ment in this respect. A "dry" playground of gravel, or better still sand, is a very valuable addition; this must of course adjoin the school-house. It is, no doubt, preferable that the cricket and football field should also be within the school grounds, but in suburban districts and other places where land is especially costly, this is often impracticable.

The replies do not indicate much enthusiasm in favour of gardens. In ten cases out of fifty-three the answer given is to the effect that boys can have gardens "if they choose," and in three cases they have been found a failure.

CONCLUSION.

In conclusion it may be pointed out that the typical Preparatory School is entirely unendowed; it is therefore exposed to free competition, and depends for its very existence on its efficiency Again, it is comparatively a new institution, and cannot therefore boast of what is at once an invaluable possession and a serious obstacle to improvement-a body of ancient tradition. How far the absence of tradition is to be

counted for gain or for loss need not be discussed here; but free competition may probably be reckoned among the efficient causes of the high standard of equipment, intellectual and material, shown by the typical Preparatory School.

FRANK RITCHIE.

THE TIME-TABLE OF WORK IN PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

ATTEMPTED CLASSIFICATION OF PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

Preparatory Schools are one of the results of specialisation in education. They do nothing but prepare boys for the Public Schools, and even within that limitation there is a tendency among them to specialise yet further. Roughly speaking, they may be said, for the purposes of our subject, to be classified into four categories: (1) Schools that make a special point of competing for scholarships; (2) Schools that do not compete for scholarships; (3) Schools that are specially preparatory for a particular public school; (4) Schools that prepare for the navy. It must, however, be distinctly borne in mind that there can be no hard-andfast line drawn between these four classes; but there does exist a tendency in these directions, and many of the time-tables that have been returned clearly show to which class their particular school belongs, although in others the gradations are so varied and imperceptible that classification is impossible.

SCHOLARSHIP SCHOOLS.

Every year a very large number of valuable entrance scholarships are given by the public schools as the result of competitive examinations. To many parents, for various reasons, it appears a matter of great importance that their sons should win one of these. The different examinations vary in detail at various schools both as to standard and subjects set. Some preparatory schools make a speciality of learning these differences and of preparing boys for success in particular scholarship examinations, in this way appealing to parents who greatly desire scholarships for their sons. These schools are not, however, divided from other preparatory schools by a hard and fast line, because there are always among their scholars a considerable percentage who will be unable to rise to a higher standard than that of the simple pass examination, and also because of the variations in the scholarship examinations themselves. If the boy "A." were sure to win a scholarship at "B." school, he might, perhaps, for example, entirely drop French at his preparatory school; it

is, however, most probably a matter of some doubt if he will be successful, and if he fails there he will try again at "C." school, and at "C." French may well be essential, while the Latin verses that were perhaps emphasized at "B." are discouraged at "C." In this way absolute specialisation is prohibited, but the tendency will be found clearly marked on many time-tables, both by the exaggerated weight given to the subjects that specially count at these examinations, and often, too, by the longer hours devoted to lessons.

NON-SCHOLARSHIP SCHOOLS.

Schools that do not compete for scholarships, and whose pupils are drawn for the most part from a more wealthy class of parent than is the case in the scholarship schools, often approximate so closely to the scholarship school as to be hardly distinguishable. They are encouraged to keep up the standard of work not alone by the desire of their headmasters to do the best for their boys, but also by the pride of the greater number of their parents which prompts them to covet at least a respectable place for their sons at the entrance examinations. Further, it is also undoubtedly true that the number of schools that never attempt to win scholarships is small. In the case of these nonscholarship schools, however, as the standard of the entrance examination at a public school is far below that of the examination for scholarships, the time-table may be less crowded, and it is possible for their headmasters to some extent to give scope to their own ideas on education.

SCHOOLS PREPARATORY TO A PARTICULAR PUBLIC SCHOOL.

During quite recent years it has become increasingly the practice for public schools to have preparatory branches of their own. In the old days these schools used to have boys of all ages, from nine to nineteen, living together under similar conditions. The very strong belief which has now obtained that such a system is absolutely evil has constrained most of them either to form separate preparatory branches or to refuse boys under thirteen. The preparatory schools thus formed are not very numerous as compared with those which are entirely independent. They are almost the sole exception to the rule that preparatory schools are neither aided by outside funds nor subject to outside authority.

There are, too, a limited number of schools owned in the ordinary way that have made a speciality of preparing for one particular public school. They are, in fact, chiefly confined to preparing for Eton and Harrow. In both these types of preparatory school it is obvious that the time-tables must be entirely

governed by any peculiarities that show themselves in the curricula of those schools for which they specialise. They will, however, still retain a family likeness to the time-tables of the other schools, because just as preparatory schools prepare for public schools, so do the latter prepare for Oxford and Cambridge, and the kudos attaching to the more famous courses of academic study is reflected downwards.

NAVY SCHOOLS.

The recent change effected by the Admiralty in the examination for the "Britannia" by raising the age of candidates to fifteen and a-half, has taken it beyond the limit at which preparatory school headmasters consider it advisable for boys to remain with them. Matters are, therefore, at present more or less in a state of uncertainty, but it seems probable that preparatory schools will entirely cease to attempt this special work, and will instead be compelled to pass boys at a premature age to the public schools. Before the recent change took place those schools that prepared for the Navy were virtually members of the last-named class, the "Britannia" being substituted for some public school. As matters stand at present, however, it is obvious that details concerning them must be either obsolete or speculative.

ACTUAL TIME-TABLES.

Annexed will be found three time-tables at present in actual use in different schools. They will show at a glance the way in which the time allotted to various subjects is apportioned by the three classes of school with which we have to do. Two forms only are given in each school, the top form and the bottom form, or the form whose age average most nearly approximates to the period between nine and ten years. These are selected

because, as a rule, boys enter preparatory schools about the age of nine years and they leave about the age of thirteen and ahalf. Table No. 4 has been compiled from a comparison of returns sent in from different schools, and shows the average time given to the different subjects in parallel forms in the aggregate of schools. As a standard of comparison it may perhaps be useful.

In the subjoined tables, the times are given in hours and

minutes.