543 



NATURH 



[January 13,. 191 6 



led to widely diffused knowledge, was not designed 

 to lead there, that it failed to stimulate any healthy 

 intellectual interest in the majority, have now glared 

 at us too prominently to be overlooked." 1 



The above is an extract from the inaugural address | 

 which Sir Oliver Lodge delivered at the opening of 

 the fourth annual Conference of Educational Associa- 

 tions. The audience was large — it was drawn from 

 thirty educational societies^ — and the address was the 

 precursor of strenuous activity displayed during the 

 week by the great majority of the societies. It 'is not 

 without signifieance that the representative committee 

 which organised the conference should have sought a 

 leader from the ranks of scientific workers, in an 

 Tiour so fateful to the education of the nation. For 

 this year there has been no question as to the desir- 

 ability of holding educational conferences ; the lessons 

 of the war having intensified among teachers of all 

 grades their sense of the national responsibilities of 

 their work. Whether the same recognition of the 

 inevitable consequences of training (or lack of train- 

 ing) in school has been reached by the public, is doubt- 

 ful. There is only too good ground for Sir Oliver 

 Lodge's warning to parents : — " Conservatism is 

 natural in education. We have been through a certain 

 mill, and we think it proper that our children should 

 :go through the same process. If a great school were 

 subjected to sweeping reforms, a whole generation of 

 fathers and grandfathers would feel themselves de- 

 frauded of the right of basking again in the queer, half- 

 forgotten traditions of their boyhood." Our readers 

 may recollect that the headmaster of one of our greatest 

 public schools has declared that any extension of 

 science in the school was impeded by the indifference, 

 ■or even opposition, of the parents. 



The address passed from castigation of anti-scientific 

 obscurantism to constructive suggestions for training 

 the average fourth form boy, involving a cultivation 

 of inventive faculty by a variety of enterprises some- 

 times requiring mechanism, facilities for genuine ex- 

 perimentation and subjective discoveries, for self- 

 developed interests and actual experience of the work- 

 ings of nature. The utmost importance should attach 

 to elementary physiology, and hygienic details ought to 

 te inculcated as part of the tradition of the race. 

 These and other points were treated in the address 

 In a manner absolutely in accord with the practice of 

 our more progressive schools for many years past. 

 But although to some present their restatement may 

 Tiave seemed superfluous, in reality Sir Oliver Lodge 

 was doing a most useful service by backing the 

 methods of our science teachers with the support of 

 "his acknowledged authority in the realm of science. 

 How necessary such support is mav be gauged by the 

 fact that within three days the Board of Education 

 actually circulated a suggestion to secondary-school 

 authorities that economies should be effected by 

 dropping laboratory work in schools and substituting 

 lecture-demonstrations ! 



Prof. A. N. Whitehead treated the Mathematical 

 Association to a brilliantly phrased address, and his 

 concluding sentences may serve as a comment on the 

 •endeavour of the Board of Education to reduce the 

 eflficiency of science teaching: — "The race which does 

 ■not value trained intellieence is doomed. To-day we 

 maintain ourselves. To-morrow science will have 

 moved forward yet one more step, and there will then 

 be no appeal from the judgment which will be pro- 

 nounced on the uneducated." Prof. Whitehead fell 

 foul of external examinations, and put a broad view 

 of the task of mathematical teachers, defining mathe- 

 matics as the science of life. The impression conveyed 

 to at least one of his hearers was that this concept of 

 mathematics should inspire both teacher and taught, 

 the proper attitude being induced in the learner by 



NO. 241 1, VOL. 96] 



giving him problems , which deal with things whjch 

 really matter in the big world. 



The pervading sense of national responsibility, was 

 perhaps most intense at the meeting of the Public 

 Schools Science Masters, who met, a<; did also the 

 Mathematical Association, at the London Day Train- 

 ing College. The president, Sir William Osier, gave 

 "The Fateful Years, Fifteen to Seventeen," as the 

 title of his address, the main feature of which was a 

 plea that the schools should give intending medical 

 students such a training in physics, chemistry, and 

 biolog)' that they may enter at once upon their purely 

 medical studies as soon as they enter the university. 

 The address, which had much literary charm as well 

 as common-sense merit, was well received, the general 

 feeling of the members being clearly in accord with 

 their president. It was pointed out, however, that the 

 real obstacle to the plan suggested was the faulty 

 regulations of the University in which Sir William 

 Osier is Regius professor. The schools tend to send 

 their best boys to Cambridge and London, because 

 Oxford will not allow the medical course to begin at 

 once. From the discussion it appears that the would- 

 be medical student enters in October, is compelled to 

 wait until December before he is allowed to pass 

 " Divinners," and has then to wait until the next 

 medical course opens in the following October. The 

 irony of the situation is heightened by the fact that 

 the university has just sent an appeal to the head- 

 masters on the lines of Sir W. Osier's request to the 

 science masters. The situation would be humorous 

 at another time ; but at the present moment it is of 

 the most obvious importance that every encouragement 

 should be given to aspirants to a medical degree, and 

 that every hindrance to rapid and thorough qualification 

 should be removed. The discussion will, it may be 

 exp>ected, cause the rescission of the offending regula- 

 tion. 



Like most of the work of the meeting, the next 

 paper dealt with a topic of immediate national con- 

 cern, viz., the improvement of agriculture. With a 

 force derived from unrivalled knowledge, Mr. Chris- 

 topher Turnor dealt with the desirability of giving a 

 bias towards agriculture in the science teaching, point- 

 ing out the need for arousing interest in the minds 

 of those landowners of the future who are at present 

 in the public schools. He effectively contrasted the 

 interest and energy shown bv the leaders of Denmark 

 with the state of affairs in England. England is the 

 only country in which the agricultural population has 

 absolutely declined. The present writer was reminded 

 of a remark made to him four years ago by a Swedish 

 professor : — " You have a wonderful country. England 

 will be a garden, when you have developed your agri- 

 culture.'" A whole morning was given to a discussion 

 on war work in schools, which was so practical and 

 informative that its publication appears to be contrary 

 to the interests of the various institutions concerned. 

 Instructors from Woolwich and the War Office each 

 testified to the value of the help which science masters 

 are giving, especially by giving future officers instruc- 

 tion which will be immediately useful in active service. 

 The members of the association, and especially Mr. 

 C. L. Bryant, who, as honorary secretary, is the inter- 

 mediary between the War Office and the science 

 masters, may be congratulated on the work they are 

 doing in this connection. 



There was a discussion on school museums, as to 

 which it is hoped to say more in a future article. The 

 sarne remark applies to various discussions at different 

 societies, also to the exhibitions ; the present article 

 being restricted to those problems of science Instruc- 

 tion which directly influence national affairs. It is 

 satisfactory to record that a sub-committee, consisting 

 of Messrs. Hill, Tripp, and Oldham, has been 



