5. We are concerned in this Report with that period of education which is referred to in the Education (Scotland) Act, 1945, as "primary", excluding the two other categories of "secondary" and "further" education.

6. Subsection two of section one of the Act reads as follows:

"Primary education" means progressive elementary education in such subjects as may be prescribed in the code, regard being had to the age, ability and aptitude of the pupils concerned, and such education shall be given in primary schools or departments. Primary education includes training by appropriate methods in schools and classes (hereinafter referred to as "nursery schools" and "nursery classes") for pupils between the age of two years and such later age as may be permitted by the code."

7. Primary education is legally tied to only one definite age limit; compulsory education begins from the first school "entering date" after the fifth birthday. It is within the option of the parent whether a child is sent to a nursery school or not; he may not send the child before he is two, but may send him at any time between two and five. Within the period above five there is

[page 2]

a distinction laid down in the Code of Regulations* and universally recognised in practice, between the infant division from 5 to 7, and the primary division, as more narrowly defined, from 7 to 12. These ages, 5 to 7 and 7 to 12, do not represent fixed points for any individual child, but are simply convenient approximations. The age of transfer from the infant division to the primary division is, unless in exceptional cases, a matter of internal policy within the primary school.

8. As we have received no evidence, and have ourselves discovered no cogent reason, in favour of a departure from present practice, we recommend without further discussion that age 12, subject to marginal divergence on either side, be regarded as the normal time for transfer from primary to secondary education. More detailed discussion on this point is reserved for our chapter on Transfer from Primary to Secondary Education. With regard to children requiring "special educational treatment" we recommend that they be referred to as "handicapped children", and that the definition be widened to include socially handicapped children. This subject is dealt with in detail in our chapter on The Handicapped Child.

9. The present form of primary education in Scotland was set up after the passing of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872. The vigorous administration of the Scottish Education Department and of its officers established during the next generation traditions and practices and a high standard of efficiency which in spite of legal and administrative changes still have a strong influence for good or ill in the primary schools of Scotland. Moreover, that part of the primary school from 7 to 12 seems largely to have escaped those influences which have profoundly modified infant and secondary education during the last generation. It therefore seems advisable to refer briefly to some of the changes in social life and educational ideas which justify the present inquiry, and to note how these are reflected in the Education (Scotland) Act, 1945.

10. The literacy of the whole population was the object aimed at, and notably achieved, by the sponsors of the Act of 1872. If they did not recognise that the mere capacity to read and write was what we now call a "limited objective", and expected results that have not followed from it, they were only sharing in the political philosophy of the period. In the same way it is natural that we, who as a nation possess wider social and political ideas and experiences than the later 19th century ever contemplated, should base our educational practice on a wider philosophy.

11. Those who said "we must educate our masters" were thinking in terms of political democracy and of elementary education. There was no duty to provide secondary education for all, or awareness of any need for it. Secondary education was confined to those who could pay fees, and to a limited group of children of working class parents who on account of their apparently greater ability received it as a privilege through such expedients as free places and bursaries. Elementary education being thus a complete education for the vast majority of children, and not merely a stage in education, had much more crowded into it than we now think necessary or desirable.

*Day Schools (Scotland) Code, 1939.

[page 3]

12. A falling birth rate was not one of the worries of 1872. Now in 1946 not enough children are being born to maintain the population level. We want to make the most of those we have, to see that they are as healthy as they can be made, and to give each one the best education of which he is capable.

13. Our national situation has changed in many other ways. The complacency and sense of security of 1872 no longer exist: perhaps the year 1901 may be regarded as the turning point. We have entered a grimmer period of our national history, shed many delusions and false hopes, become aware of many influences that seemed to be sapping our national strength and international position, and become involved in terrible struggles for our very existence. Yet we have gained much. We have become more self-critical. We have faced unpleasant realities without flinching. We have been discovered to be tougher than others supposed or even we ourselves imagined. In the great crises we have so upheld international standards as to secure world-wide respect and a share in the moral leadership of the nations. In home affairs we have developed a higher social conscience and a stronger sense of common responsibility, as shown in extensive legislative enactments and administrative developments.

14. Education is also influenced by the growing complexity of society and the increasing rapidity of scientific and technical development. The widening area of human interests has stimulated the demand for new subjects in the curriculum and led to questionings about the old.

15. In the generation following the 1872 Act, the primary curriculum was on the whole both rigid and uniform. The system of "payment by results", under which the income of a school board - and often of the headmaster - depended on the number of pupils who succeeded as a result of the annual "inspection" in passing from one standard to another, without any doubt achieved its immediate purpose of raising the general level of elementary education in Scotland. But it had other serious and far-reaching results, which affect many of our schools to this day. The better pupils basked in the sunshine of popularity; while the less gifted pupils, whom neither hard teaching nor coercion could bring up to the standard of the others, were officially unpopular and financially unprofitable, existing in a chilly atmosphere of disapproval and intellectual bewilderment. With the development and increasing use of intelligence tests it has been shown not only that the variation in intellectual capacity is much wider than was supposed, but that the intelligence quotient is pretty well fixed for each individual. These discoveries have of course wide practical consequences, not yet entirely realised - among others the greater importance to be attached to individual and group work, and the recognition that whole-class teaching is hardly a satisfactory expedient for dealing with over-large classes.

16. Another major change is the shifting of emphasis from merely intellectual training to the development of the whole personality, with a new emphasis on physical and emotional training; and from passive reception and the memorising of facts to the encouragement of each child to develop by its own activity all those gifts it possesses and those virtues to which it is capable of attaining.

17. Allied to this is the idea of the pupil as a member of a school community receiving his first training in citizenship.

18. Finally there is an awakening to the educational problems involved in dealing with children handicapped in any way - mentally, physically or socially; and the development of environments and techniques for dealing with them.

[page 4]

19. Recognition of the altered outlook and attitude described above has become increasingly evident in the more recent Education and allied Acts affecting school children; but never so broadly and systematically as in the 1945 Act. We draw special attention to some of the chief ways in which the changed attitude to education has affected the primary school.

(1) The provision that in both primary and secondary education regard shall be had to the "age, ability and aptitude of the pupils concerned". This, so far as legislation is concerned, is a revolutionary declaration, being a charter of justice for the less gifted and for all handicapped children.

(2) The obligation to provide nursery schools in accordance with demand.

(3) The placing on an equal footing of all secondary courses, the only criterion for entrance to each of them being "a reasonable promise of profiting". This provision clearly places considerable responsibility on the primary school for a progressive assessment of the capacities and aptitudes of each individual child.

(4) The various provisions designed to secure equality of opportunity between children living near a school and those living at a distance.

(5) The obligation to make provision for the appropriate training of different types of handicapped children.

(6) The power to deal with difficult children through child guidance clinics - an opportunity given to the school organisation to deal at the most effective stage with defects which might otherwise develop into juvenile delinquency.

(7) Encouragement given to all parents to take a responsible interest in the education of their children; and increased powers to deal with bad or careless parents.

(8) The mandatory inclusion within the provision of "free education" of all the necessary books and other materials.

(9) The provision, foreshadowed in the Act, of free milk and midday meals for all children.

(10) Finally, and most significant of all, the raising of the school age to 15 and subsequently to 16. This provision upsets the former balance between primary and secondary education, and involves fundamental reconsideration of both.

20. What we have been considering is the social, educational and legislative background. But here in the foreground is the child, required to attend a primary school for six hours a day, five days a week, for seven of the most formative years of his life. For what purpose is he sent to school? This question has been answered in various ways: together they make up a fairly complete answer.

21. The earliest educators, the parents, have come to the end of their technical resources. Nor can they make instruction a full-time job. The child demands wider horizons and fresh activities. His growing strength and restlessness make him a distraction within the home and a source of anxiety outside of it. The compulsory school entering age is for the majority of parents one of the most popular of our laws. The child is safe, and in competent hands.

22. We may also look on these seven years as the period for learning the use of tools which will be required for secondary and further education: how

[page 5]

to speak clearly and correctly, listen attentively, write legibly, use the fundamental rules in arithmetic, and make simple written statements correctly spelt and in properly formed sentences. Here too, the child learns his first lessons in citizenship. As a member of a class under a teacher he learns the discipline of living with others; he must work and play without annoying other children, and demand no more than his fair share of attention. As one child among many of the same age he must for his own comfort learn to compromise and to co-operate. In short, he begins to "find his place".

23. All children value and need security They have normally had and normally will have from their earliest years this feeling of security at home. It is important that they should also have it at school. If we agree that this is an important purpose of education, we must also accept whatever in school life will encourage it. The child must have personal contact with the teacher in a class not too large for the purpose. The teacher must be relieved as far as possible of worries and pressures which would unconsciously vitiate her relations with the pupils. The children should progress from one stage to another in accordance with schemes and methods carefully graded for the whole period from 5 to 12, and without any such violent break as sometimes occurs when the child leaves the infant department. The times for the introduction of new topics must be carefully chosen. There must also be such co-operation between members of the staff, through the headmaster, as will ensure that the teaching of certain basic operations and skills is on uniform lines throughout the school. One other point deserves attention. It cannot be assumed that the free intercourse of children, outside of definite classroom activities, and particularly in the playground and on the way to and from school, is necessarily always in the long run beneficial for all children. It has been truly said that "cet âge est sans pitié". Exceptional children, whether those with physical or mental defects, or able children with unusual gifts or temperaments, may have undeservedly many miserable and harmful experiences at the hands of their fellows. Much of this may be avoided by quiet observation and tactful measures taken by the teaching staff, without interfering unduly with the rough-and-tumble of ordinary school relations, which is so valuable a part of the training of the great majority.

24. There is one purpose of primary education which in any forward-looking and logically developed programme is apt to be under-emphasised. These seven years are among the most vivid of our existence. Every day is full of new experiences; the relatively static seems permanent; time seems to last much longer; events and individuals leave deeper impressions and more lasting memories than in later life. Without discussing which are the happiest years, we may at least agree that every stage of life should be lived for its own sake as happily and fully as possible. We must above all respect this right on behalf of children, whose happiness is a good deal at the mercy of circumstances and people beyond their control. This purpose if accepted involves important consequences. The teacher has to recognise differences of capacity and temperament and give all a fair deal. She must recognise and compensate for difference of home background; she must not impose any artificial pattern of life by an overdominating personality; and she must so help her pupils to co-ordinate their mental and physical powers as to allow these to develop through disciplined and purposeful activity.

25. The danger of imposing an artificial pattern of life applies with equal force to the State. Pupils must not be "conditioned" to any set and predetermined ways of thinking and acting. They will have to live their own lives in circumstances we can but dimly guess. They should therefore by the encouragement of sturdiness of body and mind be made fit for any emergency.

[page 6]

26. In concluding this chapter we should however make it clear that the purposes of primary education as here outlined are already explicitly or implicitly accepted in many schools. The measure of their acceptance as a whole is in fact the measure of the progress made during the last generation. We are certain, however, that they should now be publicly stated and emphasised.

27. In the carrying out of these objectives the supremely important factor is the teacher. The physical arrangements of the school are the setting for her work. Books and apparatus are her necessary tools. The most responsible task of educational administrators is therefore to secure an adequate flow of suitable recruits to the teaching profession. If, however, the supply is irregular in quantity and quality, and non-educational considerations are allowed to intervene, individual appointments will receive a relatively exaggerated amount of attention. It is right that all the round pegs should be fitted into the round holes; but if the whole supply is short and some of the material that must be used is of indifferent quality, the scramble among authorities for teachers does not contribute to the solution of the national problem - it can only mean that some areas will be more fortunate than others.

28. Apart from emphasising the central position of the teacher in the whole scheme of primary education, we do not find it necessary to make any further observations in this Report, as the whole question of the recruitment and training of teachers has been dealt with in separate Reports.*

29. The remuneration of teachers properly accounts for at least two-thirds of educational expenditure. The other third is absorbed in a large variety of charges which have the common purpose of enabling teachers to carry out their functions satisfactorily: in other words, to get the utmost value out of the other two-thirds which is the primary charge against educational funds. We therefore lay down as a general principle that it is unwise and in the last resort uneconomical to pare down this general expenditure in such a way as to diminish the value of the teacher's efforts; for example, by reluctance to provide suitable buildings and furniture, by rationing supplies on purely financial grounds, or by neglect to make adequate travelling and hostel arrangements. The teacher has a right to assume that her difficult and responsible task will be undertaken in the best possible conditions, both as regards the school environment and the well-being of the pupils. At the same time it must be kept in mind that simplicity and economy are among the moral lessons to be taught in school - for example, opportunity should remain available for self-help and ingenuity in the provision of simple apparatus and handwork material.

30. We are aware that the Secretary of State has received recommendations on school buildings from a committee† set up for the purpose. We therefore refrain from making any extended observations about school architecture and confine our attention to emphasising several points made in evidence, which immediately affect the pupils in a primary school.

*Cmd. 6501; Cmd. 6723.

†Committee on School Buildings for Scotland.

[page 7]

31. Every school building should be sited so that there is a minimum of interference from outside noise; otherwise the teacher is driven to the unhappy choice between a stuffy atmosphere and a spoiled lesson. Similarly the building should never be in such a position that windows have to be kept shut on account of smoke from chimneys. For reasons of safety and freedom from noise the school building should be at some distance from busy thoroughfares.

32. The "school" should be regarded as the whole site, providing the necessary internal and external accommodation. One part of the external accommodation should have a clean and firm non-skid surface for physical exercises and games; another part should be in grass; another available for gardening activities; and if possible a small plantation or clump of varied trees.

33. It may at once be conceded that this ideal presents special difficulties in large towns. These may be tackled in several ways. New housing schemes generally involve an outward movement of the population. We welcome the co-operation that is being shown between the Government Departments concerned, and between them and local authorities, in the siting of schools in new housing areas, and the setting aside of ample and central space for the purpose. In such areas the school may well become the centre of community life for the area, provided that special accommodation and suitable furniture are made available for adults. We hope that no more large schools of the barrack type with little surrounding space will be erected. In some cases it may be found advisable to obtain ground for a school in open semi-rural surroundings and transport the children to it. But there remains the obstinate fact that many schools of the barrack type exist and must be used. We recommend - (a) that these be made internally as attractive as possible; (b) that the number on the roll be drastically reduced; (c) that to compensate for the lack of outside recreational facilities such schools be internally reconstructed to give the maximum of amenities such as school halls, dining halls and gymnasia; and (d) that if an alternative and more suitable site can be found, the school be transferred there and the building adapted for any suitable purposes under the general heading of "further education".

34. The whole policy as regards school shelters requires reconsideration. The present type of school shed barely fulfils even its primitive purpose of keeping the rain off the children during school intervals. It gives no shelter from cold and wind, and being usually at some distance from the main school building does not provide dry access to the school. We recommend that it be erected in some form or other contiguous to or incorporated in the main building, heated if possible, and also giving access under cover to the lavatory.

35. Satisfactory heating and ventilation are necessary both for health and educational efficiency. We assume that central heating will become normal even in small schools. But it may not always be operated so as to secure the most efficient results. The approved temperature should be reached at or soon after the beginning of the morning session, and thereafter not substantially exceeded. As cold walls and floors materially affect the temperature of the classroom it is essential - and in normal times economical - that the heating of school buildings should be reasonably maintained overnight and at weekends during the cold season. Further, the question of putting the heating system off or on should be determined by the outside temperature rather than by the calendar. During the early days of "summer time" artificial heating is often desirable in the morning hours.

[page 8]

36. During cold weather sufficient attention may not always be given to ventilation. Heat may be lost unnecessarily by keeping windows open when there are no pupils in the school. Outside doors kept carelessly open may reduce the temperature of a whole school. On the other hand, the need for air-conditioning may easily be overlooked. A teacher busy in a classroom may not always realise that it is becoming stuffy. We have evidence that proper advantage is not always taken even of the most satisfactory systems of cross-ventilation. The best teaching results will always be achieved when the air is gently moving rather than stagnant.

37. We recommend the strictest adherence to the regulation of the Scottish Education Department that there should be a thermometer in every classroom; that it should be placed in a suitable position; and that it should be referred to regularly.

38. We have also had evidence that the open corridors which are a feature of some of the newer school buildings have this serious drawback that they lower the temperature of classrooms and expose children to the chill blasts of the Scottish climate.

39. Every detail in the structure, decoration and furnishing of a classroom should be considered in relation to educational purposes. Close co-operation is therefore necessary between architectural and educational experts. Both should, for example, take account of the fact that people get more impressions through the eye than from any other of the senses. Adequate natural lighting without shadows or dark corners is fundamental; and shading from sun-glare by blinds or curtains should be provided. The provision of artificial light should not be neglected on the plea that it may be in use for only a short period. It should be of ample strength, skilfully placed, and of the best type available. In rooms used for needlework and crafts the lighting should not be diffused, but concentrated in such a way that light adequate for the special purpose is available for each group of pupils.

40. The colouring of the walls, which occupy so large a part of the child's field of vision, is obviously also important. As children are notoriously fond of bright colours, it seems reasonable that the colour schemes of classrooms should be so designed as to give them pleasure. In view of the numerous experiments on these lines, all of them interesting, and many of them successful, we hope that no school interior will in future be painted in a dull or muddy colour which is alleged to be "restful", or is guaranteed "not to show the dirt". The eye of the child may be stimulated otherwise in a variety of ways. Many artistic posters may again be issued by railway and steamship companies and air lines, and used for wall decoration by being pasted on with a painted frame and varnished. Simple wooden frames forming part of the decoration scheme may be so constructed as to permit of a regular change of attractive pictures or reproductions. A school may be fortunate enough to gather a small collection of modern paintings. Perhaps most important of all is the decoration that can be done by the children themselves. For this purpose a wide wood-framed panel, of a material easily taking drawing pins, should extend round the room. Everything on this panel, whether stencils, silhouettes, drawings, lettering or coloured patterns, should be so placed as to please the eye by its symmetry and its decorative effect on the whole room.

41. But, after all, the most concentrated visual attention of the pupil is, and should be, on the blackboard (the traditional name may be allowed even if it is neither black nor a board), partly as the focus of class demonstration and

[page 9]

partly as the readiest medium of creative activity by teacher or pupil. Floor blackboards, whether easel or frame, have the advantage of mobility, but are cumbersome and obstructive. They are also of limited vertical value, and trying to the physical capacities of the teacher. A wide band of fixed boarding is subject to the same difficulty: it is useful upwards only so far as the comfortable stretch of the teacher's arm, and downwards only so far as it can be seen from the back of the room without obstruction. We have no doubt that by far the most generally useful is the rotary type giving four full size boards on a linen surface, adjustable both to the hand of the teacher and the eye of the pupil. We believe that a considerable number of teachers do not use the blackboard enough nor for a sufficient variety of purposes: this point will be further developed in paragraph 98.

42. Storage accommodation in every classroom should be ample in relation to methods employed and the quantity of material to be stored, and easy of access to the pupils. Cupboards should be planned as a part of the original layout of the room. The interior fittings should be so arranged as to permit of easy storage. The tidiness and functional efficiency of cupboards should be a matter of concern for both teacher and pupils. Obsolete material should be periodically discarded.

43. Floor space as well as wall space should be used to the best advantage. A room filled with heavy immobile furniture cramps both the methods of the teacher and the activities of the pupils. The floor space itself is an asset that should never be sacrificed. Everything placed upon it should be easily moved, regrouped, or if necessary removed. Flat locker tables with chairs appear to be more useful and adaptable than any other type. With these the class can be readily divided or redivided into groups. Tables of the same size can be put together where a larger surface is required for a common activity. Chairs may be used separately and taken elsewhere when required. The furniture should be well made, of good material and capable of standing up to reasonable wear. If it is so constructed that it can be tidily stacked by the pupils before leaving, sweeping and dusting can be done more easily and thoroughly.

44. The full and proper use of such furniture involves, however, a certain type of discipline. To teach quiet and purposeful and controlled movement is more important than teaching pupils to sit still. To train them to fetch things for themselves, or to leave the room without special instructions, or reasonably and quietly to talk to one another in suitable circumstances, is to lay a good foundation for self-control and social living. Anything done by an individual which would be intolerable if done by all at the same time, or any interference with the rights or well-being of another, then becomes an offence against the community rather than the teacher. It may be admitted that this, like many modern teaching techniques, makes more demands on the teacher; but surely there is more satisfaction to be obtained from teaching a high-spirited team than from dominating a passive herd.

45. Every normal mother wants to send her children to school clean, tidily and adequately dressed, well-nourished, and in good health, and every teacher is reasonably entitled to expect such children. If there is a defect in one or more of these conditions, prompt action is needed, both for the sake of the individual child and in order to maintain the social and health standards of the little community. The immediate responsibility for action inevitably devolves

[page 10]

upon the class teacher: it is she who must make sure that all the facilities and services officially provided are in fact completely available where required. We emphasise this point because of our belief that it is the professional duty of the primary teacher not merely to give lessons, but to start from the basis of a personal interest in each individual pupil. In the case of dirt or untidiness it should be possible to deal firmly but tactfully with the pupil direct so long as it appears possible that he may be able to effect the desired improvement himself. If that seems unlikely, the problem enters the sphere of relations with parents, which we discuss in Chapter VI. With regard to questions of nutrition and health it is reasonable to expect that the teacher should not only be on the alert but have sufficient knowledge or elementary training to enable her to recognise cases that may require attention and to take the necessary steps. In this connection we refer with pleasure to the summer schools for teachers and social workers organised by the Scottish Council for Health Education. The teacher should on the other hand feel sure of immediate and efficient support through the headmaster from the education authority. Failure by the parent, from whatever cause, to provide proper shoes and clothing should never be accepted as a reason for absence, and machinery should be available for dealing at once with such cases, leaving any question of responsibility to be considered later.

46. With regard to all questions relating to the health of pupils there must be complete co-operation at all levels between the education and health departments of the local authority. No administrative theories or practices should be allowed to operate in such a way as to impair the joint efficiency of the educational and health services within the school. We recommend that as a result of routine medical inspections, of which there should be at least three, one of them in the final year and which should be held on dates mutually convenient, the class teacher should be notified of any children having defects that involve special care or some modification of educational treatment. On the other hand, she should ask for expert guidance at the earliest opportunity about any child who seems to be suffering from any disease, handicap or infectious condition. When school medical inspections are necessarily infrequent, a school nurse should always be available to visit periodically and on request. In some areas it appears that different departments of the public health service make separate arrangements for nursing services. There are however many conditions under which it is desirable, so far as it is practicable, that one nurse should be in charge for general purposes of a small section of the community, as it is only in this way that full and helpful information can be obtained about the circumstances and conditions of life of each family, and the various services co-ordinated.

47. But schemes for routine and special medical inspections, and for the reporting of suspected conditions, do not exist merely for the purpose of providing statistics and notifying parents. They have inevitably given rise to those treatment schemes which have been so generally established and so widely extended in the last generation. There is no more urgent task for the education and medical services than to co-operate in narrowing the gap that still exists in many areas between diagnosis and treatment. Administrative delays, lack of follow-up, inadequacy of clinical arrangements, the indifference or even hostility of parents - these and all other obstacles should as far as possible be swept aside for the sake of the child and to the ultimate benefit of the public. With regard to accidents or sudden illness arising in school, we commend for general adoption the practice of many authorities who have informed headmasters that they will pay for the first emergency call of a doctor and for conveyance home or to a hospital.

48. While the home and the school have the same general training purpose, they have distinct special functions. In addition to providing security, the home gives the child his first experience of the clash of wills and interests, and so of the need for self-discipline and the spirit of compromise. The school is a wider field for the exercise of these virtues, standing midway between the complete shelter of the home and the independent life of the outer world; at the beginning it looks back towards the home, and near the end looks forward to vocational and social activities. The smooth working of home and school relations during this long process of development makes certain demands on both parent and teacher. The relation should be one of mutual respect: each must recognise the rights and duties of the other. But this respect should be solidly founded on know ledge. The teacher should know something of the home conditions of her pupils; and the parent should know something of the purpose and practice of the school.

49. It has been observed that home-and-school relations are not equally close during the whole of the seven years of primary school life, but tend to be concentrated on the two critical periods of first entry and final transfer - the former an occasion of natural anxiety to most mothers, and the latter when a choice affecting the career of the child may have to be made. That teachers should respond to the special interest of parents at these times is proper and highly desirable; but continuing co-operation during the long intervening period is also necessary. In saying this we would at the same time deprecate any scheme tending to make the parent over-solicitous, or the child too self-conscious. During the greater part of his primary school life the normal small boy or girl does not particularly favour too intimate relations between school and home. He is acquiring a "school" personality, and should be allowed to develop in a natural way his own character and relations with others. It is of particular importance that parents should respect his independent relations with his teacher; and indeed most parents, whether from policy or indifference, show little desire to interfere, and are content to sense the school "atmosphere" in casual and indirect ways. After all, the normal reaction of parents is confidence in the school and pride in the child's developing skills and intelligence; and, on the other hand, the confidence of the teacher in the support of the parent is by no means generally misplaced. The discreet teacher will accordingly refrain from making any observations or creating any situation that may have the effect of causing strain or antagonism in the home between child and parent, and a similar discretion should be exercised by the parents.

50. But a problem remains. It is difficult for parents to form objective judgments about their own children, partly for natural reasons and partly because of the absence of standards of comparison. On the other hand, the teacher's work may be to some extent frustrated unless she is in a position to give advice or get information from the parent. And in any case it is wise that the parent should during these years gradually come to realise the general standing, rate of progress and special aptitudes or difficulties of the child.

(1) VISITS OF PARENTS TO SCHOOL

51. Being therefore convinced of the need for home and school co-operation, we have considered a variety of suggestions as to how it can best be secured. Of these the most obvious is the visit of the parent to the school to discuss any

[page 12]

matter affecting his or her child. It must however be conceded that the Scottish tradition in this matter is not particularly good; such visits when they do occur, are too often emotional occasions associated with real or fancied grievances on the part of the parent. The establishment of a better tradition therefore demands thoughtful planning on the part of headmaster and staff. In the military phrase, they hold the "inner lines". Many parents regard the school as unknown territory; to them it seems large and formidable; they may feel that the chances of a welcome and successful visit are problematical; and they do not always find it easy to make a coherent and unprejudiced statement of their case. Hence the number of visits paid to schools by parents are few in proportion to the impulses to make them. It is therefore important for the headmaster to make it clear that the visits of parents are generally welcome, to put visitors at ease, and to secure tranquil and friendly discussions. To increase the number of visits and decrease the feeling of diffidence, a written or printed invitation might be sent to parents annually, intimating that the headmaster is free to have a talk with them on certain days and between certain hours; or, if this is inconvenient, at any other time when he is disengaged, or by arrangement. In the event of any difficulty arising about a particular pupil, the headmaster should take the initiative by inviting the parent to come and see him: such an indication of personal interest will seldom meet with refusal or neglect. It is a common and desirable school regulation that parents visiting schools must interview the headmaster and not go to a teacher in her classroom without his permission. This rule does not place any barrier against a personal interview between parent and class teacher, unless this is clearIy undesirable because of the attitude of the caller. In the same way we strongly deprecate attention being paid by members or officials of education authorities to complaints which have not previously been brought to the notice of the headmaster.

(2) VISITS OF TEACHERS TO HOME

52. It may be asked: if the parents are to be encouraged to visit the schools, should the teachers be encouraged to visit the homes? This is a proposal that must be considered and carried out with the greatest discretion. It would certainly give the teacher a good deal of information about the social environment of the child, but must never lend itself to the suspicion of prying or interference. It should be limited to occasions when in all human probability the visitor will be cordially welcomed, as on the occasion of the prolonged illness of a child. We have been informed that some headmasters, on finding that certain parents have not chosen at the qualifying stage the course most appropriate for a highly gifted child, have called to suggest reconsideration: their advice has not always been taken, but at least they have always been thanked for their call. On the other hand, it is essential that interviews involving criticism of the parents should take place at the school, or by the medium of an officer or visitor specially appointed for the purpose. In this connection, we refer to the liaison between home and school that may be established by social welfare officers whose appointment was recommended in our Report on Training for Citizenship*. In our Report on the Training of Teachers† we draw attention to the importance of giving the teacher an understanding of social and industrial conditions; and we emphasise this recommendation for the purpose of the present chapter.

(3) FORMAL SCHEMES FOR SECURING CO-OPERATION

53. As regards more formal schemes for securing general co-operation between parents and teachers, school circumstances are so varied that we do

*Cmd. 6495.

†Cmd. 6723.

[page 13]

not think it desirable to recommend any single method. With regard to the proposals for collaboration between parent and teacher mentioned in paragraph 22 of our Report on Training for Citizenship*, we have discussed in particular a suggestion made to us that a parent-teacher association should be formed for every school. While we do not feel able to make such a wide recommendation, we see no reason why this method of co-operation, which has, we understand, achieved a considerable measure of success elsewhere, should not be attempted where the desire for it is general and there is goodwill on both sides. If such an association be formed we recommend that it ought to conform to two conditions - membership on the part of the school staffs should be entirely voluntary, and there should be no interference with school methods or organisation on the part of the parents.

54. There are several other methods of arranging for parental co-operation which we commend to the attention of all concerned. We have been informed by those who have tried it that a "mothers' club" is a good way of securing the interest and co-operation of the parent in the early stages. This club is started usually by the infant mistress with the approval of the headmaster, and takes the form of a social meeting and discussion held periodically in the school. The essential point of such a scheme is that the organisation is in the hands of the members of the staff concerned, with such help from the mothers as may be feasible. Even in an unpromising area this scheme has worked successfully, by giving the mothers an interesting social occasion, a better understanding of school purposes, and a greater zeal for the improvement of the appearance and welfare of their children.

55. There is no reason why a scheme of this kind, which has been successful in infant departments, should not be tried further up the school. Such continued co-operation between parent and teacher seems natural when it is realised and accepted that the whole training of the child is the joint enterprise of parent, teacher and child.

56. We also commend the experiment tried in some schools of setting aside an evening, say three times a year, when parents would be invited to meet the headmaster and the staff, and be given an opportunity of discussing individual problems with the teacher concerned. Those making such an experiment may possibly find that the parents whom the teachers most wish to meet are the ones who are least eager to attend; but perhaps this difficulty may be at least partly met by special invitation.

57. Headmasters who invite parents to a closing function where prizes are distributed are aware that this is an occasion of great pleasure to some parents and of possible disappointment or even bitterness to others. We have accordingly considered this whole question of prize-giving in primary schools, and the subject is again referred to in paragraph 423. We commend, however, the giving of school concerts, dramatic performances and displays, provided it can be arranged that every pupil at a particular stage should at one time or another appear on the platform. But all such performances, together with displays of work done by pupils during the session, are subject to the limitation that they give only a one-sided picture of school activities, and necessarily omit many essentials that do not lend themselves to public exhibition. We would accordingly bring to the notice of those headmasters and staffs who have not yet attempted it the scheme of setting aside say two days in every session to be known as parents' days, when the parents would have free opportunity of walking round the school and having consultations with the teachers, seeing what is being done at every stage, and getting the general school atmosphere.

*Cmd. 6495.

[page 14]

58. The observations already made above and the practices commended are applicable to the great majority of parents, and every effort of teaching staffs should be directed to making the number even greater. But we need not disguise the fact that on a small number of parents such efforts are wasted. It is not without significance that the same Act - the Education Act of 1945 - which in section 20* formally emphasises the rights of parents, contains in other clauses provisions for dealing with neglectful parents more promptly and more severely than any previous Education Act for Scotland. What the statute is anxious to preserve is the right to choose, not the right to neglect. Careless and neglectful parents are not merely doing harm to their own children: they are lowering the standards of health, cleanliness and attendance, and the social tone of the whole school. We therefore recommend that every authority, in co-operation with its teaching and administrative staff, should reconsider its methods and procedure in the light of the new enactments as regards attendance, medical inspection and treatment, cleanliness and employment of school children. Such reconsideration should include an efficient scheme for ascertainment and investigation, reasonable provision for advice and warning, and thereafter, if necessary, prompt, determined and full use of statutory powers.

59. Though the need for nursery schools arose for social rather than educational reasons, their educational value has been increasingly realised. The nursery school has indeed in many ways, relative to its particular stage, become a little model of what in our view a primary school ought to be. In particular it encourages home-and-school relations of the most intimate kind. As attendance is optional, these relations cannot be other than voluntary and co-operative; and an association begun in such an easy and encouraging way might without much difficulty be continued and developed in the primary school.

60. We had already had considerable discussion and evidence on the subject of nursery schools and classes before the framing of the Education Bill and its passing as an Act. It will therefore suffice as regards general policy to state that we have already indicated to the Secretary of State our approval of the provisions regarding nursery schools as stated in subsections two and six of section one of the Act.

61. Having in our preface made a strong recommendation that the Secretary of State should authorise the publication at an early date, for the benefit of all concerned, of the Memoranda on Primary Education of the Panel of H.M. Inspectors, we would direct special attention to the excellent memorandum on "The Nursery School" which is printed as Appendix 2 to this Report. With this memorandum we are in general if not always in detailed agreement, and we know of no more enlightened survey, and guide to the future, of nursery school education in Scotland. We therefore confine ourselves to the discussion of issues that have emerged in the course of evidence.

*Section 20. In the exercise and performance of their powers and duties under the Education Acts the Secretary of State and education authorities shall have regard to the general principle that, so far as is compatible with the provision of suitable instruction and training and the avoidance of unreasonable public expenditure, pupils are to be educated in accordance with the wishes of their parents.

[page 15]

62. Accommodation can be provided in three ways - by a nursery school for ages 2 to 5; in thinly populated areas by a nursery class attached to the infant department of a primary school; and by a nursery-infant school for children from 2 to 7 years. The first and third ways are clearly alternative. While there did not seem to be sufficient evidence to justify us in recommending any general departure from the break at five which is the present normal practice, we suggest that authorities who are in a position to do so might take advantage of a suitable opportunity, as in a new housing area, for experimenting with a combined nursery and infant school. In the erection of such a school experience seems to suggest that it is advisable to have separate wings, one for the under 5s and one for the over 5s.

63. In paragraphs 84 and 86 of the Report on the Training of Teachers* we have already defined our attitude, so far as trained teachers are concerned, to the staffing of the nursery school. We there stated that one of the directions of specialisation of the Chapter III teacher† should be for the age-range 2 to 7, covering the nursery school and infant department; and that in our view there should be no special training course for teachers for nursery school work only. On this point, it will be noted, we take a different view from the Panel of H.M. Inspectors.

64. Teachers already in service in the primary school who desire to qualify as teachers in a nursery school should be encouraged to do so by attendance at vacation classes and short-term courses of sufficient length and standard to justify the award of the full qualification.

65. The important and necessary class of helpers referred to in the Memorandum of H.M. Inspectors should be clearly distinguished from the qualified teachers in the nursery school, whether superintendents or assistants. We cordially agree with the terms of paragraph 16 of the Memorandum which states:

"Helpers should be young (preferably from 16 to 20 years of age) healthy, energetic, and of equable temperament. They should have a good general education, some aptitude for the work and, in particular, they should speak well."

66. We take the view that religious and moral guidance is of the highest importance at this stage. The whole trend of our Report on Training for Citizenship‡, and of the chapter in this Report on Religion in the Schools is to stress the greater value of a right attitude than of oral exhortation. While the latter is particularly inept for children under five, the former is particularly appropriate. Children are perhaps more impressionable at this stage

*Cmd. 6723.

†A term often used to describe the holder of the Teacher's General Certificate, the qualification to teach primary school subjects.

‡Cmd. 6495.

[page 16]

than at any other. The habits that form part of their own self-respect, those that are a part of their duty to their neighbour, and those that are a foundation of their religious training, can all be well established during this period. The religious exercises, though of the very simplest kind, should be carried out reverently and with a due sense of form. While specific instruction must at this stage be limited to the telling of such of the Biblical and other suitable stories as are appropriate to the age of the children, and the showing of suitable pictures, the great opportunity of the nursery school in religious guidance is to give these little people a good way of thinking about life and to train them in a good way of living it.

(1) RURAL AREAS

67. The majority of the Scottish schools are small; not from policy but by necessity. Over the whole rural area the question of a desirable maximum enrolment does not arise. But the opposite question may be raised: is there a desirable minimum enrolment? Owing to depopulation and smaller families there has been a marked decrease in the number of pupils attending schools in rural areas. Many two-teacher schools have now only one teacher, and many one-teacher schools have ceased to exist. The development of motor transport has accelerated this tendency. The Education (Scotland) Act, 1925, made no innovation but merely recognised the facts of the situation when it allowed authorities to provide free transport without having special regard to the circumstances of the parents of the children concerned, if they could satisfy the Secretary of State that this course would involve less cost than the continuance of an existing school. The rural schoolmaster, holder of parish offices and a notable figure in village activities, is less common than before; a task that fully occupied the energies of himself and a woman assistant can now in many cases be adequately performed by one woman teacher. Where conditions permit, the secondary pupils receive their education at a larger centre; and in some cases the district school caters only for pupils up to nine or ten years of age. It is futile to blame education authorities for carrying out a policy which may further impoverish the community life of a rural area. It is not their special function to initiate political and economic policies that would increase the population of the countryside. They cannot, in view of staffing difficulties and the total cost of education, maintain an artificial and expensive provision that cannot be justified on educational grounds alone. But the powers and duties of education authorities under the 1945 Act are now wide enough to enable them to take their part along with other public services in promoting the social and economic rehabilitation of rural Scotland. Isolated one-teacher schools present a special problem that merits discussion in a separate chapter. (See Chapter XIII, paragraphs 358-364.), Here we should state our view that no school with fewer than 10 pupils is a satisfactory educational unit.

(2) CITIES AND INDUSTRIAL AREAS

68. The cities and closely built industrial areas of Scotland resemble the rural areas in this respect that the size of schools was determined to some extent by considerations that were not strictly educational. Broadly speaking it may be said that in 1872 the houses were there before the schools. Space was not only limited but expensive. Yet the more crowded an area was, the greater in proportion was the need for conveniently situated schools. So

[page 17]

the schools were made big and the playgrounds small. But when classes were much larger, the notion of a purely literary curriculum little questioned, and the needs of physical education and community training imperfectly realised, the educational disadvantages of such schools were not so obvious as they are today. As cities and built-up areas have extended and new schools have been erected, these disadvantages have been mitigated in proportion to the opportunities available, the enlightenment of the school board or education authority responsible and the progressively more exacting demands of the Scottish Education Department. But recently three non-educational factors have modified the situation: transport has become more efficient; slum clearance schemes have had the double effect of diminishing central population and making more ground available in some of the most congested city areas; and the proportion of children to adults in every area is also growing smaller. Schools of ideal size can now be built in relation to the needs of the new housing communities; and even in the city areas there exists a greater, if still limited, possibility of schools conforming to a reasonable educational standard as regards numbers on the roll.

69. Free choice as to size of school is possible only in towns of moderate size or in well-populated industrial areas; and even there it is limited by the practical necessity of using existing buildings. The weight of evidence seems to suggest 400 to 450 as a reasonable maximum enrolment for a primary school. This size would permit of an organisation of two classes of about thirty for each year of school life from five to twelve and also of adequate provision of adjustment classes. It is also a convenient unit for administrative purposes: large enough for a vigorous community life and to justify the provision of all desirable school amenities; and small enough to permit of personal supervision by the headmaster, the giving of help and advice to each teacher, and his getting to know enough of the character and capacity of all the pupils to enable him to discuss their progress and prospects with parents. In making this recommendation, which is applicable to new or remodelled schools, we would add that even with the present class maximum and having regard to building difficulties, no primary school should have an enrolment of over 650.

(3) SPECIAL CASES

70. Where a large secondary school drawing pupils from several primary schools has a large primary school attached to it, there seems to us to be a strong case for complete separation. The secondary headmaster has no time to attend to it properly, but cannot divest himself of responsibility. The post of deputy headmaster for a primary department is invidious; the person responsible for nine-tenths of the work might well be entrusted with such direction of general policy as the secondary headmaster at present reserves for himself. It has been argued that there is considerable advantage to the primary department in having access to the experience and advice of specialist teachers in the secondary department: to this the reply is cogent that all primary schools have an equal claim for such assistance.

71. A slightly different problem is that of the older secondary schools with relatively small fee-paying primary departments that traditionally act as feeders for the secondary department. These could not very well acquire the character of separate schools; and, so long as payment of fees in schools under public authorities is not prohibited by law, we think there is something to be said for their continuance on the present basis. The characteristic problem of such a primary department is to fulfil the expectation of all parents that their children will be fitted to take advantage of the courses provided in

[page 18]

the secondary department, many or all of which may be totally unsuited to the needs of some of the children concerned. This matter is further discussed in Chapter XVIII.

72. Another type of school is one which has developed without noticeable change of status from the old "elementary" school, with its "ex-VI standard" through "supplementary classes" and "advanced division" to what is now commonly, though not officially, known as the "junior secondary" school. This type has the great advantage of retaining the school loyalty of the pupil and a well-established knowledge of the pupil by the headmaster. The difficulty that has often arisen about such a development is that the numbers in the secondary department are not large enough to justify the special buildings, equipment and staff that would be required for efficiency and variety of courses.

73. This difficulty has been solved in two ways: (1) by drafting to one school, which still retains its primary department, the post-qualifying pupils from the other schools in the area; or (2) by setting aside one school - or building a new school - for short-course secondary pupils only. The former solution produces a school with too large numbers, where the headmaster is distracted between different responsibilities and the primary department is in danger of getting less than justice. The latter solution, so long as the school leaving age remained at 14 and pupils entered at 12 to 13, was administratively convenient but educationally indefensible. When the age of transfer is more strictly interpreted, the school age is raised to 15, and four-year courses are available, those schools may acquire a different character. We do not pursue the matter further in this place, as it belongs rather to our Report on Secondary Education.

74. We have been much impressed with the general consensus of opinion among our witnesses, representing different interests and considering the matter from many different angles, that the maximum number of pupils on the roll of each class should be 30. While we have no evidence that this particular number is based on any theoretical considerations or on the results of scientific research, we have no hesitation in recommending it as a sound practical policy. So keenly did some of our witnesses feel on this matter that they regarded it as an even more pressing reform than the raising of the school age to 15; but as the question of priority has already been settled by legislation, further discussion of this particular point is superfluous. We recommend, however, that in proportion as the supply of efficient teachers with appropriate qualifications becomes available and accommodation can be provided, the maximum number permitted to be in the charge of one teacher in a primary school should by administrative action be gradually reduced to not more than 30; and we further recommend that a definite pronouncement of policy to this effect be made at an early date by the Secretary of State. Of the many reasons for this reform, we would stress one that is particularly urgent. Our witnesses unanimously took the view that class teaching on "mass production" lines, attempting to give the whole of a large class the same instruction, compelling all to travel at the same rate, and asking the same standard of work from all, is both futile and wasteful, but likely to persist so long as classes remain as large as at present.

75. We cannot too strongly condemn the practice, happily less prevalent today than formerly, of regrouping classes on an arithmetical basis in a school with a diminishing roll without taking into consideration the need for

[page 19]

assuring to pupils an orderly progress throughout the curriculum without the omission or needless duplication of topics. Allowance should always be made for a reasonable time-lag between reduction in school roll and reduction in teaching staff.

76. We think it is on the whole the sounder policy that a class should consist of pupils of the whole normal range of ability. The attempt to secure more homogeneous classes in a large school not only fails to secure its immediate object completely, but has undesirable repercussions on both pupils and teachers. While a class may well be taken as a whole for certain activities, and divided in different ways for different purposes, the final emphasis must be on the individual, who is the only real unit for learning and progress. For convenience of instruction the division of a class into three groups or streams has been widely advocated, and tried out with sufficient success to justify more general adoption. For the success of this or any other method adopted for the purpose of giving just attention to the needs of each child, our witnesses were emphatic that no more than 30 pupils should be allocated to each teacher. There are moreover certain special cases where the number should be less than 30. In a one-teacher school covering the age-range from 5 to 12, the maximum should be 25; and in classes for backward or retarded children the maximum should be 20.

