and the exclusion of incompetent persons from it, was prominently referred to in this report. Despite these and other strenuous efforts the Association only numbered 177 members in 1891, in which year the Easter meeting was held at Cambridge, Oxford having been visited in 1890.

After this period the constant efforts of the pioneers of private school union began to bear fruit, and by 1895 the membership had increased to about 600. Then it was that a charter of incorporation was sought for and granted. On and after October 16, 1895, the Society has borne its present title, The Private Schools Association Incorporated. The prosperity of the Society represented by this step was largely due to the energetic honorary services of the late Mr. William Brown, who was president for 1895, and died during his year of office. Though the Association was unsuccessful in its attempt to obtain a direct

MR. W. W. KELLAND, M.A.,

Oakfield School, Crouch End, N., Chairman of the Council of the Private Schools Association, Incorporated.

representative of private schools on the Royal Commission on Secondary Education held at this time, it was invited to appoint delegates. Mr. Brown and Miss Allen Olney were chosen, and full opportunity was given to them of presenting their evidence in detail.

During the next five years the membership was stationary, internal dissensions and other causes preventing the realisation of the hopes which had been formed for more rapid progress. The usual terminal meetings and Easter conferences continued to be held, and branches were formed in many parts of the provinces, including Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Devizes, Harrogate and Southport. The financial position was such, however, that during most of 1901 the Society could not afford a paid secretary, and all clerical duties were peformed by honorary officers. In the autumn of this year a renewed attempt which has met with considerable success was made to end this unsatisfactory state of affairs, and make the Society a real power in the educational and political world. An OrNo. 54, VOL. 5.]

ganising Secretary was appointed, and a meeting held at the College of Preceptors to announce the re-organisation of affairs, at which the President (Sir G. C. T. Bartley, K.C.B., M.P.) defined the policy of the Association towards the proposed Education Bill.

The key notes of this meeting, which marked the commencement of a new epoch in the history of the Society, were the pressing necessity of adaptation to the spirit of association which distinguishes all successful modern enterprises, and the importance of justifying private-school education at the bar of public opinion. The promotion of conferences in various parts of the country to demonstrate the efficiency of the majority of private schools, the exercise of parliamentary influence, and the securing of direct representation on the new education authorities, were some of the means of impressing public and governmental opinion which were advocated on this occasion, and have since been most vigorously carried out. Meetings were organised in London and the provinces which resulted in the formation of many new sections and branches, and the adhesion of large numbers of heads of private schools. A guarantee fund was raised to defray extraordinary expenses. Questions were asked in Parliament by the President of the Association which revealed to many for the first time the existence of the movement. Communications were made to the Board of Education in the interests of private teachers and their pupils, and slowly but surely a greater spirit of comradeship and cohesion. than had ever been exhibited before was developed among members of the profession. During the passing of the Education Act large numbers of M.P.'s were personally interviewed in the lobby of the House of Commons, and over sixty expressed themselves as favourable to the aims and objects of the Association. The principal concession secured by these exertions is that contained in the sub-section to clause 2 of the Act, to the effect that "A Council in exercising their powers under this part of the Act (Higher Education) shall have regard to any existing supply of efficient schools and colleges.

66

The new organising activity was not allowed to obscure the more academic aims of the Association, which include the spreading of information on the improvement of educational methods. Apart from the work of local committees in this direction the Council appointed an Educational Committee, which convened a well-attended national conference of private teachers at South Kensington in October last year, which was addressed by leading educationists. Leaflets have also been published from time to time, from the private school point of view, addressed to parents, parliamentarians, and the general public, besides the regular issue of Secondary Education, the monthly journal of the Association.

These and other efforts have resulted in a great increase in the numbers and influence of the Association, which now admits assistant secondary teachers. Its proceedings are accorded consider

S

able attention in the daily and educational press, and it is invited to send delegates to every important educational conference, such as the recent meeting at Cambridge University on the training of teachers and the Conference on "Technical and Secondary Education." Direct representatives on the Consultative Committee and the Teachers' Registration Council, though not yet secured, can hardly be much longer deferred. Since the passing of the Education Act, members of the Association have been co-opted on several Education Committees, including those of Hornsey, Hastings, Ealing and Blackpool.

The policy of the Association, far from being retrograde, includes strong approval of the principle of the Teachers' Registration Order (subject to certain modifications for the first three years in the case of teachers of experience and capacity, who may not possess the academic qualities required) and advocacy of inspection for the recognition of schools. It is opposed to all inefficient schools whether public or private, but contends that, when efficiency has been proved, private schools have a right to demand absolute equality and fair consideration at the hands of public authorities.

