power and considerable freedom.

"This freedom," writes a recently retired Headmistress
of thirty-six years' standing (Mrs Woodhouse, late of
Clapham High School), "was of the greatest value as leading
to differentiation of type and character of school. It
ensured a spirit of joy in work for the whole staff; for the
Headmistress and her band of like-minded colleagues were
co-workers in experiments towards development and
sharers in the realisation of ideals. The vitality thus
secured has been appreciated at its true value by His
Majesty's Inspectors when in recent years they have
come into touch with these schools, and as far as my
experience goes, they have left such initiative untouched."

The danger resulting from the progress made in education during the
twentieth century is that secondary schools, coming as nearly all now
do under the cognizance if not the control of the Board of Education,
may become too much office-managed and State-regulated, thus losing
life in routine. The task of resisting this, of working loyally with
local and central government departments, and yet of keeping the
school a living organism and not merely a moving machine is one
requiring by no means ordinary ability. Is there not here a call to
women of the highest power and academic standing?

It is true that the direct facing of these wider problems does not
fall to the lot of the assistant mistress in her earlier years. But
the ambitious aspirant to a profession looks to the possibility of a
judgeship or bishopric in choosing his life-work. The capable woman
then will look at all the possibilities in the teaching profession.