Show making tomorrows 10 m g irrow S ir a world by WILLIAMS WILLI ja X S L L D oun D n sch school of fourn allun fifth aft NEW EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN oxford E n elaud man to 1 s born free wrote rousseau in the often quoted opening sentence een tenca of his social contract man Is born free and everywhere he Is in in chains the world traveler in tempted to reverse the famous saying and to write wan dian Is in born in chains and tho the world struggle etrus glo Is unto frea freedom donL education in its newest and best beat form equips the individual tor for the attainment of freedom and nd for its use and enjoyment unto individual good and social service llo education yesterday in great bri tain was a rather vague and incoherent system dominated by oxford and cambridge which were and could only bo be for the few and was pursued in archaic ways waya adapted to a world that has ceased to be public education planned in great britain today tot for working out in fuller detail tomorrow Is for the life that now Is for all as well as that which in this world Is to come perhaps for a few it la Is to unchain all britons that they may find fullest freedom largest uso use of In divid ual gifts and no doors of opportunity barred hence the newer universities birmingham under sir oliver lodge and cork under sir bertram windle find and manchester and london and leeds coeds take the broad bread studies into account hence tho the growth af pf 0 o technical schools hence benco tho the now new education scheme which to is to enable any british child to proceed from nationwide nation wide elementary schools to a modern university A national system of education on lines of present day usefulness is ia pio proposed posed at al schools in one scheme tho new education dutli outlined ned by tho minister of at education mr J A pease Is iff si as yet 1 only a scheme on oil paper avor but from it will bo be drawn tho chief changes in tho school system of at the united kingdom under it the tha ask how many thoro there were or what instruction st they gave recently however his bis inspectors had an opportunity of inspecting some fifty schools in middlesex and hero here aie are two of their reports sixty six boys school dingy dirty poor ill lighted gas burning at p in ventilation so detective that the broken window was an advantage only one wash basin doys days from eleven to eighteen years of ago in tho the same class class held in a clubroom in the space between two full sized billiard tables no desks of OC course said mr pease ilease good work to Is done in many private schools but there are many others where conditions make good work impossible if education Is to be compulsory the parent ought to have a guarantee as to the sanitary character of the schools and the way children aro are taught it la Is the tha pease bill with its costly but comprehensive scheme follo following a previous bill by mr balfour that la Is to bo be considered as a basis for national educational cat ional progress universities adding oread dread studies borrowing the word from the german and much of the idea as well the newer british universities are adding the oread bread studies to their scope of 0 service even oxford and cambridge where favored britons formed pleasant and profitable pro friendships enjoyed agreeable social intercourse and had the the acquisition of knowledge as a rather minor consideration have been to activity in this direction Ale dicino camo came first and then engineering gla gi and agriculture and commerce and in the now new national university of ireland journalism at there Is a school of at brewing at sheffield a school of steel making at durham a school of shipbuilding these seek book to provide said sir bertram windle a type ot of university instruction which without departing from tho the high ideals chion should always rule in such institutions and the broad general education adds specialized and professional training and does docs not wholly avert its eyes from the requirements students as aa future money earners ear nera it strikes ott industrial chains teaching steel making at sheffield at sheffield Is an of the newer city university a teaching g i lt I 1 I 1 11 an sl is al N 1 one of the oxford colleges college universities tho the technical schools acho ola the ao condary schools and the elementary schools are to be co into one one groat great scheme no one can deny said ad mr pease that in the last ten years a groat great advance has been mado made in tho the educational sy system of tho the country I 1 however our national system ot of education Is still not noi national and not ft system intermediate education in id to bo placed within the reach of all who desire it a complete and pp ap progressive gres sive system of education providing instruction of an advanced charac tor ter salaries Sol arloa of teachers tea chora are to bo be increased baths playing fields nurseries gymnasia medical inspection nursing cookery and other domestic subjects aro are to bo encouraged cr cour developed and supported with extra rao money ey from the national treasury the compulsory school age now fourteen Is to he be raised Supery islon to Is to be extended aver over all the schools in great britain upon this rock former educational bills found wreck the state should look to tho the odthe of the children from a very early ago age said paid mr pease even before they arneborn are bom the education of the young child is primarily physical and not primarily intellectual la in this regard recard great britain has gone perhaps further than any other B european country in providing medical inspection nursing and oneala for underfed children we want to build continued mr a road frota from tho the elementary schools to the u broad enough to be traveled by bi thousands the will havo have a profit in the capacities of thousands which otherwise would be wasted and 11 poor secondary diry schools school tho the si existing latIng secondary Beco ilary school facial acs were sharply criticized by mr pease who suggested that the ad acad omy familiar to a americans from its description in a recent novel was waa an f outstanding fact jn our educational oysten and a imbt discreditable ons math wera or schools in rould not nol say may and auda ho minister tot ot lud had aa yet even to ver varsity sity fashioned for general learning because without general learning there cannot be the best technical education but also for tho the special indus tries ot of tho the great manufacturing man city vt of sheffield A visitor saw BOW in thi the metallurgical laboratory of the university under the guidance of at professors of owl eminence tience students working at tho the science of tho the steel industry they were slim lithe figures a lot ot of them and aad a ad with them were tour four or five older slower and more portly persons persona who could bo