committee in connection with them in England, on which the Colonial Office should be represented.

The Crown Agents might enter and examine intending pupils, arrange passages at the pupils' expense and collect their fees. Halfyearly they should send every educational authority, including Civil Service tutors, full particulars as to the fees, curriculum and mode of entering these Institutes, and should advertise them through the Press. These circulars should, as the Transvaal is a Crown Colony, be sent out, in the first instance, with a covering letter from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. "Out classes" in which certificates should be given, should, as is done at Cirencester Royal Agricultural College, be provided at the Institutes for students over twenty only wishing to take a part of the course.

The preparatory school for Dutch pupils might, as at Magdalen and New Colleges, Oxford, be established near Frankenwald, as the practising school and hostel recommended by the Transvaal Commission's Report 1 in connection with the normal school. It should be under the governing body of the Institutes, or of the director of the normal school.

For English pupils over seventeen I would fix the annual fees at any of the Institutes, inclusive for twelve full months, at £150 at most.

Finally, I would urge that, in order to render Frankenwald popular from the outset both in England and amongst the Dutch Afrikanders, 2 it should be constituted by Royal Charter as "The King's College' of All Souls, Transvaal," in memory of all who fell for Africa on either side during the late war. The preamble of the Charter might be modelled on that of All Souls, Oxford, the remainder on that of Trinity College, Dublin, which constitutes that college both as a college in the ordinary sense and as a university of Dublin, with the power of granting degrees and of incorporating other colleges. The Royal Charter should name the governing body, which should include some of the Dutch generals and Ministers who fought against us to the last, and also some honorary fellows to serve as a Committee in England. By adopting the title of "College," many weary discussions as to the creation of faculties in law, medicine, and theology would be spared us. Special provision should be made for the instruction in modern languages, both in a practical and in a literary way. These should include from the first Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, with perhaps Russian later on. Provision should also be made for teaching Sesuto or Zulu, as these furnish the key to all the native Bantu languages south of the Nile basin, including Suahili, and possibly Sechuana. Finally, the founders would do well to consider the advisability of offering scholarships, with employment guaranteed afterwards, if the 1 Report quoted, p. 9.

'Their approval of this name, however, is very doubtful, but is indispensable.

college examinations are satisfactorily passed, to two boys from each school, chosen by their headmasters from amongst the school élite of Eton, Winchester, Harrow, and Haileybury, boys of the type of those who have shown their skill and tact as Captains of the Boats at Eton, Captains of the Eleven at Winchester, or Presidents of the Debating Society at Harrow. Such a nucleus of students would serve to mould the tone of the Institutes from the outset, and would serve to give them prestige amongst that class of well-bred English boys to whom they might prove of such lasting good. The arrangement could not well prejudice the success of the negotiations between Mr. Hennen Jennings' friends and the School of Mines, as it can hardly be supposed that all vacancies on mining staffs occurring in South Africa would be pledged to students sent out under that scheme in advance. No price could be too great to pay for sending out some of the flower of English youths to be in the first years of their manhood missionaries of peace to the South African youth, and, in after life, to do their duty to South Africa as good servants in Church and State. South Africa knows well that the sons of Eton have not forgotten the meaning of the lilies blazoned on her shield.

We may not be able to transport, as on the carpet of the Arabian tale, the buildings of Eton, of Oxford, or of Cambridge to the Veldt, although within forty years of the Spanish conquest of Mexico her University was lodged in a palace; and Hernan Cortez's castle at Cuernavaca (built in 1523) might well, if expense would permit, serve as a model for Frankenwald, but we can bear their spirit in their sons across the seas.

HUBERT READE.

THE MOSELY EDUCATIONAL

COMMISSION.

THE recently issued report of the Mosely Educational Commission contains a considerable amount of information valuable alike to the teachers and to the general public of this country. It contains as well, one must admit, a somewhat startling diversity of opinion on even fundamental points. Some of the Commissioners paint in rosy hues the progress of our cousins across the Atlantic, and make us tremble at our shortcomings; others again tell us that educational matters at home are not by any means so far behind as many would have us believe. At one moment we are confronted with such statements as these: "The aim of the American school is the education of all; that of the English, the instruction of the few" (Reichel), or "What struck me was the success attained in making the scholars self-reliant, in bringing out their individual qualities, and teaching them to reason" (Mosely.) The other side of the picture tells a different tale. "American education in some respects lacks depth and practical outlook to a strange extent " (Armstrong). "The quality of work in the schools is distinctly mediocre. In some respects probably the average work is better than ours, but I saw little or none that an English examiner or inspector would call good" (Fletcher). Perhaps the truth, as it usually does, lies between these extremes. The panegyrics of the one critic, and the wailings of his neighbour seem equally removed from the real facts of the

case.

