SCIENCE AND THE AVERAGE BOY 523 



they are growing moulds or infusions of B. subtilis one week 

 and investigating the properties of oxygen the week after. 

 The net result is some knowledge of a variety of subjects 

 ranging from malaria and phagocytosis to vaccination and 

 sterilisation, of a certain amount of hygiene and of some simple 

 chemical and physical ideas. 



The next course is rather more definitely chemical in its 

 nature. Primarily it is based on the complete chemical 

 investigation of some common substance, e.g. chalk, a candle, 

 etc., by the boys themselves. The method is to proceed from 

 the known to the unknown and it is during this course that 

 a scientific attitude is more definitely fostered. But again 

 physical, chemical and biological properties are taken together 

 as they call for attention and not separated into water-tight 

 compartments. Real experiments in connexion with such daily 

 life experiences as breathing, burning and decay, soils, disease, 

 etc., can be as truly educational as crystallisation and fractional 

 distillation. 



The boys then pass on to more definitely physical work, 

 e.g. the electric installation of a house, using not toys but 

 real commercial instruments — ammeters, voltmeters, motors, 

 dynamos. They continue at this type of work till promoted 

 beyond the reach of science or till they begin its formal pursuit, 

 there being in addition to the above electrical course others 

 on practical applications of the laws of heat and light, mechanics 

 and sources of power, as well as other electrical courses including 

 the making and use of telegraphs, telephones, electric bells, 

 induction coils and wireless telegraphic apparatus. 



In 120 hours a boy can get a good deal more scientific 

 information and rather more scientific training than is possible 

 in the like time for his examination-ridden brother of similar 

 capacity. A boy so trained will probably be ploughed in most 

 conventional science examinations for boys of his age. But the 

 writer firmly believes that he would keep his mental plasticity 

 and his interest in scientific subjects and respond to his 

 environment more intelligently than do many average boys 

 differently trained. 



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