Brown, Prof. F. D., M.A. (University of New Zealand) 11 Browne, Miss 343 Browne, Rev. J. Audley, M.A. (Member of Board of Education, Bahamas) 9 Bruce, Mr. (St. Jude's School, Southwark) 249 Bund, W. J. Willis, J.P. (County Councils Assoc. Education Committee) 11,304,313 Bureau of Information 37, 42, 56, 59, 100, 120, 166 Bury, Professor J. B., Litt.D., LL.D., D.Litt. (History Section, League of the Empire) ... 13, 14, 45, 105 114, 174, 175, 180 Butcher, S. H., Litt.D., LL.D., M.P. (Chairman of the Official Conference) 3, 7, 14, 40, 67, 80, 87, 115, 127, 173, 179 Butter Making 148 Caldecott, Rev. A., D.D., Litt.D. (St. John's College, Cambridge University ) 10 Cambridge University (see under Universities) Cambridge University, Vice-Chancellor of (see Roberts, E. S.) Cameron, M. B., M.A., B.Sc. (University of Allahabad, India) 11 Campbell, The Hon. Colin H.. K.C. (Minister of Education, Manitoba) 8, 124, 354 Canada (see also under Universities) British Certificates recognised 49, 122, 124, 208 British Columbia, Domestic Economy 204 Manual Training 203 School System 202 Interchange of Teachers 208 Victoria High School 204 Hudson's Bay Company 206 Manitoba, Empire Day 355 Reciprocity of Teachers 124 Manual Training 202 Montreal, Drawing in Schools 212 Manual Training 212 Public Schools 212 Technical High School 213 New Brunswick, Curricula 78 Private Schools 79 School System 153 Nova Scotia, Agricultural College 211 Certificates recognised in W. Canada 55 361 PAGK. Canada, Nova Scotia, Domestic Economy 211 Education 153, 210 Manual Training 210 Nature Study 211 School System 153 Teachers 55 Technological College 211 Ontario Act of 1846 205 Public Schools 204 Quebec, Religious Question 25 Technical Education 212 Technical Education 199 Western, Nova Scotian Certificates recog- nised 55 Canadian Undergraduates at Oxford 90 Cape Colony (see Africa, South) Carter, H. j. (Principal, Askham Coll., Sydney) 162, 281 Certificates, Leaving ." 81,82,83,84,85, 86, 88, 234, 235 Certificates, Teachers', Recognition of 40,45,46,115 In W. Africa 55 By British Board of Education 126 - In Canada 49, 122, 124, 208 - In Western Canada 55 - In Manitoba ". 124 - In New Zealand 53 In the Transvaal 261 - In the Transvaal 261 - In New Zealand 52 - Technical, Recognition of 223 Chairmen, List of 14 Chalmers, S. D., M.A. (Sydney) 15, 214 " Charlottenburg " 58, 189,201 Chase, Mr. (Gloucester Road School, London) ... 322 Chater, Miss 161 Chicago, Civics in 258 Childs, W. M., M.A. (Principal, University College, Reading) 10 Child Study 249, 264 Circulating Museums 176, 188, 196,273, 275, 276, 286, 311 Circulation System of Dublin Museum 275,276 of Sheffield Museum 286 of S. Kensington Museum 276 City and Guilds of London Institute 231 Civic Instruction by Syllabus 253 Civics in America 257 Chicago 258 France 257 Japan 258 362 PAGE. Civics in London 258 Ruskin on 255 Clarke, D., C.A 354 Clark-James, W. H. (Western Australia) 15, 219 Classes, Evening, Systematic Courses.... 176, 236 Clay, Principal, D.Sc. (Assoc. of Technical Insts.) 12, 65, 67 Cleghorn, Miss, L.L.A. (National Union of Teachers) '. 12 Clifton College, Swedish Gymnastics at 269 Cockburn, The Hon. Sir John, K.C.M.G., M.D. (Nature Study Section, League of the Empire; National Assoc. of Manual Training Teachers; British Science Guild) 12, 13, 14, 176, 296, 313, 314, 320, 322, 323, 324 Cocks, S. W., M.A. (Inspector of Schools, Burma) 8 Co-education 44, 71 Coghlan, The Hon. T. A., I.S.O. (Agent- General for New South Wales) 8 Cohen, Mark, (Otago Education Board, N.Z.) 13 Collections, Natural History 273 Nature Study 305,310,311, 312, 321 School 273, 278 Interchange of 273, 282 Colleges, List of Delegates representing 11 Training, Demonstration Schools 245 Collinge, Mr., Economic Biology at Birmingham 306 Colonial Club at Oxford 91 History Books 106, 180, 355 Work, Technical Training for 214 Committees, Agenda of 43 Conference at Aylesbury 354 Date of next 39 Delegates at the 9 Full General 45,57,68,81,94, 105 Resolutions passed 55, 67 Government Representatives at the 7 Inception of the 5 Officers of the 7 Official 39 Resolutions passed 41,41,42,42,42, 42 Patroness of the 7 Quadrennial, Desirable 42 Contents, Table of 1 Continuation Schools in Munich 201 Cook, Professor C. H. H., M.A. (University of New Zealand; Christ's College, N.Z.) 11, 11 Cookery in Village Schools 140, 147 363 PAOE. Co-ordination between Elementary and Secon- dary Schools 150 In Liverpool 70 Cornish, W. H. W., M.A. (Scotch Education Department) 7 Correspondence classes in Science Subjects in W. Australia 221 Interchange of 355,356 Scheme for Schools on Nature Study 321, 324 County Councils Assoc., Nature Study Scheme. . . 304 Covernton, A. L., M.A. (Inspector of European Schools, Bombay) 8 Cowan, D. T. (Director of Education for Hamp- shire. Association of Directors and Secre- taries for Education) 11, 15, 47, 51 Cranage, Rev. D. H. S. (King's College, Cam- bridge University) 10 Crewe, The Right Hon. the Earl of, P.C., M.A., F.S.A. (Lord President of the Council)... 14, 17, 32 Crewe, Countess of, Reception 352 Cribb, E. M. B., M.A. (Queensland) 8 Croft, Allen (National Union of Teachers) 12 Cross, W 313 Crowther, Principal J. H., B.Sc. (Halifax) ... 15,225,236 Culture, Nature Study as a means of 176, 314 Curricula, Latitude in 45,68 In New Brunswick 78 Uniformity of 41 Dale, A. W. W., M.A. (Vice-Chancellor Liver- pool University) 10 Dalhousie University (see under Universities, Canadian) Darroch, Professor, M.A. (Edinburgh University) 10 David, Rev. A. A., M.A. (Headmaster of Clifton College, University College Bristol) 10 Davidson, W. E., C.M.G. (His Excellency the Governor of the Seychelles) 9 Davies, A. T., M.A. (Permanent Secretary, Welsh Department, Board of Education)... 7 Day. A. Godfrey, A.M.I.M.E. (Bath) 15, 187 Delegates, List of 9 Demonstration School 245 Dennis, Rev. H. Wesley (Training Coll. Assoc.)- 12 Derby (see under United Kingdom) Direct System of Language Teaching 334, 335, 338 Dobson, The Hon. Alfred, C.M.G., K.C. (Agent- General, Tasmania) 8, 307 Domestic Economy at Bradford 186 In British Columbia 204 J At Canadian Universities 202 364 PAOE. Domestic Economy in Elementary Schools 187, 188 InNovaScotia 211 Technical Institutes 188 Don, Dr. J. R. (Otago District Educational Insti- tute, New Zealand) 13 Douglas, J. A., M.A. (Director of Education, Southern Nigeria) 9, 55, 355 Drage, G., M.A 15,227,229 Drawing and Nature Study 308, 319 In Montreal Schools 212 Society, Royal 350 Drill, Swedish 268 Dublin (see under United Kingdom) Duncan, Patrick, C.M.G. (formerly Colonial Secretary, Transvaal) . . . 