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Norwood (1943) Notes on the text
Part I Secondary education
Part II Examinations
Part III Curriculum
Conclusions and recommendations
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The Norwood Report (1943)
Curriculum and examinations in secondary schools Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1941 London: HM Stationery Office 1943
Chapter 8 The curriculum in general
We pass to the considerations which in our opinion must be taken into account in determining the curriculum of the secondary grammar school of the future. At the outset it must be stated that we have no intention of treating the curriculum with any attempt at exhaustiveness. We shall not trace the historical causes which have shaped it; nor are we concerned to discuss fully its underlying principles. Details of technique or method fall outside our purpose, for we regard them as matters for the individual teacher. The purpose of the chapters which follow is limited; starting from a fundamental principle inherent in Part I we wish to draw out its implications for the framing of curricula and for a method of approach to the teaching of the various subjects. The basic principle of the curriculum We take as a basic principle our belief that the purpose of education is to provide the nurture and the environment which will enable the child to grow aright and to grow eventually to full stature, to bring to full flowering the varying potentialities, physical, spiritual and intellectual of which he is capable as an individual and as a member of society. To this end we postulated in an earlier chapter that there should be varied forms of secondary education; to this end also we now assume that within the form of secondary education with which we are concerned, the grammar school, there should be freedom to frame curricula which will do justice to varying needs and will give opportunity to realise the powers that are in the child. The child is to grow aright and to grow eventually to full stature; but he starts with the stature of a child, physical, spiritual and intellectual. His experience and his interests are limited; to some extent they differ according to the nature of his home and the environment of| his home. They must widen naturally as he grows; attempts to enlarge them hurriedly or prematurely for particular ends can bring nothing but the loss arising from forced growth. Thus the belief in the child as the centre of all education gives a perspective and a vision to education. It assigns to their right place, as means to an end all the organisation and paraphernalia of education, schemes of work, subjects and examinations and the rest, and compels attention to the overriding purpose of them all; it opens up to teachers the limitless opportunities of supplying the nurture suited for individual growth rather than of coercing into a mould, and it offers a warning to all who would impose upon children the outlook and interests and responsibilities of an adult. We go on to draw out certain implications of this belief as far as they relate to curriculum. The claims of new subjects: education for life Much evidence has been submitted to us which urges the claims of many subjects and topics of teaching for inclusion in the curriculum. We have given much consideration to that evidence, though it soon became apparent that, if all the claims were to be met, the school week would be insufficient for the new subjects without taking into account the old. Running through such pleas as a common element is the desire that education shall equip pupils to meet the conditions amid which they will later live their lives, in fact to prepare them for life; the pleas differ as regards that aspect of life for which preparation should be made. Attention is drawn to the duty of the individual to take an informed interest in international relations, in the economic and social structure of society, in government and administration, local and central, to be instructed in the history and economic resources of other countries, especially the newer countries, to be trained to recognise and resist propaganda and partisanship and the appeal of the printed word merely because it is printed. Others emphasise preparation for a livelihood and urge that vocational training should find a larger provision in all schools. Others again have in mind the right use of leisure and ask that pupils shall be equipped by the right training at school to employ their free time to advantage. Others point to specific situations for which school should prepare by instruction in first aid, in seamanship and agricultural work, in cooking (for boys), in carpentry (for girls), in mothercraft for elder girls. The list could be much extended. With the general motive running through these claims all sympathy must be felt, for education must prepare for life: indeed that is its purpose. Nonetheless such sympathy must be qualified by two considerations. In the first place we do not believe that life in its many phases can be anticipated, to the extent often suggested, by children at school through specific training to meet contingencies and situations. We remind ourselves that the pupil must grow into an enlarged experience, and that premature attempts to deal with aspects of life beyond his experience can lead only to unreality and so will defeat their own purpose. Secondly, the very subjects and topics proposed to us for special attention themselves depend for their study and appreciation upon the ordinary subjects of the curriculum, which would be largely displaced if all the matters for which we have received claims were to become the subject matter of direct instruction. At least some knowledge of past history and of geography are necessary to an acquaintance with international affairs or with social and economic history or with American or Colonial history; vocational training needs knowledge of mathematics or languages or science. There is real danger that in the end the superstructure will become too heavy for the shrunken foundations, or that in preoccupation with ulterior purposes to meet specific ends the immediate requirements of the pupil for general purposes will not be satisfied. Education and an 'enlightened and instructed public opinion' In some of the evidence submitted to us we detect a tendency to suppose that the problems which will engage the attention of the nation after the war can be solved or partly solved in the schools. At the root of this supposition lies the belief that the solution of these problems depends upon an enlightened and instructed public opinion, and that in forming such public opinion a beginning should be made in the period of school life. Again with this point of view we have much sympathy, for we regard it as of supreme importance that the schools should send out pupils who will later be sensitive to such problems and perhaps able to help in their solution. But we could not follow some of our witnesses as far as they would wish to lead us; for we remember, first, that the interests and experience and mental grasp of the child are not those of the man, and secondly, that an enlightened public opinion does not depend wholly upon instruction in the problems or their data, but upon much else besides which is antecedent (both in logic and in experience) and seemingly irrelevant to those problems. We view the matter thus. The school is a society of young people from 11 years of age to 18 years of age. It fosters within itself a life of its own which is dependent on the cooperation, the disciplined effort, the goodwill and good understanding of all its members. Within that life it can do much to call out in a sphere which has its limits, and in situations with which it can cope, qualities of sympathy and understanding, to create a sense of duty and obligation - in short, to achieve the spirit from which a successful common life is derived. Through the work of the classroom and of 'societies' it can provide the basis of knowledge which judgement must use as its material, and can develop an attitude of enquiry into facts and critical evaluation of judgements made upon them. Knowledge and enquiry and criticism together foster the intellectual aliveness which should be a characteristic of the secondary grammar school. These qualities of spirit and these habits of mind we regard as an indispensable preparation for an enlightened public opinion; and the contributors of the evidence to which we have referred would doubtless agree. It is when we pass to the consideration of the contribution which a school can make to instructed public opinion that we cannot follow them all the way. The child, and the child regarded as potential citizen and not as actual citizen, is the centre of education, and the processes of education must develop as his experience and interests widen and his powers grow strong. Nothing but harm can result, in our opinion, from attempts to interest pupils prematurely in matters which imply the experience of an adult - immediate harm to the pupil from forcing of interest, harm in the long run to the purpose in view from his unfavourable reaction. Admittedly, a stage is reached in the child's growth when his immediate environment of home and school widens and his interest stretches out to a larger world and its problems; but this stage is reached at different ages and the degree of interest varies greatly. For most pupils the widening of horizon proceeds most naturally and therefore most securely from their immediate interests and from their ordinary work. Further, however an instructed public opinion may be formed after the age of school, we are sure that at school no ready-made solutions ought to be imposed upon children. The problems are complex, the facts to be reviewed and the considerations to be taken into account are very large, and over-simplification carries