English composition. They keep their places for the other lessons in the regular school forms, up to the Fifth inclusive, at which point their promotion stops, as it would be plainly anomalous to have boys in the Sixth Form who were not learning Greek. This class consists usually of from eighteen to twentyfour boys, and is under the special superintendence of one of the assistant - masters. No difficulty has been found in the working; but Dr Kennedy speaks doubtfully of the results hitherto "neither time nor numbers suffice to give any large and sufficient induction;" but he thinks it "might be worked well with adequate numbers and support from the public." Mr Calvert, the master who superintends it, speaks with even more hesitation; he thinks that the boys 'might make an equal advance in the special subjects with a slight amount of private tuition," without being withdrawn from the regular classical work. As in the case of the Eton armyclass," it has been joined as might readily be supposed-"by boys who imagined that by doing so they would escape a portion of the regular form-work; and "it tends to a certain extent to encourage indolence."* Dr Kennedy differs entirely from the Commissioners on one important point connected with the system of bifurcation. The General Report before us, in remarking on the "Modern Schools" as constituted at Marlborough and Cheltenham, goes on hand, that if this "modern" substitute for a thorough classical training is to be fairly tried, it should at least have all the prestige which a public school can give it; that when it is considered "how important it is that our solicitors, our medical men, and our upper commercial classes, should be not only liberally educated, but in a good social relation to those who study at the universities," it is desirable that both classes should be united, if not altogether in the details of their studies, yet under a training and discipline identically the same. Certainly, if the young man trained on this modern system is not to labour under a sense of inferiority all his life which the advocates of the change would hardly desire — he should be able to claim, equally with his schoolfellow who goes off to the university, the status of a publicschool man. 66 66 "We are not prepared to advise the establishment at the older public schools of a system resembling either of these. It may be very desirable, and we think it is, that the experiment should be tried; it may be desirable that schools organised upon this principle should exist; but we do not recommend the introduction of it in those which form the subject of this inquiry."-Report, p. 39. Dr Kennedy holds, upon the other The Commissioners have drawn up no less than thirty-two " General Recommendations" in what they conceive to be the interest of public education, besides the special reforms and modifications recommended in detail for each separate school, and which are subjoined in each case to the special reports. They have not erred, as has been remarked already, on the side of generalisation. The draft of their educational reform bill is elaborate enough; but we can only here touch upon its leading features, and we shall not even follow the order in which their recommendations stand. They maintain the classics as holding rightfully the principal place in the course of study; but they recommend that mathematics make every boy thoroughly famiand arithmetic-"so taught as to liar with it "should form a necessary part of the school course, as indeed in most public schools it professes to do; and that every boy should learn also at least one modern language, one branch at least * See Answers 863, 954. of natural science, and either drawing or music; so that the curriculum is to be fivefold. To those who think that to learn many things is more desirable than to learn one or two things well, such an enlargement of the course of study will no doubt seem a step forward in education. It has been fairly answered, on the other hand, that there are at present but twentyfour hours in the English day. Dr Temple of Rugby, who loses no time in putting himself in the van of the educational march, has already given notice of his adoption of this part of the Recommendations. Every boy at Rugby will be required hereafter, for at least two years after his admission, to learn "natural science," and either music or drawing; modern languages already form part of the necessary Rugby course. Dr Temple regards this as 66 an experiment," which he believes will succeed, though some of his assistant-masters are not so sanguine." Other head-masters will do well to wait the result; it is but justice to say that the experiment is in able and honest hands; and if it fails at Rugby, it will hardly succeed elsewhere. But the pressure of work already in some parts of that excellent school is a subject of anxiety to many parents; and this new movement is not altogether popular "at home." The addition of seven guineas to the school charges, which Dr Temple proposes in accordance with a recommendation of the Commission, is hardly likely to be more so. 66 The Commissioners, in their zeal to secure thorough efficiency, have sought to fetter the head-master with a double check upon his proceedings-from above and from below. They suggest that he should be superintended by the "governgoverning body" " of trustees or others, who are to regulate the studies, and "advised by a "school council" of his under-masters, who are * Recommendations III. and VI. to "address the governing body' whenever a majority of them see fit to disagree with their chief.* On this particular item of reform the head-masters, so far as they have spoken, both in their evidence and since the issue of the Report, are tolerably unanimous in their opposition to the Commissioners, against whom even Dr Temple here lifts his voice. They have proposed in the case of Rugby to leaven the existing board of trustees (local gentlemen of influence, who have exercised their trust with a wise forbearance) "by the introduction of four gentlemen of acknowledged eminence in literature and science," a recommendation which applies to most of the other schools under the inquiry. Upon this Dr Temple raises his protest at once in no hesitating language. "This recommendation seems to rest on an entirely mistaken supposition in regard to the true nature of the services which the trustees can render to the school. What the school needs in the trustees is good sense and knowledge of the world. The four gentlemen elected for their eminence in litertempted to justify their election by ature and science would be perpetually doing what the head-master ought to do, and, if he is fit for his post, can do better than any one else. They would often be tempted to push the interests of their own particular study, to the detriment of general education. They would be almost certain to encourage an amount of interference, which, if it hastened or even introduced improvements at the time, would purchase them at the dear price of diminishing the head-master's sense of responsibility and freedom of action.”