Education and Agriculture 



For years science has been more neglected 

 in English schools than perhaps in those of any 

 other country ; now the tide is turning more and 

 more in favour of its teaching, and on the whole 

 rightly so. But with us there is always the 

 danger of too great a swing of the pendulum, 

 and if the teaching of bookish, dry, and spurious 

 science is introduced into elementary schools 

 the effects will be disastrous. 



A master with a smattering of science is 

 generally very much pleased with himself and 

 wants to bring in as much " science " as pos- 

 sible. Unfortunately, a smattering of science 

 is often only of the abstract sort, and if school- 

 masters with this smattering try to introduce a 

 modicum of abstract science, it certainly will 

 neither interest nor profit the children. 



Before leaving the subject of school gardens, 

 I must lay further stress on their value in train- 

 ing the powers of observation, and in making 

 the children think for themselves. School 

 gardens have only within the last four or five 

 years been brought into prominence, and yet 

 cases are not wanting of manufacturers and 

 merchants deliberately choosing to employ boys 

 who had been to a school provided with a 

 garden, because they considered that the 

 powers of observation and general intelligence 

 of such boys were greater than in others who 

 had not enjoyed this advantage. 



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