Abstract
THE twentieth annual general meeting of the association was held in Birmingham on January 31, when Mr. J. H. Reynolds, of Manchester, the new president, delivered his presidential address, in the course of which he discussed the progress of elementary education since the Act of 1870, and contrasted the abundant provision of the present day with the meagreness which prevailed anterior to the Act. He detailed the causes which operated to prevent the realisation of the full fruits of the great Imperial and local expenditure incurred in the establishment and maintenance of elementary education with special reference to the early age of leaving school, and to the absence of proper measures for securing the continued attendance of the children upon suitably designed courses of instruction and training in evening schools during the years of adolescence. He urged the abolition of half-time and the extension of the school age until fourteen, unconditionally throughout the urban and rural areas of the kingdom, and discussed the demand made that the curriculum of the elementary school should be confined to “the three R's,” maintaining that there should be made the fullest possible provision for the education and training of the worker's child for his future life as a producer and as a citizen. He further directed attention to the poor physical condition of many thousands of children in the public elementary schools, and appealed for smaller classes and better trained teachers. He dwelt upon the importance of this question of elementary education, since until it is welj considered and effectually provided, secondary education cannot be adequately established, and any technical education and training of real value directly concerned with a livelihood and based upon scientific principles are impossible.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Association of Technical Institutions . Nature 90, 687–688 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/090687a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090687a0