they put their basin and spoon into another basket, and as they go out they take a large slab of bread and jam, and eat that in the street. The school board allowed us to do this without any rent, and they gave us the gas. Then the cooking of those meals is done by paid labor, but the distribution is done by the voluntary help of ladies at each center. There is a rota at each center and there are two ladies who attend each day. Our manager I will refer to directlyhe is a most capable, suggestive man. We were very much distressed at the fact that the children would come a mile or a mile and half to eat this poor dinner, and they would come through slush and snow and wet, and we wanted to prevent that. A system of baskets was invented. There is a system of baskets at present in use by which the soup can be kept absolutely hot for more than an hour. I have tried it at both ends, and I find it is almost as hot as when it comes out of the copper. We reduced the number of centers to four or five, and now all the outlying schools send their baskets with a paper saying how many dinners they want. Those dinners are put into the baskets at a quarter to 12 or 12 o'clock, and then the staff of the school help in distributing the meals at that school."

346. The committee have thought it worth while to print this part of Doctor Airy's evidence in the body of the report because of the remarkable economie fact with which he concludes:

"We give that dinner, a large bowl of soup-in fact, they have two or three. bowls if they like-and a large slab of bread and jam, for less than a halfpenny, and in that expense is included £150 or £100 a year to the manager."

347. He attributed this result (1) to the concentration of the population that has to be helped, (2) to the good will and assistance of the local authority, and (3) to the organizing skill of "a heaven-born manager," a retired naval officer, and to the cooperation of volunteers. In addition to those dinners, which provide for some 24 per cent of the children of school age, breakfasts, consisting of cocoa, milk, and bread, are supplied by the bounty of a private individual to the necessitous children in about 20 schools in Birmingham, as Doctor Airy believed. under similar conditions. The testimony of the teachers is unanimous that the system pursued enables the children to do the ordinary school work, and they report that the difference is perfectly extraordinary.

The committee express the opinion that

in a large number of cases voluntary organizations with the support and oversight of the local authority are sufficient for the purpose, and as long as this is so the committee would strongly deprecate recourse being had to direct municipal assistance.

360. Circumstances, however, do arise which call for more immediate aid, and in which the school authority, taking into account the difficulty in the way of home provision of suitable food and the number of children who attend school habitually underfed, are willing to provide regular and sufficient meals, and in such cases the committee agree with the opinion of the royal commission on physical training (Scotland), that “the preparation and cooking of these meals, where it is found necessary to provide them, ought to be regarded as one of the charges incident to school management."

361. By a differentiation of function on these ternis-the school authority to supply and organize the machinery, the benevolent to furnish the material—a working adjustment between the privileges of charity and the obligations of the community might be reached.

362. In some districts it still may be the case that such an arrangement would prove inadequate; the extent or the concentration of poverty might be too great for the resources of local charity, and in these, subject to the consent of the board of education, it might be expedient to permit the application of municipal aid on a larger scale. As a corollary to the exercise of such powers-which should be by scheme sanctioned by the board-the law would have to be altered so as to furnish means, as was suggested in evidence, to compel the neglectful parent to take his full share of responsibility, and the committee are sanguine that a few prosecutions to this end would have a most salutary and stimulating effect.

CHAPTER XIII.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN ENGLAND AS AFFECTED BY THE LAW OF 1902.

TOPICAL OUTLINE.

The law of 1902 in its relation to "higher education.-Present status of secondary schools in England.-Regulations for secondary schools issued by the board of edu cation for 1905.-Statistics of "higher" (1. e., secondary, technical, and evening schools.-Action of local authorities in respect to "higher" education.-Provision for secondary education in Sheffield and in Liverpool as set forth in reports by Mr. Michael Sadler.-Secondary education in London as disclosed by special investiga tious in 1892 and by Mr. Sidney Webb in 1903.-Chronological epitome of move ment in England for organizing secondary education.

THE LAW OF 1902 IN ITS RELATION TO HIGHER EDUCATION.

The education law of 1902 marks an important stage in the development of the English system of public education. As regards elementary education, the provisions of the law and its operations for the two years that have elapsed since it took effect have been considered in the preceding chapter. The law, however, reaches much further than this limited field. It recognizes the public responsibility in respect to the provision of schools of a higher grade than the elementary and places upon local authorities definite obligations in this matter. Hence, with the exception only of the education law of 1870, it is the most important measure ever adopted by the Government in the interests of public education.

The term "higher education" as used in the faw of 1902 corresponds in part to the term "secondary" as used in this country; but under the heading, "Higher education," the English law contemplates a variety of institutions, namely, secondary schools distinctively recognized as such, science and art schools receiving Government grants, and evening schools, covering collectively a wider range than the secondary schools of the United States.

The local authorities for higher education are the same as for the elementary schools i, e., county and borough councils, a provision which makes it possible to correlate and equalize the educational provision in each administrative

area.