The Joint Report signed by all the members, and containing their conclusions as a body, may be fairly assumed to contain the principal features in which education in America surpasses the homegrown article. First and foremost they put the American belief in the value of education. From the highest standpoint it is admitted to be the birthright of every human being, and from the lowest point of view it is a valuable marketable commodity worth more or less dollars according to the amount of it you may possess. Nearly every Commissioner in his individual report also is emphatic about the trustworthiness of this belief. Professor Armstrong, however, qualifies his admission of the general report by giving his opinion that, "the belief in secondary education is probably no greater than This also in despite of the fact that a well-developed public high school system is what distinguishes America most from us, and

ours.

puts her in front." That there seems a deal of truth in this is borne out by the fact that in New York 45 per cent. of those entering the high school do not pass through the first year. Precisely the same difficulty occurs in our own secondary schools, and the above percentage would almost hold good for the school in which the present writer is a master. Our figures for first year pupils coming from the elementary schools are about 220. Of these barely one-half enter the second year, and the decrease for the third and fourth years is even greater. This unsatisfactory state of things has lately been brought before the attention of governing bodies by the Board of Education, and a great falling off in the numbers attending the more advanced classes is now punishable by a decrease of grant. In the case of America the explanation of the leakage is that, although their systems of primary and secondary education are better co-ordinated than ours, yet the subjects taught are not in themselves properly dovetailed. The primary curriculum is frequently of so elementary a character as not to stretch the powers of the children adequately, and, as a consequence they have too little intellectual grit to face the more disciplinary work of the high school. Of the primary schools one Commissioner remarks, "There is a loss of time as children do not begin the more difficult and testing subjects that belong to a secondary curriculum until they are fourteen. In the opinion of several members of the Commission, a loss of at least two years was made in this way." Another member dealing with the same point declares, "It seemed pitiful to see great boys and girls of fourteen and fiffteen doing work fit only for children of eleven and twelve." This seems further aggravated in the case of the high schools by the prevalence of half-yearly courses in certain subjects, and then in many cases the complete dropping of them. We are told for instance that in many schools English is the only subject consistently carried through a four years' course. In this respect our secondary schools can show a much better example, as there is far less nibbling about a subject, although our list of subjects is still far too varied in the opinion of many practical

teachers.

Another evil from which our schools are practically free is the profuse "elective" system allowed in the American high school. There the "soft option," as one may naturally expect, leads to a considerable amount of abuse. So far as I am aware an "elective" subject is rarely permitted before at least the third or fourth year, in our secondary schools, and even then it is seldom found. What takes its place with us is that the additional time, got by dropping one or more subjects, is given to the other subjects which the pupils have already been studying, and not to the learning of a few snippets from any new subject. The absence of examinations in America does away, of course, with any necessity on their part for doing what

we have to do for our more advanced pupils. Unfortunately we have no "accredited" schools as yet, and consequently the special preparation of pupils for the entrance examinations of colleges must form for us an important part of the most advanced secondary school work. This American plan of "accredited" schools is, by the way, one which might be adopted in our country with every advantage. There seems no reason why schools of a certain standard should not be able to pass their pupils of the highest class directly on to the college without the irritating necessity of an intervening examination. The standard required of such schools could be left open to the criticism of the college authorities, so that the danger of their getting poorly prepared students could easily be reduced to a minimum. In addition, the status of all schools aspiring to such distinction, would undoubtedly be raised, while the friction, caused in having frequently to arrange their syllabuses to suit college requirements, would largely disappear. I refer to the tendency which exists for matriculation examiners demanding a special knowledge of prescribed books. Such a demand on their part very often compels a headmaster to adopt these text-books for class purposes quite apart from considerations of their suitability.

Another matter upon which the sincerity of the American belief in education may well be called to account is the question of teachers' salaries. There must be "something rotten in the state of Denmark" when we have such facts as these emphasised. "In secondary education the teachers are so poorly paid by the State that the teaching profession has ceased to be a career at all." That is so far as men are concerned. The figures given are even more eloquent. "Seven per cent. of the male teachers stay in the profession more than five years, and not more than 5 per cent. make it their life's vocation." The natural result is, of course, the preponderance the amazing preponderance one may add-of women teachers. Fully 92 per cent. of all the teachers in the primary schools are females." In the City Normal School of New York there were 217 students when that institution was visited by the Commissioners, and of that number six were men. One Commissioner gives this startling condition of things as one of the causes for "the distinctly low average of attainment in American high schools." We might not be far wrong in concluding that it is the cause and not merely one of them, for the other reason which he gives is the prevalence of mixed classes. Now so far as our own country is concerned such classes do not imply any such grave imputation as that of a low average of attainment. Personally from ten years' experience of similar classes in a secondary school I cannot think that this factor should have the weight attached to it that is given by Professor Armstrong. In venturing to differ, it is, of course, supposed that the difficulties of mixed classes are practically the VOL. 162.-No. 5.

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