its own dangers. To sum up, a school can make its best contribution to this end if (i) it fosters the qualities of a sympathetic and understanding mind and a sense of responsibility,The first three are achieved most effectively through the ordinary life and work of the school directed and handled with consciousness of the end in view; the fourth should be the subject of further direct attack in the forms containing the older pupils. Education for citizenship In this connection we wish to consider one of the many topics which have been brought to our attention for inclusion in the curriculum, namely education for citizenship. From what has already been said we hope it is clear that we regard it as of vital importance that education should give boys and girls a preparation for their life as citizens. We agree with the contention of the evidence which has reached us that British men and women should have clearer conceptions of the institutions of their country, how it is governed and administered centrally and locally, of the British Commonwealth and its origins and working, and of the present social and economic structure, and that they should realise their duties and responsibilities as members of these smaller and greater units of society. Of all this we have no doubt. But we remind ourselves that the growth from childhood to adolescence and so to citizenship is a gradual process and that, if the later stages are to be sound, the earlier stages cannot be forcibly hurried through. The practical problem is to discover how much can appropriately be taught to children at different stages of their development and how that teaching can best be given. Our own belief may be shortly put thus. Teaching of the kind desired can best be given incidentally, by appropriate illustration and comment and digression, through the ordinary school subjects, particularly history, geography, English and foreign languages and literatures, Nevertheless lessons devoted explicitly to public affairs can suitably be given to older boys and girls certainly at the sixth form stage, and probably immediately before this stage. The most valuable influence for developing that sense of responsibility without which any amount of sheer information is of little benefit is the general spirit and outlook of the school - what is sometimes called the 'tone' of the school. At the moment we make no further observations on this brief statement; for it is one of the purposes of the chapters which follow to amplify and develop it indirectly. Some suggested new subjects The principle from which we started helps us to view in some perspective claims advanced for other subjects as a necessary part of the curriculum: some of such subjects are economics, social studies, Colonial history, American history, Russian history, comparative religion, ethics, clear thinking. The claims of some of these can be met in so far as it is desirable and possible to meet them in schools by a change of emphasis and a reconsideration of the content in history and geography; and the greater freedom which we hope will be available to teachers would give scope for changes of this sort. But again we would urge that the best approach is through the existing subjects. Ethics is not a suitable subject for formal study in schools, except as it arises in the course of the ordinary work of the sixth form. Comparative religion is beyond the range of boys and girls of secondary school age. If a need is felt for special lessons in clear thinking, it would seem to indicate that for some reason or other the subject matter of the traditional subjects, which after all represent great provinces of human thought, is not used to advantage; lessons in logic divorced from the content of the material of lessons in those subjects does not seem to us likely to satisfy the need or to give back to those lessons what was clearly deficient in them. Again, suggestions have been made for set instruction in certain skills and for the imparting of certain information which in our opinion are best acquired elsewhere than in the classroom - in societies and clubs, in voluntary classes and through out-of-door activities, in camp, in school journeys and visits. Much was done in this way before the war; but the many and miscellaneous 'jobs' which schools have since undertaken and the improvisation to which they have been put and the widened opportunities of evacuated schools have reinforced their belief in the educational value of such activities. Direct instruction in the classroom is liable to formalise and so to turn into channels of set task and routine what is best left to a freer treatment. The problem of framing a curriculum We conclude, then, that new subjects are not required in the curriculum, and we return to the position from which we started - that education is to provide the nurture and the environment in which the child shall grow aright and shall grow eventually to full stature and to develop the powers physical, spiritual and intellectual of which he is capable. As far as these powers can be developed by the curriculum, it must meet the needs of the pupil and must provide for the discovery and the satisfaction of special interests, aptitudes and skills. This process of discovery would start in the primary school, be continued into the lower school of the secondary grammar school, and by the time the age of 13+ was reached some indication as to interests and inclinations would have declared itself. These individual interests and capacities it is the function of the curriculum of the grammar school to develop, but it is essential to that development that a training should be given in certain skills and in the acquisition of certain knowledge which are necessary to communication and to the ordinary affairs of life and social relationships. Of this essential training we treat later. The curriculum then must do justice to the needs of the pupil, physical, spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic, practical, social. This is the problem which those who construct curricula have to face. Their task is not easy, for they recognise that the needs of pupils vary considerably, and they have to reconcile the satisfaction of the varying needs with practical considerations of the timetable, and the limits imposed by staff and buildings. Nonetheless it is from the ideal that any discussion of the curriculum must proceed; and in the light of it we propose to consider certain other statements sometimes advanced about the curriculum. Parity of subjects It is sometimes said that within the curriculum there should be parity of subjects. We do not enquire into the origin of this idea, but we must admit that it seems to us to mean only one thing, and that so obvious as to be almost a truism. We take it to mean that it is equally open to any subject for which provision is normally made in the school to be included, or to rank as a major subject, in the curriculum of a pupil, if it is to the best interest of the pupil that it should be included or should so rank. But in this there is no implication that every subject must necessarily find a place in the curriculum of every school or pupil, or that it must be continuously taught or that it should run throughout the school. Too much attention has been paid to the 'weighting' of subjects in relation to each other as though they had claims of their own, independent of the needs of the pupil. Balance In the same way the phrases 'the balance of the curriculum' and 'breadth of curriculum' and 'all-round curriculum' seem to be misleading and indeed to have misled. The phrase 'the balance of curriculum' throws the emphasis in the wrong place; subjects are not in themselves complementary or antithetic or even antidotic to one another, as they sometimes seem to be regarded; a broad curriculum is not necessarily one in which a large number of subjects is carried continuously through successive forms; nor, we suspect, is the all-round pupil as common as is often assumed when curricula are under construction. To say that a pupil who gives much time to natural science should also give some time to English does not mean that of itself natural science needs an antidote in the shape of English; but that on the whole, and only on the whole, the scientific interests of pupils, if wrongly guided, attract their attention away from general reading and from standards of clear and easy expression. The curriculum cannot be balanced by opposing, say, art or music to the study of languages or mathematics. A broad education might be based upon very few subjects handled by a teacher with breadth of outlook. We labour this point because we feel that we are here dealing not merely with a kind of shorthand employed for brevity's sake by those who are engaged in teaching, but with something which has gone deeper, namely a tendency to regard subjects as having claims in their own right both absolutely and in relation to others without real regard for the supreme consideration, which is the special needs and special aptitudes and abilities of the pupils themselves. In the same way we think it difficult to find any principle of what is called integrating the curriculum if it is to take place round a subject or a group of subjects, still less round a single idea, as, for example, leisure or self-expression or activity or citizenship. If anything is to be integrated, it is not the curriculum that must be integrated, but the personality of the child; and this can be brought about, not by adjustment of subjects as such, but by the realisation of his purpose as a human being, which in turn can be brought about only by contact with minds conscious of a purpose for him. Only the teacher can make a unity of a child's education by promoting the unity of his personality in terms of purpose. Specialism From what has been said it will have been seen that we deplore the