Ireland In The New CenturyPlunkett, Horace Curzon, Sir
History
Ireland In The New Century
Plunkett, Horace Curzon, Sir
Ireland -- Economic conditions; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1901-1910; Irish question
I have already, in this chapter, indicated that outside large industrial
centres, our educational policy is, broadly speaking, twofold. We seek,
in the first place, through our programme in Experimental Science and
its allied subjects, now so generally adopted by secondary schools in
Ireland, to give that fundamental training in science and scientific
method which, most thinkers are agreed, constitutes a condition
precedent to sound specialised teaching of agriculture as well as other
forms of industry. We seek further, by methods less academic in
character--for example, by itinerant instruction which is of value
chiefly to those with whom 'school' is a thing of the past--to teach not
only improved agricultural methods but also simple industries, and to
promote the cultivation of industrial habits which are as essential to
the success of farming as to that of every other occupation. Classes in
manual work of various kinds--woodwork, carpentry, applied drawing and
building construction, lace and crochet making, needlework, dressmaking
and embroidery, sprigging, hosiery and other such subjects, have been
numerously and steadily attended.
I do not ignore the argument that such home industries must in time give
way before the competition of highly-organised factory industries. The
simple answer is that it is desirable, and indeed necessary, to employ
the energy now running to waste in our rural districts--energy which
cannot in the nature of things be employed in highly-organised
industries. To the small farmer and his family, time is a realisable,
though too often unrealised, asset, and it is part of our aim to aid the
family income by employing their waste time. Even if we can only cause
them to do at home what they now pay someone else to do, we shall not
only have improved their budget but shall have contributed to the
elevation of the standard of home life, and thus, in no small measure,
to the solution of the difficult problem of rural life in Ireland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account