8 Durham (see under United Kingdom) Easterbrook, J., M.A. (Headmaster of Owen's School, Islington. Headmasters' Assoc.)--- 12 Education, Agricultural 43, 128, 175, 181 In British Columbia 202 In the Cape Colony 154 In Ireland 36 In New Brunswick 153 In New Zealand 156 In Nova Scotia 153,210 In Victoria 24 Higher, and Research 97 Higher, in Remote Districts 44 Rural 43 Edwards, Miss F. (Teachers' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland) 12 Edwards, O. M., M.A. (Welsh Department, Board of Education) 7 Elasticity in School Development 68 Elgin, The Right Hon. the Earl of, K.G., P.C., G.C.S.I., D.C.L., &c. (Secretary of State for the Colonies) 14, 114, 15O Eliot, Sir Charles, K.C.M.G., LL.D. (Vice- Chancellor, Sheffield University) 10 Ellis, H. V. (Natal Branch, League of the Empire. Honorary Secretary of Committee) 13, 14, 93 Elvey, R. V \ 356 Empire Day (see also Victoria Day) In Manitoba 355 In South Australia 355 In Victoria 354 Employers, Technical Training for 139, 143, 196 Engineering Apprentices at Bradford 183 At Derby 191 Courses at Cambridge 59 365 PAGE. Engineering at Dalhousie University 211 At McGill University 202 At Nova Scotian Universities 211 Courses in New Zealand 62 At Toronto University 202 - Courses in the Transvaal 223 Training for Colonial Work 214 "English, Teaching of," Section 177, 325, 340 Resolutions passed 331, 335, 347,[349 Direct System 334, 335, 338 To Non-English-speaking Chil- dren in the Colonies 177, 325, 334 - In Public Schools 177, 325, 327 In Siam 338 -In Wales.. 334 Essays 330, 332, 341 Eton (see under United Kingdom) Evans, W. J. (Hon. Secretary of Committee) 14 Exhibition 350 " Exinouth " (see under United Kingdom) Fairy-tale, Use of the 254, 347, 348, 349 Faithfull, Miss Lillian, M.A. (London University) 10 Federal Universities 96, 164. 172 Fell, C. Y., B.A., (Nelson College, New Zealand) 11 Feltham (see under United Kingdom) Findlay, Professor J. J., M.A., Ph.D. (Victoria University, Manchester) 15, 244, 252 Fisher, H. A. L., M.A. (New College, Oxford) 15, 105, 109, 113, 180 Foate, Dr 338 Formation and Interchange of School Collections 176, 273 Foster, T. Gregory, Ph.D. (Provost of University College, London University) 10, 169, 179, 335, 339 Foster, T. S. (University College, Bristol. Hon. Sec. " Training of Teachers " Section) 14, 161, 176, 243 Fowler, J. H., M.A. (Clifton College) 15, 325, 327, 331 Foy, The Hon. James J., K.C. (Attorney- General, Ontario) 8 France, Civics in 257 Teaching the Mother Tongue in 336, 341 Full General Conference 45,57,68,81,94, 105 - Resolutions passed 55, 67 Gadesden, Miss F., M.A. (Headmistresses' Assoc.) 12 Galloway, Miss Janet A., M.A. (Glasgow Univer- sity) 10, 250 Galway (see under United Kingdom) Gardiner, Miss 322 ' 866 PAGE. Gardner, Principal W. M., M.Sc., F.C.S. (Brad- ford) 15, 182, 222 General Conference 45, 57, 68, 81, 94 105 Resolutions passed 55,07 Geography, The Place of, in Education 45, 105, 1 1 1, 180 George, Miss Rees, (Hon. Sec., South Australian Branch, League of, the Empire) 13,291,323 Germany, Admission to Universities in 82 Teaching the Mother Tongue in 341 Gettins, J. H. (University College, Reading) . . . 252 Girls' High Schools 315, 318, 319 Glasgow (see under United Kingdom) Golding, A. R. (Transvaal University College) 1 1 Gollancz, Professor I., M.A., Litt.D. (British Academy) 13 Gosnell, R. E. (British Columbia) 15,202 Gow, Rev. J., Litt.D. (Headmaster of West- minster School. Headmasters' Conference) 12, 15, 64, 89, 92 Graham, Professor W., M.A., Litt.D. (Queen's College, Belfast) 10 Grant, W. L., M.A. (Beit Reader in Colonial History, Oxford. Balhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada) 10, 50, 51, 54, 90, 168, 179 Gray, Ernest, M.A. (National Union of Teachers) 12, 121, 126 Gray, Rev. H. B., D.D. (Warden of Bradfield College. Headmasters' Conference) 12 Gray, Miss K. (Barbados Branch, League of the Empire) 13 Greene, C. H., M.A. (Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools) 12 Greenwood, J 356 Griffiths, H. E. (Training College Association) 12 Grundy, T. (Masterton Technical College, N.Z.) 11,51 Guelph College (see under Universities, Canadian) Gunn, The Hon. Hugh, M.A. (Director of Educa- tion for the Orange River Colony) 8 Gurney, Miss Mary (Victoria League) 14 Gurney, Professor Theodore, M.A. (Sydney University) 11 Gymnastics 268 Haldane, Miss (South African Colonization Soc.) 14 Halifax (see under United Kingdom) Halifax, Nova Scotia (see under Canada) Hartog, Professor P. J., B.Sc 15, 340, 342, 345 Harward, J., M.A. (The Director of Public In- struction for Ceylon) 15 Harwood, Mr 337 Hawker, Rev. Bertram, M.A. (South Australia). . . 8, 253 367 PAGE. Hayward, F. H., Litt.D. (Moral Instruction League) 14 Headlam, Rev. A. C, D.D., M.A. (Principal, King's College, London University) 10,15,61,66,95, 104, 163, 178 Heath, H. F., Ph.D. (Director of Special En- quiries and Reports, Board of Education) 7, 103, 179 Henderson, Miss I. (Victoria Headmistresses' Association and Association of Secondary Teachers, Victoria) 13 Herbertson, A. J., M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S. (Geographical Association) 13 Hicks, Principal (Shoreditch Technical Institute) 197 Higgins, F 356 Higher Education and Research 97 Technological Education in England 57 High Schools for Girls 315, 318, 319 Hill, A., M.D., Litt.D. (Master of Downing Coll., Cambridge University) 10, 15, 82 Hill, Byron 356 Hill, M". D., M.A., F.Z.S. (Eton College) 15, 298 Hillard, Rev. A. E., M.A. (High Master of St. Paul's School. Headmasters' Conference)... 12 History, The Place of, in Education 45, 105 In Secondary Schools 105, 108, 180 The Place of, in University Education... 105, 109, 180 Section 175,180 Suggested Course of, for Australian Uni- versities 109 Text Books 106, 180, 355 Hodges, C. H., M.A. (New South Wales Teachers' Association) 13 Hogben, George, M.A. (Inspector-General of Schools, New Zealand and University of New Zealand) 8,11,52, 156,350 Holton, Mrs. Jane 280, 288, 293, 313, 336 Home Office Schools, Technical Training in 225 Hopkinson, A., M.A., LL.D., K.C. (Vice- Chancellor. Manchester University) 10, 102, 178 Professor, M.A., M.I.C.E. (Cambridge Uni- versity) 15, 59 Horsley, Rev." Canon, M.A../. 