77. Considerable attention has recently been paid to the need for the educational care of children, including those of nursery school age, confined for considerable periods in hospitals and sanatoria, where instruction including practical work may often be an important factor in the process of rehabilitation. Many authorities having such institutions in their areas have already undertaken this responsibility, and we recommend that all be required to do so. It should likewise be the responsibility of the education authorities in whose areas the parents of these children are domiciled to make an appropriate payment under section 8 of the 1945 Act. Though we have no reason for thinking that any hospital or other authorities would do otherwise than welcome such provision, we recommend that it be their duty to give education authorities reasonable access and facilities for the purpose. Not more than 20 pupils should in any circumstances be assigned to a teacher, and the number should normally be less. A similar provision might also be made in the case of children who are physical invalids in their own homes. Where staff can be made available such pupils should be visited regularly by a qualified teacher and given such instruction as will enable them to make systematic progress with their education.

78. What should children learn at school? How should they learn? These are the two most important questions that have faced us in the course of this enquiry. There may be some administrators or instructors of the young who through prejudice or indolence of mind are unaware of any need for raising questions which they have long ago answered to their own satisfaction. But the great majority of those professionally concerned join with the non-professional critics in thinking that the time is ripe for a thorough overhaul of our system of primary education.

79. A good deal of the current criticism of primary education is based on sentimental reminiscence or individual experiences rather than evidence.

[page 20]

Many criticisms that we have read or heard in the course of our inquiry are mutually destructive, in the sense that no curriculum could possibly be devised, nor is school life long enough, to satisfy the competing claims of enthusiasts for special attention to a large variety of subjects new and old. But it was impossible to ignore many well informed criticisms tending generally in the same direction though coming from widely different sources. These may be briefly summarised as follows:

(1) Both the content of the curriculum and methods of instruction are traditional: they were laid down several generations ago when ideas and needs were different from those of today, and though modified in detail have never been adequately analysed by scientific methods or fundamentally changed. Some subjects, or parts of subjects, and methods of teaching are challenged as being antiquated and wasteful of precious time.

(2) The hard division between "subjects" is a logical and adult conception that is justified neither by life experience nor as a natural way of learning.

(3) The whole atmosphere is too "academic", verbal rather than real, cut off from the living interests of childhood.

(4) Emphasis is laid on passivity rather than activity. Children are required to sit still, listen, accept, and reproduce either orally or on paper.

(5) The long-accepted tradition of class teaching is seriously questioned, on the ground that it bores equally those who know the lesson already and those who will never know it, and that it rests on the baseless assumption that all or most can be brought up to a certain standard of attainment in a given time.

(6) Many of the less gifted children are resentful of school, leave it gladly and as soon as possible, and soon forget most of what they have learnt.

(7) The attempt is made to teach too much, and as a result pupils are not taught with sufficient thoroughness.

81. Before venturing to mention possible ways of approach to such reconsideration, we desire to emphasise the importance of experiment and research. The impulse to experiment springs not only from the unresting intellectual activity of the well-endowed teacher, but from the love and concern she has for the pupils in her charge. The ways by which children learn cannot be reduced to a set of rules of universal application. They depend much on time, place, circumstance; and most of all on personal dispositions and relationships. So the good teacher will al ways be "trying something new", and such an attitude will always appeal to the lively minds of children; whereas the teacher, however efficient, who has reduced everything to an annual routine will find school life uninteresting to herself and make it so for her pupils. In making such experiments, however, teachers are bound to find certain situations and problems arising so commonly and continually that a generally acceptable solution becomes desirable. There are other experiments that cannot be carried out satisfactorily by a single teacher or a single school without corroboration from elsewhere, or without a wider field of enquiry. From this arises the need for scientific research on a wide basis, national or even inter-

[page 21]

national. Every teacher should feel that he or she is a participant in research, whether engaging in it or benefiting from it - preferably both. In Scotland we are fortunate in already possessing a national Council for Research in Education, and we make reference in a later chapter to its present activities and future plans.

82. We can perhaps get the best perspective on curriculum and teaching methods by first considering the child apart from school altogether. We may begin by asking ourselves two questions: (1) What hints may we get from the pre-school development and behaviour of normal children in an ordinary family environment? (2) How would children develop who never went to a school at all, but had otherwise a varied and interesting environment? In answer to the first question, the following observations may perhaps be accepted: they take plenty of physical exercise, using their bodies and limbs in all sorts of ways; they practise selective observation in that they are attracted by certain things by their own whim rather than at the dictation of others; they acquire a sense of spatial relations and perspective by putting out first one hand and then both, and by touching things find out if they are soft or hard, smooth or rough; they soon learn to grasp things seen and within reach, and if they are movable to throw them about; at an early stage they can use a stick, spoon or poker to hammer and make a noise with; they imitate sounds and actions and learn them by frequent repetition. The answer to the second question must be more conjectural. It may be agreed, however, that the child would develop, according to environment, on the same lines as Hiawatha. He would acquire a hardy and supple body, a detailed and profitable knowledge of plant and animal life, dexterity in outdoor pursuits and the use of tools and implements, and probably also some carefully guarded knowledge of the ways of man.

83. We may generalise these answers by saying that the training of a child has not only begun but taken an individual character before he enters school; and that a child might still be getting a valuable though for modern purposes inadequate education without going to school at all. What requires emphasis for present purposes is (1) that in the school, curriculum and methods should follow the child's natural line of development, and (2) that while the child is receiving the richest of all gifts it is in our power to bestow - a literary education that will give him the power of communication not only with the whole of the present world but with the past and the future - we should not destroy or needlessly impair those primitive powers and graces, those qualities of initiative, curiosity, ingenuity and self-dependence that are also an essential part of his heritage.

84. The earliest form of literary education in Western Europe was for the benefit of a limited section of the community. It was also pre-vocational in character, for the preliminary training of churchmen and officials of the Crown and governing classes. (The clergyman did "clerical" work, the lawyer was a "writer" or "scrivener".) While education developed and extended, much of this old tradition has remained. It is still assumed in some quarters that those subjects confidently referred to as the "Three R's" are the central core of education, and indeed all that is necessary for the great mass of children. The consideration we have given to this matter, and the evidence we have heard, lead us however not merely to question but to deny the validity of this assumption under present day conditions. It is true that a small minority

[page 22]

brought up in the rural Scotland of say a century ago based distinguished careers upon a slender foundation of book learning; but the conditions of their upbringing were such that these exceptional people were able to absorb a large amount of out-of-school education of the kind already mentioned. It is no more possible today to give the great mass of our population the old rural background of traditional lore, insight into the ways of nature, the freedom of a varied countryside and the ancient wisdom and skill of the craftsman, than it is to reproduce the idyllic surroundings of the little Hiawatha or the half-wild pioneering conditions that moulded the character of Tom Sawyer.

85. We have also been led to consider in this connection the question of juvenile delinquency, about which a good deal of anxiety has been expressed recently. Without going into the subject in detail, we may briefly state that most offences come under the categories of destructiveness, theft, and police offences such as playing football on the street: sometimes by isolated individuals but more often by groups or gangs. In short, these are all forms of individual or group activity that correspond to some need and yield a certain satisfaction. That they are perverted is to a considerable extent a condemnation of our social and economic conditions and of the part taken by the schools in the training of the young. To secure complete docility under present conditions would be a cure worse than the disease.

86. Let us then examine the bookish tradition in Scottish education, and these complaints about the conduct of young people in relation to some general principles of natural development. Many of us have been informed in our early days upon suitable occasion that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do". But has our educational system given the "idle hands" enough training and profitable employment? While movement is associated with all kinds of development, children enjoy movement for its own sake: running, jumping, rolling about, struggling, climbing, swings, hobby horses and see-saws. They also like passive movement as a novelty, as in a train or bus, but soon begin to develop active movements for themselves. The three things that a healthy child finds most difficult are just those things that the adult both does and approves: walking straight, sitting still, and watching quietly. No curriculum is suitable for young children that does not make allowance for natural activities. Quite apart from physical exercises and games, children - the younger ones particularly - should be allowed considerable freedom of movement and position.

87. It appears to us that the ears of primary school children are overtaxed and eyes and hands relatively neglected. Indeed we regard what is called "hand-and-eye training" not as a "frill" but as forming along with oral expression ("tongue-ear-and-eye training") the core of the primary curriculum. (See Chapter XI). We have already referred to the activities of pre-school children. The desire to throw with the hands and kick with the feet is the foundation of many ball games and other games of skill that involve throwing and eye-judgment. The use of the opposable thumb, which distinguishes man from the higher animals, makes the child the heir of all the ages of human development. Once he can grasp a tool he is the master of infinite possibilities. A simple form is the rope which may be used for skipping or manipulated into a variety of knots. There are sticks of many varieties - bats, golf clubs, hockey sticks, racquets and cues for games; oars, pokers, stirrers, boat hooks, fishing rods, and so on, for a great variety of practical uses. Then there are the great families of tools, with different purposes, different principles of

[page 23]

construction, and used with different motions and muscles: the hammers in all their varieties; scrapers; knives of all kinds; axes and choppers; saws; scissors and cutters; needles; lifting tools from salt spoon to spade; carrying tools like pails, boxes and barrows; chisels; levers and wedges and nails; pliers, spanners and screw-drivers; keys for doors; shuttles for hand looms; graters and egg-beaters; all sorts and sizes of brushes from camel-hair to heather besom; also musical instruments including fiddles and many other kinds that are hand tools for the production of music. One other tool, and one of the simplest, must not be forgotten: it is the small stick used for the art of writing which may be formed into a pencil or a pen. It is of course a tool of supreme importance in the development of mankind; but we wish to emphasise here that it is only one out of an enormous number of the tools needed and fashioned by man. We have been struck by the fact that many who think that the use of this single tool at a school is the core of education are also those who complain that we are producing a nation of office-clerks.

88. We recommend that the primary curriculum should be thought of as dealing with things that are three-dimensional rather than flat. It should be refashioned so as to give more employment to hands and eyes - more knowledge of tools and substances, and some practice in handling and using them.

89. Among such substances, paper and cardboard may well be included, especially for the younger classes; but even with their illusory advantages of being clean and cheap and quiet in use, they are altogether inadequate as handwork for the older primary pupils.

90. We have evidence that tools for simple operations can be handled by children successfully much earlier than is generally supposed; and that they can do workmanlike jobs of a simple kind by observation and imitation rather than normal instruction. For this purpose the ordinary classroom is not very suitable, and we therefore recommend the provision of a workroom or rooms in every school building, or, perhaps, better external sheds, with strong tables or benches and a variety of tools and materials for making, mending, constructing or taking to pieces. It has also been noted that boys like doing a full-size job which they can think of as having some value or purpose. We think it is an artificial convention that pupils should at age 12 be suddenly and for the first time introduced into the world of tools and materials and constructions. The process should, as in the world outside school, be continuous and progressive; otherwise something may be irretrievably lost in mental interest, muscular delicacy and sureness of co-ordination.

91. Such tool-activity will not only serve for the enrichment of experience at an impressionable age but will provide clues to the special aptitude of each child, which will be valuable when the time comes to consider what secondary course will be most appropriate. Finally, we believe that the knowledge of tools and their purposes, giving the desire for construction and creation, will weaken those impulses to deface and destroy that go to the making of the juvenile delinquent.

92. The concentration of the eye is plentifully enjoined in most schools - on the textbooks, the jotter, the teacher or the blackboard. Not enough justice is done to the wandering eye. It is not only that "the fool sees not the same tree that the wise man sees", but no two people see the same number of things or the same kind of things. They see according to their interests; and if they have no interests they see effectively nothing at all. We do not think it is of much value to train children to memorise arbitrarily things they have seen: this is just another version of the fallacy of faculty training.

[page 24]

Observation however can be developed; and above all by arousing interests. As these interests will be different for different children, the things observed will be of different kinds or orders. Hence their observation will be selective, and a part of their developing character and aptitude. Observation is also associated with another instinct of children which often persists into adult life - the collecting instinct. Children will collect all sorts of things that appear in some mysterious way to have a special meaning or value for them. Even at an early stage they show selectiveness or discrimination, and this tendency is usually increased with age and experience. No child wants to collect stamps in mere bulk; he wants to have them different, and later develops a sense of values and special interests. The starvation or perversion of this collecting instinct is a major factor in petty pilfering - one of the commonest forms of juvenile delinquency. The pleasure of the eye in a bright colour, and the desire to possess, are not inhibited by any strong sense of "mine and thine"; for children are naturally acquisitive and require training to understand that mere desire is not a moral or legal title to property. We believe in the value of encouraging children to make collections according to their interests; and in order to encourage community spirit we suggest that they should be invited to form class or school collections. Collections need not be confined to natural history, stamps, coins or autographs but may embrace a wide variety of human interests. The immediate value of encouraging this habit is that the child begins to make a part of the world his own, to make a little bit of order out of a bewildering chaos, and to grasp and practise the idea of classification. But beyond this he may be laying the foundation for later interests and insuring himself against the danger of a boring and vacuous adult life.

93. Observation tends in two directions. One is towards generalisations about plants, animals, and man and his affairs. The other is towards action - mostly profitable, sometimes inadvisable, and at times wrong. What relation does the school have to the training of observation?

(1) Things can be brought in to the classroom for identification; and for this purpose the pupil should be encouraged to find information for himself from the reference books that ought to be available in every classroom. Younger pupils - and why not older pupils? - are usually anxious to tell of things they have seen or experienced: these may be made the starting point of a life interest, if the pupil in question comes to be regarded as the class expert on the subject.

(2) The inherent difficulty about class excursions is that one cannot profitably supervise as many children outside as in a classroom. To be successful, an excursion has to be carefully organised, the ground gone over beforehand, and possible difficulties provided for; and it has to be undertaken either with a selected group out of school hours, or with the whole class in charge of the teacher with competent voluntary help.

(3) The children may be invited to do a certain piece of observation in the selection of which they have shown some interest. This is a kind of "homework" more appreciated than the traditional kind. The results may be brought to school as an oral report, or a written list, or as things collected; but in any event each satisfactory achievement should be brought to the notice of the whole class.

(4) When direct observation is difficult or impossible, its place may be taken by pictures - in books or magazines, on walls, or through a lantern or epidiascope. In the infant room the use of pictures for vocabulary building is usual; but it does not appear that picture interpretation is a frequent practice in the rest of the primary school. While considerable

[page 25]

attention is paid to the reading and significance of letter-symbols, we think considerable attention should also be paid to the reading and significance of pictures, diagrams, maps and plans; and to translation from the spoken and written work to the picture or diagram and vice versa.

(5) At this stage the question of the film inevitably arises. We are hoping that the next Advisory Council may be able to consider the whole question of the place in education of modern mechanical contrivances of various kinds. Our present brief survey would however be incomplete without reference to the function that the cinema can perform in primary education. We believe that it is of the highest importance now to stress the distinction between visual aids and visual education.

95. Visual education is quite another matter. It depends not so much on direct photography as on the animated cartoon, and sets out with the purpose of teaching a definite lesson: not background illustration but essential education. It studies the psychological approach, makes use of all possible devices of sight and sound to arouse and maintain interest, and ruthlessly excludes every irrelevant detail. The skill of the most inspiring and imaginative teachers can thus be allied to all the devices of the modern technician to produce a teaching medium of extraordinary power that may be made available in every classroom in the land. We are aware that this development involves technical equipment in schools on a scale that will not be available for some time; and that the provision of films of this kind is still in its infancy. But we have little doubt that Scottish teachers, who have already done so much pioneering work with films in school, will in considerable numbers study and experiment with a technique of teaching which seems likely to be of revolutionary importance not only in effecting that simplification which is the essence of good teaching, but in saving a considerable amount of school time.

96. In considering the natural bases of the curriculum, we have reached the conclusion that more subtle and systematic use should be made of the child's tendency to imitate and repeat. A child learns a surprising amount before coming to school by the simple process of observation followed by spontaneous imitation. It should be possible for teachers to take much greater advantage of this natural tendency for the purpose of the school. The persistence of the young child in repeating words and actions till they become fixed suggests that by the exercise of thought and ingenuity on the part of the teacher repetition and revision may be made pleasant rather than boring and disagreeable. Somehow being "told" or instructed to do anything produces a natural reaction in a child not always favourable to the instruction being carried out: probably on account of the disturbance thus caused in the sub-conscious mind. Many teachers have considerable command of this technique either instinctively or by experience; but as it is a part of the larger problem of a more subtle approach to the education of the young, we believe that it would be a very profitable subject for further discussion and research.

[page 26]

97. Everybody knows the answer to the question: what is a spiral? Here the demonstration to the eye is shorter and more effective than the long verbal explanation that would otherwise be required. The habit of associating education with the printed and the written word has become so strong that we have at the primary stage undervalued other means of communication.

98. We believe every child should be encouraged, and so far as necessary, trained in graphic illustration by sketches and diagrams. We are not here dealing with forms of art that profess to communicate emotions or even more recondite subtleties; but merely with statements of fact which can be conveyed in a briefer and more lively way than by mere words. This means of expression is natural to children, but opportunity for its use is seldom given till it is suddenly thrust upon them in the science department of the secondary school. We recommend that practice in graphic illustration should, like the handling of tools and substances, be continuous from the earliest years; and so become a spontaneous impulse instead of an artificial acquirement. It is a reasonable inference from the general principles laid down in our Report on the Training of Teachers*, though not there specifically mentioned, that students in training should regard blackboard sketching as one of the most fruitful aids in the art of presentation; that they should have enough practice in it to give them confidence and readiness in its use; and that their proficiency in graphic illustration should be one of the important considerations in making any preliminary judgment of their success in the art of teaching.

99. We have pointed out that a sketch is not a picture. One does not need to be a clever artist to make a good sketch - it is a means of expression available for everybody. Children themselves make and readily understand conventionalised figures, as of houses or human beings. The degree of accuracy necessary is exactly the amount required for the single purpose in hand. The simplest diagram will always be the most lucid. Irrelevant detail should never be introduced unless as a humorous device for increasing the interest of the pupils.

100. Nor is there any need to make a diagram into a painfully accurate scale model. Essential truth may often be better illustrated by a considerable exaggeration in scale. The virtue of graphic illustration is in its freedom and spontaneity and in its limitation to explaining one thing, or very few things, at a time.

101. If the pupils are encouraged by the example of the teacher, they will the more readily follow a precept which delightfully liberates a natural instinct for expression. We refer later in this Report to its use in the interpretation of English: but we draw attention now to its value in observational studies, in geography and in arithmetic.

102. Is it likely that teachers at present serving will accept the challenge of wider responsibilities and unfamiliar methods? Are these likely to appeal to teachers now being selected and trained? Unless we can say "yes" to both those questions the suggestions made in this Report lose much of their practical value. It is true that teachers like the rest of mankind are creatures of habit.

*Cmd. 6723.

[page 27]

They may lose their first enthusiasms: "the early dew of morning has passed away at noon". Though discipline becomes easier with experience, children can always be tiresome. The vitality of the teacher is subject to wide variations, and so is the mood of a class. No one who has not done a stretch of conscientious teaching over a period of years can realise the amount of nervous energy expended by the teacher: the need for peace and relaxation at the end of the day and the week, and for the mental and spiritual restoration of holiday periods. But while all these things are true, and the community is today making in some ways even greater demands on the teacher, we believe that the corresponding attractions and compensations may become greater than ever before. The most important object to be attained by adequate scales is to get teachers to forget about salaries. This is of the highest importance to the effectiveness of their work. Teachers should also be able to buy books, to develop their musical and artistic gifts, to travel - in short to profit by every suitable opportunity of enlarging their experience and broadening their outlook. They should be free from any economic or other compulsion to live and teach in their home area. For their first appointment particularly they should venture forth into the unknown; to meet new conditions, new scenes and ways of life, hear new accents, stand on their own feet, and be accepted for their own personal worth and achievement. As this desirable ambition may often be frustrated by housing difficulties, we recommend that authorities should take a sympathetic interest and practical steps - using if necessary their powers under the Education Acts - to ensure that suitable housing or hostel accommodation is provided. It is always desirable, and in rural areas essential, that teachers should reside in the community which is the scene of their daily labours; but quite unreasonable to make this a condition of appointment unless adequate means of fulfilling the condition are provided.

103. Of all people, teachers need to have wide social contacts and sympathies. We are convinced that in the future their association with parents will become closer and that a better balanced curriculum will also bring them into regular contact with those engaged in industry and commerce. While we believe that the participation of teachers in voluntary organisations should be as much a matter of free choice for them as for those belonging to other professions and occupations, we think it likely that they will continue in large numbers to use their special gifts and training freely in this way. Finally, we think it highly important that they should take a full share in the adult social life and activities of their local community. On the other hand, the community must be prepared to give high and deserved esteem to those who are responsible for training their own children and the citizens of the next generation. The greater social prestige of the teacher is a factor of the highest importance in the improvement of the school curriculum and is also in the best interests of the pupils.

104. We concur in the view that a good deal of the school time of primary teachers is not spent to the best advantage; not perhaps as much as is generally supposed through "lumber" in the curriculum, but rather by stereotyped methods and time-wasting traditional practices. Most of these may be included under three headings: (1) devices for keeping a class quiet and busy, (2) "correction" in its many forms, and (3) continued use of books that have lost their appeal and much of their usefulness.

105. Quietness in a class is not an end in itself and is of value only when it is due to absorption in a meaningful and profitable task. The teacher must constantly be asking herself: Am I justified in spending such an amount of

[page 28]

precious time in this particular occupation? Are all the children, or most of them, getting some definite and adequate profit from the time spent? We suggest such questions particularly in relation to dictation, transcription, large doses of miscellaneous sums from blackboard or textbook, reading round the class, and the more aimless kind of silent reading.

106. One form of "correction" is the painstaking marking of individual scripts on which conscientious teachers use a good deal of time outside school hours. While the better pupils at least derive some satisfaction from the detailed marking and appraisal of their efforts, it is doubtful whether the pupils as a whole voluntarily bestow on the corrections that amount of concentrated attention that alone would justify the labour of the teacher. It seems more profitable to collect common mistakes for the purpose of a lesson to a class or group, and to help individuals privately with their special difficulties. The teacher is hardly justified in demanding the attention of the whole class while she is engaged in registering displeasure with or giving assistance to a pupil who is doing badly what the great majority of the class can do satisfactorily.

107. The same principle is applicable to the correction of errors by individuals in speech or reading. The majority of the class should not be bored by having to do over and over again what they are already able to do, and then to listen - or pretend to listen - while the individual correction of others is laboriously proceeding.

108. The same misuse occurs when teachers spend time trying to get all the members of a class to recite from memory facts or other material set as homework, which is inevitably learnt, half-learnt, or not learnt at all, to the extent that the pupils vary in capacity, interest, docility or fear. Such a procedure must finally produce worry and exasperation in the teacher, who goes on to the further misconception of regarding the more gifted pupils with satisfaction and the less gifted with disfavour. From the professional point of view the good teacher should take the same view as the medical specialist, that the most difficult cases are the most interesting and challenging. Many apparently dull pupils possess considerable gifts of an unacademic kind that may be completely hidden from their teacher. "Every child in every class knows something that the teacher doesn't know." This attitude of respect is fundamental. So also is the attitude of faith. The most that the teacher can be expected to do is to provide a suitable and kindly soil for the tender plant, a genial climate, room to expand, judicious stimulation and careful pruning. "I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase."

109. We believe accordingly that the object to be achieved is to awaken interests in the child, or make him aware of needs demanding fulfilment, so that he will either spontaneously or with suitable encouragement persevere along profitable lines of activity suitable to his stage of development and his native genius. We cordially agree with the evidence we received from members of the Scottish Council for Research in Education that questions of "optimum time" for the beginning of certain studies, and of the "placement of topics", must always be relative to the individual child. It may be that as a general rule certain subjects are tackled too early. But it is equally true that some children will successfully tackle difficulties that are placed years ahead in the traditional curriculum.

110. If, as we believe, presentation and the awakening of interests are of supreme importance, the teacher requires to be guided by psychological insight rather than by logical schemes. Her attitude must be "ironical" in the

[page 29]

Socratic sense, and that for two purposes: she must find attractive ways of leading her pupils towards a goal which they themselves do not yet see; and she must encourage every effort by the pupil, however halting and imperfect it may be, that holds out any prospect of progress towards that goal. In fact, the whole attitude of the teacher who appears to remain in the background has an "ironic" quality as useful and fruitful as the apparent ignorance and anxiety to be instructed shown by Socrates in the Platonic Dialogues.

111. A teacher who has realised how futile it is to attempt to teach young children according to a logical scheme will be equally aware that the idea of a school "subject" is a logical device or abstraction. The giving of separate names to different skills and branches of knowledge and the making of clear dividing lines between them is attractive to the logical mind and is within limits a useful procedure; but it tends to obscure the unity of all knowledge and the infinite interrelation of things in the pattern of life. Sensitiveness to the relations of things is indeed one of the surest marks of the truly educated person, whether his university be Oxford or "Redbrick" or the streets of London or the quiet countryside. Arithmetic is not merely the basic tool of the scientist; it touches every activity of mankind that is capable of measurement. Reading is the gateway to all that man has known or thought or imagined. Geography is geology, botany and zoology, chemistry, physics and mathematics, history and economics and engineering. We must constantly beware of the danger of the compartmental or one-track mind in the teacher and its transmission to the pupil. In proceeding to discuss "subjects" we are therefore to be taken to refer to a convenient practical division of activities where the main concentration is on one aspect for the time being, but the general background of life and learning is never quite forgotten. The threads that make up the pattern are continuous and interlocked, though they do not always appear on the surface. The general purpose of the curriculum must direct the special approach to each "subject". This purpose is surely to give meaning to the apparently chaotic, to give direction and discipline to natural activity; to make what seems complex, difficult and awkward into something that is simple, easy and graceful; to give a sense of mastery over self and circumstance.

112. As we have already hinted, we discard with little regret the narrow and obsolete view that reading, writing and arithmetic are the three fundamentals of education. A half-truth of this kind does more harm than good if it leads to the notion that every effort must first be concentrated on these subjects, that on them alone can any sound superstructure be built, and that all other subjects are more or less "frills".

113. If it is necessary, having regard to what we have already said above, to talk about any subject at all being more fundamental than another, we would suggest tentatively, and as a basis for clearer thinking on the subject, that the three fundamental subjects are physical education, handwork, and speech. While recognising a certain artificiality even in this division, we think it may be worth while to consider it in a little more detail.

114. Physical education means making the body as good as it can be made and attending to its harmonious development. It therefore includes healthy environment, feeding, medical examination and treatment, good personal habits and knowledge of hygiene, as well as suitable physical exercise and games.

[page 30]

115. Handwork is a word to which we are giving a wider meaning in this Report than it usually has in the school timetable. For our purpose it may include anything done by the hand, with tools in the hand, or with machines made and operated by the human hand. As it involves measurement and calculation, mathematics and arithmetic are its children and handmaidens. It includes all industries, many sciences, and the arts of the painter, the sculptor, the architect and the musician. Handwriting, or the making of conventional signs by means of simple tools, is only one of the many divisions of handwork.

116. Speech or language is the foundation of all human communication, the vehicle of thought and memory. Reading, whether oral or silent, is a development that depends on the human capacity for speech and the birth and development of language. From speech and the written word have developed the power to accumulate and retain observations of fact, to exercise the mind on the meaning of history and life, and to express in literature the visions and imaginings of the human soul.

117. While retaining this division as a general guide in the following discussion of individual subjects, we wish to make it clear at this point that we have no intention or need to develop it fully in this Report. Neither do we wish to treat the following subjects exhaustively or in any relative proportion; our sale aim is to indicate, where need seems to arise, any lines of development or practical suggestions that are germane to the general policy and outlook which we attempt to suggest.

118. In the widest sense physical education is the practice and training of the whole system of the human body. We reserve however for special treatment those parts that deal with "handwork" and "speech", without forgetting that many statements generally applicable to physical training are also particularly applicable to these.

119. The headmistress of a city private school evacuated to the country was lamenting to an officer of an education authority who had just called on a friendly visit that while the accommodation was suitable in many ways it did not include a gymnasium. He asked her to come with him a few steps down the avenue, where to her horror she found several of her pupils ensconced in the higher branches of a large Scots fir, with other pupils working a mutual aid system at the foot for reaching the bottom branch. While we are not to be taken as recommending the systematic planting of fir trees near schools as an inexpensive alternative to ribstalls, we do wish to emphasise that what we call gymnastics is based on the natural and restless activity of children. We are however far from agreeing with the notion that rural children who walk two or three miles to school are in no need of physical education. It seldom if ever happens that any child in town or country, under the normal conditions of our civilisation, gives an even and adequate amount of exercise and disciplined movement to all his body muscles. Deficiencies must accordingly be made good. But these will not always be the same deficiencies. There are differences in environment, to which must correspond varying emphasis in the schemes of work - as for example between city and rural schools. But the last thing that young children should be made to feel is that they are dutifully and self-consciously repairing certain defects in their muscular system. In no subject is it more important that the teacher should maintain the "ironical" attitude of concealing the real purpose of the instruction from the pupil. Physical activities have mental and emotional aspects (just as mental activities

[page 31]

have physical and emotional aspects, even though they may be negative or unrecognised). Children will therefore benefit most from physical exercises when they are at the same time mentally and emotionally active-thinking what they are doing, and enjoying themselves. It follows that physical education should consist as far as possible of patterns and games that give pleasure and have purpose. In no subject is there wider scope for the teacher's self-effacement and the child's training in responsibility. No teacher should continue to give oral instructions beyond the moment when the pupils have first learnt to carry out a concerted action for themselves. Where oral indications are necessary, pupils should as they become fit get their turn of giving them. Endless opportunities for training in leadership occur in the control of groups and captaining of teams; and for training in responsibility through the bringing out, putting away and care of equipment. We think it is of the highest importance that the very fine work being done in many schools on these lines should be extended to the whole of Scotland.

120. Children should have a store of traditional games, singing games and dances for spontaneous play and performance. The knowledge of these has in many parts of Scotland been weakened or lost during recent generations, yet they are among the most ancient and cherished possessions of childhood. They take us back to the days of the primitive religious festivals, where singing and dancing not only provided an outlet for natural emotion and activity but were essential parts of sacred ritual. We recommend that wherever these traditions are weak they should be strengthened, and where lost revived. We admit that this is a delicate task. The children must not be troubled about the results of antiquarian research, or taught for the sake of stiff and meticulous public performance: the atmosphere should be lively and merry. The final success of this grafting operation will be achieved when the children adopt these games and dances in their free play time. We recommend also the extension of the knowledge and teaching of the folk dances of other European countries. The performance of these dances, in native costume when possible, not only provides variety and contrast, but helps our own children to understand that people in other lands have resources of simple joy and recreation much like their own: that dancing and music are international languages.

121. The time spent in physical education has a value far beyond the merely physical benefit to the individuals. Every well managed lesson also gives training in law and order, co-operation, ready obedience for an understood and common purpose and responsible leadership. Perhaps more than any other it emphasises the social rather than the individual virtues. It also gives the children precision in timing and a sense of rhythm, which are a foundation for the later development of aesthetic pleasures.

122. Children have a natural zest for ball games which is very important for their physical development and encourages nimbleness of foot, dexterity of hand and quickness of eye. Unfortunately, many of the ball games in which children take most delight have been frowned on by school and other authorities owing to the danger to property or to the children themselves or to the limited size of playgrounds. In the siting of all-weather playing space for children adjoining the school we recommend that a blank wall be made available, where possible, for ball games; and that the space be sufficiently large and protected to allow the children to play other games with small balls. Such a playground is also suitable for netball, but football with a large ball requires a proper playing field. While initial help may often usefully be given with ball games, it is of the highest importance that they should not be constantly supervised; nor is it wise at this stage that school football teams and competitions should be over-organised by adults. The children themselves

[page 32]

love to make rules and squabble about their interpretation. They come to realise that law and order are necessary for the proper enjoyment of a game. This fundamental respect for law in the playing of games is continued in adult life. The crowds at our great football matches, however partisan they may be, and however they may differ on matters of interpretation, have a fundamental respect for the rules of the game; and there is little doubt that this attitude is carried over into more serious affairs of life.

123. We also recommend that, subject to the conditions of weather, available space, and non-interference with the work of other classes, all activities which can possibly be carried out in the open air should preferably be so carried out. While one part of the playground should be a completely flat and empty space suitably surfaced for disciplined movement and free games, another part might be set aside for outdoor apparatus such as see-saws, swings and climbing devices. For the pupils in the higher classes of the primary schools provision might also be made for emulative athletic exercises such as running and high and broad jumping - all of which involve measurements and calculations which need not be referred to as arithmetic. Care should always be taken, however, that the less athletically gifted receive encouragement in proportion to their personal improvement rather than their competitive performance.

124. The competent teacher of physical education will soon discover that there are wide differences in physical as well as mental capacity, and will grade the demands made on the pupils according to their capacities. There will be difficult physical cases just as there are mentally backward and retarded cases. No definite line can be drawn having on one side normal pupils and on the other side orthopaedic cases. Hence it is very important that there should be on this matter complete understanding and co-operation between the educational and school medical services. The teacher of physical education should be constantly on the look-out for postural and other physical defects which though apparently slight may give a lot of trouble later if not attended to. She should be given time and opportunity to help those that are amenable to treatment by special exercises in small groups. Others needing individual treatment should be referred to the orthopaedic centre, which she should be allowed and encouraged to visit. If these two services are completely interlocked by administrative arrangements as well as personal goodwill, we are satisfied that they will make a notable contribution to the health, happiness and efficiency of the community.

125. In using the expression "teacher of physical education" above, we refer to the person actually taking the lesson, whether specialist or class teacher. The present seems however to be an appropriate opportunity for discussing the use that should be made of the specialist teacher and her relation to the class teacher. The worst use that can be made of a specialist teacher is to give her a timetable equally divided among all the classes that she visits. While a block of time may be set aside for each school visited, the internal arrangement of that time should be decided after consultation with the headmaster and staff. While every teacher now receives instruction in physical education and practice in teaching it as a part of her training course, there are wide differences in capacity and aptitude. Some of the older teachers, however, may not have received instruction of the kind that would enable them to carry out with confidence the methods and schemes of the present day. Many of these older teachers, moreover, though they may be among the most valuable members of the staff, find themselves less able than they once were to undertake physical instruction efficiently and would gladly leave it in younger hands. It should be within the discretion of a headmaster to relieve such teachers entirely of

[page 33]

responsibility for the subject. On the other hand, there are many teachers of the younger generation who have had as secondary school pupils a full experience of both outdoor and indoor physical education, and are keenly interested in and competent to teach the subject. We recommend that they should not only be allowed but encouraged to do so; the only service they require from the specialist is an occasional visit and the opportunity of consultation. The same general principle, it may be remarked in parenthesis, should be applied to other subjects such as Music, Art and Needlework, for which specialists may be appointed. Specialists should neither be over-used nor wrongly used; their function, unless at the request of the headmaster, should be guidance, consultation and inspiration. No class teacher should be prevented or discouraged from undertaking full responsibility for any subject in which she is keenly interested and which she is competent to teach.

126. We recommend that wherever it can be arranged - and even in spite of serious difficulties - the swimming lesson should form a part of the physical education at least of the highest primary class. It is unnecessary today to refer to the exceptional value of swimming as a branch of physical education, or to the help it gives in assuring cleanliness of body and clothing. The emphasis placed by the 1945 Act on the need for a better school and community provision of swimming baths should in time ensure that facilities will be within the reach of the great majority of Scottish children. Meantime, headmasters should do their best to overcome the difficulties inherent in sending their pupils during school hours to the nearest baths; and the education authorities should make ample provision for conveyance where required. In order that the best results may be secured, pupils should always be accompanied by a member of the staff, between whom and the specialist instructor at the baths there should be the closest co-operation in the effective teaching of swimming and life-saving. As regards small schools remote from such facilities we commend the example of several teachers who take advantage of any safe and suitable open-air facilities that may be available in the neighbourhood.

127. We need not repeat the observations on handwork we have already made under a more general heading. In laying stress on the importance of early training in the handling and use of tools, we are also claiming on behalf of handwork a broader understanding, better facilities and more school time. Our traditional education is largely two-dimensional: marks on paper to be made or interpreted, words not fully associated with realities, mental agility unballasted with respect for the physical bases of life. It is more than ever important today that our education should be three-dimensional. Our civilisation depends not alone on abstract reasoning but on the understanding and use that is to be made of the discoveries and inventions that press upon us with such terrifying rapidity. While it would be very rash indeed for anybody to make detailed prophecies about the next fifty years, we should at least be safe in forecasting that these years will be a dynamic rather than a static period of our history. People will have to be more adaptable, more mobile, more ingenious, more ready to meet novel situations and more ready to master a variety of techniques and processes. Dexterity of hand and nimbleness of mind will be more in demand than dull mechanical labour. Our children must therefore be taught the handling and experience of tools, machines and materials to give them a chance of understanding their uses and qualities, and their potentialities for the advancement or destruction of civilised life. The amount of this that can be done in a primary school must be limited of course by time and stage of advancement, but not necessarily

[page 34]

by standard adult conceptions of what is suitable and possible: a child of ten who can distinguish one bomber in the sky from another by an apparently casual glance may be capable of absorbing more than we ever previously supposed. We recommend accordingly that individual teachers should be encouraged to experiment with a wider variety of tools and materials, and be given accommodation, even if it is of a makeshift character, for making such experiments possible; and that this whole question of handwork teaching becomes a subject of early educational research.

128. We do not think that this Report is the place for going into detail about methods or schemes of work. We should like however to refer specially to three advantages to be derived from greater attention of the kind we suggest to the subject of handwork:

(1) Young children do not usually appreciate abstract ideas: rather are they attracted by material things. It is when they are young that their interests can be awakened, their curiosity satisfied and their fingers and eyes can learn delicacy.

(2) It is important at the stage when a secondary course is being selected that the school should know something about the aptitude of the child, apart from his intelligence quotient. If several teachers have for years watched the nature of his interests and his relative skill with tools and materials, they should be able to provide very helpful information for this purpose.

(3) Those who are likely to be following clerical or administrative careers and dealing largely with facts on paper will by a wider course of handwork have their sympathies enlarged, their experience widened and possibly a leisure time occupation provided. Things that have been dealt with in a concrete reference are more likely to lead to action.

130. The established popularity of needlework as a form of handwork for girls raises the question of the separation of boys and girls for different forms of handwork. We see no need for any distinction till about the end of Primary II, i.e. at average age nine. The natural interest that girls take in dress is sufficient motive and incentive to enable them to make simple garments for themselves, and to learn the stitches necessary for that purpose. During the earlier stages the making of dolls' dresses will give them good practice in design, colour schemes and execution. Simple repairing and mending of their own clothes should be a normal part of any needlework scheme. Similarly in considering a handwork scheme for the senior primary boys, alternative to needlework for girls, simple repairs including, for example, the patching of bicycle tyres and football bladders, putting nails in shoes, darning socks and jerseys, repairing toys and even the beginnings of cookery should normally be included.

131. Anything that is made or mended should not be retained for an undue time in school for inspection or exhibition purposes, but put into use when required.

132. In handwork an endless variety of individual and group projects can be undertaken by both boys and girls.

133. Those who regard Arithmetic as a dull subject, and teach or learn it in a dull mechanical way, can hardly have realised its long history and its present importance.

[page 35]

134. The development of Arithmetic is an essential part of the story of civilisation. Justice between man and man in the everyday affairs of life has always depended on the existence of objective standards of measurement; and such standards ultimately depend on an arithmetical scale. The realisation of the idea of abstract number was one of the earliest and greatest triumphs of the human mind. Teachers who may be impatient at the slow progress of some children in Arithmetic should remember that this idea has still to be grasped by every child before he can begin to do sums correctly: full appreciation of "threeness" under all circumstances is the test. They should also realise that children have to distinguish between the ordinal and quantitative functions of numbers (page 100 is not twice page 50, but only 50 pages further on).

135. The intellectual status of primitive peoples, and of backward races today, is measured by their capacity to distinguish numbers; some being able to make no finer distinction than one, two and many. The possession of two eyes, ears, hands and feet makes the notion of "twoness" easy. The possession of five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot leads to the further notion of five, ten and twenty. It is probably the possession of ten fingers that has given us our present notation by tens. The notion of infinity was for ages confined to practical illustrations like the hairs of one's head, the sands of the desert, the stars of the firmament or the waters of the sea.

136. Any subject can be dull if things are accepted as static that were for long the subject of keen research and development. The base of 10 which we accept today is not a law of nature but a handy convention. There are mathematicians who have regretted that man had not six fingers, so that we might have had a traditional base divisible by 3. The Babylonians had a base of 60, which has survived in our measurements of time and angles.

137. It may also be usefully recalled that the earlier attitude to numbers was different from that of modern times. Philosophers thought that as numbers had constant and uniform properties they might point to a changeless order of the universe. On the other hand, it was noted that numbers had different qualities and characters, some being prime numbers, and others being multiples of other numbers in varying ways. Hence qualities and superstitions of other kinds, affecting human conduct and destiny, became associated with particular numbers - "perfect", sacred, lucky or unlucky numbers. There was a widespread belief, for example, that the world would come to an end in the year 1000 A.D. Perhaps the numbers 13, 50 and 100 are the only ones that seriously affect human conduct in our Western civilisation.

138. It should be realised too that our familiar notation is an international number-language. While pronouncing them differently, most peoples write numbers in much the same way, and all attach the same meaning to them. Our present notation has the decisive advantage over all others that the value of the symbol depends on its position as well as its shape. If you add to this the figure 0 for zero, and the decimal point (first used and fully understood by John Napier of Merchiston), you have a technique for calculation that is the foundation of the scientific, industrial and commercial development of the modern world.

139. An earlier system which we call "Roman" in contrast to "Arabic" is familiar through its use in Biblical chapter headings. The older primary children, who may usefully learn this notation, will easily recognise that while it is satisfactory for ordinal purposes, it would be extremely cumbersome for doing even simple sums. Arithmetic as we know it is a comparatively modern subject. William the Conqueror never saw the famous symbols 1066, though

[page 36]

he was doubtless familiar enough with MLXVI. Samuel Pepys was already the holder of high office in the Admiralty when he decided to take private lessons in multiplication. It is extremely likely that William Shakespeare would have failed lamentably in the Arithmetic section of a Control Test set for children of 11 plus by the local education authority. Yet Arithmetic with its almost endless possibilities of manipulation and precision has become the most fundamental tool of the modern world.

140. These preliminary observations may help to put Arithmetic in proper perspective as a school subject.

141. There are three ways in which Arithmetic may be regarded as useful or interesting:

(1) Arithmetic is required by all citizens in their daily lives for a variety of purposes, most of them concerned with money. What is needed by the ordinary man or woman is not a knowledge of complicated and seldom-used processes, but (a) an automatic knowledge of addition and multiplication and other necessary tables, (b) efficiency and accuracy in simple calculations. and (c) capacity to relate these skills to the needs of everyday life.

(2) Many pupils going into commerce and industry will have to be quick and expert at figures. Others will be following scientific careers where the laws and practices of Arithmetic are the bases of the most elaborate formulas and calculations. The duty of the primary school to these pupils is to give them complete security in the fundamental operations and processes. The learning of tables, nomenclature or methods applicable to special trades or professions (including commerce) should not be included in the scheme of work at the primary stage.

