660 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Examinations have a cramping effect on education as a whole, and the teaching 

 of science has suffered much from this cause. Examination syllabuses tend to 

 become restricted to what it is easy to examine in, and often have little regard for 

 what it is good for a boy to learn. Science in general education has two main aims : 

 (a) informative, and {b) the inculcating of scientific method : that is to say, giving to 

 the minds of boys that bent which will lead them to put problems (not only the 

 problems in the realm of science, but also those of life in general) to the test of 

 experiment, and not to rely merely on precedent and authority. It is difficult to 

 see how any simple examination can test the success of this second important aim 

 in the case of a boy of sixteen or so. And if there is an examination the science 

 teaching is sure to tend to become restricted to the syllabus of it. The deputation 

 suggested that the difficulty might be overcome by an extension of the practice of 

 inspection of schools combined with the granting of certificates of industry and 

 ability by properly qualified masters. 



In view of the prominence recently given to the position science should take in 

 general education, the chief interest of the meeting centred in a discussion on 

 " Science for the Rank and File." Prof. R. A. Gregory, in opening the debate, 

 pleaded for a broader basis in the teaching of science at school. In the course of 

 his speech he said : 



" In the teaching of science it is necessary to distinguish clearly between 

 courses of work suitable for the rank and file, and those intended as preliminary 

 training for scientific or industrial careers. In the one case we are concerned 

 with science as an essential element of a liberal education, and in the other with 

 vocational instruction." 



" It is a mistake to regard science and what are now called the humanities as 

 opposing elements in education. Modern life requires that the elements of 

 scientific method and knowledge should be included in every educational course. 

 School work should not, however, be concerned with the training of experts in 

 science, any more than of specialists in classics, but with the imparting of the 

 rudiments of a liberal education to all pupils, so as to awaken interest which will 

 continue when school-days are over. There are reasons for believing that the 

 descriptive and qualitative school science of a generation or two ago was better 

 adapted to promote such continued attention than is the quantitative work in the 

 narrow fields mapped out for instruction to-day. Little justification can be found 

 for the concentrated attention given to a few subjects, with a view to imparting 

 knowledge of experimental methods, when such a course means that the wonders 

 of the fields beyond are kept outside the range of vision." 



"One result of concentrating attention upon experimental method in recent 

 years is that the questions set in many public examinations aim at testing 

 practical knowledge only and afford no credit for acquaintance with the history of 

 science or interest in nature as a whole. It is most desirable, from the point 

 of view of the education of the rank and file, to introduce descriptive lessons and 

 reading intended to stimulate interest in scientific work and achievement and 

 their relation to modern life, instead of limiting the teaching to dehumanised 

 material of physics and chemistry which often leaves little impression upon the 

 minds of boys, and the chief purpose of which is to prepare for examinations. 

 There must be more of the human touch in the teaching." 



Mr. F. S. Young (Headmaster of Bishop's Stortford College) said that for 

 reasons of organisation it was desirable to have in any one school the same course 

 of training for all boys under the age of sixteen, and he emphasised Prof. Gregory's 

 point that the rank and file should not be taught as if they were to become 

 specialists in science. They should rather be trained to appreciate the value of 

 science and to be capable of forming a judgment on problems or opinions presented 



