THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULUM 23

The result is obvious: all the cleverer boys are of
course earmarked for the classical side, and the average
boy is also allotted to this department as being, in the
view of most head masters, the only type of education
which is of any value. Only those boys who show no
sign of any development along classical lines, that is to
say the dullards, are privileged to go on to the modern
side.

Consequently we find in our great public schools the
large majority on the classical side and the residuum, of
considerably lower ability, on the modern side.
As soon as a boy reaches the classical side of a public
school he becomes entirely a specialist, and his general
education is completed at the age of 13 or 14. So far
as his education, in the narrow meaning of the word, is
concerned the majority of boys might just as well not be
at a school at all, for certainly not more than 10 per cent
ever reach the stage of real appreciation of the language
and literature of Greece and Rome.

The general public has no conception of the terrible
waste of the finest material in the world which is taking
place in the workshops of the public schools. Let us
examine the curriculum of the boy on the classical side
of a public school: the figures on the next page are
taken from the routine of the classical side of one of our
best-known and most modern public schools.
The figures from the routine of our great and ancient
public schools would show even greater specialization,
Can anyone pretend for a moment that education on
these lines is of any use whatever to the great majority
who, in spite of this specialization, never become classical
scholars, and fail to get any pleasure or benefit in after
life to compensate for the drudgery of the classroom ?

Owing to a recent amalgamation of the classical and modern sides
these figures are not now applicable,