,,procrustes ,,or ,,the ,,future ,,of ,,english ,,education ,,procrustes or the ,,future of ,,english ,,education ,,by ,m4 ,,alderton ,,pink1 ,m4,a4 ,illustration ,,new ,,york ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,company #fha ,,fifth ,,avenue ,published1 #aibg ,,by ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,company ,all rights reserved ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,introduction3 ,,the ,,procrustean ,,bed #a ,,ii4 ,,the ,,schools3 ,,present-,,day ,,problems ,,and ,,tendencies #ad ,,iii4 ,,the ,,schools3 ,,future ,,developments #di ,,iv4 ,,the ,,universities3 ,,the ,,academic ,,mind ,,of ,,to-,,day ,,and ,,to-,,morrow #gg ,,the ,,future ,,of ,,english ,,education ,,procrustes ,i ,,introduction ,the ,procrustean ,bed ,andrew ,undershaft48,every blessed foundling nowadays is snapped up in his infancy by ,barnado homes1 or ,school ,board ,officers1 or ,boards of ,guardians2 and if he shows the least ability he is fastened on by schoolmasters2 trained to win scholarships like a racehorse2 crammed with second-hand ideas2 drilled and disciplined in docility and what they call good taste2 and lamed for life so that he is fit for nothing but teaching407,bernard ,shaw74 ,during the ,debate on the last ,education ,estimates 7#aibe71 ,lord ,hugh ,cecil made a speech which most enthusiasts of education dismissed offhand as hopelessly reactionary4 ,in the central part of his argument he deprecated the doctrine that education is to be equally distributed to all sorts of people1 irrespective of their real capacity4 ,he maintained that we must train children for the station to which1 not by birth but by natural capacity1 they properly belong4 ,he would select the clever children and spend money liberally in giving them the fullest possible opportunities for higher study4 ,but to the great body of children who are incapable of really using any higher teaching he would give a very low standard of education confined to the three ,r's3 the teaching of reading should be made the basis1 for reading is the key to knowledge4 ,these views are certainly extreme2 but1 looked at impartially1 they contain so much plain common-sense that it is rather remarkable that they provoked such bitter opposition4 ,of course1 ,lord ,hugh ,cecil laid himself open to two obvious charges3 first1 that he had no special knowledge of his subject1 and1 secondly1 that his reforms were presumably intended for the children of masses and not those of his own class4 ,but his opponents must take account of the statement made a few weeks later by the headmaster of ,rugby1 whose opinions cannot be discounted on these two grounds4 ,speaking as ,president of the ,education ,section of the ,british ,association1 ,dr ,vaughan disputed the assumption that the ,state should develop to the full the intellectual abilities of all its citizens4 ,he considered that schooling is even now continued too long for some boys4 ,he would give a thrice-generous remission after fourteen to those who had shewn no special aptitude for book-learning or any other form of direct education1 on condition that they were kept within the spell of corporate life4 ,thus a distinguished practical schoolmaster corroborates the view of ,lord ,hugh ,cecil that before providing unlimited educational facilities we should face the fact that many children are not amenable to the present educational process2 and we ought therefore to consider whether we are promoting either their efficiency as citizens or their happiness as individuals by submitting them to a training for which they are not fitted4 ,we are reminded that education has of recent years become a cult whose followers allow their zeal to blind them to stubborn realities4 ,the suggestion that we are on a false track in seeking to multiply indefinitely the educational institutions of existing type naturally provokes strong opposition1 for it runs counter to one of the most cherished democratic doctrines of to-day4 ,ever since the first extension of the franchise1 publicists have been preaching that the success of democracy depends upon the diffusion of culture among the masses who have the ultimate control of affairs4 ,and whenever fears have been expressed that popular government has fallen short of the original ideal we have been assured that all will be well as soon as the electorate is properly educated4 ,the public has thus been taught to believe that it is the duty of the ,state 7so long as the financial position permits7 to increase to the utmost the facilities for training its citizens4 ,the need for more education has1 in fact1 become a political commonplace4 ,it has been only too easy for statesmen who have little real interest in the matter to talk vaguely about the educational ladder from the elementary school to the university1 because such talk provides plausible material for the platform-speaker whose business it is to rehabilitate a popular system which has not quite come up to expectations4 ,in a somewhat disillusioned democratic world education has threatened to become a political nostrum to be unintelligently applied and to be foolishly regarded as a panacea4 ,it is1 in fact1 the latest of a series of expedients prompted by belief in the perfectibility of mankind4 ,a century or so ago republican reformers imagined that all the ills the ,state is heir to would be cured if ,king ,george's government were replaced by a government of ,tom ,paine's4 ,later on1 the radicals thought that the millennium would be reached when every adult had a vote4 ,the present generation has been too readily fooled by the equally delusive hope that the new ,utopia will be created when everybody receives a university education at public expense4 ,it is therefore all to the good that our leaders should occasionally remind us that education is not a magic weapon of unlimited power4 ,it is time that the public mind was disabused of the notion that a perfect system of education would of itself prove the salvation of the ,state4 ,the fallacy lies1 of course1 in the assumption that everybody is capable of being educated4 ,those who are personally in touch with schools see only too clearly how unwarrantable such an assumption is4 ,while they realise that every child1 dull or clever1 benefits by being under discipline and by taking part in the social life of a school1 they know also that a certain proportion of children undergo no mental development commensurate with the time and labour expended on their behalf4 ,thus even if we imagine a perfect educational process1 carried out by teachers who are all men and women of light and leading1 the result of that process will be ultimately conditioned by the quality of the human beings who pass through it4 ,just as democracy pre-supposes education1 so education pre-supposes children who are educable4 ,it would seem1 therefore1 that political and social reformers who are still looking for a panacea must go to the eugenists4 ,the public statement of considered views such as those of ,lord ,hugh ,cecil and the ,headmaster of ,rugby is one of the signs that we are at length emerging from the mental attitude which expresses itself in the crude demand for more and more education to be doled out indiscriminately4 ,it is indeed time that we got rid of the prevalent notion that schools are factories 7chiefly brain-factories7 which can pass any sort of human material through a standardised course and in so many years turn out satisfactory finished products4 ,and the friends of education need not be alarmed at the new trend of opinion4 ,all reasonable people now admit the theoretical principle that the ,state must provide adequate training for all future citizens2 and the ,labour ,party is flogging a dead horse when it insists so laboriously that every child1 irrespective of social status1 should be given the fullest educational opportunities4 ,present-day informed discussion has advanced beyond the consideration of this almost platitudinous statement of principle to an enquiry of a much more important character4 ,the question being now asked is not whether every child should be given education to the age of sixteen or beyond1 but what kinds of education ought to be provided for the many thousands of children of varied types who will receive advanced training through the increased facilities to be provided in the future4 ,the stage of educational development upon which we are now entering will1 in fact1 be marked by greater realism in the attitude of both the authorities and the general public towards the problems to be solved4 ,we are gradually coming to acknowledge the fairly obvious truth that not every child is a potential ,prime ,minister1 or even a capable civil servant1 or a manager of a business4 ,when we have shed the more romantic of the democratic habits of thought we shall even publicly admit that a certain proportion of mankind 7whether the offspring of dukes or of dustmen7 are fitted by nature to be nothing better than hewers of wood and drawers of water1 and that to give them more than a limited amount of ordinary schooling is to perform a work of sentimental supererogation4 ,we shall also realise that the course of instruction which has now become stereotyped as secondary1 however admirable in itself1 is a course for which relatively few children are really suited4 ,and when we have taken more account than at present of the profound differences in individual capacities we shall cease to think of an education as something extraneous to the person educated1 and to regard the school-curriculum as a ,procrustean bed1 to suit the dimensions of which the child's mentality can be extended or