138 



NA TURE 



[Feb. 9, iSSS 



The Science and Art Department has a flexible system, 

 capable of application to the wants of town and country. 

 Students are examined by the thousand every May, but 

 though the standard of attainment is rising, there is a 

 general opinion — which is supported by the statements of 

 the Royal Commissioners — that the instruction given by 

 the teachers falls far short of an ideal which might be and 

 ought to be reached. And yet this matter of good or bad 

 teaching is vital. " It is absolutely essential," says Prof. 

 Huxley, " that the mind [of the teachers of scientific 

 subjects] should be full of knowledge and not of mere 

 learning, and that what he knows should have been 

 learned in the laboratory rather than in the library." 

 " This," according to Mr. Goschen, " is the first test of the 

 value of an educational system, whatever its curriculum 

 may be. Is'it intelligent ? Is it thorough ? Above all, is it 

 rousing ? Does it excite intellectual interest in those 

 who come under its influence ? Does it develop in 

 them the temper which always asks for a reason and 

 struggles to arrive at a principle?" 



Teachers competent to work an educational system 

 which satisfies these requirements must be themselves 

 highly- finished educational products. They must have 

 risen above the vulgar pocket-filling ambition of passing 

 so many students per annum. Risen above it, not in the 

 sense of ignoring it, for in this prosaic world a livelihood 

 must be earned, but in the sense that the mere drudgery 

 of bread-winning is for them lit up with a glow of the 

 enthusiasm of the student who has knowledge to impart 

 which he himself values for its own sake. 



We want as science teachers not men who have 

 crammed just enough to enable them to cram their pupils 

 in turn, but men — and we believe there are many, though 

 far too iew of them — who have learnt to regard themselves 

 as members of the great scientific army the advance of 

 which is the most remarkable movement of the age. 



How are they to be got ? They cannot be obtained in 

 the requisite numbers without a systematic search and 

 preparation. It may be, as Prof. Huxley hints, that 

 additional pecuniary inducements must be held out to 

 secure them. This is a question on which the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer may have an opportunity of giving 

 practical aid to English science and education. Or, if this is 

 Utopian, let us suggest to Mr. Goschen that it would be well 

 if his great influence were used to urge the Government 

 to make the most of the machinery it already possesses. 



Prof. Huxley has been for years the Dean of the 

 Science Schools which are the centre of the system of 

 evening teaching which the Royal Commission on 

 Technical Instruction has pronounced to be in many 

 respects the best in Europe. Among the highest rewards 

 given to the successful candidates in the May Examina- 

 tions are free passes for more or less prolonged courses 

 of study at South Kensington. 



Teachers in training attend the classes, and year by 

 year batches of science teachers are brought together to 

 receive special instruction in the subjects they are 

 engaged in teaching. One of the great difficulties to be 

 encountered by a provincial College is the fact that the 

 calls upon the Professors are too multifarious. Students 

 of all classes — would-be engineers, doctors, electricians, 

 and a dozen similar groups — all desire courses of instruc- 

 tion designed to meet their particular wants. It has 



been rightly decided that this obstacle shall not impede 

 the progress of the State-aided system of evening in- 

 struction. A special institution is provided to meet the 

 special requirements of those who are engaged in it. The 

 union of the Normal School of Science with the Royal 

 School of Mines has not interfered with the attainment 

 of this end, while it has secured the advantages which 

 result from the mingling of students who are studying the 

 same subjects with different aims. 



The State, then, has recognized the need for trained 

 science teachers, just as it feels the necessity for pro- 

 viding properly- educated officers for the Navy. It is 

 admitted that both classes can best receive the instruc- 

 tion they need at special institutions. The Royal Naval 

 College at Greenwich has been provided for the one, the 

 Normal School of Science for the other. 



The school gives evidence of vitality and success. 

 Within the last five years the number of students has 

 doubled. A very considerable amount of original re- 

 search is done in its laboratories. Now, however, its 

 very efficiency is a danger. It has outgrown the build- 

 ings which have been assigned to it. By permission of 

 the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition, classes are 

 carried on in what was the Colonial Exhibition. But 

 duty to the interests with which they are primarily charged 

 will, before long, compel them to withdraw this hospi- 

 tality. Driven from the holes and corners in which it 

 has been compelled to seek refuge, the Central School for 

 the training of teachers of evening science classes may be 

 compelled to reduce its numbers, and to limit its useful- 

 ness at the very moment when Mr. Goschen, Prof. Huxley, 

 and all competent educationalists are agreed that one of 

 our most pressing national wants is the elevation of our 

 teachers, and of their type of teaching. 



We have chosen this as a single example which serves 

 to illustrate the wide generalization which we have been 

 discussing. Is the interest of the average Member of 

 Parliament in the dangers which threaten our trade 

 sufficiently intellectual to lead him to sanction the cost of 

 necessary precautions ? In these democratic days the fate 

 of the English people is in their own hands. If they choose 

 that the education of their bread-winners shall be conducted 

 on the principles on which the " accomphshments " were 

 taught in an old-fashioned ladies' school — if they choose 

 to send competent Commissioners all over Europe, and, 

 when they tell them that one of the chief defects of their 

 educational system is the comparative inefficiency of 

 their teachers, they nevertheless deliberately half-close 

 the doors of the school specially provided to remedy this 

 defect — there is no help for it, and but little hope for them. 



Wars may be caused by race hatreds which have taken 

 centuries to gather, but success or failure often depends on 

 the placing or misplacing of a few thousand men. Com- 

 mercial competition may be, as Prof. Huxley tells us, due 

 to causes which affect all living things. The progress or 

 decadence of England will depend upon how it adjusts 

 itself to the altering character of the strife ; and we confess 

 that we shall watch with interest to see what amount of 

 practical support the Chancellor of the Exchequer is pre- 

 pared to give to the views of the Lord Rector of Aberdeen. 

 The test will be applied when the Technical Education Bill 

 is again brought forward, and when the particular need 

 which we have chosen as an illustration has to be met. 