309 Howarth, E., F.R.A.S.. F.Z.S. (Secretary, Museums Association) 13, 273, 286, 292. 294 Hudson's Bay Company 206 Hughes, James L., M.A. (Chief Inspector of Schools for City of Toronto. Ontario Educational Association) 13, 15, 49, 51, 199 Hutchins, Sir Philip, K.C.S.I. (Chairman. Execu- tive Committee. League of the Empire)... 7 368 PAGE. Hygiene 44, 267, 268 In Elementary Schools 187 Idiom 326 Imperial Technical College 103 Text Book Scheme 106, 180, 355 Inch, J. E., M.A., LL.D. (Chief Superintendent of Education for New Brunswick) 8, 14, 45, 68, 78, 79, 80, 122,'j 179 Information, Bureau of 37, 42, 56, 59, 100, 120, 166 Inspectors, Interchange of 40, 45, 46, 115 In Ireland . 124 In Natal . 54 Interchange of Museum Specimens 188, 273, 280 - Professors 168 - School Collections 273, 282 Correspondence 355, 356 Teachers and Inspectors 40, 45, 46, 115 In British Columbia .. 208 Suggested Volunteer Initiative 126 (see also under Certificates) Introduction 5 Ireland (see under United Kingdom) Irving, E. A., M.A. (Inspector of Schools, Hong Kong) 9 Jackson, Cyril, M.A. (Western Australia) 8 Miss G. E. M. (Girton College, Cambridge) 10 Japan, Civics in 258 Jemmett, W. H. C. (Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools) 12 Jenkins, Rev. Canon, M.A. (Diocesan College, Rondeboseh, Cape Colony) 11 Jenkins, the Hon. J. G. (Agent-General for South Australia) 8 Jesse, W. (Meerut College, India) 11 Johnston, Sir Harry H., K.C.B., G.C.M.G., D.Sc. 273 ; 281 Jones, Sir Philip Sydney, M.D. (Sydney Uni- versity) 11, 54, 86, 166, 179 Kahn, A., M.A. (Teachers' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland) 12 Kenny-Herbert, E. M 356 Kenyon, F. G., M.A., D.Litt., Ph.D. (British Museum) 9,290,293 Kidd, Professor A. S., M.A. (Albany Museum and Rhodes University College, Grahams- town, Cape Colony) 9, 11, 15, 284, 288, 289, 294, 346, 349 369 PAGE. King, His Majesty the, Telegram from 118 Kingston, Midland Agricultural and Dairy College 191 Labour Party, Educational Policy of the 159 Lacey, Miss (Grove School, Highgate) 251 Language Teaching .- 177. 325. 340 DirectSystem 334.335,338 In France 336, 341 In Germany 341 Sir John Seeley on 327 In Siam.. 338 In Wales 334 Lantern Slides for Museums 289. 290 Latham, Miss 126 Latta, Professor R., D.Phil. (Glasgow University) 10 League of the Empire, Appreciation of its Work 42 Leaving Certificates 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88, 234, 235 Leeds (see under United Kingdom) Legard, Mr., Report by, on teaching of English in Wales 334 Leicestershire (see under United Kingdom) Leigh, The Hon. Cordelia 321, 324 Lewis, T. C., M.A. (formerly Director of Public Instruction, United Provinces, India) 8 Lewis, Sir Walter Llewellyn, M.A. (formerly Chief Justice, British Honduras) 9 Lincolnshire (see under United Kingdom) Literature, Teaching of, in the Colonies 289, 290 Liverpool (see under United Kingdom) Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890 236 Technical Institutions 191 Lodge, Professor Richard, M.A. (Edinburgh University) 10 London (see under United Kingdom) Louise, H.R.H. Princess, Patroness of the Con- ference 7 Lucas, Mrs. F. (Association for the Education of Women. Oxford) 9 Lyall, Sir Charles, K.C.S.I., LL.D. (Hon. Treasurer, League of the Empire) 7 Lygon, The Hon. Henry, B.A., L.C.C. (Hon. Secretary, University Section) 14, 175, 178 MacAlister, D., M.A., LL.D., D.C.L. (Vice- Chancellor and Principal, Glasgow Uni- versity) 10, 27 Me Arthur, Miss Ellen. Litt.D. (Historical Assoc.) 13 McClure, J. D., M.A., LL.D. (Headmaster of Mill Hill School. Headmasters' Association)... 12 370 PAGE. Macdonald, Sir William 202 Macdonell, Miss Amice 353 MacFarland, Dr. (Master of Ormond College, Melbourne University) 11 McGill (see under Universities, Canadian) Mackay, A. H., LL.D., B.Sc., F.R.S.C. (Superin- tendent of Education for Nova Scotia) 8, 15, 55, 153, 210 Mackay, Professor E.(DaIhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada) ..." 10 Mackay, G., M.A. (The Inspector of Schools, Seychelles) 15 McKee, Robert, M.A.(Willesden Education Board) 280 Mackinder, H. J., M.A. (Committee on Visual Instruction sitting at the Colonial Office. London School of Economics) 9, 15, 105, 111, 113, 180 Maclauchlan, J. (Museums Association) 13, 273, 279, 292, 294 Macmaster's University (see under Universities, Canadian) Magnus, Sir Philip, B.Sc., M.P 14, 114, 128, 175, 181, 182, 199, 210, 222 Manchester (see under United Kingdom) Manitoba (see under Canada) Mansbridge, Albert (Workers' Educational Association) 14 Manual Training 43, 57 ; 187, 226 In British Columbia 203 In Canada 202 In Montreal 212 In Nova Scotia 210 Maples, E. W., LL.D. (College of Preceptors)... 12, 77 Marshall, Mrs. E. M. Ord (Hon. Secretary to the Conference) 7, 40, 43, 356 Martin, C. A., LL.D. (formerly Director of Public Instruction, Bengal) 8 Mason, Miss 332 Meath, The Right Hon. the Earl of, K.P., P.C.. . . 14, 30, 45, 46, 51, 5f Melbourne (see under Universities, Australasian) Meldola, Professor R., F.R.S. (Finsbury Techni- cal College) 195 Midland Agricultural and Dairy Coll., Kingston 191 Mining Courses in Western Australia 220 School, Pretoria 222 Queen's College, Kingston, Ontario 201 University of Toronto 202 Mitchell, P. Chalmers, D.Sc., F.R.S. (Secretary, Zoological Society) 273,282 Monk, Thomas H 107, 180 Monro, A., C.I.E., M.A. (formerly Director of Public Instruction, Central Provinces, India) 8 371 PAGE. Monteagle, Lord, K.P., D.L 143, 181 Montreal (see under Canada) Moral Instruction 44 Morant, Sir R. L., K.C.B. (Permanent Secretary, Board of Education) 7 Morgan, Professor C. Lloyd, LL.D., F.R.S. (Principal, University College, Bristol) 10 Morison, T., M. A. (India Office) 7 Mortimer, E. S. (Association of Head Teachers). . . 12, 161 Mother Tongue, Place of the, in National Educa- tion 177, 336, 340 Teaching of, in France 336, 341 In Germany 341 Mowbray, Miss (Headmistresses' Association)... 