Elementary Education | Nature

Elementary Education | Nature

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ABSTRACT LORD NORTON and his friends seem determined to take eyery opportunity of hunting down the present system of education in Government elementary schools Last week the subject was again introduced in the House of Lords, with, as before, an unsatisfactory result. The action of Government with reference to Scottish educational endowments is rather an impressive commentary on the conduct of the obstructives who are so anxious to reduce the standard of education in England. The effect of the Scotch measure will be greatly to extend the means of education for those who usually attend Board Schools, placing as it does at their disposal the education to be obtained in secondary schools, an advantage, we should think, likely to be largely taken advantage of. Until some similar course be taken with reference to England, where so many valuable educational endowments have been diverted from their legitimate purpose, it seems to us cruel rigidly to limit the function of elementary schools in reference to pupils of exceptional promise. Still more cruel is it to turn out the great bulk of the children with an education quite unworthy of the name, and which renders them little better fitted to cope with their surroundings than if they were entirely unlettered. It is our bounden duty, since we insist on keeping children at school till a certain age, to do the best we can for them; and to turn them out equipped with nothing more useful than the three R's is a mere mockery of education. If reading at all events, is to be a really useful acquisition, let us make them understand that there are things quite as wonderful and quite as well worth reading about as the horrors of the penny dreadfuls. Many of these children the working men and working women of the future? will have but little time to put the three R's to much use, whereas if well grounded in the elements of one or two of the most useful of the sciences, they will have a continual source of pleasure within themselves, requiring neither books nor pens, but only the exercise of thoughtful observation. That education is admittedly the best which enables one to cope most successfully with the difficulties of his surroundings, and we cannot see how any candid man will deny that for this purpose an accurate training in the science of common things is worth all the books in the world. That the Government system as at present established commends itself to the sense of the people is clear from the fact that Government schools are practically killing all competitors. As to the dread of the over-education of the people, this is a bogy which only needs to be stared at to vanish. Do we find any lack of men and women to do all sorts of work in Germany or France, or in any other country where the people have a really substantial education? In nearly every county of the kingdom are local scientific societies, many of which are composed mainly of working men who have educated themselves into whatever they may know of science; but we have yet to hear that they are more discontented with their position than unlettered Hodge. The real truth is, as is too clearly shown on the Continent, the better educated the working man is, the better workman does he turn out to be. The great mistake is to confound a smattering with a grounding, and this, it seems to us, is the mistake made by Lord Norton and those who side with him, and possibly may account for the opposition to the Fourth Schedule. The exclusive use of such a reading-book as Lord Norton threatens to compile would be the best help to a smattering education; a very few hours a week devoted to a few well-selected experiments, the judicious use of specimens and diagrams, a little training of the observing faculties of children, and the systematic teaching of the great elementary facts of one or two sciences would be a welcome relief to the pupils, and would do far more for their real education than a library of reading-books. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Subscribe to this journal Receive 51 print issues and online access $199.00 per year only $3.90 per issue Learn more Buy this article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE _Elementary Education_ . _Nature_ 22, 237–238 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022237b0 Download citation * Issue Date: 15 July 1880 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022237b0 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. 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ABSTRACT LORD NORTON and his friends seem determined to take eyery opportunity of hunting down the present system of education in Government elementary schools Last week the subject was


again introduced in the House of Lords, with, as before, an unsatisfactory result. The action of Government with reference to Scottish educational endowments is rather an impressive


commentary on the conduct of the obstructives who are so anxious to reduce the standard of education in England. The effect of the Scotch measure will be greatly to extend the means of


education for those who usually attend Board Schools, placing as it does at their disposal the education to be obtained in secondary schools, an advantage, we should think, likely to be


largely taken advantage of. Until some similar course be taken with reference to England, where so many valuable educational endowments have been diverted from their legitimate purpose, it


seems to us cruel rigidly to limit the function of elementary schools in reference to pupils of exceptional promise. Still more cruel is it to turn out the great bulk of the children with an


education quite unworthy of the name, and which renders them little better fitted to cope with their surroundings than if they were entirely unlettered. It is our bounden duty, since we


insist on keeping children at school till a certain age, to do the best we can for them; and to turn them out equipped with nothing more useful than the three R's is a mere mockery of


education. If reading at all events, is to be a really useful acquisition, let us make them understand that there are things quite as wonderful and quite as well worth reading about as the


horrors of the penny dreadfuls. Many of these children the working men and working women of the future? will have but little time to put the three R's to much use, whereas if well


grounded in the elements of one or two of the most useful of the sciences, they will have a continual source of pleasure within themselves, requiring neither books nor pens, but only the


exercise of thoughtful observation. That education is admittedly the best which enables one to cope most successfully with the difficulties of his surroundings, and we cannot see how any


candid man will deny that for this purpose an accurate training in the science of common things is worth all the books in the world. That the Government system as at present established


commends itself to the sense of the people is clear from the fact that Government schools are practically killing all competitors. As to the dread of the over-education of the people, this


is a bogy which only needs to be stared at to vanish. Do we find any lack of men and women to do all sorts of work in Germany or France, or in any other country where the people have a


really substantial education? In nearly every county of the kingdom are local scientific societies, many of which are composed mainly of working men who have educated themselves into


whatever they may know of science; but we have yet to hear that they are more discontented with their position than unlettered Hodge. The real truth is, as is too clearly shown on the


Continent, the better educated the working man is, the better workman does he turn out to be. The great mistake is to confound a smattering with a grounding, and this, it seems to us, is the


mistake made by Lord Norton and those who side with him, and possibly may account for the opposition to the Fourth Schedule. The exclusive use of such a reading-book as Lord Norton


threatens to compile would be the best help to a smattering education; a very few hours a week devoted to a few well-selected experiments, the judicious use of specimens and diagrams, a


little training of the observing faculties of children, and the systematic teaching of the great elementary facts of one or two sciences would be a welcome relief to the pupils, and would do


far more for their real education than a library of reading-books. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution


ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Subscribe to this journal Receive 51 print issues and online access $199.00 per year only $3.90 per issue Learn more Buy this article *


Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn


about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE _Elementary Education_ .


_Nature_ 22, 237–238 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022237b0 Download citation * Issue Date: 15 July 1880 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022237b0 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the


following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer


Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative