" MORE SCHOOL PROBLEMS " 111,— Mr. Michael Roberts, in his
article, " More School Problems," attention to the merits of the great secondary day-schools and yes them the praise which unquestionably they deserve. It is, hags, significant that in Scotland, where the value of education s for long been appreciated at least as intelligently as in any other try, the day-school is typical and the boarding-school the In the general training of boys there is much to be said or the combination of a good home and a good school working Y 'ogether. But how is a good home to be defined for this I suggest that the essentials are: first, that it should be yell( Christian ; second, that in it the things of the mind should honoured ; and third, that it should contain a healthy family life. °I. this third condition the family must consist of more than one d. in these days the single, child of naturally adoring parenti a phenomenon far too common. Whatever are the merits of Y-schc,n1s, I believe that the only hope for an only child is the
boarding-school ; and for boys where the first two conditions do not exist in the home the boarding-school is far better.
One other point. Mr. Roberts contends that the general influence of the schoolmaster of a day-school can be given ample scope by such things as holiday-camps, &c. I cannot agree that these can possibly be an adequate substitute for the work of the housemaster in a boarding-school who actually lives among his boys. Such men by their personal influence and the leadership of example give to many boys what they would never get anywhere else. There are hundreds of these men in this country to whom the boys, their parents and the nation itself owe a debt which cannot be reckoned. Their work is more valuable than that of any headmaster, and I believe that their disappearance from the educational life of this country would
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