truncated as required4 ,,ii ,,the ,,schools ,present-,day ,problems and ,tendencies ,a survey of present tendencies makes it clear that the next few years will witness a general overhaul of the educational machine4 ,among both the general public and the teaching profession the feeling is becoming widespread that1 quite apart from its obvious incompleteness1 our present system suffers from certain fundamental defects4 ,damaging criticisms of the work of the schools are by no means infrequent in press-articles4 ,the proceedings of the various teachers' organizations are eloquent of the need for radical reforms4 ,business men are giving public expression to their concern about the inadequacy of school-training for economic requirements3 the ,association of ,british ,chambers of ,commerce1 for instance1 has recently passed a resolution containing a sweeping condemnation of the methods and aims of the elementary schools4 ,already an official enquiry is being conducted into the relationship between the schools and industry4 ,these signs of an impending revision of our educational programme derive added importance from the consideration that for some years to come ,chancellors of the ,exchequer will be very unwilling to sanction increases in public expenditure4 ,education ministers will therefore have to make out a very good case for any new developments and will have to satisfy public opinion that they are not merely increasing material and personnel but are also promoting increased efficiency4 ,the inevitable enquiry into the working of our present system will necessarily concern itself mainly with post-primary training since it is in this direction that development is most urgently needed4 ,it is almost universally admitted that the time is overdue for a largely increased provision of further education of children beyond the age of fourteen2 for though the secondary schools1 owing to faulty methods of admission1 at present contain many pupils who are unfit for the training they receive1 there are also outside these schools numbers of children who reach the required standard of ability but who are denied entry simply because there is no room for them4 ,public educational policy during the last quarter of a century has provided for higher education mainly by the foundation of secondary schools of a single type1 controlled by the local authorities2 and those who demand more secondary education generally mean more schools of this kind4 ,the secondary schools are filled partly by scholarship-holders who represent the cream of the elementary schools1 and partly by fee-payers who1 as they do not usually have to pass a stringent entrance-examination1 may represent all grades of ability4 ,thus only a proportion 7now up to #dj per cent47 of the pupils are specially selected2 the remainder are doing more advanced work simply because their parents wish it and can pay part of the cost4 ,when the activities of these schools come under a critical review1 certain facts will be difficult to explain away4 ,in the first place1 it will be noticed that1 although the pupils are intended to remain at school until the age of sixteen at least1 a relatively large proportion leave before that age4 ,according to the 8,london ,statistics0 for #aibc-bd1 there were present at the end of #aibc in the aided and maintained secondary schools of ,london1 #i1aah pupils who were twelve or thirteen years of age1 #h1gjj who were fourteen or fifteen1 #c1bhj who were sixteen or seventeen1 and #cdb who were eighteen or over4 ,in other words1 only about one-third remained until the age of sixteen or more1 and this in spite of the fact that parents give undertakings to keep their children at school until sixteen4 ,again1 the curriculum of these schools is largely determined by the ,first ,school ,examination 7equivalent to ,university ,matriculation71 and every pupil who remains at school sufficiently long should normally take this examination4 ,now the report of the ,board of ,education for #aibc-bd shows that in each of the last five years an average of #gh1jjj children have entered the grant-earning secondary schools of ,england and the highest number that has taken the ,first ,school ,examination in any one year is roughly #ce1jjj1 of whom about a third failed4 ,that is to say1 about two-thirds of the pupils either fail to complete the school course or fail to reach the standard of intellectual attainment necessary to pass an external test4 ,when all allowance has been made for the fact that a certain number of pupils are withdrawn at an early age purely on account of economic circumstances1 we have still to face the failure of the schools to retain the pupils and to enable them to pass what is presumably a fair test of the kind of training given4 ,the conclusion can scarcely be avoided that there are some radical defects in the aims and methods of the schools4 ,it is often urged that the secondary schools are not at present getting the best material1 that owing to economic circumstances or to the insufficient provision of secondary school accommodation many children who are fit to profit by higher instruction are at present excluded in favour of fee-payers who are not fit4 ,but this is merely begging the question4 ,we are still confronted with the problem of what we are to do with those pupils who do not take kindly to the secondary school curriculum but who1 by their very presence in secondary schools1 show their readiness to undergo some form of higher instruction4 ,and what are we to do with the many children in the primary schools who1 under a scheme of more extended financial assistance1 might also remain at school until sixteen or later1 and would also be square pegs in round holes in the ordinary secondary school8 ,we are forced1 therefore1 to ask whether the present secondary school curriculum is adapted to the needs of the varied types of pupils who enter or are likely to enter the schools4 ,what are the aims8 ,at present the secondary school's main function is to give sufficient training in the humanities1 in mathematics and science1 to enable pupils to pass the entrance examination of a university4 7,we may for the purpose of the present argument disregard the social activities of the school47 ,in other words1 its business is to produce scholars of the intellectual type fitted for university training4 ,it is true that art1 handicraft1 domestic science1 and physical exercises appear in the curriculum but they occupy more or less subordinate places4 ,the secondary school course1 on its academic side1 is directed to one main end1 and any pupil who enters such a school is regarded1 irrespective of his natural aptitudes1 as a prospective candidate for matriculation4 ,teachers may demur to the suggestion that their horizon is dominated by an examination3 they may talk hopefully about a test which their pupils can take 8in their stride40 ,but the fact remains that the work of the upper part of the school is determined by requirements of an external body4 ,there is a conventional list of 8subjects0 which the pupil must study1 and if his individuality does not fit in with this scheme so much the worse for him4 ,the secondary schools are therefore designed1 in so far as they are designed for any specific purpose1 as a training-ground for university students4 ,but only three per cent4 of the pupils ever reach the universities4 ,and the statistics already given indicate that a large proportion show themselves to be unfitted for university training4 ,teachers in secondary schools do not1 of course1 need these statistics to bring home to them the fact that a considerable proportion of the pupils with whom they have to deal are misfits4 ,they realise that there are other sorts of capacity besides those which enable pupils to pass the usual examinations4 ,they constantly see in their pupils special interests and aptitudes which find little or no outlet in the ordinary academic routine4 ,they so often have to shake hands with old boys or old girls who were duffers at ordinary school subjects1 but who have since achieved success in business or industry that it has become a commonplace with them that failure at school does not necessarily mean failure in life4 ,but this commonplace surely implies the tragic fact that school has not discovered what the 8duffer0 can do1 but has consistently tried to make him do things for which he has no aptitude4 ,the fact is that the ordinary secondary school is attemptingunsuccessfully1 of courseto give the same treatment to pupils of various types who1 owing to lack of sufficiently varied provision for higher education1 now find themselves herded together4 ,in any such school there is a certain number of pupils of good general ability who are capable of proceeding with credit to advanced work in the humanities or in science4 ,these are the pupils for whom the secondary course is really intended4 ,at the other extreme there is a certain number who are simply not profiting by academic training4 ,between these extremes there are1 no doubt1 a few who have a natural bent towards one of the arts2 there are a good many of very pedestrian abilities who can by industry just keep abreast of their studies1 though they are not attracted by academic ideals2 and there are still others who are in difficulties because they are interested not in abstract ideas but in things4 ,pupils of these three classes are all1 to a greater or less degree1 misfits in the ordinary secondary school4 ,the few intending to follow the arts and lacking wide intellectual interests should be devoting more time than is generally available to acquiring the technique of their art4 ,the many of a little less than average capacity who have no real enthusiasm for things of the mind gain something1 no doubt1 from the course they pursue1 but they would gain more from a practical curriculum containing fewer subjects and having a more direct bearing on their probable future careers4 ,the remaining class1 which includes those who think with their hands1 is the one for which we now most conspicuously fail to make adequate provision4 ,in this category is to be found the boy who is bored by the theory of electricity while being thoroughly interested in making a piece of electrical apparatus1 and who will not willingly learn any more of the theory than is necessary to make the apparatus work4 ,when we consider that a large proportion of people in the world have no bookish interests and are not attracted by pure science and yet are capable of bringing sound intelligence to bear on practical problems concerning concrete things1 it is strange that educationists have done so little to meet their needs4 ,another question arises4 ,what is to be the occupation of the pupils leaving the secondary schools8 ,those who have remained at these schools until sixteen or more acquire a certain social tone which causes them to despise manual toil1 and so they aim at the professions1 the ,civil ,service1 posts in banks and stores1 and1 failing all else1 the perennially respectable junior clerkship in any kind of office4 ,clearly1 boys who have at seventeen or eighteen successfully completed a course of literary and scientific training should be fitted for posts of responsibility in business or the professions4 ,but the professions are already overcrowded1 and positions are difficult to obtain4 ,we are taking children from the homes of artisans1 small tradespeople1 and even unskilled workers1 and giving them an education which makes them unwilling to take up the same occupation as their parents follow1 but which leads to no certainty of better employment in the end4 ,we are thus rapidly being brought face to face with the difficulty which confronted ,germany before the ,war4 ,the advantages attaching to scholastic attainment were such that every parent who could possibly do so gave his child a higher education so that he might obtain the coveted passport to the professions4 ,the result was that the competition for the higher professional and official posts became intolerably keen1 and the universities were turning out numbers of fully qualified men for whom they could find no suitable employment4 ,there would be less theoretical objection to the process of raising the pupils out of the economic class of their families into another class1 if they were all of high capacity and suitable for administrative posts4 ,but1 actually1 many of those who at present receive higher education are by no means fitted by native ability for important administrative work4 ,in fact1 the investigations of the psychologists go to show that out of the whole child population only a small proportion have the grade of intelligence needed for the highest posts4 ,dr ,cyril ,burt has carried out a survey of ,london school children1 by means of intelligence-tests1 to provide evidence for use in vocational guidance4 ,he finds that the few children of the type who win scholarships to secondary schools and thence to the universities1 and who are fitted to seek higher professional and ,civil ,service posts form about one per thousand of the child population4 ,about two per cent4 come into the second grade1 which includes those who win scholarships to the secondary school but not to the university1 and who are suitable for lower professional posts3 they may become1 for instance1 elementary teachers1 clerks holding responsible posts1 or successful tradespeople4 ,the third grade is composed of about ten per cent4 of the children1 and includes those who are suited to become1 say1 clerks doing work of an intelligent but moderately routine character1 or manual workers engaged in highly skilled work4 ,below this comes a body of children of moderate ability forming about four-fifths of the whole4 ,these may enter many of the ordinary commercial posts1they may become small tradespeople1 or shop-assistants3 skilled manual-workers also belong to this group4 ,the remaining children have an intelligence which fits them only for unskilled work4 ,this classification is1 admittedly1 only tentative2 but if it has any validity1 it is clear that the percentage of children really fitted for professional work is relatively very low1 and account must be taken of this fact in framing secondary courses4 ,realising the difficulty of finding suitable employment for their pupils1 and sensitive about the accusation that they aim at producing 8black-coated workers0 only1 the ,headmasters have considered the possibility of finding openings in industry4 ,in #aibd the ,council of the ,headmasters' ,association sent a deputation to the ,federation of ,british ,industries on the matter4 ,the deputation was told quite plainly that manufacturers1 and particularly engineers1 made a regular practice of taking boys at fourteen3 they had very little opportunity to offer to the boy who remained at school long enough to take the ,first ,school ,examination1 and still less to the boy who passed a ,higher ,school ,examination4 ,there is little prospect that manufacturers will be able to alter their practice in this respect4 ,obviously1 therefore1 with our present lack of co-ordination between our educational and industrial systems1 a boy deprives himself of many chances of employment by staying at school beyond fourteen4 ,there can be little doubt that this particular aspect of the educational problem will attract much official attention in the near future4 ,there is even a chance that the issue may not be unduly obscured by political controversy1 for leading politicians of both sides agree in their diagnosis4 ,the ,president of the ,board of ,education1 ,lord ,eustace ,percy1 has recently told a meeting that the desire of the working man to-day is to use the school to get his son into some black-coated job and to keep him away from skilled manual labour4 ,this he regarded as a most extraordinary mistake4 ,we should never get any real success until we re-created the pride of skilled manual work4 ,in another speech he said that the danger of the secondary school system was that1 when we should be using these schools for training leaders for all the professions and industries and businesses1 we are in fact using them to train the subordinates in a few 8respectable0 industries4 ,such remarks might pass with many people for an expression of reactionary ,toryism1 if their attention were not called to the fact that ,mr4 ,philip ,snowden has recently written to the same effect in a ,sunday newspaper8,a scholastic education is apt to make a youth despise useful mechanical work4 ,the products of our secondary schools and universities are crowding the black-coated professions and occupations4 ,education is a failure unless it inculcates the idea that all useful work is honourable1 and that the working engineer1 or carpenter1 or weaver is a more useful member of society than a #8commission agent'4 ,society needs men and women with the highest scholastic attainments4 ,but the number of such will always be small4 ,the main part of the education problem is to fit the average person for the work of the average person40 ,the practical urgency of these views is indicated by the fact that the ,president of the ,board of ,education and the ,minister of ,labour have now jointly appointed a committee to inquire into the public system of education in relation to the requirements of trade and industry4 ,idealists of a certain sort1 however1 will brush aside the sordid controversy about commercial values and will put up a hard fight for the principle of a ,liberal ,education1an ,all-round ,training that will provide an ,outfit for ,life4 ,they will continue to maintain that the traditional modicum of the classics1 mathematics1 science1 and the modern tongues1 provides the best training for a lad1 whether he is to become a clerk1 an engineer1 a company-promoter1 or a pork-butcher4 ,they will recoil in horror from the mere mention of 8vocational training40 ,but this 8liberal education0 theory involves several fallacies1fallacies which are now being perceived in many quarters1 and which will be completely exposed in the next few years4 ,in the first place1 an education completely divorced from the requirements of a vocation is a luxury appropriate only to a leisured class1 or a class free from economic pressure3 it is1 in fact1 a legacy from the independent families of the upper classes or the well-to-do middle classes who sent their children to the public schools and the old grammar schools1 knowing that the question of bread and butter was not an urgent one4 ,now1 in the changed conditions of the twentieth century1 we still complacently take boys from working-class homes1 give them a 8liberal0 education until they are sixteen or eighteen1 and then turn many of them adrift to become clerks or grocers' assistants1 laying the flattering unction to our soul1 as we say farewell1 that they will add their figures or cut their rashers all the better for having tasted the sweets of poetry or wrestled with the problems of geometry4 ,of course1 some of the boys concerned may find their true niche in clerking or in the grocery line2 in which case their intellectual ability is such that training in the more abstruse mathematical or linguistic processes has been wasted on them4 ,but if we give a boy of ability in any direction a prolonged education and then fail to find