12 Muir, The Hon. Thomas, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S. (Superintendent-General of Education for the Cape Colony) 8, 15, 36, 154 Muirhead, Prof. J. H., M.A., LL.D. (Birmingham University^ 15, 253 Mundella,V.A.,M.A.,B.Sc.,M.I.E.E. (Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions) 12, 15, 194, 233 Munich, Continuation Schools 201 Museum Section 176,273,286 Resolutions passed 278,281,282,287 294 Albany, Grahamstown 284 British, Lantern Slides 290 Central Educational 292 Dublin 275, 350 Circulating system 275, 276, 350 Eton College 279, 350 Natural History 274 Permanent Central 176, 286, 292 Sheffield, Circulation system 286 - Specimens, Interchange of 188, 273, 280 Victoria and Albert, South Kensington 274, 276, 279 Circulation system ... 276 Museums, Circulating 176,188,196,273 275,276,286,311 Lantern Slides for 289, 290 List of Delegates representing 9 Object of 274 School 273,278 Myers, L. M. (Auckland Education Board ) 13 Natal (see under Africa, South) Natural History Collections 273 Nature Study 77, 142, 143, 145. 176, 350 Section 176, 296, 314 372 PAGE. Nature Study Section, Resolutions passed 320, 323 And Agriculture 305, 311 Collections 305,310,311,312, 321 Courses at Swanley Horticultural College 323 As a means of Culture 176, 314 - And Drawing 308, 319 - At Eton College 298 In Nova Scotia 211 versus Elementary Science 176, 298 School Correspondence Scheme ... 321, 324 In Elementary Schools 187 Scheme of the County Councils Association 304 Training of Teachers for 298,303,307,310, 314, 323 In Victoria... 309 In North Yorkshire 298 New Brunswick (see under Canada) Newman, Rev. A. E. T 356 New Zealand (see under Australasia) Northumberland, Duchess of, Garden Party 353 Duke of, K.G., P.C., D.C.L. (British Museum) 9 Notter, Col. J. Lane, R.A.M.C. (Royal Sanitary Institute) 13 Nottinghamshire (see under United Kingdom) Nova Scotia (see under Canada) Officers of the Conference 7 Official Conference, Report of the 39 Resolutions passed 41,41,42,42,42, 42 Old Boys' Associations 89 Ontario (see under Canada) Open Meetings 114, 128, 150, 163 174 Resolution passed 172 Opening Ceremony 17 Organisation and Equipment of a Practising School 176, 245 Of Technical Education in a large Pro- vincial Centre 182 Orton, G. H 339 Orange, H. W., C.I.E., M.A. (Director-General of Education for India) 8 O'Ratigan, Professor Vere (Professor of English Literature, Bareilly College, India) 11 373 PAGE. Ortner, E. (Examiner, City and Guilds of London Institute. National Association of Manual Training Teachers) 12 Osborne, Sailors' School 227 Osterberg, Madame Bergman 15,259,267,271, 272 Owen, Sir Isambard, M.A., D.C.L., M.D. (Dur- ham University) 10 R. E., B.A. (Montgomeryshire Branch, League of the Empire) 13 Oxford (see under Universities, United Kingdom) University, Vice-Chancellor of (see Warren, T. H.) Papers, List of Readers of 14 Parker, Sir Gilbert, D.C.L., F.R.C.S., M.P 165, 179 Parkin, G. R., C.M.G., LL.D. (Toronto Uni- versity. University of New Brunswick. Royal Colonial Institute) 10, 14, 66, 101, 178, 179 Parmalee, George W., D.C.L. (Deputy Head, Department of Public Instruction, Quebec. McGill University, Montreal) 8, 10, 25, 83 Parmanand, Professor Bhai (Dayanand Anglo- Vedic College, Lahore) 11 Paterson, Miss (Lady Superintendent, Presby- terian College, Melbourne) 280, 288 Patroness of the Conference 7 Penstone, Miss M. M. (Teachers' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland) 12 Permanent Central Museum 176, 286, 292 Perth (see under Australasia) Physical Training 43, 268 Place of Geography in Education 105,111,180 History and Geography in Educa- tion 105, 175, 180 In Secondary Schools 105, 108, 180 - In University Education ... 105, 109, 180 The Mother Tongue in National Education 177, 336, 340 Plunkett, Lieut. -Col. G. T., C.B., R.E. (Director, Dublin Museum. Museum Section, League of the Empire) 9, 13, 14, 176. 182, 195, 197, 273, 280, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 292, 293, 294, 311 The Right Hon. Sir Horace, P.C., K.C.V.O. F.R.S., &c. (President, Association of Technical Institutions) 12, 14, 128, 130, 147, 181 Pollard, Professor A. F 106,179 Pollock, Sir Frederick, Bart., D.C.L. (Member of Council, League of the Empire) 13 374 PAGE, Polytechnics, London 230 Post-graduate Study 94, 163 Powell, Miss H. (Teachers' Training College Association) 12 Practising Schools 245 Preface 3 Prendergast, Mrs 323 Private Schools .' 73, 160 Professors, Interchange of 168 Provincial Centre, Organisation of Technical Education in a 182 Public Schools' Associations 89 Canadian 204 In Montreal 212 Pupil Teachers 264, 265 Qadir, Sheikh Abdul (Islamia College, India) 11 Quadrennial Conference desirable 42 Quebec (see under Canada) Queen's College, Kingston (see under Universities, Canadian) Rankin, Sir James, Bart., J.P., D.L. (County Councils Association Education Committee) 11, 86 Rason, The Hon. C. H. (Agent -General for Western Australia) 8 Read, J 356 Reay, The Right Hon. Lord, P.C., G.C.S.I., LL.D., &c 14,45,57,66,67, 182 Receptions 37 Recognition of Teachers' Certificates (see under Certificates) Of Technical Certificates 223 Redhill (see under United Kingdom) Reichel, H. R., M.A., LL.D. (Principal, Uni- versity College of North Wales, Bangor) 10 Relation between the Professional and General Education of the Future Teacher 176,259 Religious Question in British Columbia 206 In Quebec 25 Remote Districts, Higher Education in 44 Rendall, Rev. G. H., M.A., Litt.D. (Headmaster of Charterhouse. Headmasters' Association) 12 Representatives, List of Government 7 Research Work, Technical 189, 195 Resolutions passed, Official Conference 41,41,42,42,42, 42 Full General Conference 55,67 University Section 179 Museum Section 278, 281, 282,287, 294 375 PAGE. Resolutions Passed, Nature Study Section 320, 323 " Teaching of English " Section ... 331, 335, 347, 349 Reynolds, Principal J. H., M.Sc. (Manchester). . . 15, 225, 229, 234, 241 Rhodes Scholars at Oxford 91,168 Richmond, Miss (The Board of Wellington College and Girls' High School) 13 Roberts, E. S., M.A. (Vice-Chancellor of Cam- bridge University. Master of Gonville and Caius) 10, 14, 45, 81, 92, 352 Roberts, J. E. (Montgomeryshire Branch, League of the Empire) 13 Roberts, T. F., M.A., LL.D. (Principal, Uni- versity College Of Wales, Aberystwyth) 10 Robinson, G. Gidley (Association of Preparatory Schools) 12 Robinson, John (Transvaal University College). .. 