17 JUNE 1938, Page 23

YOUTH'S CHOICE OF A CAREER

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—The efforts which you have recently been making to help your readers to know what Youth is thinking—and, no less, the uncertainty of belief and outlook to which some of the articles bore witness—suggest that there may be some who would be interested to hear or be reminded of a post-War experiment which still carries on.

In 1919 the Knutsford Test School came into existence. Its primary purpose was to give opportunity for the trying-out of vocation for the Ministry of the Church of England. Its success led to its continuation on a smaller scale. In 5926 Lord Gladstone of Hawarden presented the Old Rectory at

Hawarden, with its beautiful grounds, to the School Council. There the School has been carried on ever since. The students are for the most part men who, for financial or other reasons, have not yet matriculated. After a year or two years at this School they pass on, either direct to a Theological College or via some University. This aspect of the School is fairly generally known.

What is much less known is the opportunity which the School offers to students, matriculated or not, who are quite uncertain as to their future life-work, to whom ordination presents itself as one of several possibilities, men who would be glad to try-out their vocation, but unwilling at this stage to commit themselves. Such students, if they have already reached matriculation standard, continue their general education, taking- up Greek and what is likely to be needed later. In the wonderfully free and happy fellowship, which the School inherits from the original ex-Service members, such men have unique opportunity of thinking out where they stand—whether they eventually go on to ordination or not.—Yours truly,