TWELVE ESSAYS ON EDUCATION.
Educational Studies and Addresses. By T. G. Rooper. (Blackie and Son. 28. 6d.)—This volume of essays is one that we heartily recommend to the attention of parents and teachers. The author seems to us to have grasped the root principles that underlie the education of youth, and to present those principles with a lucidity and an aptness of illustration that are entirely admirable. The essay on the work of Edward Seguin, the skilled French physician who, both in France and America, developed a generalised system of mental training from his successful training experiments on idiots, is particularly interesting. It is sad to think that Seguin's methods in the training of children who seem to be, but are not really, hopeless idiots are neglected in the great English asylums. The papers on " Obedience " and " Individualism in Education" are worthy of close perusal. Much new light is thrown on the important matter of "manual training" in mental development. As Mr. Rooper points out, manual training has, now ceased to form part of the home life. Few households now bake, brew, thresh, and thatch, and the mental agility acquired in this variety of occupation must now be acquired at school. But it is wisely pointed out that the school must not be a place where trades are learnt. We must
"beware of industrialism in education children at school cannot be prepared for a special calling in after life The object of education is to awaken spontaneity in the child." The essay on " School Gardening" is very suggestive. The necessity of " gaiety in education" is pointed out in a thoughtful essay dealing with the conflicting views of Calvin and St. Augustine on this matter. There is a curious slip on p. 70. Lord Russell of Killowen was not Lord Chancellor but Lord Chief Justice of England. As a Roman Catholic he was disqualified for the Chancellorship. If this book runs to a second edition, we should like to see an essay added on the work and theories of Comenins.
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