NA TURE 



317 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2r, 1878 



THE HEAD-MASTERS ON SCIENCE 

 TEACHING^ 



JT is much to the credit of the head-masters that they 

 should have moved voluntarily in the matter of 

 science teaching. The great majority of them are known 

 to look upon it without hostility, but have hesitated to 

 introduce it into their schools, in ignorance of its educa- 

 tional value, of the time and teaching po.ver necessary^ 

 of subjects, methods, cost. Since the Report of the 

 Science Commission all see that it must come, and that 

 it is better for the schools to shape the system to be 

 adopted leisurely and in concert than to wait till it is 

 forced upon them from without. A few schools have 

 already accepted it in principle ; a very few have worked 

 it adequately for some years past ; to these the Head- 

 Masters' Committee have applied for information, and 

 their published answers are before us. 



Questions were issued to the masters of twenty-four 

 schools, of whom nineteen replied. They refer to the 

 time spent on science in actual school work, the per- 

 centage of boys taught, the age at which teaching should 

 begin, the subjects included, the methods and texts em- 

 ployed, the intellectual results apparent, the value of 

 laboratory work, the cost of appliances, the influence, 

 good and evil, of university scholarships, the textbooks 

 recommended ; and it was requested that the answers 

 might convey not individual theories of what might and 

 ought to be, but a record of what had been and was being 

 done in each particular school. 



It is evident that the first question, as to time spent in 

 teaching, is vital to the whole, and should determine 

 primarily the comparative weight due to the answers sent 

 from each head-master. Unfortunately the answers to it 

 are in a great measure unreliable. Only one school gives 

 the total number of its actual working hours ; some do, 

 and some do not apparently include hours of " prepara- 

 tion " in their estimate ; one large school, Clifton, omits 

 to reckon the extra time given to special classes, and 

 probably others do the same ; while Harrow, Magdalen, 

 and Dulwich, all valuable witnesses, make no return. 

 Taking the answers as they stand, eleven of the nineteen 

 schools give from two to four hours only as a maximum 

 per week, inclusive of practical work ; and in some cases, 

 at least, this is probably correct, representing also many 

 more schools than are included in the list. Such schools 

 have made a good beginning, are feeling their way to 

 more extended teaching, and will hail the information 

 given in these pages. But their maximum would be 

 thought ludicrous in the case of literature or mathematics ; 

 it gives no real chance to science either as a storehouse 

 of useful knowledge, or as a weapon of intellectual train- 

 ing ; and accordingly the evidence valuable to school- 

 masters is contained mainly in the answers sent by the 

 remaining schools. 



These may be tabulated as follows : — 



' Appendix to Report of Head-Masters' Committee, 1877. 

 Questions on Natural Science. 



Vol. XVII. — No. 434 



Answers to 



School. 



Bradford 



Clirtoni 



Giggleswick ... 

 King's College 

 Manchester ... 

 Newcastle-under- 



Lynie 



Taunton 



Wellington ... 



Hours per week given 



to science in different 



parts of school. 



10, 4, 3, 2 



JO, 4 



8, 6, 5, 2 



7. 5- 5 



12, 9, 3i 



7, 4, 2 

 10, 8, 4. 3 . 

 6, 3i. i 



Percentage of boys 

 learning science. 



No return. 



90 



80 

 No return. 

 No return. 



90 



87 

 73 



As regards the age at which the study should com- 

 mence, Clifton, Taunton, and Wellington think that it 

 cannot begin too early ; the rest give years ranging from 

 ten to thirteen. All the schools agree in teaching 

 chemistry and physics ; three teach botany, three geology. 

 All test progress by periodical frequent examinations 

 within the school, Clifton and Taunton specifying the 

 period as once in three weeks. All but one speak highly 

 of the use of note-books ; five object strongly to 

 examinations from without, two find them useful. Brad- 

 ford, Clifton, Taunton, Wellington celebrate the good 

 effects of science as a school subject, from its stimulating 

 power, its bringing apparently dull boys to the front, its 

 inculcating a comprehension of physical law. Six 

 schools make practical laboratory work compulsory ; one, 

 Clifton, has regard to special aptitude shown by boys ; 

 one alone, Bradford, would not enforce it at all. 



The evidence as to cost is complicated ; the questions 

 were well arranged, but many of the answers give aggre- 

 gate sums, without saying how many boys the outlay was 

 calculated to supply. It would seem, however, that the 

 costly appliances of Clifton, including chemical and 

 physical laboratories and lecture-rooms with fittings of 

 every kind, cost about 5/. per head of pupils intended to 

 be taught ; those of Newcastle about 4/. per head ; of 

 Giggleswick 3/. ; of Taunton less than 2/. : that is to say, 

 chemistry and physics may be taught for ev^er to one 

 hundred boys with an original expenditure of 200/., and 

 cannot where money is plentiful cost more than 500/. 

 For the further consolation of beginners and of poorer 

 schools we learn that a Clifton master's apparatus for 

 three chemical and three physical lectures a week cost 8/. 

 once for all, exclusive of air-pump and balance, and that 

 in lecturing for five years he has not spent 3/. a year ; 

 while the Taunton master announces that a man with 

 leisure and dexterity to make his own apparatus can 

 begin with table, gas, water, a few shelves, and 5/. ; and 

 adds that his own lectures cost only 6d. each. 



Valuable opinions are reported as to the influence exer- 

 cised by the universities on school teaching. All head- 

 masters know that the mischief inflicted on education by 

 the Oxford and Cambridge system is incalculable, and 

 the opinion finds expression in these answers. To gain 

 a science scholarship a boy must abandon during the last 

 two or three years of his school course all subjects except 

 science, with such a minimum of classics and mathe- 

 matics as may secure him against a pluck in the Little- 

 go ; and, viiitato nomine, the same is true of candi- 

 dates for either classical or mathematical scholarships. 



I This is from private information. The returas given in the Report are 

 not so high. 



