s is of very wide range. In the elementary schools there is a
certain uniformity of scheme, if not of achievement. But in the Public
Schools, and in the preparatory schools which act as feeders to them,
there is no uniformity of scheme, and the range of achievement is from a
very great deal to just nothing at all. Too much depends upon the
individual outlook of the Headmaster. If he be musical, then the music
prospers: but if he be not interested in the subject, then the music
languishes accordingly. This is not rational. Either music has its value
as an educational subject, in which case it ought to be in the
curriculum independent of the vagaries of the Headmaster for the time
being; or else it has no educational value, and should never be there.
Whims in such a matter are out of place: but they are nevertheless too
often a deciding factor. In many schools music is frankly regarded as a
nuisance, a sort of frilling that is inappropriate to the rigid texture
of education. It touches the emotions, and the Public School man has a
horror of being even so much as suspected of having emotions.

The average net result is that music has been tolerated rather than
encouraged, and most often the boy who elects to study music has to do
so at the expense of his playtime. Class singing is sometimes taken in
the regular school hours, but more often not. The consequence is that it
is frequently regarded as a grind and a bore: an attitude scarcely
conducive to any appreciation of its inner significance. Again, the
influence of the Music Master is of extraordinary importance: his
subject is identified in the boy mind with himself, and if the master be
not respected for his own personality, then the music suffers in
precisely that degree. A fine influence can be trusted to make itself
felt in every circumstance, though perhaps battles may have to be fought
before victory is achieved, and if the musician has grasped the
fundamentals of his Art, and realises that it is not so much himself as
the spirit that works through him, then the work that he can do both for
music and for his little musicians is beyond all price.

In one Public School with which we were closely acquainted the standard
of music was extremely high. The "Head" had his own ideas, which
occasionally came out in unexpected guise. For example, every Sunday
morning there was a choir-practice before Chapel for the non-singers.
This, of course, is a contradiction in terms, bu