PkKSIDK.NT S ADDKE.^S. 9 



sity, so that all the schools which teach to this stage teach at least 

 one science. Practical work is supposed to he given, hut recent 

 comments hy the University examiners in the science suhjects 

 are unsatisfactory. One examiner says: "The work handed in 

 shows that many candidates are taught to remember a large 

 munber of formulae as well as descriptions of experiments, which 

 were probably not carried out hy the candidates themselves " ; 

 another says, " The experimental work at such centres had appa- 

 rently been neglected, and, in some cases, it was clear that the 

 candidates had never performed any experiments themselves " ; 

 a third, "It was jjerfectly clear that in many cases the experiments 

 described by the candidates had never been witnessed by them, 

 and that the ' experimental and observational knowledge ' had 

 been derived either from text-books or from notes dictated by 

 teachers, and then learnt quite mechanically " ; while still another 

 says, " Even in good sets of papers it is often clear that instead 

 of the students having performed the simpler experiments for 

 themselves, and written down an account of what they have 

 done, the teacher has not only performed the experiment for 

 them, but has dictated an account of it." That sort of thing 

 brings discredit on science, and as long as schoolboys are taught 

 in this fashion, their parents and they in ttirn, when they grow 

 up, will fail to see that any benefit is derived by the study of a 

 science. (jood teachers iii science will be more and more 

 required, and it will lie with the universities to supply these. 

 A former complaint about science teachers in schools was that 

 they thought it only necessary to have a science degree, and that 

 training in teaching was unnecessary, but nowadays the com- 

 plaint is being reversed, and it is said that many teachers have 

 all the pedagogic virtues but lack a decent knowledge of the 

 subject they are to teach. ( )ur universities will, we hope, send 

 out to the schools teachers in science qualified in both knowledge 

 and training ; for some years now graduates have been trained 

 as teachers under the segis of some of the colleges, and a con- 

 tinuation of this work for larger numbers of graditates may be 

 expected from the universities. 



It is remarkable that an Irish member of the British Parlia- 

 ment, in a book lately published, has as his main suggestion for 

 bringing out the best in the Irish character and starving out the 

 worst, a training in science — the branch of education in whicli 

 Ireland is notoriously deficient.* 



A headmaster of a public school in England has declared 

 that any extension of science in the school is impeded by the 

 indifference, or even opposition, of the parents. But if science 

 is to be extended, the teachers themselves must be keen in 

 their desire for its extension ; failure in that direction is certain 

 if many teachers still retain the old idea that classical education 

 " not only elevates above the vulgar herd, but leads not infre- 

 quently to positions of considerable emoluments." Here the 

 devotion of the greater part of school hours to the study of 



* " Ireland's Vital Hour," bv Arthur Lvnch. ^l.V. 



