III.

In the preceding pages it has been shown that four

University recognition of, Education.

of the British Universities, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Cambridge, and London, have conceded the claim of education to University rank, and have made some provision in acknowledgement thereof. Oxford has approved of similar action, which will soon take definite form. Aberdeen is as anxious now as in 1859 and 1874 to secure a Professor of Education. Glasgow

University of Glasgow.

alone of the great British Universities has made no sign. It has already been stated (page 17) that this University has never exhibited the anxiety to adopt new chairs which has characterised her Edinburgh sister. In consideration, too, of the extraordinary effort she has lately made to raise the finest pile of University buildings in the kingdom, much may be page 34 forgiven her. She has of late rather directed her attention to the deficiencies of her entrants; and she has proclaimed these deficiencies so loudly that her prestige has suffered in the eyes of her sisters; whereas she sought only to point out the chaotic state of secondary education, and to rouse the country to action for its improvement. But now Glasgow is left alone on this question of Education as a University subject, and it would be folly were she to let slip the occasion of the present movement, and not assume her proper position regarding it.

Bell Fund in Glasgow.

The Town Council of Glasgow have charge of £10,000, left them for educational purposes by Dr. Bell, the founder of the Madras System. An Act of the Court of Session compelled the Town Council to aid from this Fund the Sessional Schools of Glasgow, on condition of their teaching according to the Madras System, which has long since been superseded or abandoned. Moreover, these Sessional Schools have now all but ceased to exist, and the Bell Fund is unapplied. Can a better use be suggested than in founding a Chair of Education in Glasgow? The Chairs of Education in Edinburgh and St. Andrews derive their endowments from the Bell Trustees. We may be sure the Edinburgh University would not let slip so golden an opportunity as is now afforded to the University of Glasgow.

It has been stated that a Professorship of Education is not enough in any University. More is wanted: the recognition of education as a subject in which academic distinction can be attained. At present

Diploma in Education.

nothing better than a certificate or diploma is granted. Perhaps we could hardly have expected more, for these chairs have not yet been seven years in existence; and it is little more than two years since the first University diplomas were issued. It is not intended in this essay again to answer the objections which have been urged against such a recognition of education. Many of these have been answered by page 35 abler hands.¹ But a few new objections may be noticed.

Degrees in Education have been objected to because

Objections-Too many Degrees.

a multiplicity of degrees is undesirable, and might lead to applications for other degrees. Why not? Every new claim must be considered on its merits. Whoever raises this objection must hold that the increase of knowledge is to be regretted, because it may compel the Universities to cast off their mediaeval bonds, and keep up with the progress of an age little tolerant of such restrictions. Does the objector sigh for the return of that time, when each Professor, as Regent, conducted his class in successive years through the whole of the University curriculum? Division of labour, here as elsewhere, has led to advance, and further division is quite inevitable, and must be provided for. The English Universities, ignorantly supposed in Scotland to be so unprogressive, are alive to the necessities of the age. The University of Cambridge, for example, has just sanctioned a special examination in Modern Languages, and the Board of Studies is now engaged in arranging for a Modern Language Tripos. When shall we reach so liberal a scheme in Scotland? The objection to a multiplicity of degrees could come only from a Scotchman; for in Scotland alone has it been the practice for the majority of students to leave the University without graduation. Twenty years ago the Scotch degree of M.A. was so little valued that it was seldom taken even by excellent students.² Of late years the popular feeling has on the whole been in favour of graduation, and in consequence the Universities have been able to raise the standard considerably. This feeling they cannot too carefully try to extend; for in so doing they will

¹ See Professor Laurie's Inaugural Address. See also the Inaugural Address before the Cambridge Syndicate, The Schoolmaster Past and Future, by Rev. R. H. Quick, M.A.

² In 1876 the Very Rev. Principal Caird estimated the proportion of graduates to students as 1 to 26.—Univ. Com., Evidence, 304.

page 36 benefit themselves, the country, and the cause of progress and culture.

But such wants are easily met. Hardly have the Universities of Cambridge and London shown the need for such schools, when one is opened by private effort, under distinguished patronage, and a handsome sum subscribed to maintain it during the initial struggle necessary to secure a permanent self-supporting basis.²

[unclear: injure aining;] lleges.

Others object that Chairs of Education and the corresponding degrees will seriously injure the training colleges. This was the great point in the Parliamentary opposition to the chairs in 1874, but it has never been the opinion of those best able to judge. The first Rector of a Training College in Scotland, the Rev. Robert Cunningham, M.A.,³ who had taught in America, and who was well acquainted with education on the Continent, writes to George Combe in 1840, and recommends "the attaching of model schools, and a

¹ Matthew Arnold—Higher Schools and Universities in Germany.