(3) Many people, children included, like to amuse themselves with numbers, and with problems and games depending on numbers. The feeling that there is a "mystery" in numbers still survives in books of "puzzles" which can usually be solved by standard arithmetical processes or elementary algebra. The delight or satisfaction we get from the reckoning and comparison of numbers is an indispensable element in most organised sports and games, such as football, cricket, golf and bridge. But the setting of completely useless problems in school, which have nothing but "puzzle" interest and train no faculty except for solving more problems of the same kind, has been responsible for a considerable waste of school time. We recommend that material of this kind should be excluded from schemes of work and from examples set for working. This is a field of private enterprise that can profitably be exercised in leisure hours on the basis of the fundamental training in number and processes received in school.

143. Just as the teaching of spelling should have regard to word-frequency, use-frequency should be an important factor in the amount of attention given to various arithmetical processes and to the amount of practice in examples. If, as we were informed by witnesses, 90 per cent of all adult usage of fractions is confined to halves, quarters and thirds, it would seem that the attention of the less gifted pupils should also be confined to these - at least till they

[page 37]

are thoroughly mastered. It needs no research to tell us that money calculations are by far the commonest kind of Arithmetic needed and practised in the daily life of the ordinary citizen. It is essential to his personal welfare that he should realise relative money values, check all transactions and be aware of his financial position at any time. Many people appear to regard money merely as coinage to be spent, because they have not acquired the art of dealing with money on paper. The question of frequency in use applies to tables other than the numeral and money tables, and we commend the simplified forms of these that are now coming into general school use. With regard to tables generally, we agree that no sums should deal with more than three terms; indeed we would suggest that sums with two terms, being much commoner in real life, should be the limit for less gifted children - the third term being a complication and not a new principle. In dealing with money sums, teachers should not lose contact with reality. Where the number of pounds is large, pence are unimportant and fractions of a penny should never appear; where the amounts in question are less than a pound, pence and even farthings may become important.

144. Arithmetic has long suffered from isolation from other subjects and interests. Arithmetic developed originally from the pressure of actual need, and there is no subject in the curriculum except English that gives so much practical help to other subjects. History, Geography, Drawing, Sewing, Handwork, Gardening, all involve measurement. Interpretation of a sum in problem form is just as much a lesson in English as the interpretation of an ordinary prose passage. Arithmetic too is rich in contacts with the outside world. The combination of Arithmetic with general information awakens interest, develops intelligence and trains the pupils to make their way confidently in the ordinary affairs of life. They should be made to realise that figures on paper, though abstractions in themselves, have always a purpose connected with real life. To this end we recommend that real measures of length, weight and capacity should be a normal part of classroom equipment and regularly used, and that the children should be made familiar with the handling and counting of real money. We also recommend that in all sums real prices of goods, distances, sizes and times from timetables should be ascertained and used.

145. While we do not regard it as a part of our remit to go into details of method, we may usefully lay down several general principles. We distinguish informal Arithmetic, as play or practice with concrete materials, from formal or abstract Arithmetic as work done orally or with figures on paper. We recommend, in agreement with much evidence received, that work with concrete material should go on for a longer time and should indeed be continued so long as the children appear to need it. The recommendations made above point to the importance of using concrete material to introduce new topics even at the later stages in the primary school. There should be no sense of hurry and no over-anxiety on the part of the teacher to introduce formal Arithmetic. Number-readiness occurs at different ages with different children and has no necessary relation to their ultimate attainments in the subject. It is hopeless for a teacher to expect a general level of attainment in any given class or at any chronological age. It is therefore impossible to say in what class a certain topic should begin, though it is easy to determine the suitable time for beginning from the mental age of the pupil. Arithmetic is much more an individual subject than has been generally recognised in the past. The attempt to give identical teaching to all children in a class results in waste of time for the brighter children and bewilderment for the dull. With classes at their present size individual treatment is difficult and in many cases impossible. but the division of a class into three groups will help to meet the difficulty.

[page 38]

146. In other subjects where the treatment is more or less an arbitrary sequence, as in Geography, a child who has been absent for some time will always profit to some extent by a single lesson. In Arithmetic, however, the treatment necessarily consists of logical steps, and a pupil who has missed one or more steps cannot profit by any subsequent lessons. If he does not get the foundations before a new process is taught, he will go up the school with the feeling that Arithmetic is a subject that he does not understand. No new topic should be taught to any child and no profitable results expected unless the child has already attained high competence in the foundation processes from which the new topic is built up. Because the processes which have gone before are essential, the function and need of revision are not of the same order as in certain other subjects. The imperative necessity for revision is well illustrated by the fact that an adult may through lack of practice make blunders in elementary processes at which he was formerly expert. Indeed it may be laid down that in every class in the primary school every process already learned should be thoroughly revised and a high standard of accuracy demanded.

147. Accuracy is the crux of success in Arithmetic. Pupils frequently know a great many rules and have had a certain amount of practice in them all, but not up to the correct pitch. As a general rule, it is wise to sacrifice elaboration to speed and accuracy. The correctness of a sum is not a matter of opinion or subject to a decision by the teacher. The child should be encouraged to apply his own common sense to judge whether an answer looks right or wrong. He should be able to check the accuracy of his own work by doing the sum backwards or in a different way. There seems no reason why on occasion children should not be allowed to check the correctness of their sums by reference to answers at the end of the book. Children should be allowed to set sums either to themselves or to others.

148. A child should be taught to do two things which seem at first thought to be contradictory. He should be able to set a sum down logically, showing each step and finishing clearly with the answer. On the other hand, he should be able to do as many whole sums as possible, and as many parts as possible of a more complicated sum, without having to put it down on paper. There is however no real contradiction. Both methods demand clarity of thought, but in different ways. The pupil should be able to set down a sum logically when required, but should be allowed gradually to abbreviate the process and even do without it altogether. The affairs of real life demand readiness and brevity, but examination requirements tend to encourage laborious methods of working. The fear that an answer may have been "copied" may also make a teacher suspicious of answers without working; but a pupil who has arrived at the answer logically will surely be able to explain it if called upon to do so.

149. The distinction between "Mental Arithmetic" and Arithmetic set down fully on paper is not a happy one. All Arithmetic is mental; the kind so-called would more correctly be termed "oral". The artificial distinction thus made also encourages the giving of unnecessarily difficult and elaborate examples to be done on paper. If a child is allowed to tackle only one difficulty at a time, he will much more readily master the subject.

150. The wide individual differences already mentioned do not by any means decrease in the upper classes of the primary school. Because of these differences and of the moderate capacity of the majority of the pupils, we recommend that the programme in Arithmetic for the primary school should be on a less ambitious scale than hitherto. Pupils of proved capacity should, however, have the opportunity within the time allotted of working more difficult examples of the topics under discussion. There is need for a large

[page 39]

amount of graded material, as, for example, cards giving sums involving the same processes but varied in difficulty to suit the capacities of pupils. This purpose may also be achieved by sum books graded in a similar way.

151. One important duty of the teacher is to investigate types of errors: it is of little use merely to mark sums right or wrong. Errors may arise from imperfections in the method of teaching, which may readily be remedied; or from weaknesses of various kinds on the part of a pupil, or of small groups of pupils. Elimination of errors of the latter type is not a matter for class instruction; the group or individual must be helped separately. We recommend elsewhere in this Report that there should be frequent staff meetings and consultations. It should be a matter of professional pride that the best methods made available by research should be used, and it is essential for the child's sense of security and for the ordered development of his mind that whatever methods are decided upon in a school or in an area should be accepted by the whole teaching staff. As regards the results of research, teachers may reasonably complain that they have not time to study the many research publications issued both in this country and abroad, and also that much research work is abstract and difficult to follow. Recognising this, the Scottish Council have embarked upon what we consider a very useful policy by issuing a small volume* embodying in simple language the conclusions arrived at in two large volumes of studies in Arithmetic.

152. As to the optimum age at which certain topics should be taught, it will appear from what has already been said that this must be decided by reference to the individual and not to a class. Even as regards the individual we are satisfied that a great deal of research has yet to be done, and we are not in a position to make any definite pronouncement on this subject.

153. It will appear from the foregoing that we do not favour any return to the large amount of time formerly spent, and perhaps partly wasted, on Arithmetic. It is outwith the purpose of this Report to recommend any precise list of topics for inclusion in the scheme of work in Arithmetic for the primary school; that is a matter for more detailed and specialised inquiry. But we feel justified in recommending that five periods a week, each of forty minutes, if utilised in accordance with the principles stated above, should be sufficient for laying a satisfactory foundation and securing a reasonable balance of attention between Arithmetic and the other subjects of the curriculum whose importance we emphasise in this Report. Finally, we recommend that teachers of the subject in the secondary school should familiarise themselves with what is being done and what is left undone in the primary schools of their area, so that the pupils may continue their studies without confusion or break of gauge.

154. Art in the primary school is in a broad sense a development of handwork. For many purposes the two terms mean the same thing. In every form of handwork there is some striving, however unconscious, after symmetry or decoration; and Art is concerned with the skilful manipulation of various materials with fingers and tools.

155. There is another distinction. The main concern of Art in school is picture making by means of patterns on paper with pencil, crayon or paint: that is, the representation of three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional medium. Everything has a silhouette or pattern, capable of having a line drawn round it, making a flat shape which is a rough approximation to the real

*The Teaching of Arithmetic, by John Morrison, M.B.E., M.A., B.Sc. (University of London Press, 1/-.)

[page 40]

object. Some children see their images in pattern and colour and should be encouraged to apply the colour direct to the paper without first making outlines; while others may prefer to begin by drawing shapes in pencil.

156. For the making of a satisfactory pattern, two preliminary conditions must be satisfied:

(1) The pupil must learn to observe things in a special way: not to "understand" them as objective facts, but merely to "see" them from a fixed point as patterns. We "see" the Plough in the starry sky as a flat pattern of a certain shape: but this accidental shape as seen from another point in space outside our planetary system would be totally different. Things or appearances that have no relation to each other may become part of the same pattern. Children vary greatly in appreciation of form, and guidance in this matter from the teacher will be helpful to many of them. They should also become more and more sensitive to colours in all their depth and variety and to gradations of light and shadow.

(2) The pupil must accept the convention of the medium he is using. He cannot get every detail into his composition, even if he wants to; he must therefore be selective as regards detail. As he is working within defined limits, he must attend to scale and balance. As he is attempting to produce in two dimensions the illusion of three, he must be helped to understand perspective and to correlate the shape of a thing in the mind with the shape to the eye. The natural confusion between these will sometimes result in a child showing a profile with two eyes or a house with three sides visible. The teacher will have little difficulty in inducing the child to accept conventions.

158. Originality is a virtue that is sometimes overpraised by those who do not realise that imitation is a necessary foundation of all human effort. The imitator as he perseveres will without knowing it gradually modify what he copies and so produce original work.

159. We have already drawn attention in Chapter V to the need for ample panel space for displaying the pupils' work; and we further suggest that part of the artistic training of the pupils should consist in the individual sheets themselves forming a pleasing pattern round the walls. If they are pinned along a wall like a washing on a clothes-rope they indicate that one purpose at least of the drawing lesson has not dawned upon the teacher. This idea of a general pattern may be carried further by the co-operation of the whole class in a scheme of wall-decoration.

160. Every child should enjoy the art lesson. What does not interest one may interest another, and what one does badly another may do well. The teacher should therefore not be content till by exploiting the many forms of artistic expression she manages to have every member of the class absorbed in a congenial activity.

161. Teachers should bear in mind that the child has two worlds, both of which are real - the world of external experience and the inner world of image and fantasy. Both of these worlds are constantly changing and developing. Painting gives him a medium for expressing at each stage his relation to these changing worlds.

[page 41]

162. We commend the schemes instituted by authorities or by the enterprise of individual teachers for visits to art galleries and exhibitions, the opportunities for which have been so greatly extended by the travelling exhibitions arranged by the Arts Council. Such visits will be much more fruitful if supplemented by the kind of intelligent guidance which will ultimately enable the pupils to recognise for themselves the merits of fine work and the techniques of the great masters. The best results of all may perhaps be obtained where, as in the scheme initiated at the Glasgow Art Galleries, the pupils themselves also receive an opportunity of doing drawing and painting work within galleries.

163. We have to recognise that our primary schools have not achieved what one would think might have been achieved for all children, a clear, easy, correct and un-self-conscious use of the English language. In spite of a great deal of effort, this subject is still one of the comparative failures in Scottish schools. We admit that there are difficulties outside the classroom - the competition of the home and the street. We may also admit the enormous disparity in attainment, apart from natural talent, which is apparent in children on their first entering the primary school; but it is absurd that this job of speaking English should not be done efficiently. No one has the right to take up a defeatist attitude. A good many pupils at a later stage learn a foreign language under conditions that are incomparably more difficult and artificial. One of the main reasons given by parents for sending their children to fee-paying schools is that their children should have a greater chance of coming in contact with other children who are clean and tidily dressed, speak nicely and have good manners. Surely this is a programme which by concerted policy, well-directed effort and co-operation of parents can within measurable time be achieved in all our schools. There is certainly no improvement more worth striving for in our schools than that our children should speak clearly and gracefully and with pride a language that for variety of expression, size of vocabulary, subtlety of meaning and width of usage has no equal in the world.

(1) THE UNRECOGNISED DIFFICULTIES

164. What is wrong with the teaching of spoken English in our schools is not a general lack of competence on the part of the teacher or the inherent impossibility of the task, but the failure to recognise certain difficulties. These may be considered under four headings.

165. The task is to persuade the child who insists on speaking - as a form of self-expression and as a realised need - to speak one language properly; and the child who will hardly speak at all, to overcome his environmental inheritance and speak with fluency and confidence. We are told that some languages are more difficult to learn than others; but it is likely that children could learn orally any language with equal speed and to equally good purpose. If certain languages have characteristic difficulties for the foreigner, that is because of the age of learning, the way of learning and the purpose of learning. The learning of a language by a child is largely a physical activity involving the repeated use of certain muscles and their constant exercise. This will be most easily done when the muscles are most supple and the child is at the most imitative stage. If particular muscles are not required and brought into use in early childhood by British children, the non-English sounds say in French and Spanish have to be acquired by conscious drill and concentrated effort, all of which has of course to be gone through in the same way by a French or Spanish person learning English. The first job of a child

[page 42]

coming to a Scottish school (we omit here the bilingual problem) is to learn to speak a good standard English, without reference to the dialect of the home or the street or the playground. It is a mistake to make a general assumption that children know and understand English when they come to school at the age of five. A completely fresh beginning should be made with what should be regarded as a basic subject, on which all other subjects depend.

166. It seems to us to be a mistake to associate the learning of language with the painful beginnings of reading. The foundations of language should be laid and fluently achieved before reading is started. The child should be "at home" with words before there is any attempt to make him realise that a written symbol exists for each spoken word. It should be for him a great discovery that a whole new world of personal communication is opened to him by learning to read. The enormous disparity between pupils at age five in the matter of speech is due to a variety of causes. Other things being equal, the more intelligent the child the more quickly his speech becomes fluent. Delay in some cases is due to slight inefficiency or defect in the vocal or aural organs. The most potent causes of all are social differences. A pupil in poor and inefficient surroundings is liable to have poor models for imitation, slovenly production, dialect or vulgar forms and poverty of vocabulary helped out by native or American slang and undesirable expressions.

167. There is truth in the frequently repeated statement that every teacher should be a teacher of English because he is a teacher in English, but it obscures the fundamental fact that every teacher of a special subject is entitled to assume, apart from the technical terms of the subject which is his special business, that children who are sufficiently mature to tackle that subject can already competently understand and speak English. If that is granted it is certainly the duty of all specialist teachers, in writing as well as in speech, to insist that standards already achieved are not lowered while the pupils are in their charge. If children feel frustrated through not being able to give adequate oral expression to their simple thoughts and ideas, any retardation or anti-social bias already existing is aggravated. For this reason alone, it is desirable that children with poor linguistic surroundings should attend a nursery school.

168. "Talking" as a school misdemeanour is one of the evil consequences of large classes. Artificially imposed silence results in the conversation going "underground" with the inevitable division of interest on the part of the pupil. It makes a considerable strain on the technical skill of the teacher, even in a class of moderate size, to secure ready and spontaneous speech and at the same time maintain essential discipline. Without an atmosphere of cheerful friendliness and encouragement, an efficient training in spoken English is out of the question. If the conditions are given for producing readiness and fluency two main things have to be considered.

(2) THE REMEDIES

169. The first is to provide the child with a good model and a growing vocabulary of words and phrases. We have no doubt that the teacher is the model and that the child will learn most readily and naturally by imitation, partly systematic and partly unconscious. Vocabulary can be enlarged by discussions built around simple objects brought into the classroom, pictures and the children's own experiences. Words and idioms and sentences can thoroughly belong to the child only by frequent hearing and unconscious use.

[page 43]

A large and ready oral vocabulary, providing the material for giving adequate articulation to one's needs and thoughts, is an indispensable part of the growth of full personality and a necessary foundation for the many other activities in school and community life.

170. The second is to attack faults that become apparent through defective speech already acquired. This should not be done by individual prohibitions or corrections but by steady and persevering drill in the right sounds. It should be insisted from the beginning and always that good English speech does not consist in saying one word after another, but in making a statement with proper attention to articulation, long and short vowels, accentuated syllables, breath control and the whole balance and swing of the sentence. Once these details are mastered, practice should be given in increasing speed so that the language comes "trippingly on the tongue".

171. It should never be forgotten that speech releases emotion and helps the control of emotion (there can even be speech or at least communication without words, which is often subtler than words - "Drink to me only with thine eyes"). The impulse to convey emotional meaning should be inherent in the mind behind the speech and never imposed externally. Expression in speech or in music should be only an unconscious technique for making others feel something that is felt inwardly by the speaker. The nineteenth century "elocution" with its instructions for raising the voice and sawing the air can be compared in this respect with the old hymn books where heartiness and great joy were marked "FF" and references to death and the tomb "PP".

172. The first responsibility of the teacher is to have a clear and unforced voice production. The voice of the classroom, the staffroom and the social occasion should be the same. We are glad to know that shouting and forced voices are now rare in our schools. Voice control is closely associated with emotional control. With careful and well-modulated speech the teacher can play upon and train the emotions of the children.

173. The teacher must also nave a good standard of pronunciation and we recommend that the training colleges should make the possession of this a condition of the award of a certificate. There are many varieties of detail within standard English; but good English speech, all the better of a characteristic flavour, is known and recognised the world over. There are some varieties of accent and intonation that enrich our speech and there are others that debase it. The teacher should also make a study of the local dialect and of vulgar speech forms in order to understand the habits and errors characteristic of the district. This will include not only slovenliness, mispronunciation and ignorant forms; it is very important also to know wrong lengths and colours of vowels. The fact that a teacher will be brought up sharply against these distinctions is another good reason why she should take a first post at a considerable distance from home. She is thus startled by differences rather than lulled by a return to a familiar dialect which she cannot "hear". Note should also be taken of the slowness of speech in many Scottish areas due to the lengthening and flattening of vowels. To make the English speech of the school feel and sound natural from the earliest stages, it is necessary that the teacher should devise a large variety of drills, games and situations which will confirm the children in habits of good speech without their being painfully aware that they are learning a lesson. If adequate and deliberate attention is paid to spoken English from the beginning, and throughout the primary division, the pupil should have a firm grip of the English language that will stand up against any outside influences and be readily available for all situations that demand its use.

[page 44]

174. Many teachers have in recent years found dramatic work in class to be a big help in the development of fluent and lively speech. We recommend that all schools should give a generous place to such work. Those who have been most successful have realised that less success can be achieved with ready-made playlets - where the language somehow nearly always appears to be stilted and wooden - than with dramatisations of stories and incidents constructed and developed by the children themselves with the encouragement and kindly criticism of the teacher.

175. These three subjects have a large common element: they represent the desire and the need of the child to know his world. Their early stages should be closely associated rather than sharply differentiated. He must pay attention to individual things and become interested in their properties because they are the only basis on which a sound general understanding of the world can be built. Without a background of studies and related facts, people are at the mercy of all sorts of theories and superstitions. Facts should wherever possible be studied at first hand: facts in books are often indeed at several removes from reality. So far as observation involves open air work, it is subject to variation due to season, weather and other circumstances, and the time allocation among the three subjects can be varied accordingly.

(1) NATURE STUDY

176. Whether regarded as a virtue or an inconvenient propensity, curiosity is specially characteristic of childhood. Allied with the other childish qualities of vigour and persistence it is an admirable equipment for the original research that these subjects should involve. For each child must find as well as make his own world; and it will be different from everybody else's world. The ordinary experiences of children are generally more vivid than those of adults; the size and domination of things present and things around are much greater; time moves more slowly; the hoped for future of grown-up life seems very far away; and they accept as permanent what we know to be transitory. It seems therefore very important that they should absorb during the primary school period impressions that are not merely suitable for their stage of development but are also of permanent value, and that they should not be troubled with facts and ideas outside of their natural range of interests and receptivity. The teacher should therefore not so much impose form and content of lessons on the pupils as try to direct observation into profitable channels, to answer questions, and to help them to clear their minds and encourage their natural capacity for classification. Any syllabus drawn up by the teacher should be a rough outline of what she hopes to achieve rather than a systematic body of knowledge to be taught and learnt. The materials of observation are bound to differ according to the situation of the school, because the familiar should naturally precede the unfamiliar. There is no valid reason why nature knowledge should not include the works of man, as in fact it nearly always does. One can as well begin from the city streets and shops and arrive at the farms and fields and hedgerows, as proceed in the opposite direction; provided that at some stage opportunity is given for all children to learn something about the life of the country and the life of the town - and also, we may add, of the seashore and the sea and the skies above.

177. In these studies the role of the child is that of adventurer, collector and questioner: that of the teacher to inspire, explain and encourage. The materials of the lessons may be brought by the pupils, sometimes on their own initiative, sometimes on suggestion; one pupil or a small group may be sent to collect and bring back information, or a visit may be paid by a group of

[page 45]

pupils accompanied by the teacher. The material object should whenever possible be the basis of discussion. It is very much easier and much more real to have a talk about a cow or a potato or the North Star in the presence of these familiar objects. The cow must however be seen outside of school, and the North Star outside of normal hours; but the lesson will be none the worse for that. Those teachers who loathe the introduction of creepy-crawly things into the classroom should try to overcome their aversion because of the enthusiasm of the pupils and the sense of reality given to the subject.

178. Care should be taken that every child in the class gets a turn at being the centre of discussion through some object, discovery or fact that he has contributed to the common store of material. He will be thrilled to have a personal stake or interest in the discussion, and his crude but eager story may through training become a more scientific and formal statement.

179. What then are the general objectives in the teacher's mind that she desires to attain as a result of these lessons? A few may be mentioned by way of illustration.

(1) The fact of growth in plants and animals at varying rates and with varying life spans.
(2) The natural homes of plants and animals, their surroundings, their need for food, and their ways of life.
(3) Their methods of propagating their kind.
(4) Their relations of co-operation and enmity.
(5) The relations between man and nature: domesticated plants and animals; the idea of pests and weeds.
(6) The beauty and intricacy and wonder of nature.
(7) Respect for nature: how we may possess things more truly by observing them and leaving them alone than by destroying them wantonly.
(8) The idea of natural law as illustrated by the movement of the earth, sun, moon and stars; day, month and year, and the movements of the tides.
(9) Elementary ideas about direction, climate and weather, direction of winds, causes of rain, frost, snow and thunderstorms.
(10) The natural cycle of water, and of plant and animal life.

181. Here are some illustrative examples, many of which, like those for the rural areas, may be used as individual or group projects.

(1) The identification and names of streets; law and order illustrated by the numbering of houses and shops, by even frontages, and the minimum standard width of streets.
(2) Where the streets and roads lead. This will develop into a general knowledge of the city and its districts.
(3) Transport. Where all wheeled things are going and on what errands. The tramway and bus systems; bus stations.
(4) The main railway stations and where the trains go.
(5) The materials of houses and where they come from. (Quarries, brickfields and forests.)
(6) Distinction between private houses, shops, factories, business offices and public buildings.

[page 46]

(7) Main industries of the city or part of the city.
(8) The jobs various people do, and their value to the community.
(9) The public services, or aspects of local and national government that children naturally become acquainted with - scavenging, lighting, water, police, post office, school, city chambers.
(10) The shops and their contents, and where these come from.

183. Even if it were possible, it would be highly undesirable that a textbook should be written purporting to cover the whole of the ground suggested and give all the necessary facts. It is of course impossible because the facts will vary with each district and even each school area; and undesirable as defeating the whole purpose, which is the collection, collation and discussion of individual observations. There exists, however, a considerable number of books giving factual information in a more general setting, and others that are of value for inspiration and guidance to the teacher. We recommend that lists of such books be made available to students at training colleges and to teachers taking refresher courses; and a selection of such books should be in every school library.

(2) GEOGRAPHY

184. Both geography and history depend on some detailed knowledge of the home area as an intellectual base of operations. The main distinction between them is that the geographer studies life as extended in space and the historian studies life as extended in time. Our geographical knowledge can be extended by travel, and by seeing other countries and places with the apparatus of observation we have already acquired in the home area. Local study and excursions, in combination with pictures, films, maps, talks and books of description and travel, enable us to form a mental picture of places we have not visited, which will give us a tolerably sound understanding of the world as it exists at present. But the A.B.C. and fundamental grammar of geography is undoubtedly the map. Before children can really understand maps they must make maps. The idea of representation in a different size comes natural to children. Exact scale is not very important to begin with and should be introduced only when its importance dawns on them. They can be interested in interior plans of houses, and make a rough plan of their own. This can be developed into plans of streets and roads near their home or school. With a knowledge of the linear table they will acquire the desire to measure, whether approximately by stepping or accurately by standard measures. There should be available for examination in every school copies of the largest scale Ordnance Survey maps containing details familiar to them, and also of the six-inch and one-inch reductions; and copies of such maps should be reproduced in bulk at cheap rates for use in every area. But whatever maps are used, the features shown on the maps should be locally identified and related to open-air activities and excursions. Once the function and value of a map are realised in this way, the transition to smaller scale maps is not difficult. The relation of the small-scale map-projection to the round globe is on the other hand a difficult problem that should be faced, though of course it cannot be fully explained at the primary stage. Every child in school should have access to a clear and simple atlas as soon as he can use it, and should be allowed to browse freely in it, particularly in relation to current events, newspaper references and names that occur in school reading or discussion. An atlas should, however, not be used merely for identifying places. The pupil should be inquisitive enough to understand the significance of every mark and colouring on a simple map, and be able to use the index intelligently.

[page 47]

185. We do not share the belief that it is either practicable or necessary to prescribe a minimum list of topographical features, countries or towns which every child ought to know at the age of twelve. We have faith that through the right kind of training he will have acquired all that is of value to him at that stage not as isolated memory - facts, but in some useful and living association.

186. Every pupil should be encouraged to acquire an atlas for home use as one of the foundation books (along with a dictionary and small encyclopaedia) of his own small personal library.

187. Along with the slowly growing capacity for map reading, the other development possible in the primary school is the understanding of the conditions and ways of life in other lands. We believe that the instinct of those teachers is sound who realise that once some understanding is achieved of the immediate and familiar surroundings, a violent contrast should be provided by studying conditions of life that are at the same time relatively simple and very different from our own. Such stories of life in other lands, whether told by the teacher to the pupils, or by the pupil to his fellow pupils following silent reading, a visit to the cinema or personal experience, provide a useful basis for the discussion of climate, vegetation and economic conditions and will become increasingly associated with map study as it progresses.

(3) HISTORY

188. Of all the traditional primary school subjects history is perhaps the one about which there is most doubt and dissatisfaction, as regards both method and content. In no subject is it more important that traditional ideas and practices should be re-examined. Briefly so far as formal history is concerned, these may be summarised as follows. (We do not suggest that all teachers or all text-books follow this scheme, but the general picture will be at once recognised.) The subject is Scotland or England or Great Britain; so far as Scotland gets beyond 1603 at all, it is concerned with the Covenanters and their opponents, the Union of the Parliaments and the Jacobite Rebellions. The treatment is chronological: events are, as nearly as may be managed, narrated in time sequence and divided up into "reigns". The main narrative is of a political - diplomatic - military type with a good deal of emphasis on the careers and historically insignificant actions of individuals who happened to be prominent at each period. Events or developments of a different type are either mentioned in a paragraph or an occasional chapter that interrupts the flow of the main narrative. This narrative, which practically ceases, so far as Scotland is concerned, with 1746, may be brought near to, but obviously never quite down to the present date; and the final chapter is a lame, uneasy and scrappy conclusion reflecting the author's sentimental ideals or political prejudices. The narrative for the period 1066-1815 is the most connected and comfortable; the part including the civil broils of the seventeenth century is usually the most favoured and familiar of all. It is also generally supposed that there are, if not a large number of dates to be learnt, at least a certain number of really important dates, sometimes referred to as "hub dates" (1066 and all that) which every pupil should know.

189. We submit that all this is highly unsatisfactory so far as the primary school at least is concerned; and for the following reasons:

(1) Geography, as we have already said, is the appreciation of extension in space, history of extension in time. The young child does appreciate space because of his own movements and adventures through walks, excursions and holidays. If he has also seen roads, railways, rivers, built-up areas, fields, hills and the sea, and experienced summer and winter, he

[page 48]

has within himself a not unreasonable basis for appreciating conditions all over the world. A great many people never see much more of the world than they see during the first ten or twelve years. But extension in time is a very different matter. The child is naturally inclined to see things more as static and eternal than changing and ephemeral. His span of experience , while always increasing, is still very small. The older a person becomes, as long as his mind is active and unimpaired, the better he can appreciate the passage of time, the proportion of events, the rhythm of causes and consequences. The passage of time also gives him more experiences of people with their motives and ambitions and mutual relations. From this it appears to follow that the kind of history that demands a broad grasp of principles and tendencies, and some considerable experience of human nature, is not a subject for the primary school at all, or even for the lower forms of the secondary school. There appears to be no justification for the idea that political history memorised immaturely, and without understanding, has any appreciable value for the adult life of the citizen.

(2) The kind of history that normally reaches children is history in a book, a fourth-hand narrative without charm or distinction or breath of life. It is essentially words on paper to be memorised. But real history is the blood and tears, the endurances and triumphs and age-long routines of real people; their births, marriages and deaths, enterprises and failures, the achievements and defeats of the human spirit. The real historian, the original investigator, gets a thrill from his work like that of a research worker in science. But when his conclusions have been epitomised, bowdlerised and "written down" for children, they have little vitality in themselves or relevance for the primary stage of education. No account is taken of the fact that the child is having every day real and vivid experiences. and that, like the historical expert, he possesses the spirit of investigation.

(3) From time to time, and most notably at the end of a great war, as in 1918 or 1945, we hear it said that if only school history books were impartially written, and the children of all nations learnt the same lessons, the cause of international co-operation would be considerably advanced. It is not part of our purpose to discuss this interesting thesis; but we do wish to consider some of its assumptions. We do not think that children should be conditioned at an early age by any version of political history however "impartial". Nor do we think it is either possible or desirable that children in different climates and countries should learn the same things or see facts in the same context or proportion. But we do think that it is infinitely more significant that a child is born into the world than that it is born in Scotland or Eire or Russia or China. An Englishman can be made into a tolerably good Scot if he is caught young enough: one has heard of men of Japanese origin in the U.S. Army who were proud of their American citizenship. There is then a sense in which national history is of less ultimate importance than human history. A war may be a triumph for some individual or nation or group of nations; but every war is a defeat for humanity. Surely for the earlier lessons in history for the young people of all nations there is an abundance of material for the discussion of the common needs and limitations of mankind, their adventures and discoveries, their growing mastery over the forces of nature, their mutual dependence, and the evermore pressing need that they should live together in law and tolerance in communities that must become parts of a decent world community.

[page 49]

sion in the curriculum. We believe this to be the contribution it can make to giving the child a sense of values both about people and about things. Clearly the teacher in arranging the scheme must herself first have some sense of values - have some definite notions of what is good or bad, useful or harmful, important or trivial. We believe she must have a firm grasp and solid foundation of moral principles, even accepting the risk that these may be called prejudices. The kind of foundation we mean is one that may be built up from such sources as the fundamental teachings of Christ, the intellectual integrity and range of sympathy of the Greek philosophers, the warm-hearted wisdom of the great religious teachers of China, the visions of the Hebrew prophets, the disciplined mind of the modern scientist, and the unfolding of human conduct and destiny in the great masterpieces of the world's literature.

191. The subject must at this stage be world history rather than national history, though a greater number of illustrative examples will inevitably be drawn from what is nearer and more familiar. The children should learn that the things that bring all men together are greater than the things that keep them apart.

192. We must ask: In what will children be really interested? What will hold their attention or excite their curiosity? The answer seems to be twofold: the lives of other people, and the material things around them. Corresponding to these subject-matters are the two methods - on the one hand, stories and discussions, and on the other hand, active investigation. We return to these matters later.

193. A single thread of chronological narrative of the world's history is manifestly absurd. In the infinite complexity of life there is no thread strong enough and clear enough to be followed right through. The child at this stage has not the interest, the breadth of outlook or the background of experience to follow such a narrative. In any case the beginning is bound to be arbitrary, and the end is not yet. It seems therefore that the treatment must be by selected topics; that is, we must distinguish and follow some of the main threads before we can begin to understand the pattern. A single chronological sequence has however bulked so large in traditional methods of teaching history that some indication should be given of its uses and limitation.

194. The idea of objective truth dawns slowly on children. (Many adults in fact have a difficulty in appreciating it.) The literally true, the essentially true, the imagined and the false are distinguished only gradually and with difficulty in the child's mind. Similarly, the sense of the passage of time and of the proportion between different periods of time also develops slowly. In a Scottish school about twenty years ago a teacher was giving an account of the Crucifixion to a junior class that was listening tensely. At the end a boy put up his hand excitedly: "Please, miss, if Tom Mix had been there it would never have happened." Anachronisms of this kind are inevitable until the child begins to "know his way" in time as well as in space. But when he has discovered the idea of time sequence and relations, he has to stick in some guideposts to mark the trail and indicate distances. Dates are not facts to be learnt, but are an essential part of a scheme for putting facts in order, getting a feeling for depth in time, and forming a basis of relationship between different topics. By using graduated time-lines for each topic, and where appropriate comparing these lines, the pupil will gradually become familiar with time relations, and will without making a point of doing so acquire a considerable knowledge of dates along with the content of the material studied.

[page 50]

195. The method of teaching will be appropriate to the subject-matter already indicated - the lives of other people and the material things around them. These may be considered separately, though there is of course no hard-and-fast division.

196. The value of biographical material is to show (a) individual character and achievement, and (b) what can be done by people working together. Just because the number of stories is so vast, there is all the more need for careful choice. It is not enough merely to interest or entertain the children for the time being. Every story should have a value of some kind, or preferably a combination of values; to convey information, to train character, to encourage right action, to arouse sympathy, admiration, indignation or other emotions. There should be a scheme, though it should not obtrude itself. It should aim at giving variety of character, local colour and experience. It should draw its materials from all ages and countries and social classes; and in particular, humble life and the contemporary scene should not be neglected. Representative as well as exceptional people should be included, and also people associated with the district. It would be an interesting and profitable task for a school staff to draw up lists of suitable stories and biographies, with sources. In order that freshness and initiative should not be discouraged, such a list should be used flexibly, as new materials and ways of treatment will always be turning up.

197. The method of presentation must also receive consideration. With younger pupils particularly, the stories may be told conversationally or dramatically by the teacher. Alternatively, they may be read from a book, though this method, unless in the hands of a very skilful teacher, is less satisfactory. If stories are worth telling at all they are worth retelling; and the pupils themselves are usually anxious to tell over again the stories they have heard. We believe that every story should form a subject for class discussion, not so much to recall the incidents as to bring out the full meaning of the story and to give the pupils the chance in a simple way to express their own views and reactions. The habits of reasonable discussion and balanced moral judgment cannot be formed too early. Such stories may from time to time form a basis for written reproduction; but they should not be thus used unless they have become quite familiar; and the pupils should not be burdened with the thought that every oral lesson is necessarily a preliminary to written work. Children should also learn early and naturally the habit of simple impromptu dramatisation of any stories that happen to be suitable for the purpose. They may also read stories of their own choosing. This may be done in a variety of ways. The same story may be read at the same time by all members of the class with a view to later discussion. The pupils may have a variety of books and be reading different stories at the same time in order that they may tell these to the rest of the class. Or pupils may read stories at home and tell or discuss them later in class.

198. The telling, reading and discussion of stories is subject to a limitation already emphasised, that it is all second-hand and a little apart from reality. The medium is the spoken or printed word, a picture in a book, an image on a screen. By itself it may overstress verbal facility and end in day-dreaming. It must be toughened and brought down to reality by contact with palpable things. All understanding of history must have a starting point in personal experience. If as we have already said one of the objects of these studies is that the pupil should know his way about his world, it seems not unreasonable that his investigation should start with the particular corner of the world. in which he lives and moves every day. He should be made to realise some things about this world of his:

[page 51]

(1) That all the works of man he sees have a purpose however imperfectly realised.
(2) That everything is at a particular stage of development: never standing still but always moving and changing, sometimes very slowly, sometimes with explosive rapidity.

200. After interest has been created by such an investigation, discussion may take place about how the children might attempt to fulfil these primitive needs if they had lived in the days of long ago. They will then be in a position to realise the patience and genius of our early ancestors in making those inventions and discoveries upon which the later developments of civilised life are based. Examples of primitive conditions may be found in pictures or descriptions of other lands and in ancient writings, notably in the Bible. The pupils should then be able to follow with intelligence and interest the great stories of civilisation, such as the story of the ship, the wheel, the road, the alphabet, lighting, weights and measures, law and order. Every pupil reasonably equipped with an understanding of these great human facts is in a much better position when his mind is more mature to understand political history and see it in its proper perspective.

201. Many who wish to reform the teaching of history in schools have stressed the importance of local history. They have pointed out that pupils should know something of local legends and figures, and also of "historical" events and places in the neighbourhood. While such a view of local history has value, it is inadequate if it suggests a merely fortuitous relation to national history, and it encourages parochialism. The method we suggest brings the local area into organic relation with the whole process of human history. Every human settlement can be made to yield to the thoughtful observer a rich harvest of examples to illustrate phases in the long story of human struggle, contrivance and development.

202. Topics which have been treated in a simple way in the primary classes can of course be taken up at a later stage and treated more systematically in a wider relationship.

[page 52]

203. It may be at once admitted that the proposal sketched above is not only a considerable departure from the normal practice in the majority of schools but again throws a greater responsibility on the teacher. Owing to the varying age, quality and interests of the members of the class as well as to the type of raw material available for investigation, it is clearly impossible as well as undesirable to have all this scheme printed tidily in a series of textbooks. Once any textbook pretending to be complete is put into the hands of pupils, then the old dreary business of memorising will begin once more. There is need, only partly supplied at present so far as we know, of books for teachers giving inspiration and guidance about methods and sources of information. Every classroom should also have, as already suggested, a variety of books of reference which the pupils should be trained to use. Books of chronological history are of course extremely valuable in this connection so long as their use is limited to research for facts relevant to the particular topic under discussion. In short, the whole object is to induce keenness and activity into the search for the development of the fundamental facts about the life of man on the earth.

204. Such a scheme is broadly of universal application: it develops and emphasises in these early stages of history teaching the triumphs of men in all ages and climes whose efforts have been of benefit to the whole human race. While a man of one period or nation may have originated an idea, this idea has usually been taken up and developed by men in other countries. By emphasising this we show that international co-operation is of much more significance to the human race than petty national rivalries; that the things in which different nations co-operate are of more value to humanity than the things that separate them,

205. In conclusion we refer again to the enormous educational value of a complete series of films treating in isolation each of these many topics and illustrating in a very simple way their development from primitive forms to the present day. There is no better method of concentrating on the essentials and eliminating the superfluous.

206. The broadcast history talks for schools which have from time to time been given on this basis of topics might well be extended and systematised.

207. The invention of writing and later of printing so fascinated the minds of men that for ages the ability to read and write has been associated, and even identified, with the idea of education itself. The plain words "Scribe", "Clerk" and "Writer" have at various times connoted the possession of rare and exclusive capacities denied to ordinary men; and the corresponding words "Writ", "Bible" and "Scripture" also testify to the same reverence for the written or printed "word". Even today a statement gains with many people a certain value merely because it is printed. There are associated with the written or printed word the ideas of objectivity, finality, value and preservation. We say that "the written word remains". We assume that what is written is said deliberately. We do not accept the decisions of any meeting or conference until these are recorded in an approved form of words.

208. The identification of literacy with education has had some undesirable consequences. It has given "black-coated" jobs an attractiveness disproportionate to their intrinsic interest and social value; has contributed to the excessive emphasis placed on the results of written examinations; and has produced in many countries a class of people who combine an astonishing verbal facility with a meagre equipment of wisdom and little understanding of the complicated human situations and values involved in the words they so glibly use.

[page 53]

209. The distinction between the written and the spoken word is necessary and fundamental. Montaigne's statement "I write but as I speak", however valuable as a reminder and warning of the need for a clear and simple style to the thousands of writers of jargon in these days, ignores an essential distinction. On this point the experience of the Talks Department of the B.B.C. provides conclusive evidence. If a good compact statement - an admirable essay or magazine article - is presented to them (as appears to happen frequently) they have to advise the writer to recast the proposed talk in a conversational style with more concrete illustration and about half the solid matter of the original. They find that listeners cannot at the speed of ordinary speech absorb ideas and sequences of thought in the same way as a person reading the printed page, who can both regulate his own speed and retrace his steps at will. Speech is native to place, company and circumstance, evanescent though for the moment completely alive; the written word is potentially universal, for all times, people and circumstances.

210. Such failure to recognise the limitations and the special functions of the written word should not lessen appreciation of the tremendous significance for human history of the invention of writing and printing. Every teacher should feel, and pass on to her pupils the feeling, that these are among the greatest conquests ever achieved by the mind of man. It was long after the birth and slow development of spoken language that man discovered that messages might be communicated by means of rudimentary pictures, which finally become symbolic representations of spoken words. Speech came many ages before writing, and the printing press is a relatively recent invention. While one great advantage of writing over speech is its permanence, it by no means follows that everything printed is memorable or that everything spoken is forgotten. Some of our earliest and greatest literature existed in oral form long before it was written down, and still bears the marks of its origin in such devices as repetitions, refrains and conventional forms.

211. The use of language enabled the people within a group to pool their experiences, and so to solve their problems without each time going through a fresh process of trial and error. The invention of writing gave men a kind of memory that was much more reliable and efficient than oral tradition.

212. It is necessary to make these general observations, not only because of the vestigial traces of the pre-printing period that still survive in our universities in the form of lectures and note-taking, and in our schools in the form of oral reading and memory-burdening; but also because of the wider need to see these subjects as a whole in proper perspective.

213. Learning to read has nothing necessarily to do with the enjoyment of good literature or any other moral or aesthetic purpose. It has now become a fundamental need. Civilised life is based on the assumption that every responsible person can read. Those who do not "stop at the major road ahead" may be fined two pounds; it is impossible even to "follow the blue light to King's Cross" without being able to read the notices to that effect. For every sort of activity, useful, harmless or nefarious, the ability to read printed matter is essential. People may read in order to get news or facts, to get instruction or instructions, to enter new worlds of real or imagined experience or to avoid boredom; but they all do read. Perhaps in a normal civilised community more time is passed in reading than in any other form of human activity. But this reading is practically all silent reading. The people who perhaps really like being read to most are those who can appreciate what is being read and yet cannot read for themselves - young children at a certain stage, invalids, and those with hands completely occupied. The characteristic answer of most other listeners to oral readers is "pass the paper (or the

[page 54]

book) and we'll read it for ourselves". Apart from reading for pleasure, oral reading is part of the routine of certain occupations, as proof reading and comparing typescript. But these exceptions, and even the pleasure derived from the oral reading of fine poetry or prose, do not justify the large amount of time traditionally spent on this exercise in primary schools; nor is the time so spent adequately justified by any observable result. The rules for oral reading are so nearly the same as for good speech as to make the time spent on it of little value once the technique has been mastered.