exaggerated importance which to our minds has been given to subjects as such. They seem to have built round themselves vested interests and rights of their own; their prestige is not felt to be as high as it should be if they do not run continuously up the school or receive equal attention in the School Certificate examination, and, as a result, a certain sensitiveness has been created. There seem to be two main reasons for this; the first is that subjects are largely taught by specialists who rightly attach importance to the subject they teach; the second is that the inclusion of the subject in the syllabus of the School Certificate examination and the number of pupils who take it as candidates in that examination are apt to be taken as measures of the degree of recognition accorded to the subject. Two results seem to have followed. In the first place, subjects have tended to become preserves, belonging to specialist teachers; barriers have been erected between them, and teachers have felt unqualified or not free to trespass upon the dominions of other teachers. The specific values of each subject have been pressed to the neglect of values common to several or all. The school course has come to resemble the 'hundred yards' course, each subject following a track marked off from the others by a tape. In the meantime, we feel, the child is apt to be forgotten. In the second place, a certain sameness in the curricula of schools seems to have resulted from the double necessity of finding a place for the many subjects competing for time in the curriculum and the need to teach those subjects in such a way and to such a standard as will ensure success in the School Certificate examination. Under these necessities the curriculum has settled down into an uneasy equilibrium, the demands of specialists and subjects and examinations being nicely adjusted and compensated. Although we have expressed ourselves strongly, we realise that there is much devoted teaching in which the needs of the individual child take precedence over every other consideration. Nor do we wish to minimise the good which has been done by the work of teachers who have devoted all their efforts to the study and practice of a particular subject and have taught it as specialist teachers. To them is due in large measure the rethinking of aim and method and content in all subjects of the curriculum which has been so marked a feature of secondary education, and to them has been due the creation of standards. This has all been most valuable work. We know, too, that there are head masters and head mistresses who, in spite of the limitations under which they work, succeed in planning curricula which pay regard to the special needs of pupils and make the most of the special gifts of individual teachers. But, after making all allowance, we still feel that specialist claims have created specialist minds which have tended to see education as divided into compartments or departments preoccupied with specific ends; and in these circumstances ends common to several subjects or to all have come to receive less than their due attention. With greater freedom in secondary schools, with the opportunity of less specialised courses in universities and training departments and with a growing appreciation of the fundamental purpose of education, we hope the time is not far distant when specialism, while retaining special knowledge, will look beyond its own limits and have more general regard for the pupil's needs as a whole. We agree that for most subjects distinctive and specific values and ends and means to those ends can be claimed. Mathematics and modern languages are aiming at different things, their concepts and symbols and methods are different; nonetheless there is a sense in which as educational media they are pursuing the same ends. In the same way, the study of English literature and art are sometimes put by framers of curricula in different camps, roughly labelled literary and intellectual on the one hand and practical and aesthetic on the other; but, as is obvious, there is much common ground, literature making an aesthetic appeal, while art may present severe intellectual problems for solution. It is precisely the common aims and common ground which we feel are in danger of being neglected, and yet this common ground is the seedbed of sound learning, and therefore needs most careful tilling in the lower forms. We would ourselves ask for less learning and more soundness, and we feel much sympathy with the exaggeration of the parent who says that he does not care what his boy is taught so long as he is well taught. Sound learning Sound learning is more easily recognised than defined. Every teacher knows it - when, for example, he comes out of his class with the conscious conviction that, no matter if his boys forget what he has just passed on to them as information, no matter what they are going to be, no matter whether the lesson is capable of being turned to direct use or not, nevertheless it was good for both teacher and class to be there, engaged together on something of value. An interviewer, an oral examiner, a parent can detect when a boy talks with easy mastery about something he knows as though it were part of him and of real meaning to him, and not half-digested or learned merely by rote, possibly for use on just such an occasion. A pupil himself, whenever he reflects upon such a matter, knows when on any tract of study he is sure of himself, when knowledge has been assimilated and significance grasped for more than temporary purposes. In sound learning content is of less importance than the disciplines which all systematic effort, mental or otherwise, imposes on those who make it. Effort expends itself on material, and the material is provided by the basic ideas of the main departments of human knowledge to which the pupil is introduced. To change the metaphor, the tools necessary for thought and communication, for measurement and comparison, are forged and their use is demonstrated and practised. From sure grasp of material and the practised use of tools upon it there results sound learning - the power to distinguish between what is known and half-known, ease of movement within a limited area, the application of a fact or a method learnt in one context to the needs of another context, a belief that small things matter, detection of relevance, accuracy and precision, satisfaction with a small task well done, dislike of pretentiousness, honesty of thought and sincerity in expression. These may sound ambitious terms to apply to the work of a child of eleven or fourteen years of age; they stand nonetheless for something which at humble levels the schoolmaster can detect, in which he rejoices and in which he finds his reward. It is this sound learning, we believe, which preoccupation with subjects tends to obscure. Preoccupation with subjects tends to throw them out of relation to one another and to result in the overweighting of syllabuses and the pursuit of particular ends to the exclusion of common purposes. There is no intention of neglecting sound learning; rather it has been lost sight of because it has been assumed. And in the interest of his pupils no schoolmaster, whatever his subject, must take it for granted, for it is of the essence of his task. Only if his eye is all the time upon this, is he at liberty to stress the specific values of a subject. The form master At this point we pause to consider a topic to which we attach much importance as being fundamental to the argument which we have hitherto pursued; consideration of it is a necessary preliminary to our further remarks on curriculum and the subjects comprising it. The thread running through this chapter so far has been that the child is the centre of education, and that the curriculum and the treatment of the curriculum are to be fitted to his needs: that subjects exist for the child and not the child for subjects. The implication of this doctrine for the teacher is very great; it affects his outlook, his equipment and training, the conditions under which his work is arranged, his conduct of lessons. While it is not our task to consider in any detail the university and professional training of teachers, we must of necessity set out our views upon certain aspects of this training. We believe that the reinstatement of the form master, in the old sense of the word, would prove of incalculable benefit to real education. This cannot be done merely by the recasting of timetables, which might result only in putting the teaching of several subjects into the hands of one teacher who was equipped neither by knowledge nor interest to deal with them. Nor can it be done by assigning forms of pupils to individual teachers only for convenience of organisation and for purposes of general discipline, as is sometimes the practice now. By the reinstatement of the form master we mean that each form of pupils would be the special care of one master, whose interest and work it would be to watch over the general development of his pupils in all spheres of school life; he would teach them in more than one subject, teaching those subjects with regard to the promotion of that sound learning of which we spoke above and having time at his disposal for the unhurried treatment of whatever seemed to him to need attention at the moment, For part of the week he would lend, as it were, his pupils to other masters to be taught other subjects, but he would retain active interest in the content and aims of the work, in the progress of his form and its individuals. Taking a synoptic view of the work of the form he would direct his own teaching to better advantage; because he saw more of his pupils than other masters, he would know more of them as boys and they would know him as a man as well as a teacher; he would be in a position to advise about many aspects of their school life because he had