him a position in life which gives scope for his ability1 we are surely conferring on him a very doubtful blessing4 ,the major portion of his time after his leaving school will be spent in earning a livelihood2 and the way in which he spends that time will have an enormous effect on his happiness4 ,the frustrated and disgruntled man of culture is socially objectionable and politically dangerous4 ,the dictum that education should teach a man how to use his leisure is one of those half-truths whose easy acceptance is so dangerous2 in the future we shall have to learn the complementary half-truth that education must fit the individual for his life's work4 ,the exponents of the 8liberal education0 theory are usually those who are most urgent in pleading that the aim of the school should be the formation of character4 ,they maintain that the pupil's personality can be developed and modified by the influences brought to bear on him in the school environment4 ,holding such views1 they cannot ignore the need for providing a suitable career for the pupil after he leaves school4 ,the process of forming his character does not cease as soon as he enters business2 on the contrary1 the nature of his occupationits suitability or unsuitability to his temperamentwill profoundly influence him for good or for evil4 ,the school cannot1 therefore1 ignore the duty imposed on it of guiding its pupils as far as possible into the vocations for which they are naturally fitted4 ,the theoretical considerations just mentioned are reinforced by others of the most practical importance4 ,for ,great ,britain1 and indeed for the whole of ,europe1 the economic struggle during the next few years will be most intense4 ,conditions will be such that this country1 in particular1 will have to make the most of its human as well as its material resources4 ,it will not be able to afford the wastage of human ability either through failure to find out and cultivate the best brains or through neglect to fit the man to the job4 ,it will be forced to adopt a system of training which will provide an education at once liberal and adapted to economic needs4 ,and it will be useless for the more narrow idealist to bewail the intrusion of economics into the domain of education4 ,after all1 literature1 the arts1 and the study of pure science flourish only so long as economic conditions permit4 ,just as the man who is constantly toiling for bread is debarred from purely cultural pursuits1 so the nation whose economic position is unsound can spare its children neither the money nor the time for any education beyond the most elementary4 ,nor is there any real antagonism between the claims of culture and those of economics4 ,the ,state which seeks economic health must demand that each citizen shall do his best work4 ,he will do his best work in the vocation for which he has a natural aptitude4 ,the business of the school is to discover and foster natural aptitudes4 ,the business of the ,state as an economic entity is to contrive by all possible means to guide its children into suitable vocations4 ,in a state with a proper economic organisation there must1 therefore1 of necessity be a vital connection between a child's school-training and his future career4 ,but this statement of the essential relationship between aptitudes1 education1 and vocation does not mean that schools should become merely training-establishments to act as feeders to particular professions or industries3 it does not mean that the schoolmaster or a government official should examine every pupil at the age of twelve or fourteen and decide that he must be an engineer or a draper's assistant and proceed to train him for that purpose and draft him into a post in due course4 ,it does mean1 however1 that the boy1 for instance1 who wants to use his hands1 and may eventually become an engineer1 should not be given a bookish education which takes little or no account of his abilities and interests2 it does mean that such a boy should pass through a course of instruction which will at once give scope for his native powers and through them develop his whole mentality2 it does mean1 also1 that the school and the ,state should not dismiss that boy at a given age and allow him to drift into a clerkship merely because of some accidental financial considerations or because conditions of entrance to the engineering trade clash with academic arrangements4 ,in short1 it means that the school-system should be adapted to the boy and not the boy to the system1 and1 further1 that education authorities should regard it as part of their function to guide into proper channels the special abilities which the teachers have reared4 ,presented in this way1 the case for some sort of correlation between education and vocation should convince even those obstinate opponents of 8vocational training0 who are apt to see in such a proposal nothing but a device of the devil 7in the guise of the ,federation of ,british ,industries7 for the more efficient production of 8wage-slaves40 ,as ever increasing numbers of boys and girls pass into places of higher education1 teachers are realising more and more the need for reform on the lines indicated4 ,they see the waste of effort involved in passing boys and girls wholesale through a system which takes little account of individual differences or even of broad differences of type4 ,they see that for many children a 8liberal education0 is not necessarily one which follows the traditional academic curriculum1 but rather one which suits itself to individual needs and which seeks to develop the pupil's powers by setting him to do what he can do1 instead of forcing him to try to do what he can never do with success4 ,,iii ,,the ,,schools ,future ,developments ,from the considerations adduced and the trend of opinion indicated in the previous chapter1 we are able to give a reasonable forecast of practical developments in the next few years4 ,in general terms we may say that our educational system will be made purposive where it is now haphazard1 and that it will be brought into definite connection with the economic life of the country4 ,education will be regarded as a preparation for livelihood as well as for life1as a training for working citizens rather than for a leisured class4 ,further1 the waste of human effort will be avoided as far as possible by constantly observing the individual child and guiding him along lines which offer him the best chance of intellectual progress1 and which give the best opportunities for a career in life4 ,this1 of course1 implies that the types of instruction available will be much more numerous and varied than they are at present4 ,no pupil whose schooling is provided wholly or partly at public expense will be allowed to proceed to courses for which1 in the opinion of the competent authority1 he is unfitted1 though no obstacles will be placed in the way of a transfer from one course to another if circumstances warrant it4 ,the individual capacity of the pupil will be made the starting-point for the teacher3 the heresy which gives our present system the character of a ,chicago canned-meat factory will be abandoned4 ,as a corollary we shall give less exclusive reverence to purely bookish attainments and we shall realise that training in craftsmanship may be as productive to one individual1 and hence to the ,state1 as training in the differential calculus is to another4 ,we may assume that in the not too remote future every child of the required mental capacity will receive education to the age of sixteen at least4 ,of course1 financial stringency will delay progress for some years4 ,when the necessary school-accommodation is available every pupil in an institution under public control will be tested at a suitable age1 probably at eleven plus4 ,the results of the carefully devised examination will be collated with the report of his teachers and it will be decided whether he is fit to be given further instruction of a secondary character1 and1 if so1 what form of training will suit his special needs4 ,methods of examination will be so far improved that few serious mistakes will be made in assessing the capacity of pupils4 ,in any case1 this regular test will not be regarded as final and irrevocable2 the boy or girl who at a later age gives evidence of the need for a revised judgment will receive special treatment4 ,pupils of the required standard will be drafted into the secondary schools at eleven plus4 ,those who remain in the primary schools until fourteen will be of roughly two grades2 those whose ability fits them for work of some skill in trades or in the humbler ranks of business1 and those of very low intelligence who are naturally destined for unskilled occupations4 ,the former will pass from the elementary schools into some form of vocational training2 the latter will go straight into industry and will receive no further teaching other than what may be given in some kind of continuation class4 ,thus the principle of excluding all children of low mentality from secondary education in institutions under public control will be definitely accepted4 ,this step will not be taken1 of course1 without much opposition4 ,political irrelevancies will come into play as soon as it is suggested4 ,the cry will go up that1 whereas the rich child1 no matter what his capacity1 will continue to be given a public school education1 the poor child of the same mental capacity will be deprived of such an indulgence4 ,of course1 the children of the two classes will not receive equal treatment4 ,but so long as the ,state allows the existence of schools which it does not control1 so long as it allows parents