THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULUM 29

they leave school. At the Naval Colleges of Osborne
and Dartmouth, for example, where the teaching of
foreign languages is systematized, the average time spent
on a foreign language is five hours a week (including
preparations). At the conclusion of four years cadets
leaving the college can converse with considerable fluency
in the language,
All conferences on methods of teaching foreign languages
 are futile under the present system for, even if
modern language masters could settle on which of the
many various methods of teaching is the ideal one, form
masters generally would be incapable of teaching on
those lines.
The only remedy is to abolish the form system on the
modern side of public schools or, at any rate, to withdraw
modern languages from the form scheme of work, to
organize boys into French sets or German sets throughout
 the school, taught by masters conversant with the
subject, and to make the schemes and methods of promotion
 progressive according to ability.

Possibly in no other subject have such rapid strides
been made in recent years as in teaching Geography,
thanks in great measure to the activities and successful
endeavours of the Geographical Association. In many
public schools geography is now taught by specially
trained masters, and, owing to the influence which the
Geographical Association has exerted on examining
bodies, the papers and syllabuses are so framed that
schools have been compelled to some extent to teach
this subject on modern lines.
Much yet remains to be done, however, for in no subject
 is a sound training in educational methods more
vital. This is essential, for those now teaching the subject
on modern lines themselves learnt it on the old system,
and have had to acquire a knowledge of the subject,