Editing World Brain (section)

=== The Informative Content of Education ===
This section was delivered as the Presidential Address to the Educational Science Section of the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]], 2 September 1937.

Wells expresses his dismay at the general state of public ignorance, even among the educated, and suggest that the Educational Science Section focus on the bigger picture:

<blockquote>For this year I suggest we give the questions of drill, skills, art, music, the teaching of languages, mathematics and other symbols, physical, aesthetic, moral and religious training and development, a rest, and that we concentrate on the inquiry: What are we telling young people directly about the world in which they are to live?</blockquote>

He asks how the "irreducible minimum of knowledge" can be imparted to all people within ten years of education—realistically, he says, amounting to 2400 hours of classroom instruction. He suggests minimizing the teaching of names and dates in British history and focusing instead on newly available information about [[prehistory]], early [[civilisation]] (without the traditionally heavy emphasis on [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and the [[Israelites]]), and the broad contours of [[World history (field)|world history]]. He suggests better education in [[geography]], with an inventory of the world's [[natural resources]], and a better curriculum in [[money]] and [[economics]]. He calls for a "modernised type of teacher", better paid, with better equipment, and continually updated [[teacher education|training]].