SECTION D. 



37.— prp:sidextial address. 



By Thos. MiiK. C.-M.G., M.A.. LL.D., F.R.S. 



EDL'CATIOX AND SCIEX'CE. 



So long as the sections of a Science Association embrace a 

 multiplicity of subjects the appropriateness of having an introduc- 

 tor}- address which aims at a general treatment of the whole must 

 remain questionable ; and it will, of course, be all the more question- 

 able if the subjects be arranged on any other principle than that of 

 family relationship. In the early days, however, of such an associa- 

 tion, one must recognise the impossibility of specialising to the ex- 

 tent attained in more populous centres of civilisation, and adapt one- 

 self as well as ma\ be to meet the claim which custom demands. I, 

 therefore, take on the one hand from among the subjects of the 

 .section one which all men will grant the importance of, viz., Educa- 

 tion, and then place on the other hand not merely all the other 

 subjects of the section, but all the subjects of all the sections, 

 viz., Science, and ask you to consider with me for a few minutes the 

 signs of the times in regard to the two, the influence of Science upon 

 Education, and the attitude of Education tijwards Science. 



If we cast over in our minds the principal events of the recent 

 histor\ of education in England it is not difficult to separate out three 

 main streams of tendency ; and as all such streams are in no sense 

 the products of chance or artificial stimulation, but have to be viewed 

 as the natural results of the operaticni of forces acting in accord- 

 ance with the laws of evolution, it would be a fatal mistake anywhere 

 lo neglect the studv of them. The mistake would, further, be all the 

 greater if made in lands which have not yet reached the .same stage 

 of progress as England has. and which, therefore, have still the same 

 thorny road to travel as she has toiled through. First of the three 

 I place the tendencv to Modernisation. The old curricula have been 

 under a steadily increasing fire of criticism ; the old methods of teach- 

 ing have been held up to ridicule; and the old Boards of Manage- 

 ment have been treated with scant respect. What thus began in fault- 

 finding developed into the drafting of schemes of reform, into the 

 formation of associations for promoting those schemes, and ultimately 

 in numerous cases into modification of the statute-book. We have 

 onlv to think of the altered attitude towards such subjects as wood- 

 work and cookery in elementarx" schools ; the change in position of 

 French. German, and Science in secondary schools ; the initiation 

 and development of separate schools for technical education ; and 

 the great widening of the curriculum in Universities : — we have only 



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