THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE IN OUR SCHOOLS 435 



Granted : but such idiots must no longer be allowed to attempt 

 to teach in our schools'; the would-be teachers of arithmetic 

 must be sent to school and learn to use centimetre and other 

 scales and to weigh and measure, to cut out things from card- 

 board and sheet metal, to note that there are such objects as 

 stones and other materials from which sermons can be drawn. 

 They will be fingerless and fumble at first but if their positions 

 be made dependent upon their efficiency, they will soon cease 

 to be conservative ; then they will become interested in the 

 work on finding how much easier, how really delightful it is, 

 when teaching is made practical — how, instead of being regarded 

 as the natural enemy of the boy, they can gain his sympathy 

 and come to be believed in by him as of some use on this earth. 



At the earliest possible moment — namely, at the beginning — 

 materials will be chosen for examination which are of natural 

 origin and ready to hand. Nothing is better than the common, 

 rolled garden pebble ; the foundations of geology are laid when 

 this is taken in hand and studied, sooner or later, from every 

 possible point of view. Its appearance may be recorded, its 

 texture or tact determined, its approximate size ascertained, 

 its weight and volume found as accurately as possible with the 

 measuring apparatus at disposal. 



If the quest be continued, whenever possible, in field, by 

 brook-side and at the sea, the natural history of the pebble may 

 be worked out thoroughly and profitably ; the first steps will 

 then have been taken not only in geology but also in physio- 

 graphy and physics. Materials in common use may afterwards 

 be worked with in all sorts of ways — in workshop and class- 

 room. By recording every act as it is done (but never later) 

 — why it is done, how it is done, with what result it is done, the 

 lesson learnt by doing it — not only will training be given in 

 English but also in writing; also in drawing if sketches be made 

 in illustration of the written accounts. The systematic training 

 in English, of which Headmasters are dreaming, will never be 

 given effectually until given in some such way as that I picture — 

 until boys and girls have something to write about which is 

 actual fact within their own knowledge. 



Nothing impresses me more than the blank ignorance of 

 common materials displayed by the hundreds of nominally 

 well-educated young fellows I meet with. The earth on which 

 they have trodden all their lives is usually an unknown quantity 



