CHAPTER III

I'HE PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULUM.

They are the salt of the earth, which keeps the world of man from decaying
 back into barbarism. They ave the children of light. They are
the aristocracy of God, into which not many noble, not many rich, not many
mighty, are called. Most of them were poor ; many all but unknown in
their own time, many died and saw no fruit of their labours; some were
persecuted, some were slain, as heretics, innovators, and corruptors of youth.
Of some the very names are forgotten. But though their names be dead,
their works live, and grow and spread over ever fresh generations of youth,
showing them fresh steps towards that temple of wisdom which is the knowledge
 of things as they are ; the knowledge of those eternal laws by which
God governs the heavens and the earth, things temporal and “eternal,
physical and spiritual, seen and unseen, from the fall and rise of mighty
nations lo the growth and death of moss on yonder moors.—CHARLES
KINGSLEY.

THE function of the public school curriculum is twofold :
it should in the first place ensure that every boy receives
a thorough grounding in the classical and literary studies
and sciences generally : this work, of course, should begin
 at the preparatory schools. Secondly, and quite
subsidiary to the main motive, it should afford to the
older boys some possibility of developing those subjects
which specially appeal to them, but this limited specialization
 should not be permitted before the age of 16 or 163
years.
The evils of early specialization are universally admitted.
 The Master of Trinity, for twenty-five years
Head Master of Harrow, has described early specialization
 as being “the giant bully of all our tribe,” and
the Classical Head Masters’ Conference has more than