11,15,222 Robson Act 307 Roe, W. A 356 Rollit, Sir Albert Kaye, LL.D., D.C.L. (London Chamber of Commerce) 14 Ross, Professor E. Denison, Ph.D., M.R.A.S. (Calcutta University) 11 Rothschild, Lord 354 Rouen, Ecole Professional 196 Rowden, E. G., M.A. (Director of Education, Gold Coast Colony) 9 Royal Drawing Society Exhibit 350 Riicker, Sir Arthur, M.A., LL.D., D.Sc., F.R.S., ( Principal, University of London ) 1 0, 1 4, 45, 94, 114, 163, 172, 173, 175, 178, 179 Rural District, Urban Centre of, Technical Education in 187 - Education 43 In Victoria 144 - Life 131 In America 131 Rural Populations, General Education of 1 37 - Schools in South Australia 356 In Victoria 355 Ruskin on Civics 255 Russell, C., M.A. (Principal, Patna College. Bengal) 8, 11 Rutherford, The Hon. A. C. (Minister of Educa- tion, Alberta and Saskatchewan) 8 Sadler, Professor M. E., LL.D. (Member of Council, League of the Empire. Manchester University) 13, 15, 119 Sailors' School, Osborne 227 376 PAGE. Sailors, Training of 227 Saintsbury, Prof. George, M.A., LL.D., D.Litt. (Edinburgh University) 14, 15, 177, 325, 333, 340, 343, 344, 346, 347, 348, 349 Sargant, E. B., M.A. (Educational Adviser to His Excellency the High Commissioner for South Africa. Basutofand) 9 Saskatchewan University (see under Universities, Canadian) Scharff, R. F., Ph.D. (Museum Section, League of the Empire) 13,273,278 Scholarships 43, 44 School Collections 273, 278 Interchange of 273, 282 Correspondence, Interchange of 355,356 Scheme in Nature Study 321, 324 Development, Elasticity in 68 Museums 273, 278 System of British Columbia 202 - In the Cape Colony 154 - In New Brunswick 153 In New Zealand 156 In Nova Scotia 153 Schools, Continuation, in Munich 201 Demonstration 245 Elementary, Art Teaching in 187 Co-ordination with Secondary Schools 150 Domestic Economy 187, 188 Nature Study 187 - High for Girls 315,318,319 Home Office, Technical Training in 225 - Practising 245 - Private 73,160 In New Brunswick 79 Public, Associations 89 Canadian 204 In Montreal 212 Rural, in South Australia 356 Cookery in 140, 147 Secondary, Co-ordination with Elementary Schools 150 History in 105, 108, 180 In Scotland | 151 Village, Cookery in 140, 147 Scotland (see under United Kingdom) Scott, Lady 333 Seamen, Training of 227 Secretaries, List of Honorary 14 Sectional Meetings 175 Seeley , Sir John, on teaching English 327 377 PAGE. Shedlock, Miss 348 Sheffield (see under United Kingdom) Shoreditch (see under United Kingdom) Shurlock, Principal F. W., B.A., B.Sc. (Derby). . . 15, 191 Siam, Teaching of English in 338 Siberia Ill Sidgwick, Mrs. Henry (Principal, Newnham College, Cambridge) 10 Sime, J., C.I.E., M:A., LL.D. (formerly Director of Public Instruction, Panjab. Panjab University) 11 Sittings of the Conference 38 Smith, H. Hamel 142,181,349 Smithsonian Institute 284 Social Engagements 352 Somerville, A. A., M.A. (Association of Assistant Masters in Secondary Schools) 12 Somervell, R., M.A. (Harrow) 15, 105, 108, 180" Sonnenschein, Prof., M.A., D.Litt. (Classical Association) 13, 84, 163. 169, 179 South Africa (see under Africa, South) Australia (see under Australia, South) Specialisation in Industries 215 Speeches, Opening, List of Makers of. 14 Spenser, H. J., M.A., LL.D. (Headmaster of University College School. Headmasters' Conference) 12, 71 Starkie, W. J. M., M.A., Litt.D. (Resident Com- missioner, Irish National Board) 7, 35, 74, 123 Statistics, Uniformity of 42 Stephen, A., M.A. (Transvaal Teachers' Assoc.)- . . 13 Steward, Rev. C. J. (County Councils Association Education Committee) 11 Storr, F., B.A. (Teachers' Guild of Great Britain and Ireland) 12 " Story of the Armada " 353 Telling, Pointing the Moral 254 Stratton, G. B., M.A. (Straits Settlements) 9 Strickland, R. B., M.A. (Inspector of Schools, Ceylon) 9 Struthers, J., C.B. (Secretary, Scotch Education Department) 7 Swallow, Rev. Canon, M.A. (Headmaster of Chigwell School, Essex. Headmasters' Association) 12 Swanley (see under United Kingdom) Swedish Drill 268 Sydney (see under Australasia) Syllabus, Civic Instruction by 1 76, 253 Syon House, Visit to 353 Systematic Courses in Evening Classes 176, 236 378 PAGE. Talbot, Sir Reginald (Governor of Victoria) 35 Tasmania University (see under Universities, Australasian) Tate, Frank, I.S.O., M.A. (Director of Education, Victoria) 8, 31, 144, 181, 263, 309, 354, 355 Teachers in Nova Scotia 55 Certificates (see under Certificates) Guild . 287 Interchange of 40,45,46,115 - In British Columbia 208 Volunteer Initiative suggested 126 Pupil 264, 265 Registration Council 244 Secondary, Training for 244, 250, 260 Training of 43, 243, 259 Section 176, 243, 259 "Concurrent" Theory 259 Demonstration Schools 245 In Glasgow 251 For Nature Study 298,303,307,310 314, 323 Physical 268 "Postgraduate" Theory 259 Secondary 244, 250, 260 In the Transvaal 260 In Victoria .. 264 " Teaching of English " (see under English, Teaching of) Technical Certificates, Recognition of 223 College, Derby 191 The Imperial 103 Colleges and Universities 186 Courses, Admission to 45, 57, 81, 232, 233, 234, 236 Education 45, 57, 128, 182, 199, 225 Section 175,181,182,199, 225 Administration for 190 In South Africa 222 In Western Australia 219 In Canada 199 Australia and S. Africa 176, 199 City and Guilds of London Institute 231 Durham College of Science 231 Ecole Professionale, Rouen 196 In France 196 - Glasgow and West of Scotland College 231 In Halifax 236 Linking up the System 189 379 PAGE. Technical Education, London Polytechnics 231 ' In Manchester 242 Manual Training 43, 57, 187, 226 Organisation of, in a large Provincial Centre 182 In Quebec 212 Railway Fares of Students 188 At Rouen 196 In Secondary Schools 58, 64 Systematic Courses in Evening Classes 236 - In the Transvaal 222 In the United Kingdom 175, 182, 225 - At Universities 200 In the Urban Centre of a Rural District 187 Institute, Belfast 230 Shoreditch, Day School 197 Sydney 199 Institutes, Domestic Economy in 188 Institutions, Local 191 Institution, Transvaal, Admission to 223 Instruction in Universities and Colleges of Science 57 Research Work 189, 195 Schools, Admission to, in Western Aus- tralia 220 High School, Montreal 213 School, Perth 219 Day School, Shoreditch 197 Teaching and Research 194 Training for Colonial Work 214 For Employers 139, 143, 196 In Home Office Schools 176, 225 - - In the United Kingdom and its Relation to the Needs of the Colonies 176, 229 Technological College, Nova Scotia 21 1 Education in England, Higher 57 Technology, Manchester School of 