1866. | ( 605 ) 
THE ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFICATED SCIENCE 
TEACHERS. 
Tuts Association, which was inaugurated at Birmingham in 1865, 
held its first Annual Meeting in Liverpool last July, and we are 
glad to find from the report forwarded to us by the Honorary 
Secretary, Mr. Mayer, F.C.8., of Glasgow, that it has met with 
the approval of the Committee of Council on Education. 
The Association well merits the support of the State, and our 
new Ministry will do much towards attaining that popularity 
which is the legitimate ambition of all new Governments, by giving 
to it their best countenance. 
At the Annual Meeting, presided over by Dr. E. Birkenhead, 
a Science teacher, the recently appointed Lecturer on Chemistry 
at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary School of Medicine, a number of 
useful resolutions were adopted, of which the following deserve 
special notice :— 
1. That the Secretary should put himself in communication with 
publishers of text-books suitable for use in Science classes, request- 
ing them to consider the propriety of granting such books on the 
most favourable terms possible to members of the Association, 
when they are ordered in quantities. 
2. That, while regarding the Examiners in Geology and 
Physical Geography with all the respect that is due to their great 
eminence in their own special departments, the teachers interested 
in the examinations in those subjects in May last have some reason 
to regret that the examiners saw fit to draft such difficult examin- 
ation papers as were given to the pupils, and to fix such a high 
standard, as the great percentage of failed candidates and the 
small number of first-class prizes awarded would seem to indicate. 
3. That the Secretary should write to the Science and Art 
Department, and respectfully request:—1i. That a careful revision be 
made of the syllabus contained in the ‘Science Directory ;’ ii. That, 
as far as possible, each examiner shall name, after the syllabus of 
his own subject, the most suitable text-books to be used for that 
subject; ui. That the examination papers should be framed in 
accordance with the heads of subjects mentioned in the syllabus. 
4, That the Council should recommend to the Secretary of the 
Science and Art Department, that certificates be awarded to all 
“passed” pupils, without any regard to the prizes at present 
given to first, second, and third class candidates. 
We must confess that some of the questions asked by the 
Examiners have puzzled us not a little, and although the Examiner 
in Geography is no doubt entitled to the respect of the Science 
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