PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 1X 
In this work the teacher and pupils are required to study things and 
not books, to perform experiments in order to learn how substances act 
under varying conditions and to draw their own conclusions. Is this 
done? It may be fairly well done in five per cent. of the schools, with 
very varying degrees of success in 60 per cent., and scarcely attempted 
in the remainder. 
The majority of teachers would do better work if they could, but 
they have never seen it done; they cannot learn how from books; and 
they have not the pecuniary or moral support that comes from a general 
intellectual appreciation of the material, intellectual and moral benefits 
resulting from scientific training. 
In the curriculum for our Academies and High Schools it is taken 
for granted that Botany and Physics are studied for about 90 minutes a 
week throughout the year. Chemistry and Mineralogy about the same 
time in the second year, and Physiology ‘and more advanced Physics 
each about two hours a week for the third year. There are very few 
schools, however, in which so much time is devoted to Science. The 
Provincial Examinations show that experimental work is almost wholly 
neglected. The mental confusion and crudity of conception apparent in 
a large proportion of the answers received would tend to show that 
much of the science teaching is simply a mechanical memorizing of the 
text-book. 
In the fourth year of the High School, science is optional. In the 
year 1897, 23 candidates received Grade ‘A Classical” and only three 
took Grade “A Scientific.” Candidates who are trained in schools 
where the facilities for the teaching of science are poor and where the 
teachers are themselves not interested in science, are not likely to select 
the science subjects for their Grade “A” examination. Of the 37 
Academic teachers reported as holding Grade ‘“‘ A” there are but two of 
them who hold the ‘A Scientific ” and this, notwithstanding the fact that 
the enthusiasm of the Superintendent of Education for scientific subjects 
might be supposed to influence the teachers and students in the ranks 
below him. 
The large proportion of ‘‘ Classical A’s” may also be partly accounted 
for by the fact that a considerable number of candidates are college 
students, and classics still dominates the Nova Scotia colleges. For 
matriculation leading to the degree of B. A. the student is supposed to 
have studied Latin for three years, but nothing is required in Natural 
Science. 
