Mr. Butler's Projects
Mr. Butler was not very lavish of promises, and even about raising the school age from 14 to 15 he could merely say that it should be done " when we get the chance." Meantime, he is submitting a number of really first-rate issues to the consideration of advisory bodies. The supply and training of teachers, including youth leaders, has been referred to a committee under Dr. McNair, the Vice- Chancellor of Liverpool University ; and the possibilities of extending a boarding school education to those who at present cannot afford it, —a subject discussed in recent articles in The Spectator by Sir Cyril Norwood, Mr. M L. Jacks and others—to another com- mittee under Lord Fleming, the Scottish Lord of Session. This clearly involves the whole future of the public schools. He has also set up a Youth Advisory Council, under the Headmaster of Uppingham ; and steps have been taken to bring the joint wisdom of the Board of Education, the Ministry of Labour, the Scottish Office, and representatives of employers and employed to bear on the great problem—never far from being the master- problem—of vocational training. It is easy to figure all these useful birds in the bush as if they were already birds in the hand—school age to 15, workmen's sons at Eton, vastly reformed curricula, and so on. This they are not ; yet we are thankful to have a President of the Board showing real activity about them.
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