Education for Citizenship The raising of the school leaving age
will, it is hoped, result in an extra year of school life for most children in Elementary Schools all over the country. Many problems arise out of the task of making that year effective, and a joint committee of investigation representing the Association of Education Committees and the National Union of Teachers was set up to investigate them. Their report has been published by the London University Press under the title of " The Extra Year." Parents and the public generally will be most interested in that section which deals with Education for Citizenship and Education for Leisure. These express two of the legitimate and accepted aims of all education. Yet inquiries undertaken among educational authorities to ascertain whether any attempt should be made specifically to prepare pupils for citizenship revealed such a bewildering diversity of opinion that the reasons for it called for further investigation. Con- fusion of aim seems to be the chief. After reviewing precept and practice the Committee conclude that training in citizen- ship should be incidental to the normal school life of the ordinary elementary school. They indicate, but do not solve, the difficult problems of objectivity involved in such training. Support for a democratic form of government is assumed by all those who replied. Whether any part of either the instruc- tion or training should have direct reference to other forms of government does not emerge.
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