230 Tennyson, Lady, Reception 37 The Right Hon. Lord, P.C., G.C.M.G. (President, League of the Empire) 7, 14, 17, 23, 34, 40,114,115, 118, 127 Text-books, Imperial 106, 180, 355 Thomas, W. Jenkyn (Welsh County Schools Association) 12 Thompson, F. Handel, M.A. (Inspector of Schools, Johannesburg and Rand Circuit, Transvaal) 8, 259, 360 J. C., M.H.R. (Southland Education Board, New Zealand) 13 380 PAGE. Thomson, Miss C. L 15, 340, 347, 34& Tilby, Mr 337 Toronto (see under Canada) Tozer, Sir Horace, K.C.M.G. (Agent-General for Queensland) 8 Training College, Demonstration School 245 Ships 227 of Teachers " (see Teachers, Training of) In Methods of Physical Develop- ment 176, 259, 268 Transvaal (see under Africa, South) Tree, H. Beerbohm, Reception 37 Trench, Professor FitzJohn, M.A., M.R.I.A. (Queen's College, Galway) 10, I71, r % 179 Trevarthen, Mr. (Redhill) 225, 229 Tropical Agricultural Education 1 42 Tuke, Miss Margaret J., M.A. (Principal, Bed- ford College. London University) 10 Turner, The Hon. J. H. (Agent- General for British Columbia) 8 . Mrs. J. H 318 Sir Wm., K.C.B., D.C.L. (Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Edinburgh University) 10 United Kingdom (see also under Universities) Belfast Technical Institute 230 Birmingham, Visit to 353 Board of Education evaluates all Certificates 126 Bradford, Domestic Economy at 186 Engineering Apprentices in ... 184 Technical Education in... 182 British Museum, Lantern Slides 290 Colonial Certificates recognised in. . . 54, 126 Derby, Engineering Apprentices at. . . 191 Technical College 191 Derbyshire, Agricultural College 191 Evening Technical Classes 192 - Dublin Museum 275,350 - Circulation System of... 275, 276, 35O Durham College of Science 231 England, Higher Technological Edu- cation in 57 - Eton College 352 Museum 279, 350 Nature Study at 298 Swedish Gymnastics at. . . 269 "Exmouth" Training Ship 228 Feltham Industrial School 228 Glasgow and West of Scotland College 231 381 PAGE. United Kingdom, Halifax,Technical Education in 236 Ireland, Education in 36 Interchange of Inspectors. 124 Rural Life in 134 - South Kensington Museum 274, 276, 279 Circulation system 276 Leicestershire, Agricultural College. . . 191 - Lincolnshire (Lindsey), Agricultural College 191 - Liverpool, Co-ordination in Educa- tion 70 - London, City and Guilds of, Institute 231 Civics in 258 Polytechnics 231 Manchester School of Technology... 230 - Technical Education in 242 Midland Agricultural and Dairy College, Kingston 1-91 - Natural History Museum 274 - Nottinghamshire, Agricultural Coll. 191 Osborne, Sailors' School 227 Redhill Industrial School 229 Scotland, Secondary Schools in 151 - Sheffield Museum, Circulation System 286 Visit to 353 - Shoreditch Technical Institute 197 Swanley Horticultural College 323 - Technological Education, Higher ... 57 - Technical Education 175, 182, 225 - Wales, Teaching of English in 334 Winchester College, Visit to 352 United States, Rural Life in the 131 Universities, Suggested South African 96 Admission to 45, 81, 234 German, Admission to 82 And the Empire 95, 163, 175, 17? - Federal 96, 164, 172 First Imperial Conference 165, 169 - History at the 105, 109, 180 List of Delegates representing 9 And Technical Colleges 186 Technical Instruction in 57, 200 University Section 175, 178 Resolution passed 179 Co-operation 45, 94, 163 Universities, African, South, Cape Colony University 155 Suggestions for 96 Transvaal, Johannesburg Uni- versity 233 University College 223 382 PAGE. Universities, Australasian, Adelaide 166, 219 - History, suggested Course of, 109 Melbourne 166 - New Zealand 159 Engineering Courses 62 - Sydney 166 Admission to 86 Tasmania 166 Canadian, Admission to 83 Alberta 205 - British Columbia 205, 208 Domestic Economy at 202 Dalhousie, Halifax 205 Engineering at 211 Guelph Coll., Toronto, Admission to 90" History for, suggested Course of 109 - McGill 205,211,232 Engineering at 202 Vote of Sympathy with 178 Macmaster's 205 - New Brunswick 153 Nova Scotia 153 Engineering 211 Ontario, Technical Education 200 - Quebec, Technical Education 200 - Queen's, Kingston 205 Mining School 201 Saskatchewan 205 - Toronto 205 - Agriculture at 201 - Engineering at 202 - Guelph College, Admission to. . . 90 Mining School 202 Vancouver College, Vote of Sympathy with 178 Victoria 205 Winnipeg 205 - United Kingdom, Birmingham, Admis- sion to 84 Economic Biology 306 - Technical Courses 231 - Cambridge, Admission to 87 Engineering School 59 Vice-Chancellor of (set under Roberts, E. S.) Visit to 352 - Glasgow, Teachers' Training Department 251 - Leeds 62 Agricultural Department 139 - Liverpool, Technical Courses. .. 231 383 PAGE. Universities. United Kingdom, London, Univei> sity College 169 Reception 352 Manchester,Post-graduate Study 103 Technical Courses 231 Northern, Technical Courses... 231 Oxford 167, 168 Admission to 87 Canadian Undergraduates at 90 - Colonial Club 91 - Rhodes Scholars 91, 168 - Vice-Chancellor of (see Warren, T. H.) Visit to 352 - Queen's College, Galway 171 Scottish, Admission to 88 Use and Abuse of the Fairy Tale in the Teach- ing of English Literature 177, 340, 347 Vancouver College (see under Universities, Canadian) Verney, F. W., M.P 354 Victoria Day (see also under Empire Day) In South Africa 36 (nee under Australasia) British Columbia (see under Canada) Vine, The Rev. Canon N. G., M.A 15, 225 Visger, Mrs. Owen 311 Vivian, Miss, B. A. (Welsh County Schools' Associ- ation. Monmouthshire Branch, League of the Empire) 12,13 Wadmore, Miss A 312, 337 Wales (see under United Kingdom) Waller, A. D., LL.D., M.D., F.R.S. (Director of the Physiological Laboratory, University of London. Royal Society) 13 Walmsley, R. Mullineux, D.Sc. (Hon. Sec., Technical Section) 14, 175, 181, 194, 222, 224, 229, 233, 242 Warren, T. H., D.C.L. (The Vice-Chancellor. President of Magdalen College, Oxford University) 9, 26, 167, 179. 