Abstract
AT its annual conference held on February 12, the London Teachers' Association was addressed by its new president, Mr. S. Vanderhook, of Holden Street School, Battersea, on “Current Issues in Education” including, as “the most vital”, reduction in the size of classes. The L.C.C. programme for 1938–41 contemplates a reduction of classes in junior schools to 42 and in infants' schools to 44, the standard for senior schools remaining at 40. As it is now twenty-five years since the L.C.C. initiated a scheme for reducing the size of infants' classes to 48 and senior classes to 40 Mr. Vanderhook may well call the new scheme a “small” step forward. A large part of the address has reference to the measures which are to come into operation next year for raising the permissible school-leaving age to 15. The Board of Education's Circular 1457 on this subject is discussed on the lines of the National Union of Teachers' memo, of December 1937. Mr. Vanderhook would, himself, use a short way in dealing with applications for exemption from further school attendance in order to accept "beneficial employment". He would reject them all ; for he holds that there is no employment which is beneficial for young persons of fourteen years of age.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
London Teachers' Association. Nature 141, 324 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141324c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141324c0