NA TURE 



273 



THURSDAY, JULY 11, \\ 



SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS 



WE print with pleasure on another page a remarkable 

 article from the Times of Monday. In itself the 

 article may present nothing remarkable to the readers of 

 Nature, but as the deliberate utterance of the leading 

 organ of opinion in this country, it marks a distinct stage 

 of progress towards a more enlightened conception of 

 ■what constitutes education. We hope that it is significant 

 of the near approach of a radical change of the concep- 

 tion in this country of what subjects should be included 

 in elementary education. We need not be surprised at 

 the fate of Sir John Lubbock's Bill for the introduction 

 of elementary science into schools, when such erroneous 

 conceptions of what science is apparently exist in the 

 mind of tbe Minister of Education in the House of Com- 

 mons, Lord George Hamilton. The Vice-President of 

 the Council has much to learn, when his idea of the Royal 

 Society, one of the most venerable institutions in the 

 country, is that of a kind of select Polytechnic, where 

 " lectures " are delivered on " biology, chemistry, natural 

 history, mechanics, astronomy, mathematics, and botany." 

 But he is new to his work, and we must hope that the 

 debate of Thursday last may lead him to obtain a more 

 accurate conception of what is meant by elementary 

 science. 



Dr. Lyon Playfair, we believe, pointed out what is one 

 of the great hindrances to the introduction of science into 

 elementary schools ; the mere name, "science," frightens 

 ministers, inspectors, school-boards, and teachers ; per- 

 haps if the simpler phrase, "elementary knowledge,'' 

 were used, the simple-minded individuals in whose hands 

 are the training of our future citizens might find that they 

 themselves had been compelled to become acquainted 

 with it to their cost after they left school, and that it 

 would have been much better for them had they had some 

 little training in it before entering into the thick of the 

 fight. 



The most notable feature in the Times article, as 

 well as in Thursday's debate, is the fact that it has 

 at last dawned upon the leaders of opinion and the 

 makers of our laws, that "education" and "instruc- 

 tion " are different things, and that a man may learn a 

 great many " facts " at school, and have his education to 

 begin when he leaves it. It is lamentable that we have 

 to be continually reminded that we are the only one of 

 the great European countries where this distinction is not 

 recognised and practically carried out in education. Our 

 whole system of education, hitherto, has been a mere 

 cramming of the children's memories with words, words, 

 words, to the weariness of children and teachers, and 

 with results unsatisfactory to all concerned. As the Times 

 puts it: — "To be taught something about gravitation, 

 about atmospheric pressure, about the effects of tempera- 

 ture, and other simple matters of like kind, which would 

 admit [of experimental illustration, and which would call 

 upon the learner to make statements in his own words 

 instead of in those of st)mebody else, would be so 

 many steps towards real mental development." Sir John 

 Lubbock gave a most conclusive refutation of the 

 Vol. xviii. — No. 454 



idea that the teaching of science must be attended 

 with hitherto unexperienced difficulties, and at the 

 same time proved what a relief science-teaching would 

 be to the ordinary dull routine of instruction, when he 

 told the House that in the Scotch schools the authorities 

 began to take alarm because science-teaching was found 

 so comparatively easy and pleasant by the children. As 

 to the argument that children who have been taught to 

 know something about the objects and forces with which 

 they every day come into contact contract a distaste for 

 manual labour, we should hare thought it had been long 

 ago played out ; it has almost as much force as the story 

 told by another speaker of the boy who had been impu- 

 dent to his master because the latter could not read his 

 newspaper. 



It is unnecessary for us to go again into the merits of 

 the question which has been so often and so thoroughly 

 discussed in these pages, especially as the Times has 

 put it quite as forcibly as there is occasion for doing 

 at present. It certainly seems sad, nationally suicidal, 

 indeed, that a few more millions of those who will 

 have the destinies of this country in their hands, are 

 likely to be launched into active life, with all their 

 education to acquire, ere legislation steps in to give 

 us the advantages which nearly every other civilised 

 nation gives to its children. Every day we hear of 

 the ignorance of the working classes, every other 

 month " congresses " are held to devise means to remedy 

 the consequences of this ignorance — ignorance of the 

 laws of health, ignorance of household economy, igno- 

 rance of the implements and objects of labour, ignorance 

 of the laws of labour and production, ignorance of the 

 nature of the commonest objects with which they come 

 into contact every day, ignorance of almost everything 

 which it would be useful and nationally beneficial for 

 them to know — an ignorance, alas ! more or less 

 shared by the "curled darlings" of the nation. Yet 

 while every day' s paper shows how keen is the indus- 

 trial competition with other nations, and how in one 

 department after another we are being outstripped by 

 the results of better — i.e., more scientific — knowledge, the 

 poor pittance of " elementary knowledge" asked for in 

 Sir John Lubbock's Bill is refused by a minister whose 

 own " education " leaves much to be desired. This state 

 of things cannot long continue, and with such advocates 

 for the children as the Times and Mr. Forster, we may 

 hope that next time Sir John Lubbock brings forward 

 his Bill it will meet with a happier fate. 



THE JUBILEE OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE 



LORD GRANVILLE'S admirably reasoned and 

 temperate speech at the jubilee of University 

 College on Tuesday, reminds us how things move in 

 this country. It records half a dozen great advances 

 which are now accepted cordially and universally, with 

 all of which University College is more or less identified, 

 and in promoting which it has never failed to take a 

 leading part. 



To begin with, there is the absolute catholicity of its offer 

 to the student— the invitation on its motto is Cuncti adsint^ 

 meritaque expectentproemiapalmce. When the University 



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