352 Watkins, C. G 355 Watson, Miss J. (Association for the Education of Women, Oxford) 9 Webb, Miss Ethel A.M.. B.Sc 15, 314, 324 384 PAGE. Webb, Wilfred Mark, F.L.S. (Hon. Sec. Nature Study Section. Organising Hon. Sec. of the Exhibition) 13, 14, 15, 77, 176, 279, 282, 292, 296, 320, 324, 350, 356 Wells, Principal S. H., A.M.I.C.E., A.M.I.M.E. (Association of Technical Institutions) 12 West, Mr. (Victoria) 142,181 West Africa (see under Africa, West) Wheatcroft, J., M.A. (Brisbane and Rockhamp- ton Grammar Schools, Queensland) 11 Whitington, The Ven. Archdeacon, LL.B. (University of Tasmania) 11 Wicksteed, J. H., M.A. (Moral Instruction League) 14 Williams, A. (Director of Education, South Australia) 8,355,356 Williams, Basil, M.A. (Hon. Sec. to the Sections) 14, 175, 228 Williams, J. Leslie, B. A. (New South Wales) 8 Winchester (see under United Kingdom) Woods, Miss A. (Maria Grey Training College, Brondesbury) 250 Wright, Professor Mark, M.A. (Training College Association) 12 Wylie, F. J., M.A. (Fellow of Brasenose, Oxford University) 9 Wyse, A. N. Bonaparte, M.A. (Irish National Board) 7 Yorks, North, Nature Study in 298 Young, Ernest, B.Sc. (Hon. Sec. " Teaching of English" Section) 14,177,325,337 Young, Sir Frederick, K.C.M.G 32 TRIXTED BY GBORCB TUCKER, SALISBURY COURT, FLEET STREET, LONDON. ADVERTISEMENTS XX111. The Vertical System Original I Mentor and Patentee T. BO WATER VERHOH. TIMES. "By this system the most complex body of docu- ments can be arranged with admirable simplicity." An Englishman's idea. 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Press-Copying at an end. Ordinary Pen and Ink. A Perfect Copy and a Dry one, and your Letter shows no sign of having been copied. A WRITING TABLET, holding Writing and Copying Paper, Letters, &c. Everything at hand. For BUSINESS PURPOSES, a perfect system in substitution for press-copying at half the cost. For PRIVATE USE, a simple apparatus always ready to copy the occasional important letter. Full particulars, with specimen of writing and copy, on application ; also Illustrated Catalogue of the Ceres Vertical System of Letter Filing, which is fast displacing all flat plans. Quote this Report. THE CERES DEPOT, 10, JOHN STREET, ADELPHI, LONDON. (Opposite the Society of Arts and close to Charing Cross.) VERY SUITABLE FOR PRESENTS. MUCH USED IN INDIA AND ABROAD. XXIV. ADVERTISEMENTS. Second htind Books AT HALF PRICES! New Books at 25 per cent. Discount. BOOKS ON EVERT SUBJECT AND FOR ALL EXAMINATIONS SUPPLIED. Sent on Approval, State Wants. Catalogue Free* BOOKS BOUGHT. BEST PRICES GIVEN. C*w^ '^*r\'*vnr ic* JtC. Jr %J If JL* Jbli, 135, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. BADGE of the LiEflGUE WORN IN ALL COUNTRIES OF THE EMPIRE. In Bronze (pendants or brooches)... price 6d. In Silver ... price is. 6d. Empire Day Badges, in white metal price is. 3d. per doz. tittle Silk Union Jack Badges, WITH SAFETY PIN ATTACHED, Can be had from the Office of the League of the Empire. I/- a dozen. THE FLAGS ARE BRITISH MADE. THE POSTAGE ON ALL BADGES IS EXTRA. To be obtained of the Hon. Secretaries of the League in the different countries, or at the Central Offices, Westminster, England. ADVERTISEMENTS. XXV. %eague of the Empire. SCHEME FOR THE AFFILIATION OF SCHOOLS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE EMPIRE. Objects. For friendly intercourse and the Exchange of Descriptive Letter-writing between pupils. Exchange of School Essays, illus- trated, if desired, by maps, brush work, snap-shots, or dried speci- mens ; also of Nature Study work, drawings and other Art work ; of Objects of Interest for Personal or School Collections, and of Articles for School Magazines. For Exchange of Information between Teachers, of Timetables, and of Statistics regarding Methods of Work and Conditions of Life in different parts of the world, so that knowledge of such parallel conditions (of Agriculture, Industries, various branches of Education, &c.) as are individually needed may be brought within reach of all for their practical use. Affiliation Fee for Schools, 55., including receipt of the FEDERAL MAGAZINE and "THE ' ALL-RED' MAIL" and free entrance to all Prize Competitions offered by the League to the Schools of the Empire. Affiliation Forms may be obtained from Mrs. ORD MARSHALL, Hon. Sec., Caxton Hall, Westminster, London. CORRESPONDENCE COMRADES BRANCH. Through the Correspondence Comrades Branch members are placed in communication with each other in all parts of the Empire. The two Comrades write to each other about their work and sur- roundings. Over 14,000 boys and girls have been given a correspondence comrade. All applicants for Comrades should state their sex, age and their own or their parents' occupation, so that correspondents who are per- sonally interesting to them may be given. Mention should also be made of any paiticular hobby in which they are interested, or any exchange they wish effected. Application forms may be obtained from the Office of the League, or from Mrs. G. T. Plunkett, Hon. Secretary Correspondence Comrades Branch, Belvedere Lodge, Wimbledon, Surrey. Membership in the League. Minimum Annual Subscription : Adults, is. ; under 1 6, 6d. Badge, 6d. FEDERAL MAGAZINE and "THE ' ALL-RED' MAIL," 3d. monthly. Subscribers of 55. yearly will receive these Magazines post free. Junior Members Magazine, " THE ' ALL- RED ' MAIL," price per single copy, post free, i|d. ; per dozen copies, post free, is. ; per hundred copies, post free, 55. 6d. Address Hon. Secretary, Caxton Hall, Westminster, London, S.W. XXVI. ADVERTISEMENTS. The Position and Work of the League of the Empire. The Constitution of the League. The League of the, Empire is constitutionally an Imperial Institution, having a Council representative of all parts of the King's Dominions. Its Relation to the Education Departments. The official relation of the League to the Education Depart- ments and Governments throughout the Empire has been regularised (a) through the recommendation of its work to the Governments concerned, by the Colonial Office of the Imperial Government and by the Agents-General ; (b) by the active and wide-spread acceptance of its schemes by the different Educational Authorities and Governments. Imperial Undertakings Founded by the League. The League is the founder of Imperial Conferences on Education, and of schemes of practical reciprocity in education between the different countries. The first Conference on Edu- cation, attended by Representatives appointed by the Imperial and other Governments of the Empire, was held by the Council of the League in the summer of 1907, and it was through resolutions passed by that Conference that the Imperial Government was moved to arrange for a future Conference of Government Representatives to be held in London