The Popularity of the Schools The case for the raising
of the school-leaving age has been fully made out both from the educational point of view and in the interests of an overcrowded labour market. A further reason for hastening forward with this reform was given by Mr. J. J. Biggs at the annual conference of the National Association of Head Teachers. The old distrust of the schools, he says, has been dis- appearing, and especially in poor neighbourhoods. The masses of the people have come to appreciate the work that the schools are doing.- This is an important point, for it is constantly objected that the parents of poor children resent any prolongation of their education, and that the raising of the leaving age would be unpopular with the working-classes. Not very long ago there would have been force in that contention—and that is the real reason why the Labour Party in the past never showed much enthusiasm for education. Recently it has been converted to the more liberal view, and the fact alluded to by Mr. Biggs in part at least explains their change of attitude.
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