EDUCATION IN PREPARATORY SCHOOLS 13

Since investigation shows, as will be proved later, that
drawing and manual training are practically always
“extras,” and alternative to cricket and football, we can
ignore them as serious subiects in the preparatory school
curriculum.
Working out the percentage of time allotted to the
various subjects, as suggested by the Committee of the
Head Masters’ Conference, we arrive at the following
results —

Dead
Languages.

Modern
Languages,

per cent. | per cent. i
Before | 2g-7 119
After 406 II'Q

Total
Foreign
Languages,

Anglish.,

Mathematics.


Scripture
and |
History.

Geography,


Science
and
Nature
Study,

per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent.|per cent.|per cent.
416 | 198 | 178 | 119 8:9 0
525 I1.g | 178 | 11°9 5'9 0

Let the average parent ponder over these figures: can he
think for one moment that the curriculum as proposed
by the Head Masters’ Committee is such as to develop
the maximum efficiency in the pupil ?
One half the time to be spent on the study of foreign
languages and a very large proportion of this even on
dead languages! When one realizes that the study of
languages in the elementary stages, as at present taught,
consists of the learning of vocabulary and the memorizing
 of grammar, both of which are a drudgery only to the
average boy, can we wonder that his intelligence is stultified
 and mental development arrested just at that period
when it should be stimulated ?
The training of memory is of the utmost importance
at this stage of education, but surely it may be encouraged
 in far more useful spheres than that suggested by
the Committee of the classically-biased Head Masters’
Conference.
Although the curriculum as suggested by this report