+ Dr Temple is probably aware of what his great predecessor, Dr Arnold, thought and said upon this question. "The remedy of the trustees," he said, "if they were dissatisfied with him, was not interference, but dismissal." He would never have accepted the post but upon the condition of perfect independence of any such Report to the Trustees of Rugby School, 1863-64.' By the Head-master. control; and he felt bound to resist it, "as a duty not only to himself, but to the master of every foundation school in England."* Dr Moberly was once discussing with him the question of the control occasionally exercised by the warden at Winchester; "I am better off than you are," was Arnold's reply; "my trustees never hear of anything I do until it is done." The head master of Eton and Winchester, when under examination, had naturally some delicacy in speaking out upon the question; but we have seen that it was possible for the opinion of the latter to be overruled by the warden; and one of the most sensible of the Eton witnesses declares that the headmaster was simply crippled" by the interference of a late provost there. DrTemple makes no remark upon the recommendation as to the formal "advice" to be tendered by the council of under-masters, and their right of addressing the governors. Perhaps he is wise not to discuss so invidious a question. The Commissioners appear to have been led into this grave mistake partly by what transpired in the Eton evidence as to the difficulty in that particular school (and probably there only) of the assistantmasters obtaining a hearing for their suggestions, and partly from the success of the system introduced by Arnold at Rugby, and practised more or less by nearly every head-master at present, of holding periodical consultations with his staff. But the whole value of such councils consists in their being a voluntary and cordial proceeding on the part of the chief. Dr Kennedy, in a paper read at York, dissents strongly from both the recommendations in question. His remarks deserve a fuller report than they have received, and our readers may thank us for extracting the following from a copy in private circulation : "The difference between the principle propounded in the Report and that which I venture to advocate, has an importance which can hardly be exaggerated. My principle claims for the man who is intrusted with the head place in a school_that_freedom of thought and action which I believe to be essential to the effectual discharge of his duties. The principle of the Report vests the architectonic functions of education in the governing body, making the head-master only their chief counsellor and assistant in Herein the execution of the work. seems to be involved no less a question than this: Is it for the greater good of society that education should be raised more and more to the rank of a distinct profession, with powers, sanctions, and safeguards analogous to those of other professions, or that it should be reduced below its present rank, to the level of a merely ministerial occupation, like the pedagogy of ancient Greece and Rome? I know not whether the Commissioners had such an issue present to their minds when they gave to the governors of schools the power of regulating the several studies. But I see no logical escape from the conclusion, that the withdrawal of this power from the head-master does really lower his professional character, and impair the dignity of education as a profession. The second recommendation concerning government which I find myself unable to regard with satisfaction is Head VI., which suggests the legal constitution in every public school of a council of assistant-masters having certain rights and powers. Now, I cordially admit the propriety and value of the practice on which this recommendation is grounded—I mean the frequent consultation of the masters in common on matters affecting the welfare of the school. But I likewise believe—nay, I feel very sure— - that its value as an instrument of good will be much impaired that it will be always dangerous, often mischievous if it were legally established as a kind of imperium in imperio, instead of being left altogether to the discretion of the head-master. I was myself an assistant-master for six years; I have been a head-master for eight-and-twenty; and I can truly say that I should as little have desired such a constitution in my former post, as I now desire it in the latter." * See Stanley's 'Life of Arnold,' vol. i. p. 105. Winch. Evid., 377. Eton Evid., 4207. The Commissioners would send the extreme discomfort and confusion of the school generally; and he only made it possible by requiring all his masters to teach more or less of French or mathematics. It failed in his hands; and it might have been a warning against a rash renewal of the experiment. out their reformed head-masters as the French Convention sent out its generals, watched and hampered in every movement by "representatives of the people," but with the additional drag upon them of a council of subordinates ready to "advise," and, if overruled, to rebel. By Recommendation xiii. every boy is to be permitted, "on arriving at a certain place in the school, and upon the request of his parents and guardians," to drop some part of the classical work (e. g., Greek and Latin composition), and to give the time thus gained to mathematics, modern languages, or natural science; in fact, something like Dr Kennedy's non-collegiate class is to be adopted in all schools by authority. We should be very willing to see this tried; yet it would seem open to very nearly the same objection as the "Modern School" of Marlborough and Cheltenham, which, as has been seen, the Report does not recommend to the old foundations. "For instruction