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Hadow (1923) Notes on the text
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The Hadow Report (1923)
Differentiation of the curriculum for boys and girls respectively in secondary schools London: HM Stationery Office
Preliminary pages NOTE
During the latter half of the war [1914-18 First World War] the operations of the Consultative Committee were suspended. The Committee was reconstituted by Order in Council dated 22 July 1920, and the Board shortly afterwards referred two subjects to them for inquiry and advice, viz: (1) Whether greater differentiation is desirable in the curriculum for boys and girls respectively in secondary schools? (2) What use can be made in the public system of education of psychological tests of educable capacity? The results of the Committee's inquiries on the first reference are set out in the following pages. It is obvious that if the Board were to delay the publication of the Report until they had been able to give it the full and mature consideration that its contents deserve, some time would elapse before it could be laid before the public. The Board are anxious to avoid unnecessary delay and they are accordingly issuing the Report at once, but it will be understood that by so doing they do not commit themselves to acceptance of the specific opinions and recommendations contained in it or of the views of their own officers given in evidence. The problems of curriculum, by their nature, do not admit of any final solution; each generation has to think them over again for itself. The Board desire to acknowledge their obligation to the Committee for their valuable contribution to the elucidation of a practical problem, which has a special importance at the present time, and to commend it to the careful consideration of all workers in the field of public education.
28 December 1922
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Names of the Consultative Committee
Appendices
NAMES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE
Sir WH Hadow CBE (chairman)
NOTE The estimated gross cost of the preparation of the appended Report (including the expenses of the witnesses and members of the Committee) is £976. 7s. 4d., of which £280 represents the gross cost of printing and publishing this Report.
ANALYSIS OF THE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE'S REPORT
Chapter 1 History of the curriculum in secondary schools 1 Introductory 2 The development of the curriculum in grammar schools up to about 1825
15 The conventional course of instruction for girls of the upper and middle classes up to about 1860
Chapter 2 The curriculum at present in use, including all school activities, with special reference to the existing differentiation between boys and girls 33 The Board's definition of a secondary school
44 A. The junior department (for boys and girls up to about 10 or 11 years of age)
Games and physical exercises:
56 C. The upper part of the school
Chapter 3 Differences between boys and girls 58 A. General anatomical and physiological differences between boys and girls
83 A. Influence of general tradition and environment on teachers and pupils in boys' and girls' schools
Chapter 4 General review of the evidence and conclusions 87 The main questions which have emerged from the inquiry are as follows: (1) Is there sufficient evidence to suggest the desirability of any differentiation in the curriculum on anatomical and physiological grounds?88 (1) Is there sufficient evidence to suggest the desirability of any differentiation in the curriculum on anatomical and physiological grounds? 89 (2) Does the relative susceptibility of girls and of boys to physical and mental fatigue bear on the problem of differentiation of the curriculum? 90 (3) Does the available psychological evidence point to the desirability of differentiation in the curriculum? 91 (4) Are there any subjects in the existing curriculum for which boys and girls respectively show special aptitude or distaste, and in case there are deep-seated differences in the attitude of the sexes to certain subjects, should secondary education aim at developing strong points or should it be partly devised to improve weak points? 92 (5) How far is it advisable to differentiate in the teaching of particular subjects of the curriculum for boys and girls respectively, for example English, mathematics and physics? 93 (6) How far should girls' education be influenced by home duties during school life and afterwards? 94 (7) Is any differentiation of the curriculum advisable in' view of differences in the environment and social functions of boys and girls? 95 (8) How far may further differentiation between the curriculum for boys and that for girls be advisable in view of differences in the careers which they will probably follow as men and women? The question of marriage and other considerations 96 Changes in the employment of women in industry during the 19th century 97 The new openings for women in the professions and in commercial and industrial life 98 It would be unwise to base any differentiation of curriculum for the sexes in secondary schools upon the existing differences in the work done by men and women, as experience suggests that the division of work between the sexes has changed frequently in the past and that the range of employment followed by women is likely on the whole to increase 99 Any further differentiation that may be thought admissible must not be such as to impede the secondary school in its task of giving a good general education both to girls and to boys 100 The decision as to further differentiating between the curriculum of boys and that of girls may be to some extent a matter that should be settled from the point of view of local circumstances. As regards vocational bias, there are methods of approaching certain subjects which, while leaning towards the industries of particular localities thus partaking of the nature of vocational bias are in themselves educationally sound 101 The determining voice in the matter of differentiation of curriculum should rest as far as possible with women themselves 102 (9) How far are existing differences in the education of boys and girls dependent on tradition? 103 (10) How far is it advisable to relieve the congestion of studies, more especially in girls' schools, and to provide a wider range of choice for the pupils? 104 (11) How far is it desirable to provide more free time and greater facilities for the pursuit of leisure occupations? 105 Recommendations
