Welsh Journals

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It is better, for this reason, that two years out of the four, or at least one of them, should be devoted to the independent study of British his- tory, unless the schemes of British and European history are made to run concurrently throughout. It is in any event desirable that the first year, when the child will normally be about twelve years old, should be devoted to the story of early times, their remoteness being a great advantage for the purposes of an elementary class. The young child will understand the childhood of the race much more easily than its manhood. There are various obvious avenues of approach. One is by the study of local history. A talk about some Welsh cromlech or other ancient remains in the school's neighbourhood makes an admirable introduction to simple lessons about the men of the stone age, their implements, their agricul- ture, their modes of life. Or again, it is an easy transition from familiar Bible stories to the early civilisations of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Persia. It is not the names of the Pharaohs and the Kings of Babylonia and Nineveh that are im- portant, but the facts of the discovery of copper, National Education: Concord or Discord? By Canon J. P. Lewis. "I will give way to no man in my respect for Welsh Nonconformists, but I do not the less deplore their attitude on the subject of elementary education." — Dean HOWELL. "It is not fair to do for the Church of England what was not done for the Noncon- formists, and neither is it fair to do for the Nonconformists what you will not do for the Church of England. "-JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN (quoted by Mr. Allanson Picton). RETROSPECT. BEFORE the Act of 1870 our elementary education was managed and maintained by the British and National Societies, i.e., by Nonconformists and Churchmen on equal terms as regards both State support and religious freedom. Church schools, neverthe- less, were the pioneers of education in most parishes, because Nonconformists declined to build, preferring to see their children attending Church schools. The Act of 1870 gave the ratepayers the power to build schools at the expense of the rates. The ratepayers, however, in many parishes declined the privilege, preferring the continuation of Church schools. The Act of 1870 permitted in schools provided by the rates the form of religious teaching adopted the invention of writing, the development of the arts of building, of sculpture, of painting and of government, about early industry, commerce and navigation. There are no facts in all history more important; there are none more easily apprehensible by the young child, none better calculated to appeal to his imagination and to make him feel that history is not a drudgery, but a fascination. He should go on to learn something of the civilisations of Greece and Rome, and here a considerable amount of the teaching may profitably be made biographical in character, made to centre round the fives of great men. By the incorporation of a little, even if it be but a very little, of the history of Greece and Rome, some small measure may be secured of the immense advantages of a classical education even for children who will never learn either Greek or Latin. If they get but a hint of what is meant by the Greek spirit and the phrase, "Rome, the mother of us all," something will be implanted in their minds of infinitely greater value than all the chronological and genealogical tables in the universe. (To be continued.) in Nonconformist schools, while it rejected the form adopted in Church schools. Churchmen therefore were compelled to enlarge their buildings, and even to build new schools to find room for the children of Nonconformists and ratepayers who declined to build either Noncon- formist or Board schools. This coercion im- posed on Churchpeople the enormous task of contributing between 1870 and 1896 no less than £ 14,700,000 towards Church schools. By the 1902 Act, in return for a limited rate support for "maintenance" only (and not for pro- viding land, buildings, structural repairs), Churchmen accepted the maximum of public con- trol, consistent with the minimum of security for their religious freedom in their own schools. These facts must be borne in mind as we pro- ceed to consider the proposals of the Welsh Con- cordat Committee. No EQUALITY. Public opinion on the subject being divided between the three education sects, it is obvious that there were four, and only four, alternative schemes possible for adoption by the Concordat Committee. Scheme 1.­Preference for denominationalism and coercion for Nonconformists. Scheme 2.-Preference for undenominational- ism and coercion for Churchmen. Scheme 3.-Preference for secularism and coercion for Churchmen and Nonconformists. Scheme 4.-No preference and no coercion for any creed, sect, or party.