Feb. 7, 1889] 



NATURE 



349 



elementary science. The preponderance of opinion 

 amongst the teachers examined is that no subject is better 

 calculated to awaken the interest and the intelligence of 

 the scholars than science. So far as the present teaching 

 of elementary science is concerned, it is in a most un- 

 satisfactory condition. Mr. J. F. Buckmaster says that, in 

 comparison with forty years ago, this department of school 

 work has retrograded ; and Sir Henry Roscoe agrees with 

 the statement that the teaching of this subject is falling 

 off. According to the latter witness, our system of educa- 

 tion is intended to form clerks and not artisans : it is 

 purely a literary system ; and if we wish to preserve our 

 manufacturing supremacy it must be changed. In fact, 

 whatever has been done by the manufacturers and artisans 

 of this country is owing in no degree whatever to the 

 educational system, which rather retards industrial pro- 

 gress than otherwise ; whilst on the Continent, where 

 manufactures have made such strides of late, everything 

 is o.wing to the technical schools and the scientific train- 

 ing of those intended for artisans. The vast majority of 

 Board-school boys are intended for the workshop rather 

 than the office : why, then, not fit them for the ordinary 

 duties of life ? If this be the object of elementary educa- 

 tion — that is, the fitting of scholars in general for those 

 duties which they will most probably be called on to per- 

 form — then, the Report says, elementary instruction in 

 science is only second in importance to elementary in- 

 struction in reading, writing, and arithmetic. But the 

 fact is, that though girls get some kind of training in, for 

 example, needlework and cookery, there is no such thing as 

 technical instruction for boys. Science, especially mathe- 

 matical, mechanical, and physical science, is not only the 

 foundation, but an essential part of technical instruction. 

 With regard, however, to the teaching of science, certain 

 warnings are necessary. In the first place, science teaching 

 should not be allowed to interfere with the scholar's 

 general instruction — that is, it should not be introduced 

 too early in life. In the next place, the average teacher 

 is useless as a science master. Even when by previous 

 training the teacher is suited, he has scarcely time to 

 devote to the preparation necessary to lecture clearly and 

 to perform experiments accurately and neatly. Therefore, 

 the Report suggests, the example of London, Liverpool, 

 and Birmingham should be followed by School Boards, in 

 engaging the services of a skilled science lecturer, who 

 will go from school to school in a specified district. For 

 example, in Birmingham, according to the evidence of 

 Dr. Crosskey, the Chairman of the School Management 

 Committee of that town, the demonstrator or an assistant 

 visits each boys' and girls' department once a fortnight. 

 He takes four departments a day, two in the morning and 

 two in the afternoon. Two and a half hours a fortnight 

 are given to science. The class teacher is present during 

 the lecture, and recapitulates it to his scholars, who are 

 bound to bring him written answers to questions thereon. 

 Mechanics or elementary natural philosophy are the 

 favourite subjects with boys, — sometimes they are taught 

 electricity and magnetism ; and the girls, domestic 

 economy, considered as the application of chemistry and 

 physiology to the explanation of matters of home life, and 

 sometimes animal physiology. Not only have very great 

 results been achieved by this system in the percentage of 

 passes, but it is noticeable that the attendance is always 

 largest on " science " days. Three years ago a lecturer 

 was appointed for the East End of London, and he had 

 at one time as many as two thousand boys under instruc- 

 tion in mechanics alone. The work has been so success- 

 ful that three assistants have been appointed. Many 

 witnesses justly complained of the kind of examination 

 papers set in elementary science. One paper of questions 

 is given at length in the Report. It is for boys of the Fifth 

 Standard — that is, for boys between eleven and twelve — and 

 consists of seven questions, of which a specimen, taken 

 a} random, may be given : " Quest. 2. In what bodies 



may you say that molecular attraction is balanced by the 

 repulsive force of heat .' " and written answers had to be 

 given. Hence the suggestion of many experienced wit- 

 nesses that younger children should be examined orally 

 is taken up and recommended by the Commission. 



Our system, or rather want of system, of education in 

 elementary science is spoken of by the Commission as 

 introductory to the wider subject of manual and technical 

 instruction, to which they devote many pages of their 

 Report. Into this we shall not follow them, but content 

 ourselves by quoting a few sentences from the Report. 

 "If it should be thought that children ought to receive 

 some instruction in manual employment, other than that 

 which the elementary schools available for their use can 

 give, we are of opinion that the best way of meeting the 

 need would be through the establishment of a workshop 

 in connection with some higher institution, which might 

 be willing to receive into the workshop boys of exceptional 

 ability, or others to whom it was considered desirable 

 to give this instruction. One such central institution 

 could do its work better and cheaper than a number 

 of scattered institutions, whilst nothing could be easier 

 than to make arrangements for attendance at this central 

 workshop being substituted on one or two afternoons in the 

 week forattendance at the elementary school." To illustrate 

 what might be done in this way, the case of the Seventh 

 Standard School at Birmingham is quoted. This is to 

 some extent a technical school, and no pupil is admitted 

 unless he has previously passed in Standard VI. The sub- 

 jects taught are reading, writing, and arithmetic, accord- 

 ing to the Code ; and, in addition, mathematics, plane 

 geometry and projection, machine construction and 

 drawing, magnetism and electricity, theoretical and 

 practical chemistry, freehand drawing, and the manipu- 

 lation of wood-working tools. These subjects are not 

 generally taught to all pupils, but are divided into three 

 divisions, to one of which, as a rule, the student confines 

 his attention. The first division is the machine con- 

 struction division, and includes mathematics, projection, 

 machine construction, electricity, freehand drawing, and 

 workshop ; the second division is the chemistry divi- 

 sion, and includes mathematics, projection, chemistry 

 (theoretical and practical), freehand drawing, and work- 

 shop ; the third division, the electricity division, includes 

 mathematics, projection, theoretical chemistrj-, electricity, 

 freehand drawing, and workshop. In the second year 

 (the course is three years in duration) the scholars spend 

 three hours a day in the workshop. This system, it is 

 said, has produced excellent results. 



NOTES. 



The Council Tof » the Royal Meteorological Society have 

 arranged to hold ;at 25 Great George Street, Westminster (by 

 permission of the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers), 

 on March 19-22 next, an Exhibition of Instruments connected 

 with atmospheric physics invented during the last ten years, 

 especially those used for actinic and solar radiation observations. 

 The Exhibition Committee invite the co-operation of all who 

 may be able and willing to send contributions. The Committee 

 will also be glad to show any nrw meteorological instruments or 

 apparatus invented or first constructed since last March ; as well 

 as photographs and drawings possessing meteorological interest. 



We learn that Prof. Fit^^erald and Mr. Trouton have been 

 conducting experiments confirmatory of Hertz's magnificent 

 work. Lately, using parabolic mirrors after the manner Hertz 

 recently described, they have observed the phenomenon of the 

 polarization of radiations by reflection from a wall 3 feet thick. 

 They observed long ago, and exhibited publicly at the opening 

 meeting of the Experimental Science Association last November, 

 that stone walls are quite transparent to these radiations, as they 



