5o6 



NATURE 



{April 3, 1890 



point of refusing to acknowledge any boys' school as 

 efficient which does not include drawing in its curriculum. 

 This is an enormous advance — how great will be 

 seen if we remember that less than a million out of 

 the five million scholars of our elementary schools are 

 receiving instruction in drawin,' at the present time. It is 

 a great advance, also, on the halting proposal of last year, 

 when the requirement was restricted to large schools 

 which aimed at the maximum grant. When a radical 

 change, such as the present one, is proposed, it is only 

 reasonable that the transition stage should be made easy 

 for schools which have to adapt themselves to the new 

 requirements. We make no complaint, therefore, of the 

 year of grace granted before the regulation comes into 

 force, nor even of the power given to the inspector to 

 dispense with it altogether in cases where the " means of 

 teaching drawing cannot be procured." This provision 

 would, indeed, seriously cripple the usefulness of the 

 change if it were intended to be permanent. But clearly 

 it is only meant to obviate temporary hardships in small 

 schools ; and we may congratulate ourselves that within a 

 short space of time, every boy (or at least every boy 

 among the working classes) will be receiving instruc- 

 tion in what is stated by all authorities to be the in- 

 dispensable basis of almost all technical instruction. 

 As a corollary to the change, there is another of less 

 importance, but of value in its way, which makes drawing 

 an alternative to needlework for boys in infant schools. 



While thus the manual instruction of boys is provided 

 for, a useful extension is given to the curriculum for girls, 

 by the provision of a grant for laundry work calculated 

 on much the same principle as that for cookery. 



Passing to science teaching, the reforms introduced are 

 no less satisfactory. In the first place, science instruction 

 (as well as manual training) is placed on the same foot- 

 ing as cookery as regards facilities for the grouping of 

 schools for central instruction, and attendance at such 

 centres will count as attendance at school. 



A still more important change is the extension of the 

 range of class subjects. Under former Codes a single 

 course of elementary science was sketched out meagrely 

 enough in Schedule II., while managers were invited if 

 they pleased to submit alternative courses to the inspector. 

 The result might have been expected. Science teaching 

 gives in any case more trouble than geography, and the 

 additionalnecessity of framing their own courses of instruc- 

 tion was quite enough to deter managers from taking up 

 the subject. Now, however, while still giving permission to 

 managers to draw up other courses of instruction, the 

 Department gives a lead by suggesting as examples no 

 fewer than eight different courses in various branches of 

 science, which are embodied in a supplement to Schedule 

 II. The subjects thus treated are mechanics, physiology, 

 botany, agriculture, chemistry, sound, light, and heat, 

 electricity and magnetism, and domestic economy ; while 

 the model course still retained in the main schedule em- 

 bodies a scheme of elementary instruction in " nature 

 knowledge " of a more mixed and varied character. 



In each of the first two standards the instruction is to 

 consist of thirty object-lessons in common things, designed 

 to lead on to the more specialised instruction in the third 

 and higher standards, the courses for which follow 

 (perhaps somewhat too closely) the syllabus laid down for 



the corresponding subjects in the schedule of specific 

 subjects. It has, of course, been necessary somewhat 

 to simplify and curtail the schemes of instruction in 

 adapting courses framed for picked pupils to suit the 

 capacity of the whole school. It seems to us that 

 the process of simplification might in some cases be 

 carried still furtherwithadvantage. Elementary physics for 

 children should consistof a general view of the properties of 

 matter and the forces which act upon it, rather than a more 

 detailed study of one out of many branches of the subject. 

 This was the line taken up by Michael Faraday in his 

 inimitable lectures to children on the " Physical Forces." 

 This too is the view of the Scotch Department, which 

 has laid down a course of class instruction in " Matter," 

 designed to give general preliminary notions of the 

 whole range of physics. And, we may add, this also is 

 the view taken by the Science and Art Department in 

 framing the alternative course in physics for those wha 

 (like the vast majority of elementary school children) are 

 not likely to carry their study of physics to a higher stage. 



This, however, is a matter of detail, while the sug- 

 gestion of alternative courses in science, linked to the 

 instruction of the Kindergarten by graduated object- 

 lessons in the first two stand ards, is a reform which we 

 cannot praise too highly. 



Other changes to be noticed are the inclusion among 

 class subjects of history, and the disappearance of the 

 requirement that English grammar should be compulsory 

 as a class subject. 



Turning to the schedule of specific subjects, we find 

 less alteration. Mensuration is separated from Euclid 

 and the alternative course of mechanics disappears. 

 There are a few slight changes in the syllabus of the 

 various subjects. Thus the law of conservation of energy 

 drops out of the course on mechanics, presumably be- 

 cause the idea is thought too hard for young children to 

 grasp. But if it be too difficult lax picked scholars in the 

 fifth and higher standards, how conies it that in the new 

 Scotch Code this very law appears in the syllabus for the 

 " <r/aj'i' " subject of " matter " (which we have alluded to 

 above), as part of the course suitable for the whole of 

 Standard IV. ? Are Scotch children so very far in advance 

 of English as this difference would seem to imply ? 



If, however, the fourth schedule presents few changes 

 worthy of note, considerable additions are made to the 

 list of specific subjects for which no special syllabus is 

 suggested, such as book-keeping, shorthand, German, 

 and (in Wales) Welsh. In this way the demand for com- 

 mercial instruction is met, though how far advantage will 

 be taken of the permission to present scholars in these 

 new subjects remains to be seen. And lastly, payments 

 will be made on account of any other spe ific subject 

 which the Department may sanction, provided a 

 graduated scheme of instruction be submitted to the 

 inspector. 



We have now completed the survey of the purely educa- 

 tional changes of the Code. Henceforth (assuming, as^ 

 we do, that the provisions of the Code will come into 

 force much in their present form) there can be little 

 complaint on the part of advocates of scientific or tech- 

 niral instruction that its introduction into elementary 

 schools is hindered by the action of the Department. 

 There need be no longer any talk of an educational ladder 