His

It would be most inappropriate to conclude this notice without referring to the Chairman of the Council, Mr. W. W. Kelland, M.A., of Oakfield School, Crouch End, whose portrait accompanies this article. It is impossible to exaggerate the debt which the Association owes this gentleman for its present prosperous condition. public spirit and energy are mainly responsible for the progress it has made in a short period from a comparatively small and ineffective society to an organisation with nearly fifty local branches and fifteen hundred members. The detailed work has principally devolved upon Mr. H. R. Beasley, the General Secretary, and Mr. Henry C. Devine, the Treasurer, and Manager of Secondary Education, of which the Rev. J. B. Blomfield is Literary Editor.

and intelligible to the non-expert. Even the ordinary ignorant traveller, if he reads the more general portions of the book, will find them so expressed that he is enabled to understand what he will see at Pompeii. And there are very few students who will be able to say that the book tells them only what they know.

The book includes a short history of Pompeii up to the time of the eruption, and a sketch of the course of the excavations. Then the chief places and buildings of the city are taken one by one, each described and explained, and in some cases restorations offered. After the fora, theatres, temples, and houses have thus been passed in review, chapters are added on such allied topics as these: The Trades and Crafts of Pompeii, Inns and Wineshops, the Tombs, Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, the Inscriptions, and Graffiti. The last chapters, those which deal with ancient life, will be most interesting to the general reader. In par ticular, the inscriptions bring the old town very close to us. Election cries, houses to let, runaway slaves, curses, and love-messages, all sorts of oddities, are chronicled upon the walls, and live, now that Restitutus the Don Juan, or Vatia the would-be ædile, have been dust these two

thousand years. A Greek bull, quoted by the

author from the Palatine Hill at Rome, is worth recording: "Everybody writes something here, except myself." The more serious student will glean a great deal of information on various departments of antiquities. The account of the Roman House is of value for other places than Pompeii, although it is not a complete history. Religion and superstition are touched on, and there is a great deal of information about the less important realien, pots and pans, tables and utensils. There is new light on the triclinium. The schoolmaster who is alive to the importance of a knowledge of antiquities as illustrating his work should not fail to procure this book. It is not only the best short account of Pompeii, but a great deal more.

A

LIFE IN POMPEII.1

RCHEOLOGISTS know that Prof. Mau is one of the greatest living authorities on all connected with Pompeii. He has spent a large part of his life in studying it, and has written a great deal on the subject. We are prepared, then, to find this book accurate, full, and sound. However, it is not every sound archæologist who can write a good book, and a book of the present type is apt to fall between two stools, to be either too learned or too shallow. Prof. Mau has to a remarkable degree avoided both these faults. His book is not only learned, but it is interesting

1" Pompeii, its Life and Art." By August Mau, German Archeological Institute at Rome. Translated into English by F. W. Kelsey, University of Michigan. With numerous illustrations from original drawings and photographs. xxv. + 559 pp. (Macmillan.) 1os. 6d. net.

ROF.

PRO

EDUCATIONAL REFORM.

KARL

PEARSON'S prefatory essay on "The Function of Science in the Modern State," in the eighth of the new volumes of the "Encyclopædia Britannica," is so full of matter of educational importance that this notice of the volume must almost be limited to a statement of some of the points presented by him. The essay is an analysis of the factors which constitute the modern State, with suggestions as to how each should be strengthened, with the object of promoting national progress. To some extent the essay may be regarded as dealing briefly with the same subjects as Prof. Pearson's " National Life from the Standpoint of Science," and the

"The Encyclopædia Britannica." The eighth of the new volumes, Vol XXXII. of the complete work. Pri.-Sto. xxxvii. +856 pp. (Black and The Times.)

outlook is one which merits contemplation by all who are interested in the development of national life and character.

It is necessary for all of us to be scientific even if we are not professed teachers or students of any of the positive sciences. In educational questions, we ought to be able to rise above the claims of advocates of this or that branch of knowledge for a place in the school curriculum, and decide from our point of view the courses which should be followed by pupils whose school lives end at particular ages. There ought, in fact, to be sufficient material to construct a curriculum on scientific principles; that is to say, given a pupil and knowing the faculties it is desired to develop in him, the course he should follow should be clearly defined. At present we are far from realising this condition of things. Tradition has decided what subjects should be studied, and any attempt to depart from them is viewed with disapproval. Animate as well as inanimate nature possesses an inertia which offers resistance to any change, and it is only by persistent and strenuous influence that men are induced to deviate from the paths of their fathers.

