NOTES 659 



" i. For purposes of science teaching in general education — 

 (a) Elasticity is essential. 

 {b) Freedom to draw on all subjects is advantageous and desirable." 



" 2. The report of the Committee on ' Science for All ' is hereby generally 

 approved." 



To indicate the aims of science in general education, the Committee have 

 published the following memorandum : 



" Natural science in education should not displace the ' humanistic ' studies, but 

 should be complementary to them. In this capacity natural science meets two 

 needs in particular : 



"(i) Search for Truth. — Imaginative power indicates new fields in which 

 further knowledge of truth may be revealed : its subsequent establishment depends 

 on accurate observation, with constant recourse to nature for confirmation. The 

 one aim of natural science is, in fact, the search for truth based on experimental 

 evidence rather than on authority. Hence the study of the subject implies 

 accurate observation and description, and fosters a love of truth. The special 

 value of natural science in the training of mind and character lies in the fact 

 that the history of the subject is a plain record of the search for truth for its 

 own sake. 



"(2) Utility. — There are certain facts and ideas in the world of natural science 

 with which it is essential that every educated man should be familiar. A know- 

 ledge of these facts assists men (a) to understand how the forces of nature may be 

 employed for the benefit of mankind, (d) to appreciate the sequence of cause and 

 effect in governing their own lives, and (c) to see things as they really are and not 

 to distort them into what they may wish them to be. It is the business of 

 natural science in education to bring this knowledge within the range of all." 



A deputation from the Association has recently been received by the Govern- 

 ment Committee on Science in Education. The deputation gave evidence of 

 many disabilities under which the teaching of science is labouring in the public 

 schools. Prominent among these is the fact that the most prominent boys are 

 diverted from scientific studies quite early in their careers owing to science finding 

 no place in the examinations for scholarships from the preparatory schools to the 

 public schools : the boys afterwards continue to devote themselves to the subjects 

 which they have found to pay in the past. In support of this argument, instances 

 were quoted of schools where the classical sixth forms were composed almost 

 entirely of boys who were entrance scholars, while few, if any, were to be found 

 on the modern side. And in certain instances the extra fees levied upon boys 

 who took science were grossly unfair in view of the small outlay on scientific 

 apparatus. 



It was not urged by the deputation that formal science should be taught in the 

 preparatory schools : nature study and practical measurements are the proper 

 introduction to the later study of the subject : examinations in these should be 

 compulsory on all candidates for scholarships on entrance to public schools. 



The deputation did not favour the setting up of another barrier to a boy's 

 entrance to the university by insisting on his passing an examination in science 

 (as in the proposals now before the University of Oxford). They had seen too 

 much of the evils of compulsory Greek and Latin to wish to add another of a 

 similar nature. They pleaded for removal of compulsion in other subjects rather 

 than for the adoption of compulsion in their own. What was insisted on was 

 that every boy should have the opportunity of studying science ; and if he had 

 made an honest effort to learn he should not be debarred from going to a university 

 simply because of failure to attain a certain standard in any one subject alone. 