214. Reading and writing are complementary activities. While their subject matter is identical, their techniques are entirely different. We shall therefore discuss the latter for a moment before going on to discuss subject matter in its two forms - (1) comprehension of the printed word, and (2) written composition.

(1) THE TECHNIQUE OF READING

215. We do not consider it as within our present purpose to go over ground already so well trodden, beyond stating summarily that our most experienced witnesses took the view that, while it must be left to the responsible teacher to use the methods in which she has confidence and training, the best results are likely to be obtained by a judicious blending of the phonic, look-and-say and sentence methods. This appeals to us as all the more reasonable in that it allows the fullest use of both eye and ear. All of these methods, and particularly the combination of them, give much more satisfactory results than the alphabetic method. (The traditional letter order of the alphabet must of course for other purposes be learnt at a later stage.) Apart from this we consider it to be of the highest importance that oral reading should as soon as possible be assimilated to good speaking by the early introduction of phrasing, or the proper relation of words in a phrase or sentence as regards vowel-length, accent, speed and the rhythmic flow of good spoken English. After the technique of reading has been individually mastered, routine oral reading is not only artificial but harmful and wasteful.

(2) THE TECHNIQUE OF WRITING

216. Writing is one particular kind of handwork, and a pencil or a pen is a particular kind of tool. The handling of a pen and the operation of writing are neither easy nor natural for a child. Unlike most tools, the pen does not seem to have settled down into a standard and generally accepted form. No handwork of any kind should be spoiled or made unnecessarily difficult because the tool is not completely suitable; and it is a matter of common observation that in school pens much is sacrificed for the sake of cheapness. We suggest that research might usefully take place about the best types of school pen, with special reference to the thickness, surface and balance of the holder, and the most suitable type of point. While agreeing that the decision about the best type of nib depends on the style of writing generally adopted for the school, we suggest that any insistence on a sloping style with elaborate hairstrokes made by a finely pointed pen is not worth the time spent on it, and is calculated to give many children unnecessarily a distaste for the art. For the concentrated practice needed to achieve proficiency in writing as in other forms of handwork, no artificial or unnecessary handicaps should in the name of discipline or tradition be placed upon the child; he should learn in the easiest possible way to achieve the most pleasing possible result. There are those who say that a good fountain pen is the best instrument we have; and that the only real objection to it is the practical one of expense, fountain pens being easily lost or broken, and those possessed by children often being of poor quality.

[page 55]

217. What are the elements of good writing? Surely first of all, legibility - a virtue much appreciated by our neighbours if often lightly regarded by ourselves. It is part of the good manners of writing as audibility is of speech. The best writing need conform to only two conditions, which reinforce one another: it should be easy to read and pleasant to read. The object of the writer is therefore utilitarian and at the same time artistic - giving satisfaction to himself as well as the reader. How far short we are of such a reasonable ideal may be inferred both from the official insistence on "block capitals", and the thoughtful addition of a typed version to the distinguished signatures of many business executives.

218. To compel children to learn one alphabet in books and almost at the same time a very differently made and different-looking alphabet in writing appears to us to be another archaic survival. The justification for beginning with script writing is that the letters are like those on the printed page. To begin with, and for some time, the writing lesson is a drawing lesson. If this be granted, several things seem to follow:

(1) The pencil should be big and reasonably soft, and the letters themselves should be big, both because it is more natural for the child to make them big and because the shapes can be more accurately learnt in this way.
(2) The detailed forms of the letters should be taken from a good model, about which an experienced art master might be asked to advise.
(3) Reduction in size should come gradually and in association with the first efforts at alignment.
(4) Attention should be given to the artistic effect of a whole page, by consideration of the space between the letters of a word, the spaces between the words, the neat filling of a line, margins at sides and top and bottom, and the placing of headings.

220. We have discovered a very wide variation in practice about the time of change-over - a variation that at once suggests a need for research. Meantime we put on record the fact that a number of our witnesses were in favour of delaying the change-over for as much as a couple of years beyond Primary I where it appears to be commonly carried out at present, and we were impressed by their argument. The desire to go on to something new before what has previously been learned is thoroughly established is one of the besetting sins of the primary school. Before the children have real ease and pleasure and mastery in the use of script they are hurried on to another form, and their insecure achievement is left hanging in the air. We recommend that script should be continued, at a stage when speed is of little importance, till it can be made firmly and beautifully.

221. Regarding the nature of the change over we heard some evidence and examined a considerable number of scripts. Having regard to the general nature of our Report we have not been able to consider this point sufficiently to justify us in making a clear recommendation, and indeed take the view that the style of writing recommended for general, adoption in primary

[page 56]

schools is a matter that requires considerable and careful research. Even when well founded conclusions have been arrived at it does not follow that it will be possible, far less desirable, to advocate or insist on a completely uniform method throughout the country. We feel justified nevertheless in making several comments.

222. Contrary to what some outsiders may suppose and sometimes assert, it is a fact well borne out by evidence that the handwriting of children at the qualifying stage is on the whole well formed and legible and shows the results of careful teaching. As many children leave our secondary schools with writing that is admittedly careless and not very legible, it is assumed that the degeneration that takes place in many cases is due to the lack of attention on the part of the secondary school. This does not necessarily follow; the deterioration may be due not primarily to the carelessness of either teacher or pupil but to the inability of the style adopted to stand up to the tear and wear of the secondary school, where a considerable amount of writing both in pen and pencil has to be done for a large variety of new purposes. Undoubtedly speed is one of the important elements of success in writing, but if a style is such that it immediately degenerates when speed is demanded, there may well be some inherent defect in the style. In sloping cursive writing the letters m, n, u, w, i, e and r can all too readily degenerate into forms which when written together are distinguishable only by inference.

223. Apart from this we believe that there is something in writing that is not merely utilitarian: that the artistic impulse enters into it in greater or less degree. No one can say that the present standard style which is comparatively modern and associated in its origin with the practice of copper-plating can be compared for beauty of letter or page with the handwriting of the days when printed books were scarce or did not exist. We incline to the view that clear legibility, maintenance of form and ultimately the greatest speed consistent with these, can be obtained by a rounded and reasonably upright style easily derivable from script without unnecessary hairstrokes and not subject to the tyranny that every letter in a word must necessarily be joined to the others. Beyond this we feel ourselves unable to go, but we suggest that there is here a wide field for experiment both by individual schools and by the Scottish Council for Research in Education and other bodies. We stress the importance of such an inquiry, because we believe that the results of school education in handwriting, admittedly poor in many cases, hardly do justice to the amount of effort put forth in the schools.

(3) COMPREHENSION

224. Every step forward in the material progress of the human race seems to involve the loss of some traditional skill or wisdom. Age-old instinctive ways of life in home and workshop, handed down from the older to the younger generation, are fast disappearing, before newer ways based on reason and acquired knowledge have been firmly acquired and passed into habits. The millions of people, in Great Britain and elsewhere, who have lost the traditional lore of their ancestors, and have neither the desire nor the art to build up for themselves a full and dignified civilised life, are doubly illiterate. They are uprooted, caring only for a succession of ephemeral things. They do not know how to go forward, and they have lost the way back. This dangerous crisis of civilisation is a more urgent challenge to education than ever in the world's history. The successful answer to the challenge can take only one fundamental form - the appeal to intelligence, and this appeal must take place through the medium of the spoken and the printed word. That this appeal can in the long run be made successfully is proved by one striking example: the improvement

[page 57]

in infant welfare due to the dissemination of information on the subject among all classes of the community. In helping children to comprehend, to understand and profit by what they read, the teacher is undertaking a task of the highest importance for society as well as for the individual.

225. We may say broadly that a child comprehends symbolic material such as printed words and conventional signs in two ways. The first may be called extensive or inductive; the second intensive or deductive. In any written passage there are words indicating things and qualities and actions that are entirely familiar to the child in life and speech. Alongside of these are other words with a more or less blurred connotation; and there are others practically or entirely unknown. Every sentence read with interest by the child has the words set in such a relation that the blurred outlines become a little clearer, and some of the unknown words begin to carry a dim significance. As words are met with again and again in different connections their full meaning becomes more and more apparent, or may dawn in a sudden flash of understanding. Children learn to comprehend what they read in much the same way as they learn to comprehend what they hear. There are people with a wide and flexible vocabulary and a sense of fine distinctions in the meaning and use of words who practically never open a dictionary.

226. For the majority of people, however, this method of comprehension must be supplemented by another. Many people have lazy minds: and once they have reached a certain mediocre level of attainment in silent reading will be content to remain there for the rest of their lives. They become intolerant of anything above this level, and gain little or nothing from their reading except a temporary alleviation of boredom. While no one would ask people of poor mental endowment to wrestle vainly with literary classics, or deny the brilliant intellectual worker his occasional "thriller", all members of the community should be trained to comprehend the written word up to the limit of their mental capacity. This can be achieved only by intensive study, with concentrated minds. on passages of graduated difficulty, with the objective of complete comprehension. To arouse and maintain the interest of pupils in this study is one of the most responsible and rewarding tasks of a teacher of English at all stages of school life after the mechanical difficulties of language have been overcome. We are not sure, however, that all teachers realise the amount and kind of equipment they require to possess and bring into use if they are to accomplish this task successfully. Questions of mere articulation and fluency fade into the background. They are now involved in consideration of (a) content, or what is conveyed by the words, and (b) style, or the manner in which this content is conveyed. These two aspects are in varying degrees interdependent, but may be considered separately.

227. Any written matter consists - to make a rough classification - either of information or of ideas. Information may include factual statement or plain narrative. Precision and completeness of meaning are the things to be aimed at here. But once we start discussing information we are passing over from words to facts, and these facts will be related in some way either to science or human life. It will therefore be the duty of the teacher to have sufficient background knowledge to see the fact in its setting. Dictionary "meanings" are totally inadequate if they merely mean the substitution of one verbal form for another. Real "learning" from books can take place only in proportion to the base of reference in real life that has been established, and can profitably be increased only with a corresponding increase in that base. There can be no increment if we always keep sermons in books and stones in the running brooks. Thus the job of the teacher is to lead the child on from the word to the fact, from the fact to the relation; to provide the necessary

[page 58]

apparatus, and stimulate him to use it. All should at the earliest suitable stage learn the independent habit of consulting dictionaries, atlases, gazetteers, encyclopaedias, tables of contents and indexes. Illustrative material - actual objects when possible - should be brought into the classroom, excursions arranged or visits encouraged. Children should know their way about a newspaper of the more solid kind, including the advertisements, to realise that it is not merely a source of varied and up-to-date information, but a mirror of the myriad activities and interests of a modern community.

228. Where children express a desire or can be induced to follow up any subjects, suitable books should be placed at their disposal in the class library. These books should for younger pupils be attractive in appearance, well printed and spaced, and with plenty of pictures.

229. The kind of result that should be expected from such a training in factual comprehension may be summarised as follows. At the end of the primary stage the pupil should with greater or less facility according to natural endowment be able to look up a word in a dictionary, find from an atlas by using the index where any town is situated, find any telephone number if the name and address are given, use a railway or bus timetable, find the year of birth, country and main achievements of any famous man from a small encyclopaedia, read a simple plan, diagram, picture or tabular statement. He should be able to follow a progressive narrative, and distinguish the "thread" of a story from incidental details. He must begin his training in objective attitude towards printed statements; examine words and phrases carefully to realise not only what is said, but what may be inferred; and begin to draw a clear distinction between truth, fiction and falsehood. We believe that the training of children in the habit and method of acquiring information, instead of cramming facts chosen by the teacher, is not only more fertile for the future and pleasanter in itself, but likely to result in the acquisition of far more information than the other method. As regards the teacher, we are sure that she will do much fuller justice to her class of lively youngsters if she is herself living a full and intelligent life, including ample contacts both with literature and with the practical affairs of the community.

230. When we pass from reading matter dealing with information to reading matter dealing with or involving ideas, we approach the most responsible duty and the greatest privilege of the teacher - to help the child to build up his own inner life. Let it be understood that the subject is non-examinable and the rewards intangible. Nor should the teacher try to get the cheap satisfaction of trying to "mould" character. The fundamental attitude must be respect for the pupil, which involves also self-restraint and a little reticence. The subject-matter for dealing with ideas of truth, beauty and goodness can best be found indirectly and incidentally in the course of reading. The method of approach should clearly be by discussion of topics raised if possible by the pupils. These topics may revolve round questions of literal or essential truth, appreciation, judgment, character or conduct. It is not desirable, and certainly not necessary, to arrive at clear and final conclusions. It is enough by inducing the children to talk freely and frankly to start them on lines of sound thought and imagination. A good lesson of this kind may stop unfinished, as with a row of asterisks: the words have ceased, but the thoughts and the wonder may go on and on. In this way even young children may learn to grapple with a great variety of ordinary human situations and discuss them without embarrassment as being apparently external to themselves. They begin to learn to look at statements. opinions and situations critically. They are trained to be fair-minded, to modify rash judgments and to be fearless though restrained in oral expression. In a word they are learning delicacy -

[page 59]

delicacy in the valuing of words, in the appreciation of things, in their own thinking and emotions, in their acts and utterances; they are in fact going through the process of being educated.

231. The time has long passed when silent reading could be regarded as merely a scheme for keeping a class quiet during the performance of some routine official task by the teacher. The reading set may be of an extensive or an intensive type: but it must be of definite and continuing purpose with reference to each class or group or individual. Children, the psychologists surprisingly tell us, are never inattentive. But it is just possible that they may be gathering wool on other hedges. Therefore the materials for silent reading, if not so absorbing as to secure their spontaneous attention, should at least be sufficiently interesting to make them want to read it carefully for the sake of the subsequent discussion. During the whole of this period the teacher will necessarily be completely occupied in refreshing her mind about the content of the passage and considering the points that may most profitably be raised in the time available.

(4) GRAMMAR

232. The question of grammar, which affects both reading and written composition, may well be considered at this point. The name, "grammar school", common in England and by no means unknown in Scotland, takes us back to the medieval days when a knowledge of Latin was a necessary preliminary to the study of all branches of learning. However much we may regret the disappearance of a common European language for scientific and philosophical study, we have to acknowledge that "grammar", whether Latin or English, has lost much of its prestige as a primary school subject. For many years after the passing of the Education Act of 1872 the teaching of grammar in Scottish schools was rigid and universal. Since then there have been several swings of the pendulum, resulting in wide diversity of practice at the present day. In the hope of securing greater uniformity of outlook and practice we believe that several observations may usefully be offered.

233. In our primary schools English grammar should surely not be taught merely because of the pressure of teachers of foreign languages in secondary schools; and even if the demand were relevant, it should surely not apply to all pupils. But in any case such a request, if it be made at all, seems to be based on a misapprehension. The grammars of all languages are different, and that of English very highly differentiated from any other. It would indeed be more useful to teachers of Latin and French by way of contrast than as a basis of instruction in their own subjects. To provide English grammar with a cumbrous terminology based on classical analogy is to misunderstand the essential nature and line of development of modern English. Unlike Latin, which of course cannot change, but also unlike French, German, and other languages that are still developing, English has practically discarded the idea of grammatical gender. The foreigner may have many difficulties with English, but at least one of the easy things about it is that sex and gender have been assimilated.

234. Another process highly developed in English is that certain very simple words, besides retaining their original meaning, have also become almost mathematical symbols denoting passivity, the end of action, and so on: like "is," "do", "have", "would" and "might". How considerably the use of these particles has diminished the use of inflection may be illustrated by the fact there are only four written forms in modern English of the verb "love" (love, loves, loved, loving) whereas there are over 80 forms to be learnt in the corresponding Latin verb. Over-formalising of grammar also obscures the

[page 60]

fact that the English language is a living, growing organism with some specially lively "growing points". One of the liveliest of these is again concerned with some of the very simplest words in the language. The acquisition of fresh meaning by the addition of a preposition to a verb has long been a feature of the language, but it is at the present time evolving in this direction with great rapidity. Many such forms are conversational or even slang; but most will no doubt find their way into accepted speech and writing. Probably 30 years ago no one would have understood the 1946 meanings of such expressions as "get away with something", "to get something over", "something gets you down", "to get in with somebody", "to put something over", "asking for it". This is no doubt part of the general tendency of the language to be impatient of abstractions and verbosity. Contractions, initials, single letters (VE Day), new words made from initials (Ensa, Wrens), all these show that the language is always struggling towards the goal of combining subtlety with simplicity and brevity of form.

235. In English, word order has become more important as inflections have decayed. "Dog bit man", and "man bit dog" would mean exactly the same thing in Latin apart from the case-ending of the noun.

236. Grammar is not a primary means of learning correct English, but an apparatus of criticism; a formalisation of observed tendencies and usages into rules. All such rules are only majority views or generalisations from the best usage; they are not imposed from above by any authority, and of course they are always changing. As the question of grammatical development does not arise for the pupil studying classical Latin and Greek, he naturally and rightly regards his grammar of these languages as completely static and rigid. Over-attention to the formalisation of rules and schemes and terminology in English is not merely dull and uninteresting to the pupil, but gives an entirely misleading notion of the nature of a living language.

237. We recommend accordingly that grammar should not be taught at all under that name in the earlier years of the primary school; that a few necessary and fundamental names like those of the parts of speech should be taught in the later stages; that constant stress should be laid on the position and the function of the word or phrase or clause in the sentence (of which the growing use of nouns as adjectives is an example); and that such simple language studies should be gradually incorporated in the lessons on "Interpretation".

238. Within recent years there have come on the market several series of English books of the "pre-digested" type, where a large number of more or less obvious questions and collateral exercises follow a passage selected for interpretation. Some good teachers, at first attracted by these, have finally found them irritating. The explanation is that after having fulfilled their function of inspiring or giving useful suggestions to the teacher they are no longer required. In such a case the teacher would do well to throw away such crutches when they are no longer needed and frame her own questions and exercises. Such books, however, will always be valuable in rural schools and for individual work if used with discretion.

(5) POETRY

239. While the study of poetry is a part of "comprehension" - and perhaps also of composition - it has special qualities in itself, and a tradition of separate treatment in our Scottish primary schools, which justify special reference in this Report.

240. It has long been a familiar notion in our schools that "poetry" is something to be learnt by heart at home and repeated orally in a more or less

[page 61]

fluent manner in school. It is doubtful whether this performance ever gave more pleasure than pain to either pupil or teacher. It made most children dislike poetry. It taxed memory instead of encouraging appreciation. It imposed one piece of verse - often unsuitable and tediously long - on all the children in a class. The majority of primary teachers have now departed from or modified these practices; but traditions linger long and die hard.

241. We believe that the teachers who are most successful with poetry are those who take account of the natural tastes and interests of children. Adults are well aware that young children enjoy crude noises and sounds for their own sake. But most children can sooner or later develop a sense of rhythm and pattern in their sounds and movements; and so arise music and dancing and poetry. Among primitive people and in early civilisations these three activities have been closely associated. Young children, being themselves a kind of primitive people, enjoy rhythm - words and movement all at the same time. (Even adults sing with least sophistication on the march or in the bath.)

242. The earliest beginnings of verse study in schools, as of music and physical exercises, are therefore naturally to be found in the traditional singing games. These are perhaps the most ancient living survival of an earlier civilisation: some of them, we are told, modified forms of long-since forgotten pagan ritual dances. It is true that many of these are no longer used spontaneously today in our city streets and country lanes; and there are those who regard these as merely antiquarian relics, which, being moribund,

" .... we should not strive
Officiously to keep alive."

243. Movement, rhythm and shouting develop first - words come later. It is natural in such primitive self-expression that words should at first be mumbo-jumbo or just plain nonsense: sound, rhythm and rhyme without coherent meaning, but interspersed with suggestions of sense or inspiration.

244. Certain emotions are latent in children and must be developed by teaching, thought and experience. Teachers should not assume their active existence, nor exploit them prematurely. The children do not understand the killing of people in terms of suffering and bereavement. They are quite cheerful about ruthless rhymes and limericks; they are not a bit sorry for the lady inside of the tiger. But very young children enjoy the regular beat or rhythm of verse, they enjoy repetitions, and they enjoy rhyme, particularly if it is double or triple or of comic effect. Such then should be the materials of the earliest lessons in poetry.

245. But it is of the highest importance that the poetry taught to children should be the best of its kind appropriate to each stage. There is no place at any stage for mere banal narrative or sententious moralising dressed up in metrical lines with rhymed endings. Even poetical nonsense of the right kind has an inner vitality that children can recognise. Poetry being a matter of taste is difficult to define logically; besides having rhythm and pattern it is a special way of saying things which cannot so effectively be conveyed in

[page 62]

prose. For the selection of the suitable pieces from which the children must ultimately make their own selection we must rely on the cultural background and developed taste of the teacher.

246. Good poetry contains secrets that can best be discovered orally. The rhythm and the pattern after all are a direct appeal by the poet to the ear, and the sense of the words is "deeply interfused" with these. Thus while the eye is the normal vehicle for conveying prose writing to the mind, poetry demands from the reader for its full effect some sounding or articulation. The oral pleasure thus derived from a fine appreciation of the sense produces a natural desire for complete possession, independent of the printed text, which can be achieved only by memorising. These are the three delights to which children can be introduced by the study of poetry: delight in the sound, in the sense and in the capacity to recall. These three delights should be constantly kept in mind by the teacher; in no subject can the necessary disciplines be achieved more willingly or more unconsciously.

247. Where the final achievement is oral, it seems natural that the first introduction of a child to a piece of verse should also be oral. We suggest that it should be spoken or read by the teacher before being seen in print by the pupils, in order that they may get a good first impression of the poem as a whole: its mood, rhythm, subject-matter, images and construction. If on the other hand it is first read by the pupil, it is difficult for him to avoid stumblings, crudities and misunderstandings which will lower the tone and value of the whole lesson. After the pupils have heard the poem two or three times, they will take pleasure in repeating, as a class or in sections, first in carefully articulated whispers and then in normal tones. If they do this several times they are well on the way to knowing the poem by heart. They will also have learnt something of the meaning of the poem as a whole. Difficult words and phrases should be discussed incidentally but not exhaustively, nor for any purpose foreign to the appreciation of the poem as a whole. How much this can be done, or need be done, will depend a great deal on the poem itself. It should be no part of the ambition of a teacher that the children should in every sense completely comprehend a poem. Its meaning should be rather conveyed than explained. The poetry lesson is of all lessons the most suitable for training in delicacy - of the ear, of the mind and of the emotions. A poem will give pleasure of different kinds to different people: it will ring varying overtones. Some will like its sound, some will appreciate its narrative or intellectual content, some will enjoy its pictures or metaphors, and others will take pleasure in the feelings it suggests or arouses. These are individual and personal satisfactions, and they may be enriched and multiplied with the passing years as long as the poem or passage is remembered; because its value depends so much on what we ourselves bring to it.

248. The method outlined above will suggest the practice of choral verse speaking that some teachers have used with considerable effect. While always valuable for articulation and rhythm, it may fall short of its full value if the whole effect is externally imposed by the teacher. It should rather develop gradually from the common thoughts and feelings of class and teacher about the most effective interpretation of the poem.

249. The child should have a copy of all the poems to which he is personally attracted. He should from these make at each stage his own little anthology. He may copy them from book or blackboard in as beautiful printing or writing as he can achieve. He may if he likes illustrate them with sketches according to his fancy. But besides that he must be allowed the joy of performance. If a short time is set aside, say on a Friday afternoon, when pupils will be invited

[page 63]

to speak the pieces already done in class (or in a previous class) which they most admire, there will be no lack of enthusiastic and word-perfect volunteers. As a variation classes may be joined for the purpose of mutual entertainment in verse and song. We record with pleasure that as a result of more enlightened teaching the nineteenth-century horror called "elocution" is practically dead, and that children now normally speak verse with a form of expression that naturally derives from the inward pressure of the material upon thought and emotion, and so on voice and features. The saying of a poem should be an experience communicated rather than an attitude shown off.

250. To this pleasure in speaking poetry may be added the further pleasure of writing verse. There are indeed some teachers who believe that this creative approach is the best way of appreciating poetry; but it is open to all teachers at least to encourage their pupils to write simple verses. If this exercise does nothing else, it will ensure the understanding of metre, rhyme and stanza; but it may in some cases reveal capacities for poetical feeling and expression that might otherwise remain undisclosed. Even in a primary school the printing of the best of such efforts in a modest school magazine would be a source of great satisfaction to the authors and naturally not unpleasing to their parents.

251. From observations made under our previous heading, it will appear that we regard poetry and music as being closely related in the primary school curriculum. We noted that singing in its more primitive form was naturally allied to dancing, marching, the rhythms of labour and other forms of rhythmical movement. This early association should never be forgotten: it does not really disappear, but is later sublimated into emotional experiences that have less obvious physical expression.

252. Like many primary school subjects, singing may be regarded as a special kind of fun tempered by a special kind of discipline, If they are to go on enjoying the "fun", pupils must be willing to take pains - or even undertake drudgery - for the desired and accepted purpose.

253. The relation between singing and music is like the relation we have already mentioned between speech and reading. The habit of clear and fluent expression must be established before the children are introduced to the "reading" and the "grammar" of music. They should learn plenty of songs by ear and be able to sing them correctly and spontaneously before they are troubled with scales or technical explanations. In the course of learning these songs they will however already be learning unconsciously certain disciplines - the appreciation of melodies, the learning of words, tone and musical rhythm, time, unity of attack, breath control and the range of their own voices. During the whole of the primary period the building up of a musical vocabulary, a background of delight and experience in songs, is essential before everything else in music. Such "theory" as is specifically taught at the primary stage should be based on tunes already familiar to the pupils.

254. The songs chosen should be of wide variety in style and subject matter. They should be attractive to children, though not necessarily at first hearing. But, as has already been said of poems, they should be the best of their kind. Folk songs and nursery rhymes of this and other countries are among the best material available. They are the highly selective choice of the people themselves over several centuries. Their words and music are closely associated, not only by traditional usage but by their inherent suitability to one another. The words themselves either tell a story or describe a situation deeply embedded

[page 64]

in national life and character. Apart from folk songs there is ample material in loved and familiar melodies from the great composers, including if with some caution the work of modern composers. Material that is trivial, sentimental, commonplace and without abiding quality should be rigidly excluded. Teachers have a duty to children to ensure that their precious and limited learning-time is not mis-spent.

255. The whole body of songs learnt during the primary period should be carefully chosen if for no other reason than that they ought to be a precious and permanent possession of each child. For this reason occasions should be made available for the frequent repetition of all the songs on occasions both formal and informal, and encouragement given to the pupils to sing spontaneously in and out of school and start the songs confidently without help from the teacher or piano. There is nothing more natural than spontaneous singing: and with the decay of the self-conscious drawing-room performance there are signs of a revival of the "ceilidh" or informal song-party. The schools can take a large part in making these popular by training children in the right attitude to singing and supplying them with a store of suitable material. We make this suggestion without prejudice to the need for an adequate supply of pianos in all schools or to the place of the specialist in music: but we would regard it as most unfortunate if a class teacher, even of very modest musical talents, should either feel shut out, or regard herself as relieved, from taking an interest and a share in building up this body of song which is so essential a part of primary education.

256. More attention and thought should be given to school pianos. They should be strongly built and always of good musical quality, and regular arrangements should be made for keeping all pianos in tune, including those in rural and remote schools. In order to increase the number of pianos available in schools, authorities may be reminded that small pianos with a shortened keyboard serve many useful purposes, and are also easily moved.

257. We commend the enterprise of teachers who have developed percussion bands with infants and younger primary pupils, and suggest that the idea might be extended for older pupils to small orchestras or bands with fiddles, recorders, or other instruments.

258. Children should learn to read music in the same way as they learn to read words. Though this task should not be tackled before a good deal of oral experience has been gained, it is of the highest importance. All children - or at least the great majority who have the capacity to do so - should learn to read fluently a musical notation while still at school. Otherwise, they are musically illiterate: they cannot go very far in making musical discoveries for themselves. While we do not think it appropriate in a general report on primary education to discuss in detail the relative merits and place of sol-fa and staff notation, we have heard enough evidence to convince us of the value of the sol-fa system for many people who will probably never be interested in music in the academic sense or as performers on instruments.

259. Set lessons of considerable duration in musical theory do not appear to be either necessary or appropriate at this stage. Illustrative material can be obtained from the songs that are being sung, and a good deal of music may be taught incidentally in short intervals that naturally occur between one song and another.

260. Learning to listen is all-important. In picking up songs by ear, children get practice in listening to simple melodies. But the great importance of ear training consists in the pleasure they can get from listening to music

[page 65]

of a kind and quality that they could not achieve by their own efforts - notably concerted instrumental performances such as string quartets or orchestras: provided always that they are not asked to listen in a concentrated way for too long at a time. The ear can be trained for this purpose in two ways which supplement each other - by frequent repetition and by direct instruction. The best music not only bears but requires frequent repetition. For this purpose the use of the gramophone is essential. The music of the great masters will gradually sink into the minds of even young pupils if frequently repeated formally and informally. Probably at the primary stage direct instruction in musical appreciation should be of the slightest and most casual kind: so important is it at this stage to arouse interest and provide a good background of musical experience. For such a purpose, it is clearly necessary that for each class a gramophone of good quality should be readily available when required, and for the school an ample library of records.

261. For a considerable time children in some of our cities and larger towns have been fortunate in being able to hear actual performances by well-known orchestras. We recommend that education authorities should give financial support to schemes enabling such orchestras to play regularly to school children in all parts of Scotland.

262. The function of school broadcasting in relation to music is rather different. The broadcast lesson may be a substitute for a teacher entirely lacking in musical talent, or it may supply inspiration and new suggestions to teachers who are able to tackle the job themselves. The pupils may also listen to specially selected broadcasts of musical performances. The use of the wireless for the latter purpose, however, appears to be subsidiary to the use of the gramophone, which has the advantage of being completely adaptable as regards time, place and repetition. By its use pupils can be prepared to enjoy musical performances, to become familiar with the classics and to buy the best kind of gramophone records for themselves. Many may also be encouraged to join music clubs and take up for themselves the playing of musical instruments.

263. Apart from the obvious social advantage of singing and musical appreciation both in school years and later life, it has one special advantage over most other school activities - that many pupils of limited intelligence or scholastic attainment have a natural talent for singing. Excellence in singing may therefore be a means of creating self-respect and become a source of pride for an individual or a class or even a school unable to achieve distinctions or a more academic kind.

264. In addition to all these activities, it may be found possible to give those pupils who may have creative gifts an opportunity of making tunes for themselves. As in the case of verse making this will give to all pupils some experience of musical form, and to some a new source of interest and pleasure.

265. Written composition means the placing on paper of words formulated by oneself for some purpose and in the particular form suited for that purpose. It always exercises thought and choice and often imagination. It is always, at highest or lowest levels, a creative art. Why do people write things down? There are three reasons:

(1) To remember things for their own purposes;
(2) To give other people factual information;
(3) To express personality.

[page 66]

(1) A MEANS OF REMEMBERING THINGS

266. It is easy to over-estimate the capacity to recall things without writing them down. Remembering and forgetting are more subject to psychological influences than to the laws of reason. It is therefore safer if less heroic to write down such things as lists of errands, things required for an excursion, inventories, names and addresses, telephone numbers, dates and events and engagements. It may be said that this is not composition; but that would be only on a narrow view of the subject. No one doubts that the efficient keeping of such particulars as the above makes life more pleasant and satisfactory for most people; it increases their own sense of power and makes them more trusted by others. A properly headed and dated list that is clearly self-explanatory is implicit composition. It could be put into sentence form, complete with verbs and connectives; but that is unnecessary and undesirable. We therefore think it is well worth while that the pupils in the higher primary classes should be encouraged to make tidy and efficient lists and to keep personal note books. The composition consists in the power to organise the material. A note book which begins with bare facts may develop through quotations and dated observations into an instrument for the expression and enrichment of personality. The last year or so of the primary stage is a good time for beginning to encourage this valuable habit.

(2) GIVING OTHER PEOPLE FACTUAL INFORMATION

267. Here the angle of approach is different. People may exactly please themselves about what they write down to help their own memories or give themselves pleasure in the future. But now the all-important consideration is that we have to satisfy the minds of others in respect of some particular purpose. This information may be conveyed in two ways, involving different kinds of mental activity on the part of the writer.

268. The first consists in the filling up of forms. We must face the fact that the filling up of forms is an inescapable part of modern civilised life; whether any particular form is necessary at all, or effective for its own special purpose, is another matter. It should be appreciated that forms fulfil one of two purposes and sometimes both of these at the same time. They may require information necessary for dealing with an individual case, or they may ask for a large amount of similar information about different individuals in order to draw some general conclusions for the benefit of the community. In either case the person drawing up the form is in a much better position to ask the exact information he wants than a member of the public to give it without precise instructions - volunteered information being frequently both superfluous and defective. A good form should have clear and brief instructions, and there should be no reasonable doubt about the place for the answer and the precise nature of the answer required; it may indeed be doubted if most makers of forms realise how difficult it is for the ordinary layman to read them. The responsibilities of the person filling up the form are fourfold: to read the whole of the instructions carefully; to make sure that no answer is omitted through oversight; to guard against mistakes due to emotional interference, as in dates of birth or sources of income; and to set down the answers so clearly as to leave no reasonable doubt about their meaning. A form may however for some purposes suffer seriously from the inherent defect of all forms. They are an attempt to impose rigidity on life. There are frequently individual circumstances which cannot be adequately expressed as answers to the questions set. This difficulty is foreseen in some forms by the

[page 67]

addition of a space for remarks. Where no such space is provided it is desirable that the person concerned should add further particulars on the back of the form or on an attached sheet.

269. Where no precise guidance is given about information required, the writer must bring a new quality into action - the quality of imagination. He has to put himself in the position of the possible reader and ask: What information is he likely to want, and how shall I put it down in order that the sense may pass over to him clearly and completely? The answers to these questions will show that a composition of this kind is a construction or work of the mind. A good deal of guidance as to method can therefore be given by the teacher. First, there must be plenty of material to write about. It may be from the child's personal experience, from observation, hearing or reading; and in any case it should usually be discussed beforehand with the class or group doing the composition. Any facilities required for obtaining or checking information, including a dictionary, should remain available to the pupil. Poverty of information is fatal to good composition. Second, there must be some sort of scheme or plan. The whole virtue of a composition is that it has been the subject of preliminary consideration, rather than a rashly-started and haphazardly-ended string of sentences or clauses. This demand for form involves the making of a summary or rough plan of procedure, which in its turn will provide a natural paragraph division. It is only after these two rational processes are completed - the gathering of materials and decision about form - that the composition can be begun; and it should then be a comparatively easy and pleasant task.

270. The subject may be a description of a place or object, an incident or a process. The style will not be conversational, but the easy straightforward prose of simple printed matter. At this point method ends and art begins. There is no single prescribed form of words in which the theme must be treated; each pupil will spontaneously use the language in his own way. But this spontaneity is itself subject to laws of form that must be understood - correctness of grammar, spelling and punctuation. If, as has been already recommended in this Report, the pupil has been adequately grounded in good oral speech, he should "hear" the correct forms so distinctly as to require little grammatical reference. We deal with spelling in a later section.

271. The teaching of punctuation rightly viewed is one of the most difficult and responsible tasks of the primary school teacher when dealing with composition. It is not a question of inserting a few varied dots into a finished composition, whether by the pupils or by the teacher afterwards in correction; it involves the whole business of sentence construction. A child who cannot punctuate properly is not in possession of the chief constructional tool of composition. Punctuation requires careful positive teaching. It is based on several natural facts: that speakers have to pause for breath; that one stops from time to time both to allow an idea to sink in and to think of a new idea; and that one half-interrupts oneself continually with asides, refinements and illustrative detail. The punctuation of the platform speaker can be easily heard and seen. We cannot "hear" the punctuation of written matter unless we read it aloud, which should not be necessary. We therefore depend upon its being so efficiently marked that we can "see" it readily, can measure up in anticipation the material over which the eye is just going to travel. A child cannot begin to understand composition till he has mastered the use of the full stop. It is also necessary, but not difficult, to learn the question mark. How much more should he learn? Surely that depends on

[page 68]

the individual pupil. It is here necessary to say that the natural flow of the child's language should not be restricted by inhibitions about punctuation. We have known of teachers who in order to ensure "correctness" have demanded that all sentences should consist of a single clause. Surely a number of mistakes in punctuation are preferable to this freezing touch upon the child's warm spontaneous utterance. Most children will manage commas quite well - there is anything but unanimity on this subject even among intelligent adults - and a few of the brighter ones will naturally write sentences of sufficient complexity to justify their learning to use semi-colons. In addition, the majority will manage inverted commas to indicate direct speech.

272. Insistence on good punctuation is not a merely academic attitude. The tendency of weaker pupils at the qualifying stage to write a clause or sentence, then put a comma, then another sentence, then a comma, and so on indefinitely, has of recent years spread to certain classes of adult writing, particularly the ephemeral novel; and will if unchecked be ruinous to the structure and dignity of our written language.

273. It is sometimes difficult to strike a balance between form and spontaneity. One thing however is certain: that niggling and endlessly repeated criticism and detailed marking of individual mistakes are both a waste of time and temper and a psychological blunder. The pupil will gradually grow out of certain mistakes and should be allowed to do so. As for others, it is the job of the teacher to analyse them carefully. If they are common to a group of pupils, the need of positive teaching is indicated. If they are peculiar to one child, his attention should be drawn to them privately.

(3) EXPRESSING PERSONALITY

274. The teaching of composition in the primary school should have no conscious "literary" purpose. It is enough to find out what forms of expression the child finds natural, convenient and useful. Of these we do not think that the traditional "essay" is one. A broken-down form of the medieval "thesis", it suffers from lack of definite form and objective; no type of treatment derives necessarily from the title, and one never knows when one has finished. To give out a subject for an "essay" is a temptingly easy alternative to a well thought out composition lesson; but the familiar result is aimless writing of vague platitudes in woolly phrases. The setting of "essays" in the primary school surely belongs to the period of educational theory when it was supposed one could incidentally learn something useful by devoting special attention to something useless. Only a trifling percentage of the population ever have occasion in their later lives to write anything that could be described as an essay.

275. What nearly everybody writes, whether from need or choice. is letters: business letters or personal letters. The business letter belongs rather to our previous category of factual written matter; but we may here stress the characteristic virtues of a good business letter. It should be clear and concise, careful in spelling, grammar and punctuation, simple and unpretentious in language. Pupils at all stages should be assured that there should be no such thing as "business" English ("re yours of even date to hand"); and that the safest and most sensible way to mention a date is not to use "ult." or "curt." or "inst." or "prox.", but just to write down the date. The proper choice of paper and envelopes, and the neglected art of addressing envelopes, should be familiar to all pupils before they leave the primary school.

276. The personal letter is almost the only kind of independent literary composition done by nine-tenths or more of our adult population; and moreover

[page 69]

it is done regularly and frequently by the great majority. To write letters is irksome to many; but to receive letters is normally a pleasure to all. On the other hand, the neglect of writing or replying to letters has broken many a friendship, and severed many a family tie. Apart therefore from the suitability of the form, practice in letter writing and the formation of good letter-writing habits have a considerable social value. What is a suitable form will appear from the following considerations. Anyone from seven to seventy or over is capable of writing an interesting letter, and one which no other person could write. The audience is a chosen and generally a willing audience; it is also a private audience. The writer can "get his talk out" without being interrupted. The addressing of a special audience encourages expansiveness, and sharpens thoughts and expressions. If the writer has the personality of the addressee clearly in his mind, his matter and manner will be influenced accordingly; and thus variety of style will arise. The endless variety of possible topics in a letter encourages the art of forming paragraphs. Bantering and good-humour are easy in a letter, where one can be reasonably assured of the prosperity of the jest. Again, a good literary style is not necessarily associated with great learning; many simple people can write delightfully, though not always with formal correctness. While some people seem to be inhibited as soon as they take pen in hand, others are able to give adequate expression to their personality: and there are even some who achieve on paper a power and variety of self-expression which are conspicuously absent in their spoken words.

277. To give everybody the training and habit of writing spontaneously, two things seem to be necessary. (1) In this form of composition there should be great respect on the part of the teacher for the privacy of the writer - observations should be made orally and privately, and extracts should not normally be read for the delectation of the class. (2) Considerable latitude should be allowed in spelling, grammar, familiar language and punctuation. These things will improve gradually and naturally as the child develops (surely no one would wish the writings of Marjorie Fleming to be "corrected"!).

278. As regards the "subject" of the letter, great freedom should also be allowed. The letter should fundamentally be a letter to a known person about things likely to interest that person, not a letter to anyone on a prescribed subject. Everybody who writes personal letters - and that is literally everybody - feels that there is a kind of baldness or rudeness in writing a letter on a single topic. Most people camouflage the main topic by personal contacts both preliminary and valedictory - to say nothing of those whose main motive appears only in the postscript. Therefore, while hints about subjects may well be given, the need for variety of topics within the same letter should be recognised.

279. The preparation for writing a letter is not the same for a narrative or a descriptive statement, and is indeed much simpler. The pupil should first think of the person to whom the letter is to be written, and then make for reference a list of incidents or pieces of information which that person might like to hear about. The making of such a list should not spoil the spontaneous flow of the letter, but would help in avoiding the distressing baldness and conventionality that so often disappoint people eagerly awaiting news from their relatives. We suggest that as far as possible such letters written by pupils should be real letters and actually posted.

280. The practice of having pen friends in the Dominions or U.S.A. may well be begun in the higher classes of the primary school.

[page 70]

(1) SPELLING

281. One must accept, if with some regret, complete rigidity in the spelling of English words. While vocabulary and pronunciation unceasingly develop and change, our conventional spelling is lifeless and embalmed. If a word has changed in pronunciation since the present spelling was established, the difficulty of pronouncing it when written or writing it when spoken has naturally increased. Sometimes a mistaken spelling, particularly of proper names, has actually led to the acceptance of a new and false pronunciation. Rigidity in spelling has also led to the conception of absolute rightness, which of course is not applicable to spelling as it is to the multiplication table. When this convention did not exist, as in Shakespeare's time, a considerable latitude was allowed and practised even by the best educated people. Perhaps even today the importance of correct spelling is overstressed. Those whose business it is to read letters from people of a wide social and educational range find that those most difficult to decipher are usually from the best-educated people, and that those from the poorly-educated are usually, in spite of defects in grammar, punctuation and spelling, crystal-clear in their essential meaning. An illegible word is a greater sin against one's neighbour than a misspelt word or a grammatical blunder. This is, however, not the place for discussing spelling changes, whether by conscious "reform" or a wider acceptance of alternative forms. That is an international question not to be settled in the classrooms of one of the smallest English-speaking or English-using nations. It is significant that in the United States, where meanings and pronunciations have deviated considerably from English practice, the deviations in spelling are neither significant nor impressive, and have themselves become stereotyped.

