OUR ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL SYSTEM.*
PROFESSOR GILBERT MURRAY, writing in the Contenvorary Review, is " inclined to suspect that an extreme interest in Education is a dangerous sign. A society which is crying out for education to keep it in the right path is like one that needs constant remedial legislation," and that is " like a man who spends a vast proportion of his time and money on medicine." Mr. Newton, in his admirably sane and informing volume on The English Elementary School, makes it clear that the danger, if it does exist, is of comparatively recent origin. The interest shown by the State before 1870 could hardly be described as " extreme," and, if tested by the qualifications of the great majority of Ministers of Education since that date, has been studiously dissembled. That the subject is interesting and of immense importance is another matter. But the plain and painful truth is that books on education are as a rule dull and the professional " eduCationist " one of the most fatiguing of bores. Mr. Newton is an H.M.I of nearly forty years' experience, having worked successively in Durham, London, Cambridge
shire, and Kent, and served as a Divisional Inspector, an Inspector of Training Colleges, and an Assistant-Secretary of the Board of Education. His aim has been "to describe the elementary schools of to-day and yesterday, the regulations under which they work, and some of the considerations which influence those who conduct them." It might easily have been a dull book, but it is nothing of the sort. Mr. Newton has eliminated all " useless statistics " ; he has an excellent style, enlivened on occasion by a strictly controlled sense of humour ; he has few illusions, but the general tone of the book is one of reasoned optimism, moderation, and fair-mindedness. It is, so far as the present writer can judge, easily the best book on the subject.
Opening with a sketch of the history of State aid and control, the evolution of the Board of Education out of the old Departruent•, the growth of compulsion, and the gradual emergence of the Education Committee, Mr. Newton subjects the Mundella Code and the system of payment by results to a good deal of drastic but not unjust criticism. The principle that the State should not give something for nothing was defensible; the methods adopted led to many abuses—cramming and dishonesty, a severe but not intelligent scrutiny of teachers and inspectors, the overpressure of dull and backward scholars. The country was badly served in the framing of the Code by its expert advisers, the wisest of whom disliked the principle but were overborne by the majority. A review of the voluntary schools before 1902 leads the writer to the conclusion that supporters of the system " could have kept schools everywhere pretty much in their hands if they had been rich enough. But ever since 1870 the needs of most towns have been far too great to be met by voluntary subscriptions." As it was, the system occasionally led to " profiteering " and fraudulent finance. In regard to religion, the parental attitude was one of indifference.
Most parents wished for some religious teaching. Whilst very few demanded definite Church of England teaching, large numbers did not seriously resent it. But for clerical pressure steadily applied, many children would have left the Roman Catholic school for schools of an undenominational kind." This conclusion, in his opinion, holds good to-day. Continuing his survey of the " pre-scientific " period, Mr. Newton notes that hygiene has sprung into existence as practically a new subject since 1880. Even in the Royal Commission of 1886 no medical evidence was taken. Our rulers and governors honestly held that the school conditions of children were so much better than their home and industrial conditions that it was useless to remedy the lesser evils whilst the greater remained untouched. Moreover, " to persons who regard illness as a necessary part of life, hygiene will always be of little account." A comparison of school buildings, furniture, and ventilation, old and new, ministers on the whole to satisfaction. On the question of medical inspection Mr. Newton pointedly observes that " it is hard to see why the child who happens to be of school age should be examined by a public officer, and treated at a school clinic at the public expense, whilst the child under age is left to any treatment its parents may provide." So he finds the real argument in favour of public nurseries in the facts that the physical care of children of three and four is infinitely more important than anything that can be fairly called instruction, and that our teachers are primarily trained to give instruction. The teacher of young children needs a training different from anything provided by our Training Colleges. Mr. Newton's chapter on Infant Schools is quite one of the best in the book, with its wise caveat against that zeal for modern methods " which is apt to lead astray teachers who do not understand them," and its wise discrimination between the sound and permanent principles of Froebel and his provisional and experimental methods. The tyranny of the phrase Kindergarten " is effectively exposed : the so-called
gifts " are often 150.tpa Scapa. As for the management of children, it is the business of the wise teacher to hold the balance between the modern doctrine of free self-expression and the Wesleyan view of coercing the child into diligence and virtue. " Speaking broadly, the larger the institution the more rules there must be, and only in very small schools can we grant the freedom which is to be found in a well-ordered home." The personality of the teacher is most important ; but Mr. Newton realizes that you can't command or definitely multiply Egerias or dottoresse.
