| Description | Taylor Cadbury's address focuses on the issue of education provision for children. She refers to 'The History of Mr. Polly' by H. G. Wells, remarking on the insights which Wells provided into 'the modern system of average education' through his portrayal of 'dull mediocre lives, in dull or sordid surroundings.' Taylor Cadbury describes Mr. Polly's experiences, asking why England's educational methods should 'choke the imagination and destroy originality.' She refers to recent developments in the English educational system, remarking on the 1909 report of the Consultative Committee on Education and the debate surrounding the teaching of religious education in schools.
Taylor Cadbury emphasises the importance of developing the spiritual aspects of human nature. She remarks 'if with the development of the intellectual faculties, and the rightly growing demand for more physical comfort, for better conditions, for more equal chances, we do not cultivate the spiritual side of our complex nature, the result will be a dwarfed, crippled product.'
Taylor Cadbury later advocates counteracting the growth of materialism 'by stimulating the spiritual impulse.' This theme occupies much of her paper and is examined in relation to the need for 'spiritual awakening' in Britain and overseas. Taylor Cadbury also provides examples to illustrate how 'Divine illumination' was 'the chief condition of human progress', referring to the lives of historical figures. She concludes her address by stating that 'the greatest stimulus to our own spiritual life is to try to foster it in others. The greatest need of England to-day is the revival of spiritual life.'
Three printed copies of this address are featured here. |
| AdminHistory | Annotations on this address state that it was delivered to the National Union of Women Workers at the Union's Annual Conference which was held in Birmingham in 1905. However, Taylor Cadbury's references to the Board of Education Consultative Committee Report 'Attendance, Compulsory or Otherwise, at Continuation Schools' (1909) and her citation of extracts from H. G. Wells' 1910 novel 'The History of Mr. Polly' suggests that it was written in 1910. Indeed, a report of the Union's conference for the year 1910 featured in the journal 'Women Workers' reveals that Taylor Cadbury delivered the address at a concluding session of this conference. See 'Women Workers' vol. xx, no. 3 (December 1910), p. 68. |