As stated in the brief epitome of the law already given," the councils are authorized to supply or aid the supply of education other than elementary. For this purpose they have at their disposal two sources of revenue, namely, (1) the surplus of the liquor duties as provided by a law of 1890, (2) revenues from

a

For previous articles on the higher (i. e., secondary and technical) schools of England see index on p. 799.

For full provision respecting the powers conferred upon the local authorities with respect to higher education see Parts II and IV, law of 1902, published in the Commissioner's Report for 1902, pp. 1018, 1024, 1025; for epitome of these provisions see p. 803 of the present Report.

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local taxes (rates) which they may levy for the purpose. Thus the law provides for the increase of the means of “higher education,” while careful also to conserve whatever has been already achieved in this direction by municipal or private effort.

The measures adopted by the local councils for carrying out these provisions of the law must have the approval of the board of education, which also has organized a service of inspection for the higher school. Furthermore, the board exercises a general control over the whole work through the regulations (codes) defining the classes of institutions that may be recognized as higher and determining the conditions upon which they may have a right to Government inspection or to Government grants.

It will be seen that in dealing with this department of education the law limits itself to matters of general administration and scholastic classification, leaving all further responsibility to the local authorities. In the two years that bave elapsed since the passage of the law little more has been done by the board of education in this matter than to formulate the regulations above referred to and take over the work formerly in charge of the science and art department and the educational duties of the charity commissioners. The councils, upon whom the more onerous task devolves, have done little more than arrange for the continuance of the evening schools, formerly under the school boards, and investigate the actual status of their respective areas in regard to the supply of secondary schools and higher institutions. To complete this survey it will therefore be necessary to consider (1) the regulations issued by the Government for secondary schools distinctively recognized as such; (2) the summarized report of schools under Government inspection or aided by Government; (3) accounts of the preliminary investigations in specified areas.

For the better understanding of the situation as regards the existing schools which are or may be affected by the new measures, the considerations specified are here introduced by a brief account of secondary education quoted from an official statement prepared for the St. Louis Exposition.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

In spite of many warnings as to the necessity for the organization of secondary education, up to the present day the relations of public authorities, both central and local, with secondary schools have been much less close than those with elementary education. The secondary schools may be divided into four classes: (a) The public schools (i. e.. the seven principal schools, viz, Eton. Winchester, Westminster, Charterhouse, Harrow, Rugby, Shrewsbury) dealt with by the public schools act of 1868 and certain others popularly associated with them; (b) the endowed schools (i. e., the endowed secondary grammar schools administered under the endowed schools act of 1869); (e) schools established and controlled by local authorities; (d) schools carried on by private enterprise. It is hardly possible to give an exact definition of a public school, but the term includes all the most important older foundations which maintain very close relations with the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge. They are mainly, though not exclusively, boarding schools, and thus are differentiated from the endowed schools, which, though admitting boarders, have a strong local connection. Educationally, the endowed schools were under the control of the charity commissioners, whose powers in this respect have now been transferred to the board of education. These powers included that of making schemes for the general conduct of such schools, and for organizing administrative inspection to see that these schemes were properly executed, but they did not include any authority to grant financial assistance. This defect was to some extent remedied by the action of the science and art department, whose grants could be earned by schools complying with their regulations. Both from this source and from the funds administered by the county councils under the technical instruction acts, considerable financial aid has been given in recent years to secondary schools. In many places there probably still exists a considerable deficiency in this grade of education, but the duty of providing a

fitting remedy is laid by the act of 1902 upon the new authorities. It may be noted that the greatest part of the provision of girls' education is still made by private enterprise.

Hitherto no special qualifications have been demanded of secondary teachers. High academic qualifications unaccompanied by any professional preparation have sufficed to open the best posts in the teaching profession to men leaving the old universities. But with the establishment of the register of teachers under the act of 1899 this state of things will cease. After the present transitory arrangements have been withdrawn, no teacher will be able to be placed on that register without affording proof of distinct preparation for the practice of his profession.

In the matter of secondary education, Wales has received a different, and, as some maintain, a preferential treatment. It was unusually poor in endowed schools, and the opportunities for secondary education were few. Through the disinterested zeal of one or two individuals, a bill was introduced into Parliament in 1889, and carried with the support of the Government. By this act the treasury undertook to pay to each county and county borough a subsidy not exceeding in amount the sum raised by local rates for the purposes of intermediate education. Through the operation of this act within a very few years the principality has been provided with an excellent system of secondary schools. For the maintenance of an equal standard of attainment throughout the country, a system of inspection and examination has been established, and placed under the control of a central board, to which each county and county borough sends delegates. This organization has been allowed to retain its full powers under the act of 1902.

REGULATIONS FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS ISSUED BY THE BOARD OF

EDUCATION FOR 1905.

In the regulations respecting secondary schools issued in 1903 the board of education were careful to define the limits of secondary education, and in so doing clearly recognized the distinction between secondary schools and technical institutes and classes; thus the authority of the Government has been won for those who advocate an extended course of general education as a prerequisite to specialized training.

