Work in the Subjects of the Curriculum (continued)

GENERAL STUDIES

For the last two years three periods each week have been given to each of the three years of the sixth form for a programme of general studies, aiming at promoting rational judgment and a respect. for human values. While the programme is still experimental, and there is some uncertainty how it will proceed, enough has been done to justify confidence that it is on the right lines. Boys in each year are divided into groups of about twenty, with the hope that one day this number may be reduced to about a dozen or fifteen. Each group has in it boys from all sides of the sixth form, and each studies in turn a series of topics under the guidance of a senior member of staff, with the senior history master in overall charge. The topics studied at present include musical appreciation, political theory, modern drama, astronomy, evolution, the history of science, Greek civilisation, America, and crime and punishment. Half a term is given to each topic in the first year, and rather more in the second and third years. Each topic is expected to result in a piece of extended written work, although in not all of them has the technique for securing it been worked out. A move towards a unifying theme for the topics chosen in any one period of time might perhaps help to make them more cogent for the boys engaged with them, and some deeper study of a more limited subject might make for a more helpful discipline of study and for a more manageable unit. The work is supported by a useful collection of sets of books and by a library of relevant individual books which boys may borrow. In addition, each month an outside speaker of some standing is invited to talk to the whole sixth form.

The work has so much potential value that it is clearly worth persisting with, and worth enlisting the support of all school departments.

HISTORY

All boys take history in the ordinary-level external examination. Form IVA prepare in four years, and form VB in five years, for the London Examining Board's paper on British history from 1760 to 1914, forms VC and VD in five years for the Oxford Local Board's paper on social and economic history 1760-1939. There are 39 boys in the lower and middle sixth forms following advanced-level history courses, the numbers being almost equally divided between those who take it in association with languages and those who do so in association with economics.

The syllabus is suitably prefaced by a brief statement on the general aims of the work. The first year is devoted to ancient civilisations, and thereafter the plan is a chronological study of British history concentrating in the fourth and fifth years upon examination requirements. An interesting feature is the list of suitable historical novels appended to each year's syllabus. In the sixth form the arts groups take outline papers in British history 1485-1815 and in European history 1494-1789 in the advanced-level external examination, and the economics groups are in the process of changing over from economic history to British and European history 1830-1930. This should give a desirable extension to their field of studies.

8