to contract out of the educational system1 it will not be able to prevent wealthy people from spending their money on their brainless children1 if they choose to do so4 ,clearly1 however1 if the ,state provides a costly system of free1 or largely free1 education1 it will have the right to exercise its power of excluding from some or all of the benefits of that system1 children 7of whatever social position7 who will not profit by it4 ,moreover1 by requiring the same standard of ability from both scholarship-holders and fee-payers the authorities will remove the present iniquity by which1 owing to insufficient free places1 able children of poor parents are debarred from secondary schools while incompetent children of parents who can afford to pay a fraction of the cost secure admission4 ,another objection likely to be put forward is that geniuses who blossom late will be lost to the world1 if such drastic methods of exclusion are adopted4 ,it is urged that the potentiality of a boy or girl cannot always be finally determined at the age of fourteen4 ,this may be true2 but it is also true that in at least ninety-nine per cent4 of cases a competent teacher who has observed a child for some years can gauge his capacity sufficiently accurately at that age2 and1 in any case1 the child has by that time been given the tools of learning in the ability to read and write4 ,moreover1 your genius frequently does not take kindly to academic routine1 and not seldom he looks with amused contempt at the efforts of the mediocre pedagogue to keep him in the recognised paths of learning4 ,the biographers have been at pains to establish the fact that ,shakespeare attended the ,grammar ,school at ,stratford4 ,but we cannot doubt that 8,hamlet0 would have been written even if ,shakespeare had never suffered the ferule and the ,latin grammar of the ,stratford dominie4 ,the knowledge of people and places which ,dickens picked up while running the streets was of more service to him as a novelist than anything he might have learned under the eye of a master who should have tried1 with doubtful success1 to instil into him a proper respect for history and a right appreciation of poetry4 ,in fact1 it may be reasonably doubted whether any child of latent genius1 or even talent1 will be blighted for ever through failure to receive the blessings of the academic course4 ,to come to details of the various types of schools in the future4 ,with regard to secondary education1 we may anticipate that to meet varied needs three different courses will be provided4 ,a curriculum of roughly the same type as the present will be retained for those boys and girls of the highest grades of intelligence2 that is to say1 those who have the ability to proceed to university studies and who1 in favourable circumstances1 intend to do so4 ,this curriculum will1 however1 be relieved of some of the subjects which at present overcrowd it through the attempt to provide an 8omnibus0 course by grafting the various 8modern0 studies on the old classical and mathematical courses4 ,side by side with instruction of this type there will be at least two other types provided for pupils who can profit by full-time higher training until the age of sixteen or beyond4 ,one course will be of a definitely practical character designed for the needs of those who are fitted to occupy leading positions in industry4 ,handwork will form a prominent feature1 and a broad technical training will be given on cultural lines4 ,the work will not be directly vocational in intention1 nor will book-learning of the usual kind be entirely neglected3 the object will be to provide a training of the greatest educational value for students of a certain type4 ,the syllabus will be determined to some extent by the nature of local industries4 ,in the big towns it will be a fairly simple matter to relate the technical teaching to the dominant manufacturing processes carried on in the area4 ,in country districts it will be the business of these courses to foster that interest in rural industries which is at present so disastrously lacking4 ,already a certain number of secondary schools in the country are making a definite attempt to organise their teaching on lines intended to be of the greatest value to those pupils who intend to take up occupations connected with agriculture or horticulture4 ,the fact that more has not been done in this direction is explained in a significant sentence in a pamphlet issued by the ,board of ,education on the subject48,hitherto the majority of parents have unfortunately been inclined to regard entry into commerce or into some clerical occupation as the only fitting sequel to a secondary school training1 and there has been1 therefore1 little or no demand on their part that the education given to their children in the secondary school should be related to rural life and needs40 ,as a preliminary to the successful establishment of secondary schools with a technical bias it will thus be necessary to convince parents that suitable careers exist for their children in industry4 ,such schools must be recognised as the normal stepping-stones to the higher industrial positions1 either directly or by way of the ,technical or ,agricultural ,college of university rank4 ,a third course will be designed for pupils who are likely to benefit from continued education after fourteen1 but who are not suited to the purely academic studies and have no marked practical bent3 they are probably destined for the fairly skilled commercial posts4 ,the work in this course will be largely of a concrete character and will be definitely connected with economic life2 but again it will not be directly vocational4 ,the syllabus will consist in the main of what are known as the 8ordinary school subjects02 but the pupils will concentrate on fewer subjects than is customary at present1 and emphasis will be laid on those aspects which are most within the grasp of boys and girls who lack any great interest in ideas as such4 ,pupils will be drafted into one or other of the various courses not primarily because they intend to enter this or that profession or business 7though this might be given due consideration at the wish of the parent71 but because their previous school-history will have shown that their all-round development can be best assured in one of these courses rather than in the others4 ,will pupils following the various curricula remain side by side in the same school1 or will they be separated into different institutions8 ,it is possible that in ,london and the larger towns separate technical and commercial schools of secondary grade will be created to work side by side with the secondary schools of the present type4 ,the anomalous ,central ,schools of to-day can scarcely remain a permanent feature of our system3 they might well be converted into schools of fully secondary character with either a commercial or a technical bias4 ,in the smaller areas which can support only a single institution for higher training the varied courses will be pursued in the same building4 ,such an arrangement will1 no doubt1 present difficulties in organisation1 but it will have a considerable advantage in the fact that free transfer of pupils from one course to another will be possible4 ,what of the pupils who are judged unfit for education of a secondary type8 ,those who are likely to profit by some sort of further teaching will not be dismissed at the age of fourteen to the workshop or the office2 but it will be recognised that their interests can be best served by giving them training of a frankly vocational character4 ,to meet the needs of those who propose to enter trades there will be organised large numbers of trade schools in conjunction with local industries4 ,here1 for two years or more1 students will be prepared for a definite occupation1 and will remain under cultural and disciplinary influences4 ,junior ,technical ,schools of this nature have already been firmly established during the last thirty years1 and in ,london trade-classes exist for silversmithing1 book-production1 furnishing1 dressmaking1 tailoring1 engineering1 and so on4 ,at present1 however1 half the total number of ,junior ,technical ,school places provided by the county boroughs throughout the country are in ,london3 we may look forward to a wide extension of technical school facilities in the other industrial areas during the next few years4 ,the effective organisation of trade-schools will entail a solution of the problem of apprenticeship4 ,the apprenticeship-system has long been obsolete3 it is condemned educationally because it involves the transference of the pupil from the school to the workshop at too early an age1 and it is ineffective industrially because under modern factory-conditions there is no certainty that the apprentice will even receive proper technical training4 ,the system is already dead in many trades1 and in others it is kept alive only to enable the trade unions to limit the number of entrants into the industry4 ,it cannot be long1 however1 before common needs force education and industry into some sort of concordat4 ,the industrial firms need skilled workers2 the educationists want those skilled workers to be trained in such a way that they may derive educational benefit from their technical pursuits4 ,to meet the difficulty there are two obvious possibilities4 ,the whole apprentice-system might be abolished1 and the training of skilled workers might be carried out entirely in technical schools organised on the lines of the coles professionelles of ,france1 which resemble factories in their equipment and which turn out fully-trained workers after a