in arithmetic and mathematics, in modern languages and natural science respectively, the school should be redistributed into a series of classes or divisions, wholly independent of the classical forms," with a separate scheme of promotion in each subject. (Recom. xix.) 66 Of this recommendation their friendly critic Dr Temple quietly says that with all their pains they have recommended what is physically impossible;" he means that there would not be language or science masters for half the forms. Dr Kennedy says, in the paper already quoted-" The very attempt could not be rationally made without such an increase in the staff of masters, as well as in other means and appliances, as few, if any, schools could hope to achieve ; and, even with such aid, I think it would be unsuccessful as an educational discipline.' The attempt was made and continued for some years by Dr Arnold at Rugby, to Yet if French and German are to be made a part of the regular schoolwork-to be "promoted by an effective system of reward and punishment," and to have "substantial weight and encouragement" given to them, as the Commissioners desire-we believe that the only really successful method will be to have them taught upon Arnold's planby the regular classical masters in their several forms. It is true that in his day the system could not be said to be successful. It limited seriously his choice of masters, because the best classical scholars were by no means found generally qualified to teach modern languages. For this reason-which will become gradually less applicable as such studies become more popular Dr Tait, when head-master, went back to the old plan of appointing foreign language-masters, and this system Dr Temple continues and approves. Dr Moberly says in his evidence that he "took a leaf out of Arnold's book" at Winchester, but was obliged to give it up for the same reason. But that a foreign teacher, however able in his special department, can very seldom enforce the necessary discipline, without which there can be no effectual teaching, is admitted very generally. Mr Tarver-the French master at Eton, an Englishman by birth, but a perfect French scholar has "had as much trouble in teaching a Frenchman to keep order as in teaching the boys to speak French." Mr Butler of Harrow thinks the difficulty may be overcome in some cases by ability and tact; and, very naturally, some of the foreign masters who were examined conceive that they possess these requisites sufficiently. But the fact remains, that a Frenchman does not understand English boys. Mr Max Müller-than whom there can be no higher authority on such a subject-recommends a system which seems to promise better than any which has hitherto been tried. French, he thinks, should "be grafted on Latin." "I think French should be taught grammatically by an Englishman who has had opportunities, either by travel or by birth, of acquiring a fair knowledge of French. I think he should ground the boys in the grammar of the language, but he should have an assistant, who is a Frenchman, under his supervision, to read aloud to the boys and to dictate to them, to give them every facility for acquiring any exceptional knowledge of the language which either they or their parents might think it desirable they should possess. I would aim principally at securing an accurate knowledge of grammar; and, secondly, a sufficient amount of reading to enable a boy after three or four years to read for his own amusement." Gen. Evidence, 57, &c. A good accent, or fluency in conversation, he does not think can be attained in an English school. The unsatisfactory results of the teaching under foreign masters he holds to arise from the fact that "boys are sure to detect some national peculiarities and turn them into ridicule," and that few foreign teachers are good Latin scholars. There can be little doubt that he is right in his view; that to be taught by the regular classical master is the best mode of raising the study of modern languages in the estimation of the boys; and that whatever may be lost in the way of defective pronunciation will be more than counterbalanced by real study of the language itself. Mr Bradley, head-master of Marlborough, and Mr Johnson of Eton, express themselves strongly to this effect. But the Commissioners have felt, and confessed honestly at every opportunity, that the great enemy which masters and Royal Commissioners have to fight is-idleness; and against it they forge two new weapons, in Recommendations xxiii. and xxv. It would seem, perhaps, scarcely a fair way of stating them to state them thus: 1. That no boy shall come to a public school who is not a fair scholar; and, 2. That no boy shall stay there who is slow and difficult to teach. But really this is what they pretty nearly come to; and if carried out, they would certainly work a very radical change. In the Commissioners' own words, every boy before admission to a public school is "to pass an entrance examination, and to show himself well grounded for his age in classics and arithmetic, and in the elements of French and German." -(Recomm. xxiii. From this latter part Mr Vaughan dissents in a long memorandum at the end of the Report, and suggests the alternative of natural science.) Unquestionably this recommendation is directed to the right points the negligence of parents, the inefficiency of home education, and the loose training of preparatory schools. But how many of the public schools will have the courage to enforce such a regulation otherwise than nominally? And if some, who stand high enough in repute to be able thus to pick and choose their scholars, do enforce it in reality, will not the less prosperous schools be flooded with the refuse, and thus become less efficient than ever? Or, if all have the courage to make this " pass examination a real one, what is to become of the rejected candidates? Again, have "Public" Schools a right to say they will teach none but those who have been well-taught already? Is no boy to go into the water until he has learnt to swim? It would be idle to put any question to the Commissioners which bears upon founders' intentions, or it might fairly be asked, did they intend to exclude the ignorant and ill-taught? So, again, Recommendation xxv. provides that". no boy shall be suffered to remain in the school who fails to make reasonable progress in it; and it goes on to fix a maximum age at which each form |
