Problems of national education

Prefatory Note

^ Eeconstruction is the watchword of the hour. Now of all the problems of reconstruction none is more important and insistent than that of Education. National education, and all that it stands for, have gripped the popular imagination to-day as they never

c-i did before. And at a time when in England and in Scotland educational measures of the first importance have been placed upon the Statute Book, the appearance of this volume is singularly opportune. These measures not only provide a starting point for further educational development. They also enlarge the scope and alter the focus of the existing systems. It is accordingly fitting that a careful review of these systems should be made available, in order that their weaknesses should be disclosed and remedied, and that the developments of the future should rest upon a sound and secure foundation. That ideal of course concerns administration rather than legislation. While it interests, in the first place, the men and women who are engaged in the work of education in the various educational establishments of the country, it can attain a full measure of success only in so far as it commands the sympathy and the vi NATIONAL EDUCATION

interest of the people as a whole. This is fully recognised in the recent legislation, which provides, with a view to action, various means for the discussion of educational questions, and for participation in that discussion by representatives of all classes of the community.

The Scottish Act is first and foremost a measure of educational devolution. The administrative system, which had proved unequal to the burden laid upon it, is reformed. Local authorities are set up for wide areas, possessed of large powers of initiative and of adaptation to local circumstances. They are to be elected by a method which renders possible the representation of every important section of educational opinion. The legislative changes, embracing, as they do, an extension of the school age from fourteen to fifteen, and the institution of compulsory education in continuation classes to the age of eighteen, mean, in effect, an extension of school influence for four years. Instruction in English, in technical subjects, and in physical exercises is provided for. Subjects bearing on aesthetic culture and on social life — ^including the duties of citizenship, of parenthood, and of leisure hours — also find a place. Local advisory councils, composed of persons specially interested in education, and a general advisory council, one of whose functions will be to investigate debatable educational questions, and to present a reasoned report of their conclusions for the consideration of the Department, are also important features of the new system. The civic

PREFATORY NOTE vii

ideal is thus rendered possible of attainment. The School and the University provide an educational ladder for the free ascent of the youth of the country. In these circumstances it is probably superfluous to commend to the consideration of all who are interested in Education, and particularly to those who may be called on to take part in the great work of educational reconstruction and development, this careful review of our existing educational system from various standpoints. The object of the book and its method of production are fully explained in the Preface. The educational experience and authority of the writers will, I am confident, secure for their views the weight to which they are justly

entitled.

ROBERT MUNRO.

27<A January 1919.

EDITOR S PREFACE

This book is the realisation of an idea of old standing, the production of a work on education toward which experts in each branch should make separate independent contribution. Education, whether as science or as system, has ramified so widely and overspread so many adjacent domains that any adequate survey of the whole field demands co-operative effort. Few, if any, can speak with authority on all departments of the subject. The exact form of the joint product has been determined by the facts of the situation. It is a book " for the times," and is intended to focus and direct opinion. While based on solid foundations of theory, it has everywhere an outlook toward national requirements and the solution of practical problems.

A critical stage has been reached in the educational development of the nation. We stand at the parting of the ways. Half-a-century of public education has afforded valuable experience. If happily it has witnessed progress, it has also revealed serious error and defect. Even had there been no war, new

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measures would have been necessary, and a fresh advance was overdue. The War has quickened the pace, rendering imperative what might otherwise have remained in suspense, and at the same time making more evident the direction in which the hope of progress lies. Recent legislation has in part merely ratified opinions and satisfied demands a decade or more old ; but in part it has broken new ground, and embodies aims and possibilities that had previously hardly dawned upon us. The War has been our monitor. Its havoc has taught us lessons which can neither be ignored nor forgotten.

Nor has the pressure of the time been without its positive advantages. It has done much to break down prejudices, to bring home the necessity for prompt and comprehensive measures of reform, and to promote a spirit of conciliation, concession, and co-operation. The benefits of organisation and united action have been made manifest, the value of trained intelligence has been proved, and as a nation we seem to be at last reaching the conviction that education is an asset of which far too little has yet been made.

