still hamper them, but there is one above all others that hugs more closely at their straining arms than any other, and that is the fact that our educational system is far in the rear of the Spirit of the New Age. It is timid. It is timid as the ancient Greeks who hugged the coast in stormy times. It is afraid to let youth project freely. Yet the question begins to define itself, and to be asked more boldly—
"Should boyhood halt just where the race halted for ages?" Woodwork centres are opened; ironwork centres even are opened. That is very well. But is that all? As children grow older they put away childish things, but their impulsion is still reliable. They cease to want to become a humble order of artisan. Most of the boys want to be engineers!
And meantime thousands of mere machine-minders are being turned away. And there is a greater demand for skilled and inventive workers in the real workshops of the future!
It is not for the school doctor—camping hastily as it were on the outskirts of school life—to enter yet on a full explanation and justification of this new impulse of youth. He has had but little chance for studying it—a new arrival as he is, and still looked upon, by many, as a mere notifier of infectious diseases. Yet this is part of his work. What is
