Our Educational System
The English Educational System: By Cyril Norwood. (Benn.
-The Schools of England. Edited by J. DoVer Wilson. (Sidgivick and Jackson. 18s.) . .
LIKE most of our customs and institutions, the schools of England are as illogically administered as they were haP- hazardly founded. - •Like -the British Empire,. they just grew. In theory they should have a written constitution, in practice they work' better without. '
Ours is an aristocratic system of education, developed from the. top downwards. -Oxford and Cambridge -call the Piper, the taxpayer has Up to .date- paid-the-tune cheerfully enough. But the _Curriculum that was suitable for big landlords and
possible .Viceroys= is .showing signs of needing an overhaul. _ _
-Our two. national-Universities • attract to theinselves the best intellectual material in the kingdom-; -they- skini the cream of our -culture and then curdle it with their thediaevalism. That is a harsh statement perhaps, but doubt there can be none • that there must be increasing circulation between the new "Universities and the old ; at Oxford .and Cambridge the proper functions of a University. have been-. unduly restricted by a stubborn, attitude towards those departments of technical education which are so necessary if England is to live by her
manufactures. .
Dr. Norwood's contribution to Messrs. Benn's Sixpenny Series. is a pamphlet whose value must not be estimated by its size or cheapness. In some seventy-five pages we have the salient features. of the whole of - our system of education, elementary, secondary, technical, adult, and • University, as well as a description of the medical work which has been done of late years in schools, a chapter on the training of teachers; some special- comments on the education of girls, and a wholly admirable—because - so clear • and concise—survey of the workings -of the -Board of Education. .
Both -books. under• review bring out very clearly the deplor-. ahle waste of tithe and ,public_ money (to say nothing of the possible ruin of young lives)- which is the result of ending our elementary education at the age of 14 and driving children into temp-Mary and hlind-alley occupations where they forget what they have been taught and lose the good habits they may have acquired. No less than 363,000 children between the ages of .14 and 15 are slipping each year through the meshes Of our educational systenis into the outer darkneSS of Senn- illiteracy, and 520,000 Children between the ages of 15 and 16: That is a very large number," Df. Norwciod 'Says, " when it is remembered that the total "estimated pOptilation at any one year is very slightly labOve "700,000:" Yet much has been done t,o_clear the chaoS Of a hundred years. -Then there were seVeri public 'schools- (EtOn, Harrow: WincheSter, Westminster, Shrewsbury, Charterhonse; and Rugby): " Bad • feeding, bad - supervision - and resultant bullying and iminorality - were tridy alleged against them? Their curriculum was confined to a selection of Greek and' Latin authors, chosen without intelligence-and taught without conviction," It was only -in 1883 -that Parliament made its first grant in aid of elementary education; There are now more than 1•65,000-teachers-in-suCh schools;-and the training colleges' are turning them 'out at the rate of 14,000.a year.....We note: that -Dr.. Norwood- says that children -elementary schoola- not- only- read-English aloud; " but-are.encouraged to compose aloud, to -speak and to read for their own enjoyment." We hope that the very practical system of Miss Charlotte Mason, to which we have referred elsewhere in a leading article, will gain ground throughout the country, for the methods of Ambleside have proved their worth in the schools.- of Gloucestershire and other counties with eniightened educational authorities. Dr. Barron is quoted as saying that " the great discovery of the twentieth century was the huinan voice—the discovery that by "cultivating the tongue we are at the same time culti- vating the mind:" That is a true saying and one that' all Whci have children should -remember: • - The speed at which schools for women have developed {in twenty-three years girl pupils in secondary schools have more than quintupled- themselves) leads Dr. Norwood to obser-ve most justly that it is impossible for such rapid growth to occur Withciut developing- some strains in the fabric. • Yet we may look to the future with optimism, for although It is true female'education can only think indecades, while that of men has centuries of experience- behind it, the 'importance of the -former cannot be- exaggerated; 'for on it the fithire of the race depends. " The nation to=day cannot afford either econo- mically or spiritually to carry the dead weight of its WoMen." They need all that the best and most varied education can give
to develop their varied powers. - .
There are many points of interest that offer themselves to the reader in Dr. Dover Wilson's comprehensive and exciting book. Excitement is the bane of pedants and they may find opinions here which they will dislike. But exciting • these contributions are, notably Dr. Dover Wilson's own intro- duction, with its admirable blending of present needs and historical perspective. We have no space to review the papers in detail, but the chapter headings, with their authors, we must at least give ; there is a preface by Lord Eustace Percy, and an introduction by the editor. Miss Lillian de Lissa writes on Nursery and Infant Schools; and points out that there are approximately two million children- under fii e receiving no educational or medical care, and that if we could ensure unbroken continuity from the nursery to adolescent life, the population of England could be transformed in a single generation. Dr. Spencer deals with the Public Element- ary School, and Mr. Ramie with the Private ProPrietarY Schools. Mr. Cholinelq" deals with the Boys' Day School and Dr: Norwcicid with • the Boarding School ; *Dr; Brock with Girls' Schools and Mr. Salter " Davies with Technical and Continuation Schools. There is an interesting chapter by Mr, Siepniarm on the Borstal system, and two sections on the training of male and female teachers' by. Mr. Ward and Mrs: Mercier respectively.. Principal- Halliday writes of Oxford and. Cambridge," Principal Morgan of the Modern University; and Professor Peers of Adult EdUcation. There are also three sections on the Fighting Services and appendices con- sisting- of statistical inforniation and chronological tables. • We cannot agree with-Principal Halliday that science in its application to industry is not the province of OXford and Cambridge. That, indeed, - is just the way to turn out " numbers of university graduates fitted for positions that do not exist".—as. Principal Morgan says in his chapter, adding : " The idea- that "a 'man" is edueated without under- standing - some of the great -scientific principles which are
very - foundation; and the practical applications which are the substance, of modern society is absurd. Nevertheless our educational system appears to deny the fact."
Even cigarette cards are educational nowadays. There is a hunger for learning abroad in the land. In the Press and on the wireless we see the signs of the times. " We are at the beginning of a great educational revival which may be of tremendous import for the whole future of civilisation," and it behoves us all to learn something of the new-found sense of the common culture and common aspirations of England which fifty-five years of universal elementary education and twenty-five years of municipal secondary education have engendered in " the most self-willed and pugnacious people in the world." Especially would we recommend Dr. Dover Wilson's splendid introduction to the attention of our readers. He resumes the whole matter in some of the most eloquent words of an eloquent Englishman—Arnold—who said he hoped " to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere ; to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light, where they may use ideas as [culture] uses them, freely—nourished and not
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