seen their life from their point of view. The form master, or the form, would have a form room, instinct in course of time with its own genius loci. We should regard the form master as essential to the best handling of the work of the lower and middle forms and desirable in the upper forms of the main school. Perhaps it will be objected that the placing of more than one subject in the hands of a form master would lead to a deterioration in the teaching of those subjects, that the initial stages of any subject should be entrusted to the most skilled specialists, that the modern technique of teaching each subject is so exacting that it is difficult for a teacher to master several, that equipment in knowledge and training - in short, 'qualifications' - would be deficient. To these objections we would reply as follows. If there is a risk of deterioration in the teaching of individual subjects, it is a risk which would be more than compensated by the tilling of that ground which is common to related subjects, a task which it would be a special object of the form master to carry out. The ultimate gain to the real education of the pupil would in our view more than offset any loss in performance in individual subjects; indeed it is more than probable that the effect on those subjects would in the long run be beneficial rather than harmful. Moreover, we do not regard it as an axiom that the necessary knowledge and technique to teach more than one subject with success is beyond the reach of most teachers, though we admit that there has been a tendency to believe that this is so. We take it that one of the functions of an honours course at a university is to give students such mastery of subject matter and methods in one field that they will have the curiosity and the power to adventure into adjoining, or even distant, fields of knowledge. Teachers have been confined, or have confined themselves, too rigidly within the limits of their 'paper' qualifications, and loss has resulted both to themselves and to the schools. Thus, two causes - there may be others - seem to have contributed to the rigidity of which we have spoken; the first is a feeling of diffidence in handling a subject which has not been taken in a degree course, the second is a feeling that lack of special training in the technique and methods of teaching a particular subject is necessarily a disqualification for teaching it. These are intelligible reasons, but we suggest that they are not as valid as they are often held to be. The good teacher must| at all times be a learner if he is to avoid staleness and eventually stagnation, and, if he has been trained in the methods appropriate to one subject, he should not find great difficulty in mastering the methods appropriate to the teaching of a related subject. Nonetheless we would advocate the more general institution at universities of degree courses which allow two or three subjects to be| taken at a 'general honours' level. It is not for us to recommend combinations of subjects, for we should not wish such courses to contain only students who intended to be teachers. From the point of view of the schools, English, Latin, Greek, divinity, history (including public affairs), modern languages, geography and art seem to be the subjects which would with greatest profit lend themselves to combinations which would offer at the same time a line of sufficiently unified study. Similarly we would recommend wider adoption of courses in natural science which would combine the special sciences, though, as we know, such courses already exist. In the schools the influence of students trained in such courses would be great. There are some students for whom specialised courses do not seem to be best suited as a means of developing their interests and abilities; they would profit through being able to move over a larger field, though admittedly with less depth of knowledge; they would handle several school subjects with added confidence, and they would bring a breadth of view into their teaching which would react upon their handling of those subjects. We must not be understood to imply that such a course is best suited for all students intending to be teachers; clearly some minds gain most profit from a university course of the more specialised type, and such minds are needed in schools. Nor would we wish to imply that the best course for a form master would necessarily include two or three subjects; clearly many men with qualifications in one subject only may make admirable form masters; our contention is that for many intending teachers a broader course would be of greater profit and that the schools also would gain from the presence of more teachers so educated. Nor should such education constitute a handicap to them in their career, for we believe that many men and women so educated would be well fitted to take up responsibility as heads of schools. In the same way we would advocate that students in training at university training departments should gain a closer acquaintance than is often the case at present with the general aims and technique of subjects other than that in which they have taken their degree. The presence in those departments of students who had followed general honours degree in the university would make the provision of such wider training desirable, indeed necessary; but perhaps those who actually need it most are graduates in one of the more specialised courses. We think that at present many students on completing their training are convinced that for the rest of their lives they can and must teach only one subject, and this belief has contributed to the specialist outlook so prevalent in schools. Their reading has been along one groove of interest, their training has often, we think, worn that groove deeper, till they feel, partly, that they are not qualified to stray out of it, partly, that they lose status and prestige if they do, being classed then as 'general practitioners'. But we would urge most earnestly that it is essential to the welfare of the schools that they should have on their staffs teachers of wide outlook - wide enough for them to realise that knowledge is one and to consider the pupil as a 'whole' man. Only thus, in our view, is any curriculum, however devised and delicately adjusted, likely to be integrated in any sense of any value. We have digressed thus for two reasons: first, to bring out certain implications of the previous argument of this chapter, secondly to prepare the way for the further remarks which we make on curriculum. We return therefore to our previous consideration of sound learning, and starting from it attempt to come to closer grips with the curriculum itself. Three elements of education There are three elements which are essential to a good education; we call them elements because they are not subjects in the usual sense of that word, though they nevertheless have their defined place in the curriculum. They are not limited to set hours or set places; they pervade the life of the school, in and out of the classroom, they are the concern of all who take a share to guiding its work and its play, and upon a right attitude towards them and upon a right treatment of them depends a major part of the achievement of the school in its primary task of realising the powers of the individual pupil and of equipping him as a member of society. These elements, which in our view are more than subjects because in one form or another they run through almost every activity, intellectual and other, which a school fosters, are (i) training of the body, (ii) training of character, (iii) training in habits of clear thought and clear expression of thought in the English language. In other words we maintain that every teacher, if he is to do the best for the pupils committed to his charge, must regard as within his province and as of supreme importance the attitude of each pupil to his own bodily welfare, to moral and spiritual ideals and to the clear and correct use of his own language. According to this view, no matter what may be the subject or subjects to which a teacher may give most of his time, the subject or subjects should be of minor importance to him compared with the general welfare of the 'whole' pupil, regarded as a being who is possessed of a physical body, who is moved by ideals of conduct and thought to a certain behaviour, individual and social, and who needs for the formation and expression of ideas a sure power of using his own language. (a) Physical welfare General policy as regards physical education in a school is the province of the head master; the carrying out of a scheme of physical training and games and sports and all those activities specially directed to this end is the responsibility of those specially qualified to undertake this task, and for this purpose school time will be set aside. In a later chapter of this Report further consideration is given to policy in regard to physical education and to the use of the periods so set apart. But at the moment we are anxious to stress the point that teachers as a whole can do much to influence the attitude of their pupils to physical health and well-being. Without being experts, without necessarily sharing in the conduct of school games, they can take such interest in the physical welfare of their pupils as to reinforce the efforts of those to whom it is a special concern. On their attitude to fresh air and good lighting, if only in their own classroom, to the activities of forms of individual pupils in the gymnasium or on the playing field, to evident fatigue in lesson hours, to defective nutrition, to posture and bearing, may depend to a large extent the success of the more direct and formal physical instruction; for on such care and interest may be built up the general attitude of the pupils themselves to all matters relating to physical well-being. Many teachers who have a