England and Scotland have been drawn together by brotherhood in arms, by devotion to common aims, and sacrifice in the common cause. Educational legislation as embodied in the recent two great Acts follows parallel lines and affords evidence of approximation at many points. It aims at securing in both countries something like " equality of opportunity," at providing, at any rate, a minimum of

EDITOR'S PREFACE xi

equipment for work, and of culture for leisure, and at protecting the young, still in pupilage, from exploitation, whether by parents or by employers on the look-out for cheap labour. Either country has been seeking to profit from the experience of the other, to mutual benefit. Principles and even details that apply to Scotland become, to an increased extent, applicable also to England — mutatis mutandis perhaps, but the mutanda tend to diminish in number and in amount, and in some instances to approach the vanishing point. The circumstances, economic conditions, and national character, however, differ so greatly that a uniform system of education throughout the whole island would be the reverse of a blessing. While England and Scotland approximate, and even at certain points coincide, either country will and should continue to pursue its own methods, and develop its system along its own lines. Only so can the requirements of both be met, and only so will the one have anything to learn from the other. To this Preface a summary is appended of the main principles of the Scottish Act, based for the most part on its exposition in Parliament by the Secretary for Scotland. Illustration of what has been said will be found in several of the following chapters, if not to some extent in all. The Scotch Universities, for example, are distinctive in type, different in ordinances, curricula, and life from the English, old or new. Yet they are faced by many of the same problems in

studies and in administration, and the article on them

h xii NATIONAL EDUCATION

(Chapter XII.) will afford a basis of comparative study from which the English educationist may hope to derive advantage. So is it with the position of the Classics (Chapter VII.), though much that is said in the article bears specially upon Scotland. Teaching as a profession again (Chapter XI.) has many analogies and parallels in the two countries. The other articles are of a still more general character, and in some instances are of almost as direct application to English as to Scotch schools.

The book aims at being a unity, though of the difficulty of accomplishing this aim no one can be more conscious than the Editor. A mere collection of independent essays, however valuable in itself, would scarcely have fulfilled the purpose in view, which is to present a series of related pictures of the chief departments of national education. While each contributor has had a perfectly free hand, a bond of common purpose runs through, and links up, the whole series. The Editor has acted as a sort of clearing house of ideas, and by memoranda, conference, and correspondence has endeavoured to distribute the topics of discussion, and to delimit the scope of each, so that it should at once cover its own ground, and at the same time encroach as little as possible upon that of others. Some degree of overlapping is scarcely to be avoided, and is not wholly an evil. The confirmation which comes from two or more independent witnesses possesses a corroborative value and an interest of its own. With

EDITOR'S PREFACE xiii

this qualificatiorij the message is intended to be in its essentials unanimous. If discrepancies remain, as they well may where so many writers, each with freedom of expression, are concerned, it is to be hoped that they are slight, and not of material importance. After all, difference in details that are fair matter of opinion is not wholly to be deprecated : education has never claimed to be an " exact science."

The arrangement of the series almost speaks for itself. The opening chapter presents a review of the subject from the starting-point, 1870-72, traces the chief lines of movement and advance, and seeks to discover the present trend of things in various departments of educational activity. The more detailed studies naturally begin with the Physical side, which in the child's life takes precedence in time and claim. The Interests of Girls follow. Moral, Social, and Religious aspects of school life form a related group, while Classics, Science, and Technical Education may also conveniently be placed together. Teaching and Local Administration, if only instrumental, are of firstrate importance ; the latter is all the more urgent as a new system is about to be introduced into Scotland. The Universities form the apex of the pyramid. Their future presents a problem of great complexity, whose solution must vitally affect education all along the line ; so far as concerns higher education at any rate, with them lies the last word.

The volume makes no pretension to be exhaustive.

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In a work dealing with public education such an aim is nowadays hardly feasible.

The writers are representative of the University cities, the four great educational centres of Scotland. Choice has been a matter of much difficulty, and the one regret is that, of the many excellent educationists of these and other centres, such a limited number could be invited to co-operate. The University of Glasgow has no direct representative. A very distinguished member of it, whose assistance it was hoped to enlist, was obliged to decline the invitation on account of the pressure of engrossing duties. As the object of the book is to aid in the rebuilding of the national life and the redemption of the rising generations, our universal sentiment has been that it is " war work " in the fullest sense of the term.

For the plan, distribution of topics, and arrangement, as well as for the selection of contributors, the Editor is responsible ; for the views and opinions expressed in the various chapters the writers are responsible. As already indicated, complete liberty has been accorded to all — with the possible exception of the Editor, who has been satisfied with acting as " Warden of the Marches."

Cordial thanks are due to the contributors, one and all, for their hearty and generous co-operation, which has rendered the Editor's task, if not a sinecure, at any rate a genuine pleasure. Not one has failed. The preoccupation and strain of war work, indisposition, and positive illness have all been encountered

EDITOR'S PREFACE xv

only in order to be overcome. We are under special obligation to the Secretary for Scotland (The Eight Honourable Robert Munro) for his ready and valued aid. As author of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, he speaks with unrivalled authority, the seal of which he has set upon our joint labours. To Professor J. Arthur Thomson the volume owes much. His imprimatur to the scheme when first mooted imparted the initial impetus ; his constant advice and assistance during its progress and fulfilment have been invaluable. Acknowledgment is also due to the publishers and the printers ; to Messrs. Macmillan & Co. for the generous spirit in which they have taken up the book, and to Messrs. R. & R. Clark for their accuracy and despatch.