282. Spelling is for the great majority of people an "eye" subject. After the early stages of reading, when the association between word and symbol has been completely established, it is only the "look" of the word that has any importance: a word is never vocalised unless one has not seen it before and wants to fix the sound in case it is met orally on some future occasion. The memorising of the "look" of a word, however, does not give the majority of people a picture so clear and precise as to enable them to reproduce automatically its exact spelling. Words, like people, are recognised not by full inventory, but by the very minimum of characteristic detail that will serve the purpose. Rapid reading, while establishing to the eye the general shape of words, does not of itself give precision in spelling them. The detailed study of a passage for comprehension should therefore include the careful examination and writing down of all words that present some difficulty and are at the same time a useful addition to the child's vocabulary. As the need to spell words depends entirely on the writing vocabulary that any child is likely to use in later life, the study of word-frequency is of supreme importance. It is an educational sin to burden a child with a thousand difficult words of which he may never feel called upon to write a dozen in his lifetime. The amount and kind of spelling should be graded to the capacity of individual children or at least small groups. It is better that a child should have a small vocabulary that he can write confidently and correctly than struggle wastefully with words beyond the horizon of his intelligence.

283. We recommend accordingly:

(1) That the teaching of spelling should as far as possible be through the eye rather than the ear.
(2) That account be taken of the capacity and needs of individual pupils, so that a single standard of achievement is never exacted from a whole class.

[page 71]

(3) That frequency lists already published be made available to all teachers, and modified where necessary for Scottish use.
(4) That conclusions regarding methods of teaching spelling already established by research be brought to the notice of all primary teachers, and that the Scottish Council undertake any further research that may be required.

(2) DICTATION

285. This leads us to a short consideration of that variant of the spelling lesson which is known as dictation. One advantage of this lesson is that pupils are made to listen carefully to the general sense as well as to the particular words. This advantage is, however, subject to several limitations. The fact that the teacher normally reads the passage over rapidly at beginning and end suggests the obvious fact that most pupils cannot concentrate at the same time on words and sense. There are differences in hearing ability among pupils, and many with slight defects; and there are also differences in acoustical position in the classroom. The pupils may by practice "hear" one teacher readily but be handicapped by a new voice. Further, the capacity to hear single words as well as the general sense of a passage is not widely needed or practised except vocationally by shorthand writers and proof-readers.

286. Another use of dictation is that attention is drawn to the spelling of words used in a particular context. It is doubtful however whether it is worth while doing so much to learn so little. An activity of this kind extended to a whole class is grossly wasteful of the time of half the class - those nearest the top and those nearest the bottom of the intelligence scale.

287. The claim that pupils can "make a shot at" words they have never heard before has a certain justification, but takes no account of the divergence of so much English spelling from any consistent phonetic system.

288. Perhaps the greatest advantage that can be claimed for the dictation lesson is that it gives the pupil practice in punctuating a passage for himself. But so much objection is taken by teachers to this exercise on the ground that it is too difficult for children of average ability at this stage, that the punctuation is frequently supplied by the reader of the passage.

289. On the whole issue we take the view that much of the time usually devoted to dictation could be more usefully employed in other ways. Dictation partakes more of the nature of a test, or a preparation for a test, than of an educational study; and when given at all, should be so regarded. What we have said. however, should not be taken as detracting from the value of a limited amount of transcription in the lower classes.

290. Questions about the place of Scottish traditions in the Scottish educational system have been brought to our notice in two ways: negatively

[page 72]

in the form of objections to the encroachment and acceptance of English ideas and procedure; and positively in the demand that more attention should be given in the schools to Scottish history, literature, music and ways of life. We have therefore felt that it was within our remit to give serious consideration to this matter.

291. While not wishing to touch the general problem of nationality - far less to discuss political nationalism, which is quite beyond our sphere - we have found, because of the close association that exists, and the even closer association that ought to exist, between education and the life of the community, that this problem cannot be discussed with reference to the school alone. It is therefore necessary to begin by discussing the place and value of Scottish traditions in general.

292. Scotland is one part of an island that has a great deal in common as regards history, habit of mind and the ordinary affairs of life. The major racial distinction is not between north and south but between the whole main part of the island and its western fringe. There has been a common citizenship since 1603 and a single economic and political structure since 1707. The Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries altered the balance of population in Scotland and profoundly modified the outlook and circumstances of its people. Machinery took no account of frontiers, and industrial development had little regard to local sentiment; old landmarks were ruthlessly destroyed, and old customs and ways of life were regarded with contempt. Southern speech and manners, often acquired at boarding schools in the English tradition, seemed to smooth the way to personal advancement. Scottish sentiment largely degenerated into sentimentality. It might have seemed that "Scotland" and "Scottish" had no further significance than as geographical expressions.

293. But the position today is not quite like this; and it is likely to be still more different in the future. Apart from coteries or minority movements, it would be reasonable to say that Scottish national feeling is probably more wide-awake at the present day than at any time since the Union of the Parliaments. It is, however, not a movement of antagonism to England but a growing determination that Scotland should not be submerged, ignored or treated as a "province" or a "region".

294. This revival of Scottish feeling is based on a new understanding of the factors that are of permanent significance in the life of a nation. Today perhaps for the first time in history it is practicable to view the whole of mankind as a single family, members one of another, and interdependent; and to assume that the benefits conferred by inventors, discoverers, pioneers and prophets are for the use and enjoyment of all. But along with this greater feeling of community there is growing also a wider recognition of the claims of diversity. The world has rejected with terrible emphasis the proposition that it will be organised on a German or a Japanese model. It is beyond either hope or fear that every country will permanently organise its political and social life even on a British or American or Russian model. The fundamental international problem of today is to induce every state not merely to acquiesce but to rejoice in the fact that other states want to arrange their political affairs and ways of life to suit themselves, provided only that they do this without disparagement or danger to others. It should not be thought surprising that true co-operation not only permits but demands diversity. There are differences of latitude, temperature, rainfall, geology, physical features, coastline, vegetation, communications, racial character and historical background that inevitably cause life to be lived in a great variety of ways in different parts of the earth.

[page 73]

295. Montaigne thought it strange that every man should be contented with the place where nature had settled him, and that the "savage people of Scotland" should prefer their own land to Touraine. People living on any spot of earth usually want to stay there, and without interference from outside to maintain their own characteristic way of life. That all peoples should be indifferent wanderers on the face of the earth, rootless and homeless, with standardised food, customs, tools, language, thoughts and amusements, is a prospect too dismal for contemplation. If it be granted, then, that every country has the right to live its own life, and the privilege of making its own contribution to the life of other peoples, it is surely reasonable to consider, as we propose to do under several headings, what characteristics are typically Scottish and what contribution Scotland has to offer in the present or in the future to the world in general.

296. From the eleventh century, and very consciously from the end of the thirteenth century, Scotland was a politically independent nation. Wallace and Bruce were amongst the earliest of European heroes who led a nation in defence of their own soil. The declaration of Arbroath in 1320 -

"So long as a mere hundred of us stand, we will never surrender to the dominion of England. What we fight for is not glory nor wealth nor honour, but freedom, that no good man yields save with life."

297. The Scots were "good Europeans". The English frontier being usually closed and always dangerous, the trade routes of Scotland went from west to east across the country to ports trading with Norway and Sweden, the Baltic ports, the Low Countries and France. Scots abroad were known as men of learning, merchants and soldiers of fortune; and they carried their national character with them.

298. Democratic self-government was developed at an early stage in Scottish history and has in one form or another remained an unbroken tradition. Many forces conspired against the satisfactory solution of the problem of a suitable system of national government: external war, the difficulties of communication, the power of local chiefs and the early deaths of her most capable rulers; but a system of free local government, democratic and stable in character, developed from the twelfth century onwards in the Royal Burghs, and was later extended to others. No one who reads their records over several centuries can fail to be impressed with the characteristics shown therein of tolerance, common sense, justice and zeal for upholding the rights of the burgesses and of the community as a whole. The sagacious rule of the unarmed bailies and provosts and the high sense of civic duty of the burgesses are insufficiently known and appreciated because their doings were seldom dramatic or spectacular. Yet it was from this background of civic experience that the pioneers of the Scottish reformation extended church government on a democratic basis from the towns over the whole country.

299. Scotland has contributed her full quota of those men who have benefited not only their own country but all mankind by their contributions

[page 74]

in the realms of thought and action and material progress - in engineering, invention, medicine, economics, philosophy, geographical discovery, literature and the arts of government. Following these great men there marches an army of more humble practitioners of these activities who have upheld the name of Scotland in all parts of the world.

300. Behind these traditions and achievements, and largely responsible for shaping and bringing them about, there are certain moral and intellectual characteristics which have been identified by foreigners during the centuries as typically Scottish. In a memorandum. prepared for us on the subject, the Saltire Society have given us a reasoned catalogue of such characteristics; and we summarise these, not as boasting nor as suggesting that they have ever been present in all individuals or in all ages, but as indicating the reputation that Scotland has achieved as a nation and should endeavour to cherish and maintain in the future.

(1) Pride: the personal pride of which the legendary figure of Sir Patrick Spens is typical, and which gave currency on the Continent to the proverb "fier comme un Ecossais"; and the decent national pride in everything that is worthy in our long tradition.
(2) National liberty, first achieved in the days of Wallace and Bruce, of which G. M. Trevelyan says; "A new ideal and tradition of wonderful potency was brought into the world; it had no name then, but now we should call it democratic patriotism."
(3) Integrity of thought and character, including personal reliability and honesty of craftsmanship.
(4) Personal and intellectual independence.
(5) Generosity and kindliness.
(6) Adventurousness.
(7) Freedom from class-consciousness.

301. There is indeed a serious danger that these traditional characteristics may be either despised or forgotten, or replaced by traditions of a shabby and degrading kind. It is surely wrong that a proud and ancient race should complacently suffer itself to be caricatured at home and abroad as a type of meanness, smugness or maudlin sentimentality. There is a kind of tolerance which is no virtue, either in an individual or in a nation.

302. We have now to consider by what methods these traditions and characteristics can be impressed on the children in our Scottish schools.

(1) THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

303. Scotland has a high educational reputation to maintain. There are those who whisper that this reputation has been lost, or is in danger of being lost. This has not been proved, and indeed it would be difficult to find real evidence to prove it. But complacency, if it exists anywhere at the present time, is unwise and unhelpful. The times demand that our fine old traditions be fitted to wider purposes.

304. Our educational system is not always understood south of the Border. Any temporary opprobrium that may in England attach to "Council" schools does not exist in Scotland. There is no native tradition of "public" or boarding or preparatory schools. Our public schools are day schools, whether primary or secondary. These are not nineteenth century innovations, but have an

[page 75]

ancient national tradition behind them, dating from the Reformation or long before. Some of our day secondary schools in the Burghs have many centuries of continuous history, having unbroken records of up to eight hundred years. Over 97 per cent of the children in Scotland attend schools under the direct control of the education authorities or receiving grants from the Secretary of State. It may fairly be claimed therefore that the Scottish system of education is both democratic and national.

305. Some of our witnesses have expressed the regret, which is widely felt, at the decrease in size and prestige of many of our rural schools, and that "the country schoolmaster, with all that he once meant to the community, is rapidly disappearing." Here it must be plainly stated that education authorities have to be realistic. Just as the decay of rural Scotland in the past century was due to well-understood economic causes, and not at all to the lack of good education in the parish schools, the rehabilitation of rural Scotland could not be effected by setting up in every small area fully equipped and adequately staffed schools. None are more anxious than those who have the welfare of Scottish education at heart - Department, authorities and teachers alike - that the rural areas of Scotland should have a large and thriving population. But this can be achieved only through a widely planned national policy, in which education will take a responsible and generous part. Such, it must be recognised, is the spirit and the promise of the 1945 Act.

(2) LANGUAGE

306. Scotland, with the exception of the Highlands and Western Islands, is one part of the native home of the language which is called English. That language was never confined to the geographical area of England. Indeed it was the tribes more specifically called Angles who settled in North-East England and East Scotland. Of the three main early forms of English, Northern English was the language of court and culture and everyday life in the Kingdom of Scotland. This is one of the reasons why we have proclaimed it as the first duty of every school to give every child its rightful heritage of good English speech. But it by no means follows that this good standard English should be the English of London and the southern counties of England. We were reminded by witnesses of the statement of Robert Bridges that standard English as spoken by educated people in Scotland is "a firmer and cleaner form than the Southern English of today". As in other spheres of civilised life, we accept variety of form not merely because it is inevitable but because it is a pleasant thing in itself. We welcome the variety of good standard English as spoken by people from Yorkshire, Cornwall and Virginia as well as Scotland - "stained with the variation of each soil".

307. There is of course a difficulty. We cannot recapture the fine "Scottis" of the courts of James IV and V - the language of Dunbar, Henryson and Gavin Douglas. The more Southern English of the authorised version of the Bible had a tremendous effect in Scotland. The greater mingling of Scots and English during the Reformation and especially after 1603, and the removal of the Court to London, further helped to make the Scottish form of English unfashionable. In the eighteenth century Scottish men of letters like David Hume made a point of eliminating from their published works all Scottish expressions and turns of speech. The only "Scots" that retained real and widespread vitality was the rural or peasant speech which became a literary vehicle as in the the dialect poems of Burns. Today it remains the homely, natural and pithy everyday speech of country and small-town folk in Aberdeenshire and adjacent counties, and to a lesser extent in other parts outside the great industrial areas. But it is not the language of "educated" people anywhere, and could not be described as a suitable medium of education or culture. Elsewhere, because

[page 76]

of extraneous influences it has sadly degenerated, and become a worthless jumble of slipshod ungrammatical and vulgar forms, still further debased by the intrusion of the less desirable Americanisms of Hollywood.

308. Against such unlovely forms of speech masquerading as Scots we recommend that the schools should wage a planned and unrelenting campaign. Any attempt at improvement by detailed criticism would in our opinion be futile. A bolder and more positive policy is needed. As we have indicated earlier in the Report the first duty of the infant teachers, and the continuing duty of all primary teachers, is to implant and cultivate fluent speech in standard English.

309. In the higher classes of the primary school - say in the last three years - we recommend that a short but definite weekly period should be set aside exclusively for Scottish traditions and language, including the reading and recital of verse and prose, telling of stories and the discussion of typically Scottish words, phrases and proverbs. Familiarity with this world of homely Scots should be a suitable introduction to the study of Scottish literature, which should have a definite place in every secondary course. The giving of a separate period in the primary school seems, however, to be necessary to give this study a dignity of its own, instead of the casual and apologetic treatment; if not neglect, from which it so often suffers.

(3) LITERATURE

310. As children are being trained to speak and write in what is emphatically their own English language, it follows that by far the greater part of their attention should be concentrated on English Literature. They should be reminded that while they share this literature with English-speaking people all over the world they have something that is peculiarly their own. As regards Scots verse and prose already in existence, it is of importance to insist on standards of taste and quality. The mere fact that Scots dialect is being used, or is pretended to be used, should not involve the acceptance of material that is in itself mediocre, pretentious, sentimental or vulgar. Good Scots prose and verse can still be written; but the future prospects of literary composition in Scots dialect depend largely on the existence of an intelligent public willing to give it appreciation and encouragement. We therefore recommend that the production of anthologies of Scots verse and prose for schools should be encouraged, that the pieces should be carefully chosen for their intrinsic value, and that recent work of good quality should be included. Such anthologies might also include a selection of proverbs, many of which are of great pith and epigrammatic force, and vividly reflect the character and conditions of life of old Scotland. At every stage of the secondary school there should be included in the scheme of work in English provision for the study of appropriate examples of Scottish literature. In particular we believe that every child in the younger classes should be familiar with our unique ballad literature, and that senior pupils should be at least as familiar with Dunbar, Henryson and Gavin Douglas as they are with Chaucer.

311. In drawing attention to the Scottish National Dictionary, on which so much good work has already been done, we express the view that it will be of great value to Scottish schools - but only if it is regarded as a guide to living study rather than a mausoleum.

(4) MUSIC

312. Schools in future will be judged less by the criteria of success which they have set up for themselves than by what their pupils are able to "carry

[page 77]

over" to the outside world. Judged by this standard, which is not unreasonable in relation to modern definitions of education, the teaching of Scottish songs in our schools cannot be claimed to have been very successful.

313. Scotland has a great heritage of folk song: dignified, tender, humorous, mournful and full of the love and loyalties and intimacies that lie deep in the national character. Yet much of this heritage is unexplored and very little cultivated. These songs in their great number and variety must have come from a people that loved not only to sing but to make songs. Today we could not be called a singing people. Only a few hackneyed songs are known at all by any ordinary gathering of people, and these not the best, nor even accurately remembered. There is little feeling for quality: little discrimination between the first rate, the reasonably good and the contemptible rubbish - without a trace of national musical character - that often passes today for Scottish song.

314. It would take us too far from our general purpose in this Report to analyse the complex causes of this regrettable decay. That it has taken place is a matter of general observation, and was also the unanimous opinion of our witnesses. Equally unanimous, however, was the opinion that the position is by no means past remedy, and that practical measures can be taken to restore to the next generations a knowledge and love of the old songs of their native land. As was suggested above, the objective is at once bold and simple: that when occasion arises, any gathering large or small of Scottish people should without painful reference to the printed page, or dependence on a musical instrument, sing spontaneously and confidently a reasonable body of the best of their own traditional airs. These airs are still beloved by a considerable number of people, and warmly appreciated when they do happen to be sung. They are by no means museum pieces. All that is needed is a systematic scheme for restoring them to public currency. Without such a revival and such a foundation Scotland will never become a singing or creatively musical people.

315. We recommend therefore:

(1) That as a definite policy in all Scottish schools the children from the earliest years should learn by ear a considerable number of the best Scottish folk tunes and also be thoroughly familiar with at least several verses of the words; that they should be accustomed to sing them without piano accompaniment; and that they should be encouraged and given opportunities to sing them spontaneously and naturally both in and out of school; and that so long as a good singing tone is maintained, the children should not be unduly troubled with details of musical technique or expected to reach meticulous precision of performance.

(2) That a responsible body such as the Saltire Society should undertake the publication of a widely representative collection of the best Scottish songs, giving the words and music (the melody in both notations) which could be published at a reasonable price in a large edition for school and general use. Such a collection should include Gaelic airs; and we also suggest some of the finest psalm tunes (in harmony) by Scottish composers, including a few of the lovely precentor-led tunes still sung in some Highland churches.

[page 78]

music - bagpipes, fiddle, melodeon, and even the mouth organ. In the past there were Scottish dominies [teachers] who used the fiddle as a means of instruction in Scottish songs and dances, and there seems no reason why this excellent tradition should not be revived.

(5) DANCING

317. During the last generation, owing largely to the efforts of the Scottish Folk Dancing Society, there has been a considerable revival of interest in the large and varied body of traditional folk dances belonging to this country. There are now few schools in Scotland where some at least of the old dances and singing games are not taught either by the class teacher or the visiting teacher of physical education. We recommend that this revival be encouraged and extended, subject to one provision only. While they must be accurately known, they should not be taught merely as physical exercises, or with too solemn and careful precision, but as a joyous recreation which the children may be induced to transfer from gymnasium to playground and retain in memory and practice for their own pleasure in later life. In this matter we should also avoid being too parochial. It is a primary duty to teach the Scottish folk dances, but these should later be supplemented by dances of a similar kind from England and by the many delightful varieties from several European countries.

(6) HISTORY

318. Scottish history is by no means neglected in our schools; but both method and emphasis appear to us to be mistaken. It not infrequently takes the form of a chronological survey, giving up to 1603 or 1745 much attention to trivial anecdotage and dead controversies, and for the last two centuries an insipid and perfunctory summary. The child will quickly draw from any textbook based on these principles the reasonable conclusion that the history of Scotland from 1745 does not matter. Superficially, and especially as regards politics, diplomacy and war there is a semblance of truth in this idea. But seven-eighths of a country's history is, like an iceberg, beneath the surface. Scotland since 1745 has changed enormously, in population, communications, industry, outlook and manner of life. This modern Scotland is the land that the children of today and tomorrow have to live in and should therefore know and understand. As we have in our sections on Nature Study and on History already emphasised the importance of beginning from the actual environment of the child, it requires only to be mentioned here that such a method will not only give him a grasp of present-day Scottish life, but also a motive for getting to know the historic background of the life of his native land, and also something of the long story of human development. Regarded in this way, Scottish history is not merely a collection of romantic episodes suited only for the primary school but a study that should be seriously and systematically continued in the secondary school. Only in this way can pupils get a background of knowledge adequate to enable them to take an intelligent. interest or active part in the public life of their native country.

319. We may under this heading draw attention to the local festivals that are a feature of the civic life of many of our Scottish burghs. Some of these, like the Common Ridings of the Border towns, are of immemorial antiquity. Others are revivals of ancient festivals; and several more have been instituted on similar lines as picturesque celebrations designed to arouse and focus local patriotism. We commend these movements, which were increasing in number and popularity in the period before the last war, not merely or even principally as gala days for children, but as a time of celebration and commemoration for the whole community. The ancient practice of riding the marches was of course

[page 79]

not confined to the Border burghs and a few others; they were at one time an annual civic duty in other towns, including Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow. (In this connection we have noted with great interest the revival this year of the riding of the Edinburgh marches for the first time in 225 years.) There are few of our burghs, large or small, that have not a special local date or historic event that might form the nucleus of such a celebration. If carefully and competently planned such festivals may do much to revive the corporate spirit of the community. Local songs and traditions should be collected, published and become familiar to all from their school days. The festival should be the occasion of an annual holiday spent by the citizens in their own town, when visitors will be welcomed and exiled natives will find it a pleasure to return to the scenes of their childhood.

(7) GEOGRAPHY

320. There is no real antithesis between travel at home and abroad. Who loves the one will usually love the other. Everything depends on the spirit in which one sets out. It is possible to go from Dan to Beersheba, or from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Galloway and find all barren. Geography is essentially a field study, and a preparation for real or imaginative travelling. We have already emphasised the importance of planned excursions, and do so again in this place because of the importance of giving young people a chance to visit and appreciate unfamiliar parts of their native land. The powers of the education authorities are wide enough to enable them to co-operate in hostel schemes and provision for exchange of pupils or classes. Such excursions and exchanges should of course not be confined to "beauty spots" but should give a pupil a chance of learning something about the industries and ordinary living conditions and historic monuments in other parts of his native land.

(8) ARTS AND CRAFTS

321. We need add only a short note to what has already been said under the general headings of Handwork and Art in this Report. There is no cry more insistent throughout Scotland today than the demand for new industries. It is too often assumed that these will fall from the sky or come from somewhere else on the initiative of some individual or corporation or the State itself. All the great businesses and industries we know began originally in a small corner from the initiative of an individual or a group of individuals. Scotsmen in the past have been prominent in showing such initiative, and it is not too much to suggest that self-help and enterprise are still typical Scottish qualities. A considerable part of Scotland is not so well suited for industry on a mass production scale as for small and characteristic local industries, in which labour forms a large percentage of the cost and quality is an important consideration. Though a good many have disappeared, we still have a considerable number of small industries of this kind scattered over the country. If these are to be cherished and developed, and older crafts revived, there must be a close association between the industries and the schools. Without knowledge there can be no pride, and pride in craftsmanship is an important element in publicity and commercial success. We do not suggest for a moment that the school should be a forcing house for apprentices. But we believe that the industry of the district should wherever possible be reflected in the crafts of the school. Apart from other advantages direct and indirect of such a policy, many who will never enter the industry will be better educated by getting insight into at least one industrial process. If they are still living in the same community they will be able to give the industry more intelligent understanding and support from outside; if they make their home elsewhere they will become conscious or unconscious publicity agents for the industry and craftsmanship of their native place.

[page 80]

(9) THE GAELIC TRADITION

322. The question of Gaelic studies has been too exclusively regarded as affecting only the "Celtic fringe" of Scotland, and the language that of a scattered and diminishing remnant.

323. We suggest a different attitude. This was the language of the whole land before a word of English was ever spoken in it. Any large scale map of the Highlands or the Western Isles bristles with names of mountain, stream and glen that seem strange and foreign to the lowlander but were bestowed long ago by the ancient race whose homes were there.

324. Even in the lowlands the great majority of the hills and streams have Celtic names. In varying amounts there must be Celtic blood in most native Scots, though they know not a word of Gaelic; and so too perhaps some little-suspected Celtic element in their character. People poor in this world's goods, and living somewhat apart from the main stream of civilisation, tend to maintain in their primitive life the dreams and thoughts and arts of an earlier age; and this is true of Gaelic Scotland. We think it is worth while cherishing this language and culture, not merely for those who are born into it, but for the sake of the rest of Scotland. We therefore recommend that all Scottish children should learn something of Gaelic life and legends and traditions. Some pupils as they grow older may wish to learn the Gaelic language and read its literature; and for these, opportunities at selected schools may one day be provided. As for the Gaelic-speaking areas themselves, we recommend that all possible steps be taken to get an adequate number of Gaelic-speaking teachers and an ample supply of suitable class books and texts in the Gaelic language.

(10) BROADCASTING

325. Broadcasting in Scotland raises the same sort of problem as we have already discussed in connection with education generally. Scottish people are deeply concerned in the life and affairs of Great Britain as a whole; they cannot cut adrift or become parochial. But there is something specially their own that they want to preserve - not merely dialect or songs or news or local customs, but a Scottish way of looking at life and events and reacting to them. How far this involves special broadcasting arrangements for Scotland is a matter beyond our province. We desire, however, to record our appreciation of much that the B.B.C. has done. In the broadcasts for Scottish schools there is close co-operation with the teachers. The B.B.C. themselves, under the guidance of their Scottish staff, have made sporadic but not inconsiderable efforts to popularise Scottish music and other forms of culture: they have not infrequently brought Scottish speech and customs and social life in different areas before the microphone; and they have given an opportunity to many typical Scots to state their views about public affairs. If the public of Scotland become more conscious of their independent traditions, and more insistent on getting the fullest opportunity to develop their own economic and cultural life, they will inevitably demand the corresponding development of a Scottish broadcasting system.

(11) CULTURAL AGENCIES

326. Among the many recent efforts and movements that have had as their purpose the re-awakening of the Scottish spirit, none has been more significant than the Saltire Society. During the ten years of its life it has already accomplished much by meetings, publications, exhibitions and in the co-ordination and focussing of public opinion. It has succeeded remarkably in being Scottish but not nationalistic, widely inclusive in membership but with

[page 81]

well-defined objectives, cultural without being "precious", and thoroughly practical in concerning itself with good architecture and the industrial future of Scotland. We express the hope that in many ways the activities and influence of the Society may extend to the revival of the best type of Scottish traditions in the schools.

327. We also commend the work of the Arts Council in bringing good music, pictures and plays to many parts of Scotland which have never before had such opportunities. We hope that education authorities will assist them to play a considerable part in fostering the development of the Arts in Scotland, and in particular in giving encouragement to such enterprises as the repertory theatres which are at present making a significant effort to establish a native dramatic tradition in Scotland.

328. The word "school" in its fullest sense implies the existence not only of a building, not only of pupils and teachers, but also of some sort of organisation or government. (The one-teacher school is a special case which will be discussed later.) In this respect it is not different, superficially at least, from any workshop, office or business where a number of people are employed. But there is in fact an important difference. The school does not "make" anything or "sell" anything, nor can it produce a balance sheet or declare a dividend: its results cannot be estimated materially or financially or even in certificates gained and scholarships won. The real "results" are subtly woven into the subsequent history of individuals and communities. Short-term "results" in examinations or on playing fields, while they may be a source of legitimate satisfaction at the time, should never be mistaken for the abiding purpose of the school, which is to produce good individuals and citizens. The most essential qualities of a good headmaster are therefore not merely those of a good foreman or works manager.

329. In this Report as in others we have dwelt upon the importance of regarding a school staff as a "team". What then are the characteristics of a good team? Surely these include the spirit of co-operation, the contribution of individual gifts to the common effort, the acceptance of colleagues with whom one may have imperfect sympathies, some momentum and sense of direction and pride in being a member of the team. No member of a school staff can aim at being entirely "independent". Freedom is possible only in subordination to the common purpose and policy of the school.

331. What is the proper conception of the relationship between a headmaster and the rest of the staff? Certainly not that of a dictatorship. The members of a school staff, speaking generally, are all of a certain order of intelligence and of similar training; some may have academic distinctions superior to those of the headmaster. It is extremely unlikely, in a staff of any size, that the headmaster will have gifts and capacities superior in every respect to those of every member of his staff. It is moreover desirable that the reign of law, understood and accepted, rather than individual whim should prevail inside a school as in the world outside. But the most cogent reason of all is that the school is engaged upon what is essentially a spiritual enterprise. The domination of a school by one individual is incompatible with the self-respect and psychological freedom that every teacher requires if she is to

[page 82]

develop the characters of her pupils in an atmosphere that is cheerful and without fear. A headmaster will be successful with his staff through the capacity to inspire rather than the power to dominate. The headmaster must accept responsibility for all decisions and when necessary make them himself; within the school his must be the last word. But school staffs, like other human groups, are at their happiest when the last word is not needed and remains unsaid.

332. The distinction of function between a headmaster and other members of the staff is more important than the distinction of status. We have already mentioned that the most important person in the educational organisation is the class-teacher. Some who have the qualities of a great teacher have made indifferent headmasters. We welcome the doctrine which appears to underlie the Teviot Scales* that a satisfying career is open to a man or woman in the vocation of teaching without the need, for reasons of finance or prestige, of seeking a post as headmaster. The practice it may be hoped has disappeared for ever of having a "head" with a comparatively large salary in charge of a number of "assistants" with meagre pittances. No headmaster should ever forget that he is primarily and above all a teacher and that his main functions are professional rather than administrative.

(1) QUALITIES AND FUNCTIONS OF A GOOD HEADMASTER

333. Some of the qualities and functions of a good headmaster may now be considered - but always subject to the wide variety of gifts that may make different people successful in their own way, and to the varied functions they may be called on to perform in different situations.

334. We believe the most important qualities of a headmaster to be summed up in the word "wisdom". There is however no ready recipe for this quality, because it is compounded of an innate capacity developed by culture, knowledge of human nature, delicacy of feeling and professional experience.

335. He must be able to get the best out of his staff - to persuade and encourage them to stir "up the gift of God that is within them"; not to stand on the dignity of their qualifications, but to go on studying and learning according to their personal interests, for the good of their own souls as well as for the sake of their pupils. In our Report on the Training of Teachers† we have recommended that every student should during the period of training choose one cultural subject, in which she is personally interested, to be studied for its own sake. There is no reason why this suggestion should not be extended to teachers already in service. A considerable number already do so; and many more could with profit follow their example. For a headmaster it should be a great joy to find that on his staff there is one member enthusiastic about local lore and excursions, another about radio, another about school films, and others about folk-dancing, natural history, music, drama, first aid, intelligence testing and new ideas in art and handwork.

336. We recommend that every headmaster should have meetings with his staff. These should be regular, that is at stated intervals of, say, a month, and not merely occasional meetings to discuss any matter that happens to require immediate attention. They should be concerned not merely or mainly with matters of administrative detail, but with substantial subjects involving the educational policy and practice of the school. It may at once be admitted that this policy makes considerable demands on both headmaster

*Teachers' Salaries (Scotland) Regulations, 1945.

†Cmd. 6723.

[page 83]

and staff. The headmaster must be prepared not only to have views and to state them, but to hear them criticised; to consider suggestions on their merits; and to make such compromises as appear to be expedient and justified. On the other hand, the members of the staff should approach such meetings in a spirit of loyalty and respect, have the good of the school as their only standard and bring something of value of their own as a contribution to discussion and planning. But the supreme value of such meetings, and the spirit of professional co-operation they foster, should ultimately far outweigh any awkwardness or personal difficulties in the early stages.

337. One of the most important duties of a headmaster is to co-ordinate the whole work of the school. He has the difficult task of reconciling respect for the individuality and freedom of members of the staff with the need in the interests of the pupils for securing a reasonable progression in the content of the curriculum and, where essential, uniformity in teaching methods.

338. As an experienced teacher the headmaster will be able to give counsel and guidance to any member of his staff requiring it, and particularly to probationers and other young teachers. On the other hand, he must have the capacity for leaving people alone - some teachers all the time and all teachers some of the time. He must make allowance for teachers with methods and enthusiasms that are not his own, particularly those who want to do experimental work, provided always that their achievement is adequate within the general policy of the school. Whatever his administrative responsibilities may be, he should do a good deal of teaching every week - to give a senior teacher a chance of attending to pressing tasks, or to show a junior teacher how to tackle a lesson or manage a class at different stages or assignments. In this way, and in no other way, can he get "atmosphere", know what is actually going on in the school of which he is headmaster.

339. He must keep abreast of the times, both as citizen and schoolmaster. It is good that so far as time allows he should take a part in public affairs outside the school; but at least he should take an intelligent interest in them and be generally recognised as a worthy member of the local community. He should be a living example of the dictum that education is never finished, and should not allow himself to drift out of the main current of intellectual life into a stagnant backwater. He should realise that education is no more static than any other department of human activity and that the theories and practices of a generation ago are not necessarily suited to the needs of today.

340. He must know his pupils, and interest himself in their welfare; not according to their abilities, but according to their needs. He should strive that as many as possible who have been in his care as a headmaster should remember him in after years as a friend. But his motive should not be expectation of future gratitude. An old Scots proverb says "It's a' tint* that's done for auld folk and bairns". The individuals may forget, or never realise; but they have profited nevertheless, and he must be content with the satisfaction that in his day he has given to his little community the best that is in him. There is a sense in which every headmaster is a "careers" master, not merely in a vocational aspect, but in the wide human sense of helping to prepare his pupils for the adventure of life and delighting to keep in touch with them. We commend the practice in some schools of maintaining, in addition to formal records, an album or wall display of photographs of classes or of former pupils who have gained distinction in later life.

*lost.

[page 84]

341. He must keep in touch with parents, and know something of their homes, their economic conditions and their problems. If he is humanly interested in his children, such contacts will usually be a delight and a refreshment rather than a menace or a burden.

342. Though not primarily a business man or an administrator, he must be businesslike. He will find that a good deal of the esteem which he enjoys outside the school and of the confidence of pupils and staff will depend on the efficiency and punctuality and respect for others which he shows in carrying out the routine administrative affairs of the school. On the other hand, the school managers must give him proper tools to work with. These include a headmaster's room of reasonable size and amenity; the provision of well thought out and standardised office fittings and accessories, including at least in larger schools filing cabinet, typewriter, rotary duplicator, telephone and, where necessary, a safe. He should also get such trained clerical assistance as will relieve him of routine work that can usually be more efficiently performed by a person specially trained for the purpose, and so give him more time to perform more vital tasks.

343. The headmaster is responsible for the physical conditions surrounding the pupils when they are in school. This supervision involves relations with the janitor, the staff and the pupils. There appears to be very little educational literature, to say nothing of research, on the subject of janitors. Looked at from the administrative heights, a janitor may seem of little importance and all janitors alike. To the pupils, however, the janitor is a very important person, and he is also of some importance to staff and headmaster. There is also extraordinary variation in the characters, attitudes and achievements of janitors: some are treasures and others are mere hirelings. Their efficiency and helpfulness make a considerable difference in the comfort and appearance of a school. Without further detailing the qualities of a good janitor - for these are known to every teacher - we recommend that headmasters should not only be consulted regarding their appointment and schedule of duties, but that great weight should be attached to their opinions. Further, no man should be appointed to such a post for any other reason than that he is likely to make a good janitor; failure in another capacity, physical infirmity or advancing years should never be regarded as positive qualifications for such a post. The character of his work is changing: it is less grossly physical, and needs more intelligence. Playgrounds are generally cleaner, and less dirt is carried into school. Central heating systems are more general, and these require to be understood and carefully operated to get satisfactory results. School furniture is more movable and requires frequent rearrangement. Sweeping and cleaning systems have been radically altered, and a much higher standard is expected. For all the work of the janitor, assistant janitor if required, and such cleaners as may be employed to assist him, the headmaster is responsible to the school managers. It is therefore very important that he should take up and maintain a proper attitude towards the janitor, regularly inspecting his work and insisting that all the duties in his schedule are systematically and efficiently performed. If a central heating system is capable of giving sufficient heat to the whole school, care should be taken that a proper temperature is secured at the hour of school opening, particularly on Monday mornings. The convenience or views of the janitor, or an arbitrary dictum of the central authority, should never be the deciding factor as to whether heating should be put on or not. This is a matter entirely for the judgment of the headmaster. If for any reason the heating cannot be made satisfactory, an immediate report should be made to the school managers; in the interests of the children's health an insufficiently heated school - or indeed an overheated school - should not be tolerated.

[page 85]

344. The headmaster should understand the system of classroom ventilation and see that it is used. It is not uncommon for class teachers to allow classrooms to become stuffy, and a tactful suggestion by the headmaster is occasionally necessary. Untidiness on the part of pupils, littering paper or spilling milk on the floor, and the failure of the teacher to see that all books and materials are put away in cupboards, are a source of unnecessary work to the cleaning staff as well as bad habits in themselves; these faults should never escape the attention of a watchful headmaster. He should also with the co-operation of staff and janitor and the pupils themselves see that all outside doors are kept closed in cold weather in order to keep halls and corridors warm and avoid waste of coal. Attention should also be paid to artificial lighting - its adequacy, its position and its economical use - and the diminishing efficiency of gas mantles or electric lamps. Though all these may seem to be matters of small detail, we feel justified in drawing attention to them, because in total they make a considerable difference to the efficiency of the teaching and the tone of the school.

345. The protection of pupils and teachers is another duty that falls upon headmasters. He must take reasonable precaution against dangers to pupils through faulty school furniture, particularly gymnastic apparatus, defective flooring and unsafe conditions or objects in the playground. Apart from general instruction in road safety, he should take measures to provide against any dangers from traffic in the neighbourhood of the school. While co-operating with the police and maintaining good relations with them, he should never in any circumstances allow a school child to be examined by a police officer unless in his own presence. He should never allow within the school gates any outside party wishing to sell anything to pupils or to distribute circulars for commercial purposes. He should not allow canvassers of any kind whatever to gain access to members of the teaching staff, nor is it his business to give names and addresses of teachers or pupils for purposes of this kind. He should never allow parents to interview teachers without his permission, and even then only with great discretion, after he has satisfied himself about the nature of their errand; this is a matter about which complete mutual support and understanding between headmaster and staff is essential.

(2) HEADMASTER AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR CLASS TEACHING

346. One of the questions about which we have had some difficulty, and about which we heard a good deal of evidence, was the size of school in which a headmaster should be relieved of responsibility for class teaching. As a headmaster may be in charge of a school of any size from two to twenty teachers or more, the duties which he performs during school hours - assuming that he is profitably busy all the time - will vary considerably. Indeed the hardest task, though not the widest responsibility, may be that of a headmaster of a small school who is in full-time charge of a class. In this connection we commend the principle adopted in the Teviot Scales* of making a reasonable responsibility payment to the headmasters of very small schools, because they have, though in a simpler form, the same scheme of administrative duties to perform as the headmasters of the very largest schools.

347. It seems a good general principle that each education authority should through the director of education make such arrangements as will secure an equitable balance of duties between headmasters in varying sizes of schools. It is not reasonable to have, say, the headmaster of a seven-teacher school completely freed from class teaching while his colleague in a six-teacher school has to attempt to carry out his administrative and supervisory duties while in full-time charge of a class. There are several ways in which this difficulty

*Teachers' Salaries (Scotland) Regulations, 1945.

[page 86]

can be avoided or lessened. A headmaster in charge of a class in a small school should if possible be given a staff of reliable and experienced teachers who require the minimum of supervision. He should get as much relief as possible from visiting specialists for his own class. In a four-teacher school covering seven years it can be arranged that the headmaster's class is half the size of the other classes. It may be arranged to provide trained clerical assistance. Or one teacher may relieve the headmasters of two such neighbouring schools for half a day each. We recommend, however, that in every school that has seven full classes or more between the ages of five and twelve the headmaster should not be required to take one of these classes. He will, however, probably have time to give special attention to small groups of pupils in different classes, who have for any reason become retarded, by giving them special coaching in weak subjects at the same time as the ordinary class lesson in that subject is going on. He should also be expected to take classes during short absences of members of the staff. Every primary school of fourteen teachers or over should have a full-time clerical assistant. We recommend that education authorities should instal a telephone in every school, beginning with the larger schools and gradually extending the provision till the whole area is covered. A telephone is of great value for the following among other purposes:(1) absences of teachers can be reported and relief staff promptly arranged; (2) doctors or police or tradesmen can be summoned in an. emergency; (3) notice of early closing on account of weather conditions can be given to the education office; (4) enquiries of all kinds can be made and answered to and from the education office, with great saving of trouble and delay; (5) the number of meals or bottles of milk already ordered can at once be modified if required by an unexpected change in attendance; (6) urgent orders for coal or other supplies can be given; and (7) information or a request to call may be given without loss of time to attendance officer or probation officer.

(3) TRAINING OF HEADMASTERS

348. We have stressed our view that being a headmaster is not a job for everybody; it demands special aptitude. We recommend that every teacher who wishes to become a headmaster should specially prepare himself for such a post; and that after a specified year no one be considered for a headship without the appropriate training and certification. In the meantime, those appointed might be required to attend a course and qualify within say two years of their appointment. (This matter is referred to in our Report on the Training of Teachers.*) Among many things a headmaster ought to know we stress the importance of his being thoroughly familiar with modern techniques of group and individual testing.

(4) APPOINTMENT OF HEADMASTERS

349. The appointment of the headmaster of a school is a great responsibility. It involves three things: knowledge of the school itself and its special needs; a proper conception of the duties that a headmaster ought to perform; and a capacity to weigh the technical and personal qualifications of candidates. Appointments have been made to headmasterships from irrelevant motives of many kinds. Having already in a previous Report stressed the importance of the method of appointment to headmasterships from the point of view of recruitment, we quote the statement there made as being equally applicable for the welfare of the school:

"Appointments and promotions should be determined solely by merit and by suitability for the post. . The teachers should be chosen by people who appreciate and are prepared to uphold the dignity of a learned profession.

[page 87]

The degrading practice of canvassing members of local authorities should be abolished. The undue influence of considerations entirely irrelevant to teaching ability should be eradicated. We include in this category personal and party considerations as well as the reservation of teaching posts for teachers belonging to the area."†

351. It will be gathered from the above that we do not think a large body suited for the making of such appointments. It is unlikely that the undignified absurdity known as "canvassing" can be stopped under present conditions. It is natural for a candidate to bring his claims before members who otherwise may hardly know his name; it is natural that a man should try to help his friend or his friend's friend; and it is natural that a member should be not unwilling, and a little flattered, to have an opportunity of meeting candidates. The duty of appointing should be entrusted to a small and carefully selected body including or guided by the director of education. Education areas should be large enough to give a wide choice of suitable candidates and to give those aspiring to such posts a sufficient number and variety of suitable vacancies for which they may apply. The considerations mentioned in this paragraph have an obvious bearing on questions of education areas and administration, with which we are not here concerned, but which are bound to come up for discussion in the not very distant future.

352. We have already suggested (1) that a school staff should work as a team, and (2) that the special gifts of each teacher should be developed and utilised. A good staff is therefore one that has within it a variety and balance of aptitudes. In a football or cricket team, if a centre-half or a wicket-keeper falls out, we try to find another with similar experience. It is equally natural that a headmaster and the staff should desire the same thing. The education committee or the administrator may, however, not always find it easy to do this, either through general shortage of staff or because a candidate with the desired qualification is not available at the time. Yet it seems to be a reasonable aim that a school staff should be built up on a principle of balanced qualifications

†Report on the Recruitment and Training of Teachers in the Period immediately following the War (Cmd. 6501), page 25, paragraph 17.

