THE EDUCATION OF THE LONDON SCHOOL BOARD.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J
SIR, —I find myself so frequently in agreement with the opinions expressed in the Spectator, that I was extremely surprised to find such a sentence as this in your last week's issue :—" Mr. Matthew Arnold's Report should at least annihilate the obscurantist party which now prevails on the London and Manchester School Boards, and convince the public that so far from our elementary schools giving too good an education, or teaching too many subjects, if we regard the matter merely from a money point of view, the teaching they give is not good enough, nor the subjects of instruction sufficiently advance?, nor are children retained sufficiently long." (p. 1,045.) Of the Manchester School Board I am not able to speak with any authority, but for many years past I have been deeply in- terested in the work of the School Board for London, and I know its members well. With this knowledge, I make bold to say that neither a majority of the present nor of any past Board has ever expressed any such opinion as that which you attribute to a majority of the present Board,—viz., that our elementary schools give too good an education.
What the majority of the present Board are apparently anxious to do is to make the education given in the schools thoroughly efficient, as well as to secure that the public money contributed by the people of London for educational purposes is carefully administered. Efficiency in education and prudence in administration may be the characteristics of an " obscurantist pirty." It is difficult to say whether they are so or not until the adjective can be so explained in relation to actual facts as to convey a definite meaning. But I should not have thought that they were characteristics upon which the Spectator• would pour contempt, or that it would desire to "annihilate a party "—if the majority upon the London School Board can be said to con- stitute a party—which desires to cause them to prevail.—I am, Sir, &c., JOSEPH R. DIGGLE. 19 Cornwall Terrace, Regent's Park, 117-.11r., August 11th.
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