TjV flOl.

JOHN CLARKE.

Old Aberdeen, January 1919.

xvi NATIONAL EDUCATION

II The Education (Scotland) Act, 1918

The Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, is a measure of firstrate importance. It is not without significance that " the Education (Scotland) Acts, 1872- 1918," stands as the designation of the educational legislation of the past half-century, of which the recent Act forms the latest chapter. And if experience has taught one lesson more than another during this period, it is that the story is "to be continued." Education knows no finality. Like life itself, of which it is the handmaiden, it is in a continual process of evolution. High hopes were founded on the advent of popular education in 1870-72, some of which, but not all, have been realised. We shall do well now to hope warily. That a great forward step has again been taken is unquestionable. How far exactly it will carry us no wise man will venture to predict. But it may save disappointment, and at the same time help to direct efiort to its goal, if we make plain to ourselves, as fully as is at the moment possible, what it means, so that we may be prepared to amend and to supplement as the occasion arises.

Education is an essential factor of democracy. That is the keynote of the recent Acts. While it primarily concerns the school and the teacher, it can

EDITOR'S PREFACE xvii

attain its full measure of success only in so far as it commands the sympathy and the interest of the people as a whole. A people cannot truly rule itself until it is educated. Education must become more and more a common possession of a free people ; practically everything follows from that.

In furtherance of such ends, the Act aims at two chief objects. The first and less important is the improvement of administration. By some this may be regarded as mere machinery, and yet it is vital. The small administrative area, the unit of the great majority of school boards, has in process of time become more and more unsuitable for its purpose. Education is one throughout all its grades. Its organisation must be organic throughout. It is only a large area that can effect co-ordination among the various grades — primary, intermediate, secondary, continuation, technical — right up to the doors of the University, if not also within. The experience of England since 1902 has shown conclusively what advantages may accrue from unification of organisation and management throughout selfcontained areas of sufficient size. Scotland will now benefit from the application of similar principles. The constitution of the education authority still differs in the two countries, and in Scotland to a greater extent than in England education remains a separate local interest, or at least a semi-detached sphere of action. Its closer co-ordination with other branches of the public service, particularly public health and poor law, is xviii NATIONAL EDUCATION

no doubt desirable. But for the present it has been resolved to create independent supreme education authorities for counties and for the five scheduled burghs. On them has been thrown the full responsibility of working out schemes of educational reorganisation for their respective areas. A distinctive feature of these schemes is that they will include scales of salary for teachers employed by the authorities ; and the hope may be entertained that by this means a solution will be found for a problem that has caused much unrest and dissatisfaction during recent years. The method of election of the authorities by proportional representation gives a fair field to all interests. The new administrative system makes the people, the nation as a whole, responsible for the efficiency and success of its educational system.

By a further process of devolution through school management committees, every district and school will be kept in touch with the main education authority. United aim and efiort are thus rendered possible both in the area as a whole and throughout its several parts. An important feature is the creation of advisory councils. Each local authority will be assisted by a local advisory council, " consisting of persons qualified to represent the views of bodies interested in education " ; and there will also be a general or national advisory council, for the most part representative, to advise the Scottish Education Department on current educational questions. By these means the central

EDITOR'S PREFACE xix

and local authorities will be brought into more intimate and fruitful co-operation, and a harmonious balance will be established and maintained between the various parts of the necessarily complicated machinery.

But it is in the more strictly educational provisions that the core of the Act lies. They aim at securing additional opportunities and improved means of education. Their one object in fact is the better education of the people of Scotland. Their scope and import must not be overshadowed and obscured by the machinery by which they are to be carried i out. The War has brought to light three significant facts : (1) The general standard of education is lamentably deficient ; (2) the exploitation of child labour in the interests of parents or of employers has been a fruitful source of educational failure ; (3) the supply of fully educated men and women has been quite inadequate to the needs of the nation.

The Act will in the first place prevent the leakage due to juvenile labour. It will see to it that the energies of children are not sapped by physical toil, and thus impaired for what ought to be their main occupation at that stage of life.

