INTRODUCTION

21 colleges at Oxford, for instance, there is not a single
“head ”’ with any scientific attainments whatever ?

The overwhelming domination of classics in the government
 of the education of the upper-middle and upper
classes of this country must disappear before any real
reform can ensue: other branches of learning must be
adequately represented, and the lump very much leavened
by the introduction of modern ideas and modern sympathies
 before the public schools can be expected to produce
 the maximum number of efficiently educated young
men capable of leading the nation to victory in the coming
 industrial conflict.
There are many in this country who are of opinion
that by modernizing public school education we shall be
merely copyists of German methods ; methods which are,
by some, held responsible for the systematized brutality
of Germany in the present war. This opinion is worthless,
 as it is based on two gross misapprehensions. In
the first place, it is open to argument whether true scientific
 study, involving as it does a search for truth for its
own sake, is not in reality more humane than any so-called
‘“ humanistic ” subject. Be that as it may, the subjects
taught during school hours have in themselves little effect
on character compared with other influences. Secondly,
however, the sooner it is realized that the gymmnasien of
Germany, at which the whole of the nation, except those
trained in the elementary schools, are educated. are even
more classical than the most conservative of English public
schools, the less we shall hear of the fear that we may
become barbarized by the study of Science.
A writer to the “ Times Educational Supplement” of
28th September, 1916, in criticizing Sir Sidney Lee’s
statement in his presidential address at a conference
on the teaching of English, that “there was good
reason to believe that the exaltation of the technological