recognized as professors though they had on leather aprons at the steel works in the city the visitor saw much the same came scene with this remarkable difference that instead of the portly foreman oreman profess ore there wore were skilled men inon trained in tho the works who were instructing the students how to mak esteel steel fifteen years ago said bald tho the owner of 0 the steel works sheffield was threatened we were falling behind the continent in tho the quality or of our steel then we brought the university to our heip belp serving Indus industry and nothing can now equal the quality of sheffield steel public concern as an to industrial competition la Is tho the source from which the british movement for bread studies has haa derived its main strength logs lag in technical education technical or trado trade schools taking the P lace of the old apprentice training now sadly badly out of at date aro are increasing in ail ad in number and efficiency at the present time about 2 boa bo are am in technical schoola for tho the purpose of nc aci somo handicraft tho the system of technical c education however curl curiously enough in this great manufacture ins ing country lags digs behind that of ltd ita nearest neighbors germany and france the national industrial ladu r education league una of the many or garil rations for educational change to remedy this condition by compel sory technical training train tair our system oj of industrial c la Is so topsy sald eald oneff one of the bembera ot of the leabu that a boy must commit a cri meNZ chimenz crime be tax fares beean ha can be compelled to leara a tra trade la ili the leagues plan every 4 body should be taught a trade tho the time when this Is accomplished haw ever does not appear to be near at hand band great decrease De create in illiteracy much lluch improvement osithe asa the result of the more general education that has been provided Is noticeable lu in great britain tho the decrease of illiteracy shows what broadening the school system and establishing compulsory school attendance have brought baroug ht about forty years ago of every 1000 meri married in england and wales signed the marriage register with their mark because the could not 0 write their names j iset year only 17 tho the proportion of women who signed with a mark decreased during the same period from to 20 in ireland the proportion of men thus shown to be illiterate decreased from to 80 and of the tha women from to 76 in scotland men from to 16 and of women from to 16 15 scotch laborers keen for education scotland which furnishes wisdom to london as ireland furnishes it wit has ever lead in the general dis semi nation of education among its people even the agricultural laborers in the scotch constituency whom I 1 represented said a distinguished member of parliament were keen for education they were men whose wages in rent and money and what they got otherwise amounted to not more than a week they were great burly strong fellows well educated sandwith and with wives as keen as they were the cot wore were without a speck of dirt and with an abundance of books they road read and they thought there was the breaking down of this class barrier through education and father and son feeling they had much the same chance it was a matter of accident or of choice whether one went to a farm or to a learned profession the learned one was ono one who could manage a farm it if the pinch camo came and the farmer could adorn the learned profession both wore w ere keen democrats but in nothing so democratic as this they meant to have proper education for their children the tha democracy extended to student life also it may be assumed from the story told of doctor words worth the author of tho the greek gram mar and the originator of at thit that later inter esting and diverting educational spectacle the oxford cambridge cricket match coming from england to scotland to tako take the headship of a college la in Gle nalmond he be was struck by the tha absence of awe awa in boys or 1 oven even of ordinary respect re for the ono One scotch lad came up tip to him after a lesson and said can you tell me where I 1 can get some good worms I 1 am going out fishing I 1 rig public public schools gaining private losing A notable sign of educational change Is the increase in the attendance atton dance upon the council or state public schools in great britain na as compared with the attendance upon the voluntary or private schools five years ago children were in attendance upon the council schools this year an increase of the attend ance upon the voluntary schools had decre decreased aged during the same period falling off from to felir principles are involved in the states support odthe of the council schoola as outlined la in the elementary school program of the tha alb aral party full and complete comp loto popular control and no religious test for teachers every parent to have opportunity to send his child to a council school either the school to Is to be taken to the child or the iho child to tho the school where deno denominational m t teaching is permitted none 0 of tho cost Is to bo be paid bald by taxation a recognition of the value of bible teaching around these principles much contention rages in the political world universal education the alm aim the new education in great britain la Is slowly moving to the provision ot of the equality of training which is the only basla basis ot at a true democracy which forbids the conception of tho the elementary school for tho mass the secondary school tor for the selected classes and the universities for the tha few destined by inheritance or environment to td be the tha leaders ot of the poo peo ale tho the new education is universal education of all for the tha service of all it if the prophets of the now new education speak the truth it ib will make maho a greater britain instead of a little england educational progress la Is slow however la in this land new educational cat ional ideas find acceptance only when thoy they become old but no finer material for educational experiment exists in tomorrows world it may bo be a briton from the council schools of today who yesterday would I 1 lave been dented denied opportunity of living hla his life who shall call tho the nations to yet higher things New botts tt tribute to tho the handful of school graduates of at yesterday in england may aay be true will bo be true of tho the scores of at school graduates of at tomorrow tho the sand band of the desert la Is sodden red red with the wreck of a square that broko broke the Gattl Gat jammed and tho the colony colono dead and tho the regiment blind with dual aud and tho the river of death has brimmed hia hl bante bank and En glands far and honor 0 8 name but the voice oc a schoolboy rallies tho the ranks flap up cupl I 1 play cupl and play tha ta gamell gamel copyright W by jot h B D bowles ll |