For some years advocates of progressive education have urged that, for the good of the State, sciences and modern languages should be given greater importance in the curriculum. With few exceptions they acknowledge the value of the study of classical languages, but their friendly feelings are scarcely reciprocated. Any approach to the territory of ancient culture is resented by the guardians thereof with the alacrity displayed by Tibetan lamas towards foreigners. "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be," is the article of faith, and he who would revise this saying is regarded as a sacrilegious disturber of the peace.

Well, much can be said for the value of the study of Latin and Greek, and the reformer who thinks they may be neglected shows thereby that the essential principle of educational science is not in him. The primary object of education should not be to impart information; but if a scientific method is applied, it matters little whether classics or nature is given the greater attention. As Prof. Pearson remarks, "One man may learn how to use his reasoning powers from a teacher who adopts Greek grammar as a medium, another from a teacher whose material is provided by the hedgerow, and the powers gained in either way may be turned from one to another subject." Let us not, then, wrangle about subjects, but methods, and we shall be in a fair way to arrive at a place of mutual understanding between representatives of both science and the humanities.

Training in scientific, that is, accurate, habits of observation and thought must be the criterion of good education in the future. Merit must be gauged not by ability to pass examinations but by the power to overcome difficulties; and teachers will then be relieved from the necessity of forcing unwilling minds to absorb undigested material in order to make a creditable record for the school or

their form. "Not to know the capital of Servia, the tributaries of the Don, or the constituents of the atmosphere, is no sign of defective education. Facts' change from generation; but skill in manipulating facts is the fundamental sign of a trained intelligence, of a true education, which survives all modifications of its material." Examiinations do not test the development of this faculty of adaptation to circumstances. Every practical teacher knows, or ought to know, that duffers at school work often become men of intellectual eminence, while pupils who win high places in examinations sink into comparative obscurity in later life. Examinations are useful in bringing pupils up to the scratch, to use a vulgarism, but as a capacity-catching machine they are certainly a failure. Prof. Pearson's experience upon this matter is worth reproduction here:

During the last few years the writer has come largely in contact with a large number of young men and women whom the county councils up and down the country are educating at the national expense. These county-council scholars are, on the average, not up to the mean middle-class intelligence. It is very rarely that one could not pick out for any given post better, often many better, middle-class candidates. In this case the meshes of the net are far too small; ten per cent. of the scholarships would have sufficed to procure the really capable men and women whom it was of social value to educate for intellectual pursuits. The rest want either the originality, the power of self-assertion, or the physique which would enable them to force their way forward in a new sphere. The bitterness of failure is upon those who, scholarships ended, sink to usherdom in small private schools, or to second-rate draughtsmen in engineering works.

To change all this means an educational revolution, which, though it would be welcomed by many teachers, is beyond the range of practical politics. Examinations provide a convenient touchstone by which work can be tested, and both governors and parents attach importance to positions in honours and scholarships lists. If the spirit and not the letter of the teaching is to count, if school work is to be entirely conducted on heuristic principles, then the number of subjects in the curriculum must be reduced by about one-half, and little progress can be shown in the others. It is good for pupils to learn by experience, but advance along all such roads to knowledge is necessarily slow; and while teachers were cultivating intelligence, parents would be impatient because their children would have little to show for their work. Book-keeping, shorthand and other showy subjects. have only been introduced into the curriculum as a sop to parents who think schools should be nurseries for office boys. We hesitate to suggest what such parents will think when they are told that the whole work of schools is to be designed with the object of training intelligence and not to impart information or develop any kind of manual dexterity.

It will be necessary to educate parents to these ideals, or to make the teacher independent of their views, and of examinations, before any radical change becomes possible. And, if we may add it without offence, teachers themselves will have to

pay more attention to methods than has often been the case hitherto. It is to be hoped that the time is not far distant when knowledge of the principles of teaching, and experience in school work, will be judged of more importance than a high degree or the possession of holy orders in making appointments of teachers, whether assistants or heads. A man who appears as a high wrangler on the class lists usually receives several offers of teaching posts, though he may be supremely ignorant how to keep a form in order, while many a man who is an inspired teacher has to consider himself passing rich on fifty pounds a year and residence. Prof. Pearson's statistical investigations of the physical and mental characteristics of from 5,000 to 6,000 school children seem to show that it is really safer to select a University blue than a man from the Honours school. The athletic lad has associated with this character in a very sensible degree: good health, quick temper and intelligence; and the first and last of these are the best of attributes of a successful teacher.