The more mandatory provisions for the other two objects may for convenience be grouped together. Better education and more education are an urgent necessity, national and democratic. We require to mobilise the intellectual resources of the nation against the arduous times that lie ahead, when

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" parts " developed by education will be of more and more account. Experience tends to show, has indeed shown, that brains, capacity, talent — whatever name we prefer — are not the prerogative of any one class, but are diffused in an irregular and uncertain fashion through all classes, though unfortunately in many cases arrested, stunted, perverted through lack of training. All this store of potential capacity must be conserved for the nation. Every source of energy must be tapped. In order to recover the concealed gold, the whole body of ore must be treated. Every child of every grade of society must have his chance. No one will henceforward be precluded from the full advantages of education, until he (or she) has proved his inability to benefit by them. Equality of opportunity will become a reality, so far as legislation can make it so. No distinction between higher and lower grade will be drawn artificially. It will be left to reveal itself automatically in process of treatment. Greater variety of method will be rendered possible and will be adopted. Material refractory under one course of treatment may respond to a different method. For example, many pupils, particularly boys, who appear to show no aptitude at all for school studies, the practical bearing of which they may fail to appreciate, not infrequently develop ability in some special direction when they are released from school, thrown on their own responsibility, and brought to concentrate attention on studies relative to their employment. And there are

EDITOR'S PREFACE xxi

numerous other varieties of pupils for whom education at present does far less than it might do. The future will endeavour to prevent this waste and failure, and to secure for each and all their chances in life.

Under the reformed national system the school age is extended from 14 to 15, and continuation education is made compulsory during the three subsequent years. At one stroke four additional years of schooling are provided during the most critical and formative period of life. At the beginning of school life, too, the establishment of nursery schools, where required, will remove a serious handicap under which many children now sufier almost irreparable injury.

The increased facilities of the intermediate and continuation stages will bring to light a large store of potential talent and energy, and will turn it to best advantage. The State must have " some comfort " from every pupil with talent of any kind. The annual output of the secondary schools, represented at present by some 2000 boys and girls, must be indefinitely increased if the nation's wants are to be adequately supplied. The professions can scarcely obtain sufficient recruits. Industry and commerce have crying wants to enable them to keep their place in the fierce competition and international rivalry of the future. More experts and better experts are urgently needed in chemistry, engineering, shipping, banking, and all the pivotal occupations of our vast xxii NATIONAL EDUCATION

empire. Only on a broad solid foundation of general education, up to at least the age of 15, can such specialisation be built ; and this union of breadth with depth is one of the main objects of the reconstructive progi^amme. The specialised education itself will be begun in the continuation school, and will be carried forward, as at present, by colleges and universities, and, if need be, by other institutions, all specially equipped and fully stafied for the purpose.

The possibilities of extended education for the mass of boys and girls is not less important or urgent than the training of the specialist. Each member of the community contributes to the health and wealth of the State, each is a prospective citizen, each is a moral being whose life and destiny are largely dependent upon education. The close bearing of the Representation of the People Act upon the Education Acts is here revealed. The latter makes possible the fulfilment of the former, and at the same time renders the extended franchise a measure of benefit rather than of danger. Its general effect is to bring the civic ideal into the foreground, and so to promote the attainment of that " social efficiency " which is a prime requisite and condition of sound democracy.

The Act, for example, lays down as obligatory subjects in all continuation classes :

{a) Instruction in English language and literature, and other parts of a general education ;

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(6) Special instruction relative to the employments in which the pupils are engaged ;

(c) Physical exercises adapted to the age and physique of the pupils.

Among other subjects that will naturally form a portion of the curriculum are those bearing on aesthetic culture and social life. The most serious consequences are involved in the employment of leisure, in the performance of the duties of parenthood, in the exercise of the franchise. The provision of the resources of a healthy moral life and the promotion of good citizenship in these and other ways must be the great functions of continuation education as it affects the mass of the people. It is only in the later years of adolescence that instruction in subjects such as parenthood and citizenship becomes appropriate or intelligible. Those who have benefited most from continuation classes will be the most eager to pursue their studies independently after 18. History, economics, sociology, languages offer wide additional fields of inquiry. They lie at the root, too, of economic practice and success. The age of 18 does not witness the completion of the adolescent education of either sex, but by that time young men and women ought to be prepared voluntarily to follow up the instruction they have received, whether by themselves or in classes specially designed to meet their requirements.

The administrative and the educational provisions xxiv NATIONAL EDUCATION

of the recent Act thus briefly adumbrated will be found in their working to react one upon the other. They embody a scheme of education of the people, for the people, administered by the people, directly or indirectly financed by the people. It must in the long run be such as the people make it, and as the people deserve.

J. C.

Contents

PAGE

Prefatory Note ..... v

By The Right Honourable Robekt Munro, K.C, M.P., Secretary for Scotland.