662 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



teaching in the past. In teaching science it was never to be forgotten that how- 

 ever perfect might be the inculcating of scientific method, however sound the 

 mental discipline, however powerful the intellectual implement they supplied, 

 unless they showed how science bore upon the realities, the environment, and the 

 avocations of human life — unless, in fact, they humanised it— science could never 

 flow effectually into the general culture of the nation. 



Prof. Gregory, in his reply, said that what was needed was appreciation of the 

 fact that the pursuit of science means the acquisition of new knowledge and not 

 the contemplation of past performances. Accepted principles or theories of to-day- 

 may have to be discarded to-morrow because new facts show them to be untenable. 

 This absence of finality is the soul of science. Boys, of course, cannot be brought 

 right into the living stream of scientific work, but the attitude of mind which will 

 understand its power can be promoted, and the opportunity has come for science 

 masters to produce courses of study to attain this end. 



Mr. E. R. Thomas (Rugby), in opening a discussion on " School Science in its 

 Relation to Modern Industrial Problems," said : "When all is said and done, school 

 education must remain a compromise : a compromise whose failure has been only 

 partial because boys, though individually distinct and different, do, nevertheless, 

 fall into certain well-defined groups. The schoolmaster's duties are two — to 

 provide opportunities for the development of each of the types of boys under his 

 care, and to stimulate them to take advantage of these opportunities. The wise 

 teacher knows that he can do no more. At present, the bias of school teaching is 

 too much in favour of the boy whose self-expression is predominantly literary, at 

 the expense of the boy whose mental development must take place— especially 

 before the age of fourteen — mainly through the activities of the body. This latter 

 is the boy who will ultimately become the so-called ' Captain of Industry,' and he 

 is at the moment, from a national point of view, rather more important than any of 

 his fellow-pupils. The actual opportunities of self-expression to be offered to his 

 pupils is largely a matter of the teacher's own knowledge, training, and tempera- 

 ment ; but there are two ways in particular in which corporate action on the part 

 of the Association will help to remedy the glaring defects of the present system : 



" i. A course of manual training in the preparatory school must be insisted upon 

 as a necessary qualification for candidates taking the Common Entrance Examina- 

 tion. The educational value of such training — properly conducted— has been 

 proved by experiment in many different types of schools : in schools, for example, 

 as unlike one another as are the Naval College, Dartmouth, and elementary 

 schools of the Liverpool City Council. 



" 2. The Association should get into touch with the newly formed Association of 

 British Chemical Manufacturers, with a view to organising and increasing the 

 facilities for studying industrial chemistry on the works themselves. Holiday 

 courses for masters and boys might be arranged." 



Mr. G. N. Pingriff (University College School) opened a discussion on the 

 place of text-books in the teaching of science. In the course of his speech he said 

 the chief aim of natural science is " the search for truth based on experimental 

 evidence rather than on authority." A very important aim— not the only one— of 

 science teaching is to give training in and a knowledge of the above process ; in 

 fact, of the experimental method. It is not enough to tell a boy about scientific 

 method in, say, important work of the past ; he must also experience it himself to 

 some extent in his own work. This is not possible if he works with an ordinary 

 text-book, for the book gives him an alternative and easier method of acquiring 



