The employment of a higher type of teachers has brought a marked change in the conduct of studies. Under the early system instruction was conveyed almost entirely by lectures; for this system the colleges are substituting, more and more, the instruction of students in small classes. In this way the exercises are more closely adapted to the attainments and interests of the students, free discussion during class hour is encouraged, and the students have time for private study, which was hardly possible when their time and energies were exhausted by transcribing and memorizing notes of lectures.

The improvement in the conduct of studies in the training colleges is particularly shown in the matter of English language and literature. The grammatical "subtleties" that formed a prominent feature in the older examinations have been replaced by the study of select authors with the hope of exciting a general love of literature. Since 1904 the program has been extended by the addition of the semiprofessional subjects of physical training and hygiene. The official syllabus of physical exercises for public elementary schools has been introduced into the colleges. Expert inspectors have been employed to test the students' proficiency in the syllabus, and their ability to teach it with success; instruction in hygiene has also been made compulsory for the majority of the students.

The municipal training colleges naturally draw their students from a limited locality, and consequently their advantages are offset in a measure by the danger of "inbreeding." Some efforts have been made by local authorities to correct this tendency by selecting only a portion of their teachers from the output of their own colleges. A surer corrective is likely to be found in the provision for residence, which nearly all of the municipal colleges are taking measures to supply.

The relation between day training colleges and the universities gave students the chance to secure a university diploma, and this opportunity was eagerly seized by the more ambitious, and their efforts were encouraged by the education department. Two orders of training have resulted, one based on the needs of elementary schools, the other animated by university purposes. Experience shows that while the stronger students in the day colleges fare better than they would have done in the old residential colleges, the weaker students are worse off. There are difficulties in the way even of those best able to work for the degrees. The university teaching, having been intended to provide for university students, is unsuited to men of lower attainments; at the same time many students who really are not capable of taking the higher studies make the endeavor, instead of increasing their imperfect knowledge of the subjects which they must eventually teach. Moreover, the degree course of a university requires a student's undivided energies

for three years; but in the case of one preparing for a teacher's position, this work must be combined with professional training. Under these circumstances it is not possible for the intending teacher to compete with other university students unless he neglects subjects which are essential in his subsequent career as a teacher.

Thus a contest has arisen between the claims of academic and unacademic subjects. The board of education discusses the difficulty, but so far has offered no remedy. The suggestion, however, is made that a graduate from a training college should be allowed to pursue a two-year course of university study after graduation. This is practically the arrangement in Saxony for graduate teachers who are admitted to Leipzig University.

The development that has taken place in the professional training of teachers reacts upon the service. The more highly trained teachers naturally require and need increased salaries, and this places them beyond the reach of rural schools and even of the schools of small towns; indeed, in England, as elsewhere, the salary question is the critical one in popular education.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS.

The National Union of Teachers exerts great influence by reason. of its large membership, which has reached 88,000, and its means of affecting public opinion. The union has four representatives in Parliament, and maintains an organ, The Schoolmaster, which is ably edited and strong in its advocacy of popular education. The annual meeting of the association was held this year at Lowestoft during Easter week, as usual. The president, Mr. W. B. Steer, assistant master of the municipal secondary school, Derby, in his inaugural address discussed the status of the teachers under two main considerations, namely, their remuneration and the unpopularity of the profession itself. He declared that "there are at least 14,650 fully qualified teachers serving to-day in the nation's schools who can not be said to be earning a living wage." This contention was supported by the facts relative to the average salary of certificated teachers, with respect to which Mr. Steer said:

The average salary of £146 3s. ($730) which the nation pays its certified masters is absolutely and relatively inadequate absolutely because it compels the teacher to live a narrower life both socially and mentally than is good for the influence which he is required to wield, and relatively because, with equal capacity, a man can secure a much better remuneration in other professions. And the same thing must be said of the average salary of £101 ($500) which the nation pays its certified mistresses. From a patriotic standpoint the claim of the National Union of Teachers is entirely wise, for the potential recruits will not enter the teaching profession until the nation can assure an eventual salary of at least £200 per year to every man and £160 to every woman who responds to the call, with higher remuneration still should their industry and success and the smiling face of fortune lead to promotion to the head teachership of a school.

Other causes for the unpopularity of the service were summed up as follows:

(1) The fact that the qualities which the country demands from its teachers it does not hold in real esteem; (2) the belittling of the teacher's certificate by the board of education itself, and by education authorities generally; (3) the lack of consistency in the character of the certificate from year to year; (4) the employment of unqualified teachers; (5) the absence of a register of qualified teachers; (6) the denial to teachers of a share of the control of education; (7) the control of education by men who have had little or no experience of the work, and frequently the poorest ideas of the aim of the school and the possible scope of the curriculum; (8) the consequent adoption of impracticable and even false standards by which teaching may be judged-standards not based upon generally accepted pedagogical principles, but upon the mere intuitions, whims, and caprices of the reigning sphinx in office; (9) the closing of the legitimate avenues of promotion to the teacher; (10) an inordinate worship of university training as the sole qualification for administrative and inspectorial posts; (11) the division of the profession of education into water-tight compartments.

