A good deal of discussion has arisen at the latest
meetings of the London School Board as to compulsory subjects. " Social economy" is to be taught to both boys and girls, though not prac- tical cooking and washing even to the girls, as to the teaching of which there are serious practical difficulties,—and what precisely social economy is to mean beyond the value of good ventilation, fresh air, good draining, and cleanliness, it is not easy to say. We regret to see a tendency to regard all children as capable of learn- ing advantageously to themselves such matters as drawing, and to make it compulsory. The present editor can affirm that for years lie wasted valuable time over trying, earnestly trying, to learn to draw, without the slightest good result. After all, the tabula rasa theory of education has its false side as well as the, other.
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