Many more points are dealt with in the essay which has provided the text for this notice. All the prefatory essays in the new volumes have been full of interest, but none have appealed to us quite so strongly as this by Prof. Pearson. Limitations of space prevent us from describing any of the articles in the volume, but we can confidently say that every subject between the alphabetical limits of the Pribiloff Islands and Stowmarket is dealt with, and that the teacher or student who constantly refers to the volumes for information will be astonished at the response he obtains to his inquiries.

THE CASE FOR CO-EDUCATION.1

TH

HE object of this small but important volume is to advocate co-education in English secondary schools. The book consists of nine essays, contributed by writers who, with one exception, have had experience as teachers in schools where boys and girls have been taught Without attempting together. theoretical justification of the plan of educating boys and girls under the same roof, they set down a record of actual experience-in some cases, in schools for young children, in others, in schools like Keswick and Bedales which have a more ambitious aim.

a

There is no desire to underrate the difficulties of the experiment, and the sceptical reader will find all the obvious questions he is ready to pose fairly faced in the volume. The modesty and straightforwardness of the papers add considerably to their value both as records and as arguments. Moreover, no attempt is made to defend co-education on the ground of its success elsewhere than in England. We have no feeling that some

en

1 "Co-education." A series of essays by various authors. Edited by Alice Woods. xiv. +148 pp. (Longmans.) 35. net.

thusiastic worshippers of American ideals and methods are trying to introduce a foreign system into English schools. The book is English throughout.

Mr. M. E. Sadler, who writes an introduction, confesses that he is impressed by the papers but not fully convinced. We need not wonder at Mr. Sadler's cautious attitude, seeing that the scope of the experiments in co-education has been so far limited. Up to the present time no institution of long standing has brought up together boys and girls beyond their early teens. It is true that the promoters of co-education schools, besides claiming that their efforts with younger children have been successful, firmly believe that no insurmountable obstacle will prevent them from carrying on co-education up to the university age. This may very well be, and we may in future see public schools in which elder boys and girls are taught and trained together with a common life, common discipline, and common games. But the feasibility of the project has yet to be fully established.

Co-education and co-instruction, which one of the essayists confuses entirely, may be usefully distinguished. Co-instruction, which means that boys and girls are taught the same subjects in the same class rooms, is commoner than the editor supposes both in elementary schools and higher institutions. In some of the smaller technical schools, in the intermediate schools of Wales, in pupil-teacher classes, boys and girls are instructed together until they are almost adults. But the results-intellectual results mainly-are not so notoriously beneficial that the system can be defended by an appeal to them. It is mostly convenience which dictates whether pupils in such schools shall be taught together or separately. Moreover, these institutions do not satisfactorily answer the two points which Mr. Sadler raises. Is a curriculum which is suitable for boys in their teens also suitable for girls at the same age? Should a girl at the dangerous growing period work as hard as she will and as hard as a boy ought to do? Co-instruction implies a Spartan equality between the sexes. Now the writers of the book under review are defending co-education, the true aim of which is moral not intellectual. But their prime defect lies in this, that in order to obtain the moral gains which co-education, the common life of the sexes, is said to bring, they accept too readily and unquestioningly the system of co-instruction which is open to grave a priori criticism, and which they do not attempt to defend.

THE Teachers' Guild has again this year organised holiday courses in modern languages. French courses will be held at Tours and Honfleur, the preliminary meeting of students at the former place taking place on July 31st, and at the latter town on August 1st. A Spanish course has been arranged at Santander, the preliminary meeting of which is fixed for August Ist. Full particulars may be obtained from the office of the Guild, 74, Gower Street, London, W.C.

THE PLACE OF NATURE-STUDY IN

EDUCATION.1

By JOHN C. Medd, M.A.

BEFORE determining the sphere of nature-study in any wellordered scheme of education, we ought clearly to understand what we mean by education. We are all agreed, I imagine, that in its full sense it is a preparation for complete living; that it is not confined merely to school life, but that it is a process which begins with our birth and ends only at the grave; and that its true aim is to enable every individual to realise his or her highest activities, and to find the chief happiness in the pursuit of the good. Education so viewed demands the development of every faculty, the power to discern and appreciate the beautiful in all things, the ability to distinguish the true from the false, the reverence which Goethe paints so finely in his "Wilhelm Meister," and the humility which flows from the confession of human limitations. To most of you in this room that masterpiece of Goethe's must be familiar, and you will remember how he there, in describing a school conducted upon novel principles, points out that there is one habit of mind which no child brings with it into the world-one habit of mind which only comes by training-namely, the spirit of reverence, and he shows how by his new system he trains children into reverence for God, reverence for man, and reverence for nature. Of this education the study of nature forms a necessary element, and we have every reason to be gratified that the fact is now so widely recognised. At the same time the increasing attention directed to the subject is not without its danger. We must be careful not to exaggerate its importance. It is an invaluable handmaid to supplement and illustrate literary lessons, but it cannot supplant them. Reading, writing and arithmetic remain the first essentials of primary instruction, and we must not lose the sense of proportion. Much has been done of late for the comparative study of educational systems: no less important is the consideration of the relative value of different subjects.

