June 6, 191 8] 



NATURE 



265 



7/i£ POSITION OF NATURAL SCIENCE 



IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



T^HE report of .the Committee appointed by Mr. 



-L Asquith when Prime Minister in Augxist, 



1 16, has recently been issued, and a summary 



its conclusions appeared in Nature for 



^l>ril 18. The chairman of the Committee was 

 Sir Joseph J. Thomson, president of the Royal 

 Society, and now Master of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridg-e. In an article on the report the Times 

 hinted that the Committee included too large a 

 l)roportion of men of science to yield conclusions 

 entirely free from bias. There is no justification 

 lor such suspicion. The report was unanimous. 

 Apart from members representing industry and 

 business, and several with large experience of 

 educational organisation, not fewer than six pos- 

 -^tssed a practical acquaintance with teaching, 

 acquired as masters in public schools ; and one 

 of these, now a headmaster, was formerly a 

 < lassical master at Clifton. 



Whatever view the reader may take of the 

 questions involved in the business of the Com- 

 mittee, he will find that the introduction to the 

 report contains interesting reading and expressions 

 of sentiment in reference to the value of literary 

 and historical studies which ought to be satisfac- 

 tory to every reasonable person. There is no sign 

 of prejudice here. But there is probably no depart- 

 ment of human activity in which it is more difficult 

 to bring about a change of opinion than in con- 

 nection with education. It is more than a century 

 since the Rev. Sydney Smith poured the burning 

 satire characteristic of his wit on the classical 

 pedantry of his day, which forbade the mere 

 mention of such subjects as political economy, 

 much less the various divisions of physical science, 

 as worthy of notice in a university. It is more 

 than fifty years since the Duke of Devonshire's 

 Commission recommended that all boys should 

 receive instruction in some branch of natural 

 science. Nevertheless, while undoubtedly great 

 advances have been made of late years, it is even 

 now impossible to say that all the secondary 

 schools in the country are free from the prejudicial 

 Influence of the exclusively literary form of educa- 

 tion in which the majority of schoolmasters have 

 been brought up. There is too much of the atti- 

 tude of the young man in the parable who said to 

 his father, " I go, sir," and went not. There are 

 great schools still which boast that they qre teach- 

 ing science, while their pretensions are shown to 

 be hollow by the totally inadequate allowance of 

 time assigned by them to science subjects, and 

 by the fact that many of the literary specialists 

 among the boys escape altogether. 



Just now, as remarked by the Committee, the 

 war has led the nation to perceive something of 

 its deficiencies in the matter of science, and every- 

 one is ready to receive science with open arms. 

 "Just now It seems unnecessary to take action to 

 ensure against any relapse Into the old conditions, 

 NO. 2536, VOL. lOl] 



but experience of the past shows us that tem- 

 porary enthusiasm needs to be fortified by some 

 more binding material." 



What, then, ought to be done? Tlie Committee 

 has provided a summary of the principal con- 

 clusions. These conclusions are gathered Into 

 eighty-three short paragraphs. They are obviously 

 not all of equal importance, and, of course, they 

 apply to various kinds of school and to the needs 

 of various callings. 



First and foremost the recommendations that 

 all schools should be subject to compulsory In- 

 spection, and that this Inspection should be under 

 the direction of the State, will find few to raise 

 objections. The .work need not be done wholly 

 by inspectors from Whitehall, for the universities, 

 more numerous and active than formerly, have 

 already considerable experience in this direction. 

 And it is only when a little light is thrown into 

 the dark places and a little pressure put on that 

 governing bodies and headmasters will see what 

 is their duty in this connection. This considera- 

 tion suggests another reform which is not referred 

 to by the Committee, and that is the desirability 

 of some control of the constitution of governing 

 bodies of schools. In some cases local tradesmen 

 are put on with the object of representing rate- 

 payers who object to the cost of education. In 

 other cases the vicar of the parish is a member 

 and often the chairman of governors, no matter 

 what his qualifications for dealing with educational 

 matters. Others, again, notably some of the 

 most famous schools, are under the control of 

 bodies containing far too large a proportion of 

 clerical members, whose attitude towards science 

 is for the most part as conservative as It was forty 

 years ago. 



The report is emphatic in the conclusion that 

 more time must be given to science in all schools, 

 for girls as well as for boys. At the present time 

 and -for some period after the war there Is a prac- 

 tical difficulty about carrying this into effect, 

 owing to the scarcity of teachers. But this will 

 have to be altered by making the profession more 

 attractive both In regard to salary, prospects, and 

 pension, and, as pointed out by the Com- 

 mittee, in the attitude of the public towards 

 the use of education and the Importance of 

 the training of teachers. Every teacher agrees 

 that lessons in natural science are effective only 

 when the pupil is required to do some kind of 

 practical work for himself — that Is, to handle 

 materials and make observations and experiments 

 on them. For this purpose a room must be set 

 apart which provides plenty of light, a water 

 supply of a suitable kind, convenient methods oi 

 applying heat, and so forth. It must also be 

 furnished with some apparatus, especially balances 

 for weighing. In fine, what Is commonly called 

 a laboratory must be provided. Fifty years ago 

 or later a few great schools had their laboratories,, 

 plainly though sufficiently equipped. Now some 

 of these schools have run into what must be 

 regnrded as extravagance in this direction. Their 



