Abstract
AN enthusiastic welcome was extended to the speech of the President of the Board Education, Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, on introducing the Education Estimates on Thursday last. Whatever be the motives which prompted whether they arose merely from considerations relating solely to the industrial and commercial equipment of the nation, or from the need for more effective military preparation, or from a tardy conviction that the essential well-being of the people demanded a much more adequate provision fOr the due training of all the children, they are gratifying index of the changed attitude of Parliament on this vital subject, and a sign, we hope, that the Presidency of the Board will always be occupied by someone familiar with educational problems and not be a purely political appointment as formerly. However distasteful the thought may be, there is lying at the back of mens minds the conviction that the industrial, commercial, and military position of Germany is due in the main the sedulous cultivation, through many generations, from the days of Humboldt downwards, the intellectual life of the nation, and that though we do not desire slavishly to imitate her methods or to pursue her ideals, yet we have arrived last at the conviction that we cannot any longer, if we would preserve and advance our pride place in the world, afford to ignore and waste the most vital asset of the nation, namely, the due cultivation, bodily, mentally, and spiritually, its child life among all classes.
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National Reforms in Education . Nature 99, 167–168 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/099167a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/099167a0