strong call upon the respect or admiration of their pupils in intellectual matters could do incalculable good by making clear, if only by incidental evidence, that they set store by the physical welfare no less than the mental advancement of those whom they teach. (b) Ideals of character We take it for granted that it is part of the function of a school to set before its pupils ideals of character and of conduct, individual and social, and to provide through its own manifold activities means of realising in some measure and in varied ways the aspirations which in the last resort constitute the justification of these activities and furnish their motive power. Again we consider such matters to be the concern of all engaged in the work of the school, and to penetrate every department of its activities, whether inside the classroom or outside it. The outlook and the behaviour of the pupil, his standards and habits of judgement whether as an individual, as a member of the school community and later as a citizen, depend to great extent upon the nature of the influences which bear upon him at school; such influences are often most powerful when least consciously exerted. Growth in ideals takes place best in an environment in which those ideals find embodiment in everyday life, and to that spiritual environment every teacher can make his contribution. For the fashioning of such an environment many teachers will wish to provide a religious sanction and for that reason many will wish to take part in religious instruction. In a later chapter we draw a distinction between religious education and religious instruction and treat of both more fully; the point which we wish to make at this stage is that an environment which will foster the growth of ideals, spiritual, moral, aesthetic and intellectual, whether consciously rooted in religious sanction or not, cannot be fully created without the contribution of each teacher who shares the daily life of the school community. (c) English The third element of education which we postulate is training in English, that is, clear expression in English, both spoken and written, based on the logical arrangement of ideas. To such training every teacher has a contribution to make, and such contribution we hold to he of vital importance to the pupil and to the whole business of his education. Weighty evidence presented from varied quarters, and sometimes conflicting in other respects but agreeing in this, points to the need for improvement in the training given in English in the sense in which we used the term above. It has often been urged that English is the concern of all teachers, no matter what their subject, but we are compelled to stress once again the real need that this essential obligation should be carried out. Why the standard of English exhibited by the average Secondary School pupil should be such as to excite constant criticism has caused us much thought; special periods are set apart in the curriculum of schools for English, and a paper in English is taken by all candidates in the School Certificate examination. In our chapter on English we set out some reasons for the failure; at this point we would draw attention to what we believe to be one of them. Of recent years greater emphasis has been placed on the teaching of English than formerly; it forms part of the curriculum of every pupil, and the periods set aside for its special treatment have been placed in the hands of those who have made a special study of its problems. Meantime other subjects have also been placed in the hands of specialists. Thus the very provision of special periods for English and the concentration of the teaching into the hands of a few - both of which measures are justifiable in themselves - may have led to a diminution of the attention which teachers of other subjects pay to this important purpose of all education. Such neglect may take place unintentionally or may arise from preoccupation with the special purposes and needs of other subjects. Yet, even from the point of view of those subjects, clear arrangement of ideas and their clear expression must be regarded as of the utmost value. The matter can perhaps be put shortly thus: English should be the concern of every schoolmaster, as schoolmaster, no matter what his specialist subject, and he is a schoolmaster before he is the specialist teacher of another subject. If we are right in believing that these three elements in education are fundamental, and that therefore they are of concern to every teacher, important consequences follow which will affect the training of teachers. Not that we think that in themselves courses in physical education, or lectures on the corporate life of a school or on the teaching of English, given to students in training, will necessarily result in the achievement of the object which we have at heart; for we believe that in the last resort the teacher's earnest attention to these elements will proceed, first, from the recognition of them as satisfying primary needs of the pupil and, secondly, from that love for his pupils which we assume as indispensable in the good teachers. By awakening such recognition and by presupposing such an attitude to be the foundation of the teacher's work, training can do much to prepare the ground for a fulfilment of the purposes which we have been discussing. The general nature of the curriculum On an earlier page we have defined it as part of the function of the grammar school to give a pupil an introduction to the main departments of human knowledge and activity and to give him some acquaintance with the methods employed in them. Such departments will naturally and obviously include mathematics and natural science, languages and literature - departments which, with such sub-divisions as are appropriate to school education, have always been the basis of the grammar school curriculum, though admittedly other subjects also have been included. These main departments must still provide the main fields of learning for the secondary grammar school pupil, and the suggestions about curriculum which we make in subsequent paragraphs start from this belief. But there is one realm of human experience which for historic reasons is not always given the full opportunity to which it is entitled in the grammar school curriculum - namely art in the broadest sense, including music and handicraft. For reasons into which we do not enter at the moment its relation to the curriculum has often been ill-defined, and in too many instances its place has been precarious and uncomfortable. We have attempted in a subsequent chapter on art to discuss its relation to the curriculum as a whole and to suggest the means by which it can and should justify its importance; to this chapter we would refer the reader. In the meantime we would urge that, apart from the satisfaction to the individual pupil, training in art at school offers powerful means of raising public taste in matters relating to environment, housing, town planning, furniture, interior decoration, and the like. No doubt the first and most direct influence, even if subconsciously exerted, is the site and design of the school itself, its buildings, furniture, pictures. More direct approach comes through some form of art or craft teaching; exactly what form is the most suitable is for those concerned with art to decide, and it may well be that some unifying factor, which will give direction and cohesion to the various forms of art, needs to be discovered. Without art, music or craft the individual may be very much the poorer as an individual; the state is the poorer which does not contain those whose power of appreciation has been trained and whose sensitiveness to beauty has been awakened. If, on the other hand, its citizens have been made alive to the beauty of the world and to the ugliness imposed upon it, to the differences between good and bad design in architecture or pictures or chairs or ornament, the standard of public taste will quickly rise and exert a powerful influence towards the replacement of ugliness by what is beautiful in al| spheres of national life. To this end the schools can make a powerful contribution. We have prefixed this brief statement to our remaining observations on curriculum in order to explain why we make suggestions which allow every pupil the opportunity to make a beginning in art, music and handicrafts, to give them up or to pursue them further. The 'lower school' of the secondary grammar school We are now in a position to consider in more detail the curriculum of the grammar school, and we take first the 'lower school'. It will be remembered that we postulated for each type of secondary school a lower school containing pupils of the average ages of 11+ to 13+; one of its functions was to discover from close observation of the child whether he was suited by the type of school in which he had been placed at 11+ or whether one of the other types would be of greater advantage to him. Then at 13+ there was to be a review, and entry into the lower school of any type of secondary school would not carry with it automatic promotion into the upper part of the same school. In order that the process of review and the resulting transfer, if any, may take place with success, it is necessary that the curriculum of the lower school of the three types of secondary schools should be such as to enable those in charge of it to discover abilities or interests in the pupils which would recommend them for types of secondary education; at the same time the curriculum must be such as to enable the pupil to start his education from 13+ with the right sort of grounding. We believe that a roughly common curriculum could be devised which would fulfil satisfactorily these purposes. It is not for us to say exactly what form the curriculum of the lower school of a secondary modern school or a secondary technical school might