The recent creation of a new grade of assistant inspectors, to which teachers are eligible, was pronounced a "grudging concession." The position is not available to teachers after they are 45 years of age. The salary attached to the position is not high, and the age limit cuts out the men and, to some extent, the women whose service is rendered in large towns, where promotion to head teachership does not come until the forty-fifth birthday has passed.

At the last meeting of the session a resolution was adopted, authorizing the executive to put forth all possible effort, both locally and nationally, to secure the adoption of a standard scale of salaries for certificated class teachers in primary schools. The scale demanded was as follows: For provincial class teachers, men, minimum, £90 ($450); maximum, £200 ($1,000), to be attained by automatic increments; women, minimum, £80 ($400); maximum, £160 ($800), to be reached also by automatic increments. For metropolitan and extra metropolitan class teachers, men, minimum, £100 ($500); maximum, £250 ($1,250); women, minimum, £90 ($450); maximum, £200 ($1,000).

The resolution excited discussion because of the difference between the range of salaries demanded for men and women teachers, but all proposed modifications were rejected in view of the difficulty of securing men teachers. The vote in favor of the resolution was finally declared unanimous.

NORTH OF ENGLAND EDUCATIONAL CONFERENCE.

The twelfth annual meeting of the north of England educational conference was held at Bradford January 1 to 3 of the current year, and was characterized, as usual, by discussions of the social bearings of education. The keynote of the meeting was struck at the opening session by Dr. Sadler, who took for his subject "The present dis

contents in English education." The following citation from his address is particularly significant in view of the just complaints of the teaching body as voiced in the proceedings of their own association. Dr. Sadler said:

So far from English teachers as a mass being at the present time disheartened about their work, or disillusioned with their lot, there never has been a time within living memory when so many of them were enthusiastic about their work or so willing to give unsparingly of the leisure of their holidays to self-training and further study. Holiday courses in England are hardly more than 20 years old. Year by year the number, the attendance at them, their success, increase. Only those whose business it is to watch this significant movement know how far-reaching it is, how deeply it is affecting the educational situation. Thronged summer gatherings, attended by hundreds of teachers for two or three weeks together, are now so usual as hardly to receive notice in the press. Again, any new contribution to educational thought is hailed at once with interest and eager curiosity. When Jacques-Dalcroze came to England a year ago the largest halls could hardly hold the number of teachers who wished to hear him. If Madame Montessori came to England (as I hope she may), she would have to give her lecture twice over in every town she visited. Mr. Edmond Holmes, who is the Gordon Craig of English educational literature, has an audience of readers upon a scale which, in his lifetime, Matthew Arnold utterly failed to find. Again, if you go to any experienced inspector, he can take you to schools in his district where there is work of high promise and originality, due to the character or artistic power of some perhaps obscure teacher, and bearing fruit in a new kind of discipline among the children and in a new relation of confidence between the school and the home. Platform hacks talk about the chaos of English education. It is a cheerful chaos. It is growth, not decay, which is the cause of the conclusion. There are scores of private schools, even the names of which are not known to the wider public, which are full of a fine spirit of educational originality, combined with a reverent regard for the wisdom of precedent. Principal Griffiths1 did not mention the education of girls. Yet, after all, girls are more than half the English race. We live in an age in which girls' schools have for the first time in England been created on a national scale. What body of educational opinion is there amongst us so well considered, so honest, and yet so hopeful as that of the head mistresses and assistant mistresses of our secondary schools for girls? Principal Griffiths's picture is like a painting by some of the Dutch masters, a little dark and gloomy; but even he has his high lights. He spoke with just enthusiasm of the promise and performance of the tutorial classes organized by the universities in union with the branches of the Workers' Educational Association, and with the help of local authorities and the Government. Perhaps by concentrating too much of his praise on this one feature of the educational outlook he did unwittingly a little injustice to other tendencies and other movements, in their way not less encouraging. This upthrust of interest in the things of the mind, which is a mark of the best working-class opinion in England at the present time, is one of a dozen signs of hope for the future, but it is also a sign and an outcome and a cause of unrest. We are in for stormy weather, but there is something exhilarating in a storm.

What Bacon said about the planting of colonies is true of the making of an educational system: "It is like the planting of woods. You must make your account to lose almost 20 years' profit and expect your recompense in the end."

I Reference to address before the education section of the British association in 1913, by Principal Griffiths, of the University College of South Wales.

STATISTICAL SUMMARY.

The following tables comprise the principal statistics relating to the system of public elementary schools in England and Wales for the last year reported:

TABLE 1-Showing classification of public elementary schools and enrollment, 1911-12.

TABLE 2-Summarized statistics of ordinary public elementary and higher elementary schools, England and Wales, 1911–12.

TABLE 3.-Expenditure for elementary education, England and Wales, year ending Mar.