[page 88]

rather than fortuitous posting. We therefore recommend that on the one hand headmasters should be expected, on a vacancy occurring, to indicate to the director of education what special qualifications in a successor would best suit the interests of the school; and on the other hand the education committee should do everything in their power, so far as the staffing position allows, to comply with his request. The headmaster of any school conducting an approved experiment should receive very special consideration when a vacancy arises in his staff. Except in this special case we do not think it always practicable or desirable that headmasters should ask for or choose a particular individual.

353. When a new teacher has been appointed to a school, the headmaster should be entitled, after the teacher has been given a reasonable trial period and found unsuitable, to request that she be transferred to another school; and the education committee should endeavour, as far as staffing arrangements permit, to accede to such a request. Indeed we recommend that there be more mobility of staff than at present within each education area, especially of more mature teachers. It is not desirable that one staff should consist mainly of older teachers and another mainly of younger teachers; a reasonable balance of experience and freshness is desirable, and probationers should be distributed as evenly as possible over the schools.

354. The fitting of teachers into the places where they can be of most value has more than a local or even a county significance. While in some areas there is a reasonable or even an abundant supply of teachers, in others there is an acute shortage. The Teviot Scales* have been so designed as to redress the balance financially, and will probably do this to some extent. But the attractions of the cities, and the greater amenities and more convenient communications of the towns and well-populated areas, may continue to appeal more strongly to young teachers than the lonely outposts. As authorities now normally appoint primary teachers to their general service rather than to particular schools, this might not matter much if every area included a reasonable balance of posts in schools of every variety of size and situation. Such variety does exist in such counties as Ayr and Fife: but in the four cities there is little opportunity for gaining experience in small schools, while in counties like Inverness, Argyll, Ross and Sutherland nearly all the schools are small. It is hardly fair that these sparsely populated areas should be penalised either by the difficulty of getting any teachers at all, or by the necessity of staffing the schools with teachers unsuccessful in getting posts elsewhere. In view of the uncertainty during the next few years of the relation between the supply of teachers and the demand and of the effect of the Teviot Scales*, we do not make any recommendation on the subject in this Report. The situation, however, requires to be carefully watched.

355. If a reasonable "spread" of teachers should prove to be unattainable under the present arrangements, the demand will be strengthened for an enlargement of areas or a new form of educational administration.

356. In our Report on the Training of Teachers† we have stated our approval of the policy adopted by the National Committee in roughly scaling the number of students accepted for training from year to year in relation to the probable number of vacancies to be expected, making allowance of course for the enterprising minority who will seek posts outside Scotland in the Colonies and elsewhere. The effect of this flexible adjustment of supply to demand should, however, be realised. Authorities will no longer be able to make a choice of teachers in an open market of indefinite dimensions, nor will

*Teachers' Salaries (Scotland) Regulations, 1945.

†Cmd. 6723.

[page 89]

there be at any time a considerable body of trained teachers, with no prospect of a post, who may finally seek employment other than teaching. Such a position justifies the demand we make in our Report on the Training of Teachers* for careful original selection and a high minimum standard of training. Competition for posts will become relatively less important than suitable placing. To train many more teachers than are required is a gross waste of money and effort; to train the number reasonably required, plus a carefully calculated margin, carries almost the guarantee of a post. Without dealing in any way with any system of national direction, which raises big administrative issues outside our remit, it is surely reasonable that professional men and women in such a fortunate position should accept the principle, by whatever means it may be applied, of the distribution of teaching power according to national needs. While we recognise that it is natural that some young teachers, in many cases for family reasons, should desire to return immediately after training to their home area, and also that a percentage of school staffs should be of local origin, we recommend that authorities should abandon any regulation or practice of giving preference to newly trained teachers merely because they belong to the county. Every area is the better of an infusion of new blood from other parts of the country, and better service will be given by local teachers after they have had a period of experience elsewhere.

357. The proportion of men to women primary teachers was gradually diminishing for many years before the war, and is at the moment lower than ever before. The development of secondary education in the last forty years has drawn away a large number of the more capable and ambitious young men who formerly found their vocation in the primary school. It is no criticism of the fine work done by many women teachers in the higher primary classes to say that in our Scottish schools, with equal numbers of boys and girls, there should also be an equal number of men and women teachers from Primary III upwards. We do not think it necessary to reiterate arguments which are as widely accepted in theory as they are neglected in practice. We do, however, draw special attention to the need for reinforcing the supply of primary headmasters by having an adequate number of men, whose main experience has been in the primary school itself, as a pool from which future vacancies may be filled.

358. The one-teacher school is so different from all others that it should be specially considered. The administration of the school and the teaching of the pupils are combined in one individual. There is no colleague with whom work may be shared or plans concerted. Apart from small "transferred" schools, the one-teacher school is necessarily in a sparsely populated, and often in an isolated, district. There may be no one for many miles around with similar social or cultural interests. With few pupils at any one stage, it is difficult to maintain objective standards of capacity or achievement. The teacher must accept complete individual responsibility for all the children in her care who remain with her from five to twelve years of age. Difficult parents are a problem ten times more acute in an isolated community.

359. Through the development of compulsory education the one-teacher school is mainly to be found on the fringes of civilised life, and nowadays may be little considered. But it is of high and ancient lineage. It is the archetype of all educational arrangements: the prophet with his small band of faithful followers; the educational pioneer; the parish schoolmaster; even the burgh grammar school, where the "doctor" or assistant was introduced only when numbers became impossibly large. The most characteristic problem of the

*Cmd. 6723.

[page 90]

one-teacher school of today - the widest possible variety of age and attainment in charge of a single teacher in a single room - was the ordinary routine experience of the great majority of teachers in Scotland from the earliest times up till seventy years ago.

360. The one-teacher school often had, and may often still develop, special virtues of its own. It is a kind of larger family, not much regimented, and not a violent contrast to the smaller family circle of the home. The older pupils can help the younger not only with lessons but with putting on of shoes and coats. The companionship of children of different ages outside the school ensures the handing-on of traditional lore and games. The brighter ones pick up lessons meant for older children with more zest and interest because it is done surreptitiously. Self-reliance is encouraged because the teacher has no time for spoon-feeding, and "class" instruction can at best be given only to small groups at a time. Endless opportunities exist, without being artificially created, for "helping the teacher".

361. On the other hand, the one-teacher school has serious limitations. The children at each age do not have enough variety of experience of their contemporaries whether at work or play. Time and opportunity are both lacking for the development of good speech, to which we attach fundamental importance.

362. The one-teacher school for these and other reasons constitutes a problem that deeply concerns parents and education authorities. We recommend that those authorities for whom the problem seriously exists - and these are at least half of all the authorities in Scotland - should be asked to make a full and formal review of the situation as it exists in their own county. While we are aware that every one of these little schools is to some extent a special problem in itself, we may usefully set down here some of the main issues that must be faced in making such a review.

(1) Generally speaking, in such areas the school population has been dwindling for a long time: two-teacher schools have become one-teacher schools, some one-teacher schools have already ceased to exist, and the numbers in others, though going fitfully up and down, show a general tendency to decrease. In our Report on Secondary Education* we have made it clear that the one-teacher school is no place for pupils from twelve to fifteen years of age. In this Report we have already indicated our view that as a general rule no school with fewer than ten pupils is a satisfactory educational unit. Authorities are also faced with heavy salary expenditure and a shortage of teachers willing and competent to accept appointment to such schools. We therefore recommend that consideration be given, when alternative arrangements can be made, to the possibility of closing a certain further number of these schools. The type most suitable for such treatment are wayside or other schools which do not form and are never likely to form the centre or nucleus of a little community.

(2) Rural transport, which has been seriously checked during the war years, is certain to be developed within the next few years on a scale greater than ever before - not merely or mainly for the conveyance of pupils, but as a condition of rural development - in fact, the only method of maintaining a contented population in our remote country districts. Means must therefore be found of encouraging regular bus services in areas where the probable number of passengers may not be sufficient to justify their being run on an ordinary commercial basis. The subsidising of such services

*In the press.

[page 91]

by education authorities - and possibly also by other interests - may help to solve a difficulty that is at once economic, social and educational. Some authorities may find it necessary to extend their present scheme of bus contracts, and others may find it more convenient and economical to run buses of their own. During recent years parents have become much more willing and even anxious that their children should travel any not unreasonable distance by bus, not only because this may avoid long journeys on foot but because their children can obtain the amenities and the greater variety of experience that are more easily provided by a larger school. Where conveyance by bus cannot be reasonably provided and conveyance by private car is absurdly expensive owing to the amount of "dead mileage" involved, authorities should not in the last resort hesitate to use the powers granted to them by the 1945 Act for the boarding of children in the neighbourhood of a suitable school. There are extreme cases - happily very few - where parents are not the best judges of what is best for the future welfare of their children.

(3) Where it is decided as a definite policy to retain one-teacher schools, these should be encouraged and cherished in every possible way. A one-teacher school need not be a one-room school. A smaller second room has a multitude of uses - for dining, changing, school medical service, giving of tests, shelter in wet or cold weather, handwork, visiting teachers and emergency accommodation if the roll should temporarily increase. We draw special attention to the need for shelter: an open external shed is absurdly unsuitable in the exposed districts where one-teacher schools are usually to be found. Furniture should always be light though strong, and easily moved, to permit of grouping according to stages or subjects; and there should always be a reserve stock in varied sizes. Gramophone, wireless and a piano should always be provided, and kept in good order. The regular inspection and tuning of pianos is specially important: the piano itself, though it may be small and simple, should be good of its kind.

364. If the facilities for giving training and experience in small schools to students in training are extended as recommended in our Report on the Training of Teachers*, we may ultimately look forward to an adequate supply of teachers competent and willing to undertake this service. It is appropriate, however, that we should in this place pay tribute to the devotion and skill shown by the great majority of the teachers who occupy such posts at the present time. To them "individual work" and "three streams" (or many more) were a common-place long before they became educational fashions. They have developed sell-reliance and a sense of responsibility. They seldom if ever complain about, but gladly perform, the "extraneous" duties of which a good deal has been heard recently. They almost invariably take a leading

*Cmd. 6723. par. 42.

[page 92]

part in the youth and adult voluntary organisations in the district. Many of them are keenly interested in arranging entertainments, social occasions and excursions for their little flock; and the great majority act as honorary librarians for the county library service. Special consideration can be shown to such teachers in several ways. They should occasionally be allowed to close their schools for a day to enable them to pay a visit to a larger school. They should be allowed modest time-concessions at occasional weekends to let them get a change of scene and experience. It is no jest but a sober reality that they nearly all look forward with pleasure to the necessarily infrequent visits of H.M. Inspector and the director of education; and we suggest that these officers should regard such visits to one-teacher schools as a special responsibility. The appointment of a sympathetic visitor from the school management committee is also valuable as forming a useful link with the school. In short every reasonable step should be taken to ensure that the one-teacher school is not neglected or lightly considered, but remains a significant part of the educational provision for the county.

365. References to the "extraneous" duties of teachers usually convey the suggestion that, in the historic phrase, "they have increased, are increasing, and ought to be diminished". But the use of the expression "extraneous" makes assumptions about the "intraneous" or normal duties of teachers which should not be allowed to pass without question. The teachers of Scotland have had a long struggle to obtain full professional status, and through the Teviot Scales* - and still more through the attitude of the community that made these scales possible - they may now be said to have achieved it. The duties of a teacher are therefore expressly professional duties. The idea of a "profession" is the obligation to perform highly skilled duties in the public interest, not for a specified number of hours or on a piece-work basis, but reasonably according to individual conscience and the needs of the service. Education Acts, Orders and Regulations, which are precise about most matters, have never expressly defined the length of a teacher's day or year. As professional men and women, teachers must, for the convenient performance of their duties, submit to certain prescriptions of time and place and occupation; but the efficiency and devotion which they give to their task is more a matter of professional conscience than external compulsion. At the same time they must have regard not only to their own wishes and theories, but also to the kind cf function that society expects them to perform. It is precisely here that the difficulty occurs. During the last generation there has gradually arisen a much wider conception of the meaning of education. If there are teachers who regard the nine-to-twelve and one-to-four custom as practically a law of nature, and if there are some who still take the traditional view that education is merely an intellectual process of instruction, it is not altogether surprising that they should be distrustful and even rebellious when confronted with new and disturbing demands on their time and energies. But there can be only one answer to them: they must as professional people accept and operate the new conditions as best they can - provided always that these new conditions are in themselves not unreasonable.

366. This is the background against which we examine the list of duties other than "straight" class teaching which teachers are now generally called on to perform. We are aware both from information supplied by witnesses, and from other sources, that there exist real difficulties and grievances in addition to the misconception already referred to. As we have dealt in some detail with the duties of headmasters, we shall in this place refer mainly though not exclu-

*Teachers' Salaries (Scotland) Regulations, 1945.

[page 93]

sively to duties of this kind falling upon the class teacher , These may be divided generally into (a) duties which must be undertaken when the class is present, and (b) duties which may be undertaken when the class is not present. We recommend that all duties of the latter type be carried out within the school hours of the teacher but not within the class hours of the pupils. It is mainly regarding the former type that difficulty may arise. The duties in question may be considered under four headings.

(1) FORMAL DUTIES

367. These consist of writing up registers, daily registration, summaries, lists of absentees, marks and record cards. The only ones that require to be done in presence of the class are registration and lists of absentees; and the time taken up with these is trifling.

(2) HEALTH DUTIES

368. A good many of these are to be regarded as ordinary teaching duties - supervision of cleanliness, lessons about good habits and road safety instruction. Weighing and measuring and filling up of cards would appear to be normally duties for the nursing staff and only exceptionally for the teaching staff. Children must be withdrawn as individuals from class for medical inspection and attendance at clinics. This is a real complication of the teacher's work, whether regarded as loss of time for the individual pupils, disturbance of the class, or the need to send out pupils at a particular time. The teacher must however take the wider view that the final objective is better health, better attendance and better education for each child. One thing, however, needs to be said. In order that the duration of absence from class may be kept as short as possible, there should be intelligent co-operation in detailed arrangements and timing between medical and nursing staffs on the one hand and teaching staffs on the other. Children should not be required to wait idly for periods which could with a little foresight be considerably abbreviated. Improvement may also be effected in two other ways. Clinics should be greater in number and smaller in size. Where the size of the school permits, the clinic should be attached to the school itself, so that the need for children to leave the school premises may as far as possible be avoided.

(3) MILK AND MEALS

369. These new services involve new duties of several different kinds:

(1) Finding out how many pupils want milk and meals. This must be done for the purpose of ordering; it cannot be avoided, and must be done in the presence of the class. For this purpose only a few moments are needed.
(2) Receiving payment. This is more serious, no matter how simple the scheme, as there are always the complications of absence and necessitous cases in addition to the checking of the cash. When the proposal to give free milk and dinners as a part of the family allowance is carried into effect, this duty will disappear almost entirely.
(3) Consumption of milk. This should be done, and generally is done, in a methodical and disciplined way. There is no occasion whatever, in a well managed school, for the mess or waste of milk that have been alleged by outsiders. The process inevitably takes time - not less than five minutes.
(4) Supervision of meals. This subject raises important issues which we have thought it necessary to consider in some detail.

[page 94]

371. In the school meals scheme it is necessary to recognise two separate transition periods before completely normal working is realised.

372. The first transition period has been during the war years, and up to the present, when meals have been provided in the larger and more accessible schools on a basis of payment for the actual cost of raw materials: a period of improvisation and experiment, in which the percentage all over Scotland taking meals has reached almost 28. If the small number of schools, chiefly senior secondary, that have for many years made a feature of school lunches be left out of account, it may be said generally that the schools of Scotland had no accommodation expressly provided for such a purpose, and that very few had vacant accommodation that could be readily adapted to serve this purpose adequately and efficiently. Rooms and halls serving other and very different purposes have therefore of necessity been utilised. The war-time scheme was therefore started under conditions, difficult in operation and open to criticism on many grounds, that might have been discouraging but for the spirit of co-operation of all parties concerned, and in particular the voluntary efforts of members of the school teaching staffs. No one concerned for the future of the school meals service believes that such conditions should be tolerated a moment longer than is necessary. On the other hand, there are few if any who would suggest that the school meals service should be suspended till ideal conditions are available. But the conditions under which school meals have to be served in many schools not only make the work of supervision difficult and distasteful, but tend to defeat the social and educational purposes of the school meal upon which considerable emphasis has rightly been placed.

373. The second transition period is the one we are now approaching, when meals will be available free of charge to all pupils and may probably be taken by at least 75 per cent of the pupils in all Scottish schools, and when the provision of special accommodation is still far from complete. The foresight that has been shown in the policy of providing dining halls has not nearly been equalled by their actual provision or the speed of their construction. But in demanding a very high priority for special dining accommodation in all Scottish schools, we cannot shut our eyes to the difficulties with which any Government must be faced in the early post-war period. The limitations and discomforts of improvised dining rooms, serious as they are, cannot be compared with the miseries and frustrations suffered by those who require and cannot obtain a dwelling of their own. We therefore recommend, subject only to recognition of the pressing needs of the housing situation, that the provision of special dining halls for all Scottish schools be completed with all possible speed. For some fortunate schools, where dining halls have already been erected or are in course of erection, this transition period has already passed or will soon pass; and they will be in a position to formulate a scheme of supervision to cope with the expected increase in numbers. But it must be admitted that in other schools difficulties more acute than at present may still for a limited period be experienced. In view of the endless differences of circumstance as between one school and another, and of the temporary and exceptional position, we do not think it practicable to recommend any general departure from the arrangements that are at present general throughout Scotland. We feel however that the teachers of Scotland who have undertaken this new duty as a matter of professional conscience and for the sake of the boon that school meals confer on many of their children, are entitled to a definite pronouncement regarding Government policy on the lines indicated above.

374. The proper working of the school meals scheme can be attained in any school only when special dining accommodation is made available. As these

[page 95]

conditions already exist in some schools, and the number may be expected to increase steadily, we have found it necessary to include in our Report some consideration of the problems of supervision under what will become normal conditions.

375. A distinction must first be made between the purpose and the method of supervision. The purpose of supervision may conveniently be considered under three headings.

(i) Order and Routine

376. The headmaster in co-operation with his staff will work out in detail a plan for the partaking of the daily meal. This plan should include the position of the dining and service tables, the allocation of the children to tables, the duties of the paid dining hall staff, the help that may be given by the older pupils, the formal beginning of the meal, arrangements between courses, the orderly ending of the meal and where required the organising of separate sittings. Before the children enter the dining room they should have time to visit the toilet and wash their hands. For this purpose the provision of hot water is important, and the number of basins will in most schools have to be increased. Where the discipline of a school is otherwise good, the efficient carrying out of these arrangements presents no great difficulty.

(ii) Dietetic Aspect

377. The quality, quantity and condition of the dinner provided must have daily oversight. Some children omit, or wish to omit, parts of the meal which are most essential to them. Such omissions have seldom if ever a sound physiological basis, but are due to unsuitable feeding at home, the strangeness to them of some of the food provided or to fads and fancies variously acquired. Skill and tact are required to persuade or coax children to try some article of food at least once, or eat a small portion of it.

378. In spite of the admitted efficiency of large cooking centres and of the arrangements for conveyance of hot meals, we believe that the best dietetic results will be obtained by having meals cooked on the premises. The appearance, taste and smell of the food and the general amenity of the dining arrangements all have a definite effect on the value of the meal. Good presentation of meals encourages appetite in the same way as good presentation of lessons encourages learning. Food will do people more good when they are enjoying it than when they are merely swallowing a dietitian's prescription.

(iii) Table Manners

379. The lack of early training in table manners is a serious social handicap. To be able to hold and to use spoons, forks and knives properly for their varied purposes is at least as important in its own way as the proper holding of a pen. As some children receive less adequate home instruction in these matters than others, a certain amount of school training is necessary. A few well-devised class lessons will minimise the amount of individual correction required in the dining room; and if some simple information can be given about food values, the children may be encouraged to try parts of the meal that they might otherwise leave untouched.

380. Children should be taught not to hurry meals and encouraged to masticate their food properly. They should early acquire the courtesies of the table, and free conversation should not be discouraged. The standards set should be those of a well-ordered home. Such standards set and insisted on from the beginning are soon accepted and copied by newcomers and become traditional. Children who have attended a nursery school will of course already have received a training in table manners.

[page 96]

381. The method of supervision remains to be discussed. It will be noted that all the three purposes of supervision discussed above require both skill in instruction and knowledge of the pupils; and that should involve both staff meetings and specific class lessons. We therefore cannot escape the general conclusion that these must become a normal part of the professional duties of teachers as now more widely conceived. But in saying this we must equally concern ourselves not so much with the abstract rights of the teaching staff as with their needs and reasonable requirements; and one of the most important of these is a short period of rest and refreshment during the midday break, to enable them to tackle the work of the afternoon with satisfaction to themselves and to the best advantage of the pupils. During this period, which should be not less than half an hour, they should be free of the presence of the pupils and of all responsibility for them.

382. Where school staffs take their meal in the dining hall along with the pupils, whether at a separate table or according to the family system with a teacher or a senior pupil presiding at each table, the presence and example of the teaching staff does more to maintain high standards than formal patrolling.

383. In large schools the food for pupils in the infant division may be served separately. Considering the great amount of help that infants require, especially in areas where home conditions are not good, it may not be possible for the supervising staff to get an uninterrupted meal while the children are having theirs, and arrangements should then be made for the staff to have their meal later. Owing to the longer break that is usual in infant divisions they can still have a reasonable rest period before afternoon school begins.

384. A serious problem associated with the midday meal arises from the fact that a large body of pupils will be on the school premises or in the playground or elsewhere for at least half an hour before afternoon school begins. Because of larger numbers and greater length of time, the problem of playground supervision is considerably intensified. Some measure of responsibility must always be accepted by the school authority for the conduct and safety of pupils within the school and playground, and for their not wandering into danger outside the school gates. While the possibilities of danger and mischief will vary greatly with the local circumstances of each school, these are usually present in some form. We therefore recommend that education authorities should give this matter early attention. As regards the comfort of the pupils we draw attention to the recommendations already made about shelter in paragraph 34. A shed that may give passable shelter for ten minutes is completely inadequate and unsuitable in inclement weather for half an hour or more. If a school is going to fulfil different functions, it must be a different kind of school. The "crush hall" forming a part of the main school building, with seats round the walls and adequately heated, is a necessary complement to the dining hall.

385. The problem of personal supervision during this period cannot be easily solved. The dimensions of the problem are however easily stated. The object is to ensure (1) that no danger to the children arises through the fault or negligence of the authority, (2) that school regulations made in the interests of the safety of the pupils are duly observed, (3) that wilful damage is not done to the property of the authority, and (4) that a general oversight is maintained of all parts of the school accessible to the pupils and of playgrounds and that a responsible person is available in case of emergency. In making such arrangements, however, an authority is not undertaking any new liability. Children are subject to the common risks of life wherever they may be. It

[page 97]

would be manifestly impracticable to prevent altogether the occurrence of accidents during play, and ridiculous as well as undesirable to attempt supervision with that end in view. In small rural schools the question hardly arises, and the headmaster is usually close at hand. In many other schools a good janitor is all that is required, provided that he like other persons exercising supervision has an elementary knowledge of first aid and ready access to the emergency outfit which all schools are required to possess. In such schools it is essential that the janitor should be freed from all other duties during this period and that his lunch hour should be taken while the school is in session. In many large schools, however, it may be found that the janitorial service is inadequate for the purpose, and in such cases arrangements should be made for an increase of staff, possibly by the addition of a woman assistant janitor.

386. If a wider view is being taken of school building requirements to meet new educational needs, we must also take a wider view of school staffing. In many of our larger schools there is an infant mistress not in charge of a class, and in many others there might also be a senior woman assistant not on full-time teaching duty; these could be called upon to exercise supervision as a part of their stated duties, but without encroachment on their own lunch period. Alternatively these might relieve for a period daily another member of the staff who is undertaking supervision; or such periods might be provided through the visits of a specialist teacher. To some schools, particularly in difficult areas, it may be found desirable to appoint a trained social worker whose duties - among many others - might include help with meals and playground supervision. However the problem may be solved, we wish to state emphatically that members of a teaching staff cannot be expected to undertake playground supervision during their lunch period and begin classroom activities immediately thereafter.

387. We are aware that there is a wide disparity of feeling and practice among Scottish teachers about what they are able and willing and called upon to do in connection with meals and supervision. Some, particularly in small rural schools, are doing far more, and will continue to do far more, for the sake of the children, than could ever be officially enjoined. There are others, particularly among older teachers - and for these we can have a good deal of sympathy - who have considerable difficulty in adjusting themselves to the new conditions. In such cases the headmaster should so distribute the non-teaching duties of his staff that an equal share of responsibilities is borne by each member.

388. We have already made clear our view that it is a mark of the professional status of teachers that their duties are not defined for them in detail but are fulfilled in satisfaction of their own professional conscience; and we would express our strong hope and desire that professional duties arising in connection with school meals should continue to be so performed.

(4) SCHOOL SAVINGS

389. The working of a school savings scheme is on a different footing from the milk and meals services. It has from the beginning been a voluntary movement. While it has been encouraged by most authorities, we have no evidence that improper pressure has been applied. Widely adopted during the 1914-18 war, it was continued by some schools and discontinued by others in the period between the wars, again expanded during the 1939-45 war, and still being generally continued, though hardly on a war-time scale. A movement such as the Savings Movement, with Government support and full-time officers,

[page 98]

can usually state good reasons for perpetuating itself. We must therefore examine its position in the school on the footing that it promises - or threatens - to become permanent.

390. When in a period of war emergency money is plentiful and consumer goods are in short supply, it is clearly desirable in the national interest that the public should be induced by every reasonable means to spend less and save more. The real "war savings" are not effected by book-keeping entries of large sums but by the conscious decision of multitudes of ordinary people to refrain from spending money lavishly and to entrust the money thus saved to the state. Such a policy not only tends to prevent inflation but gives the Government in times of crises readily available financial assets. While some may believe that the schools are an all-too-obvious target for propaganda of various kinds, all would surely admit the propriety of their taking such a significant share as they have done in an important war effort. From this point of view it did not matter much whether the money brought by the children was their own small contribution or entrusted to them by their parents; and if competition between school and school or town and town was not altogether desirable, it might well be forgiven if the final result was an increase in genuine contributions. The School Savings Movement, so far as these objectives are concerned, should end with the war or at least with the real emergency immediately resulting from the war.

391. The other reason for a School Savings Movement is the encouragement of thrift. So far as it goes this is an admirable object. Thrift can be taught much better to children by practising it than by talking about it. But thrift as an end in itself would produce only miserliness; it is a part of the larger virtue of economy. All young people should learn to have a prudent and far-sighted attitude to the material things of life. They should know how to plan their spending so as to live within their incomes; to refrain from thoughtless spending week by week so that they may gradually acquire purchasing power for worthy objects in the future or secure their own economic independence in old age or days of adversity. All thrift is thus in a sense deferred spending. But economy is much more than this. A large part of it consists in the considerate and respectful use of all the material blessings of life-care in avoiding over-purchase, in using up only what is needed for the purpose in hand, in reusing "scraps" whether of food or cloth materials, or in saving any articles that may come in handy within a reasonable time. But beyond all this, the expert in any line of activity may most easily be recognised by his economy - the craftsman in his manipulation of tools, the golfer in his swing, the literary man in his use of words.

392. Even then economy is a one-sided virtue. Many have lived worthy lives by "spending and being spent", and "taking no thought of the morrow". There must be room also for training in generosity and those acts of warm-hearted sacrifice which more than anything else bring individuals and peoples into a closer and more understanding relation to one another.

393. In view of all this we take the view that the concentration of the efforts of teachers indefinitely year after year in the routine practice of this partial and one-sided virtue of financial saving is not justified educationally. We believe it is a good thing to start the children with the habit of saving by linking them with a suitable organisation; but that other means should be found for continuing routine transactions that do not encroach upon the precious school time of the pupil or the limited energies of the teacher.

394. If however class teachers are anxious to continue the savings movement with their pupils, it should be on a really voluntary basis: that is,

[page 99]

it should not take place during a period allocated to any subject, and particularly not during the religious instruction period; it should be during a short timetabled period specially allocated in addition to the ordinary class hours. Indeed it seems reasonable that all extra-instructional activities should be dealt with in this fashion, and the school day adjusted accordingly. As regards savings however it seems preferable as a permanent solution that where the school is to be specially associated with detailed transactions, representatives of the savings banks should attend for the purpose.

395. The argument that transactions occupy only a few minutes of a class time raises another issue. These minutes are concentrated, and few teachers find it easy to maintain such concentration for a whole day. Further, and even more important, it is the duty of the authority and of the headmaster to protect the teacher and the pupil as far as possible from distractions and interruptions of every kind whatever. A good headmaster will not without serious purpose enter a classroom during the progress of a lesson or encourage frequent knockings at doors or unnecessary movements about the school. The class teacher has the right to reasonable privacy and continuity and to expect the co-operation of the headmaster to this end. There are many good causes for which excellent people and organisations would like school time to be used. The final result would be dictation of the school curriculum from outside instead of from inside the school. In the light of such considerations we take the view that the Savings Movement, apart from times of real emergency, where it is carried on, should have only a limited place in the school, and that it should not on any consideration interfere with the curriculum of the pupils as shown on the approved timetable.

396. The teaching staff should not spend school time in counting money, in minor book-keeping transactions or in purchasing savings stamps. When these things are done at all, they should be done outside of school hours or at least by a clerical assistant. The strictly professional duties of teachers are so important and insistent as to require their time and energy for the whole of the school day.

(5) VOLUNTARY SERVICE BY TEACHERS

397. We should conclude this section on a wrong note and give an unbalanced view if we did not make it clear that the voluntary services undertaken by many teachers far exceed in variety and time spent the duties specially mentioned above. We refer not only to the many hours of preparation for public performance of plays and music and dancing, but to the amount of help, far out of proportion to that in any other profession, given to voluntary organisations for the benefit of children and young people. All this is very exacting work and has little reward except in the doing of it; but there could be no better indication that the teaching staffs of our schools do not spare themselves in placing their professional gifts and training at the service of the community.

398. Little public attention has been directed to section 4 of the Act of 1945, which allows religious instruction to be given at any period of the day. It was put forward, and no doubt accepted, as a section regularising what was already an accomplished fact in many secondary schools, and permitting

*This chapter is not intended to apply to Roman Catholic schools.

[page 100]

generally a relaxation that was necessary if full use was to be obtained of specialist teachers and special accommodation; but it may, however, have a wider and less realised result. While the majority of teachers will no doubt continue to devote the first morning period to religious instruction on the ground that it sets the tone of the school for the whole day, there may be others who will argue that while this is undoubtedly true about the daily religious observance, it is not necessarily true of class instruction. The limitation imposed by section 68 of the 1872 Act was by no means due to any notion of the superiority for purposes of religious instruction of the first and last periods of a school meeting, but merely to enable any pupil not taking the subject to come late or leave early. Every teacher knows that, in spite of all one can do, there are serious disadvantages operating against the first period. We are not, however, so much concerned to dwell on any disadvantage the first period may have as to draw attention to the opportunity officially offered for the first time of the complete integration of religion with the school day; and to suggest that some may find by experiment that pupils will gain refreshment, and the lesson acquire a new significance, if religious instruction is taken at periods of the day other than the first.

399. The "conscience clause" of the 1872 Act presumably had in view two classes of parents: those who were anxious that their children should have religious instruction, but objected to the denominational colour of the instruction given in the school which their children attended; and those who objected to their children being given any kind of religious instruction. In practice the former reason operates without special remark; the latter practically does not operate at all. This fact appears to us to be of some importance when placed alongside the statistical facts of church affiliation and attendance outside the schools. It would be quite outside our purpose to discuss this situation exhaustively; but it does indicate that parents, of whom a certain number are antagonistic to organised religion and a larger number indifferent, are yet willing and even anxious that their children should take part in the religious observances and instruction normally carried on in the public non-transferred schools of Scotland. This points to a general recognition by parents, however vague it may be in some cases, of the benefit to their children of an atmosphere and a training which may be called religious, even though these may not exactly accord with their beliefs and have little relation to their own practice. Such a situation reinforces the view, already emphasised in our Report on Training for Citizenship*, and also put forward in our Report on Secondary Education†, that religion is in the schools in its own right: it is there because the pupils need it and not because of pressure, expediency or even custom.

400. A distinction, though not a contrast, should be made between religion and religious instruction. Donne says that "all divinity is love and wonder". From early days all children understand love, and it is their nature to wonder. The simple mind of a child soon becomes alive to moral values, and applies them decisively to simple situations. It should be one of the fundamental axioms of every teacher that it is impossible to cheat a child for long. There is in him a feeling towards standards and a developing capacity for judgment. He ceaselessly tries to have things explained and to explain them to himself.

*Cmd. 6495.

†In the press.

[page 101]

There are gradually unfolded to him the facts of growth, bloom and decay, the urge of life in its myriad forms, the courses of the stars, the meanings of words, the emotions of music and ever widening experience of human relations. For all this he feels the need of some explanation that will for the time being satisfy his mind and provide a basis for conduct. At each stage he needs a temporary base-level or stabilisation of values. Into this private speculative world of the child it is difficult for the adult to enter, because he has to depend on his own vague memories and the unconscious revelations of children themselves. (A boy of five was once heard to remark, half to himself, after a period of brooding silence: "But who maked God? That's the joke.") No one should intrude rashly into this life or offer premature explanations. The delicate opening flower of religious wonder needs peace and sunshine for its blossoming.

401. If deep thoughts and questionings about the meaning of the world and human life are natural to the individual child, they cannot surely be ignored in any scheme of education that seeks to develop personality. Legal or administrative action cannot bring religion into the school or exclude it, for the very good reason that it must inevitably be there in one form or another; for human beings, whether children or adults, cannot avoid living by some system of values, personal and social. It is just because the life of a school should be as broad and deep and varied, within its limits of time and space, as human life itself, that it should not be miserably restricted to petty routines and materialistic or short-term purposes. The greatest thing that can be achieved in a school is that it should have in the broadest sense a "religious" atmosphere. Specific religious instruction is one of the means, but not the only means, and not always the most important, of furthering personal and social religious life. But it has its place, and an important place. There are many great religions in the world and many noble philosophies, each with its own books of wisdom and its own body of doctrine. These are the great repositories of Divine inspiration and of human experience on the highest levels. But our Western civilisation is the heir, however neglectful of its inheritance, of the great traditions of Christian life and teaching. Within these traditions there are represented in our Scottish schools different communions who interpret them by varied methods and with differing emphasis. To respect and make provision for such differences of interpretation has been the acknowledged political and religious practice for over 250 years.

402. In our old parish and burgh schools, however, and in the whole system of popular education that has developed from them outside of the transferred schools, the Authorised Version of the Bible in English has been and remains the chief vehicle and source book of religious instruction, and on that Book is based the agreed Syllabus of Religious Instruction* that is used in so many Scottish schools today.

403. Taking for granted then as we reasonably may this basis and this scheme of instruction, we may offer a few observations that are germane to the purpose of this Report.

404. The Bible is, materially speaking, a large book, nearly comparable in bulk, say, with the collected works of William Shakespeare. To be of reasonable size for carrying to and from school, it must be in small print. The effects of small print are by no means limited to eye strain. Hardly

*A Syllabus of Religious Instruction for Use in Scottish Schools (New and Revised). Published by the Church of Scotland Committee on the Religious Instruction of Youth, and the Educational Institute of Scotland.

[page 102]

anyone, public librarian or private individual, would harbour on his bookshelves a secular book in comparable small print, because it would never be read. We have little doubt that the low standard of Biblical knowledge, among adults as well as children, is partly due to the unattractive form in which it is so often presented. If the Bible is printed in type any smaller than that of other books put in the hands of children it is handicapped and prejudiced from the beginning.

405. There is a certain tendency in matters of religion to mistake the archaic for the eternal. There is no special religious reason, though there are strong traditional and literary reasons, for revering the particular translation of the Bible which we call the Authorised Version. The Bible is in essence a homely and popular book, telling in a direct and simple way the most tremendous story in the world's history. Yet the fact should be faced that it is written in sixteenth-century English, a good deal of which is no longer current familiar speech. This has its value in conveying a sense of sublimity and grandeur, but on the other hand encourages the false notion that religion ought to have a special language which is not the language of daily intercourse.

406. Further, the breaking up of the narrative into small paragraphs, together with the chapter headings and chronology that are often super-added, are a distraction rather than a help to the enjoyment and appreciation of the narrative - for the appeal of the Bible to children under twelve consists in the stories it tells, and above all in the story of the life and teachings of Jesus. There are large parts of the Bible that are unsuitable for children under twelve, and for various reasons: they should not be burdened with details of tribal history and priestly regulations, troubled with the ethical standards of a primitive people, faced with the great problem of Job, or expected at their tender years to enter into the spiritual life and teaching of the Prophets.

407. We therefore recommend:

(1) That for the purpose of religious instruction pupils be supplied as a part of the school equipment, with working texts, in the form of children's Bibles or in other appropriate form, of such parts of Holy Scripture as may be suitable for them at any particular stage; that these textbooks be printed and bound in the same style as their other school books; that if so desired a translation in twentieth-century English be used; that these should include all the passages recommended for use in the agreed Joint Syllabus*; that a simpler form of children's Bible with pictures be available for the younger primary pupils; and that all accessory material such as maps and large pictures be supplied for religious instruction in the same way as for other subjects†: and

(2) That every child should be encouraged and expected to possess as his own property a well printed and bound copy of the Authorised or the Revised Version, for reference, home and church use and for occasional special lessons.

*See footnote to para. 402.

†Report on Training for Citizenship (Cmd. 6495), para. 28.

[page 103]

eternal truths. Occasions come to all of us of deciding whether to follow the example of the priest or the Levite or the Samaritan in the parable. In short, we appeal for a more efficient use of the Bible as a tool or instrument of religious teaching. The knowledge of the English Bible as a great literary document we consider to be an indispensable part of the teaching of English literature. The simple beginnings of this subject that are possible in the primary school may well consist in the learning by heart of some of the passages indicated in the Joint Syllabus*.

409. The religious instruction lesson should be a pleasure and privilege to both pupils and teacher. Here more than in any other lesson teacher and taught are in relation of mutual confidence; the teacher will not so much instruct or moralise as discuss freely with them the simple but fundamental problems of the religious and moral life. For this, of course, good intention and kindness of heart are not enough. We have drawn attention both in our Report on the Training of Teachers† and in our Report on Secondary Education‡ to the need for adequate training of all who take part in religious instruction. To that we could add careful preparation. Where such intimate matters are concerned, children are very sensitive to atmosphere; a careless or semi-cynical attitude on the part of the teacher will quickly breed indifference, while on the other hand a fanatical attitude may provoke later reaction. It is not only in churches, to quote Donne again, but also in schools, where "the infirmity of the preacher diminishes the word".

410. In the course of religious instruction a good deal of actual knowledge will be absorbed; but that is not the purpose of religious instruction. Many noble texts and passages will be memorised, but that again is not the purpose of religious instruction. The only valid and final objective is to train the child to listen to the still small voice. We speak much in these days, and we speak rightly, of the importance of security for the child. But he must in time outgrow these temporary protections of childhood and find security in his own soul and its Divine relationship. All religious teaching must find its justification in the development of a character that is adequately equipped to meet the chances and crises of life. In his parable called "Faith, Half-Faith and No Faith at all", Stevenson tells of three men who journeyed together on a pilgrimage: the "priest" and the "virtuous person" each boasting of the truth of his religion, and the third, an old rover with his axe who remained silent. "At last, one came running and told them all was lost: that the powers of darkness had besieged the Heavenly Mansions, that Odin was to die and evil triumph."

"I have been grossly deceived," said the virtuous person.
"All is lost now", said the priest.
"I wonder if it is too late to make it up with the devil?" said the virtuous person.
"Oh, I hope not", said the priest.
"And at any rate we can but try. But what are you doing with that axe?" says he to the rover.
"I am off to die with Odin", said the rover."

‡In the press.

[page 104]

411. Homework and examinations are incidents of school life, extraneous to the progressive daily programme of the classroom, that may be regarded from different angles as either good things, disagreeable necessities or bogeys. They do not form part of any "natural law" of education; their place, their relative importance, indeed their very existence, depends on general conceptions of educational method at the primary stage.

412. We speak first of compulsory homework, by which we mean precise tasks given to all the members of a class to be performed out of school hours under pain of punishment or other indication of the teachers displeasure.

413. If primary education is regarded as a process of (1) oral memorising and reproducing, and (2) correction and evaluation of written tasks, then compulsory homework follows naturally.

414. But if primary education is being carried on in the spirit suggested in this Report, it follows that there should be no compulsory homework, and we recommend accordingly.

415. We discount the "disciplinary" value of compulsory homework by stating that the only discipline of any final value is the discipline that children learn to impose upon themselves; and they can learn to do this themselves in school by independent study. We believe that the natural appetite for knowledge should not be satiated by overdoses of learning in its most unpleasant form; and that young children should not have the dull feeling - distressing some and hardening others - that lessons, like mother's work, are never done.

416. To be equitable as regards time and effort spent by pupils of varying natural capacity, compulsory tasks would have to be varied in both quality and quantity. In practice, home lessons are given out equally to the whole class, and the displeasure we have already mentioned tends to be concentrated on the less gifted pupils. Home conditions vary as widely as natural capacity. Some parents are indifferent. The room may be quiet, with a special table available; or there may be noise and distractions of many kinds, and nothing available but the living-room table which must be used for meals and other purposes. As children have no trade union to regulate hours of labour, this duty properly falls upon education authorities, who should see that school hours are of such a length as to enable the pupil to fulfil such compulsory requirements as are reasonable for his age and capacity. Overtime for school pupils is in the end as uneconomic as it is for adult workers. Children should have their minds and their time free in the evenings: for play with other children, for juvenile organisations, for family life and above all for following out their own interests. Many of them should also go earlier to bed.

417. All that has been said above is in criticism of compulsory homework. Once compulsion is removed, homework will be regarded differently. A great many people put themselves to a great deal of trouble, and in effect work very hard, just for fun or to please themselves, finding their only reward in the activity itself. If this applies to adults - working in a garden, playing a strenuous game or acting as voluntary youth leaders - it applies even more to children, who are less sophisticated and more tireless. If day school education is effective it will spill over into cognate or complementary leisure activities. The school disciplines give the children a rapidly growing capacity to use tools, to find out things by reading, to express themselves in writing

[page 105]

and to observe accurately and systematically. In fact, the purpose of education at any stage is to enable the child to make use of his acquirements in a way appropriate to his age and interests: education is always for the present as well as for the future - to help him to do something better tonight as well as ten years hence.

418. Thus homework may take a great variety of forms. The one factor common to all is that they must centre round a voluntary interest of the child which may be natural or acquired. One child who enjoys playing with figures may like working out at home extra sums or arithmetical puzzles. Another may find satisfaction in writing real letters to friends. As we have already suggested in the section of Chapter XI dealing with poetry, many will complete at home, for the sake of voluntary performance, the memorising of verses already half-learnt that have aroused their interest or struck their fancy. Others may be encouraged to make scrap books, or to keep observational diaries with sketches; or the whole class may co-operate in the making of a magazine or a wall-newspaper. Some may have an enthusiasm for further practising at home a craft they have learnt in school. The suggestions we have already made about observation will involve a good deal of intelligent searching and enquiry outside school hours, whether by individuals or groups; in fact any co-operative project will arouse interest by the opportunities it offers for discussion and emulation. If the school does its part in teaching children what to look for, they will themselves continue their own education along that line.