PREFACE
The following question was referred to us by the Board of Education on 29 July 1920: 'Whether greater differentiation is desirable in the curriculum for boys and girls respectively in secondary schools'. We have sat on 39 days and have examined 72 witnesses. In addition, subcommittees appointed to consider particular sections of the Report have met on six days. In our preliminary sittings we were concerned with the exact delimitation of our terms of reference, and with the determination of the various types of evidence which we wished to receive. We found it impossible adequately to consider secondary schools without referring in some degree to the later stages of preparatory schools and junior departments, and in addition, to some of the stages of technical education. On the other hand we came to the conclusion that our terms of reference did not cover the general problems of coeducation; and while we were careful to take evidence from head teachers and others connected with coeducational schools, we only considered the bearing of that evidence on the particular problem of differentiation of curriculum which, in our view, was that indicated for our inquiry. We have, however, printed in an Appendix (III) a general summary of all the evidence which we received from coeducational schools. In determining the types of evidence which we wished to receive we were guided by a natural anxiety to explore every avenue, and to investigate every point of view, by which we might gain a better and clearer outlook on a somewhat shadowy landscape. We took evidence accordingly from doctors (both men and women) and from psychologists; from head masters, head mistresses, assistant masters and assistant mistresses, in a variety of schools; from inspectors, directors of education, and representatives of examining bodies; from bankers, business men and employers. Not only did we receive a large volume of oral evidence; we also invited, and were fortunate in receiving, a number of memoranda on specific issues which engaged our attention. If there were times when we felt that we might say of ourselves that we were stumbling through shadows Quale per incertam lunam sub luce malignawe were constantly comforted and encouraged by the generous help which was given to us by the witnesses and the writers of memoranda, whose names we have recorded in one of our Appendices (I); and we offer them our sincere thanks for the information and the suggestions which we received. The difficulties of our inquiry and the volume of our evidence combined to place a heavy burden on our Secretary, Mr RF Young. He carried that burden as if it were a little thing: he added his own researches to our inquiries; and he has enriched by his learning many passages of our Report, and especially the historical introduction which forms our first chapter. We desire to thank him warmly, as one who made himself the friend of us all, for unfailing help and unflagging ardour alike in the conduct of our inquiry and the compilation of our Report.
INTRODUCTION
On an issue at once so important and so intangible - so far-reaching, but touching so many points, and diverging in so many directions - it was especially necessary to accumulate and to digest all the data which could contribute to a solution. Among such data the history of the development of the curriculum followed in secondary schools, both for boys and for girls, is of primary importance. The 'lessons' of history are often obscure; but at any rate we may learn from the study of any historical development the successive phases of opinion by which it has been controlled, and as we see one opinion criticised and superseded by another, we may come to understand the value and the truth of each phase, and to arrive at an opinion of our own which, if it cannot pretend to be final, may at any rate claim to be based on something more than the current views of the hour. The development of secondary education, more especially in girls' schools, has been influenced by successive currents of social opinion; and we have accordingly felt ourselves bound to trace that development and to appreciate, so far as we could, the value of those successive currents. It is for this reason that we have devoted the first chapter of our Report to an historical survey of the development of the secondary school curriculum down to the beginning of the present century. In the second chapter we have proceeded to add to the historical survey with which we begin a descriptive account of the present system of secondary education in such of its features and aspects as bear on our terms of reference. The last twenty years have witnessed a remarkable growth both in the quantity and the quality of secondary schools. New types of schools have come into existence: the curriculum has been recast; the system of examinations has been overhauled. We have sought, accordingly, to give some account in our second chapter of the position of secondary education at the present moment, as it was represented to us by our witnesses: to appraise the qualities, and to note the defects, of secondary schools; so far as our terms of reference required; and, especially, to consider the signs of existing differentiation, and the possibility of any further differentiation, between the curriculum of boys' schools and that of schools for girls. The data of our inquiry are by no means exhausted when an historical survey of the past and a descriptive account of the present have both been furnished. An inquiry into the question propounded to us - whether boys and girls should receive a different education during a given period of their lives - must necessarily raise two other fundamental questions. Are boys and girls different in themselves and in their physical and mental powers and capacities, during that period? And again, have boys and girls, during that period and in subsequent years, a different function to perform in the society of which they are members? The first of these two fundamental