At the present time, however, there is a real danger—­in some quarters at least—­of unduly emphasising the specifically vocational, or “practical” side of education.  The man of affairs knows little or nothing of young minds and their limitations, of the conditions under which teaching is done, or of the educational values of the various studies in a school curriculum.  He is prone to choose subjects chiefly or solely because of their immediate practical utility.  Thus in his view the chief reason for learning a modern language is that business communications will thereby be facilitated.  One could wish that he would be content to indicate the end which he has in view, and which he sees clearly, and leave the means of obtaining it to the judgment and experience of the teacher; for in education, as in other spheres of action, the obvious way is rarely the right way, and very often the way of disaster.  Yet it is a distinct gain to have the practical man brought into the administration of educational affairs; for teachers are, as a rule, too little in contact with the world of commerce to know much of the needs and ideas of business men.  The Board of Education has already established a Consultative Committee of Educationists.  Why should not a similar standing Committee, consisting of representatives of the Chambers of Commerce of the country be also appointed?  Such a Committee could render, as could no other body, invaluable service to the cause of education.

From a recent article by Professor Leacock we learn that some twenty years ago there was a considerable change in the Canadian schools and universities.  “The railroad magnate, the corporation manager, the promoter, the multiform director, and all the rest of the group known as captains of industry, began to besiege the universities clamouring for practical training for their sons.”  Mr Leacock tells of a “great and famous Canadian public school,” which he attended, at which practical banking was taught so resolutely that they had wire gratings and little wickets, books labelled with the utmost correctness, and all manner of real-looking things.  It all came to an end, and now it appears that in Canada they are beginning to find that the great thing is to give a schoolboy a mind that will do anything; when the time comes “you will train your banker in a bank.”  It may be that everybody has not recognised this, and that the railroad magnates and the rest of them are not yet fully convinced; but Mr Leacock declares that the most successful schools of commerce will not now attempt to teach the mechanism of business, because “the solid, orthodox studies of the university programme, taken in suitable, selective groups, offer the most practical training in regard to intellectual equipment, that the world has yet devised.”