three years' course4 ,if1 on the other hand1 the rule of apprenticeship is retained1 it should be possible to substitute education in ,junior ,technical ,schools for the first two years of apprenticeship4 ,steps of this kind have already been taken in ,london1 where it is usual for young workers to have their apprenticeship shortened by a period corresponding to their training in a trade school4 ,but1 of course1 further advances in this direction can be taken only with the co-operation of the trade unions concerned4 ,this may cause difficulty4 ,somewhat strangely1 the educational spokesmen of the trade unions seem so much concerned about securing a university education for the sons of the 8workers0 that they have little interest in the matter of craft-instruction4 ,but perhaps this attitude of the trade union leaders is no more strange than that of the employers who talk loudly of the need for increased efficiency if ,british manufacturers are to compete in the markets of the world1 and yet do little or nothing to ensure that their young workers shall be given adequate training for the work they are to perform4 ,but we have still to consider the future of boys and girls of low mentality who1 on leaving the primary school1 will normally enter unskilled or semi-skilled occupations1 and who are not likely to profit by full-time vocational training4 ,it is these who present the most difficult problem to the educationist4 ,it is hard to find the right way of approach to such children even under school-conditions2 it is far harder to exert effective teaching-influence over them when they have been freed from disciplinary restraints4 ,yet it is imperative for the health of the community that young workers of this type should not be allowed to pass entirely out of educational control as soon as they leave the elementary school4 ,for them1 it would seem1 the aid of ,mr4 ,fisher's ,act will once more have to be invoked1 and compulsory ,continuation ,schools will be established4 ,at these classes the object will be not so much to teach the students any specific subjects as to keep them under disciplinary influences and to develop in them the sense of personal and civic responsibility4 ,the short experience gained from the few continuation schools established immediately after #aiah made it clear that giving much purely cultural teaching to workers of low type in unskilled jobs1 however desirable1 is actually impracticable4 ,nor is it generally possible to give much direct vocational instruction4 ,physical training and handwork must be made important parts of the courses1 and good work can be done through the formation of students' clubs4 ,in fact1 those who have charge of ,continuation classes will have to regard themselves less as teachers than as welfare-workers4 ,the scheme of development which has been mapped out clearly demands the creation of a link between education and industry such as does not at present exist4 ,boys and girls who1 through lack of initiative or of any special predilection1 have not found for themselves suitable employment by the time they are due to leave school will not be allowed to drift into the first blind-alley occupation that presents itself4 ,the education authorities will have made full surveys of local industrial and business requirements and will thus be able to indicate suitable openings4 ,moreover1 account will be taken of the applicant's special abilities in recommending any particular post to him4 ,the question of vocational guidance has for some years attracted a good deal of attention in ,america1 and a considerable amount of work has been done in this direction4 ,in this country1 many local educational authorities 7in particular1 the ,london boroughs7 are attempting to carry out schemes of juvenile vocational guidance through the ,after-,care ,committees and the ,juvenile ,advisory ,committee of the ,employment ,bureaux4 ,in ,london1 too1 the ,headmasters of the ,secondary ,schools have formed an ,employment ,committee which puts pupils in touch with firms who have vacancies4 ,more important in this connection is the investigation recently carried out by the ,industrial ,fatigue ,research ,board in conjunction with the ,national ,institute of ,industrial ,psychology4 ,under the direction of ,dr ,cyril ,burt a careful study was made of all the children 7to the number of a hundred7 due to leave three selected ,london schools within a period of twelve months4 ,all data obtainable from the schools were collected1 the children were subjected to mental tests1 the homes were visited1 and each child was personally interviewed4 ,in the light of the evidence thus obtained specific vocational recommendations were made4 ,after an interval of two years the investigators again interviewed the children in their homes in order to test the results of the recommendations4 ,it appeared that the children who had entered the industries suggested to them had proved more efficient than their fellows1 and over #hj per cent4 of them declared that they were satisfied with their position and prospects4 ,on the other hand1 of those who obtained employment different from the kind recommended1 less than #dj per cent4 were satisfied4 ,the value of this experiment is1 of course1 limited by the smallness of its scale1 but the results are certainly encouraging4 ,one point that has been made clear is the need for full information as to the requirements of the various trades4 ,such efforts at linking the schools with the office and the workshop are at present tentative and sporadic2 but they are significant of future developments1developments which will be hastened by the growing determination during these years of trade depression to prevent the waste and deterioration of our youths1 so far as it can be prevented by better organisation4 ,there can be little doubt that within the next few years we shall be forced1 if not by practical wisdom1 at least by economic necessity1 into creating a universal scheme which shall relieve the employers of the need for haphazard advertisement in recruiting their junior staffs1 and which shall ensure that everything possible is done to facilitate the entry of a youth into that particular job in which he can do work of most value to himself and to the community4 ,,iv ,,the ,,universities ,the ,academic ,mind of ,to-,day and ,to-,morrow4 8',tis not a melancholy utinam of my own1 but the desires of better heads1 that there were a general synodnot to unite the incompatible difference of religion1 but1for the benefit of learning1 to reduce it1 as it lay at first1 in a few and solid authors2 and to condemn to the fire those swarms and millions of rhapsodies1 begotten only to distract and abuse the weaker judgements of scholars1 and to maintain the trade and mystery of typographers40,sir ,thomas ,browne4 ,it will be observed that our survey of probable future developments in the lower branches of education is hopeful4 ,these are good reasons for optimism3 the trend of opinion which will mould the schools of the future is already clearly in evidence2 our obvious defects to-day are defects of organisation1 and these can be remedied by any capable administrator2 the seeds of the growths we have foreseen have already been planted2 and1 finally1 economic exigencies will provide the drive necessary to overcome the dilatoriness inseparable from public activity4 ,but we must confess that we are much concerned about the universities4 ,there are tendencies in university life to-day that give ample cause for misgiving1the more so because they spring rather from vital weakness reflecting the intellectual vices of our age than from defective methods and organisation4 ,not that our universities do not show very obvious defects in method and organisation4 7,we are considering now especially the new universities4 ,just as in our survey of secondary education we made no reference to the public schools1 which have their own tradition1 and which will remain outside a state-system1 so we may now leave out of account ,oxford and ,cambridge1 which have their own teaching-methods and which again are not likely to be amenable to state-interference4 ,moreover1 the inevitable extension of higher education will be seen in the creation of more universities of the new type1 as well as in the enlargement of those already in existence1 and thus ,oxford and ,cambridge are likely to turn out an ever-diminishing proportion of the total number of graduates in this country74 ,criticism may well be levelled at the insufficient importance attached to social life in the modern universities4 ,it is much too easy for young men and women to attend courses of lectures for three years or so and amass a certain quantity of information on given subjects without coming in contact with any intellectual influences outside the class room4 ,this danger is1 of course1 inevitable when the students are not resident in a college4 ,a remedy is being provided to some extent by the erection of hostels1 and much more may be done in this direction2 but there is still a difficulty arising from the fairly large proportion of students who live at home in the university-town4 ,as part of the same problem must be mentioned the insufficient attention given to games4 ,this is due not merely to the frequent absence of adequate playing-fields1 which might be remedied1 but to the fact that college lectures take place during the whole of the day and are so arranged that no considerable body of students is free for the whole of more than one afternoon a week4 ,in other words1 college work is organised solely with a view to academic requirements4 ,and then there is the teaching by