take, but we think we can safely assume that the curriculum of either would furnish good evidence of a pupil's need of secondary grammar school education, and certainly we should expect the lower school of the grammar school to detect special aptitude for technical or modern school education. We take it that the chief difference in the curricula of the lower schools would be that in the grammar school by the age of 13+ one foreign language would have been begun by most or all pupils and two foreign languages by many, whereas in the modern or technical schools one foreign language would have been begun by some pupils. Transfer to the grammar school would not be dependent, however, on a modern language having been begun at the modern or technical school; we contemplate that the grammar school would make arrangements - as has already been done in fact - for starting exceptional pupils in a foreign language at the age of 13+; their capacity to profit rapidly from such teaching would have been disclosed by their marked gifts in English. We suggest these arrangements because it is to the interest of the grammar school pupil not to delay a start in foreign languages till 13+, and yet pupils transferred from modern schools should have the opportunity to start a foreign language. Moreover, we are anxious that transfer should not be impeded when it is to the real interest of any pupil. It would be of the greatest benefit to the lower school, both for the efficient fulfilment of its function of discovering aptitude and for the arrangement of curriculum and the treatment of subjects, if it were placed in the charge of a lower school master acting under the head master. He would be a man who, qualified by suitable experience, had given special thought to the aims of the lower school, who took a comprehensive view of the needs of pupils of this age, who would relate subjects to one another, both as regards content and method, and who would study the pupil as an individual. He would be assisted largely by form masters, who also would endeavour to assess the boy as a whole. He would then be in a position to advise the head master and the parents as to the type of secondary education which would best suit the pupil. At the same time a suitable foundation would have been laid for whatever type was chosen. Nor would there be fear of discontinuity of aim or method between the lower school of a grammar school and the higher forms. Though in a sense a separately organised and compacted group of forms, it would look forward as regards aim and method to the work of the upper forms, and experience suggests that there is nothing to prevent the school as a whole being a real unity. In the lower school of the grammar school we would ask for a curriculum comprising physical education, religious instruction, English, history, geography, mathematics, natural science of the kind which we shall describe later, art, handicrafts, music and one or two foreign languages. These are traditional subjects under traditional names; but we cannot replace them by any other subjects more 'real' or more necessary or more desirable or more useful. Everything depends on their treatment both as regards themselves and their relation to one another and to the environment of the pupils and the special circumstances of the school. Though we have used the traditional names - for there are no others which will serve as well - the last thing we contemplate is that these subjects should be rigidly taught as subjects according to a rigid timetable; we think that form masters should have ample discretion to combine subject matter as they can and wish, to pay attention to special needs, to digress and to take advantage of special opportunities which may be presented at the moment. Syllabuses no doubt there must be, but the covering of a syllabus at a preconceived rate, must, if necessary, give place to those considerations of sound learning of which we spoke earlier, and of fundamental skills such as handwriting and spelling. The training of a right attitude to such ideals as precision and mastery and clarity and thoroughness is, in our view, of more importance than covering a set tract in each subject, desirable though that may be. It will be observed that art, music and handicraft are included as necessary subjects; this is in accordance with the views which we have expressed on an earlier page. About the place of foreign languages and the considerations which deserve to be taken into account as regards the early teaching of other subjects, more is said in later chapters. At the moment we would invite attention to the value of relating history and geography to local surroundings and the present experience of young children; art, natural science and to some extent mathematics may with great gain draw upon problems and phenomena within reach of every day experience without sacrificing a foundation necessary for later study: handicrafts may be brought into relation with various school activities and perhaps with local crafts and industries. The curriculum of the higher forms As regards the curriculum of the higher forms of the main school we would say in advance that we do not propose to prescribe courses of study or to assign numbers of school periods to subjects, or to insist on the inclusion of particular subjects - with certain exceptions - at any stage or to define the length of course suitable to their study. These are matters on which in our view the school must take its own decisions having in mind the purposes in view. In advocating that there should be freedom to schools to devise curricula suited to their pupils and to local needs, we are fully aware that, particularly in the early stages of freedom, there will be a risk of curricula being put into operation which after a short time will prove themselves in need of drastic revision; But it is a risk which must be taken. We look to conditions of greater freedom than now obtain to compel careful thought about curriculum and the right treatment of subjects. Without such thought and the liberty to carry it into practice, curricula cannot be suited to the general and special needs of pupils, and secondary grammar schools cannot exhibit that variety within a common purpose which is essential to further growth and vitality. At the same time we would point also to certain regulative influences which will tend to prevent too wide divergences. In the first place we would refer back to an earlier chapter in which we spoke of the essential characteristics of the grammar school and its purposes for the type of pupil for whom it exists. In setting up its ideal of sound learning, in introducing its pupils to the main departments of human knowledge and experience, in acquainting them with achievements and aspirations of human thought and practice, in training them in the methods and disciplines used by mathematics, art, language, literature and natural science, the grammar school, if it is to be true to its traditions and its aims, will find a principle by which to test its own curricula. In the second place, the general needs of the pupil who finds his right place in the grammar school will, on the whole, be much the same, and, though the curricula in this or that grammar school may vary, they will stand as species to a genus which determines itself through its own intrinsic nature. Thirdly, conferences and exchange of ideas among teachers can do much to create a consensus of opinion unfavourable to ill-judged curricula. Finally, we rely on the sanity and conscience of head masters and head mistresses. We would look to these influences to give guidance in the wise use of freedom rather than to administrative regulation or examination requirement, however lightly imposed or carefully devised; for in the last resort, if freedom is to mean anything, the final decision must be with the schools themselves. It is not to be expected then that we should set out specimen curricula in detail. We confine ourselves to setting out certain principles which seem to us of importance, first, for the work of the main school, that is, up to 16+, and, secondly, for the work of the sixth form. Throughout the school we assume that special provision in classroom time will be made for physical education, religious instruction and English. Again, opportunity for one or more of the subjects, art and music and handicraft should be available throughout the school, so that pupils whose interest has been awakened in the lower school, where the subjects were compulsory, should be able to retain and extend that interest. For those of marked ability, particularly in art and music, we hope that special facilities will increasingly be made available. From 13+ onwards some differentiation of curriculum is legitimate according to the main interests and abilities of pupils, provided that at all stages there is provision also for other subjects selected to meet other needs and other interests. Such differentiation generally follows two main lines of interest, namely, 'humanities' and natural science and mathematics; in the years 14+ and 15+ this differentiation is probably best shown in increased emphasis on suitable subjects rather than in widely different choice of subjects. We have spoken of main lines of interest as the principle of differentiation. We are not afraid of differentiation at this stage of the main school; but the difficulty hitherto has been to give the increased emphasis to subjects for which the pupil shows marked leanings. The average pupil has hitherto carried up to the fifth form six or seven or eight or more subjects, each studied in a consecutive course, generally for four or five years. Under the greater freedom which we hope will eventually arise, the number of subjects taken in the last two years might with advantage be reduced, and a different degree of emphasis be laid on some subjects in preference