Those identified with the present movement have made no attempt to define the scope of nature-study. The subject should be as free and unfettered as Nature herself, depending for its exact form upon local circumstances. To confine it within prescribed limits or to stereotype particular methods would destroy its vitality. It is really immaterial whether the study be based upon the life of plants, insects or animals, upon geology, or upon any kindred subject, provided the teacher is an enthusiast-for an enthusiastic teacher makes an enthusiastic pupil-understands what he is talking about, and selects that branch which is most appropriate to his environment and resources. Nor can modes of instruction be determined in advance. They must necessarily vary according to the grade and aim of each school, and the facilities which each town or rural district may furnish. These facts should not be overlooked for there is a tendency in certain quarters to engage in an endless discussion over what does or does not constitute nature study, and to exclude everything which does not conform to some arbitrary standard. We must be careful lest the faddist become master of, the situation. The ultimate purpose is to give an impetus to a definite reform in all education, and without any thought of disparaging literary culture, to emphasise the importance of other than purely literary studies for the full development of the faculties of every child. Books alone leave untouched the powers of observation, they do little to stimulate the spirit of enquiry or to provoke an intelligent interest in the

world about us; their influence at school lies mainly in the region of memory. Accuracy of hand and eye, and correctness of judgment, which depends upon accurate observation, are the first conditions of a successful career in any industrial or commercial pursuit. This applies equally to every class in the community, and a system of education which neglects to promote these necessary qualities fails of its true object, and tends to become a dull mechanical process, wearisome to all who have to submit to it.

state.

Nature-study, it must be remembered, has many functions to fulfil. In primary and secondary schools its mission is educational, to train the mind, the eye, and the hand, and to serve as an introduction to science as such. In continuation and agricultural schools the aim is technical and utilitarian. It is well to maintain these distinctions lest it should be imagined that some highly specialised form of instruction were advocated for the former schools, where it would be altogether mischievous and out of place. The lessons should be directed as much as possible towards living objects to trace the life histories of plant, animal or insect. As it has been feared that the scholars may be led to do irreparable harm by the wanton destruction of rare plants or birds for their school museums, it cannot be too strongly insisted upon that collecting for the sake of collecting is worthless, and one of the results to be looked for from nature-study is a greater reverence for all living things. The proper way in which to study a plant or an insect is in its living This may easily be done by cultivating a few plants in boxes or pots, or by watching the development of insects in breeding cages. Simple experiments may also be performed, the apparatus for which can be inexpensively constructed out of the most ordinary material without any special skill in handicraft. The instruction may be given partly in school, partly through walks, and partly by the cultivation of flowers and vegetables in gardens attached to the school, where such are available. Plants and flowers should be studied objectively, and their structure explained. Their life and habits should be illustrated from plants grown in bottles, pots and boxes, in water, sand, sterile or fertile soil. The effects on growth of light, air, warmth and moisture, should also be demonstrated. Lessons should in every case be appropriate to the season of the year, and neither teacher nor pupil ought to rely upon text books. Again and again the late Professor Huxley stated that, if instruction in the elements of natural and physical science were to be mere bookwork, it would be wiser not to attempt it. "Unless what is taught," he said, "is based on actual observation and familiarity with facts, it is better left alone." Everyone is aware how much the teaching of botany has suffered hitherto from this defect. Children should be led to make their own investigations; they should be told as little as possible and made to discover as much as possible. In other words, the process of education should, as one of our profoundest thinkers has said, be largely one of self-instruction. Any piece of knowledge which the pupil has himself acquired, any problem which he has himself solved, becomes by virtue of the conquest much more thoroughly his than it could else be. "Savoir par caur n'est pas savoir."

That nature-study should occupy an honourable place in all education, hardly admits of question. Instruction of every kind has two values: its value as knowledge, and its value as mental discipline. "We are all coming to be agreed," as Matthew Arnold said in 1878, "that an entire ignorance of the system of nature is as gross a defect in our children's education as not to know that there was such a person as Charles the First." And it is unnecessary to insist upon the importance of even an elementary knowledge of the principles of natural and physical science. As a mental discipline, nature-study perhaps more than any subject trains and strengthens common sense.