in 1911. Methods of Work. Other important methods of work initiated by the League include Co-operation in Publications. (1) Co-operation between the countries in publications. In particular a series of Imperial Text-books, the " Federal Magazine," and " The State and Education," to be published by direction of the Official Conference of 1907. In further- ance of these undertakings the League has the assistance of a great number of the Education Departments of the Empire as well as of committees and Representatives appointed by the Governments for the purpose. Official Agency and Migration of Teachers. (2) -The furtherance of such departmental co-operation as may be authorised by the different Education Departments and Governments, to many of which the League is the officially appointed Agent in the United Kingdom. ADVERTISEMENTS. XXV11. Bureau of Educational Information. (3) The establishment of a Bureau of information. The following resolution was passed by the official Conference of 1907 in respect to this part of the work of the League : " That this Conference places on record its high appreciation of the work done by the League of the Empire in stimulating educational activity and in collecting and circulating information on educational subjects." The League has the assurance of wide support of its future work, and the intimate relations now established with all parts of the Empire and the amount of information already collected render feasible steady development of this branch. School Exchange. (4) Reciprocal work between schools and other educational institutions. These schemes are in active operation in all parts of the King's Dominions, hundreds of thousands of children being thereby influenced. Correspondence Comrades' Branch. (5) Young people are put into communication with others in different parts of the Empire, and the two Comrades write to each other about their work and surroundings. Over 14,000 boys and girls have been given a correspondence comrade. Essay Competitions. (6) Essay and Art Competitions between schools in different parts of the Empire. These competitions have the approval and co-operation of a great number of the Educational Authorities throughout the Empire. Exhibitions. (7) Educational Exhibitions. With the support of the Education Authorities Exhibitions have been held in the United Kingdom and sections of work have been supplied for the use of Teachers in other countries. Other Branches of Work. (8) Other work undertaken by the League is the giving of Lectures both in public halls and in all grades of schools, the promotion of petty industries and of libraries where required, and ths furtherance of the keeping of Empire Day. Membership. The personal membership of the League is estimated at over 23,000. XXviil. ADVERTISEMENTS. Cantern Slides to illustrate the following Lectures may be purchased or hired from the League of the Empire, Caxton Hall, Victoria Street, London, S.W, BRITISH COLONIZATION and EMPIRE, 6 LECTURES. LECTURE I. The Beginning of Modern Colonization. II. The First British Colonies, in. Growth of the First Colonies. IV. Conquest of Canada. V. Origin of British Dominion in India. VI. The Separation of the Thirteen Colonies and the Rise of the New Empire. EMPIRE BUILDERS, 6 LECTURES. LECTURE I. Alfred the Great. II. Francis Drake. III. Robert Clive, the Founder of our Indian Empire. IV. James Wolfe. V. Admiral the Lord Hawke. VI. James Cook, the Discoverer. Special Empire Day Lecture, " A TRIP ROUND THE EMPIRE/' by W. K. STRIDE, M.A. 64 Slides. . Lecture, " MADRAS/' by SIR PHILIP HUTCHINS, K. C.S.I., late Member of Council, Madras. 48 Slides. Lecture, " SOUTH AUSTRALIA/' by C. L. WHIT- HAM, Inspector of Schools, S. Australia. 100 Slides. Lecture, " NEW ZEALAND/' 104 Slides. ADVERTISEMENTS. xxix. PUBLICATIONS ISSUED BY THE LEAGUE OF THE EMPIRE. Che Federal magazine ' E. M. Ord Marshall Issued <*ld monthly, price 3d. Free to " 7*lw> ' 2111 DA/| > II)-il Members and Schools sub- WP* Jill=KgU IKdll, scribing ss. annually. Junior members' Section. "All-Red Mail" published separately, price id., post free, & jfr i^d., per dozen, IP. "The Story of the Armada," Historical Play, by AMICE MAC- DONELL. Price 6d. "Throughout the King's Dominions." Short Papers on the different Countiies and Crown Colonies of the Empire. Price id. each, 6d. per dozen, 3$. per 100. No. I. Victoria, Australia; No. //, New Zealand, Lecture, " Natal," by the Rev. FREDERICK MASON, of Natal. For particulars of Lectures published by the League, see page xxviii. "The A B C of the Union Jack." Illustrated. Price 2 d. Illustrated Leaflet, " Our Flag." Price d. each ; 3^d. per dozen. "Suggestions for Empire Day," containing words of "Maple Leaf," " Song of Australia," and " Recessional." Price d. each ; 3^d. per dozen. SONGS. "God Save the King." Music key G. Price |d. each; 3^d. per dozen. " Song of Australia," with music. Price id. each; gd. per dozen. " Advance Australia," with music. Price id. each; gd. per dozen. " The Maple Leaf." Price 2d. each. Forms of Application for Affiliation of Schools and for Correspondence Comrades, free. Empire Day Post Cards, designed in Schools of the different Countries of the Empire. Price id. each; 6d. per dozen. Union Jack Empire Day Post Cards. Price id. each; gd. per dozen. Post Card Views of St. Helena. Set of 5, post free, 4d. For all publications apply the Hon. Sec., Office of the League, Caxfon Hall, Westminster. LIST OF ADVERTISERS. " The British Empire " XIV.-XV. The Ceres Depot XXIII. , W. & R. Chambers, Ltd X.-XI. Archibald Constable & Co., Ltd. .. , III. John Davis XVII.-XX. C. R. Foyle XXIV. Ginn&Co XXI. John J. Griffin & Sons, Ltd VII. George G. Harrap & Co. ... ... .. ... ... IV.-V. Philip Harris & Co., Ltd XXII. D. C. Heath&Co ... IV.-V. W. & A. K. Johnston, Ltd XII. fVIII. League of the Empire ^XIV.-XV ( XXIV. -XXIX. McDougall's Educational Co., Ltd VI. Macmillan & Co., Ltd IX. Horace Marshall & Son ... ... ... .. ... I. John Murray... ... ... ... ... .. ... VIII. National Society's Depository ... ... ... ... XIII. North of England School Furnishing Co., Ltd. ... ... XVI. Lovell Reeve & Co., Ltd II. OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY LOS J*>B.^.rli U This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-Series 444 PI i II I I'lll | || || || A 001348420 9 L 18 F31 1908