INTRODUCTION

factor in the efficiency of the public school of the future.
The first annual report of the Advisory Council on
Scientific and Industrial Research, recently published,
lays stress on two essentials, namely, the necessity of a
largely increased supply of competent researchers, and
further, the necessity for close co-operation between
teachers and industrialists.

Although the public schools are far from stagnant
there is little doubt that they are not sufficiently progressive,
 and they stand in serious danger of being left
behind in the race. Progress in other directions is so
rapid that public schools, although moving forward, are
nevertheless rapidly becoming out of date.
The comparative conservatism of the public schools of
the country, involving lack of touch with progress in the
outer world, is almost proverbial. It is due in part to
the lack of sympathy between parents and masters, but
even more to the fact that governing bodies of our great
schools have a general tendency to consider classical
scholarship the one and only qualification for head masterships.
 This tendency is so remarkable, and is so little
realized by the general public, that an analysis of the
scholastic qualifications of the head masters of the public
schools of this country is most enlightening.
The head masters of all our great public schools are
practically without exception classical scholars. Of the
114 schools represented on the Head Masters’ Conference
ninety-two have classical head masters, ten mathematical,
 seven joint mathematical and scientific, four scientific,
 and one historical.
* An analysis of the numbers of boys under the control
of head masters of various qualifications shows the following
 remarkable figures .—

The figures here given are obtained from the * Schoolmasters’ Year
Book » of 1g14.