means of lectures4 ,as a method this was rendered obsolete as soon as books were rapidly and cheaply printed1 and yet1 whereas ,oxford and ,cambridge have long pursued a more excellent way1 the new universities have strangely revived and perpetuated the mediaeval practice4 ,a century-and-a-half ago ,dr ,johnson was emphatic about the futility of lectures4 78,people have nowadays got a strange opinion that everything should be taught by lectures4 ,now1 ,i cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken4 ,i know nothing that can be best taught by lectures1 except where experiments are to be shewn4 ,you may teach chymistry by lectures4 ,you might teach making of shoes by lectures6074 ,it is delightful to imagine his remarks if he could walk through a modern college and see dozens of lecturers each droning from his rostrum1in these days when library shelves and publishers' store-rooms are stuffed with reliable text-books on every conceivable subject4 ,surely no system of teaching can have ever been devised with so little regard for ordinary efficiency4 ,batches of students are set to take imperfect notes of a probably imperfectly delivered lecture by a man who has either taken his material from books that they ought to read themselves1 or is dictating what is really an original text-book1 which obviously1 in the interests of economy in time and labour1 to say nothing of accuracy1 ought to be printed4 ,it is to be feared that under present arrangements a college lecturer fulfils the whole of the duties officially required of him if he thus turns himself into a gramophone for so many hours per week4 ,if university-teaching meant no more than this1 and if the lecture were its only channel1 we should feel bound to urge that the present wasteful duplication of lectures in various university-centres should be avoided by enlisting the aid of wireless1 and that standard lectures should be broadcast to students throughout the kingdom in their own homes4 ,the educational efficacy of the universities of this and other countries is being weakened1 however1 by a more insidious disease1a disease of which the defective teaching-methods and the excessive absorption in purely academic pursuits are merely outward symptoms4 ,the intellectual and moral malady of this present age has infected our seats of learning so that they appear to be abandoning the ideal of a liberal education and to be substituting the narrow aim of the acquisition of specialised knowledge4 ,the modern university must be a centre of research3 the danger is that it will neglect to be also a centre of education4 ,research is the intellectual idol of our time4 ,the fiery zeal for discovery which animates us resembles that which was abroad five centuries ago in ,europe4 ,indeed1 we of to-day are borne along by the second wave of the great tide of the ,renaissance4 ,the great awakening of the human spirit1 due1 in part1 to the rediscovery of ancient literature and art1 urged men to the passionate pursuit of truth and beauty4 ,research and creative activity went hand in hand4 ,the inspiration which produced the great scholars1 painters1 and architects lasted for a season4 ,then the vital energy was dissipated3 scholarship degenerated into gerund-grinding1 literature into stylistic display1 and art into lifeless imitation4 ,but meanwhile the newly-liberated spirit of enquiry was turning from the past and seeking fresh objects of study in natural phenomena4 ,slowly and tentatively1 at first1 the human intellect explored the fringes of those vast fields of knowledge which had lain almost untouched since the time of the ,greeks4 ,then1 in the last century1 the scattered sparks suddenly flamed into a great outburst of scientific discovery1 and the western mind was amazed by the undreamed-of treasures spread before it4 ,here was a second ,renaissance1 the child of the first and informed with the same spirit of divine curiosity1 but working in a new direction4 ,the prime object of the nineteenth century investigator was to accumulate observed facts about the material universe1 to find theories to interpret those facts1 and perhaps ultimately to lay bare the innermost secrets of ,nature4 ,more and more wonders were discovered2 and each new wonder pointed the road to fresh territories awaiting the pioneer4 ,there must be formed a great army of explorers4 ,the recruitment and the training of this army was naturally carried on in the universities4 ,the aims and methods of science acquired enormous prestige4 ,the spirit of research pervaded every department of academic activity4 ,in the reorganised universities of nineteenth-century ,germany1 the new spirit found its most complete expression4 ,the professor was given a two-fold function3 he was to teach1 and also to advance his particular study or science4 ,to-day teaching is often made subordinate to research4 ,a characteristic product of the ,german academic system is the 8seminar10 which is for the student of humanistic learning what the laboratory is to the scientist3 in the seminar the student is given training in methods of original investigation4 ,the course of study is highly specialised and leads to the degree of 8doctor of philosophy10 for which he must present a dissertation contributing to the advance of knowledge4 ,the close association of ,american students with ,germany has led to the importation of ,german university methods and ideals into the ,united ,states4 ,in ,england1 too1 there has been an ever-increasing tendency to approximate our standards to those of ,germany4 ,the ,honours courses1 at any rate at the new universities1 become increasingly specialised1 and more and more insistence is being laid on the necessity for original research as the crown of an academic career4 ,thus the universities are living in an intellectual atmosphere manufactured by the scientists4 ,the great craving is for knowledge1knowledge of natural processes1 and knowledge of man's past history4 ,this craving manifests itself at every turn4 ,apart from the labours of scientists1 historians1 and archaeologists in what ,johnson calls the 8academic bowers10 we read daily of search-parties 7many of whom are organised by ,european or ,american universities7 proceeding to the ends of the earth1this one bringing to light the treasures of ,egyptian royal tombs1 another revealing a hitherto unknown civilisation of the ancient world1 a third finding dinosaur's eggs1 a fourth studying the characteristics and the history of a savage tribe4 ,a leading newspaper recently informed us proudly that no fewer than two hundred exploring parties are setting out this year on various questsmore than ever before in the history of the world4 ,the interest in these efforts is not confined to the few4 ,accounts of marvellous discoveries and inventions bring romance to the millions in our industrial civilisation4 ,the popular press knows the appeal of big headlines over an article giving a highly coloured account of the latest results of research2 and the bookstalls are crowded with magazines devoted to the ,wonders of ,science and giving the ,city clerk and typist1 hungry for knowledge1 an ,illustrated ,outline of this1 that1 or the other field of information4 ,whither is this enthusiasm for knowledge leading us8 ,what benefits will accrue to the individual or to society when1 with untold labour1 we have learned a fraction more about the history of man or penetrated a few steps further into the illimitable arcana of nature8 ,these are questions which those engaged in investigation and those whose delight is to hear some new thing alike hardly pause to ask4 ,it is assumed that all knowledge of fact is valuable1 and therefore is to be pursued for its own sake4 ,to many this will seem a self-evident proposition4 ,such people may be reminded that curiosity about the material world has not always been a characteristic of the western nations4 ,for many centuries man was not in the least interested to know whether the earth went round the sun or the sun round the earth3 he was content to take on trust the evidence of his senses4 ,it is even a matter for debate whether the sum of human happiness has been increased by the knowledge that has come from ,galileo's labours4 ,it is a perennial human weakness to pursue one aim to the unreasonable exclusion of others1 to mistake the means for the end4 ,the great humanists were so possessed by ideals which they found in the antique world that they sought to achieve them even at the expense of personal and social morality2 their successors mistook the husk for the kernel and allowed pedantry to displace scholarship4 ,we of this age are being diverted from other aims and allowing our intellectual life to be narrowed by an unreasoning zeal for research4 ,we are influenced too much by the delusion that the making of 8a contribution to knowledge0 is the beginning of wisdom4 ,will the universities rid themselves of the incubus of research1 or at least relegate it to a separate department so that the main efforts of the professors and lecturers may be concentrated on other matters8 ,on the answer to this question the future of the universities depends4 ,it must be decided whether the primary business of the university teacher is to teach or to carry on the investigations in which he is privately interested2 whether the business of the student is to become educated or to become a specialist2 whether1 in short1 there is any necessary relationship between the two branches of university activity1research and education4 ,at present there is little indication of how these problems will be settled3 as yet they are scarcely mentioned in academic circles