questions is itself two-fold: it is a question of the body, and it is also a question of the mind. We have summarised, at the beginning of our third chapter, the evidence which we received from members of the medical profession on the physical differences between the two sexes; and we have been fortunate in receiving from Dr Adami a Memorandum on the subject (Appendix V), to which we venture to draw attention. While we are conscious that we do not possess the expert knowledge which alone would enable us to offer an opinion of any weight on a subject on which experts themselves are still uncertain, and in which there is still room for the conduct of further investigations by the strictest methods of scientific inquiry, we cannot but record the impression made upon many of us by the medical evidence which we received. On the mental or psychological differences between the sexes, as distinct from the physical, we received a large body of evidence, which came partly from scholars engaged in the teaching of psychology and in psychological research, and partly from schoolteachers and school examiners. It was only to be expected that the evidence bearing on mental differences should be less definite, and more difficult to summarise definitely and succinctly, than the evidence bearing on physical differences. It is nonetheless of cardinal importance; and we have therefore taken pains to present at some length an account of this evidence. In doing so we have begun with the general psychological differences between the sexes: we have proceeded to the more specific mental differences which may be traced between boys and girls at successive ages and periods; and we have ended with the particular differences of interest and approach which boys and girls show, both in the various subjects of the secondary curriculum (humanistic, scientific, aesthetic) and in the athletic and other voluntary activities of the general life of the secondary school. Beyond the large question of the difference between boys and girls in physical and mental structure, there rises the still larger question of their difference in function. Structure does not necessarily determine function; and the peculiarities of the physical and even the mental constitution of boys and girls do not necessarily determine the character of that training of adolescence which is meant to prepare young men and women for the proper discharge of their function in the community. If boys and girls are different in constitution and structure, but alike in the social functions which they are expected ultimately to discharge, they ought to receive a like education; just as, conversely, if they were alike in the former but different in the latter, they ought to be educated differently. The general conception of the social functions of men and women must primarily determine the methods of education of boys and girls. In the second part, therefore, of our third chapter, and in some sections (93-101) of our fourth chapter, we have sought to examine and to weigh the factors of social environment, and the currents of social opinion, which affect so profoundly the training and development of the young. On the basis of these data, thus accumulated and arranged, we have drawn the conclusions and made the recommendations which end our Report. It would be bad art, and worse policy, to anticipate our epilogue by betraying its conclusions in our prologue; but it may be of some service to our readers if we record some general impressions which are fresh and strong in our minds at the end of our two years' inquiry. In the first place, we feel that the education of girls and women has passed through two stages, and is, perhaps, now entering on a third. Down to 1850, and even later, it was assumed that the education of girls must be different from that of boys, because they belonged to what was regarded as the weaker (or, in a more euphemistic phrase, the gentler) sex. This was the stage of difference based on inequality: it was the stage of feminine accomplishments: it was also the stage of educational inefficiency. During the next stage, which is perhaps drawing to a close, the cause of efficiency was identified with that of equality, and, in the name of both, educational reformers claimed, and sought to secure, that there should be no difference between the education of girls and that of boys. This was the stage of identity based on equality: it was marked, in many respects, by a great advance in efficiency; but if new strength was gained, old and delicate graces were perhaps lost, and the individuality of womanhood was in some respects sacrificed on the austere altar of sex equality. We may now be entering on a third stage, in which we can afford to recognise that equality does not demand identity, but is compatible with, and even depends upon, a system of differentiation under which either sex seeks to multiply at a rich interest its own peculiar talents. Dissimilars are not necessarily unequals; and it is possible to conceive an equality of the sexes which is all the truer and richer because it is founded on mutual recognition of differences and the equal cultivation of different capacities. In such a stage there might again be difference, but there would still be equality; and in it we might preserve what was good, while discarding what was bad, in either of the previous stages. But this third stage, if it should be one of a ready recognition of differences, whenever and wherever they exist, must also be one of a no less ready recognition of similarities at all times and in all places in which they are to be found. Our inquiry has not imbued us with any conviction that there are clear and ascertained differences between the two sexes on which an educational policy may readily be based. We have encountered a number of facile generalisations about the mental differences between boys and girls; we have found few, if any, which we were able to adopt. Again and again we were assured by our witnesses that one boy differed from another, and one girl from another, even more than boys differed from girls; and we could not but notice that a superiority which one witness claimed for boys might be vindicated by the next witness for girls. Men and women have existed for