Continuation Schools in England and Elsewhere; Their Place in the Educational System of an Industrial and Commercial State (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 Excerpt: ...to reach any degree of power or life. And what even of the successes? the bright well-drilled, intelligent boys and girls? They are found later in the lower clerkships, and as intelligent warehousemen, or skilled workers, as shophands and typists--passable in their business hours, but in their recreations hardly more refined than their duller comrades who are the drudges of the London labour market. Surely some one has blundered The schools cannot do everything. It is unfair to lay on them responsibility which belongs to the crushing influence of the machinery of industry and commerce, and to the deadening environment of lower and even middleclass London life. And yet under different conditions of organisation and administration much might be done. There must be some powers of body and mind to which between the ages of eleven and fourteen appeal can be made, some faculty which can be so developed as to give boys and girls an interest in something outside themselves and their animal needs, a respect for themselves and their bodies which shall show itself in stronger and purer lives. To these powers and faculties, it is the duty of the School to appeal. Improved teaching in the 'primary' part of the school, such as should become possible even under present conditions if the "Suggestions to Teachers" now issued by the Education Department are adopted, such as will be still more possible when the physical needs of the child are met by suitable food and clothing, by the opportunity for exercise and cleanliness afforded by a daily bathe or swim--will lighten the task of the older section. Yet there will always remain special problems very different from the problems of earlier school life. These children (12 to 14 or 15) are as different from those of ...