² See account of Finsbury Training College—Appendix E.

³ Of the Glasgow C. of S. Training College, Dundas Vale.

page 37 "Professorship of Education to the existing colleges" [i.e., Universities] rather than the establishing of "distinct Normal seminaries."¹ In 1867 the Rev. James Ridgway, M.A., F.S.A., Principal of Culham Training College, advocated "the establishment of an "educational faculty, co-ordinate with those of divinity, "law, and medicine, already existing; which is the "course adopted by other Universities in Europe." Mr. Fitch, H. M. Inspector of Schools, and once himself the Principal of a Training College says—" In France, Germany, and Italy, all the parts? "of the educational system are interwoven, and "strengthen one another. The Normal Schools are "available for teachers of all kinds, and are connected "with the Universities, and under the supervision of "their authorities." Similar views were expressed in 1869 by the Rev. George Rowe, Principal of the York Training College. The intimate connection for more than five years of the present writer with a training college enables him to add his testimony to the above.

The Education Committee of the Church of Scotland, in their Report to the General Assembly in May 1875, say, regarding the Chairs of Education then contemplated, "They will not in any way interfere "with the Normal Institutions, but they will be made "conducive to the efficiency of these, the most promising students in them being aided to complete their "studies at the Universities. The high standard of "qualification which has ever distinguished the parochial schoolmasters of Scotland will thus, it is hoped, "be fully maintained. The Chairs will be put on a "purely theoretical basis—their occupants giving lec "tures on the science, the history and literature of "education, the practical work of training for our "public schools being left, as at present, with the "Normal Institutions."²

On the other hand the present partial union of the Universities and the Normal Schools has been found to work well from the University point of view. Since the course for Normal students was satisfactorily arranged for, three years ago, Professors Ramsay, Jack, Jebb, and Veitch have been loud in praise of the methodical habits and careful preparation of these students. Similar testimony comes from Edinburgh.

Strange to say the greatest anxiety to prevent the Universities from trespassing upon and injuring, as is alleged, the Normal Schools, is displayed by those who have done little, if anything, to aid Normal Schools in the struggle which they have made for years to keep advancing and worthily to meet the progress of the age. It cannot be too soon explained to these pretentious friends that it is high time they were showing the value of their approval by the amount of their support. The University training of Normal students to be efficient entails a large outlay, an additional source of expnese, without any corresponding source of income beyond partial aid from the Education Department, which takes much credit for the good results, but is jealous of the expenditure. Perhaps it may just be as well to tell the whole truth—which is, that the combined Normal and University training of male students is now so very costly that no Normal School for males can be carried on except at a large yearly loss, which is met in

Training Colleges for Males costly.

Scotland by the fees charged female students. Training Colleges for females are self-supporting institutions. The staff is not costly, and each student is a source of income. But those for males are costly, as demanding a superior staff and expensive apparatus; while, as has been shown, each student is a source of loss. So true is this that of late years all the Training Colleges in Scotland have reduced the number of masters in training, and increased the number of mistresses. The consequence is that the supply of trained masters is not now equal to the demand. In the Glasgow Church of Scotland page 39 Training College, within two months after Christmas last, all the outgoing class of male students had received appointments. A greater number of male teachers must consequently be drawn from other sources, thus increasing the large contingent of graduates, undergraduates, &c., which has ever formed a very important element in our schools, and for which no professional training has been obtainable. Apart from the Normal school students, this source of supply would provide an excellent class for the Professor of Education, if attendance on his chair had attached to it academic or scholastic merit by the University itself.

Some inquiry among Scotch graduates has satisfied the writer that the project of a minor degree in Arts will receive little support from them. In the dearth of graduates some time ago, it was proposed to revive the B.A. degree to prevent the General Councils from extinction. But graduates are now more numerous, and it is averred that improved and cheap text-books, cheaper secondary education, improved University teaching, more numerous and more valuable bursaries, and Training College subsidies, now render it easy for page 40 anyone of moderate industry and ability to take the degree of M. A. and the education class also.

"Nothing in Education."