centuries; but either sex is still a problem to the other - and, indeed, to itself; nor is there any third sex to discriminate dispassionately between the two. As psychological study develops, and as statistical inquiries and data are multiplied, it may be possible to attain some tangible and valid conclusions. In the meantime it is the part of wisdom neither to assume differences nor to postulate identity, but to leave the field free for both to show themselves. Let boys and girls have a large choice of subjects, and teachers a wide latitude in directing the choice of subjects - such is the policy which we would advocate. It would be fatal, at the present juncture, to prescribe one curriculum for boys and another for girls. We would prescribe as little as possible for either, because we are anxious that both should be free to find and to follow their tastes, and because we desire that the teachers of both should be free to aid and guide the development of their pupils. It is accordingly a relaxation of requirements, and an increase of freedom of choice, that we advocate, alike for the period of studies leading directly to the First School Examination and for that leading to the Second. If such freedom is granted, we look forward to a time of progressive experiment, in which teachers will seek with vision and with courage to provide the course and use the methods which will best suit the capacities and the tastes of their pupils. And if progressive experiment is attempted, it will provide naturally and correctly the detailed answer to the question which at present we can only answer by advising that freedom should be given for such experiment. In the second place, we feel that, alike for boys and for girls, there has been a stunting of aesthetic taste and capacity owing to the concentration of attention upon the studies of the dry intellect. Education is not only a preparation for the doing of work: it is also a preparation for the spending of leisure, which, if it is less in amount, is perhaps no less in importance than work. Nothing can conduce more to that right spending of leisure, which means so much for true happiness, than an eliciting and training of the gift of aesthetic appreciation. The point need not be laboured here: we would only direct attention to that portion of our Report (Section 52) in which we have stated the argument for a fuller recognition of Art and Music in the curricula of schools and the examinations based on those curricula. We believe that boys, no less than girls, would profit if such recognition were given; but recognising as we do that, whether from tradition or from innate taste, the aesthetic interest is strongly marked in girls, we would urge that the provision of fuller facilities for its development might bring such a liberation and. an enhancing of capacity as would affect the whole standard and character of the work done in girls' schools. In the next place we desire, in view of the medical and other evidence which we have received, to plead that the pace of education in girls' schools should be carefully adjusted to the strength and the opportunities for study which may be presumed of the average pupil. We are not arguing that a special consideration should be paid to a 'weaker' sex, or that a lower standard of achievement should be expected from girls than that which is expected from boys. Under the same conditions of health, and granted the same freedom from other demands on their time, there is every reason to believe that girls can match the achievements of boys when they enjoy the same training. But the conditions of health are not the same, and the freedom from other demands is much less for girls than it is for boys. Girls are liable to seasons of lowered vitality, in which nervous fatigue is serious; and they have a part to play in the home and its duties which can hardly be shirked, even if its effects on their studies may be deprecated. If, under such conditions and amid such distractions, the pace of education in girls' schools were made to keep time with that set in schools for boys, it is obvious that girls would, in effect, be required to do still more than boys in order to remain on a level with them. We have only to state the requirement in order to show its injustice; and in the cause of justice and equality between the sexes we may thus suggest that, for many girls, a later age for passing examinations, and, for all girls, a shorter period of school hours, are imperatively necessary. Finally, we venture to suggest that the increasing esprit de corps in school life, and the growing tendency to organise and emphasise all school activities, are modern developments which stand in need of criticism and control, more particularly in girls' schools. The standard of conscientious performance of duty was never higher among teachers than it is today; but the very height of the standard of teaching may perhaps involve risks for the taught. The school may displace the family from their affections; and, again, it may check what it is meant to foster - the full and free development of individual initiative and vigour. The special danger of girls' schools is that they may become excellently organised and conscientiously loyal groups composed of mediocre and uniform units. Conscientiousness is a virtue; but in the world of education it may also be a vice, alike in the teacher and the taught. Efficiency is a precious thing; but spontaneity is a very precious thing. In the early pioneer days of woman's education spontaneity and vigour sprang from a constant struggle with difficulties. The passing of those difficulties is itself a difficulty for the present generation. It would seem the saddest of paradoxes if the education of women should lose its vigour in the day of highly-trained teachers, all working assiduously, with a vastly improved equipment, among a multitude of textbooks. But we need not anticipate such a paradox. Teachers will do much - very much - for the sake of their pupils; they will give themselves abundantly and unstintingly. But there is a time to withhold as well as a time to give; and as they come to learn its necessity, teachers who can give will know also when. and how, to withhold. 
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