Abstract
FOR many years past the attention of those who have been giving serious consideration to the complex educatiunal problems which arise in this country has been directed to the gap which exists between the time at Which pupils ordinarily leave the public elementary schools and that at which a very small proportion of them appear as students st our technical institutions and at various evening classes. Many attempts have been made to bridge over this gap by continuation classes of various kinds and under Various conditions, but these attempts cannot be said to have been successful in the past to any extent commensurate either with the importance of the problem or with the amount of care which has been bestowed upon it. The causes of failure are deeply rooted in our social and economic organisation, whether we consider the large towns, the country districts, or the intermediate districts which are partly urban and partly rural. In the large towns, for instance, as soon as a lad is released from compulsory attendance at school, either by age or by the attainment of the necessary standard, his services have market value which his parents are usually very unwilling to forego, though its immediate sacrifice may have an important effect upon the ultimate success of the youth in after life. The consequence is that, especially in London, large numbers of these boys take positions as van boys, errand boys, and In similar occupations, in which for a few years they can earn wages up to or exceeding los. per week. By the time, however, that they reach the age of eighteen or nineteen they cease to be eligible for such work, and, not having utilised the intervening years since leaving school in attaining expertness in any skilled occupation, there is no other course open to them but to join the ranks of unskilled labour, whence the step to those of the unemployed and unemployable easy, especially as they have reached the age at which their parents can no longer be expected to contribute to their maintenance. In the country, other causes lead to somewhat similar final results.
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W., R. An Educational Gap 1 . Nature 75, 88–89 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/075088a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/075088a0