in this country4 ,criticism of university methods and ideals is heard among people who have left professorial tutelage1 and book-reviewers are occasionally entertaining at the expense of typical products of the academic mind2 but for the most part the standards of the dons are taken for granted4 ,the late ,sir ,walter ,raleigh1 it is true1 did not conceal his antipathy to the 8serious business of scholarship10 but his brother professors must have considered him a sad dog4 ,while ,english universities give no sign of interest in fundamental problems affecting their well-being1 a ray of hope comes from ,america4 ,in the recent annual report of ,columbia ,university1 the president1 ,dr ,nicholas ,murray ,butler1 speaking with all the authority of his distinguished position1 faces critical issues with a frankness that is possible1 perhaps1 only in ,america4 ,he is concerned about the dearth of great minds in spite of the spread of educational facilities1 and he asks whether the universities have not destroyed the ideal of a liberal education1 and with it the liberally educated man himself1 through allowing the choice of less valuable subjects and laying too much stress on early specialisation4 ,in spite of the efforts of two generations to make science an instrument of education1 and in spite of the inherent excellence of the scientific method1 he has grave doubts about the results4 ,he finds the cause of his dissatisfaction in the methods and aims of the teachers of the sciences4 8,if these subjects are to be presented only for the purpose of training specialists1 and if the methods to be followed are those that1 while appropriate for investigation1 have no relation whatever to interpretation1 then it may well be that in another generation general interest in the natural and experimental sciences and general knowledge of their meaning and significance will have greatly declined4444 ,the example of the ancient classics ought to suffice4 ,they were killed largely by those who taught them40 ,on the subject of research ,dr ,butler is equally outspoken4 8,the word research10 he says1 8has come to be something like the blessed word ,mesopotamia4 ,it is used to reduce everyone to silence1 acquiescence1 and approbation4 ,the fact of the matter is that something between seventy-five per cent4 and ninety per cent4 of what is called research in the various universities and institutes of the land is not properly research at all1 but simply the re-arrangement or re-classification of existing data or well-known phenomena40 ,he reminds his readers that 8an original investigation may1 and usually does1 add a good deal to the knowledge of the individual investigator without adding anything to the knowledge of the human race40 ,dr ,butler attacks the principles on which present-day science-teaching in the universities is carried out3 such an indictment applies with equal1 if not with greater force1 to the teaching of the humanities1 into which scientific methods have intruded themselves with disastrous results4 ,it is natural that the historian of to-day should adopt the character of the scientific investigator2 but surely something is wrong when university and other presses issue volume after volume of historical study of a kind which1 judged by any of the wider canons1 can have no conceivable value4 ,too often the specialists forget that the many intriguing little puzzles that they try to solve are intriguing little puzzles and nothing more4 ,the researcher in the natural sciences can always plead that his discoveries1 however insignificant at the moment1 may take on great importance in connection with work in other fields4 ,the researcher in history can hardly put forward the same plea4 ,the scientific or pseudo-scientific spirit applied to history has tended to destroy the sense of values4 ,literature at the universities is in even a worse plight4 ,the scientific historical method applied in this field is steadily devitalising literary study4 ,criticism and enjoyment of the great masters have to give place to the study of tendencies and influences1 of historical minutiae and bibliographical irrelevancies4 ,the academic mind apparently fails to see any incongruity in the eagerness and seriousness with which learned societies recently discussed the precise circumstances of the death of ,marlowe2 nor is it shocked at the regularity with which university lecturers and others write letters to the 8,times ,literary ,supplement10 taking leave to record some 8new fact0 about a relative of a tenth-rate poet whose name lives only in the bigger histories of literature4 ,immature graduates in the ,american schools of ,english are steadily working through all our writers who are sufficiently unimportant to have escaped attention hitherto and producing monographs on them 8in part preparation for the degree of ,doctor of ,philosophy in the ,university of 40 ,and as money is plentiful in the ,american universities the theses are duly printed4 ,similar so-called literary research is being carried on with unremitting energy in this country also2 happily the results of most of it remain decently buried in the university archives4 ,dr ,butler foresees a probable decline in the educational importance of scientific study through concentration on the unessentials and neglect of the essentials3 for the same reason it is to be feared that the university departments of modern literature are already well on the road to decadence4 ,the outlook for university education is therefore not hopeful4 ,it seems probable that the worship of the false gods of the academic world will take an unconscionable time in dying4 ,universities are conservative places3 they hold themselves superior1 and often rightly superior1 to the rough and tumble of the world outside1 and thus they are tardy in responding to the changing spirit of the age4 ,moreover1 by their very system they are cramping the free intelligence and narrowing the vision of those who are to direct the universities of the future4 ,success in university life necessarily involves obedience to the tradition4 ,thus it may be assumed that present tendencies will take a generation or two to reach their limit4 ,with the improvement in the secondary schools through the better selection of pupils the standard of work there will be forced up to such a pitch that every student proceeding to the university will immediately specialise in a narrow field4 ,pass degrees will be abolished4 ,the prestige of research-degrees will be such that most1 if not all1 graduates will proceed to them4 ,in every university there will be a busy colony of researchers4 ,in the departments of science in its various branches men and women will be labouring to discover new phenomena and to formulate fresh theories4 ,much of this work will fulfil the laudable purpose of improving man's material lot4 ,much of it1 on the other hand1 will have the practical result of supplying an industrialised community with a surfeit of mechanical luxuries which the ordinary person will have neither the desire nor the time to use4 ,the spirit of man may find some consolation in increased knowledge of such matters as the habits of atoms exposed to various sorts of experimental bombardments4 ,in the departments of the modern languages and literatures the soil will have been so far exhausted that students will be reduced to collating and editing 7with linguistic commentary7 the dullest and most obscure mediaeval manuscripts4 ,or the ,american example will be followed of writing dissertations on recent or contemporary writers4 ,we may expect doctoral theses with such titles as8,a ,bibliographical ,account of the ,works of ,arnold ,bennett1 together with a ,hand-list of his ,contributions to the ,periodical ,press02 or 8,the ,sussex ,farm-,labourer in ,english ,fiction from #aijj to #aicj40 ,in the realm of history1 the evidence of the past will1 in most directions1 have been sifted and re-sifted2 accounts of first-rate1 second-rate1 and even third-rate men and movements will have been multiplied ad nauseam on the excuse that an additional insignificant fact or two has been added to information that was already accessible4 ,students will be driven to editing the dreariest records 7if any still remain unpublished7 elucidating matters of the least possible concern to the twentieth century4 ,they will1 no doubt1 be sustained in their thankless tasks by the thought that they are doing the ,spade-work3 they are doing their share1 however humble1 towards providing a greater than themselves with the materials for a new survey of a period4 ,we can only hope that their single-minded devotion may not be disturbed by the horrible thought that the mass of accumulated research on any given topic will eventually be so vast that no single human life will give sufficient time in which to read it1 and that no single human mind will be equal to the task of synthesising it4 ,when the cult of research has thus reduced itself to absurdity the time will come when we shall perhaps turn to the conception of a university as a place where1 by the study and discussion of problems of fundamental importance1 the most intelligent young men and women are brought into contact with the best and most stimulating minds1 where the balance is held true between intellect and emotion1 between thought and action4 ,but that time is not yet4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,text in italics is enclosed by underscores 7italics74 ,punctuation1 and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected4 ,archaic and variable spelling has been preserved4 ,variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved4