Passing next to the development of the mental faculties, the teacher will try and bring some order into the chaos of isolated facts to be found in the child's mind. An attempt will be made to tell him something of the town in which he lives, the way in which it is governed, the position of the streets, the means of transport, and the manner in which food and other articles are obtained. In addition visits will be paid to museums, art galleries, and other places of importance, the cost being defrayed by the Educational Authority. Further, to give him some acquaintance with Nature and her ways, excursions, in small numbers at a time, will be made into the countrya practice which is followed in Berlin. All will be done to help the child to realise the meaning of a town and its complex organisation, and to awaken a many-sided interest in the world around. It does not come within the province of this essay to discuss in detail the subjects that ought to be included in the curriculum; but to inspire the children with a love of their school so far as possible only such subjects will be selected as are naturally attractive. A subject like grammar, except so far as it is of use in composition, will be omitted, and a foreign language, being of little value from the point of view of training and of use to only a few, can hardly claim a place in elementary education. Cookery and laundry may be taught, but they ought to be optional and not compulsory subjects, seeing that many parents dislike their children attending these classes. Some form of manual training, being, as it is, thought in action, ought to be taught in every school. Lastly, there is some truth in the complaint that the education given is often shallow and superficial, and that the children are frequently unable to make use of the knowledge they possess. It is not enough for them to be able to answer the questions of the teacher. They must be taught to understand that the affairs of daily life are continually putting such questions to them and must be shown how they are to find the answer. Lange remarks that it would be a good plan if every subject had its application book in which the children worked out examples just as they do in arithmetic. Further, the

truth must never be forgotten that the brain is an organic unity and not a collection of isolated compartments. Every effort therefore will be taken to insure that the knowledge of the child shall be such an ordinary whole that, whenever any decision has to be made, all the facts bearing on it which are in his possession will naturally focus themselves on the point at issue. This brings up the great principle of Concentration, on which so much stress is laid in the Herbartian theory of education. When a lesson has been given the lesson must not be regarded as finished until it has thrown light on previous lessons on the same or other subjects and in its turn received light from them. In this way all the subjects of instruction are connected together, the whole of the child's knowledge is continually being brought forward, refreshed, sifted, and the necessary elements concentrated on the one lesson that is being given. If more thought is paid to this principle of concentration the charge of shallowness brought against the elementary schools will soon be without foundation.

Finally, singing and drawing merit especial attention, since these subjects, on the one hand, are a training of the faculties and an expression of the self in action, and on the other cultivate the taste and so have a direct influence on the formation of character. As Rein says in his "Theorie des Volksschulunterrichts":"Ethics and Esthetics are at bottom so closely connected that they may be said to spring from a common root. This common root lies in the absolute pleasure that accompanies their pure, disinterested presentation." They form a natural transition from the mental to the moral side of the character, and their cultivation may to some extent compensate for the absence of the nature element from city life. As regards direct moral or religious teaching little need be said, as the question has been discussed more than once. The teacher will naturally bear in mind the special faults of the town child and on every opportunity encourage fairness in work, consideration of others, and above all will try to inspire him with a sense of his own dignity. He will further seek to develop the corporate spirit, which is the characteristic of the great

public schools, where the deeds of each are looked on as the deeds of all, and the fair name of the school is to each boy even as his own. Strictly speaking, all education is religious in so far as it is constantly endeavouring, on the varied material passing through its hands, to impress a definite type of character. This must never be forgotten, for all work becomes purposeless and ineffective without some ideal to direct its course. It is the undying glory of the school of Herbart that they have always put this fact in the forefront of all their teaching. To their writings, wearisome as they often are, this idealism gives a fascination that the English scientific treatises on education never possess. The former regard the child as a living spirit and education as the means of unfolding the hidden treasures of a soul, while the latter seem to look on him as an animal to be fatted as expeditiously as possible on educational nutriment.

