Welsh Journals

all is still in its infancy so quickly received the attention of the Higher Critic, and the industrious biographer. In spite of this, however, Lady Gregory's account has a value of its own. Facts after all are dull things they are often, which is worse, mis- leading things. It is the interpretation of facts that matters, and the interpretation depends on point of view. Lady Gregory's point of view is of course from the centre outwards she has it is true been the kind fairy to the movement, but she has been something more she has been one of the inner group, one of the workers, she has written plays to order when they were necessary, as only the good craftsman can she has worked side by side with Mr. Yeats so that at the end neither could tell you what part was hers and what his she has produced she has fought she has travelled, with her company, in the British Isles and the United States she has been a good comrade. And she can tell her story that, after all. is the main point. The writing has the charm of charming talk-that talk which is literary without being studied, and humorous without being jocular. the talk which neither fears a slang expression, nor uses it unduly. Her accounts of the Fight with the Castle on the question of producing The Shewing up of Blanco Posnet", and the attempted suppression of The Playboy in America, show that she can hit both hard and shrewdly when she wants to. show also that she can enjoy the fray. Her impressions of the men with whom she has worked are delightful, and what she says of J. M. Synge adds to the little real knowledge that we possess of that strange and somewhat mysterious, yet simple, genius. There are some interesting illustrations, but the book's get up s not entirely satisfactory. What is Education ? By Stanley Leathes. George Bell. 3/6 net. Since the publication in volume form of the stimulating articles which appeared some years ago in the Westminster Gazette under the pseudonym Kappa. we have rarely read a more sugges- tive series of essays than this of Mr. Leathes. The writer was formerly a fellow and lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge, and is one of the Editors of the Cambridge Modem History. His vast experience of schools, as an Examiner, lends additional weight to his critical analysis of modem educational tendencies, and his sane and moderate suggestions for reform. An all pervading sanity and a refreshing moderation characterise his attitude to all questions under discussion. His criticism is always sympathetic. It is refreshing to the much maligned teacher to be told that the blame for the modem spirit of disappointment with the results of education is not to be laid mainly upon the teacher or on defects in the system. Other factors are of equal impor- tance: The capacities of the children when born, the influence of the parents, the material environment, the formative pressure of society." His sanity of outlook is everywhere apparent. Of moral education he says "No sensible person would think of teaching morals to a class by generalities children can learn justice, honour and mercy in their dealings with their fellows, which is better than much economic precept, theory and doctrine. While it is fashionable now-a-days to protest against the sacrifice of the less advanced pupils to the higher pupils, it is well to hear the other side. The clever boy, the exceptional boy, must not be sacrificed to the dullard. To feed the slow, without starving the quick, that is the great dilemma of education." He discusses in a spirit of moderation and with sympathetic insight the more technical subjects of Modem Languages, the teaching of English at the Universities and his views are specially valuable on Examinations and History." He is emphatic on the necessity of minimising Examinations before the ago of 16, and agrees with the generally recognised policy of Educationists that School Ex- aminations should be limited to two the first school leaving Examination at 16, and a more advanced Examination at 18. It-" A National System of Education." J. H. Whitehouse. M.P.. Cambridge University Press. 2/6. Steps towards Educational Reform." C. W. Bailey. Cambridge University Press. 1/ Lord Haldane's speeches and the promise of a comprehensive Scheme of reform in Education have produced a large crop of attempted solutions of the problem. The above named books are favourable examples, written from different points of view. Mr. Whitehouse, M.P., gives a clear. succinct and business-like account of the proposals of reform which have received the general approval of the Education Committee of the Liberal Education group in the House of Commons, and as such they are of special interest. The whole scheme is based on the Principle of a complete co-ordination of Elementary and Secondary Schools, including Technical Schools. The writer at the outset urges the desirability of attempting to break down the social cleavage in education, and is bold enough to declare that the education of different social classes under the same system should not be re- garded as impossible of attainment. The ideal is an admirable one, but England is unfortunately in this respect not America, and British snobbery, is too deep-rooted a plant to make such a suggestion practicable. Helrightlylholdslthatfuniformity and co-ordination can never be secured unless the control of Elemen- tary and Secondary Education is placed in the hands of the same authority. The suggestion that a Secondary Department should be held under the same roof as an Elementary School, however well it may have operated in Scotland in the past, is open to grave objections, but no democrat ought to-day to object to the free circulation of teachers in Elementary and Secondary Schools, provided the qualifications of the teachers are satisfactory. Mr. Whitehouse lays great stress on the cultivation of the beautiful in the schools by the improvement of art-teaching and the artistic decoration of the class-room. His chapter on finance seems too vague and indefinite. He quotes with approval the principle of the payment of grants on the number and quality of the teaching staff and not on attendance, as at present. But he does not appear to be quite clear how the very large amount of money necessary to carry out the reforms suggested is to be forthcoming. It is a pleasure to find a group of Members of The House of Commons so advanced in their views on education. We hope they will not shirk the financial problem when the practical question will be discussed in The House of Commons. Mr. Bailey's book is written from a different stand-point. Mr. Bailey, a former Master of Method in the Liverpool University and now a Headmaster, lays less stress on the externals of education such as reforms of administration, than on the inner spirit of education. He maintains that the movement of reforms springs from the schools themselves. What is required is to give new energy, and a liberal support, to the whole work of education in all its grades, to inspire it with higher ideals. Administrative reforms too often result in increasing bureaucratic control," and he wisely states that the deadest places educationally are those where the hand of authority is heaviest." At the same time he calls attention to three reforms of outstanding importance which depend mainly on financial considerations, (I) Increased financial aid for Higher or University Education (2) Such financial support of Secondary Schools as will make it possible to pay adequate salaries to assistants (3) The diminution of the size of classes in the Elementary Schools. The whole book is marked by a breadth of view, a deep insight into the meaning of education. and an arrestive style.