The term "secondary as defined by the board applies to “any day or boarding school which offers to each of its scholars, up to and beyond the age of 16, a general education, physical, mental, and moral, given through a complete graded course of instruction of wider scope and more advanced degree than that given in elementary schools."

As being essential to this course of instruction, the following points are emphasized:

(a) The instruction must be general-i. e., must be such as gives a reasonable degree of exercise and development to the whole of the faculties, and does not confine this development to a particular channel, whether that of pure and applied science, of literary and linguistic study, or of that kind of acquirement which is directed simply at fitting a boy or girl to enter business in a subordinate capacity with some previous knowledge of what he or she will be set to do. A secondary school should keep in view the development and exercise of all the faculties involved in these different kinds of training, and will fail to give a sound general education to its scholars in so far as it sends them out, whether to further study or to the business of life, with one or other of these faculties neglected, or with one developed at the expense of the rest. Specialization in any of these directions should only begin after the general education has been carried to a point at which the habit of exercising all these faculties has been formed and a certain solid basis for life has been laid in acquaintance with the structure and laws of the physical world, in the accurate use of thought and language, and in practical ability to begin dealing with affairs.

(b) The course of instruction must be complete-i. e., must be so planned as to lead up to a definite standard of acquirement in the various branches of instruction indicated above, and not stop short at a merely superficial introduction to any of them. Secondary schools are of different types suited to the different requirements of the scholars, to their place in the social organization.

and to the means of the parents and the age at which the regular education of the scholars is obliged to stop short, as well as to the occupations and opportunities of development to which they may or should look forward in later life. But in no case can the course of a secondary school be considered complete which is not so planned as to carry on the scholars to such a point as they may reasonably be expected to reach at the age of 16. It may begin at the age of 8 or 9 or even earlier. Scholars may pass into it from elementary schools at various ages beyond this up to 12 or 13, and in schools of a high grade which give an education leading directly on to the universities it may be continued up to the age, even, of 18 or 19. But as a rule the years from 12 or 13 up to 16 or 17 will be those during which it is most important that it should be carried on in accordance with a systematic and complete scheme.

(c) The instruction must be graded in its various branches. A defect which is notorious in many schools is that in certain subjects (often from causes for which the school authorities are not responsible) instruction of the scholars is cut down to "marking time," or the repetition of lessons already learned. Instruction which is not progressive, while it may be of some use as drill and discipline, is of little real educational value. It gives only a superficial and transitory acquirement, while at the same time it fails to interest or to stimulate the scholar.

The grants payable under the regulations are made in respect of a four years' course only.

A certain minimum number of hours in each week must be given in each year of the course to the group of subjects commonly classed as "English" and including the English language and literature, geography, and history: to languages, ancient or modern, other than the native language of the scholars, and to mathematics and to science. Ample time is left for a well-planned curriculum to add considerably to this minimum in cne or more of these groups of subjects, as well as to include adequate provision for systematic physical exercises; for drawing, singing, and manual training; for the instruction of girls in the elements of housewifery, and for such other subjects as may profitably be included in the curriculum of any particular school.

In respect of this complete course of graded instruction, grants will be made on a simple and uniform scale. This grant applies alike to all the types of school which come within the general definition of a secondary school, as above given. These types fall, broadly speaking, into three main classes, whether regarded from the side of the standard or of the kind of general education which the school is meant to provide. In the former aspect they fall into one or other of the three grades of the schools inquiry commission of 1864 and the secondary education commission of 1894; the first-grade schools leading up directly to the universities and the colleges of university rank; the sec ond-grade schools, which stop short of that point as regards the bulk of their scholars; and the third-grade schools, which do not attempt to carry education much beyond the age of 16, and the object of which is to turn out scholars adequately equipped for commerce and business, for entering upon apprenticeship to the teaching profession, or for proceeding, with a sound preliminary general training, into technical and industrial pursuits. In the latter aspect, in respect of the kind of education offered, they may roughly be discriminated into what are known in ordinary usage as the literary, the scientific, and the commercial types of school; the first of these paying special regard to the development of the higher powers of thought and expression, and that discriminating appreciation of what is best in the thought and art of the world, in other ages and countries, as well as in our own, which forms the basis of all human culture; the second to the training of the intellect toward understanding and applying the laws of the physical universe, and the third to the equipment of the scholars for practical life in the commercial and industrial community of which they are

members.

The board desire it to be clearly understood that the fact of a uniform scale of grant being given to all these grades and types of school implies no belief that they are of equal importance or have indiscriminate claims to State aid. Still less does it imply the assumption that the cost of maintaining one grade or type of school is the same as that of maintaining any other with a similar number of scholars, or that the return to the State per scholar in the form of trained material for citizenship is estimable in uniform terms of so many shillings a head. The uniform scale of aid given is designed to give impartial encouragement to all well-considered local efforts toward developing a general