COMPULSORY CONTINUATION CLASSES. [To T'HE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, —Englishmen
begin to perceive that a bureaucracy can be more tyrannical than the most autocratic sovereign. A very kindly and capable friend of mine took into her household as a servant a girl of fourteen, one of a large family, to teach the child the rudiments of domestic service. But my friend found that, under the L.C.C. regulations in the London area, the girl had to attend Continuation Classes once a week from 10-1, and on another day from 2-6, in addition to getting one afternoon off per week, plus alternate Sundays. So, as this was found incompatible with steady work, the job had to leave the girl— to the despair of her mother and annoyance of all concerned. No possible education could better have equipped that child for her life-work than that which my excellent friend afforded her false "education," such as she now gets, for all its pompous curriculum, only gives a smattering of education, and leads boys and girls to blind-alley employment and to street-loafing. And all this at the behests of stubborn dogmatists, that veritable bourgeoisie of the mind which appears incapable of reflection upon ultimate issues—unless, indeed, the motives are sheerly cynical and sinister. No need, however, to enlarge on my little story; as his relations observed after the wrong man was executed, "Comment is superfluous" !—I am, Sir, &c., BARTLE 0. FREER.
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