There are those, again, who take the opposite view that the M.A. course is of itself perfectly sufficient, embracing, as it does, a large part of the field of general knowledge, and including logic, psychology, and ethics, from which a "mere bundle of deductions" is derived and dignified with the name of principles of education. There is really nothing in it, say these critics; the history of education can be read and studied without aid, and method can only be learned in the schoolroom. In like manner it might be urged (indeed it has been urged), that there is nothing in engineering but mechanics and physics applied, and that practical skill

¹ Report on Education, 1881-82, p. 127.

² Ibid., p. 130.

page 41 can be acquired only in the field. But under Macquorn Rankine, Thomson, and Fleeming Jenkin, Chairs of Engineering have proved of the highest national utility. Closely examined, even ethics and psychology are similarly resolved. Just so, too, we might argue against the scientific treatment of agriculture, for the so-called science is but a "bundle of principles" drawn from botany, geology, chemistry, meteorology, &c. But is not the State at this very moment almost bribing every evening class to study agriculture as a science, and believing that it exercises a true and wise economy in the outlay?

And hence we are not surprised to find an objection

Educational Faculty.

raised by some on this very ground that education is a subject too extensive to be dealt with from a single chair. We accept the objection, and urge it as an argument for a special faculty formed by grouping chairs, and granting a degree corresponding to B.D., page 42 L.L.B., M.B., &c. Philosophical training is essential in the teacher. Of the five divisions under which philosophy is now commonly arranged, viz., Logic, Psychology, Metaphysics, Ethics, and the History of Philosophy, the two first should be required of every teacher. If Chairs of Education were established in all the Universities, then the present L.A. certificate could easily be converted into a teacher's degree or certificate of the lower class qualifying for primary and higher primary schools. Education,¹ Logic, and Psychology should be compulsory, and the student should be allowed an option as to three or four other classes in the Arts course. We should thus obviate the difficulty caused by the loss of the B.A. degree in the Scottish Universities, the restoration of which was advocated so strongly and from so many quarters before the late Universities Commissioners. It does not however seem possible to revive the title of B.A. in Scotland. The tendency of the age is toward specialization, and hence B.E. (Bachelor in Education) seems the correlative of L.A., L.L.B., &c.

The present M.A. degree need not be interfered with.

In every country the teaching profession is that to which the country must look not only for the diffusion of existing knowledge, but for original investigation, and patient research. Without justification, a cry has been raised that scholarship in Scotland is on the decline. Probably at no time had we so many or so distinguished scholars, the product of our University teaching as now. But if the advance is to continue and to be encouraged as it ought, no means can better attain the end than specialization and academic distinction such as sketched above. It is well known that the great subdivision of the field of knowledge, and the minute research which succeeds the admirable general training of the gymnasiums, are potent causes of progress in the German Universities. During the present winter session no less than fifteen courses of lectures are being delivered in these Universities on various branches of Pädagogik, Didaktik, and Propädeutik.¹ When shall our treatment of the subject be equally thorough?

Certificates of practical skill, or of experience in selected and approved schools, could be demanded from candidates for graduation in Education, just as now similar certificates are required of medical students. The actual graduation as M.E. might be deferred until after two or three years' practice, just as M.D. now follows M.B. And if a thesis were then demanded, its preparation would form the habit of that continuous study of education which is so desirable in the educator, and which is all but unknown in our country.

In Appendices B to K a detailed account is given of the manner in which education is treated as a subject of study examination and certification by those public bodies which have made provision for it. An inspection of these Appendices and of the evidence before the late Universities' Commission will lead the candid mind to acknowledge that any difficulties in the way

¹ See Deutscher Universitäts-Kalender, 1882-83, Winter Semester.

page 44 of making a full provision for training and graduation in education must arise from other causes than the difficulty of the subject itself, and opposition must be attributed to other motives than sincere love of educational progress. But the times seem once more favourable. May we soon realise the dream of Brereton,

Graduate Teachers.

when we shall have "graduate teachers, themselves "imbued with the best educational influences of their "day, and not only able mechanically to teach, but "qualified, even unconsciously, to diffuse good sense, "good manners, and high principles among their "pupils. The degree appended to their names will "mean more than the reams of flashy testimonials "which now circulate between the scholastic agents "and the masters of middle schools. Nor will they, "as now, find it difficult to retain their raised literary "and social tastes when merged in the chaos of great "cities, or scattered in provincial towns and villages. "University men twenty years hence will not be a "mere clique in any county or neighbourhood. Those who "try to keep their heads above the waters of ignorance "and frivolity and coarseness will not be rari nantes "in gurgite vasto. For the teachers of the future will "meet everywhere their fellow graduates—men whom "no occupation can degrade, men who turn all trades "into professions."