NA rURE 



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THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1879 



SCIENCE TEACHING IN SCHOOLS 



SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, one of the two or three 

 members of Parliament who know what science 

 means, has again brought forward his motion for the in- 

 troduction of science teaching into schools. As on former 

 occasions, the motion was lost, though those who opposed 

 it, and especially those connected with the Education 

 Department, were at a loss to give any clear reason for 

 not agreeing to it. One of the chief reasons apparently 

 why the Department is afraid to hold out inducements 

 for the teaching of scientific subjects, is that there is 

 scarcely an inspector qualified to examine on the subject, 

 a humiliating revelation of the lamentable state of educa- 

 tion at our universities. But Sir John Lubbock also 

 pointed out another apparently trivial but really powerful 

 reason for our half-educated rulers shrinking from assent- 

 ing to the introduction of science teaching into schools ; 

 the very name "science" acts as a bugbear. It is 

 indeed a pity we have no such word as Naiurkwtde to 

 indicate the sort of thing — "Natural Knowledge" — that Sir 

 John Lubbock and the intelligent minority who are with 

 him, wish to be taught to the boys and girls of our 

 elementary schools. The fact is that what is wanted is a 

 knowledge of things instead of mere words ; it is really a 

 question of how to use the eyes and how to train the 

 mind; the pages of nature as opposed to the pages of a 

 book ; in brief, education versus mere instruction. How 

 deeply working men feel the want of natural knowledge 

 when they grow up is shown by the increasing number of 

 technical schools that are springing up, evening classes 

 for the teaching of science, popular scientific lectures 

 local scientific societies, and other similar efforts to make 

 up for a deficient education in youth. It seems simply 

 incomprehensible how any member of Parliament having 

 at heart the real welfare of the people, physical, intellec- 

 tual, and moral, should not heartily support Sir John 

 Lubbock's attempt to give something like reality to our 

 elementary education. Even the opponents of the 

 motion seem to approve of " object-lessons," ignorant that 

 science teaching, in Sir John Lubbock's acceptation, is 

 just the same thing "writ large,"— simply object-lessons 

 taught by competent teachers in a systematic and accurate 

 manner. As to the outcry against increasing the burdens 

 of teachers and pupils, those who raised it must have 

 known that it was quite irrelevant. The advocates of 

 science teaching do not wish to make it an additional, but 

 only an alternative subject, to be taken at the option of 

 the teachers, for grammar, geography, or other existing 

 subject, for which payment is made. For indeed already 

 is science put down as one of the subjects in elementary 

 schools, but only as an extra subject for which no pay- 

 ment will be made, and for the teaching of which, 

 therefore, no inducement is held out to the teachers. 

 Then as to cost. Sir John Lubbock told the House — 

 " Contrary to what was believed in some quarters, his 

 proposal would really not involve any nppreciable cost. 

 The little books would come to no more than those on 

 history or grammar; while the sun, moon, and stirs, rain 

 nnd dew, wind and light, air and water, heat and cold, 

 stones nnd flowers, were before us all : and even if a few 

 Vol. XX. — No. 510 



objects as illustrations were required, they could be ob- 

 tained for a few shillings. He wished for nothing difficult 

 or abstruse, nothing beyond the range of the children's 

 minds and daily e.xperience. In mechanics the simple 

 forces might be e.xplained to them — why carts were put 

 on wheels, how levers and pulleys acted, the use of the 

 screw and wedge ; then the nature and relative distances 

 of the principal heavenly bodies, the primary facts relat- 

 ing to air and water in agricultural districts, the character 

 of the soil, the reason for the rotation of crops, the origin 

 and principal qualities of such substances as chalk, coal 

 iron, copper, cScc. ; the succession of the seasons, the flow 

 of rivers, the growth of plants ; the fundamental rules of 

 health, the necessity for ventilation and cleanhness, and 

 last, not least, the need for industry, frugality, and eco- 

 nomy. Explanations of these simple and every-day things 

 would be most interesting and useful to the children. 

 So far from cramming and confusing them, you would 

 introduce light and order into their little minds, and give 

 them an interest in their lessons which under the present 

 system they rarely felt." 



And, as Dr. Playfair put it, of what use was it to spend 

 a long time in teaching children in mining districts 

 grammar ? Would it not be of greater importance to 

 teach them about the dangers they would have to meet in 

 their calling — about fire-damp and after-damp, for in- 

 stance ? In the same way, should not a child destined to 

 become an agricultural labourer be taught something 

 about the earth, the properties of manure, and other sub- 

 jects connected with cultivation ? 



The fact is that some means should be taken to en- 

 lighten members of Parliament themselves as to what 

 education, as contradistinguished from instruction, and 

 natural knowledge, as contradistinguished from book 

 knowledge, really is ; and our readers might do worse at 

 the certainly approaching election than arouse the 

 minds of candidates to the urgent necessity of bringing 

 the country, in the matter of science teaching, up to the 

 level of those countries which, by the superior knowledge 

 of their manufacturers and technical skill of their working 

 men, are rapidly outstripping us on our own ground. 



MAUDSLEY'S "PATHOLOGY OF MIND'' 

 The Pathology of Mind. Third Edition. By Henry 

 Maudsley, M.D. (London : Macmillan and Co., 1879.) 



C'REAT as has been the growth, in recent years, o 

 ■^ the tree of knowledge, there is no branch in which 

 it has undergone so much actual development, as well 

 as mere expansion, as that of psychology. Though 

 formerly nearly isolated, being as it were but imper- 

 fectly grafted on to the main stock, curious rather than 

 beautiful, looking irregular, dry, and withered by the 

 blight of theology and bad metaphysics, it now presents a 

 compact system of branches and foliage, arranged with all 

 the symmetry of organisation ; the main stem springing 

 from the branch of biology as this does, in its turn, from 

 that of the physical sciences ; moreover, the process is 

 still continuing, for fresh buds may be seen in the newly- 

 formed structures, some of which, e.g., sociology, philology, 

 aesthetics, and the science of religious beliefs are already 

 beginning to unfold. The causes of this accelerated 

 growth it is needless here to discuss ; the principal seems 

 to be the gradually extended application of natural law 



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