419. Many children are naturally interested in collecting things. To take coins or stamps as examples, they will first of all collect indiscriminately for quantity; later they may collect only different specimens, learning to associate value with scarcity. There are some things that it is undesirable and other things that it is impossible to collect in the physical sense, but which can be "collected" by noted observation. One remembers children who out of the simple pastime of noting and collecting the numbers of railway engines finally built up a wide knowledge of railway practice and the different types of locomotives. The school can co-operate in several ways with this collecting instinct: specimens can be identified; suggestions can be made about the classification and the best way to keep them; collectors can give a talk to the class on their favourite subject, with if possible an exhibition of specimens; or a school collection, say of coins or stamps, may be begun and gradually expanded with the help of present and former pupils.

420. Every sympathetic teacher knows how strong is the desire of many children to bring things to school and to show them to the teacher. This desire, discreetly regulated, not only reinforces the school-and-home association, but may result in interesting class discussions.

421. Three very important interests of the children outside school are the wireless, the pictures and juvenile organisations, and all three merit some attention during school hours. From the current issue of the "Radio Times" there might be discussion of evening programmes of interest to the children, who could note times and subjects. This would give them an early and very desirable introduction to discrimination and full attention in listening. In the same way, discrimination and a critical attitude might be tactfully introduced by discussions regarding pictures already seen by them. The teacher might also establish a link with a suitable voluntary organisation and encourage those children to join who would specially profit by membership.

422. All the activities suggested in this chapter involve the use of school time, and we think that one or two periods weekly specially allocated for school-and-home activities would be among the most interesting and profitable

[page 106]

of the school week. Such a scheme would further strengthen the bonds between the home and the school referred to in a previous chapter, and provide a constant stimulus to the interest of parents in the development of their children's interests. Some day, sooner or later, the school ceases; but the home goes on. The conception of "homework" which we have outlined should do something to build up intelligent interests and attitudes that will last throughout life.

423. At this stage of our Report, readers will readily understand that we have no sympathy with, or even tolerance for, examinations in primary schools for the purpose of awarding prizes or giving class places. There are, however, other forms of examination which have their place - a subordinate and inconspicuous place - in the primary school.

424. It is of considerable importance to find out the natural capacity of each child, both in order to relate attainment to capacity and to give the teacher guidance about what may be reasonably expected from each child. We recommend accordingly that intelligence testing should become a normal part of primary school procedure, and that group tests should if possible be taken three times, once about Primary I, once in Primary IV and again in Primary V. It does not appear practicable, and it is not really necessary, to apply individual tests to every child; these should be confined to cases where substantial doubt or difficulty has arisen.

425. Simple tests of a not too formal kind are necessary from time to time in order that the teacher may find, for her own guidance, (1) to what extent her instruction has been absorbed by the class or group as a whole, and (2) what are the special merits or difficulties of individual pupils. From (1) she will find out what change or improvement of presentation should be considered, and from (2) what re-grouping of pupils or special help to individuals is desirable. All such tests will incidentally and cumulatively be of great help in formulating the judgment of the school staff about the capacities of each pupil at the promotion stage, which we discuss specially in Chapter XVIII.

426. One of the duties of the headmaster is to satisfy himself from time to time that each member of his staff is working efficiently and in proper relation to the schemes of work for the particular stage and the agreed methods for the school generally. Such a visitation, which used to be a dies irae [day of wrath] for both pupils and class teacher, is in these days seldom any more than the friendly visit of an experienced consultant to whom the teacher gladly turns for advice, objective opinion and inspiration. Nothing we say should however be regarded as detracting from the headmaster's duty to speak plainly when he has reason to suspect slackness or such lack of respect for agreed schemes and methods as may affect the efficiency or team work of the school as a whole.

427. Finally, there are the visits of H.M. Inspectors of Schools, to which we make no reference beyond mention in this place, as we deal generally with the subject of the Inspectorate in Chapter XII of our Report on Secondary Education*, which will be found in Appendix 3 to this Report.

428. The pioneering and philanthropic efforts that have been made on behalf of handicapped children during the last century are a credit to our

*In the press.

[page 107]

civilisation. The names of Guthrie, Quarrier and Donaldson have become household words through the institutions they founded. Churches and societies have created and still maintain a large variety of agencies working in many parts of this wide field. Government departments have also given financial support, at times taken the initiative and generally exercised a co-ordinating influence. We feel that the time has now come to face the whole problem of the handicapped child as a national responsibility, and accordingly recommend to the Secretary of State that he give a wide remit on the subject to a future Advisory Council. The purpose of the summary remarks that follow is not to go deeply into any of the problems raised, but to clarify the issues and provide some justification for our recommendation.

429. The term "handicapped" - or indeed any other name - is arbitrary. There exists every degree of handicap, in hearing and vision, for example, from trifling to total. Some handicaps are capable of routine diagnosis and assessment, others may be hidden and discovered accidentally or never at all. In a sense all are handicapped, at least potentially: bearing within themselves, being "mortal men" as Falstaff called them, the seeds or tendency to disease, theft or crimes of violence; some develop powers of resistance, others succumb and there are others who are merely lucky. Some having obvious handicaps rise above them; others who appear to have every good chance are counted among life's failures. Any absolute and final definition of handicap is thus out of the question.

430. Two forms of handicap - poverty and inadequate education - may be summarily dismissed, because the overcoming of these is the object of a conscious and progressive state policy. We are concerning ourselves here only with those handicaps which prevent a child in greater or less degree from being complete and healthy in body and mind and social relations.

431. The foundation of policy is attitude. Parents of physically and mentally handicapped children very often cherish them more than normal children and are willing to make great sacrifices for them; indeed where mentally defective children are concerned, it is often difficult to get parents to face facts or to agree to special arrangements. The public may at times appear to be indifferent or neglectful, but when their conscience is awakened they are generous both in money and practical sympathy. What has lagged behind is comprehensive planning to ensure that every handicapped child receives early diagnosis, proper grading, suitable and continuing treatment, and such sheltered conditions, temporary or permanent, as may be required for each case.

432. No doubt a great deal of money and expert care has been and must be expended on handicapped children, especially those with mental defects; and it is not without profit, apart altogether from the satisfaction of humane instincts. The causes of many handicaps are preventable. By statistical and other evidence the expert can give the public information about many of the handicaps from which children suffer; and knowledge is the first step towards the formation of a public opinion which will secure their removal or at least their diminution. Further, the expert develops from study of exceptional cases a better appreciation of the right conditions for the normal child; and the general public develops a higher ideal of positive health for the community and a higher sense of duty to future generations.

433. Our use of the word "expert" is not fortuitous. In our Report on the Training of Teachers* we have already recommended that teachers of

*Cmd. 6723: Chapter XI.

[page 108]

handicapped children should be chosen for their personal qualities from among those who have already had a standard training and some experience with normal children, and should then receive special training. We also welcome the recognition given by the Teviot Scales* to teachers of several kinds of handicapped children; we hope that authorities and managers concerned will take advantage of the procedure laid down in Regulation 5(1)(a)(iii) to provide larger responsibility payments where the amounts presently allowed seem to be inadequate. We are glad also to learn that although the Teviot Scales* do not apply to teachers in approved schools, the scales are being used as a guide in fixing the salaries of certificated teachers in these schools. We also note with pleasure the recognition given in the Teviot Scales* to psychologists employed by education authorities.

434. Why should the teacher of the handicapped child be a person with special sympathies and expert training? Such a child is deprived wholly or partly of one sense or power; and such deprivation affects not only the balance of the other senses and powers but his psychological make-up and his relations with other people. Thus a blind person may learn more from hearing, smell and touch than a seeing person does; he will, on the other hand, find it more difficult to develop his body by outdoor exercise; and he will tend to become more introspective and more uncertain about human contacts. The successful teacher of handicapped children has in addition to her five senses and ordinary bodily capacities to possess something like a sixth sense to make up for the special defect of the child - the power to imagine the conditions of life as experienced by the child and to make a bridge that will reach across the gulf separating the handicapped child from those more normally endowed. The object, so far as attainable, is to normalise such children, to give them all the resources humanly available to remove or lessen their handicap, restore the balance of their lives and make them useful members of society. If children are so gravely handicapped in body or mind that this object cannot be achieved, then they must be adequately provided for in suitable institutions at the expense of the community.

435. At all levels, in international politics, in professions, in trades, the problem arises of the unwillingness of the individual to cede even the smallest amount for the sake of human well-being, and his extreme susceptibility to any statement or suggestion that he regards as affecting his status. The problem is always bound to arise, and sometimes in an acute form, in dealing with handicapped children. At one level there are the medical and nursing and teaching professions, and the police; at another, public health committees, education committees, social welfare committees, voluntary organisations and the Courts; and at another, the Home Department, the Education Department and the Department of Health. If the problems connected with handicapped children that still await full solution are to be properly tackled, every personal and functional consideration, and every trace of amour propre [self-respect], must give way to the one great consideration: what is best for the child? We do not speak without knowledge of the fact that many admirable working arrangements for co-operation do exist, and that in most cases people with different functions work sensibly together; but we believe that the principle here stated should be a major premiss [statement] of all schemes and arrangements made for the benefit of handicapped children. They nearly always present a compound problem which requires a co-operative solution. With different children, and at different times, the factors will vary in relative importance. For example, the majority of children who are long-term patients

*Teachers' Salaries (Scotland) Regulations, 1945.

[page 109]

in hospitals, homes or sanatoria will benefit not only educationally but also medically from instruction; but it must be left to the medical authority to say when and for how long. On the other hand, once a child has been finally diagnosed as blind or deaf, the problem is entirely an educational one. Every scheme should emphasise and define as far as possible the kind of co-operation required; and the sense of professional duty of those concerned should transcend any accident of personal relationship.

436. The total school population of Scotland is not very large. Within that population the number of handicapped children for the purpose of our definition is a small minority. There are many kinds of handicap; and within these kinds there are degrees of seriousness, differences of age and sex and other complications which must be considered in providing the institutional treatment necessary in many cases. Scotland shows such violent contrasts in density of population that no completely tidy solution is possible. While Glasgow is populous enough, and compact enough, to provide for itself nearly every possible service, there are counties where it is difficult to arrange a single special class for mentally defective children. There are some services that may be arranged locally; there are others, such as child guidance clinics, that may be run by one authority or a combination of authorities; but we are satisfied from our evidence and enquiries that certain services must be operated on a national basis and under unified supervision. Among such services we mention, though not exclusively, those for the education of the blind and the deaf, and also for mental defectives, the physically handicapped, and other invalids who cannot be retained in their own homes. To these may be added many of the services dealing with socially handicapped children, which are discussed in a later paragraph. Meantime, on the whole issue we limit ourselves to the conclusion that full control over those services, their most efficient arrangement and their methodical expansion - purposes which are all highly desirable and in some cases urgently needed - cannot be easily achieved within the framework of the present organisation of Scottish education, a subject which lies outwith our remit.

437. Any attempt to make a detailed classification of handicapped children is unnecessary in this Report. Many of the services have already a long and honourable record of achievement, and others are in the stage of experiment and rapid development. For our immediate purpose it is sufficient to underline the connection that exists between physical and mental handicaps, and between both of these and social handicaps. It is to the last that we think it necessary to devote special attention.

438. We recommend that the whole class of children whom we have referred to as socially handicapped be included for all official purposes within the definition of handicapped children. We mean by this expression those children who though not suffering from any major mental or physical defect have suffered from some disadvantage of upbringing, environment or character sufficiently serious to require special care or treatment to enable them to derive full benefit from' educational facilities and become useful citizens. Of these there are certain categories that will be readily accepted, such as orphans, unwanted children and those committed by the Courts to the care of education authorities under the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1937. We hope that

[page 110]

the Clyde Committee* now sitting will bring forward proposals for a thorough and nationwide solution of the problems within the terms of their remit. The object here again is to achieve normality: to give these children, as far as possible, something that can be called home, some one they can look to as a parent, a childhood without humiliation, and a confident outlook towards adult life.

439. We understand that the Scottish Advisory Council on the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Offenders are submitting to the Secretary of State a report on approved schools in their aspect as places for the treatment of young offenders. We desire, therefore, to confine our observations to the functioning of approved schools in their aspect as part of the educational system. Traditional views and popular misconceptions make it difficult for many people to see the problem of the socially handicapped children in these schools in its proper perspective. There is first a misconception about the school buildings themselves. In the present retardation of all building programmes the majority of the buildings are not nearly so good as the managers and the Scottish Education Department would like them to be; but their general plan is that of a residential school, and such a recently rebuilt school as Rossie will compare favourably in site, accommodation and amenities with many famous boarding schools.

440. Another misconception is that an approved school is a kind of prison, with special restraints and deprivations of freedom. Apart from the first few weeks, the liberties enjoyed by the pupils are practically indistinguishable from those of a typical "public school": in both, pupils are free to make excursions at appointed times, must accept certain places as out of bounds, receive privileges and be deprived of them according to their behaviour. Boys from these schools, indistinguishable in any way from those around them, may be found on a Saturday afternoon at a big football match, at a local cinema or making their modest purchases at nearby shops; and most of them have the opportunity to enjoy the organised freedom of the annual summer camp. Many former pupils return to visit the "old school", and where facilities exist some make a short stay.

441. Allied to this is the third misconception, that the approved school is a place for the segregation of young criminals who are a menace to society. To this the best antidote is to go and see for oneself. As a rule the visitor will find a large number of apparently ordinary lads going about their affairs in a normal matter-of-fact and cheerful way. Admittedly every boy and girl in an approved school has been sent there for a definite and apparently sufficient reason. It has been found, however, that the proportion of children in approved schools who are either educationally retarded or of low intelligence is greater than in the normal child community. With better arrangements for child guidance, adjustment classes and an "active" curriculum more suited to their needs, the number sent to approved schools should be considerably diminished.

442. The last misconception to which we shall refer is about the staffs - particularly the responsible teaching and supervising staffs. These have been recruited to some extent from people who felt this work as a special call or challenge, but also to a considerable extent from those who took a job that happened to be available. Despite the total lack in Scotland of special training for this very arduous and delicate task, the staffs have developed very con-

*Committee on Treatment of Children Deprived of a Normal Home Life. Chairman, J. L. Clyde, Esq., K.C. (Report now published: Cmd. 6911.)

[page 111]

siderable skill and success in dealing with the endless variety of problems presented to them. Unconsciously they become experts and specialists, take a deep and friendly interest in their pupils and so are able to gain their confidence and keep them on the right road.

443. A systematic study of case-histories would explain the basis of most of these misconceptions. The general use of testing techniques has made it possible to state as an ascertained fact the somewhat lower average intelligence quotient of approved school pupils. If it were possible to invent a technique of testing for the measurement not of native intelligence but of "original sin" (or the same thing by any other name) over a whole age group from all ranks and conditions of society, the results might well be startling and disconcerting. Many of the readers of this Report might be led to recall youthful misdemeanours which under other circumstances might have led to their appearance in Court. The capacity for mischief is latent in most young people. and the sense of property develops at varying rates and to different degrees in different children. Without in any way depreciating moral values, we cannot escape the conclusion that the majority of children who find themselves in approved schools are there through circumstances for which they are not primarily responsible. Of these, unhappiness in the home appears to be the commonest cause: misconduct, quarrelling, estrangement, absence, separation, neglect, in all their varying combinations and degrees; and the handicap of being a step-child or illegitimate.

444. At a Juvenile Court recently a lad was making a second appearance for a serious offence within a few weeks. In these circumstances the Sheriff reasonably took the view that this was a case for an approved school. But on the probation officer stating that the lad had a satisfactory home, the education authority reporting a good school record and an employer offering to give the boy a job, the Sheriff remarked, perhaps rather drily, that the boy was "fortunate in his friends", and decided to give him another period of probation. We believe that every child in difficulties should be fortunate in his friends. The moral health service should be looked upon in the same way as the physical health service. It also demands good housing conditions and freedom from want and adequate playing spaces. Early diagnosis and treatment are of great importance. We have noted with pleasure the adoption in the Education Act of 1945 of a recommendation made by us that express powers be given to authorities to set up or combine in setting up child guidance clinics. This is not the place to enlarge upon their functions and methods, and the success they have achieved; we are however satisfied that they are an essential part of the machinery for dealing with difficult children. We recommend that where authorities do not take the initiative in setting up such clinics the Secretary of State should in due course press them to do so as a necessary link in any complete educational provision.

445. In the case of school children who have committed a breach of the law, we are aware that there are always two aspects, the protection of the public and the reform of the individual; but for juveniles supervision and training are the all-important considerations. When the court has decided that an offender be put on probation there should be close co-operation between the school, the probation officer and, if possible, the parent; and the line of action considered most useful in each case should be followed through with efficiency and pertinacity. When the court has decided that a period in an approved school is necessary, graded residential schools should be available for short as well as for longer periods. After a child has left an approved school on licence he should in no circumstances be left without local supervision, and occasional visits to or from the school should be arranged.

[page 112]

We recommend that the system of probation be extended to cover the supervision of those who have been allowed out on licence from an approved school. There appears to be no distinction in principle between the two functions, the qualities and qualifications for the two posts are identical, and the arrangement would appear to be convenient as well as economical, especially in areas outside the cities.

446. We acknowledge that there will be a small number - we think a very small number - with ineradicable criminal tendencies. But the great majority are fundamentally a social and educational problem rather than a criminal problem. We recommend that they should be so regarded and the agencies for dealing with them adjusted accordingly.

447. In conclusion, we mention several matters arising in connection with approved schools which though of a temporary nature are very important. During recent years, many children have been allowed out on licence not because the time was ripe in the opinion of the headmaster, but because the risk of premature release had to be taken in order to make room for others. Owing to shortage of accommodation, many schools had to admit pupils in excess of their stated accommodation, with undesirable results in loss of amenities, overwork of staff and inadequate attention to individual pupils. Inevitably the schools had in these circumstances less opportunity than they would otherwise have had of dealing successfully with difficult cases; and problems were often not solved but transferred elsewhere. We are aware that the considerable increase in numbers during the war years could not have been foreseen; we are also aware that measures have to some extent been taken to deal with the increase; but we are strongly of the opinion that the whole problem, including that of the curriculum, can be dealt with on a thorough and systematic basis only if the approved schools are fully co-ordinated as an integral part of the Scottish educational system; and we recommend that the necessary steps be taken to bring this about.

448. If all educational problems had been completely solved and children completely standardised, experiment would be a waste of time and research an antiquarian hobby. But as social needs and ideals change, education must also go on changing and developing. Experiment and research, by which alone such development may be brought about in a fruitful and comprehensive way, must continue to be a vital element in any system of education. They are amply justified even on financial grounds: misdirected effort and out of date methods are just as wasteful in education as in industry. A generation that has achieved under stress of war staggering practical results from scientific research of the severest academic type is not likely to be unsympathetic to educational research if it appears likely in the long run to produce results of comparable significance.

449. Members of education committees, and indeed some teachers, have been known to complain that certain of the publications of the Scottish Council for Research in Education are unintelligible to them. But in so complaining they show a misunderstanding of the whole nature of research. The reason for its being apparently unintelligible is that the results must be stated in such a form and in such accepted terms as to make them capable of being scientifically considered by experts who can judge the validity of the results. Research in any field must have a scientific procedure and a vocabulary - or jargon - convenient for its purpose. There is, however, no reason why the results of

[page 113]

research should not for convenience be presented in an epitomised form for practical use. We have already commended the policy recently inaugurated by the Scottish Council for Research in Education of providing the great body of Scottish teachers with brief and clearly-stated summaries of the main conclusions of researches already undertaken and published.

450. Speculation must be free, and investigation must be disinterested; but from any such investigation the result obtained may be negative, there may emerge nothing of any practical value, or a practical result may come almost incidentally as a by-product. There is not a new germ under every microscope or an Eldorado at the end of every voyage. Nevertheless the greatest practical achievements may follow from the most profound and disinterested speculation. It is on the other hand not unreasonable that researches and experiments assisted from public educational funds should show some prospect of the discovery and promulgation of new facts, ideas and techniques that will sooner or later, and in some form or other, be of educational benefit to children in school.

451. Scotland is indeed fortunate in possessing a Council for Research in Education broad enough in constitution and purpose to be a fit instrument for performing the functions we have in view. If up till now their activities, as they themselves confess, have been in a sense sporadic, they may with justification plead that they have been able to work only under serious limitations of finance and personnel. We recommend that both the Secretary of State and education authorities take full advantage of the powers conferred on them by the 1945 Act and of the Regulations recently made to put the Research Council into a financial position commensurate with its functions.

452. Valid subjects of research cover a wide field. Where these deal with the history of education, they should not have for their object the mere accumulation of facts, but should give a broad progressive picture showing general purposes and tendencies, whether fruitful or mistaken, as an inspiration or a warning to the present generation. Such historical studies are useful also in correcting exaggerated and sentimental notions about the virtues of Scottish education in the "good old days".

453. Much research remains to be done into the planning and equipment of schools, which are by no means the exclusive province of the architect and tradesman. In all researches of this type it is necessary to keep in view the permanent and changing functions of the school and therefore to consult those most competent to advise in such matters.

454. The main subjects of research must always be those connected with the child, with the content of the curriculum and with teaching techniques; and of considerable importance in addition to these, the social factors affecting educational policy. The number and variety of such problems, and the urgency of many of them, are so widely known to all who are familiar with Scottish education today that we do not think it necessary to specify them further.

455. As the recognised organ of research in Scotland, the Research Council should have a permanent full-time general staff with the principal duties of inspiring research, directing it into the most profitable channels, maintaining high scientific standards and co-ordinating the work of individual researchers. They should arrange that all who are undertaking worthwhile and approved enquiries should have the wholehearted co-operation of officials and school staffs. They might also maintain a roll or associate membership of teachers all over the country who have declared their interest in research and willingness to give help as required.

[page 114]

456. A good deal of the work of the Research Council must continue to be arranging for the publication of the results of research. We recommend that, as soon as funds and staff allow, they publish a bulletin, annually or oftener, giving a very brief account of publications issued elsewhere and the conclusions therein stated.

457. On the other hand, teachers, H.M. Inspectors and directors of education owe to the Research Council the duty of creating a bridge wide and strong enough to carry their work right over into the classroom.

458. All educational experiments are a form of research. They may be of all sizes and at all levels. There may be some of such small dimensions and for such immediate purposes that they can be carried out by one teacher without reference to any other. These, however, must be distinguished from wider experiments, involving a whole school, an education area or the entire country, carried out under carefully controlled conditions and with recognised techniques which might be expected to yield results worthy of publication and general adoption.

459. While we strongly favour experiment, and believe indeed that it is the life-blood of any progressive educational system, we believe also that no experiment should be undertaken lightly, or without adequate control. Any proposal should be carefully thought out and planned beforehand. The co-operation of all affected should if possible be secured. Consultation should take place with the Research Council to get information about any previous experiments of the kind and to prevent unnecessary duplication of effort. In all cases a frank and objective report should be prepared indicating object and procedure and relative success or failure.

460. While in the scientific sense the majority of teachers may not be researchers, all must be experimenters. The relationship of a teacher with a class and with the individuals composing it, her methods of class organisation and her presentation of subject matter are not static facts that can be completely predetermined, but are subject to experimental trial and error to such a degree that the good teacher never ceases to experiment to the end of her teaching days.

461. Where experiments of a major kind are being taken in hand, and traditional procedures are being radically altered, it is of the utmost importance that the co-operation of parents should be secured or that the experiment should be confined to those children whose parents voluntarily enrol them for the purpose.

462. While in many cases experiments may be carried out by education authorities or groups of authorities, occasion may arise for trying out some scheme that authorities may hesitate to include in their normal educational provision. As an example of such a scheme we refer to the promising experiment at present being made by several authorities of providing residential school experience for some of their pupils in the five hostels managed by the Scottish Special Housing Association. For the purpose of facilitating experiments of this kind we recommend that the Secretary of State should exercise his power to give direct financial support for an agreed period to any responsible educational experiment that appears to give promise of results that would be of benefit to Scottish education generally; and that authorities be encouraged to second any of their teachers selected to carry out the experiment.

[page 115]

463. While we are aware that the word "promotion" is used in section 21(1) of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1945, and must accordingly continue meantime to be used in official documents, we recommend that the word "transfer" be the one generally used. "Promotion" is accurate enough in the literal sense of "moving forward", but it also conveys the inappropriate idea of the selection of the few from among the many for higher tasks and superior rank. The word "qualifying" might well also be discarded, as carrying with it the notion of success or failure, which should not arise at this stage. The word "control" describes very well any standardising technique that may be introduced, but has so many other varieties of meaning and emotional associations that it should be dropped.

464. The transfer arrangements, taken all together, should not presume to make a final decision about the educational future of every pupil, but should rather be a preliminary sorting to direct pupils along a variety of trunk roads with easy connecting links at the earlier stages.

465. The objects of this sorting or scattering are (1) to guide each pupil into a course suitable to his interests and aptitudes, and (2) to form in the secondary school groups of reasonable size and homogeneity for administrative and teaching purposes. These two objects are by no means incompatible, but (2) should as far as practicable be determined by (1).

466. This transfer usually involves a change of school, a parting with at least some companions and forming new relationships, a greater variety of teachers, becoming again "infants" in a new setting instead of members of a top class, an introduction to new subjects and teaching methods and exacting home tasks. These are heavy demands on any child, and nothing in the transfer arrangements themselves should increase the strain of the change-over or produce in the child a feeling of crisis.

467. This strain may be alleviated if a wider view is taken of the whole educational process. The primary school and the secondary school should become much more familiar with each other's purposes and practices, and we recommend that steps to this end be taken in every secondary school area. The transfer arrangements should never be a matter suddenly arising to cause special excitement in the final year of the primary school, but deliberately and increasingly envisaged during the whole primary period. Every teacher who has had charge of a child for a year or more should be expected to make her contribution in one form or another to the final estimate. Tests or examinations should be taken by the pupils in their stride, and should not be the subject of special preparation - which may indeed help to defeat their whole purpose. As regards the secondary school itself, we need only refer to the conclusion reached in our Report on Secondary Education* that, while a common first year is wasteful and unpractical, steps should be taken by reducing the variety of subjects and the number of separate teachers in that year to lessen the shock of transfer. We would in conclusion point out that the decision reached at the transfer period is by no means final, and that wide powers of transfer and modification of courses remain in the hands of the secondary headmaster.

*In the press.

[page 116]

468. The factors which rightly or wrongly influence the choice of school for course may be listed as follows:

(1) The wishes of the child - including prejudices and personal ambitions;
(2) the prejudices of his contemporaries;
(3) the wishes of the parents;
(4) social environment;
(5) availability of accommodation;
(6) prestige of schools and courses;
(7) relative accessibility of secondary schools;
(8) award of bursaries;
(9) the views of the primary staff concerned;
(10) mental capacity;
(11) practical ability;
(12) attainments;
(13) aptitudes.

470. The percentage of pupils from a poor or overcrowded district taking full advantage of educational facilities is notoriously smaller than from a prosperous and well-housed district. The solution of the housing and other social problems involved is a political matter. Those interested in education may however point out that here again is a waste of natural talent that the nation can ill afford.

471. It is a situation not to be tolerated that the course chosen for a child should in any way whatever be influenced by the school accommodation available. It is the plain and urgent duty of education authorities to ensure that no child should have his reasonable ambitions thwarted or circumscribed.

[page 117]

472. We unreservedly condemn all competitive examinations at this stage and recommend that where they exist they should be abolished. They introduce a wrong spirit into the primary school; they place school against school and teacher against teacher; they vitiate the curriculum through the imposition of demands, often on far too high a level, from outside sources; and they impose a harmful strain on both pupils and teachers. But more than that: they depend on two assumptions that are foreign to the spirit of the 1918 and 1945 Acts. If they are competitions for places, there is a clear suggestion that admission to certain courses in a secondary school is limited by the accommodation provided rather than by consideration of the needs of the individual pupils; if they are competitions for money grants, whether from endowments or public funds, they are or should be superfluous in view of the duty laid upon authorities to see that no child is prevented by financial circumstances from getting the full secondary education from which he is able to profit. We suggest that if such money grants must be given at this stage they be distributed by methods other than competitive examination. Better still, application should be made for the diversion of educational endowments to desirable educational purposes not fully covered by the duties of the education authorities.

473. Parents may desire that their children should be enrolled at a particular secondary school not merely for the intrinsic value of the education given but also for the standing and prestige of the school, which may be regarded as giving an advantage in personal contacts or future employment. It may, however, be said that on the whole Scottish secondary education is democratic and sturdy enough to resist any widespread growth of this tendency; that while this may give a temporary advantage to a few mediocre people, real talent is discovered and developed pretty evenly in all Scottish secondary schools, large and small, rural and urban; and that the real remedy, though a slow one, is to be found not in depressing the status of schools with ancient prestige and traditions but in encouraging others to develop their own prestige and standards along lines of their own natural development.

474. Secondary education has in the past been denied to a certain number of children because their homes are at a considerable distance from the nearest secondary school. It is not uncommon even yet in remote rural areas to find pupils from 12 to 14 retained in a small primary school without any provision whatever for their secondary education. Parents on the whole take a sensible view of the position when their children are obviously well adapted for a course in a senior secondary school. But they have on the whole shown less keenness to agree to the transfer to a more distant school if the children will be leaving at 14. There was of course something to be said in favour of this attitude. The children in question were less ambitious than their more academic colleagues, and so less anxious to leave home. Their parents looked forward to their help with croft or hirsel [sheep farm] or home duties, or to their taking a job in the family tradition. There was a fear of the alien atmosphere of the town, and perhaps a poor opinion of any benefit that could be got by further schooling. On the other hand, education authorities have always tended to give secondary bursaries much more freely to gifted children; and they have not always provided suitable courses at accessible centres for the less gifted. The 1945 Act, however, contains new provisions which change the situation materially: a three-year course, or something near it, for all; free travel facilities; power to insist on transfer to a secondary school; school meals; hostels; and a broader outlook on the education of all young people up to the age of 18. The transfer arrangements should accordingly take account of the new situation. The creaming of a limited number for an academic course must give way to a careful assessment of the qualities and possibilities of each individual.

[page 118]

475. The other factors listed in paragraph 468 are of a more objective type - the considered opinion of the primary school, mental capacity, attainments and aptitudes. These all depend, however, on the policy to be followed regarding age of transfer. Our views on this subject are reinforced by the practically unanimous testimony of our witnesses. As indicated at the beginning of our Report, we retain age 12 as a general guide. We believe that the method of the "clean cut" ruthlessly carried out is too rigid and arbitrary to fit the large variety of human and administrative situations. At the same time this policy has helped to draw attention to two important facts: (1) that it is impossible either as an ideal or in working practice to bring all children up to any given standard; and (2) that every child has a right to the kind of experience that we call secondary education. On the other hand, we do not recommend transfer by the mere reaching of a set standard irrespective of age. Great harm may be done to a physically immature child by pushing him forward solely on the basis of his mental precocity. Similar harm may be done by retaining a physically mature child among younger children merely because he is unable to make the same progress as his contemporaries in tasks which become increasingly distasteful and humiliating. We believe that the primary education of the most gifted children should be so spaced that they do not reach the transfer stage till the 11 to 11½ period, and that broadly speaking the maximum age of transfer should be in the 12 to 12½ period. A misleading notion to which the "clean cut" idea may give rise is that the primary stage is confessed as a failure by the sudden elevation to secondary status of backward pupils from Primary IV, III, or even lower. But these pupils do not appear for the first time at the transfer stage; they have been known for years in the primary school. They should be recognised and dealt with as soon as possible in suitable groups or classes, not in a vain attempt at the unattainable, but with an eye on their most profitable scholastic career right from age 7 till the leaving date. Though very weak in most subjects, they are probably at their best and can always get the most useful experiences in the company of their contemporaries. It by no means follows that they should be transferred late: they should be gently led from a simplified course in the primary school to a similar and consecutive course in the secondary school. Late transfer may on the other hand be justified by retardation through illness or other reasons, or simply by late development.

476. All schemes of objective judgment about the assessment of children at age 12 have of course certain limitations, and we desire to draw attention to three of these.

(1) Testing is not education. A pupil may be tested frequently without having a good education, and many people have been well educated who never sat an examination. All tests are at least interruptions, and must justify in some way the time spent on them (not to speak of the time spent in preparing for them). In connection with transfer arrangements, they are justified if they give valuable information, not otherwise obtainable, about the secondary course best fitted for each child. The time taken by any ideal system of testing, while not seriously encroaching on the child's time, may in fact be prohibitive in relation to the time required by a specially skilled tester. In all schemes, therefore, the time needed must be balanced against the relative accuracy of the result and the supply of qualified personnel.

(2) It is necessary to guard against the over-simplification which may follow from too hasty inferences from statistical material. It is a formidable enterprise to try to evaluate in terms of the arithmetical series, which is the simplest of all general ideas, the relative values of human personalities, which are the subtlest things known to us in the universe. Numerical value

[page 119]

and order should therefore be limited in interpretation to the particular information strictly discoverable from the test, and then only with an ever-present awareness of human fallibility.

(3) The best conceivable tests in the best possible conditions will not be 100 per cent reliable. Being prognostic in their nature, they cannot possibly take account of personal and social developments that are as yet beneath the horizon. All we can say is that with improvement and elaboration of technique there is a progressive reduction in the margin of error.

478. So far as mark lists and numerical class order are concerned, and also the relative strength and weakness in different subjects, it has been found by experience that class teachers on the whole make a good objective judgment. They find it difficult, however, to attach that judgment to an absolute or external standard, whether as regards the meaning of any given percentage or range between the highest and the lowest marks. Some means of standardising judgment is accordingly required which will give a common basis within a secondary school area or a county and a reasonable similarity throughout Scotland.

479. One valuable help is the intelligence test. The special usefulness of a test of this kind depends on the fact that it gives a measure of the child's innate mental ability as distinct from his school attainment. The technique of intelligence testing is well past the experimental stage: there exists a supply of standardised tests which is sufficient for present purposes and is always increasing in variety and accuracy. It is true that intelligence cannot be tested in the void. Printed matter, pencil and paper are involved, and therefore the capacity to read, if not to write, must be assumed. But the demands made are so simple as not to vitiate the result in the case of children who have had the normal amount of school instruction for their age. The finding of an intelligence quotient gives for each child a figure denoting his intelligence on an objective and universally understood standard.

480. At this point it is necessary to distinguish between the so-called group tests and individual tests. In both cases the child performs the test individually, and an individual intelligence quotient can be obtained. The group test, however, can be carried out simultaneously by a group of pupils receiving identical directions from the person giving the test; while the individual test requires that the tester should give undivided attention to one pupil at a time. The degree of accuracy is greater in the individual test, but on the other hand it takes a much longer time to perform for a whole class, and demands more experience and training on the part of the tester. Though it may be applied universally at an earlier stage in the primary school, the use

[page 120]

of the individual test will therefore at the transfer stage be limited meantime to cases where doubt arises.

481. The average of two intelligence tests shows a more accurate result than a single test. If one of these be given at the transfer stage, the other might be given at least a year earlier. Such an arrangement would provide valuable guidance to the teacher in planning the work of the transfer class.

482. Usually these two group tests together with all the other information available should provide sufficient data for deciding on the secondary course suitable for each child. Where however serious discrepancies arise, as for example between the one intelligence' test and the other, or 'between the intelligence tests and the teacher's considered opinion, it may be advisable to test a number of pupils individually.

483. The whole value of the tests depends on the attitude and the efficiency of the person who administers them. The attitude must be rigidly objective and scientific, free from conscious or unconscious emotional bias. The class teacher will therefore usually prefer that the test be given by someone who has no close personal acquaintance with the pupils. The other essential is that the printed instructions be carried out meticulously and timing rigidly adhered to. It may therefore be considered advisable that two persons should be present when the group test is being administered. It is in any case necessary that the marking and calculations should be done by one person and checked by another. As the whole object of the test is to find out the natural capacity of the child, there is clearly no ground for imagining that the results, whatever they are, can possibly reflect credit or discredit either on their present or their former teachers.

484. The question arises whether there is a sufficient supply of teachers in all our schools capable of administering these tests. It is important to understand the purpose and technique of testing: it is even more important to have practice in giving the tests and assessing the results. For over ten years students have been made acquainted with intelligence testing as an ordinary part of their training college curriculum, though not many of them have been so fortunate as to have had adequate practice during their period of training; but many of the older teachers are not acquainted with the technique of testing. It is therefore clear that the supply of suitably trained persons is at present not nearly sufficient, particularly in small schools and rural areas. We therefore recommend that "Article 55" classes* be extended to all areas, and that education authorities give every possible encouragement to members of their teaching staff to attend and acquire the qualification to undertake group testing. The necessary practice may be gained if an experienced and an inexperienced person co-operate in the giving and assessment of a test.

485. It has been assumed above, and we think reasonably, that head teachers and class teachers with the training suggested could safely be entrusted with the administration of group tests. Individual testing is however a different matter. It is not to be expected that even every large school will have on its staff a teacher trained and competent for the purpose. We take the view that the giving of individual tests is the province of the trained psychologist, or of the teacher with the Diploma in Education or the B.Ed. degree who has specialised in the subject. We therefore recommend that authorities should ensure that they have on their staffs a sufficient number of fully qualified specialists. They will require to face the fact that individual testing is a slow business and cannot be carried out by a teacher responsible for full-time class teaching; but they should realise that one hour's attention by a specialist might in certain cases obviate misdirection at the transfer stage.

*Article 55 of the Regulations for the Training of Teachers provides for courses for teachers in actual service.

[page 121]

486. If it be granted that there is available a satisfactory technique for ascertaining a child's natural capacity, there is still required an answer to at least one other question: How shall his stage in advancement in school subjects be tested? And within that there is another question: What subjects are the most essential and the most convenient for testing? The reply that most readily comes to the mind is to have a common standardising examination for the whole area in all the examinable subjects of the primary school curriculum. This policy was however found in practice to raise several difficulties. Though purporting to be only a test, it implicitly imposed a syllabus on all the schools, particularly in subjects like history and geography. It encouraged the cramming of factual information and so gave a wrong bias to teaching. It fettered the initiative of teachers and caused strain both to them and to pupils. It led to the neglect of the unexamined but culturally important subjects like music and art. It even led to a suspicion that the comparative merits of different schools and staffs were being judged by authorities in accordance with the average mark attained. Perhaps the greatest practical difficulty of all, however, particularly in large areas, was to evolve and maintain an efficient standardised scheme of marking.

487. These difficulties were widely if slowly recognised. Changes were made in two directions. Subjects other than English and Arithmetic were dropped, and the papers were set in such a way that special coaching was made more difficult. The main constituents of the English papers in many areas are now a series of simple questions to test the comprehension of a given passage of straightforward prose, and a list of subjects on one or more of which the pupils are asked to write paragraphs.

488. These tendencies towards the improvement of the control or qualifying test have been considerably influenced by the building up during the same period of a standardising technique on the same principle as the intelligence test. These scholastic or attainments tests have not reached the same stage of maturity as the intelligence tests. There has however been considerable development in recent years as regards both quantity and reliability of the test material available, and the supply could be made adequate for all reasonable needs. The characteristic virtue of the attainments test is that the type of answer demanded and the method of scoring are so simple and straightforward that they practically eliminate the personal factor in assessment. The limitation in the value of the attainments test is that it does not test sustained thinking or the capacity to marshal ideas or facts from different sources. Admittedly these qualities can best be tested at this stage by a composition or paragraph showing consecutive thought or the development of an idea. But the problem of standardising the marking of such a composition, particularly when the number of scripts is very large, is one for which it is not easy to find a satisfactory solution.

489. It may not have escaped notice that both intelligence and attainments tests are "literary" in the sense that they both involve direct transfer of ideas between the mind and a sheet of paper. A child may well have, and often has, certain aptitudes that cannot satisfactorily be tested in this way. Aptitude has been well defined by one of our witnesses as "intrinsic mental and physical dispositional fitness to undertake a certain activity". If the existence of special aptitudes at the pre-adolescent stage could be definitely established they would undoubtedly be of great help in placing in suitable courses pupils with limited capacity for literary expression. We have been

[page 122]

informed that while there is no practical or theoretical difficulty in the devising of group tests for this purpose, the amount of research work done in this direction has been very limited, and it may be a long time before appropriate and properly standardised tests could be devised, but such research should be immediately and actively undertaken.

490. While we are therefore not in a position to make any recommendation about the testing of aptitudes, we hold that this is a factor in determining the future course of a child that should be now fully considered. If, as already recommended in this Report, a greater variety of handwork is introduced into the primary school and more initiative allowed to the pupil, the teaching staff will have more opportunity than at present of observing the special interests and aptitudes of individual pupils. Closer contact with the home and the opportunity for voluntary homework which we have also recommended, should enable the teacher to get information about the hobbies of the pupils and the way they spend their leisure time out of school. We suggest that the teacher might record impressions of aptitude on a five-point scale from A to E in respect of all the secondary courses available, adding a special note on exceptional cases.

491. We do not regard it as either advisable or necessary that we should draw up a detailed scheme of transfer procedure. Our general recommendations are as follows:

(1) That the whole procedure be devised and used for no other purposes than those laid down in section 21 of the Act of 1945, viz., for enabling an opinion to be formed as to the courses from which each pupil shows reasonable promise of profiting and a decision to be made, after taking into account the wishes of the parent, as to the course to which the pupil is to be admitted.

(2) That in the making of the transfer scheme education committees should be required to consult representatives of the teachers in the area.

(3) That a transfer board be constituted with full powers to administer the scheme and make decisions in accordance therewith, as distinct from the framing of the statutory scheme, and that it should consist of the director of education, representatives of the headmasters and staffs of the primary and secondary schools and representatives of the education committee, with H.M. Inspector for the district as assessor; provided that the representation of the education committee should not exceed one third of the whole membership.

(4) That two intelligence tests be taken, one preferably a year to eighteen months before the transfer stage; and that the second test should be applied to all the pupils of the transfer year plus any others whose transfer is being considered on account of age.

(5) That provision be made for obtaining the opinion of the primary school about (a) the attainments, (b) the aptitudes and (c) the personal qualities and home conditions of the child.

(6) That the pupils should take standardised attainments tests in English and Arithmetic; or alternatively a common examination for the area in those subjects requiring mainly the same type of answer as the attainments test. The teacher's estimate of attainment in English and Arithmetic should be properly scaled so that the standard from school to school may be comparable.

(7) That the final mark of each pupil be found by taking the average of intelligence test, attainments test and teacher's scaled estimate.

[page 123]

This will be the main basis for transfer subject to consideration of aptitude and other personal factors.

(8) On the basis of this evidence the parent should be informed of the courses from which the child shows reasonable promise of profiting and his wishes should be ascertained. The expressed views of the parent should in accordance with the general principle laid down in section 20 of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1945, be taken into account before a final decision is reached. In all cases of real difficulty interviews with parents should be encouraged.

(9) In cases of doubt as between two courses the pupil should generally be given the option of taking the longer or more onerous course, at least for a probationary period. After lists of pupils for transfer have been submitted from the primary school there should be provision for free and direct consultation at any time about any pupil between receiving and sending schools.

(10) Techniques have been devised as a result of an enquiry on selection for secondary education conducted by the Scottish Council for Research in Education* to determine the rough limits that may be used for the separation of the pupils fit for different forms of secondary education, and it is recommended that use be made of these techniques. Borderlines between groups should be adjusted in the light of experience of the working of the transfer scheme.

492. The Report contains many suggestions and recommendations which cannot advantageously be summarised for inclusion here. This is particularly true of Chapter XI (The Subjects of the Curriculum) and Chapter XIII (School Organisation), and we have excluded from this summary the contents of these chapters.

493. In this paragraph we give the recommendations and suggestions which have been selected because of their suitability for summarising.

(1) The excellent memoranda on various aspects of primary education prepared by a panel of H.M. Inspectors should be published. (Paragraph 3.)

(2) Age 12 should be regarded as the normal time for transfer from primary to secondary education. (Paragraph 8.)

