LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
CONTINUATION SCHOOLS.
LTO THE EDITOR OF TITS "SPECTATOR.']
Sin,—The letter from Mr. Medd in your issue of Septem- ber 29th calls attention to an undoubted evil in our midst,--viz., the grave economic waste involved in the present system of educating working-class children, at an enormous cost, up to a point where they are only beginning really to " learn " anything —in the true sense of the word—and then launching them forth into the world, to continue their studies or not, as they please.
At an age when public-school boys are considered to be at the bottom of the educational ladder, these children—they are nothing better—are deemed to be ripe enough to enter the world. For this is what "leaving school" means for a working boy or girl. It means in many cases a sudden transition from dependence to independence, from a world of restraint to a world of almost complete freedom, from a position of irresponsibility to one of responsibility, although, alas ! the latter aspect of the change is seldom realised by the pro- tagonist himself until too late, if at all.
I am not now, however, so much concerned with dwelling on the evils resulting, more particularly in large towns, from this illogical and harmful state of things. My real object in writing is to question whether Mr. Medd has hit upon the right remedy in advocating the cause of the continuation schools. I venture to suggest that a more effective and simpler solution of the problem would result from raising the age for compulsory day-school attendance,. at any rate in the towns, to sixteen, and abolishing the continuation schools altogether. It is admitted that the latter schools, like the majority of technical schools, are at present miserably attended. Their very institution testifies to the fact that in the opinion of the authorities the previous com- pulsory day-school education was inadequate. But these self-same authorities made the colossal mistake of thinking that the average working boy or girl would voluntarily submit to further schooling, and that the average parent and employer would do anything to encourage their so doing. Be it remembered that it is contrary to all human nature for a child, an average normal child, voluntarily to place itself under any form of restraint, but especially a form of restraint which has previously always been associated with compulsion. It is absurd to expect that a boy of fourteen should understand the real advantages of a more complete education, and be naturally keen on improving himself. There is every reason, in short, why the child whom it is sought to catch in the net of our continuation-school system should carefully evade capture. And it is an unfortunate but undoubted fact that, for various reasons which will readily suggest themselves to those who come into contact with our working classes, neither the child's parents nor his employer will, as a rule, countenance the giving of any facilities that seem likely, from their own selfish and short-sighted points of view, to diminish in any way the child's immediate wage-earning and productive powers. Surely the obvious remedy is to lengthen the period of compulsory education. If the child were kept till sixteen at the day school, the curriculum could be so adjusted that during the last two years certain subjects would be specialised in according as the pupil was destined for the office desk or the workman's bench. The additional expense would, I believe, be neutralised by abolishing the present costly and unsuccessful continuation schools, and perhaps raising the minimum ago to six.
117 Holland Road, W.
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