January 12, 191 i] 



NATURE 



1 c* 



000 



.olumes " gives the measure of the departure of the whole 

 rea from the thirty -three-year mean. The sum of the 

 wo volumes (regardless of sign) is given as the amplitude 

 f the departures during the month. Annual mean 

 !-parture numbers and annual mean amplitude numbers 

 vere obtained and plotted as curves, and compared with 

 . Lirves of solar prominences and sun-spots and the mean 

 horizontal magnetic force (see figure). (The two fempera- 

 ure curves are inverted.) 



Prof. Bigelow says : — " The synchronism in the long 

 ' riod between the two solar curves and the three terres- 

 ial curves cannot be questioned, that for the magnetic 

 •Id being direct and those for the temperature system of 

 :ie United States being inverse." . . . "The synchronism 

 tween the curves of short period is not so well pro- 

 junced as for the long period . . . ; " and Prof. Bigelow 

 •oints out that this may well be due to inherent imper fee- 

 ions in the solar and magnetic observations. 

 .\rguing that an increase of solar action produces an 

 crease of temperature in the tropics but a relative de- 

 ease in the temperate zones because of the increased 

 )W of cold air from the poles to the equatorial regions, 

 Vof. Bigelow produces this set of curves as evidence, and 

 >ints out tfiat the succession of minor crests is about 

 iree years, this being the three-year period which he 

 -st described in 1894. 



It is unfortunate that this investigation has been kept 



1 the limits of the United States. It does not absolutely 



lollow that the case is proved for the whole temperate 



zone. Prof. Bigelow remarks that " there is a tendency 



for temperature to oscillate about a sort of nodal line on 



he Eastern Edge of the Rocky Mountain Plateau," and 



ne wonders what would have been the effect on the curves 



had the plateau occupied the greater instead of the less 



part of the States. M. 



LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL CONFERENCE 

 OF TEACHERS. 



npHE meetings held at Birkbeck College on January 5, 

 6, and 7, were no less important than those of the 

 twelve preceding years. Indeed, the general standard of 

 papers read was higher. The audiences ranged from 500 

 to 800, and they showed a better appreciation of improved 

 principles and methods than was evident, say, seven years 

 ago. In the case of the earlier conferences there was 

 undoubtedly a tendency for the listeners to say, " This 

 method of teaching is all very well — ideal perhaps — but 

 impossible under the conditions in my school." By his 

 organisation of these conferences, Dr. Kimmins has 

 brought home to those who have attended them the fact 

 that work of the finest quality is actually done under 

 conditions which appear, or even are, the most adverse. 

 Not once, but fifty times, have these meetings demon- 

 strated that the possibility of working on improved lines 

 depends on the inspiration of the teacher. 



Recognition of the dominant influence of the teacher in 

 the practice, as distinct from the administration, of educa- 

 tion, was made by the chairman of the London County 

 Council Education Committee, Mr. E. A. H. Jay, who 

 presided at the opening session, and Mrs. Bryant's plea 

 for specialisation derives much of its weight from this 

 recognition. 



The most largely attended meeting was that opened by 

 Mr. George Alexander, who urged the value of dramatisa- 

 tion and of good elocution by the children. It was clear 

 that he was preaching to the converted. The discussion 

 on " Memory " was of interest, as it brought out in a 

 remarkable way the utility to the teacher of recent work 

 in e-xperimentai psychology, notwithstanding the fact that 

 the professional psychologists regard such application of 

 their work as premature. The application of scientific 

 method to education means that teaching will be brought 

 more and more into harmony with an increasingly trust- 

 worthy psychology. Further, it means that the teach- 

 ing of history will be more scientific (as exemplified 

 in the masterly paper read by Mr. B. Lewis) and the j 

 teaching of science more historical and humanistic. It 

 will mean a new educational era. | 



NO. 2150, VOL. 85] 



Specialisation in Teaching. 



Mrs. Bryant, headm.istress of the North London. 

 Collegiate School, opened the discussion on this subject 

 with a paper advocating a certain degree of specialisation 

 on the part of every teacher of a staff. She assumed that 

 it was more normal for teachers to specialise than not^ 

 and that there was something artificial in a school where 

 every teacher taught evervthing. In a condition of free 

 growth, schools developed from a minimum of specialisa- 

 tion in the subjects taken by each teacher towards a state 

 in which nearly all progressive teachers specialised more 

 or less. Specialisation did not mean limitation entirely 

 to one subject ; still less did it mean one teacher, one- 

 subject, all the teacher's life. There were persons who 

 taught mathematics only, or classics only, or science only, 

 for all their life's career. These were specialists in ^ 

 special sense ; but these subjects were not only large in 

 extent, but multiple in the nature of the subject-matter 

 they comprised. There was, however, a specialisation 

 open to the humblest holder of a pass degree or a 

 teacher's certificate. For aU sorts of reasons, teachers 

 have the ability and an impulse to specialise — and to vary 

 their speciality. To learn a new thing and then have an 

 audience to talk to and make talk about it — this is the 

 joy of the teacher who is (not merely was) a student also. 

 Moreover, the learners share the joy, and are stimulate<Jl 

 thereby. Again, the move may come from a sense that 

 there is a need for a certain kind of knowledge in the 

 school curriculum. We see this just now in the case of 

 teachers who believe that Scripture should be taught with 

 more intelligence and scholarship. The practical motive 

 sets going the movement towards patient study, and 

 presently we have enthusiastic learners who are also 

 effective teachers. The modern head of a school could 

 organise the work so that each teacher took a larger 

 share in the work she was best fitted to teach, so that 

 without one dismissal or resignation the advantages of 

 limited specialisation could be secured. These advantages 

 were great : — (i) the scholarship of the teaching staff was 

 raised, and therewith that of the learners, ideas were more 

 accurate, inquirv- more thorough, interest more real, 

 curiosity more lively and fresh ; (2) the teacher became 

 a student, and to little children the reality of this made 

 all the difference. The good teacher is always finding 

 some new problem and solving it, just as the bad adminis- 

 trator is always trying beforehand to settle how every- 

 thing is to be done. It was well that variety of personal 

 influence should be brought to bear upon the child ; more- 

 over, the sense of belonging, not to the class merely, but 

 to the larger whole of the school, is quickened when the 

 child has real acquaintance with many members of the 

 staff. 



Mr. Frank Bulley gave a clear account of the simple 

 arrangements made in the John Ruskin School, whereby 

 the main advantages of specialisation are being secured irr 

 an elementar}' school. Dr. Borland urged that assistant 

 teachers should be encouraged to specialise in music, and" 

 that one or more of such " specialists " should be included 

 in every staff. 



Memory. 



Prof. J. Adams presided over the second session, which 

 was devoted to the psychology of memory and the in- 

 fluence which our knowledge of this subject should have- 

 upon teaching. The chairman introduced the subject witlr 

 an indication of its difficulty and importance. Dr. C. 

 Spearman spt^e on *' The Relation of the Memory to the 

 Will." The paper pointed out the remarkable contrast 

 between the present cultivation of the study of memory 

 by psychology and its neglect by education. This was 

 attributed to an unfortunate want of touch between educa- 

 tion and psychology, arising largely from the defective- 

 character of most psychological text-books. As a result, 

 educationists have generally failed to recognise that 

 memory, taken in its largest significance, embraces more 

 or less exhaustively all the mental processes whatever, of 

 intellect, and even of will. There are, indeed, most 

 important differences between its higher and its lower 

 manifestations, seeing that some persons excelled in the 

 one and some in the latter. Our present exaggerated 

 examination system is, in fact, chiefly disastrous owing 