The influence of the day-school will be strengthened in two directions. In the first place, using the school as the natural centre of all work among children, the local managers and other agencies, co-operating together if not in action at any rate in aim, will bring it into intimate connection with the life and organisation of the neighbourhood.

In the second place, evening classes will continue, and render more permanent the impression left by the dayschool. Their object is threefold: first, to give children an opportunity of carrying on their general education; secondly, to afford technical instruction of a kind that will be useful to them in their profession; lastly, and most important of all, to offer facilities for the pursuit for its own sake of some study, no matter what, which, while bringing with it no advantage to be measured in money, will yet open out new possibilities of happiness that can be enjoyed when the work of the day is over.

If these results are to any extent secured when the time .comes to leave the day-school, there will not be the sudden break of old associations, the sudden irresistible attack of the untempered forces of modern civilisation that ends, as has been shown, in the everlasting tragedy. The transition

will be gradual, new ties will be formed before the old are severed, new interests acquired before the old are gone, and the old life, instead of abruptly closing, like a tale that is told, will imperceptibly widen out into the larger life of the grown man.

The purpose of this essay is completed. Starting with the question, "What manner of man shall I become?" put by the child, I have sought to show what answer the town gives to it; next I have tried to find a reply to the further question, "How can we make it different?" There remains but one step more: to say what that different answer will be. Dreams of days to come, though destined to remain for ever dreams, have yet their value. Without them man is but a pitiful, ineffective drudge, blindly plodding his way through a world wrapt in a veil of mist and gloom; with them he tears aside the veil, catches a glimpse of the light of far-off stars, and, though the darkness gathers again, strides boldly through with head erect to meet the future. For dreamers like these there seems nothing extravagant in the answer that physical training. and brighter surroundings will make healthier bodies; that country holidays will erect landmarks in the Past; that the recreation provided will cause existence to be fuller; that a knowledge of the world around, its wonders and its secrets, joined to a love of music and things beautiful, will open out broader interests and wider prospects, thus giving some form to the otherwise blank Future; that the religious teaching, whether in the Sunday or the day school, will awaken the consciousness of the mystery hidden alike behind man and behind nature; and that, finally, all the forces acting together in harmony will change the cry of the everlasting tragedy into a song of thanksgiving, and create an atmosphere of tranquil calm which shall permeate and hallow the whole life of the child.

EDUCATIONAL REFORMS NEEDED.

1. The establishment of a single Education Authority for cach County or Borough County Council area.

(1) Its constitution.

(a) Three-quarters of the members shall be elected, and the remaining quarter co-opted by those so elected. Those co-opted shall be chosen from inspectors, managers of secondary schools, elementary school teachers, and others interested in education.

(b) In the election there shall be single-member constituencies. (2) Its powers.

(a) It shall be given the powers now possessed by the School
Boards, together with those powers relating to secondary
and technical education now exercised by the County
Councils.
(b) It shall have power to promote secondary education, either
by building schools of its own or by establishing special
classes in the elementary schools, or by making grants to
existing schools, or, lastly, by evening continuation schools.
There shall be made no restriction as to the subjects
taught, or to the age of the scholars attending.

(c) It shall have power to build and maintain its own training
colleges.

(d) It shall depute certain of its powers, such as the appointment of teachers, to groups of local managers supervising one or more schools.

(3) Its finance.

With the exception of a rate, say sixpence, the same throughout the country, all the money required shall be supplied by a central grant.

(4) Its relation to Voluntary Schools.

It shall direct and control all the secular instruction given in Voluntary Schools; but their managers shall supervise the religious teaching and, subject to the possession of certain professional qualifications, shall appoint the teachers. The managers shall pay the interest on the capital expenditure required to improve or to rebuild the schools.

II. Special reforms.

(1) The abolition of the pupil teacher system.

(2) The raising of the age of exemption from full or partial

attendance to fourteen.

(3) The compulsory attendance at evening schools, after leaving the day-school, up to the age of sixteen.

(4) The appointment of special magistrates to deal with school

cases.

III. The question of the retention and the nature of religious instruction to be settled by Parliament.