Stn,—Will you allow a working schoolmaster a word in defence
of the London County Council's attitude towards the Fleming Committee? A great outcry has been raised, as usual, in defence an•1 praise of the public schools and much abuse has been wasted on the L.C.C. Most of what I have seen printed is just irrelevant to the real issue. One may concur in all the praises of the public schools and yet find sound reasons for supp6rting the Council's refusal to co-operate in the purposes of the Fleming Committee. This Committee is seeking to propitiate public opinion by offers to take from the day-schools a very small proportion of their best boys and give them a boarding-school education. Is there any good reason why the L.C.C. should repudiate its long and excellent record in the development of the day-schools—a process far from complete even now? It should be widely known that in this matter the Council has the support of thousands of parents and teachers, as well as (believe it or not) of some excellent public school men, who recognise their fellow- ship with the poor, the broken-hearted, the blind and them that are bruised. Those of us who are concerned with these boys, many of them very poor and of great ability and promise, are proud of their achieve- ments in the face of difficulty, and we can furnish examples enough and to spare of all those virtues which a school training can foster— courage, fortitude, humility, tolerance, sense of responsibility. We feel that the public schools represent and perpetuate a great social cleavage. There are two " nations " instead of one. There is no community or fellowship between them and the rest of us. If we are to have that democracy to which we are all paying lip-service, then our educational system must be conceived and built to promote it. The social problem is bound up with the education system.
Those Who are not willing to admit even the existence of this social problem and who-wish to offer education by way of philanthropy—those whose hearts do not come forward in a spirit of genuine fellowshp- may well be reminded of the words addressed to the well-born and culti- vated Nicodemus (the best of Etonians): " You people "—notice the plural—" you people must be born again."—Yours faithfully,
Previous page