to others, according to the interest and capacity of pupils. It is often desirable in the case of some pupils to keep alive certain subjects rather than to stimulate them all to the same degree of activity. In our view, the carrying on of a large number of subjects to the same standard has entailed a stereotyping of curriculum and a uniformity which is not in the interests of school or pupil. Not every subject need necessarily be continuously taught throughout the main school to all pupils. Some, but not all, subjects can without loss be dropped and resumed; continuity is not essential to them, though to languages, for example, it is essential. Nor need any given subject be taught in the same way to all pupils. English for those with a natural turn for languages and literature may be one thing, for others it must be another thing; natural science or mathematics for linguists would not be the same as for those who have a special leaning in those directions. We do not think that we are supporting a plan which must necessarily lead to 'bitty' or 'scrappy' curricula. There is a logic in subjects - more compelling in some than in others - which marks out stages representing objectives and achievements which are worthwhile; the structure of the subject itself dictates that, if a halt is made, it should be made at this or that point. That stage, or that point, is not necessarily in all subjects and for all pupils that at present indicated by the syllabus and standard of the School Certificate examination; on the other hand it cannot be fixed by caprice, for the nature of the subject matter dictates its own appropriate objectives and its halting places, according to the purposes to be served. Attention to these natural landmarks will, we believe, prevent the 'scrappy' curricula to which we have alluded. Foreign languages. mathematics and natural science we have regarded as of fundamental importance in the grammar school curriculum, and therefore all should be part of the curriculum of all pupils; we contemplate that instances would be very rare and abnormal in which in spite of good teaching the abandonment of one of these subjects should be recommended; and we should assume that the blind spot for one of these subjects would be compensated by special ability in other fields. If two of these subjects proved to be too much for a pupil, clearly he would not be likely to profit from the grammar school curriculum and would profit more from a course of another kind. We take it that there can be no doubt of the strong position which foreign languages will continue to occupy in grammar school education, and we do not think it necessary to justify that position. We assume that all pupils in such a school will begin one or two or three foreign languages, and that it is desirable to start the learning of the first language on entry to the lower school. The conditions under which a second or third language should be begun by those for whom is desirable are discussed in the chapter on foreign languages; there too we put forward certain considerations concerning the choice of foreign languages. As regards mathematics and natural science, we think it essential that all pupils should have had the opportunity to study them before they reach the age of 16+, though this does not mean that the content of the syllabus or the time given should be the same for all pupils. We regard the reservations and conditions which we have set out in the preceding paragraphs as necessary for safeguarding the interests of certain types of pupils and for encouraging the diversity within a common purpose which secondary grammar schools should foster. The curriculum for children of 14 and 15 would thus generally - though not necessarily - include history, geography, natural science, mathematics, and one or more foreign languages. From 15+ the load of subjects should in our opinion become lighter and it can be made lighter without necessarily leading to undue specialisation. The compromise which in education must always cause thought and anxiety is the compromise between breadth and depth. At the moment, speaking generally, a broad area of ground is dug and it is dug all to the same depth; we should prefer that much the same area should partly be trenched deep and partly dug over. Part of the criticism, we believe, of the Secondary School pupil arises from his study of too many subjects with the same degree of intensity: and we should recommend that in the last year or even the last two years of the main school course, four subjects should be studied as chief subjects, and that contact with some should be maintained and opportunity be given to make acquaintance with others. The main brunt of the task of education would be borne by the chief subjects: range and variety would be given by the others. We feel that there is much to be said for introducing pupils at 16+ to new subjects or activities, and that the prospect of such introduction should interest teachers of those subjects, since the later age gives them opportunity for a different approach and a different presentation. In this connection we would draw special attention to some relevant observations in our chapter on history. Our terms of reference do not justify us in going further afield into questions of method. We make no mention therefore of the place and use of private study periods in the curriculum nor do we make mention of broadcast lessons which we regard as a subject for special enquiry. There are, however, two points to which a brief reference may be permitted. Our evidence makes it plain that the recommendations of the pamphlet on 'Homework' published for the Board of Education meet with general approval from many different quarters, though there is also regret that they are not more frequently put into practice. Secondly - and this is a matter not unrelated to homework - we feel convinced that on the whole too much written work is demanded and that unnecessary and excessive note taking is tolerated. It is probable that one of the causes of deterioration in handwriting is to be traced to the hurried taking of voluminous notes and the writing of exercises against time. We invite the attention of teachers to these matters, adding that it would seem to us that the form master should be in a position to exercise some control and much influence in both. The sixth form Our views upon the curricula of the sixth form have to some extent been indicated in our chapter on examinations. For convenience, however, we would recapitulate considerations which were put forward there and gather together very briefly suggestions bearing upon the choice and treatment of subjects which appear in the chapters on the subjects of the curriculum. We feel that full treatment of sixth form work in general is not here necessary, for it has been well undertaken in the pamphlet on sixth form work published for the Board of Education; to it we would draw attention. The proposals which we put forward about examinations taken in the sixth form would work towards the simplifying of organisation and the planning of work. Our contention was that two clearly defined types of course would establish themselves leading to an appropriate objective: in one case a competitive examination leading to university and college scholarships and state scholarships, in the other a qualifying examination, leading to the university, to professions, training colleges, Service colleges and business posts. The main work in each course would be distinctive of each type, and there would be no question of the same examination attempting to serve two purposes with consequent harm to the less able pupils. In the next place we have urged that examinations for scholarships should be put on a broader basis, with resulting effect upon the work of the schools; at the same time pupils working for the qualifying examination at 18+ would take in it whatever subjects were necessary or appropriate to their particular objective, the rest of their time being free for use as the school thought best for them. In the chapters which follow we have discussed more fully certain types of sixth form work to which we would draw attention, but it may make for convenience if we refer briefly to them here. (a) It is desirable that some form of natural science should find a place in the curriculum of sixth forms, other than those taking natural science as a specialist study. We think that lectures on the development of scientific theory, on modern applications to various fields of activity, on scientific methods and their limitations would be of value to pupils who do not give special attention to the subject - and possibly to those who do. In connection with such lectures we can imagine a most satisfactory course of reading in portions of the scientific classics. (b) Lectures and discussions upon aspects of Colonial and American history, the British Commonwealth and its growth and significance, public affairs and administration are of great value and importance at this stage; for pupils are of an age to feel interest in the problems which such studies present; and to grasp their meaning; by preliminary reading they can themselves become acquainted with necessary facts, and such reading the teacher can take as a basis for further lectures and for discussion. We are convinced that this is the most appropriate place in the school course for special treatment of such subjects, having regard to the nature of their matter and the necessity of a basis of knowledge supplied by other subjects. Much experimental work will no doubt be necessary in order to discover suitable methods of treatment, and perhaps the historical approach will be found to be less satisfactory than the topical. Possibly it will not be superfluous to add that we do not contemplate the addition of all or several of these lines of study to normal sixth form work at the same time: but we think it desirable and possible that some should have been treated during the two or three years which a pupil normally spends in the sixth form. (c) In our chapter on foreign languages we urge that more could be done than at present in the provision of two or three-year courses of languages begun on entry into the sixth form. Experience shows that rapid progress can be made if such study is undertaken on a basis of a knowledge of other languages learned in the main school, and it is often found that, since a boy's future line of study or occupation is now becoming apparent, a motive is furnished which accelerates progress. (d) In the chapter on domestic subjects we draw attention to the value of intensive courses in these subjects, and of pre-nursing studies for girls of sixth form age and status. (e) In the section on commercial education we have set out considerations which we think should be taken into account in arranging special courses for pupils, both boys and girls, going into commerce after spending some time in the sixth form. Apart from courses which make provision for training in skills and methods appropriate to office work, there is room, in our opinion, for training which would give a wide yet well-directed course of study preliminary to business life and would have as its basis the study of geography, mathematics and statistics, descriptive economics, and public administration. To this we make fuller reference in our chapter on geography. Libraries Of recent years the importance of a library in a school has received greater recognition than formerly, and its proper use has received study and attention in the schools themselves. It is becoming rare for a school to have no library, and on the whole improvement is being made as regards the supply of books, equipment and furniture. In the last ten years enquiries into the function of school libraries have been held and courses for school librarians have been organised; the Carnegie report drawing professional attention to the subject has appeared; organisations have been formed to foster the interests of the school library and periodicals have been published; in this work teachers have been actively concerned. Progress has been made with the establishment of liaison between school libraries and public libraries. Indeed it may be doubted whether during the last ten years any other branch of the life of the Secondary School has shown such vigorous and promising growth. Our purpose is to give encouragement to these developments, not by attempting to summarise the very considerable body of thought which is now growing up regarding the school library, but by singling out one or two points for brief consideration. Some of the chapters on individual subjects of the curriculum make reference to the need for the provision of books in the school library. It is of real value that there should be available for advanced students a number of specialist works which are often too expensive for the individual to buy. They will be few, and are perhaps best housed in the classroom and kept under the control of the teacher in charge of the subject. It is important that the school library should not be regarded merely as a classified collection of books of which the function is primarily to supplement the teaching of the various subjects of the curriculum. For in the library the boundaries imposed by subjects and syllabuses are removed to offer a width of outlook which is part of the preparation for the use of books throughout life; if there is one result which the satisfactory use of a library should achieve, it is to leave with the pupil the conviction that knowledge is essentially one. The first function of the school library is to provide opportunities for the pupil as a reader, not as a member of a form or a school or any group, but simply as an individual who, whether for the special purposes of the moment or as an abiding interest, has an interest in books, either for recreation or study or reference, from curiosity or whatever motive impels anyone to open a book or turn its leaves. There is therefore something much more individualist about reading in a library than there can be in classroom instruction, and for this reason the library often makes special appeal to the pupil of thoughtful mind who can read or work alone and appeals less to the pupil who needs the presence and the stimulus of others. The pupil as a reader may use the library for purposes of reference, for recreation (whether this takes the form of light or serious reading) and for supplementing the work of the classroom. The first of these purposes is readily admitted by schools, and the earliest acquisitions of a library naturally include books of reference. Similarly, responsibility for encouraging the habit of reading and of promoting intelligent choice of books is recognised by all schools, though achieved in varying degrees, since success depends upon the arrangements made for the wise use of the library. The third purpose of the library, namely to supply pupil and teacher with collateral reading upon the subjects of the curriculum, is no less recognised; indeed sometimes there may be a danger of this purpose overshadowing other purposes, so that the library becomes little more than an adjunct to classroom teaching. As we have said, we think that these purposes should be kept distinct. There are two ways in which a better use could be made of school libraries; their importance has in some schools been progressively realised, but in most schools much remains to be done. The first is training in the right use of books and in appreciation of their place in life; the second is encouragement to undertake substantial reading round a selected topic or theme, such reading implying the critical use of a number of books and including practice in the selection of relevant material. Just as in writing about the various subjects of the curriculum we select certain aspects to which we wish to draw attention, so in writing about the school library we select these two purposes of the library as being those which at present deserve emphasis. To a question put to her by her father, a school girl once replied that the difference between a 'school walk' in the country and an 'ordinary walk' was that in the one you were shown things, in the other you saw things. The moral both for the pupil and for the teacher applies to training in the use of a library. Boys and girls will see more in books if they are put into the way of using them properly; at the same time such training should not go beyond the barest needs; for, once the main bearings have been indicated, discovery is the main delight of the journey. Hence the task of training pupils to use the books in a library calls at once for sensitiveness and self-restraint on the part of the librarian or teacher; that his aim is to make himself superfluous does not minimise the importance of his task, in this as in any other field. If a large proportion of the pupils in a secondary grammar school are to gain familiarity with the use of books, preliminary training, undertaken especially in the lower forms, makes an important contribution to this end. There is no need for us to elaborate the kind of training which we have in mind - the use of the catalogue, the differences between books of reference, as for example, a dictionary and an encyclopaedia, the use of tables of contents and indices and so on; our intention is rather to commend the work which is being done in this way, and to urge that all opportunity should be taken for making public established schemes and experiments yet on trial with a view to a wider practice of this essential preliminary to the full use of school libraries. In the same way much thought has been given to the working out of programmes of study undertaken in the library by older pupils, particularly those in the sixth form, whether individually or in groups. In this field there has been much advance and much experiment. The effect of such study upon the quality of sixth form work and its influence upon the individual has been abundantly demonstrated in many schools in which the right conditions have been provided. Here again it is beyond our province to go into detail, but we would invite schools in which the value of such work is not yet understood to explore its possibilities. Similarly we cannot enter into discussion of the library itself, the room, the books, the equipment, the duties of librarian. All we do is to observe that, if a library is conceived of merely as a central storehouse of books of reference, few conditions as to the room and its equipment need to be satisfied; if on the other hand the library is to fulfil other functions and in particular those on which we have laid emphasis, much else is implied; the nature of the room, its furniture, its books, the scope of the duties and the equipment of the master or mistress acting as librarian, the relation of the library to the general intellectual life of the school are all affected. We would add that, if a school possesses a room of dignified beauty, ample size and undisturbed quiet, it is fortunate indeed. For certainly on some of the pupils in every generation the school library and its associations will then exercise a lifelong influence for good. Accordingly we urge, first, that the material resources of a library should be such as to encourage its enterprising and enlightened use as an important factor in the education of pupils; secondly, that measures should be increasingly taken to acquaint librarians and teachers with recent advances in thought and practice as regards the functions of a school library, so that benefiting from the pioneer work of others they may work out in their own school schemes which will be most suitable to the conditions available or possible therein. 
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