Best Encyclopedia of Education Articles to appear in an early issue include The man milliner in education, by C. W. BARDEEN, Syracuse, New York. Reckless tenants, by R. M. WENLEY, University of Michigan. Teaching to speak French in college, by Louis J. MERCIER, Harvard University. American industrial art and the schools, by RICHARD F. BACH, Columbia University. A Course in economic geography for the high school, by J. PAUL GOODE, University of Chicago. Manuscripts intended for publication should be addrest to the Editor, and stamps for return enclosed. Correspondence relating to reprints, special editions, advertising, subscriptions and remittances, should be sent to the EDUCATIONAL REVIEW, Columbia University, New York 3 dollars. 14s. 6d. A Year 10 Numbers, none being issued 35 cents. Is. 8d. A Copy EDUCATIONAL REVIEW DECEMBER, 1918 I EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IN ENGLAND By the enactment on August 8 of the Fisher Education Bill the first installment has been made towards the realization of the program of social and economic reconstruction that is to follow the war in England. For the reform of the English educational system, and of the Scottish system which is being provided for separately, is but part of the larger task that has been entrusted to such bodies as the Ministry of Reconstruction or the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Without the sound foundations laid in the earlier years of school life any recommendations that such bodies may make on adult education, public health, physical training, unemployment, juvenile employment and apprenticeship, or cooperation between science and industry would inevitably remain nothing more than pious hopes. Educational reform in England today is also inevitably associated with the recent extension of the franchise and indirectly will have some bearing on the recommendations of the Whitley Commission. Nor can the Act be considered apart from the administrative changes already made by the Board of Education, such as the regulations for advanced courses and examinations in secondary schools, or apart from departmental reports such as those on salaries for elementary and secondary school teachers, on the teaching of modern languages, or on the position of natural science in the schools. The quickened recognition by the public of the essential function of education in national life must also be taken into account as one of the assets for the future. Public interest and support have acquired an impetus from the conditions and realizations arising out of the war that has made possible such educational progress within one year as could in normal times not have been achieved in less than a generation. The sacrifices and public burdens undertaken by teachers of all grades thruout the country have given them a repute and status that they have not hitherto enjoyed and that will result in substantial improvement of their material position. The outlook of the local educational authorities has also been deeply affected by the urgent necessity of giving much closer attention than ever before to educational problems under adverse conditions. Finally, altho little is as yet known about its effects, the educational activities undertaken with the army will undoubtedly have a healthy reaction on that public opinion without which educational progress is impossible. It is too often forgotten in recent discussions of English. education that the train for "a comprehensive and progressive improvement of the educational system" had already been laid before the war in the budget speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on May 4, 1914. The Act accordingly does not constitute a revolution in English education. It represents the normal development whose evolution has been hastened by the favorable conditions already described. After the satisfactory reception of the estimates for the Board of Education, introduced by Mr. Fisher in April, 1917, and calling for an increase of more than $19,000,000 over the estimates of the previous financial year, the passage of an educational bill to meet the new demands, as formulated by numerous education authorities and associations of lay and professional men and women, was a foregone conclusion. Mr. Fisher's first essay, however, with a bill which he introduced in August, 1917, was from the first condemned to failure because it exceeded these suggestions and recommendations and because it was sus pected as an attempt to conceal a scheme for centralized control over education behind a large number of measures otherwise acceptable. While the country is ready and willing to surrender its rights to the national government in the interests of the conduct of the war, it did not show itself so amenable in accepting what might prove to be a bureaucratic and centralized system of educational administration for all time. The education authorities were up in arms against the administrative measures and indicated in no uncertain terms their refusal to countenance any education bill at all that threatened their liberties or might interfere with local initiative and variety. The contested clauses have already been dealt with in the issue of the EDUCATIONAL REVIEW for March, 1918. In every case the administrative discretion of the Board of Education has been surrounded by limitations. Clause 4 of the first bill which gave the Board the final word in the approval or rejection of schemes submitted by the local education authorities now becomes Clause 5 and a definite procedure has been established in cases of conflict between a local education authority and the Board, with final power vested in Parliament. The old Clause 5, which provided for the combination of local areas into provincial associations in accordance with Lord Haldane's proposals, has been dropt altogether, and the same fate met the old Clause 29, which would have permitted the Board to transfer the smaller to larger educational areas. Clause 38 in the original bill also disappears and with it any danger that the Board would become the final authority in cases of dispute with local authorities. Finally, the old Clause 40 now becomes Clause 44 and the indefinite provisions for national grants to education are replaced by a definite undertaking that these shall amount to not less than one-half of the local expenditure. A few additions and amendments have been made, in each case extending rather than limiting the powers of local authorities. The general structure of the educational system remains the same as under the provisions of the Education Act of 1902, that is, the responsible authorities for elementary and higher education consist of counties and county borough councils, and for elementary education, of the councils of non-county boroughs and urban districts. The relation of the Board of Education to the local education authorities continues as hitherto with the broad exception that it now has the power of approving or rejecting schemes "for the progressive development and comprehensive organization of education" that may be submitted to it by the local education authorities; in cases of conflict between the Board and a local authority the Act provides for a conference or public inquiry, and in the last resort the submission of a report to Parliament with reasons for any action taken by the Board. The grants from the national exchequer have been consolidated and will in the future be dependent on the approval by the Board of such progressive and comprehensive schemes of education in a local area. The Act abolishes the fee, the aid and the small population grants and provides that the consolidated grant shall be not less than one-half of the expenditure of a local authority. By this means the Board will have the power of requiring, among other things, the efficient administration of school attendance, the satisfactory provision of elementary, continuation and secondary schools, the maintenance of adequate and suitable teaching staffs, and the provision of adequate systems of medical inspection and treatment. For the first time in the history of English education the national authorities are placed by the Act in a position to secure full information as to the provision of education thruout the country, the responsibility of furnishing such information being placed upon the schools. Under other provisions the Board is empowered on request to inspect schools not already on its grant list and with local education authorities to inspect schools that desire to qualify as efficient for the purposes of securing exemptions from attendance at public elementary or continuation schools. The effect of these measures combined with the indirect influence of the qualifications required of teachers for registration with the Teach |