Foreword<br >by Lady Plowden，<br >Chairman of the Central Advisory Council for Education<br >(England) whose report Children and their Primary Schools<br >was published in January I967 and is known as the Plowden<br >This is a book to be welcomed. It describes for the general<br >reader the primary schools of England today. It tells how the<br >schools and their curriculum developed， how they are<br >organised， and how and what the children in them are<br >learning.<br > There has been a great wind of change in the primary<br >schools since most of the adults of today were primary school<br >children and many :of the old beliefs have been blown away.<br >New and exciting th~ngs are happening; this is the only stage<br >in the whole of edudation when the child is educated as a<br >whole person， and his many interests can be encouraged.<br >Formal examinations are far away， there is no specialisation<br >in subjects and the child can range freely over the wide field<br >of knowledge within his comprehension. There is a greater<br >emphasis on the child learning， rather than on the child<br > being taught. One is an active process while the other may<br > well be passive. We all know that you can take a horse to the<br > water but you cannot make him drink. It has been thought in<br > the past that you could send a child to school and make him<br > learn. The new methods in the primary schools have shown<br > how much more the child learns and how high can be his<br > achievement if instead of being made to learn， the emphasis<br > is on making him want to learn. This is one of the most<br > important skills of the teacher.<br > There is however an even stronger influence than the school<br > in the education of the child， and this is his home and all that<br > goes on there. If these two powerful influences are kept apart<br > or， which is worse， pull in different directions， the educational<br > development of tile child is hampered. His life should not be<br > in separate compartments， with lack of understanding<br ><br >