EDUCATION TODAY [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I read
with great interest the article in your last week's issue on " Education Today " giving impressions of the annual Conference of Educational Associations, part of which I attended. It is true that there seems to be too marked a division between the world inside and outside the school, a division perhaps inevitable at a time of social change and maladjustment.
But the picture presented by the article seemed.to me darker than that suggested by my own experience of schools. I do not think that bookbinding is the only remedy school- masters prescribe against the evils of " mass production." Many of them know how to make the best of this element in modern life. Anyone who enters an elementary school will probably find the walls decorated by newspaper cuttings —pictures and topical articles. Lessons in " current events " are given in many schools, and newspaper reading is encouraged. When I was teaching at a secondary school arrangements were often made for the children to,go to films at the local cinema if the experience was likely to be valuable —one film was of African life, another a good rendering of Oliver Twist. The wireless is now largely used in the class- room as a means of education. Domestic, science teachers know the value of the advertisement in making the teaching of rules for diet practical and attractive. In these and in other ways the schools find inspiration in the industrial world, and give something back in exchange.
. Biology is undoubtedly a " coming " subject, especially in girls' schools. Its progress is hampered because, to be taught effectively, it needs accommodation and equipment which cannot always be at present supplied. Its sister subject, hygiene, is becoming increasingly popular.
There is still more to be done to make the schools as adequate a preparation as they can be for modern life, but a beginning has been made on the lines suggested by the article. We need not therefore " suspect that we have failed with our
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