(3) School buildings should be sited so that there is a minimum of interference from outside noise. Similarly, the buildings should never be in such a position that windows have to be kept shut because of smoke from chimneys. For reasons of safety and freedom from noise, school buildings should be at some distance from busy thoroughfares. (Paragraph 31.)

*"Selection for Secondary Education" by William McClelland (University of London Press). (It is understood that a summary of this volume is in course of preparation.)

[page 124]

(4) The "school" should be regarded as the whole site, providing the necessary internal and external accommodation. One part of the external accommodation should have a good non-skid surface for physical exercises and games; another part should be in grass; another available for gardening activities. (Paragraph 32.)

(5) No more large schools of the barrack type should be erected in large towns. Where such schools exist the number on the roll should be drastically reduced and the interior reconstructed to give the maximum of amenities. (Paragraph 33.)

(6) School shelters should be erected contiguous to or incorporated in the main building, heated if possible, and giving access under cover to lavatories. (Paragraph 34.)

(7) The approved temperature should be reached at or soon after the beginning of the morning session. (Paragraph 35.)

(8) There should be strict adherence to the regulation of the Scottish Education Department that there should be a thermometer in every classroom. (Paragraph 31.)

(9) Shading from sun-glare should be provided. Lighting should be ample and skilfully placed according to the purpose of the room. (Paragraph 39.)

(10) Colour schemes should be so designed as to give pleasure to the pupils, and suitable schemes of wall decoration by pictures should be considered. (Paragraph 40.)

(11) The most useful blackboard is the rotary type. (Paragraph 41.)

(12) Ample storage accommodation should be provided in every classroom. (Paragraph 42.)

(13) Furniture should always be of the movable type. (Paragraph 43.)

(14) Physical defects involving special care or some modification of educational treatment brought to light by the routine medical inspections, of which there should be at least three, should be notified to the class teacher. (Paragraph 46.)

(15) The education and medical services should co-operate in narrowing the gap that still exists in many areas between diagnosis and treatment. (Paragraph 46.)

(16) There should be continuing co-operation between home and school during the whole of primary education. (Paragraph 49.)

(17) The visits of parents to school should be welcomed and cultivated . (Paragraph 51.)

(18) Various methods of securing co-operation between parent and teacher are commended. (Paragraphs 53 to 57.)

(19) Authorities who are in a position to do so should experiment with combined nursery and infant schools. (Paragraph 62.)

[page 125]

(20) There should be no special training course for teachers for nursery school work only. (Paragraph 63.)

(21) Teachers already in service who desire to qualify as teachers in a nursery school should be encouraged to do so. (Paragraph 64.)

(22) Suitable steps should be taken to have the period spent by helpers in nursery schools recognised as a suitable preliminary training for social service posts. (Paragraph 65.)

(23) No school with fewer than 10 pupils is a satisfactory educational unit. (Paragraph 67.)

(24) 400 to 450 is a reasonable maximum enrolment for a primary school; and no primary school should have an enrolment of over 650. (Paragraph 69.)

(25) As teachers become available and accommodation is provided the maximum number to be in the charge of one teacher in the primary school should by administrative action be gradually reduced to not more than 30. A definite pronouncement of policy to this effect should be made at an early date by the Secretary of State. (Paragraph 74.)

(26) Where there is a diminishing school-roll there should always be a reasonable time-lag before a reduction in teaching staff is effected. (Paragraph 75.)

(27) In a one-teacher school covering the age range 5-12 the maximum number should be 25. (Paragraph 76.)

(28) In classes for backward or retarded children the maximum number should be 20. (Paragraph 76.)

(29) Every education authority should be required to undertake the education of children confined for considerable periods in hospitals and sanatoria in their area. Not more than 20 pupils should in any circumstances be assigned to one teacher. Similar provision should be made for children who are physical invalids in their own homes. (Paragraph 77.)

(30) The curriculum and methods of the primary school should be thought out afresh. (Paragraph 80.)

(31) Curriculum and methods should follow the child's natural line of development. (Paragraph 83.)

(32) No curriculum is suitable for young children that does not make allowance for natural activities. (Paragraph 86.)

(33) Hand-and-eye training forms along with oral expression the core of the primary curriculum. This important matter is discussed in Chapter XI. (Paragraph 87.)

(34) The primary curriculum should be thought of as dealing with things that are three-dimensional rather than flat. (Paragraph 88.)

(35) A workroom or rooms should be provided in every primary school (Paragraph 90.)

[page 126]

(36) To encourage community spirit children should be invited to form class or school collections, which might embrace a wide variety of human interest. (Paragraph 92.)

(37) More subtle and systematic use should be made of the child's tendency to imitate and repeat, and the best technique should be a subject of further discussion and research. (Paragraph 96.)

(38) Practice in graphic illustration should be continuous from the earliest years, and so become a spontaneous impulse. (Paragraph 98.)

(39) Teachers should reside in the community which is the scene of their daily labours, and to enable this to be done education authorities should, where necessary, see that suitable housing or hostel accommodation is provided. (Paragraph 102.)

(40) Teachers should take a full share in the adult social life and activities of their community. (Paragraph 103.)

(41) The schools should wage a planned and unrelenting campaign against the worthless jumble of slipshod ungrammatical and vulgar forms of speech often masquerading as Scots. (Paragraphs 307 and 308.)

(42) In the higher classes of the primary school a short but definite weekly period should be set aside exclusively for Scottish traditions and language. (Paragraph 309.)

(43) The production of anthologies of Scots verse and prose should be encouraged, which should include recent work of good quality. (Paragraph 310.)

(44) The Scottish National Dictionary will be of great value to Scottish schools, but only if it is regarded as a guide to living study. (Paragraph 311.)

(45) As a definite policy in all Scottish schools children from the earliest years should learn by ear a considerable number of the best Scottish folk tunes. A responsible body should undertake the publication of a widely representative collection of the best Scottish songs. (Paragraph 315.)

(46) The excellent tradition of using the fiddle as a means of instruction in Scottish songs and dances should be revived. (Paragraph 316.)

(47) The revival of the teaching of the old dances and singing games should be encouraged and extended. (Paragraph 317.)

(48) In the teaching of Scottish History a beginning should always be made from the actual environment of the child. Such a method will give him not only a grasp of present-day Scottish life but also a motive for getting to know the historic background of the life of Scotland, and also something of the long story of human development. (Paragraph 318.)

(49) There should be planned excursions and provision for exchange of pupils or classes to give young people a chance to visit and appreciate the unfamiliar parts of their native land. (Paragraph 320.)

(50) The industry of the district should wherever possible be reflected in the crafts of the school. (Paragraph 321.)

[page 127]

(51) All Scottish children should learn something of Gaelic life and legends and traditions. In Gaelic-speaking areas all possible steps should be taken to get an adequate number of Gaelic-speaking teachers and an ample supply of suitable class books and texts. (Paragraph 324.)

(52) Education authorities should assist the Arts Council to play a considerable part in fostering the development of the Arts in Scotland. (Paragraph 326.)

(53) Pupils should be supplied, as a part of the school equipment, with working texts, in the form of children's Bibles or of such parts of Holy Scripture as may be suitable for them at any particular stage. These textbooks should be bound in the same style as other school books. If it is desired, a translation in twentieth century English should be used. These books should include all the passages recommended in the agreed Joint Syllabus. For the younger primary classes there should be a simpler form of children's Bible with pictures. All accessory material such as maps and large pictures should be supplied for religious instruction in the same way as for other subjects. Every child should have as his own property a copy of the Authorised or the Revised Version. (Paragraph 407.)

(54) All children should know the great traditional stories of the Bible. There should be more efficient use of the Bible as a tool or instrument of religious teaching. (Paragraph 408.)

(55) There should be adequate training of, and careful preparation by, all teachers taking part in religious instruction. (Paragraph 409.)

(56) There should be no compulsory homework. (Paragraph 414.)

(57) Various forms of voluntary homework which can be carried out with the co-operation of the teacher are suggested. (Paragraphs 418 and 419.)

(58) Three important interests of children outside school are the wireless, the cinema and juvenile organisations, and all merit some attention during school hours. (Paragraph 421.)

(59) One or two periods weekly should be devoted to school-and-home activities. (Paragraph 422.)

(60) There should be no examinations in the primary school for the purpose of awarding prizes or giving class places. (Paragraph 423.)

(61) To find out natural capacity intelligence testing should be a normal part of primary school procedure, and group tests should be taken three times at the primary stage. (Paragraph 424.) .

(62) Simple tests should be held periodically to enable the teacher to find the extent to which instruction has been absorbed and the special merits or difficulties of each pupil. (Paragraph 425.)

(63) The Secretary of State should give a wide remit on the whole problem of the handicapped child to a future Advisory Council. (Paragraph 428.)

[page 128]

(64) Teachers of handicapped children should be specially trained experts. (Paragraphs 432 to 433.)

(65) All schemes and arrangements made for the benefit of handicapped children should emphasise and define the kind of co-operation required from the professions, public services, organisations and government departments concerned. (Paragraph 435.)

(66) Certain services must be operated on a national basis and under unified supervision. (Paragraph 436.)

(67) Socially handicapped children should be included for all official purposes within the definition of handicapped children. (Paragraph 438.)

(68) Where education authorities do not take the initiative in setting up a child guidance service the Secretary of State should press them to do so as a necessary link in any complete educational provision. (Paragraph 444.)

(69) In the supervision and treatment of children on probation there should be close co-operation between school, probation officer and, if possible, parent. Where the Court decides that a period in an approved school is necessary, graded schools should be available for short as well as for longer periods. Children on licence from approved schools should always be under local supervision and occasional visits to or from the school should be arranged. The system of probation should be extended to cover the supervision of those on licence from approved schools. (Paragraph 445.)

(70) As the great majority of juvenile delinquents are fundamentally a social and educational problem rather than a criminal one the agencies for dealing with them should be adjusted accordingly. (Paragraph 446.)

(71) The whole problem of approved schools, including that of the curriculum, can be dealt with on a thorough and systematic basis only if the schools are fully co-ordinated as an integral part of the educational system. (Paragraph 447.)

(72) The results of research should be published in an epitomised form for practical use. (Paragraph 449.)

(73) Researches and experiments assisted from public funds should show some prospect of the discovery and promulgation of new facts, ideas and techniques that will be of educational benefit to school children. (Paragraph 450.)

(74) The Secretary of State and education authorities should take full advantage of the powers conferred on them by the Act of 1945 to put the Research Council into a financial position commensurate with its functions. (Paragraph 457.)

(75) Much research work remains to be done about the planning and equipment of schools. (Paragraph 452.) .

(76) The number and variety of the main subjects of research, and the urgency of them, are so widely known that it is not necessary to specify them in this Report. (Paragraph 454.)

(77) The Research Council should have a permanent full-time general staff with the principal duties of inspiring research, directing it into the most profitable channels, maintaining high scientific standards and co-ordinating the work of individual researchers. All persons undertaking worthwhile

[page 129]

enquiries should have the whole-hearted co-operation of officials and school staffs. A roll should be maintained of teachers all over the country who are willing to give help as required. (Paragraph 455.)

(78) The Research Council should publish a bulletin, annually or oftener, giving a brief account of publications issued elsewhere and the conclusions therein stated. (Paragraph 456.)

(79) Before any experiment, whatever the size and whatever the level, is undertaken, consultation should take place with the Research Council to get information about previous experiments of the kind and to prevent unnecessary duplication of effort. (Paragraph 459.)

(80) In special cases the Secretary of State should exercise his power to give direct financial support for any responsible educational experiment that appears to give promise of results that would be of benefit to Scottish education; and the education authorities should be encouraged to second any teachers selected to carry out the experiment. (Paragraph 462.)

(81) A situation should not be tolerated in which the course chosen for a child is in any way influenced by the school accommodation available. It is the plain and urgent duty of education authorities to ensure that no child should have his reasonable ambitions thwarted or circumscribed. (Paragraph 471.)

(82) All competitive examinations at the stage of transfer should be abolished. (Paragraph 472.)

(83) The transfer arrangements should take account of the new situation as to the provision of secondary education created by the Act of 1945. (Paragraph 474.)

(84) Primary education of the most gifted children should be so spaced that they do not reach the age of transfer till the 11 to 11½ period; and broadly speaking the maximum age of transfer should be in the 12 to 12½ period. (Paragraph 475.)

(85) As the views of primary teachers should be of great value in deciding the best secondary course for each pupil, they should consciously study each child with this purpose in view; they must be well informed about the standard and content of the secondary courses; and at least one of them should be able to speak with two recent years' experience of the child's development. (Paragraph 477.)

(86) So that there may be a sufficient supply of teachers in all schools capable of administering group tests, "Article 55" classes leading to a qualification to undertake such testing should be extended to all areas, and education authorities should give every encouragement to their teachers to attend. (Paragraph 484.)

(87) The giving of individual tests should be the province of the trained psychologist, or of the teacher with the Diploma of Education or the B.Ed. degree who has specialised in the subject. Education authorities should ensure that they have on their staffs a sufficient number of specialists for this purpose. (Paragraph 485.)

(88) The teacher should record impressions of aptitude of each pupil on a five-point scale from A to E in respect of all the secondary courses available. (Paragraph 490.)

[page 130]

(89) The whole transfer procedure should be devised and used for no other purposes than those laid down in section 21 of the Act of 1945; in the making of the transfer scheme education committees should consult representatives of teachers in the area; a transfer board should be constituted in each area with full power to administer the scheme and make decisions; two intelligence tests should be taken; provision should be made for obtaining the opinion of the primary school about the attainments, the aptitudes and the personal qualities and home conditions of the child; the pupils should take standardised attainments tests in English and Arithmetic or, alternatively, a common examination for the area in these subjects; the final mark of each pupil should be found by taking the average of intelligence fest, attainments test and teacher's scaled estimates; on the basis of this evidence the parent should be informed of the courses from which the pupil shows reasonable promise of profiting; as laid down in the Act of 1945 the views of the parent should be taken into account before a final decision is reached; in cases of real doubt as between two courses the pupil should generally be given the option of taking the longer or more onerous course; there should be provision for free and direct consultation about any pupil between receiving and sending schools; use should be made of the techniques devised to determine the rough limits that may be used for the separation of the pupils fit for different forms of secondary education. (Paragraph 491.)

We are greatly indebted to our Secretaries, Mr. T. Grainger Stewart and Mr. Archibald Davidson, for their unflagging industry and ready assistance at all times in the preparation of this Report.

We have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient Servants,

T. GRAINGER STEWART, Secretary
ARCHD. DAVIDSON, Assistant Secretary

St. Andrew's House, Edinburgh, 1.
5th September, 1946.

[page 131]

1. List of Bodies and Individuals who gave Oral Evidence
(Some of these also submitted memoranda)

Church of Scotland.
Representative Church Council of the Episcopal Church in Scotland.
Roman Catholic Hierarchy of Scotland.

Edinburgh Merchant Company Education Board.
George Heriot's Trust, Edinburgh, Governors of.
High School of Dundee, Directors of.
Marr College, Troon , Governors of.
Morrison's Academy, Crieff, Governors of.
Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen, Governors of.

Directors of Education in Scotland, Association of.
Educational Institute of Scotland.
Film Institute, Scottish Film Council of the British.
Handicraft Teachers, Incorporated. Institute of.
Headmistresses, Scottish Branch of the Association of.
Labour Colleges, National Council of.
Medical Officers of Health, Scottish Branch of the Society of.
National Galleries of Scotland, Board of Trustees for the.
Nursery School Association of Great Britain, Co-ordinating Committee of the Scottish Branches of the.
Physical Education (Women), Scottish League for.
Primary Teachers' Association.
Research in Education, Scottish Council for.
Saltire Society.
School Broadcasting, Scottish Council for.
School Music Association, Scottish.
Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Central Committee of the.
Scottish Women's Rural Institutes.
Women of Great Britain, National Council of.

Campbell, A. D., Esq., Andover School, Brechin.
Drever, Professor J., D.Phil., Edinburgh.
Drummond, Miss Margaret, O.B.E., Edinburgh.
Duncan, L. H., Esq.; Ayr County Child Guidance Clinics.
Hawkins, R. T., Esq.; Scottish Education Department.
Jardine, J ., Esq.; O.B.E., Scottish Education Department.
Kerr, Sir John Graham, F.R.S., M.P.
Lawrie, W. J ., Esq., Denbeath School, Fife.
Lind, Robert. Esq.; Murroes School, Angus.
McAllister, Miss Anne H., D.Sc., Glasgow Training Centre.
McGarvie, John, Esq., Wallacetown School, Ayr.
McIntosh , D. M., Esq.; Ph.D., Director of Education, Fife.
Maclarty , Miss A. C., M.B.E., Kilmarnock Academy.
McLeod , Robert. Esq., O.B.E., Mus.Doc., Edinburgh.
Martin, Miss J, S., Grange School, Grangemouth.
Marie Hilda, Sister, Notre Dame Child Guidance Clinic, Glasgow.
Methven , Dr. Margaret M., Child Guidance Clinic, Edinburgh.
Morrison, John , Esq., M.B ,E., Director of Education, Aberdeenshire
Paterson, Miss Ann T., Child Guidance Clinic, Edinburgh.
Robertson, W. A., Esq., Ph.D., H.M. Senior Chief Inspector of Schools
Rule, John. Esq.; Milesmark School, Fife.
Saltoun. The Rt. Hon. Lord, M.C.
Simpson, G. W., Esq , M.D., D.P.H., Scottish Education Department
Smart, John, Esq., Riverside School, Stirling.
Younie, James, Esq., Park School, Alloa.

2. List of Bodies and Individuals who submitted Memoranda or Letter.

County Councils in Scotland, Association of.
Banff, County Council of.

[page 132]

Dundee, Corporation of.
Edinburgh, Corporation of.
Moray and Nairn, Joint County Council of.

St. Andrews, University of.
Aberdeen, University of.

Dundee Institute of Art and Technology, Governors of.
Edinburgh College of Art, Governors of.
Edinburgh College of Domestic Science, Council of.

Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science, Governors of.

Aberdeen Fabian Society, Education Group of the.
Accident Prevention Council, Scottish.
An Comunn Gaidbealach.
Chartered Accountants of Scotland, Joint Committee of Councils of.
Child Guidance and Parent-Teacher Association of Glasgow.
Citizenship, Association for Education in.
Communist Party of Great Britain, Scottish District of the.
Deaf, Scottish Association for the.
English Association (Scottish Branch).
Glasgow Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Montessori Society (Scottish Branch).
National Farmers' Union and Chamber of Agriculture of Scotland.
Parents' Association. Dollar Branch of the.
Savings Committee, Schools Advisory Committee of the Scottish.
Schoolmasters' Association, Scottish.
Teachers of Speech and Drama, Incorporated Association of.
Unionist Association, Central Council of the Scottish.
Voluntary Youth Organisations, Scottish Standing Conference of.
Y.M.C.A.s., Scotttsh National Council of.

Brison, Alexander, Esq., Bearsden , Dunbartonshire.
Chaplyn, Dr. Marjorie A., Mary Erskine School for Girls. Edinburgh.
Cunningham, Miss Kate E., Edinburgh.
Cuthbertson, K. J., Esq., H.M. Inspector of Schools.
Donaldson. Rev. Murray, on behalf of Listening Group, Musselburgh.
Fleming, John Esq., Tighnabruaich.
Good, William, Esq., Prestwick.
Henderson. Mrs. I. and others, Inverness.
Hislop. Miss A. W., Glasgow.
Kerr, Miss M. E., Edinburgh.
Kydd, Flight-Lieut. J. J., R.A.F.
Lang, A., Esq., formerly H,M. Senior Chief Inspector of Schools.
MacGregor. J. D., Esq., H.M. Inspector of Schools.
Mackay, A. M., Esq., Port Logan. Wigtownshire.
McKinnon, Miss I. G., Aberdeen.
Matheson, J., Esq., Wishaw.
Maxton , G. S., Esq., Ph.D., Edinburgh.
Rodger, A. G., Esq., O.B.E., Scottish Education Department.
Stephen, Miss E. M., Edinburgh.
Waddell, Miss Bertha, Hallside, Lanarkshire.
Wood, Miss Wendy, Lochailort, Inverness-shire.

Clinics and Schools Visited

Alloa, The Park School.
Glasgow, Central Child Guidance Clinic. Renfrew Street.
Glasgow, Notre Dame Child Guidance Clinic.
Stirlingshire, Westquarter School.

[page 133]

1. Though it possesses family traits derived from the nurseries and kindergartens of the last century, the nursery school is nevertheless the child of the present century, and, as such, has been profoundly affected by modern trends of thought, particularly in medicine, sociology, psychology and education.

Before and during the war of 1914-1918 a body of public opinion was gradually being formed which, concerned about the falling birthrate and the high mortality among young children, was in a mood to consider favourably measures designed to safeguard young life. In the years following the war, the growth of a more enlightened conception of the needs of the young child was coincident with many far-reaching social and political changes. The pioneers of the nursery school movement, notably Rachel and Margaret McMillan, found in consequence a soil to some extent prepared for their ideas: a small but influential section of the public lent strong support to their claim that the nursery school was both a powerful instrument in the maintenance of a high standard of national health and a sound basis for the structure of national education. During the third decade of the century, many eminent men and women in all professions and of all political parties associated themselves with the nursery school movement to which further publicity was given by a very good press.

Since the outbreak of the present war, the benefits of some features of nursery school education have been widely extended to children in wartime nurseries and in nursery classes, and a large number of people from first-hand experience of young evacuees have become acutely aware of the necessity for training young children in hygienic habits, and are prepared therefore to look to the nursery school for guidance.

2. The position now is that the nursery school, having emerged swiftly from the experimental stage, and having commended itself to public opinion, will by the Education (Scotland) Act of 1945 gain statutory recognition fuller than that conferred by previous enactments. Whereas the Education (Scotland) Act of 1918 empowered Education Authorities to supply and aid such schools, and the Day Schools (Scotland) Code, 1939, Article 18, recognised their place in the Day School System, the Act of 1945, section 1(1) and (2) goes much further in laying down that it shall be the duty of every Education Authority to ensure adequate and efficient provision of nursery schools and classes. This statutory requirement, mandatory and not permissive, ensures that steps will be taken to meet the demand, wherever it arises, for nursery school education.

3. In the form of a natural extension of the good home, the nursery school creates an environment in which the rapidly expanding needs of the young child after he has begun to walk and talk, can best be met. If all parents had the desire, the wisdom, the time, the money, the patience to make of their homes an environment in which young children could rightly use and strengthen their powers of body and mind, and in which they could learn to adjust themselves to the company of other children so as to be prepared for entry into the larger world, then the demand for nursery schools would be much less valid. The need for nursery schools is obviously clamant [urgent] in districts, often densely populated, where children spend their days under wholly unsuitable conditions. But, even in good working-class or middle-class districts, a well-run nursery school will eloquently advertise the benefits accruing from this type of education, and a demand for further provision will inevitably arise.

The nurture of the nursery school is of special value to children living in industrial areas, in flats and houses without gardens, in homes where the mother is delicate, where only one parent is alive, where the child is an only one, where the child is in the sole charge of elderly guardians, where the relationship between the parents is an unhappy one, where the mother is overwhelmed with domestic duties or has to go out to work or is desirous of practising her profession. Such and similar conditions are not likely to decrease in the post-war years and will intensify the need for nursery schools,

It should be borne in mind that education in the home and education in the nursery school are complementary and not rival processes. The child, lease-lent to the school, is not lost to the home. In daily practice, the nursery school demonstrates convincingly that each enriches the other in a powerful alliance of mutual understanding and co-operation.

4. The aim of nursery school education is to provide the right conditions for growth and so to ensure the harmonising of the whole personality of the child. Whenever reference is made to aspects of development, whether physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or social, it must not be forgotten that these are all interdependent aspects of a unity.

[page 134]

5. To the layman, the value of the physical aspect is perhaps the most obvious. In general, the term covers medical care, balanced diet, adequate rest and sleep, play within doors and in the open air, suitable clothing, and training in hygienic habits.

In the prevention and cure of disease, early measures are of paramount importance. Medical evidence, based on investigation of the physical condition of school entrants at the age of five, indicates that many children are then suffering from persistent ailments and defects which would have yielded to treatment, had this been administered in the pre-school period. Unless the nursery school has its appropriate place in the chain of medical service, linking pre-natal clinics, maternity and child welfare centres and other health services, with the regular medical inspection of school children, much previous good work will be undone, and public money wasted.

Deprivation of rest and sleep devitalises the young child, increasing his susceptibility to illness and decreasing his capacity for creative activity. Whereas in many homes conditions are not such as to conduce to tranquil slumber, either by night or by day, the nursery school provides all the necessary inducements to sleep and so at least ensures that the child forms the beneficial habit of relaxation, and has the opportunity of making up, in part, the sleep lost at home.

Meals should be dietetically balanced and made attractive to the eye and the palate. Preferably, they should be cooked on the premises. Eaten in pleasant surroundings, they make a great contribution to the general well-being of the child, increasing energy, securing nervous stability and facilitating the elimination of wastes.

6. Though the other aspects of nursery school education, mental, moral, social, may not all be so readily apprehended as the physical, they are of far-reaching importance. Nursery school technique is based on the general recognition that the period from two to five years of age is one of the most plastic periods of development. Most teachers of ethics and religion as well as psychologists and psychiatrists agree that adolescents and adults are profoundly affected by the experiences of these early years. Although it is true that educable capacity cannot be increased, the nursery school provides opportunities for its maximum development as well as for modification of temperament and character.

7. The word "teaching" is rarely used in writing about nursery schools because of possible misunderstanding by those whose connotation of the word is restricted to something formal and superimposed. But the child is taught; the objects he handles, the things he sees, the projects he plans, the actions he performs, the companionship he shares, the atmosphere of affection and security by which he is surrounded - all these are his teachers.

8. In a good nursery school, the spacious rooms, gay walls, simple suitable furniture, the garden with trees and flowers and animals provide a delightful environment for young children. Here, there is a time for wise passiveness, for leisure to stand and stare, as well as a time for rapt absorption in work. Sleeping, bathing, playing alone or with companions, moving freely indoors and in the open air, children form healthy habits, acquire increasing control of their limbs, attain a surprising degree of manipulative skill and develop a confident fearless attitude towards life. A happy alternation of routine and free play patterns these early days with security and adventure. Bricks to arrange, pictures to paint, sand to build in, water to pour, songs to sing, tables to lay, seeds to plant, a jungle gym on which to climb, pets to tend, questions to pose and answer, stories to hear and to tell - by such and other occupations the child's natural energy and craving for experience are satisfied. Play is both his way of life and his emotional safety valve. His expanding world gives him ever fresh material for thought and speech. At one time personal initiative is applauded, at another the group interest is made the paramount attraction. By close contact with other children the child begins to realise that the claims he makes on the community involve the admission of their claims upon him.

9. An important part of the work of a nursery school consists in helping children to adjust themselves to their environment. All normal children have days when their behaviour takes undesirable forms; they will appear unusually aggressive, self-centred, nervous, acquisitive, capricious or disingenuous. The behaviour of a "problem" child often differs only in degree from that of a so-called normal child, but the lapses are much more persistent and the conduct more markedly undesirable. When "problem" children find their way into the nursery school, the training and experience of the staff may, in some instances, enable them to detect the source of the maladjustment and apply appropriate treatment. In other instances, they will wisely realise the necessity for expert advice and recommend to the parents the child's attendance at a clinic where a psychiatrist or psychologist will diagnose and prescribe treatment. In such a way the nursery school may prevent the problem child from developing into a future delinquent.

10. There is general agreement that the site of a nursery school for 40 to 50 children should extend to approximately one acre, that the orientation of the building should be S.S.E., that the garden and external layout should be treated as an essential part of the provision. The school should be situated within half-a-mile of the homes, and so located

[page 135]

as not to necessitate the children crossing a busy thoroughfare. There should be rooms for play and other purposes, and a "loggia" or glass verandah. The lavatories and cloakrooms should be easily accessible from the playrooms. Meals should be cooked on the premises, and the kitchen planned accordingly. There should be adequate storage for beds, prams, food, etc., and adequate drying accommodation. In the playrooms there should be under-floor heating.

11. Wherever possible, the above requirements should be met, but in the immediate post-war period such provision may not be always practicable; sites in densely populated areas will be difficult to obtain, and labour and materials will not, at once, be forthcoming. It may, however, be possible to adapt war-time nurseries, vacant rooms in primary schools and other suitable premises, for the use of nursery schools. Where sites are scarce and there is no room for gardens, consideration might be given to the erection of nursery schools with roof gardens, on the top floor of new tenements.

In all such adaptations, there should be as close a conformity as possible to the best nursery school standards. As soon as is practicable temporary premises should be replaced by buildings erected specifically for nursery education.

12. In a nursery school of 40 pupils, the permanent staff should consist of at least one fully qualified teacher (the superintendent), one assistant teacher, and two helpers. In exceptional circumstances, such staffing might even be considered adequate for a school of 40 to 50 pupils.

There should be a cook, a full-time domestic assistant, and a charwoman for two or three hours daily. Only minor laundry-work would be done on the premises. Part-time seasonal help would be required in the garden. The supervision of the building outwith school hours, desirable on account of the valuable equipment, might be secured, without undue expense, if one of the domestic staff or the gardener lived in the vicinity.

The services of a doctor and a nurse would be required periodically, the frequency of their visits being determined by the particular needs of the school.

13. The success of nursery school education depends ultimately on the wisdom and devotion of the staff. Great care should therefore be exercised in their selection.

The superintendent should be a teacher, fully qualified for nursery school work, with experience and with personal qualities enabling her to establish easily a relationship of confidence and co-operation not only with the children and the staff but also with the parents. An important part of her duties is the supervision and training of the helpers.

The assistant teacher should, if possible, be equally well qualified and, in the absence of the superintendent, should be capable of acting as her deputy.

14. At present, the requisite qualification for a principal teacher in a nursery school, as laid down in the Regulations for the Training of Teachers, is the Teacher's General Certificate, with nursery school endorsement. The question may be raised whether or not a better preparation for nursery school teaching might be secured by some alteration in the present training college course leading to the General Certificate. For example, in a course of four years' duration, the first part might be devoted to a general basic training. In the second part, alternative specialised courses might be available, one for those students desirous of teaching children from 2 to 7 years of age, the other for those desirous of teaching children from 5 upwards.

15. In order to provide teachers for the immediate post-war period, it may be necessary to extend the normal field of recruitment. It may be considered desirable to train selected teachers for the post of superintendent; these would often be drawn from infant divisions but might also come from other parts of the school. It may also be possible to recruit for training as assistants, persons with experience which may be deemed acceptable in lieu of the normal requirements for entrance into a Training College. Such experience would, in general, include the nurture of young children, and might be gained in nursing, welfare work, children's clinics, war-time nurseries and other similar spheres of activity. Possible recruits may also include married women and helpers in nursery schools who have shown special aptitude. Moreover, an opportunity for further training may be given to selected assistants, who, after successfully completing the prescribed emergency training course and after a period of satisfactory service in a nursery school, desire to qualify for the more responsible post of superintendent.

The regulations governing such admissions to the Training Colleges, as well as the length and the nature of the training courses, will fall to be determined in the light of post-war circumstances.

Whatever be the system of recruitment and the type of training, there should be adequate safeguards to ensure that the prospective nursery school teachers, whether superintendents or assistants, are likely to prove suitable exponents of nursery school principles and practice. Failing such safeguards, the success of nursery school education may be gravely imperilled.

[page 136]

16. Helpers should be young (preferably from 16 to 20 years of age), healthy, energetic, and of equable temperament. They should have a good general education, some aptitude for the work, and, in particular, they should speak well.

Normally, helpers should not be retained beyond the age of 21. The post does not offer sufficient responsibility or remuneration to satisfy older women. The experience gained from the care of young children sometimes serves as a useful introduction to analogous work such as child nursing.

The domestic staff should be selected with some cognisance of the probable influence they will exercise over the children who come in contact with them.

17. In paragraphs 13 and 16 allusion has been made to qualities desirable in the staff of a nursery school. The reasons why some of these qualities are so desirable are not always understood. In a nursery school day, many things "not in the bond" have often to be done, and done cheerfully, by the staff when they are, strictly speaking, off-duty. The patience, good temper and unselfishness of the nursery school teacher are being continually put to the test. Sticklers for their rights who narrowly interpret their duties are very rare in nursery schools: they neither find nor give satisfaction.

18. There are at least three ways of providing nursery school education:

(a) The nursery school for children from 2 to 5 years,
(b) the nursery-infant school for children from 2 to 7 years,
(c) the nursery class.

(b) The nursery-infant school - a type already included in the proposals of more than one Scottish Education Authority - has been tried on a limited scale in England and has proved very successful. In such a school, some children would enter at 2+, others at 5 years of age. There would thus be two main divisions. one comprising the children up to 5, the other, perhaps a much larger division, comprising the children from 5 to 7. In a school of 120, for example, there might be 40 children under 5, and 80 between 5 and 7, the latter divided into three classes of perhaps 20, 30, and 30. For such a school five trained teachers, two or preferably three helpers, and an adequate domestic staff would be required.

Care should be taken that the inclusion of children from 5 to 7 years of age entails no loss of nursery school advantages to the younger children through the proximity of the older group. Steps should also be taken to meet such requirements of the older children as arise from their more varied occupations and increasing educational needs.

(c) The nursery class is attached to the infant division of a primary school. In accommodation, amenities, staffing, and educational practice it should conform as closely as is practicable to the nursery school standard. There should always be separate offices.

19. Ideally, infant divisions should have such amenities and should be run on such lines that it would, in practice, make little difference whether a child spent the two years, 5 to 7, at the top of a nursery or at the bottom of a primary school. Children in a nursery-infant school should have no difficulty in securing as good a foundation in the three R's as they would if taught in an infant division.

20. Local conditions. e.g., density of population, availability of sites, existing school provision, will largely determine which type of nursery education is preferable.

It is probable that for some time to come the nursery school will be the choice in areas where children of 5 to 7 years are already provided for in the infant classes of primary schools.

Where provision is being made in new housing areas, an Authority may elect to provide a nursery-infant school. Such a school would be a valuable experiment and would throw fresh light on the needs of children from 5 to 7, and on the educational problems involved in teaching them. It might also exert a beneficial influence on infant divisions in the neighbourhood.

The nursery class will obviously be the choice where numbers are too small to warrant the establishment of either a nursery school or a nursery-infant school. In sparsely populated areas even this provision might be impracticable.

21. It would seem desirable for Training Colleges to have their own nursery schools. Other countries, particularly the United States, have made great use of such schools for research in the field of child study. Further, these schools demonstrate the best techniques and set a high standard for nursery education generally.

22. The role of the nursery school in the larger scheme of national education deserves some consideration.

[page 137]

In the education of the adolescent, the nursery school can play an important part. For girls, it would seem a natural and attractive introduction to mothercraft. For boys and girls in secondary schools, in junior colleges and in youth clubs, it would serve as a centre for social service. The "adoption" of a nursery school by another school, college or club arouses general interest and stimulates special activities: young people like to see the fruits of their labours (whether they be knitted garments, wall friezes, home-made rugs, toys or mended equipment) in use and obviously appreciated by the recipients.

The nursery school's most valuable contribution to national education is the influence it can bring to bear upon the home. To a limited extent through the fathers but mainly through the mothers, it can, in favourable circumstances, by establishing an intimate relationship between the home and the school, set up a common standard of health, hygiene and social behaviour for both. Short of this achievement, much can be done to persuade mothers to take an intelligent interest and pride in the school, to share in some of its activities and so come to regard themselves as in part responsible for the maintenance of those values which the school extols and embodies. By means of clubs, the programmes of which include informal talks, demonstrations, films, lectures and social meetings, the mothers are both entertained and educated. Skilled advice and sympathetic guidance are made available for them, and they are thus better equipped to tackle successfully the difficult art of rearing and educating children.

[page 138]

We have both a general and a particular reason for devoting a chapter of our Report to the Inspectorate; the first, because of the part H.M. Inspectors have played and will, we believe, continue to play in the development of education in Scotland; the second, because we are recommending major changes in the examination system which presuppose the work of an Inspectorate unimpaired in quality and adequate in numbers.

If the Inspectorate of a bygone generation had a somewhat authoritarian, and at times even an inquisitorial, cast, the explanation is to be sought not in the personal qualities of the talented men recruited to that service but rather in the function assigned to them and the conditions under which they had to work. Their rigour was of a piece with the autocracy of the headmaster and the coercive force of the external examination. All alike were features, and it may be necessary features, of a national system of education rapidly expanding and having to consolidate its standards as it grew.

But the changed educational outlook of the last quarter of a century is clearly reflected in the present attitude and work of H.M. Inspectors of Schools, for whom it can be confidently claimed that they enjoy what official status and authority alone could never compel - the trust and esteem of their co-partners in the work of education.

The confidence of the schools in H.M. Inspectors rests on their qualifications for the work. Always fully adequate in scholarship, and often highly distinguished, they are required in every case to have given a sufficient period of service in schools to leave their teaching skill in no doubt. If in respect of one part of the educational field, namely, the primary school, there is a departure from this sound principle, that but serves to throw into relief the general wisdom of the Department's policy. The goodwill of the schools towards H.M. Inspectors results from the sanity and enlightenment with which the latter approach the common tasks, from their evident desire to come to terms with the realities of the classroom and to bring to the solution of its problems the fruits of experience rather than oracular pronouncements.

It is difficult for the layman to realise how varied the duties of the Inspectorate have become, how far indeed their functions have outgrown their name. They remain, of course, the agents of the Secretary of State, charged to keep him informed as to the work and state of the schools, and, as in the past, the public may very properly look to these holders of His Majesty's commission to ensure that all who are entrusted with the education of the nation's children are about their business with honest diligence.

We have spoken of the special function H.M. Inspectors have long performed in the conduct of the Leaving Certificate Examination. Our proposals assign them a similar role in the examination for the Higher School Certificate, while their first-hand knowledge of the schools and ability to assess their work will be a necessary factor in the operation of the arrangements for the award of the School Certificate also.

But increasingly in recent years the Inspectorate have come to be looked on, and have come, we believe, to look on themselves, as above all consultants and collaborators, able to bring to the problems of any one school experience culled in many, and to contribute to the solution of difficulties a judgment at once disinterested and well-informed. To stimulate by discussion and suggestion, to spread ideas and be a link between school and school, to provoke the unreflective to thought and to awaken healthy doubts as to the sufficiency of familiar routines - in such service lies the most valuable function of the Inspectorate, and we would stress the very special value of its guidance and encouragement to the hundreds of small schools, where teachers, often inexperienced, are working under conditions of difficulty and isolation.

In another direction also the duties of H.M. Inspectors have multiplied. The widely expanded functions of the education authorities create the need and the occasion for constant consultation between the Inspectorate and the Directors of Education, and there falls on the Chief and District Inspectors a volume and variety of administrative tasks of which the public and even teachers are little aware. We see in this liaison work with the education authorities a valuable and necessary function of the senior personnel of the Inspectorate; but we are concerned that it should not become unprofitably burdensome, and we accordingly recommend that for H.M. Inspectors, as for heads of schools, such adequate secretarial help should be provided as will ensure that no part of their time and energy is deflected from its proper purpose.

We have sought to make clear our conviction that the Inspectorate has done much for Scottish education in the past half-century and will continue to play a beneficent and important part in its development, but we believe that, if their contribution is to be as fruitful as possible, certain changes are necessary.

[page 139]

Firstly, we think that the service is not now happily named. Inspection is and will remain an admitted function of the Department's officers, but it is only one among many, and not the one to which an enlightened public opinion will in future attach any primacy of importance or dignity. Moreover, the present name is not welcome to the teaching profession. Teachers have as a rule the friendliest of feelings towards Inspectors as individuals, but professionally they dislike the conception of an "Inspectorate", and see in the perpetuation of this name some derogation from their own status. With this feeling we sympathise, nor can the objections be countered by a mere reminder that teaching is a public service. The justification for the name is to be found in past history not in any present necessity, and we find it hard to believe that, if certain other professions which have attained full stature and status were to come under public control, it would be felt necessary in the nation's interests to subject them to any comparable form of oversight. Above all, the name Inspectorate suggests incomplete emancipation from certain outmoded ideas as to the nature of education, and there seems no doubt that it engenders in some teachers a feeling of subserviency which spoils their relations with the Inspectorate, through no fault of the latter's. For the reasons given, we recommend that the Inspectorate be renamed His Majesty's Educational Service, the members of the service to be known as His Majesty's Education Officers. We do not, however, approve the insertion in the title of the word "Advisory", which stresses one single function unduly and at the same time mutes completely the proper note of authority.

We have indicated our opinion that inspection remains a recognised and on occasions an important function, and we are equally sure there are times when H.M. Inspectors ought to report with great frankness. But we confess that the hurried routine inspection of a succession of classes followed by stereotyped report seems to us a time-wasting practice yielding profit to no one and calculated to bring the whole business of inspection into disrepute. We recommend, therefore, that it be discontinued and that H.M. Inspectors be left complete discretion to examine with thoroughness and report with candour where circumstances require it, and for the rest, to devote their time to more constructive functions.

It is not enough that the qualifications of H.M. Inspectors should in all cases be high. They must also be relevant to the duties to be undertaken, and, as we have pointed out, this sound principle is not sufficiently observed in regard to the work of the infant and primary school.

With rare exceptions. the men and women appointed to the Inspectorate are specialist teachers whose experience has been confined to secondary or technical work. Yet these recruits to the service find their way almost at once into the primary schools, and must exercise there some degree of official authority in regard to a wide and difficult educational field of which they have no first-hand experience at all. This practice seems to us wholly indefensible, for it requires the young Inspector to fill the double role of expert and apprentice in a way that is fair neither to him nor to the schools.

One way out of this difficulty is to set up a separate branch of the Inspectorate for primary and infant schools, and to appoint to it teachers who have had successful experience at these levels. Such an arrangement, however, creates as many problems as it solves, and we appreciate the reluctance of the Secretary of State to adopt a policy which imposes obvious limitations on the ultimate usefulness and mobility of his officers.

But we submit that if the objection to the existing practice is not to he met by thus narrowing the commission of H.M. Inspectors, it must in fairness be met by widening their initial qualifications.

In our Report on the Training of Teachers*, we suggested that one function of the Institutes of Education should be the special training of those who are to fill educational posts of high responsibility outside the schools. We recommend, therefore, that on selection for appointment to the Inspectorate, men and women should spend a suitable period under the guidance of an Institute of Education, for the two-fold purpose of gaining first-hand experience of primary and infant teaching and of enlarging their knowledge of psychology and modern educational techniques. Pending the establishment of the Institutes of Education, this work should be undertaken by the Training Centres.

We are satisfied that there must be a substantial increase in the numbers of the Inspectorate. Its members have in recent years been seriously overtaxed, and much of their work lacks the unhurried, thorough quality so necessary to its full effectiveness. And if numbers are insufficient now, they will become ever more so, as the general expansion of education in Scotland adds correspondingly to the tasks and responsibilities of His Majesty's Educational Service.

As any recommendation for largely increased recruitment must receive the careful scrutiny of the guardians of the public purse, we add our conviction that in no direction would a comparatively modest educational expenditure yield a more assured return. And

*Cmd. 6723: chapter XIII.

[page 140]

we may properly draw attention to two important respects in which the position of H.M. Inspectorate in Scotland differs from that in England and justifies a relatively larger staff -

(a) In Scotland no share in the work of inspection is taken by officers of the education authorities.

(b) In the conduct of the Higher School Certificate Examination and in the award of the School Certificate the Department and the Inspectorate will perform important and exacting duties that have no counterpart in the work of the Ministry of Education.