Science for Citizenship

Abstract

FACILE criticism will always find vulnerable points of attack in any educational system. Only a short time ago, much was heard in the popular press of the views of prominent business men on thp deficiencies of their office boys. Our educational system was therefore condemned in toto; our vast expenditure on education was adjudged complete waste. While such hasty judgments, based only on partial observation and imperfect evidence, may be set aside as carrying little weight, those who come most closely into contact with the products of the elementary school may still feel that all is not entirely well with education in England to-day. It may be granted that as compared with twenty-five years ago, when the Education Act of 1902 came into force, vast strides have been made. A higher standard is attained, a greater degree of accuracy and a stronger grip of the facts is to be observed, together with less tendency to a parrot-like repetition of the form in which the subject matter has been received. On the other hand, knowledge and inference which depend on that elusive quality, the intellectual flexibility and adaptability which for lack of a better term examiners connote by ‘general intelligence,’ seem rarely to show an advance commensurate with the improvement in specific branches of learning.