The Headmasters' Conference

Abstract

THE headmasters of sixty of the leading public schools met at the Leys School, Cambridge, on December 22 and 23. On the first day the chief matter discussed was the work of the Public Schools' League for Imperial Land Settlement in the Overseas Dominions, which was strongly supported by the Rev. Dr. Gray (warden of Bradfield College). Under the auspices of the committee, approved boys are to be sent to a Canadian farm after completing their school career. A course at an agricultural college is to follow a year's practical training on the farm, and it is hoped that the public schools will assist the supply to the dominion of “men of character, intelligence, and energy, possessed of a little capital, who will settle down seriously and will assist in bringing under cultivation the immense areas of land at present untouched.” The conference pledged its support to the establishment of a central office in London for the permanent work of the league. Later in the day the meeting asked for fuller recognition of English in the university examinations for admission. All the speakers emphasised the importance of the subject, which was no longer regarded as something for a spare hour; not a few were of opinion that to add English to the entrance examinations would be the worst service they could do to the cause. Fear was expressed lest a set period or figure in literature might be made compulsory, and the comments of some speakers upon the university examinations were decidedly caustic.