Mr. Newton frankly acknowledges the difficulties of comparing the real value of the output of the schools of to-day and of yeattr day. " We can find out what a boy knows and can do on a particular day, but we can only guess what he will become." Nor can an inspector be a fair judge of morals, except in so far as industry, punctuality, cleanliness, and goodwill towards teachers are moral virtues. But Mr. NeWton believes that disorderly schools are fewer, and notes with satisfaction the diminished resort to the cane. " Competent teachers, I imagine, concur pretty well in thinking that a school is no place either for a teacher who is continually using his cane, or for the teacher who refuses to use it on proper occasion." Reading is better taught, better books are read, and extracts less used. School-books are better printed, excepting Bibles. No mention is made of handwriting, but Mr. Newton finds no real deterioration in accuracy of spelling or arithmetic, and a decided improvement in composition, both in the choice of themes and their treatment. He welcomes the extended use of " readers " in the teaching of history and the supersession of lessons of the lecture type, but insists on the need of having a general framework, and teaching episodes—such as Becket's fall, Tyler's rebellion, Wolfe at Quebec—properly o not at all, and the provision of historical atlases. There is alas much room for improvement in maps, which are too often cherrp and bad, and Mr. Newton condemns the cramming of statistics, which are bound to become obsolete. Huxley's pictures on the teaching of science in 1861 still apply in great part, experimental science having of late been pushed aside by " Nature study." Physiology is still the Cinderella of the elementary schools. Mr. Newton also notices the danger of " organized " as opposed to spontaneous observation, especially when it is " urganized " by teachers to whom natural history may be repugnant. Under the head of manual instruction we have an amusing account of the origin and modification of the cult of needlework. Cookery and laundrywork did not become compulsory till the Act of 1918. The question how far elementary schools should give technical instruction is fully discussed. Mr. Newton, maintaining that the teaching of trades in schools has no serious advocates, strongly upholds the value of drawing as a supplementary means of expression. Physical training, elaborately centralized and taught mainly on the Swedish plan, is now officially recognized as good for both mind and body. Games are little taught owing to difficulties of space, not from lack of goodwill on the part of teachers, and the streets and high-roads are still the principal playground of the poor. The pendulum has now swung too far away from foreign language teaching ; but while it is obviously better to know a language than not to know it, the chance that a particular language will be useful to a particular boy is remote. On the grading of schools Mr. Newton holds that the increase of central or higher-grade schools is justified by the needs of " brighter " children and the advantages of classification ; but they cost more, and are naturally unpopular with masters and managers, who see their best pupils drawn off. We have already referred to Mr. Newton's views on proselytism. As regards Scripture teaching in all schools, he condemns the method of teaching by paraphrase instead of using the original text, but advocates expurgation and discrimination between legendary and historical elements of Holy Writ. The efforts of other propagandists, ethical, anti-clerical, sex-hygienic, temperance, and economic, are judiciously dealt with, and we may note Mr. Newton's frank remark that prize essays written on subjects announced beforehand are no test of the writer's knowledge, as examiners cannot tell which essays are genuine and which are not.
The remaining chapters give an excellent account of the education and training of teachers under the Kay-Shuttleworth and other plans, and a carefully weighed estimate of the relative merits of the Training College and University education. As for formal psychology, and its application to education, Mr. Newton evidently inclines to the view that such studies are better suited for teachers who have already served four or five years in school than for students of twenty or twenty-one. The specimens of questions from examination-papers set by the Universities in 1915 certainly reinforce his objection to the rendering compulsory of such courses, or anything like them, on all entrants into the teaching profession. The questions of salaries and pensions and the appointment of inspectors are wisely handled, and in a final chapter Mr. Newton offers a weighty plea for the provision of reference libraries for children as well as teachers ; for the settlement of certain still unanswered questions—e.g., the length of the school day and the minimum age for compulsory attendance—and the encouragement of educational research and the strengthening of the 'Itoard's Department. for inquii ies. In the domain of research, he lays down the canon that the crank must be kept out of the schoolroom, and the genuine researcher kept within bounds. Mention of music is conspicuously absent in what is otherwise: a remarkably comprehensive study. We have little doubt that the omission is due to the author's scrupulous honesty in abstaining from passing judgment on subjects of which he has no expert knowledge.
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