Summaries of Addresses of Presidents of Sections: The Future in Education

Abstract

IF we consider that the goal of education is the making of men and citizens, that body, character and (in the widest sense) reason make the man, and need to be developed and trained, and that human beings cannot live intelligently in the world without some knowledge of literature, history and science, then we must admit that in spite of great achievements during the past sixty years in elementary, secondary, technical and university education, we have not produced an educated nation. We have provided opportunities for the minority who attend secondary school and university. Most of the rest have had no regular instruction after they leave school at fourteen years, an age when education in the real sense is about to begin, and this, according to Sir Richard Livingstone's presidential address to Section L (Education), is our great educational scandal and problem.